My renunciation of citizenship is the subject of a feature article at Global Post:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/111205/stateless-slovakia–renounce-us-citizenship-mike-gogulski

Many have burned their passports as a form of political protest. But Gogulski is one of only two Americans known to be ballsy enough to have filed the paperwork needed to officially become stateless. And he’s hoping to inspire others to do it, too.

[...]

Gogulski says it’s all been worth it. It’s all about proving a point, he says — that the system can’t control him and that citizenship is a silly, anachronistic construct.

He could apply for Slovak citizenship but he likes being stateless. For one thing, it certainly is quite the conversation starter.

Gogulski’s ultimate goal: To start a revolution of sorts in which Americans begin giving up their citizenship and become stateless en masse. Maybe, he says, he can be the symbolic beginning of this movement.

“I know the chances of that are about this small though,” he says, holding his index finger and thumb together in the air.

With that, the bleg. Folks, I could use your help — financial help. With my Bitcoin mining operation blowing up in my face in early August, I’m only now pulling myself out of what has been a long, dark bout of severe depression. A depression awful enough that I haven’t been able to work until just recently.

Needless to say, that leaves a massive hole in my budget. Many things are past due, and I’m not certain how I’m going to make rent this month, just before Christmas.

If you have a bit to spare, please visit my support page, with my gratitude.

Peace,
Mike

Super action kitty Henry prepares to strike the pesky toy

Another week, some more gratitude!

RP sent $25, plus a surprise revelation. Thank you!

And then another RP – bless her – sent $20, along with some warm feelings. Thank you kindly

The ChipIn thing isn’t nearly as cool as it ought to be. The $20 contribution wasn’t made through ChipIn, but you’d think the system would have some way to let you enter a manual payment. Nope… at least, I can’t find it.

And here’s some feline action for you to enjoy. No, Henry is not watching the UFOs land. There’s a stick-with-fur-strips toy being jiggled above him, out of frame. None of the actual “strike” photos turned out, of course. The shutter speed on my mobile phone’s camera just isn’t up to the task!

As my friends and regular readers know, I’ve left Slovakia and taken up provisional digs in Granada, Spain. There were two reasons for getting out. The first is to be able to tell the story of being brutalized at the hands of the Slovak Police and to publish Miroslav Pašek‘s name widely, without same beasts knowing precisely where I live and having easy access to my fragile corpus. The second reason is psychological. From the time of the attack until I left, I was more or less a shut-in. Leaving my building, walking around the city, taking a bus, even visiting with friends all were liable to trigger memory and emotional associations which would set off various negative psychological/somatic reactions in me: fear, stress, anxiety, depression.

Image unrelated, but still a good read

So it was time to go, get my story out — for what that’s worth — and try to rebuild my psyche. And getting out has done me good: the fear/stress/anxiety stuff is gone, since I’m not in the triggering environment. The depression — something I’ve been prone to for long years anyway — is still there. And now there’s a new element, too: homesickness, an emotion-complex I’ve not really experienced before. Bratislava had become home to me, and now that’s been ripped away, along with easy access to my dear friends there. This will all get better over time, I know, but it still sucks for the moment.

So, to the bleg. Moving is expensive. And it gets extra expensive when you have a sweet 18-year-old cat depending on you for his daily love and vittles. €857.48 worth of expensive, to be more or less exact, or US$1,274.99. Money I don’t really have.

An itemization of my moving expenses is below, followed by a special treat. If you can help out, I can take payments to mike (at) gogulski (dot) com via PayPal, MoneyBookers, Revolution Money Exchange and Pecunix. Direct “pay” links to all of them can be found at Support nostate.com above, and there’s also a ChipIn widget here now. Please don’t mark anything as a “donation”, since PayPal particularly seems to think anyone who accepts “donations” needs to be a state-registered charity. Use “gift” instead, if anything.

And thanks as always for your attention, your interest and your support.

And now, the promised treat!

Henry's first breath of freedom (which he used to complain, loudly), in Marbella, Spain, after 10 hours of undignified travel

As always, Henry and I thank you!

Heartfelt thanks and gratitude to those who have responded to my Phone bill of doom! posting and ChipIn. Y’all rock!

I’ve asked donors in the past, erratically, if they want to be named, linked, etc. Answers tend to vary quite a bit, with most tending to not want to be named or not caring either way. So, I’m adopting a new policy. When donations come in and I post them, I’m just going to list initials. If you then want to be linked or named, you can do so yourself in the comments or email me privately with your request and I’ll update the post.

• JS sent $15 (a while back)
• T sent $25
• JB sent $25
• JE sent $25
• AM sent $10
• M sent €100

I’m still about €321 short on the phone bill, and the ChipIn — which doesn’t update properly and doesn’t include some out-of-band donations — is still running, so of course your contribution is welcome!

Thanks very much to all of you!

This (re)awakening created a huge excitement in me, which needed to be shared immediately. So, I started calling close friends and having long telephone conversations. Some of those friends are in the US and the UK. I really wasn’t paying attention to where I was calling or for how long.

So, the downside fruit: my mobile phone bill for the last billing period is for €528.86. Argh!

Can ya help me out with that? Donations welcome via the ChipIn widget or via “support nostate.com” above. The US$699 number represents the amount over and above my usual ~€30 monthly bill.

The full bill is available in PDF form here, in Slovak: T-Mobile bill of doom

And when you’re done responding to my own rather trivial blegging, Anarcho-Professor Roderick Long is in need of serious mutual aid, due to the tax man robbing him.

Big thanks this week to all who responded to my shameless blegging post last week:

Aaron Kinney sent US$20.

James Tuttle sent US$100.

An anonymous donor sent US$50.

Nick and Thalia Puglia signed up for web hosting with BlueHost, which brought me a US$65 referral fee.

I thank you, Henry thanks you, and Henry's reflection thanks you!

First, last week an anonymous donor sent US$250. Thank you *very* much!

Second, I’d like to ask the rest of my readers for some support.

Why?

• Maybe you just like what I’m doing here, and want to encourage more of it.
• Maybe you find my podcasting voice so sexy that it makes you feel dirty not paying for the privilege of hearing it.
• Maybe you’re sympathetic to the fact that earnings in my translation business are down by more than 70% since December with the recession, and that I’m really having trouble making ends meet.
• Maybe you’re thrilled by the fact that I’ve been devoting my now copious free time to being the technical coordinator, chief implementer and blog administrator for the Free Agents Network, and that I’m in the process of taking on similar duties for the Motorhome Diaries as well.
• Or maybe giving just makes you feel good.

Anything you can send would be most welcome. If you click “Support nostate.com” above, you’ll find a variety of methods by which to make a contribution.

Thanks for your patience with my blegging!

Peace,

Mike