ALL I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY IS MORE FOLLOWERS.

To whom it may concern:

Today is my 18^th birthday – which means I can legally drink alcohol at school events, though not in my hometown.

Caption: What I can legally buy from Provigo...

But more importantly, it means I can use Google Adsense.

…I know ads are unattractive. No one more than I is aware of the blemish that I am willing to smash across the face of my blog (say what?). But I have to tell you that…in all honesty, this was one of my original intentions.

One day in late July, as I watched TV and drooled on a couch while dying of sweat from the disgusting climate of northern New Jersey in the summer, I thought to myself that I should really try to make money to pay for school and that the “easiest” way to do so was to start a blog since I like to write and I like talking about myself. Fat chance I was going to get a short-term job (no one replies to me, tear tear) and I knew wouldn’t be able to work (off-campus) in Canada without studying here for at least 6 months first.

Tuition as an international student is significantly greater than that of a Canadian, and even greater in comparison to the tuition of a lucky Quebecois, though still considerably less than the tuition of a private liberal arts college in the U.S. But it’s easier to get financial aid from a private LAC in the US.

And it’s not a particularly good time to burden my family with college bills. The whole situation, I’ll leave unsaid. Despite what seems to be my lack of self-sacrifice for my family, I…may…actually…ahem, care give a damn about them. My pride or something-or-other gets in the way of that a lot. There are times when I’ll feel like washing the dishes just to unburden my parents of one chore (ooh big deal, shut up, it is), but I will never volunteer myself without first having been solicited. And if I do the dishes, I’ll do them when my parents aren’t looking. It’s weird. I don’t want them to know or something. Anyway, I want to lift the burden a little by having income.

Yeah, I’m a dreamer, but I do hope I will make more than a few cents with this blog. If I can cover any part of my tuition, hey meal plan, that’s a shitload of money that can go towards increasing their standard of living, and of my sisters’. …Or more realistically, if I can cover a daily cup of coffee or some dress I want to buy, then it’s a cup of coffee or dress or whatever that doesn’t go on the family credit card. Okay…fine, if I can buy a can of soup a month…that’s a can of soup that my parents didn’t pay for…

But for that to happen, I really need you. And that’s why, for my birthday, I’m asking for followers, and I’m asking for an audience. I’m sorry that I have to violate this space with advertisements, but I’ll try to make them unobtrusive. And in all honesty, who really notices them anyway?

Fondly,

J. McGillee

P.S. I'm extremely proud of the fact that my birthday is the Autumn Equinox and this year, it falls the day after the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival/Moon Festival--yay for mooncake--as well.

Caption: downtown Montreal from campus...Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Look at the moon!

P.P. S. As you've noticed, I have delusions of grandeur...but what writer (or blogger) would continue writing without such delusions?