Yup, you're counted.

sent mine to Tracy. Hope it arrived.

I'll be checking with Tracy tomorrow to see how her collection effort is going.

I'll be sending something via PayPal shortly as well (as I'm in Canada) - depending on whether I've line up work in the next few weeks (fingers crossed). This site has been a great way to pass time while off and deserves all the support it can get.

Not doing too well this pledge drive. One $50 check received, another lost check in the mail, no paypal contributions yet. No where near the goal of paying the hosting fees for this month of $296, and no where close to the $888 hosting cost for the quarter, and I'm hoping to raise enough to start backing up this system as part of an emergency preparedness plan. Please mail contributions to The Spring (Firth, Drool and Austen) 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Or just click the Paypal Donate button at http://www.spring.net or any of the other sister websites.

Attention UK donators - just to let you know, and you know who you are, the final total is �120 and I've sent it off by PayPal this evening.

Thanks Tracy...good to hear from you; we miss you :-((( And thanks to the UK friends who are helping to make Spring possible:-)))

I got it, thanks so much Tracy! I got it via Paypal a few hours ago. I am most appreciative!

Hey Terry. I sent a donation through paypal the other day. Did you get it? Just want to make sure. Thanks, Liz oh, btw, I have changed email addresses. How do I change it here, so when you rollover my user name it gives the right one? I can't figure it out.

Got it Liz, thanks so much! It came through on November 8th, and big thank yous to Tuquyen, Trina, Hayoun, Philip, Annabella, Tracy T, Patricia, and Marcia!

Terry, those newest ones (beginning 5) are from austen.com. Either you should be thanking them personally or have Ann do it. Liz, to change your email address, click on Main Menu at the bottom of the screen here, then go to "View/Modify Preferences." It should be self-explanatory from that point on. When you hit submit, it may not look like the change has been taken because of the error notice you get, but it will be ok.

I will be sending out notes and be making some thank you calls. I'll have to look in to that error notice thing.

I'll have to look in to that error notice thing. No need. The changes go through. I'd rather have you work on that *other* thing.

great! glad you got it. I've felt very guilty about not giving till now. thanks, Karen! I'll do that right now.

Our bandwidth is off the charts. Our current account with our bandwidth provider allows for 50GB of monthly data transfer. For the month of March, our bandwidth total was 165GB, which is an overage of 115GB. Our bandwidth provider's pricing for bandwidth overage is $3 per GB. Using this formula, an amount of $345 is owed on our account. I have negotiated this down to $50 this month, but in the future we may have to order one of these plans, probably the 100 gb or 200 gb extra, which means we may have to do a special pledge drive in about a month, based on our bandwidth usage. 100GB extra: $100 per month 200GB extra: $200 per month 300GB extra: $300 per month

This is turning in to an extremely tough time financially for me, since I invested heavily in backup systems and am facing increasing bandwidth costs due to the popularity of our site. So I need your help now more than ever before. Please send donations to: Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd. Cedar Creek, TX 78612 or Click on the "Paypal Donation" link in the left column of http://www.spring.net Or click directly here: Paypal Donation If you haven't signed up for PayPal, you have to sign up here: Sign up for Paypal Thanks! Your support is really needed at this time.

I hear ya' Terry...check's in the mail. Viva Drool!

Thanks so much Evelyn! This will really help.

Thanks for linking this to Geo. You will be hearing from me, as usual. Paypal is the least painful way to do it, and you don't even need to figure out the postage!

Lest anyone in Geo wonder, Terry created this space we use on the internet. For ages he supported it all by himself. That became burdensome quickly when the lot of us happened along to create our own conferences and so on which required added bandwidth and server capabilities. Contribute what you can, please! I think Geo is worth a little of your time and where-with-all. Mahalo nui loa.

Hi all What about from afar. I got some spare cash? I won't make it much because the exchange rate does not favour me (NZ$2.30 to US$1 - quite low for NZ).

Everything, near and far, helps! Thanks Rob.

I'd love to contribute a bit. It won't be much though. I have been helping my parents out because Dad got layed off from his job a few weeks ago for the second time.*sigh* But every little bit counts. I love Geo and we certainly can't let anything happen to it!

Thanks a bunch Julie!

Hang in there, students and struggling professionals. Don't feel guilty about being here - your present contributions of words is perfect. People like me will try to cover all of those who are where we were a long time ago.

Keep 'em coming, I'm just a wee bit shy of what I need to make this month's bandwidth payment. Paylink link at http://www.spring.net

am sending check - watch your mail... :-)

Thank you!!!

Our Paypal "bank" account is sitting at $253.62, thanks to a generous $100 contribution from Marci yesterday, so we're about $100 short of being able to make our $320 a month bandwidth payment. So, please, keep the Paypal contributions coming in so I can make this payment before the end of the month. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?return=http%3A//www.spring.net/paypal&item_name=Contribution+to+austen%2C+drool%0D%0Aor+Spring&submit.x=80&submit.y=32&business=terry%40spring.net&item_number=3&no_intl=1&cmd=_xclick or Mail to: Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Thanks to everyone who's made a contribution!

We're 76.38 away from being able to make our bandwidth payment! Three or four $25 Paypal contributions would do it. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?return=http%3A//www.spring.net/paypal&item_name=Contribution+to+austen%2C+drool%0D%0Aor+Spring&submit.x=80&submit.y=32&business=terry%40spring.net&item_number=3&no_intl=1&cmd=_xclick

Terry, I've just joined PayPal and sent a contribution (I hope). If it doesn't come through please let me know. I've been lurlking long enough that I feel I'm definitely responsible for some of that huge bandwidth usage. Although, now that I think of it, it's really ODB who's responsible. Who told him to be so fascinating anyway???

terry, i hope you received my donation too. please let me know if not. if you do, no need to post it here, thanks *HUGS*

I'll let both of you know as soon as I receive something, thanks!

I made this payment today to our bandwidth provider: Date Service/Transaction Description Amount Jun 16, 2002 Fast Start Server -- Ongoing fee from Jun 16, 2002 to Jul 15, 2002 295.00 Jun 16, 2002 Harddrive Upgrade -- Ongoing fee from Jun 16, 2002 to Jul 15, 2002 25.00 Previous balance: 0.00 Amount due: 320.00 So, we're good till July 15th and we have $215.33 in our account which we can use today the July August payment. Thanks a bunch to wolf, marci and Kathleen!

Just got this months bill for $320 for bandwidth. The overbilled us and didn't credit us for last month (which I paid), so I'm getting this straightened out. Send contributions, as usual, to Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 You can also send them to KarenR or Ann H and they'll forward them to me. Or you can click the Paypal button and use this method, it's on the top left of http://www.spring.net If you're buying Colin Firth DVD's, please buy them via the new link at http://www.spring.net, you'll see it midway down in the left column. There are over 30 Firth DVDs to choose from on this Amazon affiliate page.

Buy Colin Firth DVDs

Make Paypal Donation Sign up for Paypal if you're not yet a member

Terry, Could I recommend that the link for buying the CF DVD's be put onto the Drool mainpage? I must admit, I go directly to that site when I come to The Spring and I bet a lot of others do too and will miss that as an opportunity to help raise some much needed funds.

I sent that to Karen R for possible incorporation. I wonder what the volume of dvd buying is among folks in this conference? There are about 30 Firth DVDs listed on this page. Direct contributions have always been our mainstay, a lot of the programs like amazon.com only payoff if large numbers of folks use them and we are able to meet minimum sales quotas.

Our current account with our bandwidth provider allows for 50GB of monthly data transfer.. For the month of May, our bandwidth total was 95GB, which is an overage of 42GB. Their pricing for bandwidth overage is $3 per GB. Using this formula, an amount of $126 is owed on our account. As a courtesy, they are only going to charge our account $50 for this overage. In the future, however, they will need to charge us for the bandwidth we use. We also have the option of pre-purchasing bandwidth at the following discounted rates. 100GB extra: $100 per month 200GB extra: $200 per month 300GB extra: $300 per month At present we owe the regular flat rate $320 plus this $50 or $370.00. I have about $100 in the account from last months contributions so I'm trying to raise about $270 for this month and some toward a potential bandwidth overage next month. I'd like to prepay to 100 gb extra and save something possibly.

Thanks for the $20 paypal contribution I just received. I won't mention the name because I haven't asked the contributor. But thanks! We really need contributions right now.

We are about $270 short of paying our bandwidth bill this month, so this is the amount I have to raise. I'm toying around with the idea of getting 12 people to commit to one month each during the year and insure the bandwidth payment for that month. I'm extremely strapped this month so I'm counting on contributions to make up our shortage in the bank to make the payment and keep the system alive. Ideas? Suggestions on fund raising? Again, the Paypal link is at the bottom of the spring's main page.

Keep those contributions coming, please. Your contributions make these pages possible, click the Paypal banner on Spring.net's main page.

I've put up (and linked all over the place) a new webpage at The Bucket called The Marketplace (or should it be called The Bucket Boutique???), where there are direct links for all of Colin's tapes, DVD, related books, etc. (plus related items) to purchase from Amazon. Using these links, Spring will earn some money. If there are other items you'd like added or would like me to create the direct link for you, just let me know. Now, start shopping!! ;-D

Thank you Karen. Will Spring get credit for *all* Amazon products purchased through The Marketplace? I just ordered a "non-Firth" book;-))

If they have the Spring code in the url (which you can do yourself very easily), then Spring gets the biggest cut. After the ASIN (the url), are a string of numbers/letters. After that backslash, get rid of the rest and put in spring-20. Hit "enter" and a new url is generated that will credit Spring. v. easy.

OK, I've changed the name and the link. We now have The Bucket's Boutique. Voila! http://www.firth.com/boutiq.html

Question: why is the website "firth.com" and not "colinfirth.com."?

It's either. If you type in colinfirth.com, you will get The Bucket.

Whew;-)

Thanks for the accreditation link to add for Amazon. I get a lot of stuff from there and I would like Spring to get credit for it! Aloha Y'all from the South.

What's your location today, Marci?

Louisville, KY

Wow, my old stomping grounds. I used to live on St. James Court just next to Central Park where they do the Shakespeare in the Park series in the summer. Wonder if this is still going?

I'll check. Lots going on here. Lots of stuff all around, too - not just hourses! I'm in downtown in the old part near Churchill Downs in a resotred row house. Loads of steps up and down to navigate will either give me coronary collapse or legs of steel.

I'm not used to heat without breezes, and I forgot how suddenly a thunderstorm can show up. My host arrived home yesterday soaked from one such little shower that did a bit of damage in Illinios just across the border. How funny it is to be in one of those colored states in those puzzles. I am still having problems with what order which states come in even though I was navigator on the last road trip!

Still at least $250 short of being able to pay this months bandwidth bill and I only have a few days to go before they turn us off, please send payments via paypal (click link on http://www.spring.net ) or mail to: Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Thanks!

Still 200+ short and only two days till our shutoff notice. Please donate via the Paypal logo at http://www.spring.net and help keep spring, firth and austen running. Thanks.

Just got a $50 contribution, we're about $150 short now. Please keep 'em rolling in, I'm facing a serious financial pinch this month and want to keep the system up and running. Thanks!!!

Another $50 just came in, keep 'em coming and we'll make it! Thanks so much! $100 in Paypals today so far, you are really coming through in a pinch!

terry, where do we stand today?

We are very, very close, about $50 away from having the total I need to pay on Monday! Thanks to everyone for the very kind contributions over the past few days.

terry, i just sent a contribution (hope it went through)...

Got it! Thanks so much, it puts us over the top!

We're going to try something different for our next months pledge drive, starting today. The Spring is an Ebay seller. We have a good rating. Do you have something in your garage or attic that you don't need that we could sell on ebay? If you do, list it here in this topic, the Spring will sell it and you'll have to ship it to the buyer. You can donate whatever percentage you like to the Spring and keep whatever you want for yourself, as long as you donate at least 25% of the sale of the item to the Spring. You can email me (terry@spring.net) with your listing if you don't want to do it through this topic. It will be imperative that you can ship the item to the buyer promptly and without fail so as to preserve the Spring's good seller rating. List your item here, in this topic and then I'll list it for sale on Ebay. Also, after you list, send an email to mailto://terry@spring.net and let me know your phone number and address so I can co-ordinate the shipping and sale and payment to you. It's an experiment, let's see if it works, maybe this will help keep us afloat. Remember, it costs at least $320 a month just for our basic expenses and we'd like to raise more to start doing more effective backups and keep up with any necessary hardware/software upgrades.

A few of you may have received an email from me in error, it was sent unintentionally and my apologies if you received and email with a long list, I sent a followup which was the email I intended to send out in the first place. The email is in reference to the Ebay idea.

I'd say that 90% of the people you emailed don't come here and wouldn't be reading your apology.

I emailed them an apology.

I am B.Com(Pass) from Delhi University from India and I have done a course in computer such as Desk top Publishing in Computer which includes Abode Photoshoppe, Scanning , Page Maker , Msoffice, freehand, Illustrate Coreldraw. I am now working in a SERC in India and handling Data Base work such 1. Data Entry 2. Generation of Tables 3. Obtain Charts from Data base 4. Preparing of Reports I had also working in a Printing Offset Company India's leading India's No. 1 Company Ajanta offset & Packaging Limited I also know the Knowlege of Printing

My email address rajanbagga@vsnl.net telephone : 91-110-5556645

Our first item for Ebay has been offered and will be listed soon. From today's correspondence: Yes, I have something I don't need any more. I have a champaign mink jacket with a fox collar. I paid $1,800. for it and I'll sell it for $800. with 30% going to The Spring. It's tuxedo length and quite a steal at this price. Ohhhhhhhhhhh - it's a size 10. All Ebay donors to remain anonymous unless, of course, they give permission to reveal their name. This is a most kind offering. Here's the actual ebay listing, the reserve price has been set at $800 so it won't sell until this reserve is met. If the donor requests, I may be able to revise the item listing. One very important thing I forgot to mention, is that we need a photograph if possible, or multiple photos of the item. Or at least point to a stock photo on the net. If it's a common consumer item then there's probably one we can find on google.com. Title: champaign mink jacket with fox collar Item # : The item number for your new listing is 941656544. URL: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=941656544

I posted a photo with a disclaimer that it's only an approximation, I hope to obtain an actual photo from the donor. Ebay recently announced that they are heavily promoting "power sellers" to find folks with items they want to sell in their communities. The Spring is my community. So, please, did though that attic or rummage through your garage and see if there is something you no longer have any use for that could benefit our community at Drool and the Spring.

http://www.spring.net/mink

It fits me Terry, but what on earth would I do with it? Aloha and good luck Rajan. Thank you for posting.

I put a real picture of it up instead to the ones I had. Hope it sells so we can get a headstart on next months server hosting/bandwidth charge, but then again, these things may not move in summertime. No bids yets.

I suspect that thr right buyer might like to get it now and set it aside for cooler weather. How about the cruise crowd? Alaska is good this time of year and it does get nippy onboard.

The auction ended and the coat didn't sell. I will relist it.

is it real fur? if so, maybe folks are resisting it....is it priced too high?

It's real. But it's summer! This is, after all, a coat. But I'll keep listing it and hope that some other folks dig some things out of the garages or attics!

how're the bills looking terry? are we doing ok this month?

We've got a good start. A couple of very nice contributions came in the past few days. So we're about a third of the way there to our $320 a month bill. The coat didn't sell. And there haven't been any other Ebay contributions (where folks contribute a discarded item for sale to benefit the Spring).

I have a hundred of these premium quality webcams to sell on ebay to raise money for spring.net, drool and Austen. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2042024744&rd=1 or http://www.spring.net/ebay/webcam

NCK27CZV - TeleCam LT w/ Zoom Notebook Videoconferencing Camera Buy this at our Spring Ebay Auction Now! This is an incredibly sensitive, high resolution camera ideal for security or web cam applications. It has a built in microphone and power supply. Slim, Lightweight Design for Portability Proper eye contact is the key to effective videoconferencing. This is why the NCK27CZV can be mounted anywhere on the notebook computer display with the provided TeleClip attachment. This makes it convenient for both right and left handed users as well as prevents problems of parallax. Further, the NCK27CZV's unique design allows the user the ability to detach and carry the the camera from the notebook to view documents, rooms or objects of interest. Varifocal Lens for wide angle, normal, or telephoto viewing of people, places and things Focus can be quickly adjusted from 50mm (2") to infinity on the Tamron varifocal lens. This allows the NCK27CZV to be used for document or close-up imaging. Also, this model can be adjusted for a wider viewing angle for group conferencing as well as personal conferencing.

You might want to post this info at austen.com's Tea Room

Will do! Thanks.

What kind of price is reasonable for this camera, Terry?

They retail for $299. $25 is reasonable. That's a $5 markup. I'm getting them for $20.00. I'm not sure what shipping will be, depends on your location. These do require a video capture board of some kind. I'm testing a video capture board that I could sell for $10 but I don't want to list it until I know that free drivers and software are readily available on the web. The mink coat hasn't sold and I'm relisting it for the third time. Ebay has a concept called power sellers, these are folks that find other people in their communities with rare or valuable collections of items they want to sell but they're not computer saavy themselves. So I'm looking at the potential for being a "power seller" as a means of supporting the Spring. That's why the call for folks to dig in to their closets, attics and basements.

The stuff I have is mostly not worth the trouble. Tropic do evil things to stored valuables. It is best to leave them in storage on the mainland. I am heartily tired of feeding my books to bugs!

To everyone who bought up a storm at amazon!!! We just got our first quarterly report from amazon and, in the one month since Le Boutique came into existence, there was a huge response from all you and Spring actually earned some money. We really appreciate it. :)

Karen, why don't you post again the formula for giving Spring credit when one is ordering non-Colin items.

Thanks Ev, that's a great idea, as I lost it and wanted to buy some other, non-CF related stuff. Karen, can you put it somewhere permanently????? :))))

wait a sec...how do we make sure spring gets donations from amazon? i buy stuff from them--is it just via a click-thru?

I have setup a page at The Bucket that has links to specific products that contain Spring's code. However, anyone can change the product url to ensure that Spring gets the maximum rebate. A general click-thru isn't worth much. Lisa, I'll put instructions on the Boutique page for changing the url, but essentially it goes like this... very simple. Here's the url for Tom Clancy's new book (featured on amazon's main page) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399148701/ref=pd_gw_tst_1/002-2311145-9832001 (1) In the location bar at the top of your browser, remove all the coding after the number set following the ASIN and keep the last slash. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399148701/ (2) Type in spring-20 after the slash and hit Enter. You will get a new product page that has coding for spring. In this case, I got: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399148701/spring-20/002-2311145-9832001 but it will be different for each person who does it. BTW, items have different percentages for rebates. Books, directly linked, have by the highest reimbursement.

I was really glad you set up the Amazon affiliate link. I had to buy a lot of books for school and I often shop through Amazon anyway.... so it was a painless way to donate.

The response has been wonderful and I am most grateful for this support. Amazon, Ebay and Paypal have been very helpful partners in our pledge drives. And I am most appreciative of the direct contributions that I still continue to receive. Any one who has made a contribution is most welcome to web space at firth.com, austen.com, spring.net, email address, etc. If there is anything I can do to return the favor, please contact me!

As the holidays approach, I think we should publicize the Amazon -Spring connection more. Has it been posted on austen.com? This is an easy way to get funding for Spring.I've bought all the Colin items I wish to buy at this point, but I order other items from Amazon monthly. About to order the Possession sound track...and in November the DVD.

I've contacted Ann and she's just returning from vacation. She's indicated she will create a "shop" at austen.com too and will be fixing Spring's main page after she contacts Terry to get the new passwords.

I have updated the Bucket's Boutique with instructions for DIY code changes, plus added some other items, including a couple of P&P sequels (the diary one isn't bad at all!): http://www.firth.com/boutiq.html

Thanks, all. I just bought three books as birthday presents but did not know the formula. Next time, Spring will get the credit!

Cancel them and I will give you the codes.