Lost comments
Apparently, two or three days ago, I must have mistakenly deleted a small batch of comments, probably no more than six or eight. If you wrote a comment recently that wasn't posted, it was most likely not "disallowed," but merely lost. Guess I must have hit the wrong button by mistake. Sorry about that.
Subscribers
I'm pleased to report that the "subscription drive" the other day went splendidly well. No fewer than 121 people ("True Fans" of TOP, according to Ctein's lingo) signed on to make "voluntary recurring contributions." Here's the breakdown:
36 people chose the $1 per month option ($6 every six months)
50 people chose the $2 per month option ($6 every quarter)
27 people chose the $6 per month option.
Averaged over two years, that's $300 per month, minus PayPal fees of about $25, for a net of about $275 per month of income that I can more or less depend on as a regular thing. I don't think that quite qualifies me as an internet tycoon (still workin' on that), but it'll cover some groceries—so thanks very much to everybody who signed on! A Mike stimulus plan, indeed. I confess I didn't expect so much participation, so I'm feeling complimented. Thanks.
You'll notice I've posted a new link to the Subscribe page at the upper right. If you haven't done so already, I hope you'll consider subscribing, especially if you're someone who reads via our full feeds and seldom visits the actual website.
A fair number of people experienced problems with PayPal, for which I'm sorry. Er, very sorry, for obvious reasons! When a payment service actively discourages motivated buyers, that is not good service. I've been looking into a way to implement recurring payments by credit card without using PayPal, but not making very much progress yet (most of the available options are for far more elaborate operations). I'll keep you posted.
New Amazon portal
There's also a new Amazon portal at the upper right, including quick links. And thanks again to everybody who makes Amazon purchases through our links—that really helps out too.
Categories
I'm also beginning to implement categories for posts, to help you locate older posts. It will take a while to get this fully implemented, but I'll be working on it. I'm also thinking of putting together a page of favorite posts. That might take a while too.
Movies
The "off-topic" post the other day asking for movie recommendations elicited more comments than any other post in TOP's 3-year-plus history. Whew. I used the suggestions to amass a list of about 13 movie scripts to read. I'm toying with the idea of writing a screenplay, because I have too few things to occupy my time that are highly unlikely to result in income. I'm being sarcastic. It's just one of the things on the bucket list, is all.
I also put together a short list of movies I want to watch based on the recommendations. I've added those to my Netflix queue. Thanks to everybody who passed along favorites.
hey Mike, just a quick add to the Netflix queue: The Stone Reader. I watched it the other night on their stream, and was enthralled. Highly recommended.
Posted by: cog | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 08:16 AM
Mike, I just went to the subscribe page, and hit the Monthly link, and low and behold I got the subscription page. So I've now subscribed. It might be worth others having a go that couldn't before.
Posted by: William Wragg | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 08:48 AM
If I could make one suggestion (and hope i doesn't get lost, since I think I lost a few the past week), would it be possible to move the "Weblog (Main Page)" link up the page a bit? I had to search around quite a bit to get to the actual content from the main page.
Just a thought.
Posted by: Jayson | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 09:36 AM
Mike: My grandfather had a tradition while he was alive. On his birthday, he would throw a big party and cut everybody who came a check in dollars for the number of years he had been alive. My birthday recently came and went, and in memory of my grandfather's pleasant tradition, I have subscribed to your site as my birthday gift. I've enjoyed TOP every day since I stumbled across the site. Best wishes for your continued success.
Ben Marks
Posted by: Benjamin Marks | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 09:48 AM
Can one update/change one's subscription. Lets say you take a dig at my favourite camera and I want to retaliate, (only kidding ) or, hopefully, my numbers come up and I want to add a few 0's to the subscription amount.
Posted by: Paul Mc Cann | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 10:16 AM
Paul,
I think you'd have to cancel the old one and do a new one.
I'll try not to insult your favorite camera, but you know me.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 10:59 AM
Mike,
I'm glad you are getting some positive response to " subscriptions" and am very pleased to a be a small part of that. Your site is well worth it, just as the 37th Frame was. I was wondering though, with all the new attitudes in the world today regarding transparency in business if you will be posting a personal budget for us "shareholders" to review, comment on, and approve?
Posted by: Jim | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 11:44 AM
For whatever reason no information gets carried over to PayPal when I try to Subscribe. Not too sure how to make it work.
Posted by: Bruce Krobusek | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 12:41 PM
Mike, as someone who has dabbled in both screenwriting and photography (currently brushing up a script that a known director wants to read), may I suggest a 'free' screenwriting program that does almost everything right: http://celtx.com/. Made by some crazy people on the east coast. It formats everything correctly and has a nice interface that doesn't interfere with writing. ie, once you start writing you forget about how to use the tool and your fingers hardly leave the keyboard.
Posted by: Keith Loh | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 12:42 PM
Dear Mike,
Love your site. Would gladly pay a subscription for it, but 2.9% to Paypal doesn't sit well with me. Is there a way I can send you a check for $24 (same as the $2 per month option)?
Thanks,
_ben
Posted by: benjamin chung | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 12:47 PM
I'm curious to know which of the movie suggestions you added to your NetFlix list....
And, what was the reason for the specifics in that request (no guns or gun substitutes....).
I'm also trying to write screenplays.... Re-read a script on the plane on the way out of the US the other day. I would love to have suggested SNATCH, but there are guns aplenty in it.... I'm interested in reading scripts from films where there's an 'odd quality' about the dialog. Not sure how to explain that. Like, in Cohen brothers' films - it's interesting to see how the written word translates to the screen performances when the humor or 'oddness' doesn't seem to be written in. For instance, in Fargo, the bit about stopping for pancakes.... If i were to read that, i don't think it would be very funny. But, the performance of it is something that consistently makes me laugh.
I wonder how difficult it would be to sell a script like that if one weren't a Cohen. It seems like those kinds of films need to be produced and directed by the people who write them, as only the creator would be able to find the nuances.
Posted by: CK Dexter Haven | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 03:47 PM
"with all the new attitudes in the world today regarding transparency in business if you will be posting a personal budget for us "shareholders" to review, comment on, and approve?"
Heh--what, you mean so you can make sure I'm not misusing the largesse? You'll recall that I already confessed to my spendy office remodel....
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 04:26 PM
"I wonder how difficult it would be to sell a script like that if one weren't a Cohen. It seems like those kinds of films need to be produced and directed by the people who write them, as only the creator would be able to find the nuances."
More to the point, only when the director is also the writer does the writer get respected...see "Monster" by John Gregory Dunne, which put me off screenwriting semi-permanently. Writers are the untouchables of Hollywood. Imagine making Charlie Kaufmann sit there on set day after day doing absolutely nothing just so he can be handy if the director wants a quick consult on a rewrite. Scandalous. Imagine making the director sit there while the screenwriter works so he can consult about stagecraft! Meanwhile if you sell a script they'll bring in three other writers and change so many wordings you don't even make the credits. And people wonder why we don't get better-written movies as a norm. It's because movies are a corporate product, pasteurized and processed. They're so highly formulaic now that real creativity isn't really even possible...imagine "writing" a Tarkovsky film today and trying to sell it...
(Come to think of it, I might have too bad an attitude to write a screenplay....)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 04:44 PM
Mike,
How about a list of the screenplays you choose to read and watch.
Posted by: Tom Swoboda | Friday, 27 March 2009 at 11:59 PM
Mike, Is this to be the new format for your site? It is no longer possible to just scroll thought the recent posts which makes it more difficult to navigate. I preferred the previous format. I enjoy you site very much.
Posted by: Leland Davis | Monday, 30 March 2009 at 12:30 PM