Update 06/24/2024
Due to his degrading roof and the coming monsoon season where he lives, Meso is in need of help once again. Now more than ever.
Long story short, his roof is old and leaky and the damage is getting to the point where his ceiling is a serious risk of collapse if there is much more water damage done. Thankfully no signs of mold though. You can thank the desert heat for that!
His solution, after some repairs, is rubber like roof coating that will both seal the roof and prevent more damage. And it also will help keep his house even cooler as a bonus!
Please, any help that you can send his way would be greatly appreciated.
Sigh, time is a flat circle. Gonna ramble a bit, and frankly ask for help as things are currently so beyond bad right now to an extent never before seen... And I've spent about a week before doing this, thinking of any way out. Talking to every person I know about prepaid work possibilities, shilling myself extra hard on game dev Discord and Telegram channels for said possibilities etc etc... And no dice really beyond the norm came of it.
Put in the shortest possible manner... The ceiling is going to collapse during the monsoon season if I do not figure SOMETHING out, details in the GFM update. I don't see a way to stop this from happening on my own. Given that I am doing unpaid dementia caretaking alone going on four years, something that should be done by two, ideally three people... To say that it is unworkable to deal with calamities of this nature is a massive understatement. Like I save what I can, but with her ongoing dental work and various other emergencies, there just is no way to deal with more than one calamity at once. And I knew the roof needed work, for a long time and has been mentioned as such. But I always assumed I could make it happen on my own. But I just... Can't. If the level of care needed and medical expenditures remained a flat figure? Yea it would have. But that isn't the nature of dementia, and ever degrading health. The void is essentially infinite in depth, until it ends which won't be any time soon most likely.
Anyways, I am sorry I am directly asking for help. But at this point I feel like I have no choice and put off doing so for as long as possible, in the perhaps quixotic dream of hope that it wouldn't be needed. I'm really thankful to everyone who chipped in during the previous updates, for every contribution helps get us through this Hellish situation of dementia caretaking all alone.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-care-for-my-senior-mother-and-pay-bills
Current events update (don't see a way to link to the update directly). Also, copy pasted the update below.
Spoiler
Hello again friends. Another update today, to be blunt... To talk about an emergency that requires help.
As I mentioned in prior updates, the roof needs repairs and coating and it can no longer be put off despite my attempts to make it happen all on my own. The last time there was an absolutely huge rainstorm here, where the house itself was almost flooded by the streets and yards filling with water. It created a entirely new series of leaks and greatly worsened an old damaged area as seen in the pictures, which is even worse than it appears in the pics. The ceiling is bowing downward a significant fraction of an inch, as shown in the second photo. It isn't the same leak there from the past (a lesser damaged version is shown earlier in the GFM), but I am 99% sure this is where a roof deck board terminates and water simply flowed to that same spot from a different location. To put it in the shortest possible manner: The upcoming monsoon season is probably going to cause the ceiling in this house to collapse in at least three areas and there is nothing I can do about it. And if that happens not only would the roof work still need to happen, but the cost of ceiling repairs would be so enormous that it might as well be on the moon. Also worth noting is that the areas were tested for mold (there is none), and the roof deck boards are not rotted out. Thank goodness for the desert here!
The recent cost estimate I got for the significant repairs required is four grand. It would include nailing down loose shingles, putting sealant around all flashings and roof penetrations, replacing one rusted out galvanized steel flashing that is likely 80 years old, coating the entire roof with three coats of rolled on acrylic elastomer (think of it as a thick rubber layer), and repairing the worst-damaged ceiling area. The second to last point is a big deal since it would in effect freeze the roof in time after the repairs. With a warrantied time period of five years, but a service life of seven to ten because it would be three coats (because of the Arizona sun) not the usual two. The last point is also a huge deal since that area of the ceiling I think will fall in the foreseeable future even if the leaks stop. The other two areas that are compromised I think will remain suspended indefinitely as long as the leaks stop and no new ones form. Yes this is a significant amount of money I am asking for, but what else can I do? Everyone bends to reality when existence is on the line and no alternatives exist... So here I am, once again, asking for help and this time with a very specific and significant issue. Also, any extra above the four thousand of this update post will go to other things mentioned in the past like wheelchair ramps (needed soon!) etc etc.
The thing that really hurts, is that not even all that long ago I would do some of these repairs myself. But my old knee injury (torn meniscus) just keeps getting worse and is greatly aggravated by the significant and ever increasing physical assistance my mother needs. The last time I climbed on the roof my knee gave out and I almost fell off. That was the end of that, as doing that ever again is a Very Bad Idea.
Finally, why am I asking for something so specific now? Because as said before I am running out of time before the monsoon season. And I kept thinking I could clutch this on my own. I tried to set aside a bit of money every month to save for this. But she keeps having dental issues and other lesser emergencies and the amount of freelance remote work time I can put in is very limited and only decreases over time, because I am doing an unpaid caretaking job that should be done by two, ideally three people, ALONE and have done so for four years now.
Anyways it is what it is, and if anyone can help... It would be appreciated beyond mere words. This current situation is the worst things have been here so far to a large degree and this is saying a lot, and if not resolved very soon... Will become practically impossible to deal with.
Older updates are in the spoiler to prevent massive wall of text
Spoiler
Update 03/06/2023
I am sad to say that, unfortunately, Meso's life situation has taken a turn for the worst and is in dire need of help and support from as many as possible even more than ever before. To say that the lives of both his mother and himself hang in the balance is NOT an exaggeration and time is running out... More info here:
Hello again everyone, I am doing something I really don't want to do and I wish I had another choice in the matter. But I am asking for help once again, and doing it in a way unlike before... Reaching beyond only the Starsector community due to the severity of the situation being worse than even the height of all prior problems combined as mentioned throughout this thread previously. Lives are unironically at stake, to a degree where I wish things were only "only" as bad as a couple of years ago when this thread was first made.
I have launched a GoFundMe to raise some urgently needed funds, you can see the details here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-care-for-my-senior-mother-and-pay-bills
Yea, I am asking for a substantial amount of money there but if you read the campaign you will understand why. I am divulging more information than ever before, and it truly hurts to do that but it is what it is. Any help rendered is something I could never possibly thank one enough for. And even if you are unable to donate or do not wish to? Please consider signal boosting it, which is also something that can make a world of difference as well.
Again, thank you all for your help, both past and present. My mother and I truly appreciate it!
Original Post:
Hey everyone, I'm posting here today to ask for some help. Not for me, but for a good friend of mine, Mesotronik. Who is not only the mod author of
Tiandong Heavy Industries mod but also a major helping hand in the code, sound, and music development for many mods here on the forum.
Meso has fallen on hard times both financially and mentally this last year and a half. And while I know the last year has been hard for most people, it hit Meso extra hard.
-There was a car accident which totaled the car.
--Accident scammers tried to take advantage of the situation, lying about what happened even though it flies in the face of the police report and this was happening for the better part of a year.
-Covid, and the associated lockdown, has disrupted both his work and his life. Especially with the lack of transportation.
However the biggest issue is that late 2019 his senior mother began degrading in both mental and physical health rapidly. This is made worse by the fact that she needs around the clock care due to her having
Lewy Body Dementia, which is similar to Alzheimers in many ways but much worse in others. Said care and supervision is consuming nearly all of his life. This is due to the fact that she can do something like go to try and cook something and end up leaving the gas on. And yes, this did happen multiple times in fact, and so much more that won't be mentioned for they are gross and gruesome and is best left to the imagination... All of this care and supervision is stressing him out and preventing him from working nearly as much as he needs to and wishes to, though thankfully he works from home. But now his bills are piling up and he is in significant financial trouble. As in possibly losing the house levels of trouble.
So here I am asking people here if they could please give what they can to Meso.
Yes the link is legit even though it is using a shortener. It was needed as otherwise the link is a giant mess. It was taken directly from his THI page.
This money will go towards paying off bills, both current and future, along with "senior proofing" the house and just help him take care of her in general.
If you want to help Meso over a longer period of time or you want an alternative way to donate to him, he has a patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/mesotronikI am also trying to help him in find more remote work that he can do and help bring in a more steady flow of cash. So that hopefully, eventually, he can get back to a more normal life. Currently he works freelance right now and was already hurting before his mom ended up in this situation. If you have a tip, or have work needed or know someone who does, please either leave it here or email Meso at mesotronik[at]gmail.com (Email preferably)
His skills are primarily sound and music design along with software, especially games and playtesting, QA (Front end and unit testing).
A link to his soundcloud
More info on his sound commissions:
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=18116.0Before anyone asks, yes I already have Alex's permission as I talked with him about this, in depth, over several days.
As for Meso's permission to post all of this: We talked about doing something like a GoFundMe in the past if it ever got really bad, but at that moment it wasn't
THAT bad yet. Sadly it is now, which is why I'm here. I also know he is too proud to ask for help and I know this kind of thing would be super stressful for him, so I'm doing this for him in order to help him out as much as I can and as a surprise to him even. One that I am not even sure 100% how he will react to it, but I know he will trust in me and that it was for the right reasons. He is always the sort to just sort of... Stick it through, and power through tough times. But at this moment, it may truly no longer be possible for him no matter how much effort he puts into it.
Why this post and not a GoFundMe? Because most fail and GoFundMe is meant more for "viral fund raising". However, most people that know Meso are either here or on the Unofficial Discord server so a GoFundMe doesn't make sense in the long run. And those who know him well know how much he has put into the Starsector community... Often to the point of his own detriment.
