Subscriptions Mess

How to support Chappy and Ichi and the Toilet Guy

Jun 24, 2025

When I started this site I had to set up a Stripe account but I made some mistakes with the banking information due to a problem with foreign names in Japanese. (Japanese has FOUR writing systems!).

Stripe’s tech people and I fixed it so Stripe works fine —certainly for the www.buymeacoffee.com site.

Substack however still doesn’t work. That’s THEIR fault.

They needed to update their data in their API before Paid Subscriptions would work. I went back and forth with Substack Support and they kept on promising to put me in touch with their tech people to fix it. Nothing has happened.

So, I have given up on Paid Subscriptions on Substack.

Buy me a coffee is better

If you like my work, buy me coffee! If you don’t like what I do or are strapped for cash – don’t.

That’s https://buymeacoffee.com/julicow.

Buymeacoffee allows me to post links to two cloud storage drives – Google Drive and MEGA – where I can store “special articles” – which are very long and a book. Just go to “Posts” and find the links.

Want to know why my biological age (58ish) is 20ish years younger than my chronological age (78 )?

Over 50?

I have also put my book on longevity and ageing previously on Kindle there, too. It’s free and has a more than 100 page bibliography so it’s not just off-the-wall opinion.

In addition, the articles available from buymeacoffee are in various formats – DOCx, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and HTML. Since they are lonnnnnnnnnnngg-- that is convenient for some people.

Why Donations?

I rely on donations to get by. In my past career, I earned a lot of money and was once modestly wealthy, with what looked like a nice nest egg. But I lost almost everything, cheated out of it by a dishonest broker, who I thought was a friend and trustworthy. I guess he once was – but people change.

So, now – no nest egg. And not a lot of work like I used to do. I am considered too “controversial”.

As Kurt Vonnegaut said, “So it goes”

Or….

Do not regret what you have done”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

I live simply.

A tiny apartment, no elevator in an old building, soon to be torn down, which means I will have to move. I do not go out for restaurants or concerts or movies. I do not hang out in coffee shops or buy expensive things. I spend money just on necessities, for Chappy and Ichi. I am happy anyway.

Rule 1 of Miyamoto’s 21 Rules.

1. Accept everything just the way it is

Connection

Donations are a life-line.

But these coffees also offer a feeling of “connection”. I like the buymeacoffee system. It is more…personal. It’s one-on-one.

The comments section of News Forensics is Public Forum —quite different.

Everytime, I get a coffee, I try to respond with a personal message and sometimes dialog develops from that. Opinions are one thing: people are another. There is no head without heart.

I have a made a lot of good friends through this interaction. So it isn’t just the $5.00 – it’s the contact, the feeling.

Many thanks to you all!