It's time for Chapter Four Patron Acknowledgements!

Every time I publish a new chapter of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY to the web, I prepare illustrated pages to acknowledge you, the patrons who have very literally and practically helped to make this work possible.

Take a look at the acknowledgements for Chapter One, Chapter Two, and Chapter Three! Each one is thematically tied to the chapter. What will Chapter Four's acknowledgements look like? Only time will tell.

Everyone has their own preferences about how they're represented on the internet, so each time I put together the acknowledgements, I offer this form you may fill out. You have the option to…

• be acknowledged anonymously. You'll literally appear as "anonymous."

• not be acknowledged at all. You will be invisible.

• clarify exactly how your name appears.

• "gift" your acknowledgement to someone else. Some folks have put down one or more of their children's names, or their partner's name, and so on. You get it. It can be any name!*

If you've filled out one of these forms in the past, this is all optional! I will refer to your previous entries, or just use your name as listed in Patreon's interface.

I'll remind you about this form a few more times before I have to finalize the pages, so you've got a while to consider your options and ask your aunt if she wants to have her name associated with a colourful adventure comic.

The form asks you for your email. I use this email address to cross-check against the Patreon spreadsheets, and that's it. I don't copy it anywhere, I don't add it to a newsletter list, and no one else sees it.

FINE PRINT:
*Well… sort of. I reserve the right to not list any names that abuse this whole enterprise. Like, "my good friend A.H., Time Magazine's Man of the Year, 1938."

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These acknowledgements are important to me. I appreciate your support, and I enjoy being able to tell everyday readers, "hey, look at these people! Without them, you might not be enjoying this comic right now."

Over the past few months, we've been dealing with car trouble, and it's been expensive.

We have two cars, both from 2007: a white hatchback Mazda 3 and a red hardtop convertible Mazda MX-5 which we inherited from my late mother. The former is our "kiddo car," the latter is my partner's commuting car. You'll know the MX-5 better as a "Miata," and it is, importantly, a two-seater. (Tangentially, the red Miata is very much my mother. It is very much not my partner. This is as succinct a portrait of these two people as I could ever provide.)

In November, the brakes on the white car broke, though the car was still technically driveable. The process of trying to get them fixed sent us down a spiral of increasingly crippling failures. Because we couldn't get into our usual mechanic in a hurry, because I never got great feelings from them, and because I'd heard good things about another shop, I went to a new mechanic. He turned out to be (at best) well-intentioned but not up to the task. When the failure continued, we tried a different mechanic, who spoke very confidently but might have made the problem worse? So we went back to our original auto shop, who despite my reservations were at least capable and competent. At this point, our Kiddo Car was undriveable. The brakes were fully seized-up.

To get the car working again — and to hopefully fend off future failures — we would need a new ABS controller. It would be expensive, we knew, but none of us knew it would take nearly two months for the part to come in.

As an upside, while we waited, our kiddo got to ride in the passenger seat of a Miata — in the front, which was exciting for him (don't worry, we disabled the airbag). On days when Kiddo and I needed our one working car, my partner discovered the pleasures of taking the bus to work, waking up at 4:30 in the morning to do so. On other days, I discovered what I assume must be the health benefits of cycling Kiddo to preschool through January and February weather.

None of it qualified as privation, but rainy, cold January and February are not the months to be without a car, living in a very car-centric suburb. We put together many puzzles and built a lot of Lego. And if you have more than two members in your household, and you can only have one car, let me heartily recommend that it be one with more than two seats.

This whole scenario made me glad that we have supportive friends and family nearby, that I like cycling and am capable on a bike, and that proceeds from this Patreon campaign could cushion the blow of the $2,500 repair bill. When that bill showed up, I did not immediately think, "welp, I guess I'll have to drop the comic for a while in order to pay this off," and I'm pretty sure that is how this is all supposed to work.

So, I thank you.

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And I'm off to keep flatting! I hope you are all doing well, and I wish you all futures free from car trouble (knock on wood).

Until next week,
I remain,
capable and competent,

TC