The Atari Report has been permanently cancelled

[BIGHMW]

Sad News for all of my fellow Atarians,

 

Due to my ongoing financial crises, as well as having to sell my 2600 jr, 7800, and XEGS earlier back in February, and also the soaring prices on and/or the unavailability of both the XEGS and 7800 online (either Mercari or eBay), it is my sad duty to announce to all of you that The Atari Report has been permanently cancelled.

 

We will continue our commitment to "The Atari 5200 SuperReport" and also "ColecoVision EXTRA!" on my Ray Jackson YouTube channel, in which the debut episodes were set to be filmed last weekend but I have been going through some mental health trauma as well as I am hundreds of dollars in debt in both my PayPal and bank accounts, and have run out of options as to what to sell, as almost all of my paychecks end up being swallowed up by the compounding overdraft fees in which add up to more than my weekly paychecks and I also owe Moneytree $685.00 on the 3rd for a $600.00 payday loan, and if it weren't for the good folks over at OlyCAP here in Port Townsend helping me with both my rent and my bills these last 4 months I would be out on the streets right now.

 

Thanks for your understanding,

 

Ray Jackson

former host - The Atari Report

[Leonard Smith]

Do you need physical consoles to do these episodes?
Why not use emulation for the gameplay footage?

Nevertheless, it's best to get your financial life in order.  Video games should always be secondary.

Best of luck.

 

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

[+jgkspsx]

Have you thought about starting a GoFundMe or a Patreon? Payday loans are killers, you gotta stay away from them.

[Leonard Smith]

I would also suggest reading/educating yourself a bit so that you can build a budget (ie: track all your expenses using Mint or just a basic spreadsheet) to see exactly where your money is going and where you're coming up short.  Document your fixed monthly and recurring expenses and get a handle on what your true living costs are. 

 

Jgkspsx is correct -- those payday loans are killers (and should be illegal in my opinion), but at the same time, most everyone can cut back and sacrifice in some regards in order to make ends meet when you have a true picture of how much money is coming in and where it all goes.

 

 

[+Stephen]

Dropping in here with some honest advice to a stranger.  There are a few things that come up regularly that concern me.  In no particular order:

• Regular references to you having a manager
• Recent revelation that you spend too much money so you will get noticed by Cindy Margolis on her facebook page
• Not having money to eat even frozen food
• The fact that someone gave you back money they loaned you (a $20 for gas) and then you could buy and take your meds.

Lots of shit going on here.  My sincere hope is that nobody is taking advantage of you.  You seem to be a good hearted person with a job.  Don't let people crap on you, take your money, lead you stray.  Two - it might be in your best interest to have an advisor of sorts, someone that can keep you from spending money to impress an internet celebrity who has zero idea that you exist.

 

I don't mean to sound harsh, I wish you the best, but there's just some stuff that isn't adding up here.

[Keatah]

The above seems a good starting point. It's also important to understand the how's and why's of those issues and get them addressed in a way that works for yourself.

[Lord Mushroom]

11 hours ago, Stephen said:

• Regular references to you having a manager

It is a somewhat famous friend of his, who I am pretty sure is just giving him some advice every now and then for free.

[Leonard Smith]

I wonder if he actually goes back to read and digest the helpful comments that users have posted. 
 

[BIGHMW]

6 hours ago, Leonard Smith said:

I wonder if he actually goes back to read and digest the helpful comments that users have posted. 
 

That I DID. BTW, some good news, I received a letter back on Tuesday from my old stomping grounds of L.A. from James Forthman, in whom I have known since the mid-70s, I opened it up yesterday to see what was in it, in there were two slips of paper in it, one (the first one I noticed) was a note written on Habitat For Humanity stationary that said "this check is to pay off bills", the second slip, turned out to be a check FOR $2,000.00!!! I deposited it immediately and paid everything (and everyone) off, and now it's just a matter of will power to start taking all of your advice and save it up and continue to bust ass at work over at Safeway, and start building it up again, and yes I even did buy some groceries with some of it (and yes I DID pay off that payday loan), so own zero to anyone as I am posting this.

 

 

...and yes I DO already have a budget planned it's just a matter of sticking to the game plan

 

 

Who knows, maybe sometime in the short future I can get some Video 61/Atari Sales carts for my 5200 and CollectorVision carts for my ColecoVision as well, in moderation of course.

[BIGHMW]

12 hours ago, Lord Mushroom said:

It is a somewhat famous friend of his, who I am pretty sure is just giving him some advice every now and then for free.

That, is the great Len Enders, check out his YouTube channel, he even did a piece on me as well!

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/LenEnders

 

here is that piece he did on my from 2003!!!

 

 

[jhd]

On 6/1/2022 at 11:37 AM, jgkspsx said:

Have you thought about starting a GoFundMe or a Patreon?

 

Onlyfans? ? 

 

Seriously, though, carefully watch that monthly budget. Small expenses can very easily creep-up on you.

 

My elderly Mother, for example, has a rather limited pension income, but she loves buy books mail-order. This was causing her to over-spend every month. Now, I order for her from Amazon (cheaper and free shipping) and have the book shipped directly to her. Her accountant and I are working together to manage the budget. 

 

Personally, I really like to eat my lunch at the nearby cafeteria. This costs about $10/day, or $200/month. 

[+GoldLeader]

13 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

That I DID. BTW, some good news, I received a letter back on Tuesday from my old stomping grounds of L.A. from James Forthman, in whom I have known since the mid-70s, I opened it up yesterday to see what was in it, in there were two slips of paper in it, one (the first one I noticed) was a note written on Habitat For Humanity stationary that said "this check is to pay off bills", the second slip, turned out to be a check FOR $2,000.00!!! I deposited it immediately and paid everything (and everyone) off, and now it's just a matter of will power to start taking all of your advice and save it up and continue to bust ass at work over at Safeway, and start building it up again, and yes I even did buy some groceries with some of it (and yes I DID pay off that payday loan), so own zero to anyone as I am posting this.

 

 

...and yes I DO already have a budget planned it's just a matter of sticking to the game plan

 

 

 

 

Who knows, maybe sometime in the short future I can get some Video 61/Atari Sales carts for my 5200 and CollectorVision carts for my ColecoVision as well, in moderation of course.

 

^THIS is Fantastic News Ray!!!!

 

You've got a fresh start!   Be careful with debt from now on and you should be OK.

 

Here's something you might look at...Just also do your own research on these

 

 

https://partners.thepennyhoarder.com/50-side-jobs-desktop-prt/?aff_id=19&aff_unique1=Cj0KCQjw4uaUBhC8ARIsANUuDjWewqnfSX0RLcwTT90NQNgzbwbXncz7QomKiP1uJFCKjf2_bT4qQYcaAtAmEALw_wcB&aff_sub3=go_cmp-15155757335_adg-135377218556_ad-592096099330_kwd-19961350&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4uaUBhC8ARIsANUuDjWewqnfSX0RLcwTT90NQNgzbwbXncz7QomKiP1uJFCKjf2_bT4qQYcaAtAmEALw_wcB

 

Cheers!!

[Lord Mushroom]

13 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

...and yes I DO already have a budget planned it's just a matter of sticking to the game plan

 

Nice. I think you should add estimates of other costs as well. Things like groceries, clothes, gas, miscellaneous, unexpected costs (things that need to be repaired/replaced) and any other stuff like that.

 

I live in Norway, so I don´t know much about how things work in the US, but here are some thoughts on your budget:

1) Do you really need local cable when you have Hulu+Live TV? Aren´t you paying for the same stuff twice?

2) Isn´t ESPN+ a part of Hulu+Live TV, so you don´t need to pay $6 for it?

3) $89 seems like a lot for a phone. If it is a landline phone, maybe it is time to switch to a cell-/smart-phone. If it is a cell-/smart-phone, maybe there are cheaper subscriptions for your use out there.

[Lord Mushroom]

14 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

That, is the great Len Enders, check out his YouTube channel, he even did a piece on me as well!

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/LenEnders

 

here is that piece he did on my from 2003!!!

 

 

I have actually already seen that video. For some reason, I have to go to You Tube now to get the sound of videos posted on AA.

Edited June 3, 2022 by Lord Mushroom

[zzip]

59 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

1) Do you really need local cable when you have Hulu+Live TV? Aren´t you paying for the same stuff twice?

2) Isn´t ESPN+ a part of Hulu+Live TV, so you don´t need to pay $6 for it?

There's a lot of ways to save here.   I replaced a $200/month Direct TV with $20/month Philo plus I now use an HD TV Antenna so I get local Networks channels for free.  Works surprisingly well.   Philo provides the basic cable channels like History, Comedy Central, MTV, TLC, etc.    Honestly I've been thinking about cancelling that as well because I barely watch it.     But cutting 90% of my cable costs was awesome!

[The Usotsuki]

My monthly cell phone service is $60; you can get unlimited voice/text and limited data for $30 from some providers in the US.

[+GoldLeader]

I probably  have the cheapest cell phone plan in all of Creation, haha.  $14 a month!  3 conditions:  A)  I had to have Spectrum Internet  B)  I had to buy the phone outright  C) I have to stay  below 1GB of Data a month (each GB more is another $14),  which is easy for me because I only use the phone for calls, texts, and Google Maps...I have a computer for YouTube, I have MP3 Players/CDs/vinyl for music, TV for movies, etc...

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I've had cable TV services for over 15 years. I have 2 HD aerials mounted in the attic. One for each of the TVs and get well over 40 channels on each of them which, includes all the local channels of course. My wife has Prime along with Hulu and Disney+ so still for less cable TV services we have pretty much everything covered that she and I would want to watch that we don't already own physically in some form.

 

So yes I've not seen a need for actual cable TV services in many years.

 

[Dopy25]

10 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

I probably  have the cheapest cell phone plan in all of Creation, haha.  $14 a month!  3 conditions:  A)  I had to have Spectrum Internet  B)  I had to buy the phone outright  C) I have to stay  below 1GB of Data a month (each GB more is another $14),  which is easy for me because I only use the phone for calls, texts, and Google Maps...I have a computer for YouTube, I have MP3 Players/CDs/vinyl for music, TV for movies, etc...

I have my son on Hello Mobile. I think it's a Tmobile MVNO. He has 1 gb of data and it's only 10 bucks a month. The same company has unlimited everything for $25 a month. You have to own your phone for that one as well but it works like a champ, and does not specifically require mobile data at all times like some of the other ones that use VOIP service but still count minutes.

[zzip]

2 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I've had cable TV services for over 15 years. I have 2 HD aerials mounted in the attic. One for each of the TVs and get well over 40 channels on each of them which, includes all the local channels of course. My wife has Prime along with Hulu and Disney+ so still for less cable TV services we have pretty much everything covered that she and I would want to watch that we don't already own physically in some form.

 

So yes I've not seen a need for actual cable TV services in many years.

 

You could get away with one aerial.   Tablo makes devices that you hook your antenna up to, and it will broadcast over your local network, so you can watch the local channels over any TV (With Roku or similar functionality),  tablet, phone etc in your house.   Also has DVR functionality so you can record shows.

 

[+GoldLeader]

6 minutes ago, Dopy25 said:

I have my son on Hello Mobile. I think it's a Tmobile MVNO. He has 1 gb of data and it's only 10 bucks a month. The same company has unlimited everything for $25 a month. You have to own your phone for that one as well but it works like a champ, and does not specifically require mobile data at all times like some of the other ones that use VOIP service but still count minutes.

 

 

Cheers!!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

5 minutes ago, zzip said:

You could get away with one aerial.   Tablo makes devices that you hook your antenna up to, and it will broadcast over your local network, so you can watch the local channels over any TV (With Roku or similar functionality),  tablet, phone etc in your house.   Also has DVR functionality so you can record shows.

 

The aerials were only like $40 each or something? They don't require external power so it was easier to buy a pair of them and use the wireless built into the TVs to access the other accounts. Also, originally I only had the one TV and that is when the first aerial was installed. I installed the second one when we installed the bedroom TV so at the time (this was well over 10 year ago...) it was easiest and cheapest to mount the second aerial. They are pretty small directional types.

 

[john_q_atari]

To have gone into debt multiple times over the last year indicates you are spending more than what is shown in the budget you provided. 

 

Save all your receipts from now on. Go back for the last few months and write down EVERYTHING you spent money on. The small or tiny expenditures here and there become monstrously large when added together each month and we don't even know it. Add them all up and you may be shocked. Keep tabs on your phone or small notepad of every purchase this month and review it once a week. I'm sure there are phone apps for that if you want to use them. 

[Mockduck]

I worked for years in radio, which means living on a budget not entirely unlike what the OP is dealing with. Just to try to help, feel free to ignore as obviously you know your own life:

 

- Nowadays a cable bill isn't necessary, but an Internet bill is.  You - could - save $60/month and watch things online, check out stuff like Pluto/Roku/Tubi/Peacock/etc. 

- All cell phone companies kinda suck in different ways, but I have a $50/month unlimited cell and data plan from Boost mobile, and it's been totally all right. The unlimited data (something like 40gig/month before typical throttling) is also nice.