Who of us hasn't been down and out at some point, struggling to make rent, put pizza on the table, and pay the cablemodem bill?  I found myself in such a state of hysterical desperation at one point that I put an out on craigslist in San Francisco entitled "W1LL 5Y54DM1N 4 F00D", offering my sysadmining services in exchange for pizza or micropayments, and somewhat hoping to make a few contacts who might have a project lurking for someone in just such a state of desperation.

In the days following the posting of this ad, I was contacted by a lot of nice folks who could relate to my position and/or were amused by the imaginative nature of my post, which I had hoped would make it into the "best of cl", but did not.  Sadly, also, noone pays people to read the best of cl, except maybe cl, but I bet craig himself gets to do the fun stuff.

In any case, I heard back from one of these folks this afternoon, just asking how I am doing, and I wanted to share how uplifting it can be to have a random contact like this.  I didn't actually get paid to do any work by any of these folks, though possibly would have if I had pursued enough.  The experience of having so much response really, above all, just helped me to keep my chin up in a really tough time.  I only hope I have a chance to repay the world.