What's a writer worth these days? Something more than nothing, right?

It feels like having linked this site to my PayPal account amounts to me begging for donations to the Help Pay Ted's Bills fund. Really, the idea is to see if I can generate some income doing the same work I've been paid to do my whole life.

That button to the upper left that enables readers to kick me a dollar or two or 20 should say something other than "Donate." Readers used to routinely pay to read what I wrote in newspapers. Times have changed.

I'm trying to keep in mind that while I need to ask people to consider paying me for any value they get from my work, I also have to work even harder to remember that there are huge voids in media coverage in communities around here. So, there actually could be some value (50 cents? A quarter?) in the work you read here.

There isn't a writer in Humboldt County who can write about the history of the Humboldt Crabs summer college baseball program. I can write about it because I grew up following the club, then writing about it for years.

Since I shop at a Wal-Mart, it seems like I can address the controversy of a Wal-Mart moving into my hometown in Eureka -- over the loud protests of folks who feel Wal-Mart will ruin everything up there.

There's no place in the Napa Valley for an opinion on a news event that might cast the business community in a negative light -- and, honest, sometimes somebody needs to ask hard questions about tough topics and not just cater to advertisers.

When the high school football summer workout season starts, I can go out and talk to players. There's no need for me to wait for the advertising director to tell me when the special football section runs. I can go find stories about, well, someone other than coaches who tend to repeat themselves ... as soon as they put on pads.

Solano County is not lacking for columns about the good, old days. There's a lot to be said about generating copy that makes us smile about television in the 1970s or what Fairfield and Vacaville were like in 1967. It just seems like there's more to living and being in Solano County in 2011 than thinking about "I Dream of Jeannie" and the old bowling center on North Texas. Isn't there?

I'm a sports dad and a guy who coached for decades. So, I can determine how there can be a national championship event featuring 12-year-old baseball players that runs concurrently with a different national championship tournament for 12-year-old players. There are lots of national championships and World Series events sponsored by different organizations. I can actually find out if a 12-year-old pitcher in Fairfield is one of the best his age in the U.S. or whether his folks just paid a ton of money to get him on a team that paid a ton of money to enter a tournament that they subsequently won against average competition.

I'm sure that what you read here is worth a buck or two, once in awhile.

Convincing myself of that will be an ongoing challenge.