I'd be happy to help out. I get paid this week, and I should have a little extra cash.

Besides, the history of that area is utterly fascinating. The Caucasoid mummies and Tocharian inscriptions found in the Xinjiang province are utterly amazing. To think that Westerners were living and trading with the Chinese before globalization - even before the Greek civilization - has been a captivation of mine.

Good luck, and I'm proud to help sponsor this expedition!

I've just got you around 10% of the way there.
I spent 13 years more or less travelling the world before becoming a boring banker. I now plan on living vicariously through you for a little while--so you are obligated to (1) have a terrific trip, and (2) wear those fingers to the bone blogging about it...

I'll help out too. Good luck, get the book written, and keep blogging.

Talk about a kick in the rubber parts...

I am so sorry to hear about your grant. After I get paid, I will send what I can. Yours is important work.

Good luck!

Sean-Paul,
I'll send money if you praise Bush on your bog :P

If Bush wold do something right for a change I would! Until then I must maintain my objectivity!

Yea, but then I wouldn't need to send you money for you to praise him :)~

In about three weeks there is no telling what I might be doing for money. ;-) So stick around. LOL.

The People's Republic of Park Slope is proud to fund a revolutionary expedition!

i scraped out my laundry/beer/ramen noodles fund. :-) Good luck!

Curtis,
Park Slope is full of hippies and artsy types :>

Yes Stan, it's terrible. Counterrevolutionaries all of them! <grin />

Wow, Bush has to get his operatives to bribe people to write something good about him. LOL

Good luck on your trip Sean-Paul

Wow, Bush has to get his operatives to bribe people to write something good about him. LOL

That's right, Les. Republikkkans are everywher!

Curtis,
Sheepshead Bay is where it's at, dawg!

I expect to see a picture of the tour bus with a TPRS bumper sticker on it!!

Jack, I can do that! I'll sew a TPRS patch on the seat of my pants if you want. ;-)

! I'll sew a TPRS patch on the seat of my pants if you want.

Heh. Now you are thinking! You can raise money that way.

Do you mind if we get more specifics about the project before we send you money? Who was funding it? Who is publishing the results? What are your credentials? All this seems a little fuzzy, particularly since I couldn't pull any information regarding your expertise off the web. Do you have other articles in journals? As an academic, I'm surprised you'd get funding from the government without some body of written work (besides this blog, of course.)

My own graduate career ended ABD for want of funding and I can testify that Matt Groening is right-on when he calls the grad school drop-out the bitterest person on earth. I don't wish that fate on anyone (OK, maybe Ashcroft). Good luck.

Well, Bob: I sent you an email so I guess you really aren't who you claim to be. Send me a real email address and I'll be happy to answer all of your questions.

Good luck with the trip - sounds like you're going to make it!

Actually, whether or not someome's email works, I think Bob's questions are somewhat valid. Sean-Paul, I'm a published lettered archaeologist, and still have trouble having granting agencies give me a sideways glance, let alone agree to fund me. Could you please give a little more info on the project?

Cry me a river for christ's sake. In a time when we can anticipate the deaths at least hundredes of thousands of Iraqi children from war induced starvation and less than precision bombing, it seems obscene to make such a tawdry request. Better that funds be directed to charities which take care of the truly desparate, for whom modest donations enable the sustaining of life, and not just convenience.

MB,

Bob's questions are very valid. I'm happy to answer them via email should anyone want to know more. I plan on blogging more about it in the near future.

As a matter of fact several people have requested more information and have received it. I have no secrets here. I'm not an Andrew Sullivan that raises $80,000 dollars to spend on his summer house. I'll be blogging in Central Asia the whole way. To my mind that is worth a buck or two.

Be certain to stop in Samarkand and look at the Registran, plus the old observatory (14th century if I recall). Absolutely magnificent place.

Even though I already gave, I would like to hear more about your project. My wife and I both have a strong interest in Central Eurasia and will be following your blog. We will also hold you to the book promise. It looks like you have a good intro/first chapter developing right here.

When hitting people up for contributions on funding this project, I agree that it's appropriate to post your bona fides, as well as the publisher of this upcoming book and the scheduled date for distribution.

While I've not written books, I have edited them, and it would seem to me that your publisher might well be amenable to having their corporate logo on this or on your Silk Road site, with a blurb about your book and its upcoming release. As you approach the publishing date, that logo/blurb/solicitation could easily be changed to accommodate the ordering of books directly from the source. Aside from that, everyone needs good PR. You might check with your editor to see if that would appeal to them. I think it could go a long way toward your pulling in donations and making those who contribute more comfortable.

Another suggestion is a low-interest loan. I know from the blog that you're an investment analyst or banker of some sort. Maybe you can seek some direction from your peers on getting over this hump with either a personal or corporate lending arrangement.

If you haven't yet packed reading material for the trip, you could do worse than Robert Byron's Road to Oxiana. Good luck...