Who?
I'm Earl. I've been doing theLogBook.com since 1989, when it wasn't theLogBook.com, but was merely the LogBook, a collection of episode guide files shuttled around from computer bulletin board system to computer bulletin board system, back when the Earth's crust will still cooling, the outer planets were still forming, dinosaurs were starting to give serious thought to walking the Earth, and Milli Vanilli was on the radio a lot. I've been at this a long time.

When?
The neat thing about that is, that means theLogbook.com has been continuously growing - often in many different directions - for 25+ years, amassing a depth of material and expertise that not a lot of sites have. In recent years, I've begun translating, updating and expanding that material in print form and in podcast form. Because if there are two things I'm good at, it's writing and talking to myself (while you listen). I try to impart the site's same vast depth of material and knowledge through the books and podcasts, and try to do both as professionally as possible - I've been doing print layout and radio/voice work since the '80s and I try really hard to make sure that some of that expertise translates into the stuff that I put out there.

What?
The site's main areas of focus at present are:

Podcasts - Select Game (Odyssey2 video game history podcast) currently rolls out a new episode every month. In The Grand Theme Of Things (soundtrack podcast) rolls out 1-2 new episodes per month. theLogBook.com's Escape Pod has completed 366 episodes (one for every day of the year, including February 29th for leap years!), but I am in the process of re-recording each of these for both updates and sound quality. Other podcast projects are in the "thinking stages".

Books - books based on the site's content gather and organize that content differently than the web site does, and takes that content to a new audience beyond theLogBook's loyal readership. Titles to date include VWORP!1 and VWORP!2 (massive comprehensive guides to Doctor Who, with episode-by-episode critiques, credits, and trivia), Fatherhood, Fandom And Fading Out (a book of essays, articles and humor, focusing on being a geek who happens to be a dad), and The Escape Pod Logs (an almanac-style daily history book spun off from theLogBook.com's Escape Pod, the daily today-in-history podcast with decidedly geeky/spacey leanings). Forthcoming works include the WARP! series (covering Star Trek in the same format as VWORP! covers Doctor Who), The Guide To 42 British Science Fiction TV Classics (curious number, that...), We Come From A Funky Future (covering American TV sci-fi and fantasy in the '70s), and Phosphor Dot Fossils: An Essential Arcade Chronology, 1971-86. (All are in various stages of being written; to avoid burnout on any one topic, it's good to have more than one proverbial iron in the equally proverbial fire.) As to the question of why a Patreon is needed with all of these listed on Amazon: they're all self-published titles with a decidedly niche audience.

Site updates - updates are ongoing in several sections of the site, primarily the day-in-history timeline and the LogBook itself, which is a sprawling survey of science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction covered in the LogBook's signature style, with summaries, credits, and original airdates/premiere dates, covering TV, movies, fan films/internet productions, audio/radio productions, and more. Other site sections, such as music reviews and book reviews, have become dormant for budgetary reasons (the items reviewed there have to be purchased, obviously), but could "wake up" if I can afford the items reviewed there. The site itself is where future book and podcast projects are born. Social media presence is maintained on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to promote all of the above.

Conventions / live events - if there's a budget shortfall, these are almost always the first thing to go. I love doing these, but they're expensive - cons and other live events are really gravy on this list.

How much and why?
The site's expenses are no small thing, nor are the typical expenses involved in raising a couple of awesome kids. I have a day job, but I'd really rather not have to worry about getting a night job. Your support could help me concentrate on doing what I do best - creating content that you enjoy (which, let's be fair, I also enjoy), and raising my kids (which I really enjoy!) without having to worry about whether or not the money will be there when the site's bills (or, indeed, mine) come due.