Hiya. Ah, such poignant moments, particularly the grade wheel...
It looks like you are doing a great job, keep up the good work. Nice to see a more English major oriented strip, as fascist as that sounds Advertising on dieselsweeties was a great idea. Another idea: why not enter the time honored tradition of rants, or at least occasionally updated personal blurbs?
Well...I did a quick poll of my friends who read web comics, they were for it 10:1 (and even the 1 who didn't like them said he enjoyed the sinfest rants, but who wouldn't). I got such reasons from, people like to feel close with the artist to people enjoy witnessing the agony of those creative types. http://www.shaw-island.com has a good mixture of flavas in his rants, but it's just a suggestion. So I guess the answer would be yes, people like personal info (because the internet is so damn voyeuristic, mayhaps?)
You know, you can probably get the ironic shirt thingy done at Cafepress, and then flog them on the site. I haven't tried any of those , but I don't think it'll cost you a penny if none sell (though I don't think you get much for each shirt, either).