Talblog

Forget Donations...

Have you heard of microfinance? I have been doing some reading on the topic and it is ingenious. Interest free loans are given to the poor to start or maintain small business in developing countries. The money gets repaid to you, though it is not guaranteed www.kiva.org so far has a 100% track record on repayments.

Here's how it works:

1) Lender gives money to microfinancier (kiva is one example)
2) financier distributes cash to local partner (bank etc)
3) Bank loans cash interest free to small business owner or entrepreneur
4) Over time, business owner repays bank, bank repays microfinancier, and they return your money.

Apparently it works incredibly well, especially since some businesses really need small loans to make repairs or upgrades - they in turn reap more business benefits and can repay the money.

Microfinance Wiki
United Nations on Microfinance

Whoa

Grocery Shopping in Canada

Merry Christmas all!

Two Genius Ideas

Stumbled onto a crazy webpage today. This maniac posted some engenious inventions...

1) Launch a disposable camera into space and take pictures with it:

2) Rig a etch a sketch globe to a couple of floppy motors, and program the motors to spin images into your globe:

If you got Java, You got vNES

play on playa

Charlotte's Web!

Any of you who are interested, charlotte's web came out this weekend. I worked on it for a few months, and did a variety of things on it. It was a neat project and the movie is actually pretty good!

We worked on the rat (Templeton) and the crows. I worked on the crows mostly, which turned out hilarious in the actually movie. I can't tell which ones are computer and which are real. When they talk, their heads are done with computer.

Anyways, check it out if you are interested. Also, stay for the credits!

Old Buddy

An old friend of mine from canada turned his life on its head and decided to get serious about Muy Thai kickboxing. His first fight was last weekend, which he won, and pointed me to picks shown here. He is the dude with the shaved head. I have known him since I was 2 years old, and now he is all scary and tough!

heh

The Lost Room

That show on the sci-fi channel. Does anyone else think its as cool as I do? Great concept.

Thirty More Years!

Thanks to all who rang me this weekend about my 30th. Yeah, now I am old and bald and officially, officially an adult. But I feel good.

Friday morning Becky told me to pack a bag, cause she was taking me somewhere after work. She wouldn't tell me where, so I was pretty excited all day. I was braggin about how my lady was takin me out for the weekend.. suckers!

We ended up going to an inn in Santa Barbara called "The orchid inn". It was pretty new and we had a pimp room. It was big and bright and chill. On Saturday Rocco, Missy and her friend Bess came up and we drove around the Santa Ynez Valley, stopping in wineries and into that wierd little dutch town called "Solvang".

We went to a wine bar called "Presidio" and were helped by crazy Sue who was all kinds of hyper and friendly. She made me prove that it was my birthday in order to hook me up with extra gulps of wine.

Becky also got me some guitar lessons. I think mostly because she is getting tired of me trying to think I can play but really sound like an out of control broken music box.

We walked around Santa barbary on sunday and drove back up the coast through the rain. Towards the end the rain broke and the light was amazing. I was pissed that we didn't have a camera.

Anyways, I wanted to say thanks for the birthday calls and stuff. Sorry I never called people back. My phone died halfway down to SB. Not on purpose of course. :)

December 9th

Hey Jer, happy birthday!!! Are you the big 2 9 this year? Did you do anything to celebrate?

Wow, its blank!

Everybody must be pretty busy, cuz talblog is totally blank!

I am going to post some random notes, just for fun.

I just read the "Tao of Pooh", which Becky's mom got me for Christmas a few years back. It was a great book and should be read by all. Though it was a bit preachy at times, it did make me think a bit more clearly, and changed my perspective on a few things. Hopefully it will stick.

Following that, I quickly read the Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac. It was a great read right at this time, since Tao was fresh on my mind, and the Bums is about Kerouac's journey into Buddhism, and into the California mountains. A great book about california - made me love this place even more. The setting is our current stomping ground, from the city to berkeley, to tahoe, and marin.

Right now I am reading book by another SF author named Dave Eggers (founder of McSweeney's, which I love!). The book is called "A Heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius", which was not-so-ironically a pulizer prize finalist. It is about a guy raising his younger brother at 22 years old after his parents both die suddenly. It is dark and sad and hilarious at the same time (as the title implies). Definitely a worthy read for anyone.

On television we have the wire, which has been the best season ever. It reminds me of Baltimore because it is set there... though I have no common ground with the characters on the show (being murderous drug dealing gangsters and all). The writing is fantastic, the acting is great, and the portrayal of governments relationship to crime and poverty actually changed my world view. If you have a chance, netflix it.

Music? I just picked up the deftones "Saturday Night Wrist", which is metallic and mellow at the same time. Great album. I have also been pulling out the old-time christmas tunes by the Big Bands and Jazz artist to get in the mood for holidays. You know... Billie Holiday/Ella/et al.

Other Stuff... Last weekend Becky and I went running along the beach - Ocean Beach SF. I had never run along the beach before and felt like I was about to have a heart attack. It was a beautiful crisp day though, and really mellow a the beach. The surfers were out freezing their nuts off but it looked so fun. I am tempted to bring my board out there but don't want to go alone and no one up here that I know surfs. Maybe I can convince loren or brett to buy a used board somewhere and get hypothermia in the pacific ocean with me.

Hope all is well with you all. Hey matt - when you going to post a few pictures up for us to check out man?