Kiva and Me

As you may have noticed in my most recent Sunday Review, I just finished reading The International Bank of Bob: Connecting Our Worlds One $25 Kiva Loan at a Time by Bob Harris.

I didn't just blog about it, I also wrote a column on Kiva for the paper, in the hopes of sharing this way to help with more people.

I've been lending since 2006. My profile is here. If anyone wants to contribute to the effort, feel free to send me a Kiva card, or better, sign up and make a loan yourself.

A Sunday Review

Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Feb 5th
• Forever Evil #5 - Batman is playing a dangerous game there... And Luthor is pushing the right buttons I guess. Black Manta does well.
• Earth 2 #20 - I quite like the Earth 2 Aquawoman, even if she did hunt down a shell for Batman out of nowhere. I guess the smart guard survives a bit longer.
• Green Lantern/Red Lanterns #28 - I'm not terribly interested in Red Lanterns, but it was kind of fun to see the connections with the greens and how the universe is running.
• Twilight Zone #2 - Getting more interesting. I'm amused that he messed up his new life even worse than his old.
• Grimm Fairy Tales: Oz #6 - I suppose this whole series would make more sense in the context of the GFT universe as a whole... maybe. Still, not a horrible telling of Oz. Just needs more clothing, and it would be fine.
• Feb 12th
• Justice League of America #12 - Stargirl and Martian Manhunter make a pretty good team, but I don't think they realize where they are.
• Justice League 3000 #3 - Not really impressed with the book, the characters or the story.
• Green Lantern Corps #28 - So. The GL Corps is at war. And Natu gets kidnapped. Ok. Next?
• Smallville Alien #3 - This is so mixed up I'm not really sure what's supposed to be happening here at all.
• Astro City #9 - I do like the new Confessor. He's just an awesome character from the get go. And I also loved the member of the Council of Nike. That's how to humble a superhero.
• Steam Engines of Oz V2 #3 - I really *should* have seen that coming. In fact, I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't figure it out, because it was pretty obvious. Oh well. I wonder where Tip and Jack were headed.
• Spongebob Comics #29 - As indicated by the great cover, this issue focuses on Sandy the Squirrel, and it's a decent one. No Mermaid Man, but we can't have everything.

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My library/Kindle book this week was The International Bank of Bob: Connecting Our Worlds One $25 Kiva Loan at a Time by Bob Harris. Jeopardy champ and freelance writer Bob Harris travels to luxury hotels around the world for a series of articles, and decides he needs to do something to help people who were not as lucky in "the birth lottery" as him.

As a long-time Kiva lender, I came into this book thinking I knew a good portion of the story already. And true, I know enough about the system itself, but I didn't know all the details on how Kiva was formed. I didn't know about the early problems that caused the massive due diligence that lending companies go through now with Kiva. True, I didn't have $20,000 to loan, but I did put what I could into Kiva. As a result, I enjoyed reading about Bob's adventures going to actually meet a handful of the people he'd helped and finding out what that help means first-hand.

It's well worth reading whether you know about Kiva or not. In fact, I would really recommend just about everyone read this. It'll help restore faith in humanity and might even encourage you to start making some loans and helping people out.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist -- My Kindle Wishlist -- My Camera Wishlist

A Few Notes

It was only 29 years ago that Mt St Helens blew her top. And, yeah, I remember it well.

I just re-invested some money from Kiva.org into other businesses. If you don't lend, consider it. It's a tiny amount of money, but it makes a huge difference.

Norway won Eurovision 2009, with an entry by Alexander Rybak entitled Fairytale. He was just fiddling around.


Hey, I liked it.

Kiva!

I didn't get any Kiva.org gift certificates for Christmas or my birthday this year, but that's ok. I still was able to re-invest some of the money that's been paid back into new loans. Check out my loans if you want. And maybe join. For $25 you can help somebody out.

Kiva!

Kiva is now doing partial repayments. So instead of having to wait until a loan is fully repaid, you get credits for everything paid until now. This has resulted in me having enough credit to do two more loans!

I try to fund loans in different countries, and had a bit of difficulty with this one, as most of the loans available were from countries I currently have active loans in. I finally found two loans that fit my criteria. One in Bolivia and one in Azerbaijan.

Kiva!

I just got another loan fully paid back from Kiva, and have reinvested the $25 in another group.

Check out my lender page to see my current loans. And if you have a spare $25 sitting around doing no one any good, you could do worse than invest it in the hope of a better future.

Linkdump

Sesame Street to promote math literacy. Good.

Kiva.org is allowing people to join into lending teams. I wonder if anyone would join my team if I formed one? You can see my loans by visiting my lender page.

Someone holding up traffic in the best possible way.

Do I want toaster-made grilled cheese sandwiches?

Red Light cameras don't prevent red light running and, in fact, make intersections more dangerous.

How photography is affected by the information provided with it.

I want one of these on the roof of my new house. No, it's not gonna happen, but I still want one. Then I'd get a decal in case you didn't figure out that you are being watched.

First the CBC reported it, then Weird Universe added a picture.

The idea that anyone would believe this rumor is too funny to not link to. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

I want one of these. CUTE!

Kiva!

This morning I got an e-mail from Kiva informing me that one of my Kiva Loans had been paid off in full. Gustava Siaina had finished paying off her one year loan, and I now had $25 to either redeem or re-invest.

Although Eric and I could probably use the money, $25 will make more of a difference somewhere else than here. I've been re-investing Kiva funds as soon as I get them, so I did a search for more businesses and eventually settled on Hosiyat Kambarova of Tajikistan. As of this writing, she's still fundraising, so if you want to join Kiva and share the risk with me you can put in a small bit for her. Note: if the Kiva banner below this paragraph shows someone other than Hosiyat, then her loan has been fully funded!

Kiva Update!

One of my Kiva loans has been completely paid off! Yay! It was one of my two Christmas present loans (I asked for Kiva gift certificates for Christmas and got two of them). It was to a group in Paraguay, because the person who gave me the gift certificate has connections to Paraguay.

For that reason, I decided to reinvest the money into another business in Paraguay, which is still trying to raise money at this time. In fact, there are a TON of businesses that need financing at the moment (about 300). So if you have a spare $25 and a few moments, there are worse things you could do than make a microloan.

And, if all goes well, you'll get your $25 back to reinvest or withdraw in just a few months. Loan defaults are rare, but happen. Most of the time you'll get the money back to pass on to someone new.

Linkdump

Comics Fairplay on Playboy's Wonder Woman.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #137: Brave and the Bold, the Punisher, and Death's Head.

An Iraqi reviews The Pride of Baghdad, and finds it good.

An Interrupted Mind: Robin Balzer's Buffy Tale.

Star Wars Guide to the Presidential Candidates.

Merv Griffin's Grave.

Pacifist World of Warcraft player tries to make it to the top without killing anything or helping any players that kill.

Is it legal to blog about a failing marriage?

This can't be real, and if it's real, there must be some drawback I'm missing.

I was just reminded of my favorite HTML reference site: W3Schools. If you plan on doing any website design, this is a site you probably ought to have bookmarked.

The no-fly list is complete bull, and these kids will have troubles all their lives because of this bogus list that some idiot dreamed up that doesn't help keep us safe at all. The no-fly list ought to be abolished and the TSA turned over to monkeys... they'd do ten times a better job than the current morons.

Ars Technica explains why a recount in New Hampshire is necessary:

The fact that optical scanners leave a paper record is totally irrelevant if a random audit of the results is not mandatory by law after every election. And in New Hampshire, there are no mandatory audits. As I've said before, mandating a paper trail without also requiring post-election audits is like buying a security system for your house and then not turning it on.

If democracy is worth having, then it is worth checking to make sure the results are certain.

In Kenya, a Kiva.org borrower is spotted on the news at a refugee camp.

How literacy changes your way of thinking.

Self-Link: Aquaman Links, including the gaslight Aquaman and reaction to Teen Titans Year One. I'd like to proudly note that I got the in-line comments working on the Aquaman Blog too.

And finally, the Seahawks lost, no surprise. They were even spotted 14 points by the Packers at the beginning of the game. They were completely outplayed in the snow. Oh well... next year.

Snow?

It's really freakin' me out right now, because it's SNOWING in Seattle on Christmas. Real, honest-to-goodness snow. Coming down out of the sky. In large fluffy flakes of snowy goodness. I've seen a flurry or two on Christmas before, but never this much. I don't think it'll stick (please don't stick) but it's very pretty and not something you generally see on Christmas in Seattle.

Driving down to my parents house on I-405 from Bothell, I spotted a large pink stuffed bunny in the carpool lane. Beyond it were two or three other stuffed animals, including something fairly large in the fast lane. I was easily able to swerve around it, and looking in my rearview mirror I saw it was a stuffed penguin. If I'd been able to safely stop and grab it, I would've.

The cookie plates went over well, despite the lack of the other half of the gift, which never arrived from The Swiss Colony. I don't think I'll be ordering from that company again. At least hubby-Eric slaving in the kitchen paid off with piles of delicious cookies for everyone in the family.

Hubby-Eric got a bathrobe from me last night. His gift to me waits until tomorrow. From my Mom I got a Kiva gift certificate (YAY MOM!) which I've already invested in Uganda. My sister gave me some herbal tea and another Kiva gift certificate (YAY LISA) which is already invested in Paraguay. Another sister gave me "seed money", while another gave me candies and sparkling cider. I also got to see seven nieces and nephews, all at once, in a confined space. Yikes! And I had a hearty breakfast... and no, I'm not counting calories today.

More Links

It's Human Rights Day.

Florida Doomed, says Phil Plait.

An Illustrated History of Trepanation. Just in case you weren't feeling queasy today.

American Elf Archives are now free, which means I'm willing to use RSS to follow them, since it means I probably won't keep getting errors when I try to look at previous day's strips.

Why Chinese signs with English translations often feature the F-word. Short answer: faulty translation software.

Tell the producers of your favorite show what you think about their refusal to give writers their due.

WSDOT photos, lots of flood pictures in this flickr set.

An author has been chosen to finish the Wheel of Time series.

Nokia bizarrely claims the Ogg format is proprietary, which it isn't, because it's open source. Very odd.

If I go down to Olympia, I wanna stop and get some BBQ.

We're ebaying to try to pay the bills, check out our listings.

For Family and Friends only:
My Christmas wishlist: The only thing I really want is gift certificates for Kiva.org. Any gift I get is invested in a small business in the developing world. When that business pays me back, I relend the money to someone else, thus supporting a bunch of people with a very small gift. As a bonus, you can follow along at my Kiva page to see what I do with your gift. I, personally, don't need a lot. I have plenty of junk. Helping other folks up is the greatest gift anyone can give. So that's my Christmas wishlist. Note: Kiva also accepts donations to keep running their service. That's a good gift, too.

Linkages

A look at The Seattle Stadium that Wasn't. Man, that would've been cool, and would've completely changed downtown.

Odile Crick, illustrator of DNA, has died.

A Kiva success story.

Copper Thieves destroy crops.

Comicon Links:

Boing Boing has photos.

Comics Should Be Good day 4.

Comics Reporter Reports.

Bully Day 4.

Bully's Wiedlin Watch Ends, or does it? Nah, it's over.

More Newsarama photos.

Final photos... oh man, Aquaman himself, Justin Hartley. Maybe I'll meet him someday.

Kiva.org

My first Kiva loan has been paid back. I lent to a shop in Honduras, and she's paid the full amount back in exactly one year. I was able to take the money I invested in her last year and re-invest it. I put part of it into a sewing business in Samoa, and I plan on putting my other bit in another business somewhere else in the world. I thought I'd ask my hubby-Eric for his input on the rest of the money.

If you want to follow my admittedly minor loaning, check out my user page. Yes, that is a picture of me at the top. Yes, it's an old picture, but I like it.

I had hoped to contribute a little to Kiva every Christmas, but last Christmas was tight enough that I didn't put anything in. But I'll tell you, if you are a relative or friend and want to give me a gift, Kiva is the PERFECT way to do it. Forget LEGO, Aquaman toys, or a book you aren't sure I'll enjoy. Chuck in some money to Kiva and I'll be very happy. There are e-gift cards, and not only will I appreciate it, somewhere else in the world someone else will too. Slate rated them the best microlender in a recent article.

A Fifth of Lunkdimp

Butt-Shots in Comics. I particularly like the Vixen/Amazo contrast, because I didn't notice it when I read the book, but it's totally obvious when taken in this context.

Boing Boing on tormenting squirrels. Spinning Bird Feeder. Squirrel Obstacles Courses.

It's the Dursley Syndrome! Parents don't recognize obesity in their kids.

More Wil Wheaton, who is vastly more interesting as a nerd than he ever was as Wesley: tapestry. Two stories of Wil dealing with fans.

TangognaT passes along some cool library links: What Is A Librarian? and The Joy of Interlibrary Loan are great reads.

And don't forget to enter TangognaT's Manga Giveaway!

A whine about e-mail sigs. Way back in the early days of the 'net, when we had to power our computers with hamsters, I was told that a sig should never exceed four lines of text, which I have stuck to all these years. Reports of PHOTOs in sigs admittedly bothers me, especially if you are sending mail to someone who has to pay for download time. I don't mind sigs, but be reasonable about them, folks!

Jeopardy is teasing about Friday March 16th's show: "for the first time in 23 years, 'Jeopardy!' history will be made." Well, hey, since we got the TiVo entirely to record Jeopardy so hubby-Eric never will have to miss it again, yeah, we'll watch it. Via Various and Sundry.

Which microlender is best? Surprise, it's Kiva, the one that I have a little bit of money in. I meant to put $50 a year into it, but haven't put any money in this year yet, due to our financial difficulties.