Out of my aforementioned three goals, things presently stand at 0 for 1.
To be fair, it was otherwise a fun weekend. Judicious use of sunblock even prevented me from getting much of a burn.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
A Worthy Cause
I'll freely admit that, 10+ years into regular Internet use, I'm pretty jaded by people telling me about this new site or that great idea. I'm also, you can understand, rather tired of all the scams that are out there. (No, dude from Nigeria, I am not going to send you the money you need to cover legal fees so you can collect the prize in some lottery you won.)
So when I first saw the website of an organization called Kiva, you can understand why I might have been a bit skeptical. It looked it might've been a great way to part gullible people from their money. Reading a bit more about what Kiva does, though, I was intrigued. Kiva is a nonprofit organization in a field called "microfinance." They're partnered with a number of field partners, local organizations in various nations around the world, and these organizations extend small interest-free loans to individual entrepreneurs who need (but can't obtain through traditional methods) money to start or expand their businesses. "Small" here really does mean small - the average size of a loan extended by a Kiva partner is $544.26 - compare that to the amount you need to start a business in the U.S.! The borrowers are typically owners of businesses like farms or small stores or restaurants.
Still seems like something that could be a scam, I suppose, but if you look at their Press page, there'd have to be a lot of major media outlets (the BBC, the New York Times, NPR, Time Magazine, Business Week... how often do you see an organization that's endorsed by the Wall Street Journal and the Village Voice?) in on it. As far as repayment goes, looking at one of the field partners, Prisma MicroFinance, as an example, of 436 active loans, none of them are over a month past due, and of 258 ended loans, none of them were not repaid in full. Overall, across all of their partners, 7% of active loans (571 of 8,138) are a month or more past due, but not a single ended loan went into default or failed to be repaid in full.
As I was reading through this, I was thinking about how much money I spent - much of it borrowed - to pay for law school, and how easy it was for me to borrow that money. The question that arose in my mind, then, was, "why should it be that, just because the people Kiva lends to are in less industrialized countries, they shouldn't be able to do the same?" Especially when the amounts seem so small in comparison. And really, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to do the same.
You may have guessed where this was leading: I signed up. I'm happy to say that, through Kiva and Prisma MicroFinance, I'm one of sixteen lenders who's helping Judith Mendoza of Managua, Nicaragua, remodel and expand her restaurant and buy new cooking utensils.
Anyway, give it a look; maybe you, too, can have this warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
So when I first saw the website of an organization called Kiva, you can understand why I might have been a bit skeptical. It looked it might've been a great way to part gullible people from their money. Reading a bit more about what Kiva does, though, I was intrigued. Kiva is a nonprofit organization in a field called "microfinance." They're partnered with a number of field partners, local organizations in various nations around the world, and these organizations extend small interest-free loans to individual entrepreneurs who need (but can't obtain through traditional methods) money to start or expand their businesses. "Small" here really does mean small - the average size of a loan extended by a Kiva partner is $544.26 - compare that to the amount you need to start a business in the U.S.! The borrowers are typically owners of businesses like farms or small stores or restaurants.
Still seems like something that could be a scam, I suppose, but if you look at their Press page, there'd have to be a lot of major media outlets (the BBC, the New York Times, NPR, Time Magazine, Business Week... how often do you see an organization that's endorsed by the Wall Street Journal and the Village Voice?) in on it. As far as repayment goes, looking at one of the field partners, Prisma MicroFinance, as an example, of 436 active loans, none of them are over a month past due, and of 258 ended loans, none of them were not repaid in full. Overall, across all of their partners, 7% of active loans (571 of 8,138) are a month or more past due, but not a single ended loan went into default or failed to be repaid in full.
As I was reading through this, I was thinking about how much money I spent - much of it borrowed - to pay for law school, and how easy it was for me to borrow that money. The question that arose in my mind, then, was, "why should it be that, just because the people Kiva lends to are in less industrialized countries, they shouldn't be able to do the same?" Especially when the amounts seem so small in comparison. And really, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to do the same.
You may have guessed where this was leading: I signed up. I'm happy to say that, through Kiva and Prisma MicroFinance, I'm one of sixteen lenders who's helping Judith Mendoza of Managua, Nicaragua, remodel and expand her restaurant and buy new cooking utensils.
Anyway, give it a look; maybe you, too, can have this warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday morning
That was a fun weekend, all in all. Friday night my father and I went out to Shea Stadium (my first trip there this season) to see the Mets play the Brewers (who have the best record in baseball - when the hell did that happen?). The Mets got a great start out of Jorge Sosa and home runs from David Wright, Carlos Delgado and Damion Easley (who's been pretty impressive so far) and held on to win 5-4. Also: holy crap, there's a whole other stadium outside the stadium!
Saturday afternoon we headed back out to Bohemian Hall in Astoria for BB and JW's birthday party. Much tasty Czech beer was consumed, and the weather cooperated until it cooled off towards the end of the afternoon. I was pretty wiped after drinking basically from 1:00 until 6:30 so I headed home (making a stopover at the Barnes and Noble near the West 4th subway stop to pick up Anthony Bourdain's new book and one of Nick Hornby's old ones) and turned in early.
Yesterday was Mother's Day so I met up with the folks for brunch at Bistro Les Amis in Soho. After some initial playing of musical tables, we settled in and enjoyed a nice meal (though not so great that I'd go out of my way to eat there again). For some reason it was also a very clumsy meal for me personally, and the sauce from my mussels wound up all over the place. After brunch we went out to Great Neck to visit my great-aunt and then braved the Mother's Day traffic to head home.
Got out on my bike both Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon as well - great weather for it. I'm going to take today off but get back out tomorrow (when it's supposed to be warmer and more humid leading up to thunderstorms on Wednesday).
Saturday afternoon we headed back out to Bohemian Hall in Astoria for BB and JW's birthday party. Much tasty Czech beer was consumed, and the weather cooperated until it cooled off towards the end of the afternoon. I was pretty wiped after drinking basically from 1:00 until 6:30 so I headed home (making a stopover at the Barnes and Noble near the West 4th subway stop to pick up Anthony Bourdain's new book and one of Nick Hornby's old ones) and turned in early.
Yesterday was Mother's Day so I met up with the folks for brunch at Bistro Les Amis in Soho. After some initial playing of musical tables, we settled in and enjoyed a nice meal (though not so great that I'd go out of my way to eat there again). For some reason it was also a very clumsy meal for me personally, and the sauce from my mussels wound up all over the place. After brunch we went out to Great Neck to visit my great-aunt and then braved the Mother's Day traffic to head home.
Got out on my bike both Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon as well - great weather for it. I'm going to take today off but get back out tomorrow (when it's supposed to be warmer and more humid leading up to thunderstorms on Wednesday).
Thursday, May 10, 2007
More on Arcade Fire
Apparently after Win encouraged the audience to crowd down towards the stage, security at Radio City took exception. This was just one aisle over from where I was, but I didn't notice (though I did see a couple of security guys booking it across from one side to the other at one point).
Neon Bible
I went to the Arcade Fire concert at Radio City tonight. Great show, great venue (I'd never been there before). They're one of those groups who seem like they're having so much fun up there performing, and that kind of energy and enthusiasm helps to get the crowd into the show too. It's also impressive that there are ten people (by my count) up there performing and they're all DOING something at any given time. Nobody's just kinda standing there and waiting for their turn to play. It makes for some really rich, deep music.
The lead singer of the band, a few times during the show, encouraged the people whose seats were further back to kinda move on down towards the front and just kinda stand in the aisles. (At one point he hoked that the security staff must hate him for that.) I happened to have an aisle seat, so at some point during the show this other dude who was filing down towards the front on the singer's instructions wound up standing next to me, and kinda intruded on my personal space. And then I realized, "wow, when did I start worrying about having personal space when I'm at a concert?" (I dunno, maybe that was just because it was a dude, though.) Anyway, I guess maybe that's another sign I'm getting old.
The lead singer of the band, a few times during the show, encouraged the people whose seats were further back to kinda move on down towards the front and just kinda stand in the aisles. (At one point he hoked that the security staff must hate him for that.) I happened to have an aisle seat, so at some point during the show this other dude who was filing down towards the front on the singer's instructions wound up standing next to me, and kinda intruded on my personal space. And then I realized, "wow, when did I start worrying about having personal space when I'm at a concert?" (I dunno, maybe that was just because it was a dude, though.) Anyway, I guess maybe that's another sign I'm getting old.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
I Can't Think of a Good Title for This
Every now and then I'll have a point in my life when I think to myself, "OK, so here are X number of things that I would like to have happen, and if Y number of them happen then I can be happy about how things turned out."
Well, right now I'm kinda at one of those points. There are three things that I'd really like to happen, and if even one or two of them could actually happen, that'd be great. The first one is kinda obvious, since it's kinda been the subject of half of my posts here (though I suppose "AG moving to NY" and "AG being interested" are two separate things). The second is a job-related thing that I'm not going to discuss in detail at the moment. The third is, it'd be really cool if Cornell could win the lacrosse tournament.
If I had to bet on how many of these things are actually going to happen, I'd say it'll probably be zero.
Well, right now I'm kinda at one of those points. There are three things that I'd really like to happen, and if even one or two of them could actually happen, that'd be great. The first one is kinda obvious, since it's kinda been the subject of half of my posts here (though I suppose "AG moving to NY" and "AG being interested" are two separate things). The second is a job-related thing that I'm not going to discuss in detail at the moment. The third is, it'd be really cool if Cornell could win the lacrosse tournament.
If I had to bet on how many of these things are actually going to happen, I'd say it'll probably be zero.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Trepidation
Yes, I know I'm trying to be positive, but I have a hunch Airport Girl is going to take the job in St. Louis. She mentioned that it's a big firm with offices in other cities, so if she wanted to move later on she could do so without changing jobs, and I think that's going to be enough for her to stay there rather than move.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Friday, May 4, 2007
Un-Live Blogging
Before tonight's hockey game I briefly considered live-blogging it - keeping a constantly updated running account as it progressed, for anyone who might be unfamiliar with the term. I decided not to bother, as is obvious. I suppose if I had it would've run a pretty broad gamut of emotions. Nervousness early in the game, as the general pre-game consensus was that the Rangers would have to weather a heavy early storm from the Slugs; developing confidence as Lundqvist played strongly and the Rangers had some chances of their own; frustration with an anemic (abysmal, even) power play; nervousness as Fedor Tyutin, Marek Malik and then Jaromir Jagr all got dinged up over the course of the first and second periods; excitement when Marty Straka gave the Rangers the late lead; nervousness again as the Rangers scrambled to hold the lead; deflation when the game got tied up, and... man, I am just gutted right now. The Rangers were SO close to taking a 3-2 lead back to MSG for a possible clincher on Sunday, and instead our backs are to the wall.
SO close.
SO close.
Even More Not Inauspicious
As I thought she might, Airport Girl got a job offer from the consulting firm she'd been interviewing with here in New York. Not sure whether she'll take it, since she's mulling an offer from a law firm in St. Louis as well, but it's a positive that she's got the offer here, anyway.
Updated: I forgot to mention that AG told me she has until next Friday to make her decision. So that's the time frame.
Updated: I forgot to mention that AG told me she has until next Friday to make her decision. So that's the time frame.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Video Replay Can Be Your Friend
It was a nerve-wracking finish, but the Rangers are headed back to Buffalo tied 2-2 instead of down 3-1. This team has really come together over the past couple of months and I think it's within their power to knock the Sabres off.
Still, I can imagine the Slugs are hopping mad after that call went against them and I'm happy to have the extra cooling-off day rather than having game 5 be tomorrow night.
Still, I can imagine the Slugs are hopping mad after that call went against them and I'm happy to have the extra cooling-off day rather than having game 5 be tomorrow night.
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