The end of summer is upon us

frog15
Originally uploaded by yzrm1

This dude totally has the right idea.

Well I'm way behind in my master plan to kick of the BoD. Not for a lack of participation, but just because it's hard to get myself enough inertia to stick with it. I'm still moving forward with the topic (I'm being elusive on purpose here, as there just may be people who read my posts that shouldn't know the topic just yet.)

Don't abandon all hope, ye readers, I'll get back to this brilliant idea shortly.

Last.fm and BoD update

If you take a peek over on the right side of my blog you'll see an update playlist from Last.fm. I was using an RSS feed to populate this until this morning when I switched it to this Last.fm supplied widget. If you haven't played with Last.fm yet, I'd advise you to do so. If you like music half as much as I do, you'll enjoy the ease of which you can hear tons of stuff you didn't know existed and discover some great things to listen to.

On a separate note, I've received 3 positive responses back to my BoD invitations. Now that I have my motley crew assembled I need to give them some direction. I'll be back when I've completed that.

Baseball conversation with a 7 year old

This evening as I put my oldest daughter to bed we talked a bit about baseball and softball. I asked her what a home run was. You might expect her reply to be a simple definition of a common baseball term. Instead I was reminded that her experiences and understanding of the world is something I get to help shape. I find I can take as much delight in explaining the details of a sporting event or watching her participate as I did when I was a kid participating in them myself.

Below is her definition of a home run:

It's when you hit the ball so hard that you can run around all of the bases. I think you get 1 point for each base you touch. If you make it to home plate you get to bat again. But I'm not sure, I don't know that much about baseball.

I have a feeling we'll be having more of these talks...

I need a Personal Board of Directors

I think there is some benefit in building a close-knit, small group of advisers to help make informed, logical, and non-emotional decisions. I've been thinking about this idea for a while now, and I'm going to send off an email to a few friends to see if they would be interested in conducting an experiment of this sort.

The questions to answer are:

• If I ran my life like you run a business, could the structured approach produce better results than I could make on my own?
• Expanding on the 2 heads are better than 1, could I gain valuable insight from trusted friends who have a different, unique perspective than I?
• What subjects would be off-limits? (I would prefer these guys remain my friends after this experiment)
• How much personal information do I want to share, anyway?

Here are my ideas on building this team so far:

1. The Boards (BoD) goal will be to review status reports and provide guidance on the subject at hand.
2. Reports to the BoD need to be detailed but brief. This should be a low volume of material to maximize the time they spend, and hopefully improve the likelihood of receiving data back.
3. You have to compensate the BoD for their efforts. (Ex. Guys weekend in Myrtle Beach or something)

I need to work up the format of the status report, and provide some synopsis of what I hope to get out of each topic. I've got a perfect test case in mind for the experiment, let's see if I can find 3 takers to kick of my BoD.

I'll report back with my progress.

On the path of Lincoln

I love to read, and like many people I've developed a list of my favorite authors who I like and the subjects that interest me. But I also like to pepper my reading list with some randomly found material. I figure, like art and music, there are tons of stuff out there I would like if I knew it existed. I've two ways to do this:

1. I randomly pull books from the shelves in the library, no rhyme or reason. I break the adage of judging books by their cover, because thats the only criteria I have for this method. Occasionally I find something I really like and then I add to my list of authors/subjects that make my more planned reading list. Other times I can't wait to return the book.
   
   
2. I look for books used in movies and TV shows, whether in references or quotes or actually shown on the screen. I particularly like the books lying on the coffee table or on the night stand that have nothing to do with the show/flick. I figure there must be a good reason the director put that particular book there where I can just read the title on the binding. I'll look them up and see if I think it would be a good read.
   

Method 2 just recently lead me to Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. In an episode of Big Love Bill Henrickson has a copy of this on his seat in his truck. It's only shown for a few seconds, but it was long enough for me to take an interest. I've become quickly engrossed in the book. This is my first venture into Goodwin's work, and I can bet I'll be seeking out some of her other work.

This weekend I plan to travel to Pennsylvania to, among other things, take some pictures of the Strasburg Rail Road, where in 1861 Lincoln made a stop. It will be a fitting coincidence to the book I plan to carry along with me on the trip.

History is written by the winners

American author Beau Riffenburgh wrote in The Myth of the Explorer: The Press, Sensationalism and Geographical Discovery of the injustice of attributing the finding of the Northwest Passage to Sir John Franklin rather than correctly to Dr. John Rae:

"Historians and geographers have agreed that what is perceived to exist or happen is equally as important as what actually exists or happens." He goes on to suggest that this is the case "because they could be designed for the consumption of select audiences - geographical societies, financial supporters, scientists, or the general public - bearing in mind little other than the benefit to the press and the explorers."

While Riffenburgh was writing of Arctic explorers, this same could easily be applied to the reasons and rationale provided at the time for invading Iraq. What is the truth but the rationalization of the actions you are about to undertake. If you are convinced you are correct in your conclusions, you'll find and cite the evidence that appears to strengthen your case. Only in hindsight do we have the data to determine if the "truth" was a convenient fabrication, and we'll judge the legacy of those who pitched us the truth appropriately.

Microfinancing

I've decided to enter the world of microfinancing by signing up with Kiva. I really like the concept of providing seed money to someone who posses the desire and drive to better their lives, but lacks the financial ability to start their own business.

Picture a mother of three working endless hours sewing beads on a dress for a global conglomerate in a third world country. She makes so little income that she struggles to feed her family. Then ask yourself, "If she had her own material and equipment, could she raise her standard of living and provide a better opportunity for her children?" She may not have any way to get a loan as she has little collateral to offer or a bank's refusal to loan to women, or she is illiterate and cannot complete the required paperwork. We know she posses the skill to do the job, doesn't she then deserve a chance to succeed?

Enter the world of micro-financing. I can loan an underprivileged individual that has a true desire to improve their lives some money to purchase that sewing machine, tools for auto repair, a refrigerator to store their produce. They get the seed capital, the responsibility of re-payment, and a vote of confidence that they can improve their situation. Studies have shown that small loans, with set terms have an extremely high repayment. (In Kiva's case 100% repayment, but the Micro-finance industry as a whole has a repayment rate of 97%)

Kiva handles the paypal collection of money for me, I can fund in increments of $25 my Kiva account. Then I can browse or search the Kiva listing of individuals that are seeking the loans. Once distributed to the recipient, Kiva provides updates on the status of the business the individual is using the loan for. I get re-payed once the loan term has completed.

I don't make any interest on the transaction, and its not considered a donation so there is no tax break, as slight as that may be anyway. I just feel good that I'm trying to do something.

You check out my lender page if these types of things interest you.