Posted by andrew at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out my station Winter Wonderland on Pandora. It's got Elvis, Sinatra, Connick, jr., Martin, Como, Crosby, Diana Krall, Ray Charles, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash and whole lot more. Even this atheist, organized-religion hater, can get into Christmas tunes.

Posted by andrew at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I received a $500 award for excellence at work. It's the second one I've received in the last 2 months. It feels pretty good to be recognized, even better to get 500 bucks for doing nothing more than what I consider to be my job. The first award came in the form of AMEX gift checks. I got 5 checks for a 100 bucks each. For the one yesterday, i got an AMEX gift card. It came with all this literature and instructions on how to check your balance online and all this stuff. I was curious to see how it worked, so I went online to check the balance only to discover that the balance was not $500 bucks, but $494.05. Odd, huh?

When I was reading through the literature that came with the card, I saw it listed all these fees. There's a 2 dollar a month maintenance fee (waived for the first 12 months) and a $5.95 fee for a lost or stolen card. $5.95. Interesting. That's the exact amount missing from my card. Sure enough I checked the account history and back in October there was a charge for $5.95 for a lost or stolen card. This card had history that went back to June. Very strange. It's almost as if it was purchased for someone else, never given out for some reason, and then I become the lucky recipient, but only after it was lost or stolen.

Now the conundrum comes from what to do. Should I say something to the person who it gave to me? We short of have a funny relationship as it is and I thought it was weird that I got the award from her in the first place. Do I tell her what happened? Do I make a joke of it? Hey, you didn't buy lunch with the card before you gave it to me, did you? Or do I do nothing and just take my $494.05 and spend it frivolously? What would you do?

Posted by andrew at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We'll see how long this lasts now that UCLA has an even , but with Florida and North Carolina losing over the weekend, UCLA leaped from 5 to 1 in the AP poll. Not bad for a team with nary a senior. It's going to a fun, fun season for Bruin hoop fans.

Posted by andrew at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My buddy Russell is down in the Bay Area this week. (check it out, Russ, another mention). As always, good to see him. It sucks when your friends move away and great when you get a chance to see them.

When I met Russell back in January of last year he was a rather stout 5'9", 280 (or so). When he moved up to Seattle at beginning of this year, he started taking fitness seriously. I'm not joking here. Russell is still 5'9", but now he weighs less than me -- I'm still around 185. It you don't think that's remarkable, you're smoking crack. He's lost a hundred pounds in less than a year and didn't mainline heroin once (allegedly).

I used to drag Russell around the slopes. That'll never happen again. I can't keep up with him. This morning we went to the gym and Russ introduced me to his workout style called Cross Fit, the goal of which is to achieve elite fitness. It is the realm of Delta Force and Navy SEALs, not lazy jews, but I went along because I wanted to see this miracle of fitness, my old rolly-polly friend who used to down IPAs by the fistful and was a master of the barbeque who now counts calories, eats no bread or really nothing refined and is just in sick shape.

The basic idea of Cross Fit is that you do excises that you work muscles you'd use in the real world. The goal is not to build massive muscles, rather it is build all your functional muscles. And they do this by coming multiple movements in an interval, with little or no breaks and timed. Always timed so you can track your progress and compete.

With that in mind, we hit my gym this morning. We did some warm ups basic stuff, pull ups, push lups and some work with the medicine ball. Then came the real action. Russell set up a simple program. Rowing for 25 calories (the machines measure), 10 squat thrusters (like Olympic-style weight lifting) and 25 sit-ups. No stopping. No whinning. No barfing. Sounded easy enough. Boy, was I mistaken.

It took about 2 rounds for Russell to lap me. He finished in 13 minutes and change, even pushing up more weight on the thrusters and didn't seem to be breathing hard. I was dying after 3 intervals. I felt light-headed, dizzy, nauseous. Russell was pushing me and pushing me hard. He was freaking the people out on the elipticals next to us in my normally low key gym. I pressed on, fighting it every bit of the way, wanting to quit, wanting Russell to fucking shut up and go away, but he wouldn't. Some friend.

I finally finished the 5th round, pushing meekly through the final rowing, thrusters and sit ups. I was spent like I haven't been in years: sucking air, oozing sweat while I stared up at the ceiling and tried to recover. It took me more than 26 minutes.

I spent most of the rest of the day on the couch watching football and I don't feel bad about it for a second.

Rusell, you are a freak of nature. Way to go, amigo.

Posted by andrew at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Heavely is open, barely. They claim on their site to have "the Most Terrain
and the Best Coverage in Tahoe!". Maybe that's true, but if so, that's sad commentary on the state of the Noral Sierras. Heavenly has all of 3 runs open. 3. It rained all day here. It was fucking nasty and not one inch fell in Tahoe. That's messed up. I'm not driving up to Tahoe for three runs. I don't care how badly I want to ski.

Posted by andrew at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finally saw Al Gore's movie this weekend. It was everything I expected. Depressing, disturbing and maddening. Clearly we have a problem, but it seems as though if we act collectively, we can change the disasterous course that we're currently headed down. And what I kept thinking about while I was watching the movies was there's going to be a point, sometime in the not too distant future, where it's going to be too late. We might act, try to change our behavior, but we have passed the tipping point and all efforts will be futile.

The other thing that I always think about when these stories come up, when there's a debate about the science or I hear our morornic president say that the jury is still out on climate science or how he won't sign the Kyoto Treaty because it will be bad for business is that we have a two choices, do something or nothing and there are two possibilities, that the climate is getting warmer, we're causing and it's a problem or the climate is not getting warmer, we're not causing it and there's no problem.

From here you can build a basic four box matrix where there's a problem and we do nothing or we do something and where's there's not a problem and we do nothing or we do something. Or if you look at it another way, we can do nothing and there's either a problem or no problem or we can do something and there's either a problem or no problem.

It seems to me that looking at this matrix, that the benefits of doing something far outweigh the costs of doing something or doing nothing. There is no benefit to doing nothing, even if bamboozlers like Senator Inhofe are right and there's no problem. Regardless of whether or not there is a problem, the efforts that we would make to reduce greenhouse gasses, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and general become better stewards of the environment, would greatly improve our quality of living. And while there is no real debate amongst experts as the the cause of Global Warming, there is great debate about the cost or benefit to the economy of acting.

The head in the sand crowd would have you believe that placing environmental restrictions, improving fuel efficiency, and seeking out alternative sources of energy are going to be detrimental to economy. The truth is the exct opposite. Change is inevitable and there is going to be a new paradigm for living beyond petroleum and coal. Either we are going to stick to our guns or we're going to lead the way. New technologies are coming whether we like it or not. Are we going to be the innovators and bring new technology to the world or is the rest of the world going to innovate and bring us along kicking and screaming? That's the really the only question that matters at this point.

We have a huge opportunity as a country to lead the way, investing in new technology and change the way we live. We need leadership that recognizes this fact and challenges the country to find solutions and solve problems. Sadly, we lack that leadership. This brings the Inconvenient Truth story back to the messenger. Who out there thinks that the US and the world wouldn't be better off if the Supreme Court didn't install the current president in the White House and we'd had someone with the heart, the work ethic and the morality of someone like Al Gore, jr. leading this country and the world?

Posted by andrew at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

UCLA football might be going in reverse, but Ben Howland has the hoops program headed in the right direction. The Bruins made it to the NCAA championship game last year and are ranked number 5 and off to a 4-0 start this season despite losing team leader Jordan Farmar to the Lakers (where he's ridding the pine).

Darren Collison is more than filling his shoes. He's quicker, a much better shooter and a truer point guard. He's only a sophmore and is going to get better as the season goes on. That goes for the entire team. Aaron Afflalo is back for his junior season after testing the NBA waters - he didn't have agent. He's one of the smoothest players in the country and is a shut down defender. Josh Ship, a sophmore, is back from a missing a season due to a hip injury. He's the most solid player to come to Westwood in a long time. The crazy Camerooonians, Mbah a Moute and Aboya, just sophomores as well, are back. Lorenzo Mata, a bit of a spaz on the offensive side of the court and a brick at the foul line, is an imposing figure in the middle of the lane and makes the most of his offensive rebounds and in close shots. He's also a sophmore. Michael Roll, another sophmore, comes off the bench and bombs threes. There's not a senior on the roster, so this team, which is pretty damn good now, should be awesome next year with a stellar recruiting class on the way.

Just looking at this team, it's hard to believe they are so good. They have no real stars. They have no real height. They have limited experience (other than the amazing run in the tourney last year), but they win. And they win despite often dismal 3 point shooting and embarassing results from the line. Against Kentucky in the semis of the Maui Invitational, for instance, they won going away despite hitting 10% of their 3s (3 for 30) and were, at one point 3 for 12 from the line. Imagine if they could shoot. They led the Wildcats by 17 in the first half, lost the lead in the second with the pathetic shooting but pulled away in the end.

How are they doing this? Two reasons. Defense and turnovers. They soffocate opposing teams and do not give the ball away on offense. This is a recipe for many, many wins. Looking at their schedule, they shouldn't have too much trouble earning a number seed in the NCAA provided everyone stays healthy. They have a very soft opening schedule and should cruise in the PAC-10 for the second year in a row.

It's really good to see UCLA back on top of the college game where tradition dictates they belong and with Ben Howland at the helm, they should stay there for years to come.

Posted by andrew at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I didn't write much about Whistler. I must have been in one of those phases. Of course, I have the . Here's how it went down. I flew up from SF. My buddy (hey, Russell, you made the blog again!) drove up from Seattle and grabbed me at the airport. Brian flew in from DC and his friend , a crazy Canuck, come in from "Winterpeg" or "Manisnowba" or some equally inhospitable place. Amazingly it all worked out since the four of us were each coming from a different place.

Brian had found a great condo on the Blackcomb side, the Glacier Lodge, and from that staging ground, we had a . The mountain was relatively empty despite the Telus Ski Festival that was going on. It wasn't too cold, which is always something that has kept me from Whistler. It was around 30F the whole time. It snowed just enough every night to leave a blanket of fresh stuff on mountain every morning. It couldn't have been better, except for a few minor snafus. The first was when the electricity went on out Whistler, effectively shutting the mountain down. We traversed over to Blackcomb, but almost everyone else had the same idea. By the time we made it over there and skied a few runs, the electricity was back.

Then there was Brian. I like to tease Bri because growing up he was the kick ass skier and I was always trailing behind him. We both started on plastic skis when we were 3, but he graduated to the real deal long before me and I have been behind ever since. Then there was Vail. I was in shape. I was acclimatized. My skiing was vastly impraved and Brian couldn't keep up. He did a little better in Heavenly, but he had some equipiment problems that slowed him down. All that was sorted out by the time we got to Whistler. He still can't keep up with me, but he's getting better. He spent a good chunk of time with Cara who doesn't ski all the much, while Russell, who grew up skiing New England, dragged my sorry ass around Whistler's toughest terrain. When we did ski together, Brian was doing great, that is, until the last run of the last day.

The day was a cold one. The skies were gray, the winds were howling, and there were few people on the mountain. We decided to take it easy. Cara had left the day before so it was just the boys. We would ski a few runs, then hit the mid-mountain lodge for a hot drink, just pacing ourselves, not in any rush to get anywhere or get off the mountain. We did have to get going around mid-day so that we could have a leisurely lunch in the village and hit the road back to Vancouver.

Skiing down from anywhere above the mid-mountain lodge at Whistler is an amazing thing. The run just seems to go forever. The change in elevation is dramatic to say the least. The summit is not all that high, only 7160 feet. But the base is way down at 2140 feet, leaving a vertical drop of almost mile and far more distance on the trails. One of the ramifications of this is that it might be freezing and snowy at the top while it's perfectly sunny and the snow is melting underfoot at the base.

This would lead to some tricky skiing at the end of the day where you had to travrse some serious slush as your neared the bottom. For me this is no problem as I love the soft stuff, but for many people not used to it, it can be downright disasterous.

So when we were sitting in the lodge at mid-mountain, debating how to get down we thought ot taking th gondola. It would have been the safe play. We had 4 great days. We were ready to go home. Thinking back we probably should have taken the gondola. But it was a cold day and it was midday and when we talked about it, we decided that the slopes were probably in pretty decent condition. They would have been groomed and would probably have held up nicely to this point. Fuck it, we're going to take one last run down and soak up as much of Whistler as we can.

We didn't take any particularly hard route down to the bottom, just picked our way delibrately down to the base, stopping a dozen times along the way. Russell would get down first. I would follow. And Brian would pick up the rear. At the top of the Fitzsimmons Express, I met up Rusell and we waited and waited for Brian, but he wasn't showing up. I had this feeling, maybe one of the those twin feelings, that something horrible had happened to him, but right as I was having that thought, here he comes down the trail. He said he caught an edge on the cat track and just went down. No big deal. I guess I was wrong. He took a while to get his skis back on, but he was ok. We continued on.

Right after Fitzsimmons, the trail gets very steep. There are no moguls or anything and compared to the top, it's nothing but compared to where we just came from, a long traverse from mid-mountain, it was a severe change. Again, Russell skied down and stopped. I followed. And then, no Brian. This time I was really worried. I ditched my skis aid ran up the mountain. I found Brian basically stuck on the top of one of the steeper parts. He couldn't turn left. His knee just wouldn't do it. This was bad. I talked him down and we made it to where Russell had stopped, thankfully.

We tried to figure out what to do. We were in spitting distance of the bottom. We could the village just beneath us. Brian might have been able to pick his way down, but we really didn't know the extent of his injury or anything about it really. He wasn't in any pain. He was just standing there. He just couldn't turn left. We made the smart play and called the Ski Patrol.

Within about 10 minutes and old patrollie came down the mountain to meet us. Ian asked Bri a few questions to determine what happened. Using keen discretion honed over a dozens of years on the mountain, Ian got and ferried him down the last 500 yards or so to the village where we took a taxi to the medical center.

A few hours and several x-rays later, Brian had a soft splint around a knee needing surgery for a torn ACL.The ski season was done.

Brian's a tough guy. I'm sure he was in lots of pain as we headed down from the mountains to the airport in Vancouver. We had scheduled so that our flights were close together and my flight was last so I was able to help him get sorted out at the airport. He even got bumped up to first class for the trip back to DC so it wasn't all that bad. But he faced a long road of surgery followed by rehab. He kept a stiff upper lip. I dind't envy him. I cursed our decision to ski down instead of downloading, but that's hindsight. Nothing you can do about it now. We parted ways with Brian promissing to keep me up to date.

Brain hopefully will add more to this in the comments, but I'll try to give the gist of what followed. He found one of the leading specialists at Georgetown medical who shepperded Brian through the process. He had surgery about a month following the accident and then embarked on a course of rehabilitation. He made great strides and his healing has been ahead of schedule from the beginning. Things are going so well that we have another trip to Whistler planned for the second week on February. I fully expect that Brian will be in better shape and a stronger skier because of this experience.

Posted by andrew at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Heavenly officially opened this morning which the ski season has started for me. Well, sort of. I don't know what condition the mountain is in, butad to if I had to guess, I'd say it must be fairly pathetic. According to the listed conditions, no snow has falled in more than a week and the base depth of 30" (down from 46" when I checked on Saturday) is mostly from snow-making. Normally the snow-making just helps lay down the base and is augmented by a thick layer of natural snow by this time, but not this year. So far there has been precious little rain in the Bay Area and therefore minimal percipitation in the Sierras.

This concerns me greatly because I just put a large chunk of change down for a ski cabin. The place won't be available until the first week of January, and much could change by then, but it is a worry nonetheless. It's a condo on the Nevada side near the Stagecoach lodge. It should be more comfortable than last time when we had 15 people in a house with 3 bedrooms. This time there are 12 and the are 12 sleeping spots not including couches. I will always have a bed to sleep in. There's an indoor and outdoor hot tub, gourmet kitchen and what seems to be a nice group of people, none of which will matter if there's no snow. We've had so much snow the last 2 years, it seems as though we're due for a dry season. Let's hope not.

Even though there's little snow on the mountain, I'd like to get up and ski today. I can't because of commitments I've made. I can't go the follhowing two days either because my pass is "blacked out" on certain holidays. I coukd go Sunday and I'm hoping for some snowfall between now and then which would make the decision to drive up all the more easy.

I haven't skied before New Year's in close to 20 years. When I returned to skiing in Vail it was already January 2004. I moved back to the Bay Area, bought a Haeavely pass for the first time and got locked into the ski house, but that didn't start until January as well and I didn't manage to make it up before that. Last season, I didn't have a lease and I spent a good chunk of time in December down in Costa Rica. I didn't get my first day on the slopes until Februrary 21st. I didn't ski nearly as much as in 2 when I had the house and I didn't ski as much, of course, in 2 as I did in 2004 when I lived in Vail. I don't like that trend line so it's time to get a few more days in. I'll be happy if I get 25.

Even though I got a late start last year, I thought the season was pretty damn good. I got in about 6 days at Heavenly, or just enough to make the pass worthwhile, including a powder-blessed weekend when my brother came out from DC and I had the biggest wipeout of my life I hit Homewood, Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows in North Lake Tahoe for the first time. I was impressed by all of them for different reasons. And then we capped of the season with the amazing, albeit fateful trip to Whistler/Blackbomb in British Colombia.

If I keep the quality the same and jack the quantity, this wil be a great season.

Posted by andrew at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pandora is one of the sites that makes the web worth having. The site is a direct result of the Music Genome Project where a group of "a group of musicians and music-loving technologists" came together to perform a complex analysis of all music and codify songs based on hundreds of musical attributes or "genes". With Pandora you can benefit from the fruits of their Herculean labor.

At it's core, Pandora is a jukebox. It plays music. The genius of this jukebox is that you have the ability to create your own stations of music based on an artist or a song. Say for example, you like Chet Baker. Then you can create a Chet Baker station. The station will play Chet Baker songs, of course, but it will also try to find jazz tunes similar in melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, etc. to play.

The system isn't perfect, which is to be expected, and sometimes you'll hear songs that you don't think belong. All you have do is give the thumbs down and you'll never hear that song again. Similary, you can give a song the thumbs up and it will become a permanent part of the station's play list. Pandora will continue to refine your station based on your selections.

You can create as many stations as you want. You can share them friends. Buy the music if you are so inclined. And the service is free. If they could just figure out a way to get the songs on my IPod or in my car radio, I'd be set.

Here are some of my stations:

• 
  
• Chet Baker station
• 
  
• Jack Johnson
• 
  
• Air Radio
• 
  
• Joelho de Frango
• 
  

Posted by andrew at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love Nature. I think it's one of the best and most worthwhile shows on television and continues to be a shining example of the reasons why we need to keep supporting public broadcasting.

Their latest effort, Penguins of the Antarctic is truly spectacular. If you dig penguins, and you'd have to some kind of backwards freak not to, you'll love this show. The Emporers from "March of the Penguins" are there, but so are the Adélies, the Kings, The Gentoos, the Macaronis and the chinstraps. The photography is brilliant and hopefully you can catch it while your local PBS station is still showing it. If not, or you're unlucky enough to live in London, Sydney or Samoa, you can catch some videos on the Nature website.

Posted by andrew at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just plunked down the money for the ski house this season. It's a luxury condo on the Nevada side of Heavenly that I will share with 12 people. More details to come soon.

Posted by andrew at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finally broke down and bought an HDTV. I bought a . I bought it because I got such a good deal, I couldn't pass it up. I've been debating about whether to spend the money to buy a new TV since last December when I found out the DVR I bought wouldn't work with my old analog TV. I've had this 27" RCA, an old beater with no AV inputs since I moved back to California in 1998. It works, but the interference with the RF modulator (required for the DVD player) and the cable and the wireless modem was causing the screen to flicker intermittently which was annoying as all hell.

I should have bought a TV a long time ago. The problem was and is that there are so many options and new technology, Plasma, LCD, HDTV, and the TVs are so expensive that the whole process of shopping for one gave me a headache. I would go to Fry's or Good Guys or Costco and look at the sets and be barely unable to tell them apart.

Finally, one of my co-workers came into my cube excited because the TV he was looking to buy was on sale Best Buy. We talked about it. He explained why he was buying that TV. Sounded pretty convincing. I found an even cheaper offer online at Amazon, printed out the page, took it with me to Best Buy and they matched the price. Not bad.

The Samsung is 40" but it seems twice as big as my old TV. It looks far bigger in my living room (sitting next to old TV) than it did in the store (sitting next to much larger TVs). It only weighs about half as much which means I can pick it up without threat of a hernia. Then there's the picture. Some good, some bad.

When watching the handful of HDTV channels that are available, it is amazing. There are about 15 or so. ESPN. Discovery, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, HBO and so forth. Maybe only about ten. They all look fantastic. If you watch a DVD, it's amazing. The picture is crystal clear. However, if you're watching a regular, non-HD channel, it sucks. The picture is soft. Logos and fonts are heavily pixellated. It just looks bad.

Does anyone know what the problem is? Is there some setting I need to change to when I'm watching non-HD programming on my new TV or is this something I'm stuck with until all channels go HD?

Posted by andrew at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Instead of the same old, same old, give this whipped sweet potato/yam dish a try to spice your holiday dinner table. It's easy. It's delicious. And, well, it's orange.

- 2 medium sized sweet potatoes or yams or one of each (best bet), peeled and cubed, boil for 10 minutes or until fork tender
- 1 shallot, diced, fry in extra virgin olive over medium heat until crispy
- Put sweet potatoes/yams and shallots into food processor (or mash if you are not lucky enough to have one)
- season with salt and pepper to taste
- Add 2 teaspoons of butter (or more if you like your potatoes creamier)
- After you turn the food processor on, pour chicken stock in slowly from the top until you get the consistency you like. (If you don't have a processor, alternate between adding chicken stock and mashing until you get the right consistency.

that's it. it's pretty basic, but very delicious.

In case you don't remember, because I can never seem to, yams are the ones with the orange flesh and the purplish skins. There are two general types, the California and the Beauregard. Sweet potatoes have white flesh and beige skin, very much like a standard potato, but different in shape and taste.

Posted by andrew at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...the great state of Arizona gives us .

Posted by andrew at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finally sorted through and posted them on . It was a great trip. we stayed at the historic Wawona Hotel in the southwest part of the park where I had never been before. Not exactly roughing-it, but who cares. We hiked around the massive sequioas in Mariposa Grove. We checked out the view above the valley at Glacier Point. And we hiked around the valley floor. It was amazing. Yosemite always is.

Posted by andrew at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The first of my Kiva loans were funded this morning which means Kouassi Houessou's ice cream business and Akossiwa Agbemaple's charcoal business, both in Togo, just received an infusion of cash and should start to grow. Pretty damn exciting.

Posted by andrew at 08:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by andrew at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm going to write more about this amazing election in the days to come, but let me just say that this was a watershed election in so many ways and a breath of fresh air for people around the world who beleive in honest government and the rule of law. I'm still still stunned at the results. It's everything I could have hoped for an more.

One of my greatest concerns about the Bush administistation, and there are so many, was their ability to leave a legacy lasting far beyond the damage they inflicted on America, the world and the Constitution in their 8 long years in office, by nominating and confirming ideologue judges to the federal bench and the Supreme Court. They've already been able to foist Roberts and Alito on us for what will likely be 30 years of decisons made with the interests of corporations and not the American people in mind. In the next two years, Bush will have many more opportunities to appoint judges to the highest courts in the country and with Justice Stevens just this side of 90, might have the chance to replace another supreme in his final two years. Justice Stevens might yet retire or tragically pass away, but with the Democrats in control of the Senate and Pat Leahy the chairman of the Judciary Committee instead of Arlen Spector, it's a whole different story. We won't see another Alito or Roberts. It vwill have to be someone everyone can accept or the nomination won't see the floor of the Senate. It's the sort of thing that can make an athiest thank god for.

Posted by andrew at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

- Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

So long, Donald Rumsfeld. I think history will judge you very harshly. For whatever successes you might have had at transforming the military or the initial invasion of Iraq, they will be more than offset by your arrogance, obstinence and multiple failures including but not limited to letting Afghanistan slide into chaos, running roughshod over the State Deptartment, ignoring adivce from your generals, sending the troops into harm's way without proper protection, not recoginizing the America had too few troops in Iraq to create stability, allowing the looting after the fall of Baghdad and creating a sense a lawlessness that pervades to this day, not recognizing the insurgency, not recognizing the civil war, not leaving successful commanders in the field, hunkering down in the green zone, firing General Shinseki, firing Jay Garner, giving happy talk to the American people, deceiving Congress and on and.

Then again, as you know, you go to war with the Secretary of Defense you have. ... not the Secretary of Defense you might want or wish to have at a later time.

One thing America knows: we don't want you. I suppose that makes it a known known. Thanks so much for the memories. Good fucking riddence.

Posted by andrew at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I first heard about microfinance when I was living in Samoa. There were a few NGOs in country dispensing tiny loans, less than a 1000 US dollars, to various groups and people to get small businesses off the ground. It doesn't take much money in the developing world, but many of the loan recipients and entrepreneurs don't have access to the traditional finance systems that we take for granted (e.g credit cards, banks, etc.). had a little ice cream business that they ran out of our house. I think they needed a few hundred bucks to buy a fridge and arrange ice cream delivery -- lots of inspiration and a little bit of cash.

Anyway, I didn't have any money when I was in Samoa, so I couldn't really help out financially, but now that I'm back in the States and doing well, I have the opportunity to contribute. I heard about this San Francisco based microfinance company called Kiva from a story on Frontline: World.

The story detailed how the company was founded by two Americans who had been working in Uganda. Small microfinance loans from Americans have supported markets, brick makers, peanut butter producers and whole host of other small going concerns in Uganda. The stories were all very inspirational. I wanted to sign up. I went to the website to make a loan only to find that the traffic driven to the site by Frontline had crashed Kiva's servers. A victim of it's own success, it seems.

That was a few weeks ago. Kiva is now back in business, and business has expanded beyond Uganda to Bulgaria, Kenya, Mexico, Togo, Ecuador and elsewhere. They are limiting loans to $25 at a time so that more people can participate. You have 25 bucks, right? And, remember, this is a loan. You give an entrepreneur 25 dollars and you get paid back in 6-18 months. Kiva reports that none of their customers has ever defaulted on a loan and they have a 100% repayment rate. You won't earn interest, but you'll feel damn good about yourself. The process is simple. The payments are all handled through . Couldn't be easier if you already have an account with Paypal. If not, it will take a few minutes to set one up.

The brilliance of Kiva is that they harness the power of the Intranet to create connections between people that in the past were prohibitively expensive. It is far more personal than simply donating money to charity because you know exactly whom you are loaning money to. You can receive updates from the people whose loans you help fund and track the progress of their business. And there is no bureaucracy to eat up your contributions. 100% of the money you lend goes directly to the loan recipient.

I made two $25 loans this morning. One to Elsy Santana in Ecuador and another to Mary Muthoni Gitau in Kenya. Both have markets. Both, at this point, need additional funds to finish. (UPDATE: Mary's loan has been fully funded, but Elsy is still looking for financing as of November 9th, 2006). It's really nothing. I won't miss 50 bucks if it's never paid back, but I'll expect repayment in 10-18 months.

Want to get involved? You can learn more about Kiva on their website or go straight to the lending page and find a worthy cause.

Hi!

I just made a loan to someone in the developing world using a revolutionary new website called Kiva.

You can go to Kiva's website and lend to someone in the developing world who needs a loan for their business - like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent - and you get updates letting you know how the business is going.

The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back - and Kiva's loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly.

I just made a loan to an entrepreneur named Elsy Santana in Ecuador. They still need another $300 to complete their loan request of $375.00 (you can loan as little as $25.00!). Help me get this business off the ground by clicking on the link below to make a loan to Elsy Santana too:

http://kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=1615&referralId=

It's finally easy to actually do something about poverty - using Kiva I know exactly who my money is loaned to and what they're using it for. And most of all, I know that I'm helping them build a sustainable business that will provide income to feed, clothe, house and educate their family long after my loan is paid back.

Join me in changing the world - one loan at a time.

Thanks!

---------------------------------------------------------

What others are saying about www.Kiva.org:

'Revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries.'
-- BBC

'If you've got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you've now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.'
-- CNN Money

'Smaller investors can make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva.org.'
-- The Wall Street Journal

'An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity...All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full.'
-- Entrepreneur Magazine

Posted by andrew at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What an amazing night. Democrats have taken the House, have a majority of the governorships in the country and are poised to take the Senate. If Tester can hold on in Montana and Jim Webb survives the inevitable recounts and the media cirucs that Virginia is about to become, this will be an historic victory and a complete repudiation of everything the Bush administration stands for. Finally, the American people get it.

Time to get some sleep. More on this momentous election tomorrow.

Posted by andrew at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of the major issues of this election are the electronic voting machines and their susceptibility to fraud. It's a huge problem because it undermines the faith of the electorate in voting process. Why vote if your vote won't be counted or, worse, will be counted for someone or some thing you voted against? Hard to believe this is happening in 2006 in the so-called greatest Democracy on Earth, but the facts are plain for everyone to see.

I'm against touch screen voting machines. Far too dangerous. What I prefer is an optical scanning system that leaves no room for doubt and an incorruptible paper. There are hanging chads or other detritus of 19th century voting technology. Instead you have a a series of arrows for every election on the ballot. Each arrow is broken in the middle. Simply connect the arrow for the candidate you want by filling in the space between the head and the tail of the arrow. Clear as day.

This ballot is then fed into an optical scanner. The voter receives instant confirmation of a vote cast and counted. Even if there is a , as there was at my voting place this morning, ballots can be held until the scanner is repaired or taken to another voting place to be scanned.

The time for each state to develop its own system is clearly over. We need a national standard and that standard should be optical scanners. End of story.

Posted by andrew at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

from Rolling Stone:

The Worst Congress Ever

How our national legislature has become a stable of thieves and perverts -- in five easy steps

There is very little that sums up the record of the U.S. Congress in the Bush years better than a half-mad boy-addict put in charge of a federal commission on child exploitation. After all, if a hairy-necked, raincoat-clad freak like Rep. Mark Foley can get himself named co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, one can only wonder: What the hell else is going on in the corridors of Capitol Hill these days?

These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula -- a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.

To be sure, Congress has always been a kind of muddy ideological cemetery, a place where good ideas go to die in a maelstrom of bureaucratic hedging and rank favor-trading. Its whole history is one long love letter to sleaze, idiocy and pigheaded, glacial conservatism. That Congress exists mainly to misspend our money and snore its way through even the direst political crises is something we Americans understand instinctively. "There is no native criminal class except Congress," Mark Twain said -- a joke that still provokes a laugh of recognition a hundred years later.

But the 109th Congress is no mild departure from the norm, no slight deviation in an already-underwhelming history. No, this is nothing less than a historic shift in how our democracy is run. The Republicans who control this Congress are revolutionaries, and they have brought their revolutionary vision for the House and Senate quite unpleasantly to fruition. In the past six years they have castrated the political minority, abdicated their oversight responsibilities mandated by the Constitution, enacted a conscious policy of massive borrowing and unrestrained spending, and installed a host of semipermanent mechanisms for transferring legislative power to commercial interests. They aimed far lower than any other Congress has ever aimed, and they nailed their target.

"The 109th Congress is so bad that it makes you wonder if democracy is a failed experiment," says Jonathan Turley, a noted constitutional scholar and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington Law School. "I think that if the Framers went to Capitol Hill today, it would shake their confidence in the system they created. Congress has become an exercise of raw power with no principles -- and in that environment corruption has flourished. The Republicans in Congress decided from the outset that their future would be inextricably tied to George Bush and his policies. It has become this sad session of members sitting down and drinking Kool-Aid delivered by Karl Rove. Congress became a mere extension of the White House."

[More here]. Now go out and vote. Please.

Posted by andrew at 07:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't been writing much lately. I have been reading and observing and thinking and getting angry. I think that our country, and by extension the world, is at a very dangerous crossroads. The path we take is in large part going to be determined by what happens in tomorrow's election. There's a great deal at stake.

I want to be optimistic but it's very difficult. The simple power of Republican electioneering and Democratic incompetence makes that impossible. If you listen to the pundits, they'll tell you that Democrats are likely to pick up enough seats in the House to take over. They need 15. They'll likely get 20-30. The pundits will tell you that the Dems have an outside shot at capturing the Senate where they need 6 six seats, but pretty much have to run the table in Rhode Island, Montana, Missouri and Virginia. I don't know. I'm not so certain.

What I think is that Republican suppression efforts combined with their indefatigable get out the vote drive in an atmosphere poisoned by hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the most divisive negative advertising and pestering "robo-calls" could prove the pundits wrong, make a genius of Karl Rove (yet again), and undermine the pre-election polling suggesting a Democratic wave across the country. I hope I'm wrong.

It comes down to this. If the Democrats can take over one or both houses of Congress, the people will be able to hold this current administration, an administration that came into office promising humility after being installed into office by the Supreme Court, an administration that lied to launch a pre-emptive war against a country that did not threaten us, an administration that has flushed the Constitution down to the toilet, to account. That's all we can really hope for. The Republicans are doing everything to hold on dear life. There's nothing they fear more than having to answer to the American people for their actions. Nothing.

Pundits will tell you this election is a referendum on Iraq or on George Bush or the economy or whatever. But this really is a referendum on the intelligence of the American people. If we, collectively do not kick the Republicans out of office after Iraq, Katrina, Jack Abramoff, endless fear mongering, Mark Foley, Tom DeLay, Don Rumsfeld, signing statements, ending Habeas Corpus, Abu Ghraib, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, tax cuts for the rich, subsidies for oil companies making billions in profit, ignoring science, unilateralism, defense of marriage, denying global warming, ballooning deficits, abstinence only education, outed CIA agents, undermining the media and politicizing everything, then we are the fucking backward, retarded faith-based country that everyone outside our borders thinks we are and we deserve whatever our fate is to be. We deserve to be locked up without charges. We deserve to be hated, feared and derided. We deserve to be a debtor nation. We deserve to be addicted to oil. We deserve to be fucked.

The fact that more than half of Americans will not even bother to get their obese asses out of bed and go to the polls tomorrow and vote says much about this country. The fact that many of them will vote Republican despite what we and the world have been subjected to the last 6 years speaks even louder.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope my pessimisism is missplaced. I go to sleep tonight dreaming of defeat for Santorum, Burns, Allen, Talent, Corker, Kyl, Musgrave, and dozens of other self-righteous cocksuckers who currently run this country into the ground. Nothing will make me happier tomorrow. I will also dream of the dozens of Iraq War vets who returned home only to run as Democrats elected to the House. If anyone can set this country on the right path, is they.

Posted by andrew at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"The Rapture is not an Exit Strategy"

Posted by andrew at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)