More newsyness, and also social responsibility
so my commute to and from work is now 45 minutes each way, which was nothing in Melbourne (I used to drive twice that sometimes to go and hang out with friends) but seems like forever in Canberra Standard Time.
For one reason or another, all music is bothering me at the moment, so I've been turning to podcasts. For awhile, I was stuck on Hardcore History which is done by a guy called Dan Carlin, who describes himself as a history fan rather than a historian. They're very good, and cover lots of territory. But they're also very long, and ... well, what can I say? I'm a commitment phobe.
So I started looking for something that was a bit broader - I wanted to learn about history, yes, but also technology, culture, science..whatever. A friend recommended Stuff you should know, which is from the How Stuff Works website, which in turn is sponsored by the Discovery channel. Anyways, they're about 30 minutes each (yay for short-term commitment), cover pretty much everything you can think of (last week included How Zombie Works, and How China's one-child policy works), and are hosted by two pretty funny guys.
Two things have sprung up since I started listening to them:
So I signed up today, joining the Stuff you should know team, which isn't necessary, but they inspired me to do so, so I figured why not, and made my first $25 loan.
It was hard! There are so many people out there wanting loans, and they are all really valid projects (they wouldn't get on Kiva otherwise), and it felt very god-complexy trying to choose. In the end, I went with, as narrelle suggested, what I hope are positive discrimination choices: I wanted to help a woman/group of women, I wanted a project that was community-minded, and I wanted a developing country (some loans come from the States etc). I also wanted a loan that would give someone a start, so I looked for brand new loans as well.
I came up with a woman named Emma from Peru. Made the payment. Am now a micro-lender. Feel really good about it.
Though I wish I had a couple of million dollars to donate to everyone.
For one reason or another, all music is bothering me at the moment, so I've been turning to podcasts. For awhile, I was stuck on Hardcore History which is done by a guy called Dan Carlin, who describes himself as a history fan rather than a historian. They're very good, and cover lots of territory. But they're also very long, and ... well, what can I say? I'm a commitment phobe.
So I started looking for something that was a bit broader - I wanted to learn about history, yes, but also technology, culture, science..whatever. A friend recommended Stuff you should know, which is from the How Stuff Works website, which in turn is sponsored by the Discovery channel. Anyways, they're about 30 minutes each (yay for short-term commitment), cover pretty much everything you can think of (last week included How Zombie Works, and How China's one-child policy works), and are hosted by two pretty funny guys.
Two things have sprung up since I started listening to them:
- I totally want to try geo-caching
- I just made my first micro-lending loan
So I signed up today, joining the Stuff you should know team, which isn't necessary, but they inspired me to do so, so I figured why not, and made my first $25 loan.
It was hard! There are so many people out there wanting loans, and they are all really valid projects (they wouldn't get on Kiva otherwise), and it felt very god-complexy trying to choose. In the end, I went with, as narrelle suggested, what I hope are positive discrimination choices: I wanted to help a woman/group of women, I wanted a project that was community-minded, and I wanted a developing country (some loans come from the States etc). I also wanted a loan that would give someone a start, so I looked for brand new loans as well.
I came up with a woman named Emma from Peru. Made the payment. Am now a micro-lender. Feel really good about it.
Though I wish I had a couple of million dollars to donate to everyone.