Well, I am off to Philadelphia for staging.
This is it. I'll be serving in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso.
Perhaps a new blog -- Internet connectivity permitting -- will follow.

Cheers, everyone.

Like many of you, I have been following the sub-prime lending crisis in the financial news for the past several months. We've been reading a great deal about the bankruptcies (Bear Stearns / Northern Rock) and write-downs. ($37 billion announced by UBS as of this writing).  But the stories of lives affected outside the boardroom are what interest ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I have never commented on politics in seven years of blogging, but today I have the urge.

The BBC is reporting that Bill Richardson is to endorse Obama today. Both Clinton and Obama have sought the former democratic candidate's endorsement (which he is supposed to make today in Portland if you can believe it!).  What I find interesting in all of ( Read more... )

Click to view

As I have become addicted to starting my morning with Ted Videos I ran across this which brought out my inner-geek stronger than anything since OLPC was announced two years ago. (And this video is where his team was at in February 2006).

Click to view

This is the actual Ted Talk  with much more in-depth demo:

Click to view

I had to back this video up a few times to fully absorb everything. (The ending is inspiring).
It's perhaps the densest (and most humorous) talk on environmental sustainablity that I've seen.
It's refreshing to hear "save the environment while staying profitable and here's how". What's amazing as you watch this is the manner in which McDonough speaks ( Read more... )

What is it that I actually hope to accomplish on these little mental vacations I take to other parts of the globe?

I find myself looking at flight routes and timetables and transport difficulties in regions I have yet to visit. Do I not realize that it is not logistics that holds me back but initiative? I am smart enough to do this-- to travel and ( Read more... )

The following is from John Naisbitt's Mindset: It is not a book I would recommend but I found one golden page within it.

"Having to be right shackles your mind.

"People are culturally conditioned to have to be right. The parents are right, the teacher is right, the boss is right. Who is right overrules what is right. Couples have huge quarrels ( Read more... )

New York proved to be a fascinating journey. I accomplished what I ultimately set out to do. I returned with the conditions for becoming MSF and have set to meeting them. Logistical field experience and French prove to be the stop gaps to going out with MSF on a mission tomorrow. Therefore those have become my mission today. I have poured myself ( Read more... )