Here We Go Again

Today was the Western Washington All British Field Meet, the annual big British car show. The show didn't happen last year, of course, and this year our British car is having Major Work Done (which is taking a lot longer than it should have done, and has caused me Some Annoyance, but that's a different story). So we attended as observers only this time, and we admired a lot of cars, and we chatted with a bunch of people we know.

Shortly before we left, I was approached by a man I would never have recognised in a million years. 'I talked to you about your car 2 or 3 years ago,' he said. 'I took lots of photos of it, the green and yellow one.'

He wasn't wrong. I went to the car show without the SO for a couple of years because the show clashed with other stuff he was doing. So this man who met me once 2 or 3 years ago and chatted with me for maybe 10 or 15 minutes picked me out of a crowd when I wasn't even with the car.

I was a criminal, I would be so doomed. I'd be spotted and arrested within a day.

I've been loaning money through Kiva for several years now. Many of you probably already know of it, but just in case, Kiva is a microfinancing website where people who don't have access to standard banking facilities can borrow money to improve their small businesses or their homes. The loans are commmonly for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, though some can be more. Loans are group funded in $25 increments. When your $25 is repaid, you can lend it to someone else.

At first I just loaned money independently, but last year I joined the A+ Kiva team. A+ is for Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious, and the aim is to put our money where our mouths are and show that you don't need a religion to be a decent person. A+ have a long-standing rivalry with the Kiva Christians group, and at the moment we are ahead, but this year the Christians are out-spending us, and they're catching up. Uh oh... Being a team member has turned out to be fun - I get to see which borrowers other team members are lending to, and there's quite a bit of chit-chat in the messages board. Because of all this, I've ended up loaning more money as a team member than I ever did as an independent, but that's not actually a bad thing.

Anyway, right now the A+ team are having a Kiva membership drive - use the link below and get a free $25 loan to give to the Kiva borrower of your choice. It will, of course, be credited to the A+ totals :-) The money is not infinite, and once the supply has all been claimed, the offer ends, so I would take advantage fast if you plan to.

One proviso - Kiva ask for a donation to the running costs of the website with each loan, which IIRC is currently $3.75. So your 'free' loan will cost you $3.75, but that's not a bank-breaker, I'm sure :-) Kiva accept payment via Paypal, so you don't need to start typing in lengthy information and credit card details into their website.

Here's the link:

http://www.kiva.org/aplus

Sometimes I do stop playing LOTRO and reading fanfic for a while, and I go and poke around at the TED site.

I can't make the embedded versions work for some reason, so links only.

Gardening in poor neighbourhoods in Los Angeles - teaching kids to eat healthy food. I love this guy's attitude!

Education in deprived and isolated locations. Not an answer to everything, but some crazy results.

Somewhere between work and sleep and gameplay, I just have to say that the new mounted combat system in the latest Lord of the Rings Online expansion is awesome. The warhorses are initially rather headstrong and difficult to control, but as you train them, things get better, and chasing packs of wargs around the fields of Rohan is crazy fun. This is the first really new innovation in MMO gameplay in about 10 years, and they seem to have pulled it off.

I was supposed to be on a birdwatching trip east of the mountains today. It's snowing heavily for 50 miles through the pass and the wind is gusting at over 30mph where we were planning to go, so the birds will be hiding and the trip was cancelled. Of course, it wasn't cancelled until after I'd got up at 5.45am to make a 6.30 meeting spot. So I got back home at around the time I would normally be crawling out of bed, and it's looking like a long day!

( So in the absence of any other plans, here's the new pink machine. )

I have opened the windows this afternoon. It is actually warm.

I have a gel wrist rest, which I have owned for years, and which has been fabulous for my mouse hand and stopped it being all achey after hours at the computer.

Tonight, it split right under where my wrist puts the most pressure, and mid-LOTRO raid. So I was trying to play my role keeping people alive, while making 'eeeewwww' noises as strings of extremely thick, clingy gelatinous ooze spread themselves over my hand and mouse.

This stuff does not wash off. I can wipe it with paper towel till the remnants stop being as sticky, but that's about it.

Not that it will stop me buying another gel wrist rest. Currently mine is all strapped up in anti-ooze duct tape. But I might keep a closer eye on the next one, and replace it if it starts looking a bit worn.

I'm also wondering if this is anything like the stuff they put in silicone fake boobs, because again, eeeewwww.

It is notable that Alex Kingston, at 47, is about a hundred times sexier than Karen Gillan. Just saying.