Sunday, 26 March 2006

Pork with Peaches

Today was a big day. I did a lot of work on the Kiva site, and Fiona went out to Carl's (of the Big Adventure) to take all the stuff he's getting rid of before he leaves for Africa. We really scored. We got a big desk, a file cabinet, a bunch of office stuff, and more kitchen wares than you can shake a spatula at. You should see our spice collection. Carl even had star anise!!

What's more, John finally moved in yesterday, so to celebrate our new roommate and our new booty I made a big dinner last night. Holy smokes was it good. The best part was that me, Fiona, Joe and John all ate dinner together. It was the first time all of us roomates sat down at the table together. Oh, and Carlo Rossi was there too, of course. What's a meal without Carlo?

Pork with Peaches

1 (3 1/2 pound) (1 1/2 kilogram) pork loin, boned

1 bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked

1 bulb garlic

7 ounces (200 grams) butter

2 tins (cans) peaches in natural juice, drained 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Around 15 slices of pancetta, streaky bacon, or Parma ham 

1 glass (about 6 ounces) white wine 

A little flour

1 glass (about 6 ounces) water

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C/gas 7).

Score the skin of the pork through the fat, the incisions should be about 1 centimetre apart. Turn over. Make a pocket for the stuffing by cutting an incision at an angle, about 3 inches (7.5 centimetres) deep in the centre of the streaky part of the loin, working away from the eye meat. Starting slightly in from the side of the meat, slowly slice along the loin not quite to the end, this will ensure your stuffing won't fall out.

Chop half the thyme with 1 clove of garlic and scrunch together with the butter, 1 tin of peaches, and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Push the butter into the pocket and pat back into shape. Lay the pancetta, bacon or Parma ham over the pork, leaving the skin side uncovered, and tie up firmly with 3 to 4 pieces of string.

Place skin-side up in a roasting tray with the remaining peaches, the garlic cloves, thyme, and half of the white wine. Roast for around 1 hour until the skin is crisp and golden.

When ready, remove the pork and peaches to a plate and leave to rest for 15 minutes whilst you finish the sauce. To do this, remove most of the fat from the roasting tray, then place the tray over a high heat. Squash the cooked garlic and add 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir and add the rest of the wine with a glass of water or stock. Simmer and leave to reduce for a few minutes. Strain and add any extra juices from the rested pork. Check the seasoning and consistency and serve drizzled over the sliced pork.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Posted by flow Frazao on March 26, 2006 at 04:37 AM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, 24 March 2006

Google Finance

Google quietly released their online finance tool yesterday and it looks like they've just done for stocks what they did for maps a year ago.

Pretty cool.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 24, 2006 at 09:09 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kiva's Contact Us Emails

We have a web form on the Kiva site where people can submit questions, comments, etc. Every morning I wake up to three or four emails, and they're always a good read. Usually they're either from students asking for internships or they're from existing microfinancing institutions asking about becoming a Kiva partner.

But every now and then we get an impassioned plea from someone in a rough situation. Sadly, we can't really help them because we don't have the means to loan to individuals yet. Maybe someday we'll be able to, but right now it's just not possible.

However, a couple of days ago we received my favorite "Contact Us" email so far:

> Name: sunday.c.egun
> Phone: +23***********
> .................
> Comments: Dear Sir,
>
> I need a loan.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 24, 2006 at 03:53 PM in Kiva/VEF | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Best Essay Ever Written About Washington DC

If I had a dollar for every hour I spent surfing craigslist while I sat in a cubicle in DC... well, I guess I'd be able to take a year off, travel the world, and then come back and spend three months working for free.

“So, what do you do?”

Sweet Jesus, I hate this question; it infests DC like no other place I’ve lived. I get asked it every time I meet people, be they at or bar, friends of friends, spontaneous conversations in Safeway—hell, ragged old ladies sometimes accost me walking down the street, just to find out what I do. My job lacks the excitement or concise definition of most vocations, so I normally just lie about it.

“So, what do you do?” the homeless guy outside the Rosslyn Metro asks me.

“Why…I…am…Assistant…Director…of…Resource…Management…of…Poultry,” I reply.

“Wait a second—why did you pause so much? Are you just making this up?” the homeless guy menacingly intones.

“Of…course…not…I…was…just…building…suspense,” I say, before throwing down my Vitamin Water and bagel and running away in shame.

The fact of the matter is, I’m very unsure of what my job actually IS. I work at an office and do a little bit of this (Solitaire) and a little bit of that (Spider Solitaire), but nothing that can be encapsulated in one or two words, like “Fireman” or “Bikini Inspector”. For me, everyday is an aggregate of small, insignificant tasks, designed solely for the purpose of making it to 5 PM. Play a game of Solitaire, 10 minutes. Knock out a Sudoku, 10 more minutes. Brew and drink coffee—oh, I can stretch that for at least a quarter hour. Trouble is, by 11 AM each day I’m normally wired on caffeine and exhausted of brief computer games, so I’m always desperately in need of Big Timekilling Activities. I’ve developed elaborate BTA’s involving round robin tournaments of office games, games that normally include Styrofoam cups, uneaten yogurt tins, and a three-hole punch, but those normally end quickly in tragedy:

“Good God, this coffee tastes terrible! And what’s this gooey purple stuff on my papers?” my boss inevitably asks. I tend to look away and make a cryptic comment about the last intern being “Very, very strange. And possibly retarded.”

So as you can see, the collective nincompoopery of my officemates puts the kibosh on office game BTA’s, so I have to turn to tasks more individual in nature. The other day, for instance, I decided that there was no good reason not to make a paper clip necklace. I took the precaution of borrowing the receptionist’s paper clips, because there was no way in hell those puppies were going to survive, and I didn’t want to be accused of wasting office supplies. I finished in about 10 minutes, put on the necklace and snuck into the restroom to check myself out.

“Hmm, good, but not that good,” I said aloud, admiring my handiwork in the bathroom mirror. “I really can make it bigger.”

“It’s not the size of the boat, just the motion in the ocean,” the middle-aged man from across the hall said as he exited the bathroom stall. “You’ll be fine, son.”

“No, I wasn’t talking about that, I was talking about…” I began, before realizing that I had two options here: admit that I was just looking at a paper clip necklace I made for myself, or fess up to a complete stranger about feelings of penile inadequacy. Tough call, but the choice was clear.

“Thanks, I’m sure women will like me just the way I am,” I answered with a nod.

I think I made the right decision—because in the end, I had a whole day in front of me, a cup full of paper clips, and, by God, I was GOING to make it bigger.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 24, 2006 at 03:45 PM in America | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 23 March 2006

Long Time No Blog

I often find that if I take a couple of weeks off from blogging I come back to it with a renewed interest. As soon as I start feeling like it's a chore I take some time off, and I've always found myself coming back. Part of it is the self-reverential component, but it's also great to have a journal that I can look back on. When I go back and read my postings over the years, it brings up a lot of memories that I might otherwise have forgotten.

Fiona and I have decided to stay in San Francisco for a while. We're both really enjoying this city, and we've already made a lot of good friends. This place is so vibrant and full of cool stuff to do, it's hard to imagine wanting to live anywhere else right now. Last night I went to see a movie with my buddy Skylar that I don't think I could have caught anywhere else (except maybe NYC). It was a BBC-style documentary based from the assumption that the South won the civil war and slavery is still legal in America. Skylar's gets his think on over at his blog (if you look real hard there's a photo of Fiona and I on the right side of the page).

A few weeks ago we moved into a new apartment with college basketball superstar Joe Kirchofer:

Joe is an outstanding young man, who is very competitive and has a great court presence and attitude ... A natural shot blocker, a great rebounder and an excellent scorer ... Can face up and shoot the ball up to 17 feet ... He is also good with his back to the basket, and handles the ball well for a player his size ... But more importantly, Joe is a great young man ... One in a million.

We're also living with a guy named John, but he hasn't moved in yet so I don't have much to say about that. For what is worth this is where we live.

Slowly but surely we're accruing furniture. We've had a couple of big adventures at Carl's place that have resulted in a lot of goodies. He's given us a printer, a scanner, a desk, a bunch of deadly knives, and a Jack LaLanne Deluxe Juicer. Man, is that thing awesome. I've been juicing everything, and there's no sign of stopping. There are so many juiceable things in this world - I can't believe I've been living in the dark for so long.

The biggest score to date though is our amazing bed. Two weeks ago Fiona went down to work from Premal's house in Palo Alto on a Saturday, and while she was out I scored off craigslist. I got a queen-sized box spring, mattress, bed frame, brass headboard, down comforter, two sets of Pottery Barn sheets, a down mattress pad, a nice blanket and four big squishy pillows for 50 bucks!!.

I set it all up before she got home and she nearly crapped her pants when she walked into our bedroom. It was quite a change from the air mattress we'd been borrowing from Skylar.

So yeah, things are going well. We've got a bed, a juicer, work that's worth our time and a couple of cool new friends. You can't ask for much more than that.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 23, 2006 at 01:11 PM in Me | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kiva Update

It's been a while since I've updated the site. I've been crazy busy with Kiva, and things are going great. We've rewritten pretty much the entire code base, so when we put the new version up in a few weeks it'll be almost all new. It won't look a lot different but it's totally solid, and it'll provide the foundation for a lot of cool new features over the coming months.

Yesterday we signed up a new partner called Life in Africa. I would say they're my favorite so far. A lot of the businesses I posted yesterday are for Ugandans living in displaced persons camps - one was for a water tap business:

Ocola Julius is 52 years old and is married with 5 children. He is Acholi and is one of the many thousands of people who were forced to flee their homes in the North because of the war that has been going on for the last 20 years. His family lives in an Internally Displaced People's camp in the outskirts of Kampala called the Acholi Quarter. Six months ago Julius joined Life in Africa and has been an active member ever since. He started as a bracelet maker in the Invisible Children Bracelet Project but his hard work and determination quickly earned him a promotion to a sanding processor.

He has acquired a piece of land from the King of Buganda who has sympathy for the people of Acholi and who has set aside free land for them. Knowing that the people of the Acholi quarter have to go long distances to look for water, he has a plan to install a water tap on his land. The current water sellers who bring water in to this hilltop area are charging five shillings per litre for water which makes it very hard for the people to purchase water for their needs. With a water tap installed on his land, Julius will be able to purchase water for only one shilling per litre and he plans on selling this water for a reduced rate of 3 shillings per litre to his community.

Not only will this provide a steady income for his family needs, but it will also offer a valuable service to his community at a more affordable price than they can currently get. This will insure that he has a secure source of buyers for his water, and it is likely to have a great impact on those living in the Acholi quarters.

To accomplish this project, Julius is seeking a loan in the amount of shs. 800,000 ($475). He es-timates that once he acquires this loan it will take approximately one week to have the water tap installed. Below is his budget:

16 metal pipes @ 12000= each =192000=
connection fee to national water=300000=
labor charges & other expenses =200000=
building of small house so that the tap can be locked to avoid theft =100000=
The whole total is 792000=.

Based on his current income, Julius will be able to repay this loan in 12 months. Julius loves music and dance, and has designated the community impact portion of the interest he pays to support Life in Africa's Talent Discovery program.

1. Running a water tap is a viable business idea in a third-world country. I'm not sure why I'm surprised by this, but it just seems strange. But I guess there'll always be a market for water.
   
2. There are people in Uganda who will be drinking clean water because of code we wrote. To me this is the only thing that really matters, and it's the entire reason I came out here in the first place.

I predict that these businesses will all be funded by the end of the day. One thing we've noticed at Kiva is that the African businesses go like crazy, whereas our Central American businesses usually take a week to raise the capital. There are a lot of trends that are starting to become evident now that we've got a more diverse portfolio, and it's interesting to notice the patterns.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 23, 2006 at 12:48 PM in Kiva/VEF | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rumsfeld: What a Lucky Guy

First he makes a bundle off the Iraq War from his ties to Bechtel, and now he stands to reap a hearty profit from all the Bird Flu hysteria:

The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.

Rumsfeld served as Gilead's chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 23, 2006 at 12:30 PM in America, Scary Bush, Science, US News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weird Earls

• Here's a line of pre-pixelated clothes suitable for wearing on television shows where the producers don't want to worry about clearing the rights to clothing logos.

• The Smoking Gun brings us Dick Cheney's backstage requirements. Of course, all the televisions need to be preset to the Fox News Channel. No, seriously.

• Texas Police are busting drunks... in bars:
  

  SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) -- Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said Wednesday.

  The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck.

  Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.

  President George W. Bush has come out in favor of the program, saying "The thing is, when people get drunk to the point of intoxificationism they usually wind up having unprotected sex, which as we all know leads to abortions. We can't have that in a culture of life."

  Sen. Ted Kennedy, meanwhile, has pledged to fight the legislation all the way to the Supreme Court.

  
  Okay, maybe I made up the last two paragraphs, but come on. Stupid fucking Texans.

• Piss-controlled urinal-based video games

Posted by flow Frazao on March 23, 2006 at 12:21 PM in Weird Earls | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, 05 March 2006

Try This At Home

Urban Ninjas:

Posted by flow Frazao on March 5, 2006 at 10:59 PM in Cool Stuff | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lucky Pussy

"It all began around 8:15 a.m., when police received a call of a cat stuck in a drain cover across from Magnolia Street near the old town reservoir. When police, fire and department of public works crews arrived, all they saw was a tiny black head sticking out above the grate.

"The cat was just hanging under there," said Lt. Guercia.

Crews blocked off the area and immediately set to work trying to free the young female. They didn't get far. Though they used pry bars, they had no luck pulling open the heavy drainage grate to get to the cat — it was just too heavy, said Lt. Guercia.

Not giving up, rescuers asked DPW employees to bring in a backhoe. Meanwhile, Bristol Animal Control Officer Dyanne Gibree lubricated the cat's head with liquid soap in an effort to make it slippery enough to wriggle out of the bind. That didn't work either."

Click here for the thrilling conclusion.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 5, 2006 at 02:51 PM in Random News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday, 04 March 2006

Only Terrorists Are Debt-Free

Thinking of paying off those credit card debts? Mmm hmm. Sounds a little suspicious to me, and by "me" I mean "us", and by "us" I mean the Department of Homeland Security.

A retired school teacher in Rhode Island tried to pay off his Mastercard which had a balance of $6,522. His actions compelled his bank to report the transaction to Department of Homeland Security, which froze his transaction until it could be investigated:

After sending in the check, Walter Soehnge and his wife Deana checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed.

So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called.

"When you mess with my money, I want to know why," he said.

[...]

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

Soehnge went on the Internet to see what he could learn. He learned about changes in something called the Bank Privacy Act.

"The more I'm on, the scarier it gets," he said. "It's scary how easily someone in Homeland Security can get permission to spy."

Eventually, his and his wife's money was freed up. The Soehnges were apparently found not to be promoting global terrorism under the guise of paying a credit-card bill. They never did learn how a large credit card payment can pose a security threat.

But the experience has been a reminder that a small piece of privacy has been surrendered. Walter Soehnge, who says he holds solid, middle-of-the-road American beliefs, worries about rights being lost.

"If it can happen to me, it can happen to others," he said.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 4, 2006 at 11:47 PM in America | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thursday, 02 March 2006

Carl's New Home Away From Home

Here's the casino in Kampala, Uganda's capitol city:

Looks just like the Bellagio, eh?

Posted by flow Frazao on March 2, 2006 at 07:59 PM in Africa | Permalink | Comments (0)

Professional Couch Surfer

Today is Thursday, and by my count I've slept in four different places this week. I started off the week at Chelsa's in The Mission, then I went to Catie and Greg's on Russian Hill for a night. Slept at Premal's in Palo Alto two nights ago, and last night I had a big adventure on Carl's couch involving a cat that kept trying to lick me.

Fiona's been staying with Catie and Greg for the past few nights, but I've been taking part in a code-a-thon with Matt and The Carl. Tonight I'll be staying at Skylar's pad in San Francisco, and I'm looking forward to seeing my wife again.

However, the good news is that we're renting a room! We'll be moving in on Saturday to a place in Bernal Heights. Matt says it's a great spot, and from what I've been reading on the internet it sounds pretty cool. I've also noticed that there's a 100% hit rate between "Bernal Heights" and "Lesbians". Every single article I've read about the area mentions a disproportionate number of lesbians. Why Bernal Heights? Maybe they have a great Home Depot or something. I look forward to finding out.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 2, 2006 at 02:51 PM in America, Me, Moving | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 01 March 2006

Kiva Updates From Uganda

In case you're not tuned in to the political situation of Uganda, they just had an election a few days ago. There was a lot of angst about it since it was the first free election in 20-some years.

That combined with the terrible drought that's been going on for the past two years and the intermittent (at best) electricity situation had us pretty worried about our people in East Africa. About three weeks ago we received the following email from our Ugandan partner Moses:

Hello Matt,
This is to inform you that our work is not going to be possible for very long time because of luck of electric power.
The Goverment has announced that due to the low water level in the lake, the power generation has gone very low. For this reason power will be switched off at 6am to 7pm every day.
This has now made all offices to buy their own generators.
For Kiva office, we are in dilema.
Moses.

Since most of our current businesses are operating in Uganda, Matt decided to send Moses money to buy a new generator. That way Kiva users would still be able to recieve updates as to the progress of their businesses.

Then, just before the election we got this letter from Moses:

Hi Matt,
This is to inform you that we have not bought the generator yet because of the total confusion here in Uganda due to the forth coming presidential elections.
There is rampant killings during the campaigns and threteaning violence.
This has caused almost all the business communities to run across to Kenya to wait for us to go through the elections.
Most of all the shops are closed and the prices of commodities have been hiked very much.
We are voting on Thursday this week. We hope to buy the generator after the elections.
Thanks,
Moses.

Hello Matt,
This is some few hints of the recent presidential election in Uganda.
President Yower Museveni was declared the winner with 59.96% and the runner up from the FDC party got 39 percent.
Generally right now the FDC party is going to court for they complaint of mass rigging and intimidation of their voters.
Number of FDC voters were put in jail before the election and some were killed by gunmen who are believed to be the supporters of President Yower Museven.
Before thinking of taking the court action, the FDC big shots wanted the re counting of the ballot pappers but the Goverment has refused to allow the re count to be done.
Two days before the election day, soldiers were deployed all over Uganda even deep in the villages to frustrate the campaigns of the opposition.
Generally, the opposition parties feel that the election wasen't free and fair.
The elected president will be sworn in as the new elected president of the Republic Of Uganda in May 2006.
This will all happen if the court does not nulify the election results.
For me as a person, Im very safe and I have not been affected in any way both during the time of campaign and even after the election.
I have received the most recent report that all our beneficiaries of Kiva were not affected in any way. Im rejoicing together with my family.
Im now working very hard for Kiva because we want to catch up with the time that was wasted during the fear of the campaign violence.
I want to thank all of you who prayed for us and all the people of Uganda.
Matt, this is the brief content that I can give you concerning our presidential election.
Every blessings,
Moses.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 1, 2006 at 08:02 PM in Africa, Kiva/VEF | Permalink | Comments (0)

Woman kills man with vacuum cleaner

This story is begging for more details, but the mugshot alone is priceless:

ANDERSON, S.C. -- An Anderson man is dead after being strangled with a vacuum cleaner hose, and his common-law wife is charged with his murder.

Anderson County Sheriff's deputies said they received the call at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

A spokesman for the sheriff's office said Evelyn Pressley admitted to killing Jerome Powers. Deputies said Pressley beat and strangled Powers with vacuum cleaner accessories.

Deputies said the couple lived together on Bellhaven Road in Anderson for about eight years. Pressley is being held in the Anderson County detention center Monday. An autopsy was planned.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 1, 2006 at 04:44 PM in America | Permalink | Comments (0)

Woman faces jail if she doesn't watch video of her rape

A suburban Chicago woman's refusal to watch a videotape that reputedly depicts her gang rape could end up derailing the trial of one of her accused attackers. Also, she could be held in contempt of court:

A Naperville woman's refusal Tuesday to view or comment under oath on a videotape that reputedly depicts her gang rape could end up derailing the trial of one of her accused attackers.

Fifth District Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kerry M. Kennedy has given the woman until this morning to decide whether she will answer a defense attorney's questions about the video.

UPDATE: The judge has decided not to make her watch herself get raped after all. What a guy.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 1, 2006 at 04:35 PM in America, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)

New paint blocks out cell phone signals

This is cool:

A Rochester, N.Y., company has developed paint that can switch between blocking cell phone signals and allowing them through.

"You could use this in a concert hall, allowing cell phones to work before the concert and during breaks, but shutting them down during the performance," said Michael Riedlinger, president of NaturalNano.

Using nanotechnology, particles of copper are inserted into nanotubes, which are ultra-tiny tubes that occur naturally in halloysite clay mined in Utah. Combined with a radio-filtering device that collects phone signals from outside a shielded space, certain transmissions can proceed while others are blocked, the Chicago Tribune reported.

However, the wireless phone industry is up in arms over the development.

"We oppose any kind of blocking technology," said Joe Farren, spokesman for The Wireless Association, the leading cell phone trade group. "What about the young parents whose baby-sitter is trying to call them, or the brain surgeon who needs notification of emergency surgery? These calls need to get through."

NaturalNano paint guy: Get to work on a lotion or something that will make me not be able to hear any of the stupid shit that people say to me. Make me impermeable to ignorance, please.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 1, 2006 at 04:22 PM in Cool Stuff, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weird Earls

• I don't read Japanese, so I have no idea why anyone would spend hours and hours posing and photographing maid dolls re-enacting illustrations from a Japanese army training manual. Maybe I don't want to know why.
• Tom Tomorrow can see into the future. How does he do it? No one knows.
• Scientific consensus about climate change has changed from "probably" due to humans to humans being the "only explanation"
• Choose-Your-Own-Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Adventure: Rejected Choose Your Own Adventure books
• An extraordinary act of public obedience: A group of kids go on the highway and drive 55 to protest... something.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 1, 2006 at 04:16 PM in Weird Earls | Permalink | Comments (0)

Autistic Basketball Star

If you haven't seen this video of the autistic kid scoring 20 points in a high school basketball game, watch it now. It'll make your day.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 1, 2006 at 12:24 AM in Cool Stuff, Sports | Permalink | Comments (0)