AZDana

Archive for the ‘Links I Love’ Category

I decided to log in and clean out more of my old posts in draft status, like the ones I wrote last year about the Oktoberfest at Tempe Town Lake. I also installed a banner for Kiva.org because I truly believe in their system. They help needy people in third world countries get loans to improve their businesses and lives. It seems that here in the U.S., our definition of “poverty level” is someone that has a flat screen tv that is less than 32″,  but the borrowers on Kiva are living at a whole different level. Some of them want micro-loans to buy livestock to raise and sell, while others just want to borrow enough to put a roof over their head.

But don’t think Kiva is charity, because it’s not. You choose who you will loan your money to and the amount you want to loan, starting with $25. Here’s how Kiva explains the process:

Choose an Entrepreneur, Lend, Get Repaid

1) Lenders like you browse profiles of entrepreneurs in need, and choose someone to lend to. When they lend, using PayPal or their credit cards, Kiva collects the funds and then passes them along to one of our microfinance partners worldwide.
2) Kiva’s microfinance partners distribute the loan funds to the selected entrepreneur. Often, our partners also provide training and other assistance to maximize the entrepreneur’s chances of success.
3) Over time, the entrepreneur repays their loan. Repayment and other updates are posted on Kiva and emailed to lenders who wish to receive them.
4) When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to someone else in need, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds.

My family and I have been loaning money since January, and have received every repayment when it was due. Of course, you can keep the money when you’re repaid, but it’s fun to find another entrepreneur and loan the money out again.  I could go on and on about Kiva, but I have those old posts to clear out. While I’m doing that, head over to Kiva, you can lurk without logging in. Right now as of this very moment, there are over 700 people who need a loan to change and improve their lives. They’re not looking for a hand out,  just your helping hand.

I just added a Daily Dilbert widget in my left column, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with it on a daily basis. I love Dilbert, but I tend to forget about Dilbert.com . Come to think of it, I also forgot about the DilBeriTO and was pleased to find out they may start marketing it again.

History fascinates me. Not only am I interested in the famous people of the past, but I also like to read about every day life in bygone days. How much did people pay for beef in 1902? What were the hottest styles of 1909? What kind of financial pressures did everyone face in 1899?

The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities are joint sponsors of Chronicling America, a part of the National Digital Newspaper Program. I got goosebumps when I first stumbled upon this site because it allows visitors to view selected newspaper pages from 1890 to 1910. Right now, there’s only a limited amount of states, but they are working on creating a “national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers from all the states and U.S. territories published between 1836 and 1922.”

They also have some information about newspapers published in the U.S from 1690 to present, but that is also an ongoing project. The best part about this is that the site is totally free for everyone! I know we all complain about income taxes, but I have to say that I think this is a pretty good use of taxpayer dollars.

Want to know if a particular site is crashed, or if it’s just something you alone are experiencing? MP found a great site called downforeveryoneorjustme.com . You put in the url into the box that looks like this:

Is down for everyone or just me ?
and it instantly tests the link for you.It’s not a hundred percent reliable, but it’s handy to have around.

I don’t know how much time I spend looking at various dashboards of my various blogs, but i sure wish I could find something that made the inside of my blog as pretty as the outside of my blog. I was thinking of posting this question at Ask Owen because he is so good at answering questions and has made a few terrific plugins as well. Between you and me, I think Owen’s probably one of the most knowledgeable bloggers around and should be on everyone’s “must read” list.  He truly deserves A List status in my opinion.

Maybe I will post my question there later on, because I sure would love to see something different for a change. However, everytime I visit his site, I get so wrapped up in reading his posts that I forget to ask anything till after I’ve logged back into one of my blogs. Like just now, I read his post that’s titled, “How can I get a Gmail user’s Full Name?” and think everyone with a Google account should check out this important post. I’d love to say more, but I’m off to check my gmail accounts….

Later, Taters!

I just stumbled across this great non-profit site that needs some linky love. At FreePoverty.com, you play a geography based game, and the higher your score, the more potable drinking water you donate to needy people. I just played it, and managed to donate 147 cups of water. I don’t think that’s a very high score, but in my defense, its seven a.m. here and I’m usually not fully wide awake till the crack of noon. So I’m daring everyone to try to beat my score, then come back and tell me how well you did. If you don’t want to play the game, you can help out by giving them a link in a blog post. They also have banners you can use, click on the one below to grab one in your choice of colors:

Sigh, just as I thought I had settled on a theme, turns out this one doesn’t have any widgets. I guess it’s time for me to do more hunting. In the meantime, I wanted to post this, in case someone’s running low on El Pato:

Btw, El Pato Picante is one of nature’s most perfect foods, and if it’s not, it should be.