Saberfrog

The low-budget film Saberfrog is nearing completion. I helped a little bit with the film a couple of years ago when it was shot. I spent a few weekends and a number of other days helping out, mostly as crew (but I did get a small speaking role as well).

The trailer of the film can be found HERE as well as other Saberfrog related stuff.

It is basically a film about some thirty something friends getting back together for a quest. It involves a road trip, an evil mastermind, science fiction elements and all sorts of fun stuff. "This is a story of a generation of nerds, rebels and dropouts, searching for purpose in a world without rules."

Kiva

I have recently begun experimenting with microfinancing. Microfinancing is a way for low-income and/or self-emploed people without access to regular banking services to get loans. It is an interesting subject so I decided the best way to learn more about it was to jump in and participate in it.

The site I'm doing this through is Kiva. From what I can tell Kiva is the current leader in microfinancing. There are thousands of members giving money to people across the world who need loans.

Here's how it works:

• You sign up for Kiva and fund your account with a credit card or PayPal
• Browse the many available loans that are available. There are filters to narrow your search to certain geogrphic areas, etc
• Make a loan of $25 or more to the individual of your choice. There will also be a request for a small donation for the operating costs of Kiva itself when you process the loan
• Months later repayment of the loan will begin (suprisingly it looks like there is a very high repayment percent right now)
• Take the money that has been repayed and repeat (or pull the money out of your account)

Currently there are three loans that I have helped to fund:

• A woman in Kenya who needed money to buy a cow
• A woman in Ukraine who needed funds to stock up on inventory for her seasonal business
• A man in Tanzania who wanted to make improvements to his pub

It will be a learning experience and will allow me to help entrepreneurs across the world. As my experiences with Kiva continue I'll be sure to post any important updates.

Taxation Without Representation

The new health care taxation bill passed in the House a while back. The thing is I didn't have a representative at the time. I don't mean that my Congressman was of an opposite view as me (well, he was) or that he didn't bother to show up for the vote. I didn't even have a representative who could have just taken the day off.

My congressman seems to have suffered from a strange bout of insanity. Now I know that most people in Washington DC seem insane but the guy from my district really lost his grip. He ended up resigning before the health care vote.

So far the Governor of New York has refused to call for a special election to fill this vacancy. He claims it would cost the counties too much money, a regular election is coming in November (seven months away), and he doesn't want to disenfranchise the military vote. There is also the fact that the seat would most likely go to someone who is not from his party (aha!).

The cost shouldn't be an issue. We need someone in Washington to watch out for our area's interests, we don't have that now. It's also strange with the State wasting tens of billions of dollars on all sorts of crap they can't spend some millions to have an election so the people will have a voice.

How is not even giving anyone a vote going to keep the military from becoming disenfranchised? These people are on the front lines fighting in a war for this country and their own state has decided that they should not have someone looking out for their interests in Washington.

It is time to demand that the Governor set things in motion so that we can have a special election and fill this vacancy. How many more taxes and laws affecting us will get passed while we have no representation in the 29th district?