Framed

I have used the image generator to frame an image of Zoe and her friend. Sadly I have to report the demise of the friend since this photo was take. She burst a seam and was promptly put in the wheelie bin along with the thousands of little white balls that had spilt out everywhere!

Searching , searching everywhere

I searched the sites mentioned in Thing 10 for "dalmatian coast". Results were quite varied. A couple we academic in nature and while they would have been great if I was interested in "Analysis of the 5' region of the canine PAX3 gene and exclusion as a candidate for Dalmatian deafness 1", it wasn't quite what I had in mind for my holiday plans. Might be good if I was being a little more highbrow with my 23 things exploration! Some sites like Google produced the mandatory hundreds of thousand results, which are really no good to anyone. Dogpile gave me 56 results. I'm not sure about this site and others like it. They always return about the same number of results. This is good if we are looking for the best sites, but if we are looking for something a little more obscure I'd be concerned about what I was missing out on. There is a very bid difference between 56 and >800,000. Kartoo was fun, but I think I would have to spend a bit of time trying to work it out properly, time I do n ot have a great deal of at the moment. Del.ic.ious produced some excellant sites which I will go back to and add the best of to my Europe08 wiki, when I 'get time'.

Giving it a go

I've introduced the travel Wiki to Ray. He likes the idea, but I get a really strong feeling that I will be the one editing it. I think his contributions will be sending me links to add. A case of him feeling that he doesn't have the time to get to know how to do this. I think that we can all relate to this! I did try to give him a quick demo to show him how it works, but I could see that he was reluctant. Maybe over the coming weeks, especially if his work eases up (which would certainly be a novelty for him). Anyway, I have added a few links to information about our early plans, in particular a sailing trip around the Dalmatian Islands (Croatia). Looks pretty blissful!

wikis as a planner

Well I've finally got around to the Wk 9 activity of creating a Wiki. Looking at the information about Wikis and how they can be used I thought I would have a go at creating a wiki to help Ray and me organise a trip to Europe next year. I can see it's potential to keep our thoughts, ideas, plans and confirmed details all in one place. It will be interesting to see how it pans out! I haven't got Ray's response to this idea as yet. If he is recalcitrant it will make it a bit difficult.

My wiki called Europe08 is here

Kiva

I've been using rss feeds for about 18 months now. I subscribe to a variety of sites.... some library related, some news alerts and others for personal interest. I don't have a huge number because they can be a bit of a distraction. One rss feed that I receive only posts very occasionally. It is from an organisation called Kiva. I first came across them when reading a philanthropy related blog that I subscribed to when working for the Office of Development. I was fascinated by the concept that they had created. In brief they are involved in helping to fund microfinance. What is this? As wikipedia describes it is "a term for the practice of providing financial services, such as microcredit, microsavings or microinsurance to poor people." Microfinance concentrates on giving small loans to "entrepreneurs' in developing countries who would not normally qualify for loans from traditional lending institutions. Kiva was started by a US couple who while working in Africa decided that the best way to help the people in poor countries was to improve their access to microfinance. Their idea was to create an avenue for people from wealthy countries to support the efforts of the poor to establish an income. They have developed a process where they act as a 'middle man' between the microfinance lenders and people like us who would like to offer financial support. We can go to the Kiva website pick an 'entrepreneur' that we would like to support and then lend them some money. Currently the only amount you can lend is $25. You used to be able to lend more, but as a result of publicity generated by an appearance on Ophra, and a mention in Bill Clinton's book "Giving" they have been inundated by people wishing to lend money, so the amount has been restricted to allow more people to do so. When the required number of people have given their $25, so that it adds up to the requested loan amount, it is given to the borrower to fund their enterprise. When the loan has been paid back in full everyone is refunded their contribution. I have given to 5 people (I have chosen to give only to women so far) who come from Paraguay, Vietnam, Togo, Nigeria and Azerbaijan. There is no security for the money that I have lent, I may never get it back, but I hope that I do because it means that these people are being successful in their endeavours. Historically microfinance has a very good record of repayment. I will probably reinvest the money when it is repaid. I think one of my loans might be a bit risky. I feel the lady from Togo might have a bit of a challenge ahead. A small part of her profile reads "Mrs. Eya AWUDZA, 40 years old, is married and the mother of eight (8) children and is supporting five (5) other persons. All the household resposinbilities lie on her because her husband is often absent and totally neglects his role as a father. Her principal activity is the sale of vegetables and food products." Risky probably, worthwhile most definitely. I have joined with others from the USA (mostly), UK, Canada, France, Sweden and Norway to lend Eya US$1000. I hope she is able to make her business work.
Others I have lent to are:
Ladislaa Peralta
Trần Thị Bảy
Sevil Qurbanova
Theresa Aigbonkuan
Have a look at this site. I found it really uplifting, and I feel I'm making a positive difference to some struggling peoples live. If nothing else I'm sure you will find it interesting.

Zoe

I have added a couple of pictures of Zoe, my daughter's two and a half year old labrador/staffy cross. When I uploaded the photos they became a little distorted. I tried cropping them and altering the size but it didn't seem to make much difference. I will have to investigate. Zoe is much loved and spoilt. She has used her cute face and lovely personality to worm her way into the household in a way that her predecessor could only have dreamt of. It might also have had something to do with the pathetic looks and squawks that were coming from her when she was a little puppy, as she sat on the back door mat imploring us to let her inside. Sigh!

Getting started with 23 things

Well I've finally got this underway. I'm interested to see whether this process has an impact on the way that I use and view the resources that we are going to be looking at. At the moment I am a bit ambivalent about the social networking software. Great for others, but not sure about me. I use some mainly in a detached way, such as subscribing to blogs via rss feeds (this I find very useful, but maybe a bit distracting). I feel I'm a long way from embracing this new world like others do. I think it will be a big leap for me to go from passive viewing to active involvement. We will see..........