five. laura luisa triana aguayo

About the Loan

Location:	Guayaquil (Paraiso), Ecuador		Repayment Term:	14 months (more info)
Sector:	Services		Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Activity:	Sewing		Currency Exchange Loss:	N/A
Loan Use:	For the purchase of a sewing machine.		Default Protection:	Not Covered

Laura designs and sews clothing from her home. She lives in a periurban zone called Paraíso de la Flor, located in an area characterized by its dirt roads and mountains.

As a child she learned how to sew because she enjoyed it. But having had her children without their father, she decided to begin working on a sewing machine that she bought when she was young. Little by little she was able to sew and have some regular customers.

Currently, she does her design and alteration business from home. She works from 9am until her orders are done. She completes her work mending, sewing and designing by the end of the week.

With this loan she wants to buy a sewing machine, cloth and string, because what she has is old. In the future, she wants to have a different location for her business and to be secure in old age.

Translated from Spanish by Flavia Garcia (vol), Kiva Volunteer

Laura, confecciona y cose ropa en su casa. Vive en una zona periurbana llamada Paraíso de la flor ubicada en una zona caracterizada por sus caminos de tierra y montañas.

Desde pequeña ella aprendió a coser porque le gustaba. Pero al ya tener a sus hijos sin un padre decidió comenzar a trabajar en una máquina de coser que se la compro cuando era joven. Poco a poco pudo coser y tener ya un número definido de clientes. En la actualidad tienen su taller de costura y confección en su casa, trabaja desde las 09h00am hasta que termina sus pedidos. Realiza su trabajo haciendo enmendaduras, cociendo y confeccionando para entregarlo el fin de semana.

Con el préstamo quiere comprar una máquina de coser, telas, hilos porque la que tiene ya esta vieja. En el futuro quiere tener un local para su negocio y asegurar su vejez

i'm tired and i want to go home

What can I say?  I've been horrible about writing.  And I know that I could just "vow to write more often" but we all know that won't happen.  I've been busy and blogging has been the last thing on my mind.

For those of you who haven't dabbled in my other blog that I have to keep for school, I would say, "why would anyone want to read this?"  So don't bother.  Sadly, it's linked up to my Google Buzz account, so everyone who is following me gets to read it.  Ha!

The last few weeks have been really hard on me and I've taken it out on those who are around me, and for that I'm sorry.  My classes are not going as well as I had hoped.  I started out this semester with an attitude that I was going to like every class.  I even told myself that about a computer systems class which is very hard.  I thought, "I'm going to be really busy, but it is going to be fun none-the-less."  Sadly, it hasn't been the case, and this week has really showed me how unstable I am in school.

I've been spending as much time as I can in my hard class, but we have a midterm tomorrow and I don't know how to do any of the problems on the practice test.

I have to build a unix shell (for the same class I have the midterm) and I don't even know where to start.

I have a film project due tomorrow and I haven't even started it yet.  I hope to get it done this weekend, but even then, that might be a stretch.

My other film class isn't going well either.  I have to have a working game by Thursday, and we can't even import the models for the player, let alone the environment, correctly.  We were put on "warning" and our game is probably going to get scrapped.

The only other class is my senior project which is surprisingly going well, but I hate being that guy who is leaning on the work of my group.

I spend so much of my time going from school work to emails to everything else.  On average I get 25+ email a day that I have read and respond to.  I'm overwhelmed.  Luckily today has been kind and I've only gotten about 10 or so, but the day is still young.  I'm stressed and I can't wait for some sort of break to come.

On top of that, I haven't been sleeping well... for weeks.  I don't remember the last time I made it through the night.  Huzzah.  I'm sure it's stress-related, but I'm almost to the point of not functioning.  I tried exercising, and KB was kind enough to come with me, but 6am was too early and I quickly lost motivation AND a running partner.

I'm sorry that this has turned into a pitty party, but I'm on my last leg...

and I can't buy lunch because I couldn't find my wallet this morning.  I'm starving.

back to work

Well, with a new (-to-me) computer, the semester is back in full swing.  And with school being in session, that means that I'm back to work!  Yay!

We had a demonstration to highschool teachers today and I think that it went pretty well.  We have a lot of cool things to show them and I'm really excited about how well our presentation went.  From the looks of it, we had the most entertaining and involving 30-minute block and our new group works extremely well together.  We even have a teacher that has come up to us a few times to talk to us about what her students can do to get into computer science.  Sweet!

happy flinstones day

Yeah, you heard me.  The Flintstones turned 50 today.  The amazing things you learn from using Google.

So we're (my classmates and I) sitting in class now waiting for the capstone class to start.  It seems that our game gained popularity.  More-so than we expected... or wanted.  We've been working hard to make our game look good in our presentation that we had on Tuesday, but we really don't want to work on it much longer.  It's a great idea and concept, but it's outside the scope of the class.  We could hack together a game pretty quickly, but making it fun to play and leveling out the players is going to me a ton of work.

For those that don't have any idea what I'm talking about, you can check out my other blog post (on the other blog) that I keep for the class.  So... yeah.

Other than that, life has been quite uneventful.  School keeps me so busy that I feel like I don't have a social life. Although, with the new computer, I was really sad that my pictures were lost, but I found some on the desktop in our home office.  How awesome is that?  I found some gems:

er is ready. :-)

setbacks

Temporary set back... mojolappy is out of commission. A tumble leads to a new computer. More on this story after the break... that is, when my new comput

fitting in

Hello readers from St. George!

Yes, Mojo has taken the trip down to the hot part of the state with KB and her family.  Apparently she got a lot of lip about inviting a boy down here, but she got over it pretty quickly.  We got in last night just in time to grab some food, set up my N64, play a little Mario Kart, play loud enough to wake other people up in the house and go to bed.

The funny thing is, I brought a lot fo videogame equipment.  I didn't go true "old school" on everyone and bring the SNES, but I wanted to.  I thought that it might have been (rather, "I might have looked") a little too dorky, but judging from this:

I think I'll fit right in.

idea generator

I sometimes wish I had an idea generator.  This semester, I've been told to come up with multiple game ideas.  I had to come up with a new game idea for a class (not the senior project) and what I came up with was a Bomberman-style game.  I used to love Bomberman and I played it on consoles, computer, and even my TI-86.  Yeah.  I was a nerd even back then!

But I'm trying to be original in these ideas, but I'm feeling like my ideas are starting to get a little repetitive.  Hmm.  Maybe if I came up with an idea generator where all I would do would be to add in some confines and it would give me an idea. 

Some of the ideas from my class have been interesting.  I've actually liked some of them, but hearing pitch after pitch has been a little hard to really focus on.  I'm getting tired and it's only the second week of the semester.  I think it's time to go on vacation.

Oh wait, I have one planned!  KB's family has invited me to go down to St. George with them this weekend.  It's going to be pretty fun.  I haven't been down there since I was in elementary school and I think it's time to go back.  It's going to be nice because they boys in her family are all like me.  They love games and they love CS.  This bodes well for me. 

I'm going to have to do quite a bit of homework while I'm there, so I might not be the funnest person in the whole world, but I'm going to try and keep that boring-ness to a minimum.  I've gotten a few assignments to do over the weekend, which I think is totally lame.  I can't believe that teachers think that over a long weekend, all I would want to do is homework.  Yikes.

KB, I wish we were leaving today.   

a new semester

And thus begins one of the most fun semesters I am going to have of all time.  Saweet!

This semester is the beginning of my senior year in Engineering Arts and Entertainment.  What does that mean?  Let me tell you.  I have four classes.

Film class number one: Game development.  Our first assignment was to play old school videogames from the NES and SNES and write about what it is about that game that I love. 

Film class number two: An introduction to film development.  We are going out and just making simple movies and learning about what makes movies so interesting.

CS class number one: Capstone project where I'll be creating a videogame to port to the Xbox 360.  I've already started my pitch which is Peggle but in space where you can manipulate gravity either as the level or in certain powerups.  Although even if it isn't picked (we whittle it down from 30 proposals to 2 games) the games I've seen in the other proposals would be fun. 

Lastly, the non-fun CS class, but I'm not focusing on that one. 

Doesn't that sound awesome?  Now I just have to keep up to date with each of them and not die under the pressure.  I'm sure this is going to be a blast. 

Studying videogames.  Who'd have thought?

perfect day

So camping was a blast.  I didn't tell you readers about it, but now you know.  I'm going camping... yesterday


Lars and I have been wanting to go up camping for a while now and the event with the Party Planning Committee that I got really burned at wasn't exactly what we were looking for, so we drove near a city in Utah called Kamas and entered the national forest to do some fun stuff.

It was a little bit of a process, but in the end, it worked out quite well.  We didn't know how many people were going to come until the day of, but we had plenty of food (in fact, we bought extra in Kamas and didn't touch it) and then made the drive.  Our campsite that we wanted to go to was already reserved out and we were too late to make reservations for the others (5 days advance notice?  What?) so we drove up in anticipation that we'd find one.  We did.  It was slightly hilly, but honestly, who cares, right?

A tinfoil dinner ("hobo dinner"), some hot chocolate, cobbler, and some guitar playing later and we headed off to bed.  KB and the girls in one tent (Yes, she has a nickname on the blog now) and the boys in two smaller ones.

Breakfast in the morning was simple.  We were going for simple cleanup so muffins won.  We didn't even touch the bagels.  We drove up to Mirror Lake (where we wanted to camp, but it was full) and walked around the lake.  It was fun.  There was a group with 3 iggies (Italian Greyhounds).

Then it was heading home (with a stop at Dick's Cafe in Kamas) to meet KB's family.  So I should explain that KB is somewhat obsessed with two things: Sprite and Benihanas. We met three sisters, a brother and each of the spouses.  10 of us, being loud, somewhat ignoring the chef... it was great.  I had a great time with them and from what I've heard, they kinda liked me too.  Awesome.

The evening ended with a walk around Temple Square.  What a perfect evening.

Oh, and one more picture of KB and I.  You know, for good measure.

nicknames are hard to do

So, I started dating someone pretty recently.  She is an amazing girl.  I only have one problem; I can't think of a name to call her on this blog.

Since the inception of this blog, I've started to use pseudonyms more prevalently, but I don't have one for her yet.  Most of the other people I talk about, at least the girls, have numbered nicknames because they usually have the same name.  I started this quite a while back when I was dating a girl with the same name as a friend.  To avoid confusion, there was 1 and 2.0 (because the second one was WAY more fun).  And ever since that time, anyone with that name gets a numbered nickname.  But this girl doesn't have that name.  Too bad.

That leaves me is right between a rock and a hard place.  We haven't really known each other long enough to have nicknames or funny inside jokes yet, although she does like the nickname of "Mojo" (but then again, who wouldn't?).  Hmmm.

I don't want to rush a nickname because anyone that would drive around the city, find a random house that left fireworks out, and then not only consider, but ACT on Mojo's idea of putting them on their porch to find in the morning...

deserves an AWESOME nickname.

thought provoking questions

The frustrations of my class seem more like a fire being continually fueled by new annoyances.  Here's the one from today.

Every week or so, we get assigned study questions that we work on and usually ask good questions about the information covered that week.  I like them for the most part, but I feel like the information is good, but the questions can be AWFUL.  

While working on one this week I came across this question:

In-and-of itself it's a good question.  I admit that it was good enough that I had to look at the key to know the answer was "d."  But here's what I thought was idiotic about it.  I cut off the next question:

Yeah.  You see that?  Now can anyone in their right mind tell my why that would be an "important concept of Biology" and help me to "make connections" and "not just fly by using memorization" in a class where each of those are what she sees as important in a class like this?  It's nothing but pure laziness and what seems to be a question based on busy work!

Breathe Mojo, breathe... 

the next step

So I'm taking the next step in interweb-itude.  It starts with my new email addresses, and ends with pure awesomeness.

That's right.  We're moving away from morganreynolds.info, and moving into the Dot Com world.

For the time being, morganreynolds.info will still redirect you to the new address, but from hence forth, we're going big with

iIsMojo.com

I'm pretty jazzed about it.  I know that this only makes me more of a nerd, but at least I love doing this sort of stuff.  I have to say, I was a little nervous that this wasn't going to work.  We had a little hiccup that seemed to resolve itself pretty quickly.

For some reason (I blame the cache) my computer wouldn't go to iismojo.com.  It just kept giving me errors.  I checked my DNS, all my forwarding information, everything.  Seems that once I used another machine (via VNC of course.  It's not like I'm going to get out of my chair) everything was working.  Cleared cache and an annoying restart later, everything on the mojoLappy was working just fine.  

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing with the old .info site for now, but I'm sure I'll use it for my portfolio eventually.  I'll let you all (aka, my mother) know when that day comes though.  

word of the day

I sure hope that everyone saw Dictionary.com's Word of the Day: morganatic

ouch

So this weekend, I did a bad thing.  I was so good all last weekend up until Friday.  I forgot sunblock and boy am I paying the price.

We did a campout near Morgan (the city.  Yeah, I know.  It was confusing all weekend) starting on Thursday and going through today.  But my misfortune would bring me to my knees on Friday and I came home early.  I drove late Friday night and got home around 11:00 to tend to my sun-scathed wounds.

But here's the really cool part.  Everyone kept saying that I should try this trick to heal a sunburn.  I figured that it couldn't hurt (too much) so I'd give it a try.  To be honest, I'm a little impressed and I think I might keep doing this in the future.  Now mind you, I've read some articles online that make it sound like you put it on and, magically, it's like you never were in the sun to begin with.  THAT is a little too far-fetched, but it worked on me.  My burns don't hurt.

So if you haven't already used the link from above, here's the trick:  Vinegar.

Yeah, you read right.  But read it again if you'd like.  See?  Still what you read before.

I was shocked.  All I did was take a shower in somewhat cool water (Come on.  I can't take a hot one with a sunburn), dried off, and them sprayed on the magic concoction (Can a concoction consist of one ingredient?) and I feel great.  I feel the burn, but the burn doesn't hurt.  I can tell my skin is a little upset, but it's like it was screaming at me, and I just walked out of the room, shut the door and put in some headphones.  Yeah, it's probably still screaming, but honestly,  I'm already jamming out and dancing in the living room.  Awesome.

So the weekend was okay.  I need to be diplomatic because I honestly don't know who reads this thing (cough.  Just my mom) but I feel like there was a lot of planning that went on, but the planning wasn't really organized in a way that made it clear to everyone.  The camping was great.  The spot was gorgeous, the pond was "stocked" with fish and we even had rented port-o-potties out there.  Meals were hit-and-miss though.  Some of the ingredients were missing for some meals, others were perfect pseudo-camping style meals.  I think that the planning people were great and they put a lot of work into this, don't get me wrong.  I just think there were a few miscommunications about activities and meals.

Sadly, by Friday, I was already hating life due to 3 hours of sleep and skin like unto a fried fish, so I called it quits and didn't stay for the boating planned for Saturday.  Oh well.  I guess I can learn to wakeboard some other time.

online treasures

Is this like my new email addresses?:

complex variables

Take one of these:

Add a couple of these:

Put them in this:

Subtract this:

And then for good measure, put this at the end:

And what do you get?

You got it.  Awesomeness.  

By the way, White Pine backpacking trip was a success.  We went up Logan Canyon on Friday morning, hiked (4 miles) to the camp ground, spent the night, came back down and made it in time for the demolition derby.  It was my first one ever and it WON'T be the last!

online treasures

Found this on a test I was taking online for a biology class.  I loved that it was part of the answer.

fish sticks and guitar music

My niece and nephews staying with us are pretty fun.  We just had dinner and they were a blast tonight.  I wasn't able to spend most of the day with them (like each day since Sunday) because I had a study group for a quiz I have tomorrow.  But when I came home, we had a great time.

Dinner was a classic dinner at the RFC.  Yeah, you guessed it.  Fish sticks.

We love fish sticks at this house.  We eat them all the time.  My father is actually quite in love with them.  We have them about once a week but tonight they were also accompanied by home made baked fries and a romain lettuce salad.  Yum.

But the best part of the evening was sitting in the front yard.  We haven't had a great bench in the front yard so it normally gets quite a bit of neglect.  But for Father's Day, we got my father a new bench and it's changed how we spend time here at the RFC.  It's warm so now we can spend as much time as we'd like out there.  We all sat around the yard on the bench and some camping chairs.  I got my guitar, my father played his, and we sang songs that the kids knew and loved.

Summer rocks.

life is like lego star wars

So I've spent the day with my niece and nephew.  It's been a blast.  I have learned a lot from my nephew who is 5 (although he claims to be 200), mainly that babies are born knowing how to do backflips, climb houses and jump off without getting hurt.  Little did you know, right?

You can learn a lot from kids.  I have found that my nephew follows after my own love of videogames.  While the rest of the family was getting some sleep (8-hour time difference calls for some jet-lag) he played games on my computer for quite a while.  In fact, in anticipation, I bought some games on Steam for just this occasion.  Not too long ago, I sent them a link to Sushi Cat, a flash game that is well known and easy to play and they have loved it.  So, since Steam decided to have a major sale, I thought, "why not?"

So in a depression of spending way too much money on things that don't matter, I thought, I'll buy some for me to make myself feel better.  Here's the list of new games:

(For the kids... and myself)
Plants Vs. Zombies
Peggle Deluxe
Toki Tori

(for me)
Audiosurf
Deus Ex
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal
Team Fortress 2

So yeah... I may have gone a little overboard.  It's okay though, I figure that I've wanted these games for a while and they were all on sale.  Nice.

Just so you don't think that this is all we do, I've also had them on the trampoline and playing outside.  I'm not THAT irresponsible.

all in a days work

There's a reason that I love my job.  That reason is because it rocks.

There has been a summit planed where kids would come and see each of the engineering groups do presentations about their field and how it "changes the quality of life."  And as a naturally born awesome person, of course they came to me (and my group) to present on behalf of the computer science department.  We were thrilled because we really haven't had much to do since school got out, so we quickly got to work coming up with some ideas to show how computer science helps for a better life.

First stop, the SCI institute.  Now SCI does some pretty cool things.  They have movies about doctors who are doing surgery on patients just by looking at monitors doing images and representations of what they are working on, they have models of chemical explosions with timelines to see how everything looks at a given time in 3D space, and countless other cool stuff.  So we thought, "Hey, let's do a tour!"

Next, we recycled the module they did from last year.  It's based on a simple green screen and the program would take in the first photo, and a second photo to overlay on only the green parts.  This is a thing they do in basic movie making to make the characters look like they are somewhere else because the second image (of Mt. Everest or cemetery) is overlaid.  This makes actors happy, because they don't have to climb Mt. Everest nor do they have to deal with rotting corpses climbing out of the ground hunting bbrrrraaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnsssss.

For two weeks setup and stress, the group coming was a tad smaller than I had expected.  There were only eight.  Now, don't get me wrong, this worked out pretty well for us because we could do some more one-on-one helping with our presentation (which rocked.  Hard core) but I hope to get the word out a little earlier next time so we can have TONS of kids.

It was fun and I think the group had fun too.  They were quiet, but they seemed interested in the stuff they were doing with our groups today.  We go again Friday so they can show us their finale.  (A letter/ powerpoint going to the governor).  Awesome.

spring brings color

Okay, I'm not normally one to just post another cliche, but this view ROCKED tonight.

four. julia piedad castro moran

(A loan from my mother)

About the Loan

Location:	Guayaquil (suburbio), Ecuador		Repayment Term:	14 months (more info)
Activity:	Catering		Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	For rice, seafood, cement and concrete blocks.		Currency Exchange Loss:	N/A
			Default Protection:	Not Covered

Julia, 58, lives in a periurban area in El Suburbio, Guayaquil; she sells prepared lunches from home. All of her children are married and she lives alone because she separated from her husband a few years back.

Julia started her lunch business when her children got married and she separated from her husband. Because she lacked income she decided to invest her savings in rice, vegetables, meats and seafood for her lunches. She started to home deliver them among her friends and neighbors and gradually her business grew.

Now she sells lunches using her home’s dining room where customers can come eat because she doesn’t have enough money to have a place to set up a restaurant.

She will use the loan to buy rice and seafood and she’ll use part of it to buy cement and concrete blocks to remodel her house.

She would love to have a place for her restaurant and a minimart in the future.

Translated from Spanish by Michael Bujazan, Kiva Volunteer

Julia de 58 años, vive en una zona periurbana en el Suburbio de Guayaquil, actualmente vende almuerzos en su casa. Ya todos sus hijos se casaron y vive sola ya que se separo de su esposo hace unos años atrás.

Julia empezó el negocio de almuerzo cuando sus hijos se casaron y cuando se separo de su esposo. Por la falta de ingresos decidió invertir sus ahorros en arroz, legumbres, carnes, mariscos para la venta de almuerzos, comenzó a repartir almuerzos a sus vecinos y amigos en sus casas, poco a poco fue creciendo su negocio.

Ahora ella vende almuerzo utilizando el comedor de su casa para que las personas vallan a comer porque no tiene un local para un restaurante por falta de dinero. Con el préstamo quiere comprar arroz, mariscos y también una parte del dinero quiere comprar cemento y bloques para remodelar su casa.

En el futuro quiere tener un local para su restaurante y también un minimarket. 

three. amaris del rosario escandón gòmez

About the Loan

Location:	San Jacinto-bolívar, Colombia		Repayment Term:	14 months (more info)
Activity:	Crafts		Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	The purchase of thick yarn to produce hammocks woven on a vertical loom and to make purses and backpacks.		Currency Exchange Loss:	Covered
			Default Protection:	Not Covered

Amaris Escandón Gómez is 55 years old and lives in San Jacinto, a municipality in the Bolívar town center known for the production of artisinal goods like hammocks, purses, and backpacks. Amaris is shopkeeper and producer of artisinal goods, a traditional activity inherited from her mother. The products that she makes the most are backpacks that she makes at night, and hammocks that she makes with her sisters and mother. Additionally, Amaris works in a company in the morning, while her husband does field work. She has had two loans with Fundación Santo Domingo which have improved her family income and allowed her to improve her living conditions. The loan she requests will be invested in the purchase of thick yarn to to make woven hammocks on a vertical loom, and also to make purses and backpacks.

She expresses that she has seen difficult times during periods of violence when her husband could not work in the countryside, when it was up to her to take charge of the majority of household expenses; thank God the situation has changed and today most sajacinteros[those from San Jacinto] can work in the countryside again. In the future, Amaris dreams of improving her home, which she owns, and of helping one of her three kids finish their university studies this coming year.
Translated from Spanish by Flavia Garcia, Kiva Volunteer

Amaris Escandón Gómez tiene 55 años y vive en San Jacinto, municipio del centro de Bolívar conocido por la elaboración de artesanías, tales como hamacas, bolsos y mochilas. Amaris es comerciante y productora de artesanías, actividad tradicional heredada de su madre. Los productos que más fabrica son las mochilas, las cuales elabora en horas de la noche y las hamacas que las elabora con sus hermanas y su mamá. Además, Amaris trabaja en una empresa en las horas de la mañana, mientras su esposo se dedica a labores del campo. Ha tenido 2 créditos con la Fundación Mario Santo Domingo los que le han aumentado su ingreso familiar e hicieron que pudiera mejorar sus condiciones habitacionales. El crédito que ahora solicita lo invertirá en la compra de hilaza para producir hamacas tejidas en telar vertical y también para la elaboración de bolsos y mochilas.

Manifiesta que ha visto tiempos difíciles durante tiempos de violencia cuando su esposo no podía trabajar en el campo debido a aquella problemática y entonces a ella le tocó encargarse de la mayor parte de los gastos del hogar; gracias a Dios la situación se ha cambiado y ahora los sanjacinteros pueden trabajar en el campo de nuevo. Más adelante, Amaris sueña con mejorar su vivienda, la cual es una casa propia y con ayudar a uno de sus tres hijos para que realice sus estudios universitarios el año que viene.

two. inna savchina

About the Loan

Location:	Kherson, Ukraine		Repayment Term:	8 months (more info)
Activity:	Grocery Store		Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	To increase the assortment of food to sell		Currency Exchange Loss:	Possible
			Default Protection:	Covered

Inna is married with two children. She has a business that sells various kind of food. She started this business 15 years ago with one small table at the market. Today Inna has two kiosks at the market and a small store that sells food items in bulk for other vendors. Inna has very strong entrepreneurial skills. Her business story is a great example for her friends and colleagues to follow.

Inna would like to borrow 14,700 UAH to increase the assortment of food she sells. She hopes to increase her sales during the coming Christmas season

one. thalia lizeth escalera sánchez

About the Loan

Location:	Nuevo Laredo, Mexico		Repayment Term:	15 months (more info)
Activity:	Teaching and Schools		Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	To pay for school fees		Currency Exchange Loss:	Possible
			Default Protection:	Not Covered

Thalia Lizetha Escalera is a mother of two small children and is studying to be an accountant. However, right now she is requesting a loan to pay her school fees since she doesn't have the money necessary to pay them.

She works as a seller at a telephone company which is the income that she uses for her studies and will use to repay the loan, since her husband Roberto Coronel covers the household expenses.


Translated from Spanish by Donald Allen, Kiva Volunteer

La señora Thalia Lizeth Escalera es madre de dos pequeños hijos y está estudiando la carrera de contador público.
Pero en este momento solicita un préstamo para poder pagar la colegiatura y el titulo profesional, ya que no cuenta con el dinero necesario para liquidar.
Ella trabaja como vendedora en una compañía de teléfono, este es el ingreso que tiene para sus estudios y pagar el crédito ya que los gastos familiares los cubre su esposo el señor Roberto Coronel.

the micro loan

So I got an email from Kiva today to remind me that Mother's Day was coming up.  They had some gift certificates that they wanted to sell.  Kiva is a pretty cool non-prof though.  I think I first heard about them from watching A LOT of commercials on Hulu.  And getting to know the company by checking out their website was pretty cool.  I've really enjoyed doing micro loans to people.

A friend of mine named Frances said that it was her goal this year to make one micro loan.  What a great goal that is.  I think I'm going to follow her lead.  My goal, to get someone else to make a micro loan.

So in that light, I'm posting 3 posts (is that redundant?) about the people that I have loaned money to in hopes that it will get you to think about doing the same.

Woot.

singing, "schools out for... two weeks"

Well, finals are done.  My last one was today. Yikes, that was an intense semester ("like the circus, and camping." ha!)

Things are winding down, and we all know what that means.  Yes, it's a short break before summer semester begins.  I really wish I had more time to myself to relax, but I am self-imposing these schedules so that I can graduate without killing myself.  Although, I have been running into some major snags along the way.

I got my acceptance letter from SLCC (...huzzah...) but it said I wasn't a resident of Utah.  Okay, shut the front door.  I'm totally a resident.  Jerks.  I had to call them and settle the whole thing.  It didn't take too long, but I was informed that before I could sign up for classes, I would have to come in and do their orientation.  Having been a college student far longer than I would like to admit, I didn't feel it all that important.  But, I COULDN'T register for a class until it was done.

I found out that I could do it online.  I was stoked.  It took ten minutes and I was feeling quite good when it told me that it would take up to two more days for them to process my online orientation.  And here I thought when I pressed the "Complete" button, I was done.

All-in-all I got it all set up and I tried to add the class.  Red letters sirens and all such forth were overwhelming me and I soon found out why.  The class was full.  Not only full, but TOO full.  In the books, it's a class that seats 35.  That is a great class size and I was pretty excited to have a Physics class that wasn't over 200 students.  But there were 51 enrolled.  Yeah, you heard me.  51 enrolled students in a class of 35.

I called the professor and asked if there was anything I could do.  When I didn't get a response, I emailed her.  Seems like she won't add anyone else into the class until at least 10 people drop out and she said that won't happen within the first week and she wasn't willing to let someone in after the first week.  Sheesh.

Well, So here I am, getting ready to take Physics from the U which I was avoiding in the first place.  I guess you can't always win... Maybe I'll get the time to myself to relax after all.

interview

Self reflected Microsoft interview Score:  B+

Here's the rundown of what they asked:

Write two programs to calculate the Fibonacci sequence - One iterative and one recursive

Tape with the numbers 1...Million with one number missing.  Only looking once at the tape, how do you find which number is missing?

If you owned a elevator business and you did the quality control, what tests would you run on an elevator put into a hospital?

We were on the phone about twice as long as was expected which she apologized for... good?  bad?

1 @m 5u(h @ d*r|{

So I just wrote a program that will change what you type into craziness.  Let me give you an example aside from the title of the post...

$o i ju57 wR*73 a PR*graM that Wil) [han9e w4@7 y*U tyP3 int* cr@Z1n3$5_  |37 Me 91V3 y*U an 3XaMPle @$ide FroM th3 717|3 *f th3 P*$t___

Yeah.  I know.  I'm a dork.

(I'm not sure how I feel about having the "h" be a 4...)

Although I guess it's not all that surprising.  It's what I like to do.  That wasn't an assignment or anything, I just did it because I had some spare time one day.

Dorkiness runs in the family though.  I'm the first in the family to officially study dorkitude, but everyone loves it.  My oldest brother has been as dorky as I since I can remember.

I remember when he worked coding HTML locally (and I hope you know that I spend all my time with people who will argue for quite a while about how HTML isn't a language for no more reason than to show how much they know about HTML and coding), and in his spare time... you guessed it... he taught me.

This was WELL before the days of what some dubbed "FakeTML" programs like Dreamweaver, iWeb, etc.  That was back in the good ol' days when you coded each line yourself, and the walk to the computer was 2 miles, uphill both ways... in the snow.

His dorkiness and mine are the most similar in the family.  Most everyone else has their own outlets.  Songs titled, "Love is like a Refillable Mug" were invented at the RFC, a brother has 4 pinball machines, my father used to collect VCRs and bread machines, a sister did have a collection of snow-globes, and the list continues.

But here's the best part.  That's why we are so dang cool.  Each of us has our own passions and yet, although some of them are stupid enough to be creating a program that changed the letters of a sentence, we still accept each other, despite the dork that lives within.  I have never heard anything but positive things about what I find fun and interesting.

I guess that's what family is though.  It's not the blood that binds us, but the attitude we show to each other for our passions, or problems and even our mistakes.

Plus, they're a fun group to vacation with...

PS - The image at the beginning was taken from a Google image search.  I thought I HAD to add it because I did a search for "nerd programmer" and within the first 10 images, I found a picture that looks amazingly like my brother...

big things come in small names

Have you ever thought it funny that such a large company has a name that starts with "Micro?"

I got my resume all typed up and sent it off.  I hope to hear back soon.  An internship over the summer would be fantastic.  I know I'm getting into the game a little late, but it's always worth a shot.  

It's been a fun spring break.  I was a little shocked that it was Thursday today.  Honestly, I went through the entire day thinking that it was Wednesday.  Weird.  I've been quite productive and I hope to get everything done this week that I need so I can focus on school.  I'm cutting it down pretty close to the wire, but I'm sure I can work it out.

I've been working with my new job and I have quite a few new leads.  It really helps that my mother worked for the school district and seems to know everyone that I would need to talk to.  In fact, she got me talking with the people whose job is to find people like me.  Nice.  I'll be making a few more calls tomorrow before everyone goes home for the weekend to see if I can get some more headway on this project.  I'm pretty excited about it.

I did get to visit Slagle while I was down at the highschool the other day.  She's great.  It was the morning before a concert so it seemed that she was pretty busy getting everything done.  She made a huge impact on my highschool days.  It was fun to see her and I hope that when we get up and running at that school, that I'll be able to say hello more frequently.  

Why does spring break go so quickly?

list

Thumbs down button on remote

Pencil holder

Pen

Soda can

DVD cover

Shirt

A/V cables

Book

American flag

Uncle Sam's bowtie

Candy

Picture frame

Magazine

Child's toy bus

Model airplane

Dish towel

Painting

Shoes

And that concludes the things around me that are red.

it is time part ii

That's it folks.  As of today, I no longer work at the bank.  (I feel like I can say that now that I don't work there)

I have learned a lot from that job and it was actually pretty hard to leave.  The people at that branch are awesome and I loved working with them.  I did have frustrating days, as everyone does sometimes, but I came out of that a better person with a skill set that can be applicable to a whole lot of areas.

So here's the thing.  I think I need to celebrate.  A new job, a lot fewer hours (which is going to help me with school), and the fact that this week has been so busy that I could throw up.

So readers and buzzers, here's the plan.

BREAKFAST!

Woot woot!

This Saturday morning I want to get whoever wants to come with me and get some breakfast (I already know what I'm going to order) at a little place called Chick's Cafe in Heber.  It's a bit of a drive, but it will be fun with friends, trust me!

So if you are interested, meet me at my house at 9:30 so we can drive up there, get some breakfast!  It'll be fun. 

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=374653598742

it is time

At least it will be in 3:12:58:10 (3 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes and 10 seconds)

But who's counting, right?

onward and upward

Okay readers (and Google Buzzers), it official.  I put in my two weeks.

I went in and spoke with my boss and made it unofficially official.  The unofficial comes from the fact that we're going to count the two weeks as of tomorrow.  So that makes tomorrow officially official.  

Leaving is bittersweet.  I have learned a lot from my job and I adore the people that I work with.  They are pretty awesome so I'm sad to say goodbye.

But don't worry.  (I know you were worrying.)  I have something else lined up.  In fact, I was offered the position today. (Which is why I put in the two weeks.  Both jobs would be too much for me)  I am going to have an amazing new job that I am very excited about.  Want to know what it is?  Well, I'll tell you.  Just keep reading.  It's just after this... Wait for it... wait for it...

duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba  (That's a drum roll)

KA-TCSHHHHHHH!  (That's the symbols that usually follow drum rolls)

I'll be working for the University.  Ah yeah baby!  I'm going to be designing curriculum to promote Engineering (with an emphasis on the Computer Science Department of course) in highschools around here.  I'm going to be picking a topic that interests me, make some module (lesson) that I can share and then go and share it.  I know.  Can you imagine me teaching some aspect of why CS is so awesome?  'Cuz I can.  And I will.  

Ideally, I'll be writing it so that others can take my module and teach it themselves in the future.  I'm EXTREMELY excited about it.  

So if you have any ideas on something that I can do (and I'm sure I'm going to get 30 buzzes from my friends about making a remote fart noise maker or something similar) comment/buzz and let me know.  

Yay for an awesome new job!