The geek in me

Years ago I became a fan of Doctor Who.  Broken into short programs, each full episode was shown in four segments and therefore took almost a week to watch.

The Tardis

A quick aside…during the several years of watching Doctor Who, I was introduced into an extremely corny yet interesting five minute show called Star Gazer with Jack Horkheimer. Star Gazer has been in weekly production since 1976, and has produced over 1,500 episodes as of September 2006.  It was actually part of the fun of watching Doctor Who.

To me, Doctor Who was always Tom Baker.  I admit that I liked the shows where one or more of the older Doctors joined Tom Baker, but truly he was the “man” or better said, he was “the Time Lord”.  I kept that opinion until the end of the first season of the revived Doctor Who in 2006.  Christopher Eccleston won me over by the end of the season.  Then they decided to bring in another new doctor, a string bean of a guy, David Tennant.  I was determined NOT to like this guy since I felt like the show which I liked so much had already abandoned thier new direction with a cool, hip doctor.

I was stubborn, I was going to refuse to like the 10th Doctor, and the second season of the show except for Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).  Little did I know that David Tennant would become MY Doctor Who! He was funny, quirky, unique and played the role like no other.  He was the best and now he is leaving the show after four more episodes.  Too bad!  I will refuse to like the 11th Doctor although I’m sure I will eventually like him, but I doubt he will take the place of David Tennant, THE Doctor Who.

See some of the thoughts on the future of the Doctor Who show -http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a134251/cult-spy-the-doctors-regenerations.html

A quiet, fulfilling evening helping others

Lisa and I spent a relaxing evening tonight with friends eating Mexican food, sharing updates on our lives and re-loaning our funds through www.kiva.org.  A group of 13 people from Tallahassee (Lending Hands of Tallahassee) started our own micro-lending group in November of 2007. 

If you don’t know about Kiva, you should check it out.  It allows you to help real people that need some assistance. About Kiva…

KIVA.ORG

We Let You Loan to the Working Poor

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.

We were able to loan to 20+ people tonight from all over the world and get together with our friends.