so... what is the kiva of which you speak?

Kiva.org is a group that helps micro businesses get funding, $25 at a time, by crowd-sourced loans that must be repaid.

I have been part of Kiva for over a decade.

I belong to the Nerdfighters group, ever since July of 2012. It is thanks to them that I know about Kiva.

I had been doubtful of how it worked, but I took a chance, as it would not cost me anything to try it out. An angel in the Nerdfighters was offering the opportunity to bring awareness of Kiva to others.

Seeing how easy it was, I volunteered twenty-five dollars of my own money in support of a loan to another stranger working to better their lives and their community. Just $25. That's no more than most raffle tickets.

By September of 2013, that $25 I had lent was fully repaid to me. I had the option of withdrawing that money from Kiva and calling it quits... or helping someone else better their lives and community by investing that money in another loan. I chose to help another.

By November of 2015, I had relent that same twenty-five dollars seven times. Every time the loan I made was repaid to my Kiva account, I turned it around to help someone else. No further investment was made by me, just that initial $25, and I'd leveraged that money into helping make seven more dreams of a better life come true.

August of 2020 marked the 9th anniversary of me being a Nerdfighter. I had made a total of 26 loans, to 19 countries, to help people better their lives and the lives of their families and communities. All I had invested by that time was $175 of my own money. That would only have covered seven of those loans; the remaining 19 loans that I've made have been using funds repaid by those who had borrowed. That means I was helping them help others.

Since that time, my total loan count has ratcheted up to 51 loans. For those who understand how compounding works, this is a sterling example. The more money I've lent to others, the more that has been repaid to that 12-year-old Kiva account of mine, and the more money I can lend out again. 

It really brings solace to my soul, just as donating blood once did. That avenue of helping others is closed now, as I have atrial fibrillation, but not before I reached a total of fourteen gallons donated. As each pint helps up to 3 people, and there are 8 pints in a gallon, then I was able to help support the lives of 336 folks in need... just by rolling up my sleeve.

See how easy it is to help make the world a better place?

happy international women's day!!!

Perplexed?

Wondering how to show someone dear to you how much you care?

Bounce on over to Kiva.org and stretch that gift twice as far!!!

Hitachi is matching loans in honor of this day.

Let them help you celebrate as you decrease world suck with me...

and the Nerdfighters can help with that, too!

Here's an easy link to tell them hi for me!

Thanks!!!

minty start of autumn

 

It's just a week into autumn and the temperatures have shifted by ten degrees.

We now have low 80's for the highs and low 60's for the pre-dawn time.

I rather miss the hum of the fan at night, but cold feet are not my thing.

(smile!)

 

One of the best things about the chill in the air?

I don't have to use matches to light the stove anymore.

See, during the over-90 days, the air in the attic gets so hot that the fan up there turns itself on, pumping all that heat straight into the house!!!

Ack!

The only way to shut the attic fan off is to pull out the fuse in the electric panel.

Good that I have those fuses labeled, right?

But here's something crazy: that fuse also controls the electrical outlet for the stove.

Since the piezoelectric igniters are electric, I have to use matches every time I want to cook anything or heat something up.

That's not really an issue, as I have teapots full of matchbooks collected over the decades.

Sure, the strike pads on those matchbooks have gotten damp from humidity so often that they don't really work.

Not that I haven't struck upon a work around for that, but it does slow me down.

Not anymore!

And there's a bonus: the light on the stove works, too, as does the clock!

Hooray!

So, happy autumn to me!

(smile!)

 

Oh, one more thing that's special for me today: it's my first mintiversary!

That's right!

It's already been a year since I chose Ryan Reynolds' company over T-Mobile, the one I'd been with continuously since October of 2007.

That means I was with them for 14 years, with never once an anniversary email.

I rather like getting that mintiversary email today!

I realize that the two companies reached some kind of merger in March, but I trust that Mr. Reynolds will continue to take care of me in his touchy-feely, minty fresh, way.

I like that.

For instance, only mint has ever told me how many minutes I talk on the phone.

Apparently, I'm "rather chatty" as I did that for 3,531 minutes from 09-28-22 to 09-28-23.

That's almost 300 minutes per month, y'all!

Far more than I'd thought, that's for sure!

Here's another number mint tracked for that year: 8,010 text messages.

Yowzah!!!

No wonder mint admitted to being "a little jealous" of that.

And, while I do text far more than I call, I also send a crazy amount of photos through the ether and those all count as emails, too.

Well, they also count as data, contributing to the 1.8 GB I've used of that.

To put that into perspective, lest someone think I've relented to using my Alcatel as a smart phone, I'm allotted 5 GB for data monthly.

Over the course of a year, that would be an allowance of 60 GB... and I used 1.8, which is just 3% of what I was granted.

Good for me!

Thanks, mint, for that refreshing outtake!

(smile!)

Oh, speaking of places reviewing my year with them, kiva sent me an email today, too!

My anniversary - kivaversary? - month with them starts in July.

For the time between 07-01-22 to 06-30-23, I made 6 loans, of $25 each, to either individuals or groups in other countries.

Here's the truly amazing part: those loans cost me nothing.

That's because I'm recycling the funds repaid to me from those who benefited from previous loans over the 11 years that I have been Fliss, Nerdfighter.

Moreover, the $24.25 that I have "donated" to kiva for loan processing fees has all been monies recouped from paid past loans.

What a grand cycle of giving, enabling those who have received loans to pay it forward!

As it happens, I've had sufficient funds for another loan for about a month.

Maybe I will find one this weekend to honor my stepmom, Bonnie, for her birthday...

yes, I do believe she would like that.

(smile!)

Now, time to get ready for National Silent Movie Day!

That's news to you?

Truth to tell, it was news to me, too.

But my favorite venue of all time, the Lucas Theatre, is celebrating that very thing tonight.

With its mighty Wurlitzer restored and gleaming, and Ron Carter stroking its keys and tapping its pedals, the Lucas presents "Safety Last!", a film that's now a century old!!!

How 'bout that?

I'm quite excited!!!

That will be a "first" to add to my list.

(smile!)