Yet More Incremental Progress

Those two of you who have not entirely given up on me might recall my earlier post about picking ceiling fans... I have actually had the one in the kitchen up for a couple of months:



But I just put the other two up in the parlor (after much swearing and blood loss) and have some pitchers:



And bof'em:



You can't actually tell in these pictures, but I didn't have enough CFLs to put bulbs in the ones in the parlor, so I put 4 100W incandescents in the back one, and four 25W, uh, multicolored bulbs in the front one. Festive!

I still need to replace the switch with a non-dimmer (esp. if I use non-dimmable CFLs) and add a short length of bead chain to the light pulls, and secure the conduit a little better to the ceiling, but overall I am fairly proud of myself.

Fuck Chummy Robot Voices

I've had occasion to cancel a bunch of services in the last couple of days, and I have to say, I'd far rather talk to some incoherent foreigner over a bad connection than the stupid-ass robotic help person on Verizon's customer service line.

The funny thing is, actual Verizon humans have all been easy to deal with and tend to have a mastery of unaccented English. So why did they decide that their robot needs to be my friend?

On the plus side, at least chummy robots don't have to struggle with scripted inducements to PLEASE STAY, WE'LL MAKE YOU THE SAME OFFER OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR 30 MORE DAYS EACH TIME!!!

D'oh!

David has reminded me that I missed my blogiversary on 5/11.

Four years, whoo! What is that, like, 8 posts now?

I Am A Giant Nerd

Because I think this is exceptionally cool.

And to further prove my nerdliness, here is a sample of something fun to enter to verify its coolness:

    t en fr computer

Shilling

Last year around this time I decided to check out Prosper; I've been fascinated with the concept of microloans since I first heard about them several years ago, but I never really had any money to lend, nor was there an easy framework to do so. Prosper provides a fairly clunky method of lending money, but it works and I am confident enough in the risk that I signed up, funded an account with a thousand dollars, and bid on a couple loans. Kiva's out there, too, but there was some reason why I didn't sign up there initially, probably that it was soon enough after Katrina that I felt like helping domestically.

Thus far I've made a little over 10% on my investment, although by the end I should've made a bit more than that. The thing is, while I feel a little creeped out by the somewhat usurious interest rates (one is at 13.21%, the other at 17%, and I just reinvested some of the income on an 18% loan), I figure I'm helping people that simply can't get loans any other way, at any rate.

So, in the interest of full disclosure, the below doohickey gets new lenders $25, and me $50. I think. At any rate, it seems like a good deal for everyone. You know, kind of like the Bush Presidency...



(You should certainly check out Kiva, too, although neither of us gets any money that way.)

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UPDATE: Kiva is non-profit, and charges no interest, ergo you earn no interest. And while I would like to get involved with that, I can't afford to have what little available money I have sitting around collecting no interest.

Should Anyone Have Some Extra Money Laying Around

Feel free to click here and give it to the Susan Komen Fund.

Attention, Schwankis

Details.

Further Details.

No word on price, but does that really matter?

This is Disturbingly Well Done

Caution: do not watch while consuming a beverage.