Sales for her are fairly consistent despite it being winter and a generally slower time. Depending on foot traffic through the market, the storefront is open from approximately 7am-7pm where Julia and her one employee share responsibilities. Julia’s husband is not working, so this business provides for them and their five children ranging in age from two years old to 18 years old. Any profits from the business go to maintaining the household and putting the children in school. In addition, this business supports her employee who supports one child.
The business faces two major challenges to greater profits. The first being that the storefront she works from is not enclosed. When it rains she must shut down and each night she carries her merchandise into storage at the main market where she must pay an additional fee to do so. The second is the cost and inconvenience of making three to four trips a month to the capital city of Maputo (30km away) in the local bus.
If you want to be friends with Gaigan on Facebook, please feel free. Alternatively, since gaigan.com is defunct, you can visit the Web 0.1 broken image glory on the wayback machine, or check out his hevelonian stream. Scrowyaar!
Steve’s heading to California, not to see VCbut to move a car back east with one of his friends. I’m using that as an excuse to test out the “Blog This” feature from flickr, with a Golden Gate shot from one of his last trips West. If you follow the photo stream, there’ll be a NSFW nude dude surprise.
I’m just back from something being called a ‘Street Beat Festival’, hosted by my place of former employ. As is normally the case with these things, it neither took place on the street nor had a particular beat. That said, Kimberly Locke was singing there – two thoughts: first – she looked quite attractive/thin and second – this has GOT to be a step down from sparring with Dustin Diamond on Celebrity Fit Club. She’s doing a second set at 1:30 if you’re in the area and bored; though, the only legitimate reason for attendance is the free food. Thanks for the saag paneer and tikka masala, whoever it was who paid for this stuff!
Here are the full results for last week’s Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5 miler (I’ve had better races). If I understand this correctly I barely avoided finishing in the bottom quartile of my age & sex group. Some training and lifestyle changes are going to have to be made around here before the BAA half.
In honor of what’s going down later today at my place when the mail shows up, here’s a track from Harry and the Potters off their great second album, Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock. I saw these guys at the Middle East a few years ago, and again last night along with about 5,000 other people, all happy and excited over this book. The squid/drummer is fairly representative of the outfits people were wearing – I saw at least three different people dressed as golden snitches.
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My mom called me from Wrigley Field yesterday (while I’m spending the day in a office with panoramic view of sheetrock) to let me know that Barry Bonds had hit homerun #752, just shy of Hank Aaron’s record of 755 (later in the game he hit #753, a three run shot). Apparently he was roundly booed, either because he’s a steroid using cheat about to despoil the pantheon of greats or just because he’s an all-around asshole. Fortunately the Cubs won, 8-9.
Buying the coffee I’m currently drinking (Trader Joe’s Low Acid French Roast) was a boring and tasteless mistake. But at least it didn’t cost $600 and the beans weren’t pooped out the back end of a jungle cat-weasel. Ah, delicious kopi luwak. A much better deal can be found in Hanoi, where a whole roast civet can be had for 120,000 dong. Let me bust out my dong to dung conversion calculator… that’s 75 roast civets for the price of a pound of the special brew. Wait, what? That’s how we ended up with SARS? Maybe Trader Joe’s isn’t so bad after all. If you want to see one creeping around in the dark, fast forward about halfway through this.
(ps. Mostly Cajun writes on a alternapoop coffee from the Jacu Bird).
I like to keep on top of the scientific literature and so was somewhat embarrassed (yet, excited!) when VC sent me the long overlooked results of a science fair run by Objective Ministries. Making this even more exciting was (given my fondness for all things Hystricomorpha), was the efforts of one high school senior whose project combined animal husbandry, fluid dynamics and the Gilmore-Gomory cutting-stock heuristic. Sadly it seems as though the fix was in – this work was relegated to second place (honestly – prayer based antibiotic resistance has NOTHING on this).
Maximal Packing Of Rodentia Kinds: A Feasibility Study
Jason Spinter's (grade 12) project was to show the feasibility of Noah's Ark using a Rodentia research model (made of a mixture of hamsters and gerbils) as a representative of diluvian life forms. The Rodentia were placed in a cage with dimensions proportional to a section of the Ark. The number of Rodentia used (58) was calculated using available Creation Science research and was based on the median animal size and their volumetric distribution in the Ark. The cage was also fitted with wooden dowels inserted at regular intervals through the cage walls, forming platforms which provided support for the Rodentia. Although there was little room left in the cage, all Rodentia were able to move just enough to ward off muscle atrophy. Food pellets and water were delivered to sub-surface Rodentia via plastic drinking straws inserted into the Rodentia-mass, which also served to allow internal air flow. Once a day, the cage was sprayed with water to cleanse any built-up waste. Additionally, the cage was suspended on bungee cords to simulate the rocking motion of a ship. The study lasted 30 days and 30 nights, with all Rodentia surviving at least long enough afterwards to allow for reproduction. These findings strongly suggest that Noah's Ark could hold and support representatives of all antediluvian animal kinds for the duration of the Flood and subsequent repopulation of the Earth.
One is on solid ground when saying that Jason Spinter is in the upper echelons of the gerbil packing community.
Bennie G. Thompson (D-Mississippi), Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security sent a letter (best letter ever) to Michael Chertoff asking him to clarify his ‘gut feeling’ that the US will face a terrorist attack this summer.
What color code in the Homeland Security Advisory System is associated with a “gut feeling?” What sectors should be on alert as a result of your “gut feeling?” What cities should be asking their law enforcement to work double shifts because of your “gut feeling?” Are the American people supposed to purchase duct tape and plastic sheeting because of your “gut feeling?”
I think some people are missing the point, saying Chertoff is stupid or ineffectual at his job (although, there’s a point of fact there). This is all part of a scare strategy that we’ll see more of as we move closer to the election. The software industry is full of people implementing the exact same strategy, sometimes purposefully and sometimes because they really believe in it – it’s all just FUD.
Today is 07-07-07. Which, depending on which calendar you use, means it’s time for the most numerically symmetrical Tanabata in 1000 years. Tanabata is a Japan festival/celebration of reunited lovers.
Three female theologians, Mary Doak, Susie Babka and Karen Teel have accepted a teaching positions at the University of San Diego, a small Catholic school. This is only interesting to me since I’ve known Karen (tangentially) for a number of years now, and due to the amateurish hack-job attempt from the California Catholic Daily on the collective hiring. The non-bylined piece strongly implies the recent hires should be opposed due to the fact that the individuals in question are feminists, and one of them (MD) “sees the importance of freedom and diversity within the Church.” Qué horror!
Additional amusement points come from the selection of a photo of a USD student in some sort of ecstatic conip-fit.
The rats have returned to Allston. I have been seeing more of these creepy bastards over the last few weeks, but now it’s such that I don’t particularly want to go out in the evening hours without real shoes. The dog asked if I felt like she deserved to go for a walk and since she’s been decent, off we go. Down the hill she goes into predator mode, having spotted Ratatouille under a car. I let her chase it since she never catches anything. I’ve got this theory that if fear of my dog can increase the cortisol levels in rat brains the same amount they increase it in mine, the universe stays in balance.
Surprising all three of us, she caught the 8 inch long filth-feeder and gave him a couple strong shakes, to his vigorous protest. Luckily she was still able to recognize my freaked out ‘Drop it!!!’ despite the bloodlust. Fievel exits stage right, hopefully to warn the others. If everyone is free, let’s do it again tomorrow…
Yesterday was Jill’s 30th birthday. I hadn’t mentioned that to my mom when she pointed out that the lilies from her wedding were in spectacular bloom. I’m really happy to have these.
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