Obama and Kiva Gift Certificates

Just made a donation to the Obama campaign to help their second quarter numbers. I think they are going to be very good. I was at our weekly Obama meeting last night and heard some things, including the fact the campaign is closely watching our group. Apparently we are one of the most active with weekly meetings and lots of events. We meet at a really cool place that has great food and ambiance, which is why the weekly meetings aren't that hard to do. I really enjoy hanging out with smart people who are actually committed and caring about the world.

I also got a few Kiva gift certificates for some people who work in my sewing business. They are all hard-working. The business is great to have, because it allows me to help people like stay-home-moms and people who have emergency fund needs. So when people come and say 'help, my car died and I need $200 this weekend to fix it', I can give them work to do to make the money. And we pay about 4-5 times minimum wage, the business was set up to give them work, not to make me profit. (Though I must say I am profiting, business is very good). Having this hobby business also keeps my scavenge friends away, the ones who just want my money but don't want to work for it. They used to try to give me grief and go on about how them and their families are deserving, and since I give to others they should get some. People like that tend to disappear when you actually offer them jobs to do, so its made my life a lot easier. Now I mostly get contacted by people who are actually willing to work. Today I got 2 emails for new sewers, and was happy to see one was a stay-home-mom. I'm not sure how many kids we are currently helping feed (I don't even know how many sewers we have, I'm not involved in production) but I think the record was 21 kids. And I've set up a few college funds (my own bank accounts I'm designating for them for college), 'cause schooling in the US is EXPENSIVE. I graduated with over $55,000 US in debt, mostly from grad school where I got 75% of it funded. (I paid it off by day-trading the stock market, which is not something I advise people to do). So I'm setting up college funds for the kids. ING does direct withdrawal, so we don't even notice it missing. And it so insignificant when compared to the UPS bill! (I pay the bills of the business, that's my 'job', I also do the web work).