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I took up Kendo about six months ago (it’s known colloquially as Japanese fencing). I’m not a fit person by any means – it’s the first sport-like activity I’ve ever tried IN MY LIFE – but I really enjoy it even though I sometimes find it difficult!

After six months of practising basic footwork and swings, I am nearly ready to don armour (Bogu) and re-learn it all again . Our club unfortunately does not have club bogu for newbies, but I had the chance to try the bogu of a fellow kendoka and even though I winced at each kote strike it got me very excited!

After a LOT of searching online, comparison shopping and research, I decided to order my bogu from E-Kendo.com. I found it considerably difficult to find any online reviews of this place (actually reviews for other major Kendo suppliers are also lacking) so I thought that I would chronicle my purchase online to help anyone else who might be looking at bogu!

I didn’t have a lot of money to plunk down for bogu, and it can get quite pricey. I’ve heard many stories of people quitting shortly after getting into bogu, and while I hope I won’t be added to that statistic buying a cheaper first set would soften the blow. I also wanted to balance price with something of a decent stitch length, as I’ve been told that 6mm will probably fall apart pretty quickly. And to top it off, I wanted a colored do with pretty mune stitching (what can I say, I’m a girl!). I was a little concerned at getting something personalized, as anything too bright and colourful can be frowned upon by traditionalists. However after talking to some higher-ranked kendoka who completely supported this choice and finding out that these personalizations are more acceptable in the West, I decided to get a pretty do!

Because of these reasons, I ordered my bogu set from E-Kendo.com. Specifically, the 4/2mm Machine Stitched Bogu Set. It had many advantages:

the bogu set I'm ordering!

• decent 4mm stitching with 2mm at the men and tare
• good price at just $315
• custom! in that you can provide your body’s measurements and they will make sure the bogu fits you precisely
• FREE mune embroidery choice (some complicated patterns are a little extra)
• FREE do color choice (some fancier designs are a little extra)
• come with free extras: himo set, bogu bag(!), men leather, and a tenugui

small sample of some do colours!

The customer service was excellent! I communicated with one person via email, and though the time zones are quite different he was very quick to respond to any of my inquiries. There is a language barrier though, and the engrish may make it difficult to decipher a response. However I had no problems sending follow-up emails to clarify.

I ended up asking if they stocked smaller do sizes, as the size they display on their site would be a little too large on me. He told me to send him my waist and height measurements and that he would take care of it. He even entertained my request for white do-himo (I wear a white gi and the navy do-himo would definitely leave stripes all over it). I also made a gutsy move and asked if he could send an extra free kote pair (Kendoshop.com, a competitor, is running a sale where they are offering an extra kote set with each bogu purchase, and I asked if he would be able to match that). He said yes! Fantastic!

The only downside so far is the expensive shipping, priced at around $90.00 for a bogu set. However even factoring this in, it still comes out cheaper when compared to other suppliers (and I have yet to find anyone else who offers free do and mune customizations! Haha this is obviously a big deal for me ). The order process is pretty painless, you’re able to pay by Paypal or credit card (make sure you allow pop-ups). Don’t bother setting up your order in advance though, it seems that your shopping cart automatically empties every night.

So as of now the order is in and I’m assuming the various parts of the bogu are being collected and customized. This process should take around 5-7 days before it’s shipped. I’ll keep you updated on the process, and will especially let you know how badly I get dinged for customs (I live in Canada, they’re shipping from Korea). This was something that was difficult to find on Google - I found one thread where the customs charge ranged from $40-$120, so I have my fingers crossed!

Obviously I’m no Kendo expert as this is my first set of bogu, so I’ll be sure to post many pictures when I get it so you can judge the quality for yourself. I’m so ridiculously excited (as I’m sure anyone else who’s done Kendo can remember – oh that first bogu set!!).

I’ve been feverishly playing Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth Investigations for the past week. It’s not as strong as the other games, but since I was expecting a mere spin-off I’m not complaining: this is a full-blown Ace Attorney game!

Very Minor Case 5 Spoilers (Choice Point)
Halfway through Case 5 (Turnabout Ablaze) I came across a choice point. I was asked to either present the illegal trump card, or not to. Searching the internet, I wasn’t able to gather information on whether choosing one choice over the other would affect the rest of the game. I tried both, and for those who want to know the answer: both showing the trump card and not showing the trump card will result in the same storyline! Hopefully this will help those of you who wondered what to do.

For a slightly more detailed explanation:

Choosing the Trump Card
Will immediately cause the illegal evidence to be presented.

Not Choosing the Trump Card
Will result in slightly more dialogue, but Miles realizes that to combat someone above the law, he will need to present the evidence. The illegal evidence is presented.

So either way results in the same outcome!

I recently transferred one of my blogs to a different host, and for some reason the adsense ads on my site disappeared. There were either blank places where they should’ve been, or public service ads.

I left it for a day, thinking that maybe Adsense needed to ‘figure out’ the site had been moved before displaying ads again, but still no dice. Then I realized I’d seen this kind of ad behaviour before – when I had accidentally tried to put adsense ads behind a password protected page.

The google spiders couldn’t get to it!

When changing hosts I forgot to adjust my Wordpress privacy settings to allow search bots to scan my page, which is something that adsense needs to do to figure out what to display on your site.

So, if you adsense ads aren’t showing up on your wordpress site, try this simple fix:

1) Login to Wordpress, navigate to Settings > Privacy
2) Make sure ‘I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines‘ is CHECKED! Make sure to SAVE CHANGES!

3) Wait for about 10-15 minutes

And hopefully your adsense ads should magically reappear on your wordpress blog! Good luck!

So I’ve noticed that a lot of wandering internet folk are stumbling upon the Spiffy Owl (specifically, the Threadless Gift Certificates post) while searching for Threadless Owl Shirts. I thought I’d help you guys out and compile a list of owl-themed or owl-containing tees! Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any.

Updated May 3/2010 – 5 New!

Flow of Wisdom

Night Sky Projector

» CONTINUE for more Threadless Owl-y Goodness!

I was bumming around on the net a couple of days ago, probably browsing another money-making blog, when I came across a post about charity. Being a young, educated, idealistic student, I’m also naturally slightly socially-conscious – although nowhere near the level of some of my peers (many of whom I have great respect for). However, also being a young, educated, idealistic student, I’m also naturally slightly broke. I’ve participated and volunteered good chunks of time for several local non-profits over the years, but I can’t say that I’ve ever purposefully set aside REAL TANGIBLE MONEY for charity.

However, this blog post that I stumbled upon (I don’t remember where it was from, or even if it actually was a blog post) mentioned something about charity that struck a chord. It went something like:

‘If you decide to donate to charity only once you’ve accumulated wealth, at what point will you have accumulated enough wealth?’

When indeed? It’s foolish to think that we’d all eventually reach a point in our lives where we literally have SO MUCH MONEY that we have excess to give away. To be financially charitable, perhaps one needs to budget for it. I’m a young, educated, idealistic, and slightly broke student, but I have a four-month job lined up for me starting in half a week. It doesn’t pay much, and I’m still technically in school so I still need to cover tuition, but I’m determined to set aside a very humble $25/month for charity during the length of the term. That’s $100, enough for an over-priced textbook, and peanuts in the Real World(tm), where poverty-eradication requires a trillion-dollar solution. Still, it’s a start.

Of course, setting aside money is just that – a start. A dilemma quickly presented itself – where should the money go? I decided to arbitrarily focus my giving on international aid for now, since I already focus my volunteering at the local level. Now how should I donate so my measly $25/month will go the furthest it can possibly go? I’m sure this is a question seriously pondered by the charitable worldwide, it’s always nice to feel that your contribution actually does make a difference in the Real World(tm). But let’s not delude ourselves – such small amounts will hardly make a difference, and it’s difficult to not get caught in a trap where a seeming lack of return makes your giving appear completely meaningless. But the power of a collective is a wonderful thing, and a mere $25 can certainly add up if, for instance, 100 people are each giving $25.

If you haven’t figured where I sent my first $25 yet, it’s Kiva.org, a non-profit which funds microloans for entrepreneurs worldwide who need cash to improve their business. It seemed like a brilliant and beautiful idea – a dozen people can pool together enough money to help a fisherman repair his boat, allowing him to catch and sell products at his market stall. I love the idea of nurturing self-sufficiency, instead of giving people a handout you’re helping them build a job, an income, a way of life, and become empowered. Once they pay back their loan, you can reinvest your donation to another entrepreneur, or withdraw it out of Kiva.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Like any good techie who grew up with the internet, I immediately googled ‘Kiva criticism, Kiva scam, etc.’ hoping to find anything that could be negative about the non-profit before making an investment. I quickly found that it is very, very difficult to find someone with a bad word to say about Kiva. However no non-profit is perfect, and there is no single technique that will eradicate poverty. With a bit of digging and research into what exactly ‘microfinance’ is, I have come across a couple of areas of concern regarding microfinancing organizations in general (so these problems may not specifically only affect Kiva).

High Interest Rates
Kiva is fairly open on its policy on interest rates. While Kiva does not charge interest on money received from Lenders (you and me), the money that Lenders invest go towards providing capital for local microfinancing institutions, who then distribute the loans to the specific people Lenders have chosen to invest in. These microfinancing institutions DO charge interest – Kiva says the average is 21%, though I have seen some up to 60%, which must be paid back by entrepreneurs in addition to their initial loan.

This obviously looks pretty outrageous on the surface, until you realize that the very nature of a microloan means that high interest rates is a necessity. There is overhead associated with distributing and collecting the loans which the microfinancing institution has to cough up – if a staff member has to meet with each Borrower numerous times (first to evaluate their business plan and see if a loan would be a viable option in the first place, a second time to distribute the loan after receiving funds from the Lenders, and several time after that to collect loan repayments) there is going to be a minimum transaction cost, especially since Borrowers may live in rural areas. If this transaction cost is say, $30, that’s already a 30% necessary interest on a $100 microloan. Additionally, due to the high risk involved, for the microfinancing institution to be sustain able and operate in a way that actually brings in money, they need to add additional interest on to their transaction rate. Kiva explains this quite eloquently in their FAQs, and mentions that they will only with with microfinancing institutions charging reasonable interest rates, though they do not elaborate on what exactly this means.

Ineffective Alleviation of Poverty?
Microfinance cannot, by itself, effectively alleviate poverty. There is no ifs buts or ands about it – microfinance must work in conjunction with other strategies to truly make a difference. People are usually not born entrepreneurs, they need to be taught business skills. Fishermen may not give a second thought about their fishing practices, opting to use destructive fishing methods which will eventually backfire resulting in an unsustainable business. People cannot run a business if they are mostly nomadic, or live in an area with an alarming rate of fatal illnesses (such as HIV/AIDS). The most that Kiva does to address this is screen Borrowers, evaluating business models and attempting to allow investment in those likely to remain viable. This is also explained on their FAQ page.

High Risk Investment
And finally, for the Lenders themselves, although based in charity your microloans are treated as an investment. Not just any investment, but a high risk one. There is a chance that your loan will never be repaid – the entrepreneur may not have been able to profit from their business, the microfinance institution may have gone bankrupt, even Kiva may one day be forced to shut down.

So where does this leave a Lender? If you can get around the fact that you’re foremost supporting a microfinancing institution more than you’re supporting the entrepreneur, that your donation won’t be going towards the ‘poorest of the poor’ but those who have already made a bit of headway, that it’s unlikely the bit of money you’re parting with with completely lift an individual out of poverty, and that there is a possibility you won’t see your investment again, then Kiva may be right for you. Don’t romanticize the organization, but weigh the pros and cons with a critical eye. Because despite these shortcomings, I sincerely think it’s one of the best ways to support someone when you can only spare a bit of money – the Borrower may never know about you (it’s likely they will only be in contact with the microfinancing institution and not Kiva) but you know that, together with others who have spared $25, you’ve made a specific, tangible difference in an individual’s life. That loan is going towards building a roof so that someone can make coal bricks in the rain; the purchase of hog feed to help out a pig farmer; or, as my first investment, remodeling an internet cafe in the jungles of Peru.

What do you think of Kiva, or of microfinance in general? Do you think it’s a viable strategy that could possibly help someone become self-sustainable, or would it leave them worse off in the long run? Is there a better way to stretch the donations of small amounts? Leave your comments and let me know what you think!