Dollars without Borders - Growing Microfinance in China

Wokai hosted a launch event this weekend that focused on microfinance in China. The event was amazing and extremely successful.

Below are some shots I captured from the event and photos of some movers and shakers in the microfinance space including Maya Chorengel, Premal Shah, and Courtney McCoglan:

Beep Beep (said in mousey voice).

Source: www.chevroncars.com

Remember the Chevron Car Commercials with those cute animated cars? As I was looking for a picture of one of those cars, I came across this website: http://www.chevroncars.com. You can actually buy toy versions of these cars. How cool is that (maybe you already new that)?

According to wiki: The commercials themselves, done in a similar fashion to Creature Comforts, were crafted by Aardman Animations, the same studio that has produced films such as Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (I never saw it). A year later, Chevron gas stations began selling the toy cars featured in the commercials. Chevron underestimated demand in 1997 and increased production to 700,000 on each of 4 or 5 new models at the time, compared to 500,000 in the previous year.

Anyways, my friend Sendil just bought an M3 (BMW) in yellow and I was trying to find a Chevron car that looked most similar to it. I came up with two options: Casey Coupe and Tina Turbo… I’m not sure which one fits better (neither are perfect).

…Any thoughts?

I think I like Tina Turbo better, since it’s more box shaped like Sendil’s car, but Casey Coupe looks more sportier, which better characterizes the M3.

Okay, if you take nothing else from this post, at least note the following two points:

1. There is a really cool website where you can go and buy miniature Chevron Cars, play games, print stickers, color (yes like coloring), etc =).
2. You should ask Sendil for a ride in his wicked M3, it goes from 0 to 60 in no time.

Also, do you think Chevron would ever be willing to make a hybrid "Chevron Car" (such as the Toyota Prius), or something similar to the Tesla Roadster (www.teslamotors.com – once I get to the show room, I’ll do a post on it)?

Oh Lulu...lemon.

So when you buy something from lululemon atheletica, they give you this bag that is pretty sturdy and is meant to be reused for a reasonable amount of time (meaning it's not as everlasting as a tote bag). Anyways, when I went there to buy something (I've only been once), I received said bag, and started to use it to transport stuff to and from work.

One day, my co-worker Sunny came over to talk and my bag was beautifully resting on my desk. He was in mid-sentence when he all of a sudden exclaimed "What the Hell (or maybe f***)?" In any case, he had read the following on my wonderful lululemon bag: "I will spend winter 2009 in Mexico with Sunny =) & our baby!" If you checked out the pictures above, you would have noticed that the artwork on the bag looks like my beautiful penmanship, it's not, and therefore I did my best to try and convince him that the writing was actually printed art on the bag, and that I didn't intend (and still don't) to have a baby with him this summer.

AWKWARD!!!

Thanks Lulu. No seriously, the bag is really cool and can handle all my jizunk.

Matryoshka.

Since childhood, I have had a fascination with matryoshkas, or nesting dolls as we call them in English . I was probably introduced to them by Mr. Rogers or something and I have wanted a set ever since.

Matryoshkas date from 1890, and are said to have been inspired by souvenir dolls from Japan. However, the concept of nested objects was familiar in Russia, having been applied to carved wooden apples and Easter Eggs; the first Fabergé Egg, in 1885, had a nesting of egg, yolk, hen, and chick (yes I also have a fascination with Fabergé, but I would never want one).

Recently my coworker went back to Russia for work, and brought me back my very own matryoshka (isn't it pretty?)! Imagine how excited I was!

Thanks Osanna!

Note: History provided by Wikipedia: Matryoshka