1. Vampire Weekend – Contra
2. Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
3. Villagers – Becoming a Jackal
4. Caribou – Swim
5. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
6. Broken Bells – Broken Bells
7. The Black Keys – Brothers
8. Stornoway – Beachcombers Windowsill
9. Beach House – Teen Dream
10. She and Him – Volume Two

Honorable mentions: Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Bombay Bicycle Club, Massive Attack, The Morning Benders, The National.

I didn’t end up measuring anything, just bought a rough estimate of what he said and it turned out great.

Here’s the recipe with the quantities I ended up using.

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized butternut squashes
• 1 bunch of carrots (~6 small-medium sized)
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1L chicken broth
• 1l almond milk
• 1/2 lemon
• 4 cloves of garlic
• a piece of ginger (the amount of this depends on your acquired taste)
• 2-3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• salt, pepper, chili powder to taste
• pinch of curry, nutmeg and cinnamon (or to taste but I suggest to make it simple the first time)

Equipment

• Big bowl
• Blender
• Cutting board
• Garlic mincer
• Knife
• Ladle
• Large soup pot
• Small grater
• Spatula
• Wooden spoon

Instructions

1. Cut top and bottom of squash, peel and cut into cubes (see here for technique/pictures)
2. Cut onion and carrots
3. Mince garlic (important to mince)
4. Grate ginger (important to grate)
5. Heat oil in a big soup pot
6. Fry onion, carrots, garlic and ginger (~10-15min)
7. Add broth
8. Add squash and let simmer for ~15-20min (or until veggies soft)
9. Puree everything in a blender (put pureed mixture into a separate bowl) – this is a really annoying process as it takes several batches
10. Rinse the soup pot
11. Put pureed mixture into the soup pot and bring to a simmer
12. Add cream slowly while stirring
13. Add lemon
14. Taste it and add any more salt/spices if desired
15. Enjoy and share the recipe with a friend!

Yolanda owns a small stationary store in Ayacucho, Peru.  She started it with just a few items and has since expanded her inventory to include a photocopier and other services.  The loan will be used to buy school supplies from wholesale distributors; this is the next step in her business expansion.  Her dream is to have a large stationary/bookstore and to be able to fill large orders for all her local schools.

I can’t wait to hear about Yolanda’s growing business!  If you haven’t done so already, sign up for a Kiva account.  It’s a wonderful way to help those who are less fortunate around the world.

Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.  Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe.  By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

The basic idea is revolved around the fact that people are generous by nature and are willing to help others.  This may sound really cheesy, but as of today there are 473,412 Kiva lenders in 201 countries.  Demonstrating that people, if given the opportunity, are willing to help a complete stranger.  Here are a few more interesting statistics (as of Aug. 15, 2010):

My next blog post will be about the loan I chose to help fund with the gift certificate.

Violence, sexuality, conspicuous consumerism and other adult content permeates today’s media.  Children are constantly exposed to inappropriate images and messages.  This loss of innocence has deprived them of some of the fantasy and magic of childhood.  The appropriate redirection of the future media will help create a better world for generations to come.

During my time there, I created several Flash games and two Flex applications.  Click on the following images to play a few of my favourites!

The final version of our game can be downloaded (.exe) by clicking the picture above.  We received 100% on this assignment.  This project taught me how complicated building a game can be.  There is so much involved, everything from story boarding, to art, to programming!

The project was a great learning experience!  It showed me my love for research.  This actually led me to find a job as a research assistant, which is something that I’ve really enjoyed doing this summer.