lacpunker

I was in Lille, France this past weekend.  Lille is charming.

IMG_1265 (via lacpunker)

The rest of my Washington and Victoria, BC photos are here.

Bourbon Coffee Home Page

Bourbon Coffee is a Rwandan retail coffee shop with locations in Kigali, and now: Washington DC!  It’s impossible to describe how excited and proud I am of this.

If you are in DC, please visit it!  Rwandan coffee isn’t run-of-the-mill; it’s attributes are considered very special in the coffee industry (here’s a recent review).  The Rwanda Blue Bourbon (Starbucks’ limited-release foray into Rwandan coffee) is considered one of the best coffees in the world.

Also, the fact that this shop even exists, and the Rwandan coffee industry is producing specialty-grade coffee as it is, is due in no small part to USAID and your tax dollars.  Basically, this coffee shop is proof of the successes that U.S. foreign policy is capable of accomplishing.

2101 L Street NW

Mon - Fri: 6 am - 7 pm, Sat - Sun: 7 am - 6 pm

Great feature article in NY Times Magazine this past weekend on Spike Jonze and Where The Wild Things Are.

Swap & Trade Books, Trade Music, Swap Video Games, DVD & Movie Exchange - SwapTree

I’ve started using this website called Swaptree and I’m really loving it.  It’s just a site that facilitates bartering.

Pretty straightforward: you just make a list of items you have that you are willing to trade, and a list of items that you want.  The website matches you with someone who has what you want and will trade for something you have.  Or when you enter an item that you have, a whole menu comes up of items you can get for it.

You can optionally print postage labels right from the site, and your credit card is billed for postage at the end of the month, so you don’t even need to go to the post office.

Yes, the barter system is based on trust, but there is some sense of pressure to comply.  You have to give reasons if you reject a trade that someone has proposed.  And you are rated by your trading partner after every trade (and you rate them).

I’ve only been using it for two weeks now and I’ve already traded four times— dvds and books I’d probably never watch or read again traded for dvds and books I’ve been wanting to own.