my $loan = 100;
my $rate = .12;
my $interest = 0;
foreach my $month (1..12) {
$interest += ($loan + $interest) * $rate;
print “$month: $interest\n”;
}

Looking back now, I don’t think there wasn’t a coding error, I think when I was writing I just strangely rounded 289 to “over 200″ for some reason.

% echo 10 k 1.12 12 ^ 100 \* p | dc
389.5975992500

the revolution will not be blogged!

Thanks for the kind words, ma. I don’t know if the coffee is stronger, but it sure is good! The place I’m at right now (travelling with Sophie!) has some of the best coffee I’ve had in a long time. Africa has many famous coffee growing regions, I believe. Good stuff — though I only drink it in the morning now!

I think I just got worried that even though I thought I was writing appropriately, others might decide I wasn’t, and then I’d feel like a bonehead. I mean, maybe I am a bonehead, but I don’t like feeling like one. So until the verdict came down, I was strangely nervous. But in the end there was no problem, so like I said I think I was just being oversensitive. It really is a thing with me, though I internalize it so it’s not always obvious. Unless I write about it in my blog

It is true that the Zulu people seem to have a very open culture. I’ve been impressed by the warmth almost continuously. Everyone knows everyone and it doesn’t seem like that’s much of a problem. One thought I had was that it might be related to growing up living in such close quarters. Multiple generations of family sharing houses and even rooms. Or maybe they just don’t have a stick up their ass like so many whiteys.

Kidding, kidding.

I think the word is ‘usury‘.

Which, of course, brings to mind this scene from an episode of The Simpsons:

   (Homer goes to Mr. Burns for a loan to buy Lisa pony)

   Mr. Burns: Are you acquainted with our state's stringent usury laws?
   Homer: [slowly]  U-sur-y?
   Mr. Burns: Oh, silly me!  I must've just made up a word that doesn't exist.

Hi Jon…several people your family such as Grammy Sabina, Terry and your ma are super sensitive to caffine. I wonder if the coffee there is stronger than American coffee? You may want to ask someone who has traveled in both countries if they had a simular experience with the coffee. My late friend Angela had mentioned to me that the American espresso was only half as strong as the Italian espresso…Now we know how the “City on Seven Hills” got built.

About your incredible blog…Keep on Trucking!

Actually, there is one thing that’s left me with a sour impression and that’s that anybody even questioned what you’re doing. And that doesn’t reflect on any of the locals, only on the person that brought it up. The given the fact I don’t know her at all it’s something I’m sure would be disolved in the first few moments of actually meeting her.

You’ve asked Zenzo about it and he seemed fine. maybe try to get a idea of the Zulu culture’s sense of privacy. So far from the way you present the people you’ve met they seem like a pretty open people. If that’s the case of the culture as a whole I wouldn’t give it another thought.