Whoa

De Juguetes (A Mexican Toy Story)

Last night at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, I did not expect to encounter a lovely short movie about Mexico City. If you know me, you know I has a weak spot for all things Hispanic, so this one really won my heart from the first scene.

A MEXICAN TOY STORY from Alba Mora on Vimeo.

Directed by Alba Mora Roca

Sorry mom, but it was too funny

Your Woman

Let's just take a moment to remember what a solid song this is. Thank you 1996.

San Diego Film Festival

Went to my first Film Festival last night. Interesting experience. The film, A Little Help, starring Jenna Fischer was pretty "meh," but I think next year I might buy the pass to watch more of the films. Nothing like being a little pretentious, right? This is SoCal after all.

Here's the trailer for what we watched.


Oh, and in my three years of living here, I've only experienced two thunderstorms. One of them was yesterday. It was pretty sweet.

Seedy Bar

American Spirit butts on the floor. A sexy half sleeve walks by. I sip my Green Flash. And this song playing live. Shuffle my moccasins, to match the 60's throwback of this song playing live.

Truth

Anyone else think the "c" in "unicorns" should obviously have been an "h"?--Claire Niblett

Standing Cat

It's a good day for funny cats.

Unicorn Cat

Hannah and Mumford and Sons

Conversation is as follows:

“we are just vehicles… thanks be to God”

Yesterday afternoon, my friend/co-worker/room mate decided to send a facebook message to Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons. She didn’t expect a response.

Hannah Jones September 19 at 4:27pm
Ben,

I expect you get 4 billion emails from fans, so here’s another to add to the collection.

On July 11 2010, my friend, Nate Henn, was killed by a terrorist bomb attack in Kampala, Uganda. He was the only American casualty. I’d just spent the last 5 months of my life touring around the USA with him, spreading the story of Africa’s longest running conflict. We both were full time volunteers with Invisible Children http://www.invisiblechildren.com/ and he was in Uganda with our friend, Innocent.

I just wanted you to know that your music has been incredibly healing, and his tribute video uses ‘Timshel’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-c4G2bIcxU

I wish you could have some understanding of how much your music has healed our hearts after this loss. Mumford and Sons have helped us through this heartache, and for that I will be ever grateful. In fact, a bunch of us are coming up to see you all play in LA next month. I saw you play at the Eden Project and it was wonderful. I can’t wait to see you again.

This is just an email to encourage, so I hope if you read it, it did just that. You’re doing incredible things through your music.

Thank you over and over. Please take 5 minutes to watch the video if you want… it’s very, very well made. And it’s incredible.

Thank you again.










Benjamin Lovett September 19 at 4:48pm
Dear Hannah,

I will be praying for Nate tonight, and for you.

I cannot imagine what you have gone through and watching this video as I sit in my kitchen in the still of night has blindsided me. I wish I’d met this man. The initiative looks incredible and I hope it continues in Nate’s spirit.

As for our music, we our just vehicles, as Nate was with his work, and thanking us I feel is misplaced.

Thanks be to God.

And Peace be with you.

Love,

Ben

A Masters Degree in Communication?

Oh. My. Gosh. Hilarious

New Tagline

Invisible Children: Help End Africa.
Whoops.


**the rest of the box reads "Help End Africa's Longest Running War."

Searsucker

I'm obsessed with searsucker these days. How about this wedding dress? Hmmmm.

Also, argyle. I will always love argyle

Color Another State In

New goal. Get to all 50 states between 2005 and 2015. From 2005 to date, I've visited 35 states and DC. Later this month Jojo promised to add Mississippi to that roster when I head off to New Orleans.


Dale and I have a New England plan to knock out six states up there.

Kelsey and I are threatening a Minnesota due west trip which would knock out another 5.

Now onto the remaining randoms: West Virgina, Delaware, and Alaska. These ones are going to take a consorted effort to make that happen in the next 4.5 years.

Tour Launch

66 articulate, attractive, fun roadies left our office this past Wednesday to tackle America with the Invisible Children message. Informal parades organized everywhere we go. That's how we roll.

Top 40

Current favorite top 40 song. So flowy. So happy.

Keeps Me Running

This movie makes me cry my face off.

PF Changs Marathon

Ok. I'm going to do this. Ack! Come cheer me on. I'll need it.

Rock and Roll Marathon 26.2 Miles, January 16, Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale

Don Chedle and John Predergast

Hung out with these boys in LA this past weekend. Good times. As you can see in all our cheesy faces.


They just co-authored a new book called The Enough Moment. Since I love Better World Books, you should buy it here: Better World Books

Iceland

The volcano! Beautiful.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Animal

This song makes me very happy.

Talent Show

Yes! Kiddo. So talented.

Dog Park

Last night at the Joel P West show (with the Tree Ring), they performed a variation of this music video live with the dogs and the bubbles projected in the background.


Then, hundreds of paper airplanes began flying about. Then people started jangling their keys to the music. He wins for creativity.

Drunk Guy VS a Flip Flop

Wow, this has gotten a lot of hits in only 10 days. Anyways, saw this last week and it was hilarious. Don't drink and shoe.

1998 Geo-cities

This is what Invisible Children's website looks like.

But if it were 1998 and our webdesigner was tacky, this is what it would look like.

Vondelpark

In the summer of 2008 I spent some time in Amsterdam. The charming city has a large park called Vondelpark. For me, my time in Amsterdam allowed me to process a very crazy year, meet new people, and I even had a little romance there.

Joel P West, a local musician, posted this very simple yet lovely music video of Destin Cretton that involved Vondelpark.

Bark & Feathers & Vondelpark from Destin Cretton on Vimeo.

You can see Joel play in San Diego on Friday with a five piece orchestra

St. George

This summer I'm going camping with my co-workers in St. George Utah. Never been and I'm so excited!

Bay Bridge Race

Next month I'm running over the Coronado Bridge. Every time I drive over the bridge all I want to do is get out and marvel at the view. Now I can! With thousands of my closest friends.

Webeditor

Hey, never tried making a website before, but when I visited my dad's currently outdated website yesterday I decided that he needed an immeadiate intervention. So, in a couple hours I cranked out this. Not bad for my first time.

New site (under construction)
http://johnbakercounselor.wordpress.com

This is his current one. Hope you can see the improvements (at least now he has a correct address listed)
http://johnbakercounselor.com/

Moving

This has been a nightmare. Finding roommates to share my apartment with has turned into a never-ending search. Honestly, I've started having a lot of hurt feelings over it. So, how about it if I move to this 1920's apartment complex downtown? Walk to Balboa Park, work, class, my friends' places. I think it's a cute little building. Thoughts?

View Larger Map

All for an iPhone

Ok, someone sloppy at Apple left the not-yet-released iPhone 4 at a bar. Some other schmuck happened upon it and sold it to Gizmodo (a tech blog) for $5,000. Gizmodo wrote an explosive blog post about the phone which zapped all of Apple's "wow" power for their June press release. You can read about the new phone and its features here.


But you don't want to ruin Steve Jobs' surprises to the public. He might serve you an arrest warrant, have the police kick down your door, and search your e-mail. Drama drama drama. Read about that here

I guess you shouldn't text under the influence. At least not on an unreleased iPhone 4.

Anniversary

A year ago today I was a part of The Rescue in Phoenix, Albuquerque, Wichita, and Chicago. It was one of the most amazing/challenging times of my life. Here's to the memories of that event and what it has accomplished since that time.

Gaga and the 80's

Probably the BEST combination I could ever ask for.

Have I posted this already? Sorry if I have. This song seriously is just the best thing, ever.

Parachute Musical

So... I was informed that if you scratch the back of one artist, they'll usually scratch yours. Here's some lovin' for Parachute Musical. I saw them play with Via Audio in Nashville last month and they certainly have talent. Takes me back to my teen angst days of high school. I'll be seeing them next week at Ruby Room in Hillcrest so hit me up if you want to come. Or you can just check them out here.

Splash Mountain

Never gets old.

Captain EO

Ohhh... Now I understand the Musical to Believe In

Went to Disneyland this past weekend and saw the infamous Captain EO. Here's a clip of Michael at his greatest.

Lauren Winner

Is a Christian and probably my favorite author of my college years. Her humor, honestly, and commitment to being genuine make me want to go out to coffee with her anytime. Check it.

"I feel annoyed that in His wisdom, [God] chose to reel me in with middle-brow Christian fiction. It could be worse, I suppose. I could have come to faith while reading Left Behind."-Lauren Winner

Urban Forest

Cats

Nerdy Asain Fat Whitney Houston

Oh, and he's a boy. But he's INCREDIBLE

Pixels

Holy moly. One of the best vids I've ever seen on Youtube. Easily. So fun.

Google Logos

On my 19th birthday Google happened to have a special logo up and running in Canada to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.


Over the years, their celebratory logos have become increasingly more complex and interesting. You may stroll through their history at this website: http://www.google.co.uk/logos/index.html

Via Audio

I was just in Nashville and heard this band, Via Audio play. Then we went out after their show and they were really fantastic human beings too. They're like a funky, soulful, poppy version of The Cardigans. Check it.

Via audio - Babies download

found at bomb-mp3 search engine

Telephone

I love her.



If you seriously haven't seen the Telephone music video, you must be living under a rock. Come into the sunshine my friends. Consider this your wake-up call. (ha)

Luck

I have been enjoying David Sedaris recently and just finished both Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day. He's hilarious. Case in point, here's an excerpt from Naked.

The day after graduating from college, I found fifty dollars in the foyer of my Chicago apartment building. The single bill had been folded into eighths and was packed with cocaine. It occurred to me then that if I played my cards right, I might never have to find a job. People lost things all the time. They left class rings on the sinks of public bathrooms and droped gem-studded earrings at the doors of the oprea house. My job was to keep my eyes open and find these things. I didn't want to become one of those coots who combed the beaches of Lake Michigan with a metal detector, but if I paid attention and used my head, I might never have to work again.

The following afternoon, hung over from cocaine, I found twelve cents and an unopened tin of breath mints. Figuring in my previous fifty dollars, that amounted to an average of twenty-five dolars and six cents per day which was still a decent wage.

The next morning i discovered two pennies and a comb matted with short curly hairs. The day after that I found a peanut. It was then that I started to worry.
-David Sedaris, Naked pg 202

Healthcare

"Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. You’re thinking of Jesus." -John Fugelsang

Chat Roulette Piano Guy

Chat Roulette connects strangers to each other. You better be interesting or you'll lose your conversation. This guy... wins.

Where the Hell is Matt?

It would be really great to do this too.

Song of Solomon... Literally

"How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil.
... Your hair is like a flock of goats...
Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes...
Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
Your temples are like a slice of pomegranate...

"...Your neck is like the tower of David
built with rows of stones
on which are hung a thousand shields...
... Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle
which feed among the lilies...

"... Your lips, my bride, drip honey,
Honey and milk are under your tongue...
And the fragrance of your garments
is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
Your belly is like a heap of wheat...

"... Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,
which faces towards Damascus..."

From Song of Solomon chapters 4 and 7

No Arms, No Legs, No Worries

Really like this guy... even at his cheesiest.

Quotes

”The greatest thing about Facebook, is that you can quote something and totally make up the source.” – George Washington

So... What's Uganda Like?

Written in June 2008 during my Amsterdam layover prior to my return to California.

I noticed this strange lizard. It was moving in the most awkward sort of way. It had a longer tail than any lizard I had ever seen before and its steps required great effort. We had just walked out of Invisible Children's microeconomic bracelet making site. As I was led to the dirt floor I would be sleeping on in the dangerous and impoverished IDP camp, the first thing I noticed was the lizard. As my head tilted to the side to observe its movements, my host, Santa, saw a friend of hers. She called over her friend to introduce me. Oblivious to the lizard, the newfound friend reached out her hand to shake mine and stepped directly on the creature. She didn't even flinch. I smiled, tried to make eye contact, but my gaze shifted to her feet. Did she know what was under her?

As we finished our brief greeting, the woman walked away, leaving the struggling lizard in her midst. Santa was leading me to her home, but I was concerned about the creature. It was then, upon closer observation, that I realized that the "lizard" was, in fact, a baby rat. As we walked away, the rat lay on its side... struggling to survive in an IDP camp. Rats and huts and thousands of people. All struggling to find a way to breathe in the camp.

While I sit peacfully on a vacation in Amsterdam, I consider the sacrifices Santa made for us that evening. Diligently, she crawled on the dirt floor to prepare dinner for our already plump bellies. At five months pregnant, Santa was one year and three children ahead of me in life. Then, as the men in her community came over to enjoy the dinner she had labored over, she politely sat in the dirt while they enjoyed the small hierarchy of resting on a wooden chair. Women cook. Then they sit on the dirt while the men eat their food in chairs. Then the women clean up the mess. And the men go to enjoy a Casava Liquor. Alcohol washing away the haunting holes that 22 years of war have created in their lives.

It's hard to fully understand the life that the Acholi lead. Santa drew me a warm bath and sent her 16 year old friend Palm out with me to the bathing section of the camp. Palm enegantly balanced the warm gallons of water on her head. Then, surrounded by huts, she asked me to begin to bathe. My nakedness in the crowded camp created a sensation of vulnerabiltiy that I had never known before. Of course, how naked can I be when the truth is that in a few short hours, I have the freedom and power to leave the camp? How can my spirit be broken by impoverty when I know that my wealth is always within my reach? How could I ever truly know how vulnerable, how tired these residents must be? They have no way out, and I will always have a way out. Nakedness can't be very shaming when you know you can cover up again soon.

The next morning, a man greeted us and began to speak to Santa in the Lwo language. She nodded, understandingly, and then handed the man a few thousand shillings. Enough to buy a few Cokes.

"Hello. Good morning," the man greeted us white guests in his Ugandan flavored English. "Last night a baby died. One week. We're holding the funeral today... Well... good bye."

For several minutes we sat silently in the room. I wished that I had brought my wallet to the camp instead of locking it "safely" in the intern house. But after a few minutes of silence, life had to return to the room. Babies die, but life in the camp must go on.

So, in that evening, when I saw life escape out of the baby rat, and as Santa crawled on the dirt ground, and as I sheltered my nakedness in the congested camp, a one week old baby lost its only chance. After nine months of carrying the child, a mother wept and a father found another hole in his life to try to fill again.

So, what's Uganda like? It's beautiful. But the injustices of the land will never leave my heart. How grateful I find myself today. Not only have my eyes seen this injustice, but I continue to be given the opportunities to help change these crimes.

So catchy

Don't stop... encouraging me all day in my ears while I work.

7 Minutes...

Of hypnotizing fun.

Fun in the Kitchen

Floating to Planet Funk

I'm in love with this song

JoJo for President

Johannes is on the highway
He’s most at home behind the wheel
He’s on a mission
Get to where he’s going
Fast
He tailgates
Enough to cause me to nervously
Cross
And uncross
And cross my legs again

He’s handsome
The boy a mom dreams of for her daughter
And while his youth shows
Always so playful
There’s something about him
His barrel-chested walk
Projecting voice
Halfway cocky smile
That tells you he should be trusted

“JoJo,” I revisit the frequent topic of conversation
“When you’re elected president you’ll still let me be your
Brains behind the whole operation, right?”

He laughs a little to himself
We have this exact same exchange
At least once a week
“T, what makes you think I’ll be president?”
He always fishes
For my same answer

“JoJo, you’re the cockiest
Most handsome guy I know
Who wouldn’t want you up front on their stage?
But man, we could be the power team
You’re the face everyone loves
And I’ll work my ass off behind the scenes
I’ll be the Hilary to your Bill Clinton
Together we’ll rule the world”

Nashville

In less than a month, I will be here:






With these people:








I'd say... It's a party in the USA?

I dare you...

To watch this without smiling

Mall Walker

Well she's fun

So What Do We Want?

This video will explain what we're asking Dr. Coburn to do:

Coburn Say Yes from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Hey Dr. Coburn... You're not looking so good in the media

Just saying... It's usually not too nice to prevent support going to people who are dying. The Oklahomans who voted for you seem to agree on that one. Even the conservatives are FOX News are confused about why he's not helping the kiddos in Uganda.

New York City

In less than a month, I will be here:







With these people:







And that's only half the fun... more details to follow soon.

News in Oklahoma

Hi Coburn, have you seen this?

E-mail to Dr. Coburn, Oklahoma State Senator

Hello Dr. Coburn,

Although I'm not from Oklahoma, I wish that I was so I would know that you would listen to me. As a Californian, I have been reaching out to my own senators for quite a while to co-sponsor S. 1067. I have traveled to Uganda two times in the past few years and I know that the passing of this bill would ensure safety and relief for my friends that I met in the region.

Primarily, I want this bill passed because I love the people who are suffering under the violence of the LRA and want their lives improved. However, NOW some of my other friends are camped outside your OKC office in the 30 degree winter waiting for you to lift your hold on this bill and out of my love for those friends I am asking you to reconsider as well. They are also suffering on behalf of Ugandans in need and I would like their suffering to end as well.

I respect your wishes to not increase government spending, but I know that when the emergency merits it, there are times that we need to act even if there is a cost associated with it. On 9/11, no one was saying "we shouldn't help the people in the Twin Towers because this might get expensive." They were doing what they needed to do to help reduce the suffering in the emergency.

Since Resolve Uganda and Feingold have figured out a way to allocate this money to help those suffering in this emergency by taking money from the EXISTING State Department budget, your release of this hold would not increase ANY government spending. You can stay true to your fiscal conservative values while actually helping these children.

I wish that I was from Oklahoma so that my voice would matter to you, but my friends in Uganda wish that they were Americans so that their cries would matter as to the global community as my cries matter as a Californian. I hope you'll hear my voice in conjunction with the Oklahomans outside your doorstep, Americans nationwide voicing support for this cause, and the people of East Africa who are suffering the most.

~Talitha

PPG Building

Without knowing what I was doing, I had posted an image of the PPG building on my header of this blog. I just made this my image because the black and white architecture of this building was nothing short of breath-taking to me. But, now that I know what this building is, I simply must go there. Anyone want to go to Pittsburgh? Maybe this summer?

Clipart

According to this incredible piece of art, the moral of the story here is to do your homework in the middle of a race and your pencil will manage to beat the stupid, slow tortoise.

Red Light

This red light
The corner of my little phone
And its flashes mean that someone
Wants to hear from me

Check for the red light
Peer into my purse
Check again, just to be sure

I used to know that he was missing me
Private chats all day long
Forgetting my phone on purpose
Just to return to his red light

Return from a meeting
His message was there to greet me
Climb out of the shower
His red light to see how my day was going?
Exit the gym
Sweaty
Tired
He was dwelling on how nice I looked
Red light reminding me that he cared

My little phone
Up to my ear for hours late one night
And there we agreed
That we needed more from each other than just
A red light
Weaping
And tears
And too far away to make anything right

These days there is still a red light
An overdrawn account notice from the bank
Or a jumbled message from my father
Wat do U want 2 do 4 dinner 2nite?????
A carpool cancellation
They’re too busy to make it to dinner

Never a blush
Cheeks rushing with blood and warmth
Just a red light
And now the roll of my eyes

Relevant and I and Our Mutual Friends

Fancy seeing my friend and former co-worker Whitney Brammer on the front page of Relevant Magazine's website for an article about Ash Wednesday. Personally, I've been passing on meat this season.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/deeper-walk/features/20533-the-many-lessons-of-ash-wednesday


Before Whitney, I saw my co-worker Jason Russell as the featured podcast interview on this website.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/media/relevant-podcast/podcast-archives/20500-021210--invisible-children-co-founder-jason-russell


And a few weeks prior to that I saw my classmate and favorite Starbucks customer from Chicago, Josh Bales, as their featured musician.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/media/relevant-podcast/music-download/19743-josh-bales



Or there was the time that my other co-worker, JoLeah Stiles was their summer intern and author of articles.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/3940



Ok Relevant, let's just accept that we were made for each other. I'm expecting you to call soon to ask for my interview but I won't be offended if you would just rather photograph me as your model.

Fail Blog

This one made me smile. (from failblog.org)

Voting... um again

I still have this lingering cough from all the overtime I poured out to get Invisible Children votes during the Chase facebook competition, but meh, ftk (for the kids)

My dear friends over at LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) are currently vying for your votes to win $250,000 from Pepsi and the good news is that you can vote for them every day from now until the end of the month. Last week they were in 17th place. Now, they're in 6th. If they can finish in the top two, they'll win.

Can you give them some love? http://www.refresheverything.com/link

IC has a lot of friends doing a million great things around the world, but you won't find a group that we love more than LiNK. Trust me. They'll do amazing things with the money for refugees from North Korea. So vote!

Georgia College Human Rights Symposium

This past week I enjoyed a stay at Georgia College and State University to speak on behalf of Invisible Children at their annual Global Rights Symposium. This year, the focus was human rights, so I was honored to lend my voice to the symposium.

First, we heard from Dr. Bertram Ramcharan who was the former Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
He brought home a few ideas that really stuck with me about America's approach to justice post 9/11.
-The UN hoped to approach Osama Bin Laden's attack against America as a CRIMINAL act. Bush's decision to approach it as a WAR/TERRORIST act is the reason that the USA is still engaged in war with places like Iraq and Afganistan.
-The US Senate has later arrived at a consensus with the UN that America should have treated it as a criminal act, not a terrorist act.
-America's war on terror has had a ripple effect because other countries around the world have also begun to wage their own anti-terrorism wars but in ways that violate human rights much more than America has violated human rights post 9/11.

Then, I heard from Bill Nigut from the Anti-Defamation League.

Here's some points I picked up from him:
-Jews are fortunate in a way because they can "delay" racism against them. So many other children who physically stand out a minority face racism against them from the day they're born.
-Rabbi Hillel once asked 3 great questions about human rights:
1. If I'm not for myself, who will be?
2. If I'm only for myself, who am I?
3. If not now, when?

On Tuesday, I heard from Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking and advocate against the death penalty in the USA.


Here's a few points she touched on:
-80% of the people currently on death row killed a white person.
-139 people have been taken off of death row for wrongful conviction. How many other innocent people were killed over the past 34 years?
-If I'm struggling with my feelings about the death penalty, I should ask myself, "would I be willing to be the person to kill the convict?"
-Do we ever think about the people who DO have to do this killing?
-They are normal people like myself who now have the profession of killing another human being.
-98.6% of people who are sentenced to death row are considered "poor" by our society's standards.

Finally, I was given the chance to screen The Rescue, Together We're Free, and deliver the closing keynote address on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here's a few photos:

Presenting The Rescue to a classroom that had standing room only.


Merch table following the screenings.


My new friend Abby, a senior at Georgia College, was extremely helpful in getting the word out about Invisible Children and encouraging our work.

Overall, it was a pure joy and such an honor to have been brought on with such an impressive crowd. My thanks go out to the event organizers and all of the participants of the symposium. Keep up the hard work!