Hiiiiii

Uhm... I'm not dead? And I don't have much motivation lately to post on this... I'll make posts when I feel like it from now on I think :) I have decided not to pressure myself about this too much, especially since everyone who reads this can either Facebook me or talk to me in person haha ;)

I'll still update once in a while, but this was basically fun to try out for a while and now it's not so much fun for me. Love you guys though! :)

Until another time...

The magic button — Make Everything OK

The magic button — Make Everything OK

I've had my doubts as of late....

But Harrison Ford has still got it... :D

In other (non?)related Star Wars news, this is pretty freaking amazing:

Until next time... :)

Bullying

Sucks. This video brought on these feelings:

I was bullied quite a lot in grade school. I don't like to be pitied about it; it happened a long time ago and I'm over it. It happens, I guess. But it sure does leave its scars. I think it's one of the reasons I often find myself thinking I'm inadequate or that people don't want to be around me. I still have the habit of standing outside of ringed groups of people for thinking they would prefer to ignore me breathing down their necks than actually letting me join in.

 High school helped me get over a lot of my shyness in such matters, but it still lingers at times. First year of college kinda brought it out again, since there were so many new potential friends. The one friend I thought I did have wasn't anything near supportive either, so that made me feel like no one would be supportive of me at school.

We all need encouragement at times. We all need to be told we've done something right, or that we're pretty or handsome, or that we're loved. Bullying is the exact opposite of any good feeling one can experience. It's not just someone telling someone else something bad, its the receiver of the bullying dwelling on it and thinking about what was said or done for days (or more) afterward. It lingers. It festers. There's a reason it can drive kids to suicide; they become incapable of thinking anything can get any better.

It's just so frustrating to me that bullying is more often than not taken too lightly. Schools may punish bullying acts that they discover very severely, but the administration often has no idea how much more the bullying can continue after the punishment has been dealt. It may not be as overt as it was, but when administration ignores the quick jibes and underhanded blows that astonishingly young children have mastered, a child can be hurt just as much as if not more than the when s/he was forced to endure the overt acts. If anything, jibes that no one notices are worse, because the bully completely gets away with them. And then, the administration who punished the bully years in the past awards that bully for his or her appearance of pristine behavior toward adults, when he or she is still bullying his/her peers.

Ugh, sorry for venting. Lolz I haven't done that for a while on here. I just can stand when I hear about stuff like that; it drives me nuts!

Ok, here's something a little more cheerful/ awesome ;)

Until next time...

Cindy's Contest! and Sara Bareilles :D

Hiya! I know I don't get too many readers other than Cindy and Stew [see EDIT below] (... thanks guys :D) but I still wanna promote Cindy's contest on the off chance anyone else doesn't already follow her! ;D The giveaway includes a variety of teas and a brass necklace! Check out the deets and enter here: Tea-House Moon :)

Other than that and dying of heat...

The view from my bedroom window.....

I'm thoroughly enjoying Sara Bareilles's newest album, which I recently completed the purchase on (thank you iTunes for your "Complete Your Album" section) a few weeks ago :D So enjoy below one of my favorite songs from the bit of the album that I most recently bought:

Until next time... :)

P.s.- remind me to do a review of Good Omens sometime soon! :D

EDIT: Sorry Aubrey!!! I don't know how frequently you do read my blog, but I've gotten so used to Cindy and Stew being my only follwers/ readers that it's difficult for me to remember I have a third now! But thank you for following me on here! :D

MOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMOREPOTTER!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ALL OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :'(

I seriously keep thinking that there will be another movie. There has always been another movie for 10 years!! It's ridiculous how the time goes... Four years ago I was all pumped up for the release of Deathly Hallows the BOOK, and I was sad that the only things left to look forward to in the Potterverse were the movies. :/

I really, really hope J.K. Rowling still writes the encyclopedia, about which rumors have been circulating for easily 4 years. I also hope the Pottermore thing is worth something...

Oh wellz. Too tired/ sick-ish to be more philosophical than that ;P

Until next time...

HARRY POTTER

COMES OUT TONIGHT/ TOMORROW MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In honor of this historic event (a.k.a., the end of my childhood), please enjoy the videos below!! :D

And finally:

(sorry for the poor quality, watching in HD helps a bit.)

Until next time...

A New Love (and an Exploration of Hypocricy)

Hiiiii :) Of course I realize that right after I posted about how I wouldn't be posting very often, I put down 3 new posts in the next few days... BUT my excuse is that it's been a very productive week in terms of finding awesome things on the internets!!

I just wanted to make this quick post to gush over my newest pianist love, Jon Schmidt and the creators of the Youtube channel ThePianoGuys. Jon is AMAZING!!! See below...

Seriously, how do people do that?!

Even more amazing (if that's even possible!!) is Jarrod Radnich's version of a couple of Harry Potter songs!

O_O Seriously?!?!? How is it possible for a person to play notes that quickly?!?!

Not only do The Piano Guys feature amazing artists ...

... but also, their cinematography is fantastic!!! (in case you didn't already notice...)

I think this one might be my favorite song/ video from them:

Ok, I'm done :) Enjoy!!! :D

Ok I lied, sue me :D Until next time....

And so is

Adam Young <3

Ten Myths About Introverts

Improv Everything

Is amazing.

PLUS one of the random people there had a shirt that says "Muggle." :D

Blog Status

Well, I think this announcement is a long time in coming, but this blog is going to have to officially become a "once-in-a-while" type of thing. I'm just too busy to post as much as I wish I could. I'll still update periodically (with a goal of about once per week). It's just too hard for me to remember to keep up with this. Plus, as I've said before, I don't really feel like my life is interesting enough to frequently discuss here at length.

On that note, I've been trying to balance my two jobs well enough to earn some money and enough credit hours for my internship with the museum. Also, today, I experienced something that has never, apparently, happened before at the Children's Museum. A mother came in in the afternoon with only two kids, who turned out to be two of the most terrible kids I've seen at the museum so far. Not only did they scream (a lot) but they cleared out the General Store and Kitchen area of the museum, carried a majority of those objects (including everything on the top shelves of the store, which I still don't know how they reached without help from someone) and carried everything to the very top of the slide in the coalmine area. This is an even greater feat when one realizes that, before one can go down the slide in the coalmine, one must crawl through a series of switchbacking levels and climb up at least 3 sets of steep, ladder-like stairs. And, to cap it all off, the mother watched them do this, and then told me to my face that they did it

Yeah.

She wanted me to tell them to get everything out of the slide because they (shockingly) weren't listening to her. Then, they put things back. Which means they put everything where they felt like, leaving me and my coworker to put everything back where it actually belonged. The mother was completely satisfied with the "help" her kids had given us in putting things away.

Ugh. And my family still thinks I have an easy job there haha :P

Well, that's quite literally all that's happened to me since I last wrote, other than taking my sister to XC practice a few times (which is always fun :D). I haven't been feeling well for some reason the past few days (the heat? I dunno...) so I'm going to bed early again tonight.

I also feel then need to apologize for my overuse of parentheses in this post ;D

Here's a couple of Youtube videos I've recently favorited (two to make up for the lack of one last time ;)

I'M SO EXCITED FOR HIS NEW RECORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

This is one of the most creative/ awesome music videos I've ever seen. And I'm not a music n00b either :)

Enjoy! Until next time...

CUTENESS

Hiiiii sorry for not posting- I've been so busy!! Well, actually I was sick for a while too haha, as I believe I mentioned in my last post. But I've been really worn out between working my two jobs too. I literally keep forgetting about blogging haha.

I just wanted to post because I've been reading Daily Cute and it's literally driving me crazy!! I miss my hamster sooo much, and she died 6 1/2 years ago now! :( The animals are absolutely adorable; they don't satisfy my desires for a fluffy rodent but increase them each time I visit the site!

This isn't my Chewey, but it looks just like her <3

Don't get me wrong, I love my dog dearly!! But I guess I still have a rodent-shaped hole in my heart <3

For a few days a few months ago, I literally when through a faze in which I was adamant about getting a bunny. I wanted one desperately and I even went so far as to look for breeders nearby. I wanted (and still want, thought not quite as much) a dwarf Hotot bunny :D

I also love the Lop-eared dwarf rabbits:

But seriously, I don't think I could live without seeing some cute animals every day, even if it's just my dog ;)

Libby pie :D

I apologize if I made your head explode from all that cuteness. Or your computer explode from all those pictures ;P

Until next time...

*Edit* I apparently just entered the wonderful new world of "hot linking" (which I've never heard of before in my life), so, sorry to those who I apparently hurt through this, and I will try and get the pictures I had on here back up momentarily. Thanks!

Insomnia

****Please excuse the below ramblings as they are not the coherent thoughts of a healthy, well-rested individual.****

This picture reminds me of a creepy version of one of my favorite childhood board games: Don't Wake Daddy.

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii peoples. I cannot sleep. So I'm on my laptop. Probably waking myself up more with the persistent glow of my computer screen and the street lamp light outside my window, but still. Usually this wears me out... in an hour or so 0_0

SO. AWAKE.

I'm honestly not sure why I don't feel tired. I need my rest, I'm still sick, but I guess the lack of activity today is coming back to bite me....

WHOA I JUST SAW A BAT FLY BY MY WINDOW!!!! I love bats. They eat mosquitoes, which eat me. A lot.

This is an adorable little bumblebee bat. I think they actually live near me too :D

But yeah, did I mention I'm still sick? The moment I tried to lay down I got an annoying tickle in my throat, thereby causing me to feel the need to clear it every 2 seconds or so :P THAT compounded with an incredibly warm and muggy night create my current situation.

I feel like I'm creeping on my neighbors or something, but since I got out of bed (about 15 min ago or so) I've seen them leave in one car, then leave in another, and come back in the first. Odd. Whateverrr.

I'm currently listening to Chopin. I only have a few songs from him -- I need to buy the rest of this album on iTunes -- but I love it :D It's not very good sleep music though... oops :}

There was something I thought of talking about earlier and now I can't remember what that was.... oh well. Another topic that is highly discuss-able is the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie!!! :D

I saw it yesterday and It was pretty darn good if I may say :D It was really weird not to have Orlando Bloom Or Keira Knightley in it, but it was still pretty good. It turned the attention back to Jack, which in itself was refreshing. It was pretty much  everything you'd expect from the third sequel of an awesome Pirate movie. I dunno, I feel like I have to let it settle in for a little longer before I can make a proper judgement about it.

By the way, how do you spell the word "judgement"? I learned in whatever grade it was a spelling word for that the first "e" was optional: acceptable either way. However, when I try to type it with the "e" in the new Microsoft Word (which I only experienced for the first time on my laptop fall of '09), it says it's wrong! It makes me feel out of date or something :P

Word to yo motha. Fo shizzle.

Ummmmm ok I'd say that's enough senseless rambling for one night. On to other internet-tastic adventures!! :)

OH and going with the Pirates theme, here's a rap for Captain Jack Sparrow. It's actually rather good in my opinion... *nods head to time of music*

Until next time... :D

Sickness :P

Hiiiiii I'm sick :P Getting better, but sick nonetheless.

I'm also not very good at keeping promises to blog more often haha. There's always an excuse (or more than 1), so I won't even go into that haha. Suffice it to say I will try to stick with my promise better in the future.

I think my problem is that I feel like I don't have anything to write about since I find my life to be fairly uneventful. But, I even said when I first started this blog that I wanted to do posts like Adam Young (from Owl City), and a majority of his posts are not from his daily life. Rather, he just talks (extremely creatively and fluidly) about random things like Choco Tacos. I will try and make a list or something in the next few days of random topics like that that I could just discuss without worrying about the boringness of my daily life :)

Basically, other than an awesome night of hanging out with Cindy and seeing Something Borrowed (... which would definitely make an interesting post.... hmmm) and another night of seeing my sister's high school chorus and band's spring concert - which was much better than I expected!! - not much has happened. I've just been continuing work at both of my jobs and then getting sick at the end of the week. Not sure if I caught this from one of the kids at the museum or from one of my coworkers at my other job who had been out sick at least 2 days last week :P Regardless....

Imma go to bed super early tonight though and do my best to get to the museum tomorrow. They really need me this week, and I feel horrible about not going today. I never got a reply email from my boss there today, so I'm hoping he came in today (he had a dreadful sinus infection last week), otherwise there is no way anyone knew why I wasn't there :P Oh well, I'll find out tomorrow I suppose haha.

I'll leave you with a poem written for graduates, containing life advice and general Green-ness ;D Congrats to all high school and college graduates, who have or will be graduating soon!!! I'm so proud of all the graduates I know (especially you Stew, since I know you at least read this xD)

Until next time... :)

Randomness

Hiiiii :) Sorry for not posting again hahaha, but I had a surprisingly busy week!! Everyday when I came home I just wanted to lay around lol. I should have exercised more, but oh well. I did run a couple of times earlier in the week, so that was good. And I've been doing some sit-ups and my hip exercises too, so those should slowly help given time.

I went back to work this week after taking last week off as a break. It was nice to be back at my one job at my dad's engineering company (he doesn't own it or anything... but... ya know haha). It felt like I never left! The worst part is they have less for me to do than ever :P And I don't even have a place of my own to put my stuff or anything! I feel homeless when I have to walk around with my bag haha :P I usually just put it in my dad's office though.

I also started working at my new internship! It's at my town's local children's history museum, and with the local heritage association. There are 2 other interns too, and we are all from different colleges. It's really fun to work with the kids who come through, although it can be very hectic too! The days I worked there this past week were days when large field trip groups came. I read a story to the kids and then they planted seeds in newspaper pots. It was great to see so many eager learners! On Wednesday though, my first day, I was unexpectedly told to do this project outside! There's a cute little garden of native plants and such up there, but since I hadn't put sunscreen on and it was a beautiful sunny day, I got burned :P Not badly though, thank goodness! I hate peeling off sunburns :P

I worked at the museum earlier today too (first time ever working a job on a Saturday! So weird!), but there were not field trips. Instead, families were taking their kids through the museum. One little girl must have been told that she and her family were going to the Children's Museum, because she came over to me saying "Hi!! I'm a child!!" She was adorable :D

Not much else to say... I guess I'll leave you with another video that made me laugh this week :D (I think you'll thoroughly enjoy this one Stew ;D)

Until next time... :)

I'm a Bum ^_^

Sorry for the lack of posting (I think I open all my posts with this....). I was just really busy with finals, and then I decided to take it easy this week (instead of getting all the work done cleaning up my room that I had been planning to do for months...). But I have had a nice week, mostly consisting of playing video games, pleasure reading, and texting my friends from school, whom I miss terribly already!!! <3

Cindy and I went adventuring on Tuesday though. It was quite fun :D We found a little waterfall a short ways up a random trial. One of our friends even spotted us from his school bus as it drove up the busy road high above us hahaha.

Stolen from Cindy :) This is most of the waterfall

Afterwards we went to a little coffee shop and we got cool drinks -- which wasn't that good of an idea since it was really not all that warm out haha.

I really don't have much to talk about... I start work again on Monday, and I have an interview for my internship on Tuesday. I hope to get my haircut soon, although I think I might grow it out at least a little more. It needs cleaned up though; it hasn't been cut since last August!

Sorry this is so boring :} I'll post a funny video below to make up for it. Thanks for reading though!!

Until next time... :D

The Cursed Trip :/

Hellooo all (2 of you, tops ;D),
As I've probably mentioned on here before (but I can't specifically remember and I'm too lazy to try and find anything right now), History Club has been planning for over a month to go on a trip to Washington D.C. We had planned to go this spring to see the cherry blossoms in bloom and as many of the monuments and such as possible.

Jefferson Memorial

Unfortunately, after many other trials and tribulations to make this trip possible, it had to be cancelled at the last minute for insurance reasons :P We didn't go through a transportation company insured by the school, so our president of History Club had accidentally made himself liable if anything happened. Understandably, he did not want to assume such responsibility, being a college student and everything, so the trip had to be cancelled.

Most of us didn't really have a problem with it; we understood that it just didn't work out. Not everyone was so forgiving though, and our president, Ed, got grilled at our last meeting on Friday. The advisor that came was very supportive of him and the club though, and it was good to hear some voices of students supporting the club who haven't been there much this semester. Hopefully it'll all work out better next year. We were supposed to go yesterday but the weather was dreadful, so we wouldn't have had that fun of a time anyways. We're going to try extra hard to make it all work out in the fall :D

Who needs cherry blossoms?! They just make my allergies act up anyways ;D

I'm still very proud of how much History Club has done this year. We have a long way to go, but as a club that is only a year old, and with advisors who have only been here a maximum of 3 years, we all know it's going to be rough at first. We are learning though, and we will definitely use the experience to better the club and ourselves in the future :)

I'll leave you with some Billy Joel, definitely one of the best piano players of our generation :D

Until next time... :)

One Day Without Shoes! :D

We did it!! ^_^

That's a terrible video of our barefoot walk around campus, but you can see most of our feet anyways before I inadvertently film a car as I decide whether or not to keep filming. It was soooo cold! My feet literally went numb in seconds. I was concerned about frostbite, but my feet recovered quite well once we got inside :) And then we got free socks from the bookstore! Woooot :D All in all, a surprisingly successful day (especially for my neck of the woods lol).

Sorry for not posting for so long, though! I was so busy trying to organize ODWS, and then before I knew it that was over, but I still had a ton of work to do :P Unfortunately, it's going to be like that for the rest of the semester for me. Final projects, papers, the last "normal" exams, and then finals are all coming up. In addition, History Club is going to D.C. next Saturday (:D) and so I basically have to do all my homework for the first part of next week during this coming week. So much to dooooo!!!! Oh wells, what can ya do? :P But anyways, my posts will likely be extremely sparse until after finals. Like, I'll probably only do 2 or 3 posts tops until then :P lolz

Not much else to say really... I'll leave you with a video of Hank Green (musician brother of rather famous author John Green, whose books I need to read this summer)'s visit to Google, which is rather hilarious even if you don't really know who he is :D

Until next time... :)

HEY! I'm Blogging Here!!

What a week! I know I say that a lot, but seriously! Last week was nuts!!

Yeahhhh....

Not only did I manage to forget two important homework assignments (which my professors were forgiving enough to give me extensions on, thank goodness!!), but I was also forced to juggle duties for History Club and my own self-imposed duties regarding my TOMS Club and One Day Without Shoes. Thankfully, by the end of the week anyways, I found out that I am not alone in any of those things (particularly the TOMS stuff), and so a lot of the stress was taken off of my shoulders.

This coming Tuesday, April 5th, is TOMS's One Day Without Shoes. I've probably explained it before, and if I haven't then you can probably figure out what happens by the title of the event. If you STILL don't know what it is, please see toms.com and/ or onedaywithoutshoes.com :) But anyways, I've been planning for weeks now to try and host a showing of the TOMS documentary, but I kept putting it off in favor of homework and History Club. Last week I realized that ODWS was only one week away, and I really had to get moving on organizing something!

After scheduling a showing for Monday and getting it approved for the freshman CES credits (they have to get 6 Community Enrichment Series credits each semester; one credit for each event), I found out that the bookstore at my school was having some TOMS-related things for ODWS. They had already printed up flyers and stuff too, which was extremely helpful for me :)

Of course though, Tuesday is not going to be a good weather day AT. ALL. :P It's going to snow and rain and be windy and cold. And any other day this week will at be at least 15 degrees warmer :P Oh well, I guess that's the whole point haha. It's just frustrating. Most of the places that children do not have shoes are much warmer than here ;P

Well I better go, my sister needs the computer for homework (using the fancy desktop again :D)

I'll leave you with this video from charlieissocoollike. It is freaking hilarious xD I haven't laughed so hard at a video in ages.

Until next time... :)

I'm Not Dead :)

Just very busy!! I'll update when I can!! :)

Until next time...

TORNADO!!

Wow, what an evening! I couldn't believe it when I saw on the news on the dining hall's tv that we were under a tornado warning! O_o

My roommate told me to use this picture under penalty of death ;P

I live in a mountainous region, and we are very rarely put under a tornado watch, let alone a warning! It was kinda scary, I'm not gonna lie! Once we got back to our dorm, the RA's herded us into the deepest part of the basement where we sat until the warning was over. By then, however, I only had 10 minutes until my night class was to start. I called home out of fear for my family, who was also under the same warnings, and my mom convinced me that I shouldn't go to class, at least not until the weather cleared a bit.

I honestly thought I might see something like this outside my window :-/

Unfortunately, I apparently shouldn't have listened to my mom and my gut, because when I went to class an hour late (it's a two hour class) everyone was there. Even when the weather is fine, it's rare to see everyone in that class!! I felt like such an idiot walking in like that :P At least I went, but still. I hate when stuff like that happens to me.

I used to watch the Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers whenever I possibly could. Not only did I think it was a great show, but it was also so terrifyingly exhilarating to see all those tornadoes, and to watch the storm chasers get so close to them! But, watching that show completely convinced me that I never want to live out West in Tornado Alley, nor do I ever want to be within 500 miles of a tornado :P

Yep, I'm avoiding AALLLLL that. ;P

We got really lucky though today. My family is all safe, and my college received no damage that I saw. Further west though, there was a good bit of damage; some buildings had their roofs taken off, and there was golf ball-sized hail and even baseball-sided hail not far from my family home. 

So, all in all, an eventful evening. I wonder what the morrow will bring?

Until next time...

Hola!

Just a quick post to say that, even though I haven't been real busy the past few days, I've still been too lazy to post xD

Can you blame me for not wanting to type something for once in my life?! :) Really, though, there hasn't been much to blog about. Other than History Club drama, which I wouldn't discuss here anyways, I've just been doing my best to be a good V.P. and get my TOMS Club running. Fundraising is a pain in the butt :P

I must remember to make a post about One Day Without Shoes soon though!! :) I'm sooo excited for this year's ODWS, and I hope to be able to show the first TOMS documentary on campus before it, so people have the opportunity to learn more about TOMS and exactly how they work. I hope lots of people go without shoes this year; a lot did last year, but I think that was mostly due to the good weather that day. I want to make a difference!! :D

I also attempted to get a bottle of TOMS nail polish that the nail polish company Essie is distributing for ODWS. I hope I got a bottle :)

Until next time... :)

*PSA*

An out-of-the-ordinary post to make sure Cindy and anyone else who may be wondering why I haven't commented on my most recent posts-- My computer is not letting me :( I don't know why, but I can't comment on other blogs either :P The comment box doesn't even appear most of the time, and if it does, when I try to tell it to post the comment, THEN the box goes away. If anyone has any idea what's going on please let me know. I probably just need a new laptop :P Won't be getting my new one til August though.

Me wants to smash youuuuu

And my fishies at the bottom of the blog aren't showing up either- just a white box :P
Ok, lol, until next time...

St. Patrick's Day! :D

I actually am Irish :D But I don't want you to kiss me you creep! ;D haha

I've always been curious about how St. Paddy's Day came to be synonymous with partying til you're passed out or dead, but I suppose it's just because the Irish are somewhat (heh) notorious for drinking until they're passed out or dead. But, even though I don't drink, I love to wear green and flaunt my heritage xD

Probably the best thing about today was that I was (for some strange reason) expecting to do work in my Philosophy class. Instead, we began our fourth movie of the semester, Boondock Saints. It's actually pretty good so far. I am excited to see the rest of it on Tuesday haha.

Also, I love St. Patrick's Day because it reminds me of my awesome geography teacher from high school. I had him for freshman geography along with every other freshman in my class and freshman classes from the past 30 or 40 years or so. Mr. Hollern was a full-blooded Irishman, and he literally went all-out for St. Patrick's Day each year. He was diagnosed with throat cancer during my junior year, and he succumbed to it on Christmas Day my senior year. So, ever since that first St. Paddy's Day without him, my high school has thrown a huge party with door decorating contests, desserts at lunch, live bands, and, of course, an Irish mass. I'll never forget you Mr. Hollern!!

Until next time... :)

Spring

I am soooo sick of the cold, snowy weather!!!

I can't wait until spring, despite my allergies :)

I looove daffodils :)

Ok, on to more homework!! Until next time... :)

Wowza!

What a week this has been! I'm exhausted, but happy :) I got all my (massive piles) of homework turned in on time, AND I am now the Vice President of the History Club at my college! :D

I originally was running for the 2 open positions of Treasurer (which opened first) and V.P, but I found out a few days ago that no one else ran for V.P., so what's the point in still running for Treasurer?! I hope I'm not too busy with this new responsibility, but I'm looking forward to the challenge anyways ;) Thank God for coffee!!!

Apparently this sort of thing is a big deal; Google Image search "coffee art."

Aaaand as promised, I have not forgotten about Tony!! So...

Tony is a young man from Uganda, whom the founders of Invisible Children met on their very first visit to Africa. This trip was when their eyes were opened to the strife occurring in Uganda due to Joseph Kony and his horrible war. The three Americans met Tony because he and his friends commuted each night to a small, often flooded building near where the visitors were staying. Tony and his friends went to that shelter each night for safety as they did their homework and slept.

Each time the men returned to Uganda to view the progress of the war and ensure that their improvements through The Invisible Children were being carried out, they always found Tony again. When Tony finished school, the founders asked him to tour the United States, speaking in front of crowds just like the one I sat in, sharing his story from his unique first-hand perspective. Tony was an orphan since his father died, and his mother struggled to support him, despite suffering from AIDS. He had seen many of his friends abducted, and his village was basically a wasteland due to Kony's army.

I don't remember too much more about the documentary (sorry), but after it ended, an Invisible Children volunteer (roadie as they were called, the ones who toured the country) and a young woman from Uganda took the stage. I feel terrible that I have forgotten the Ugandan woman's name, she who had narrowly escaped torture or death when Kony's army passed through while she and some friends walked home from school. She was forced to lie on the side of the road for an entire night to escape capture. She narrowly escaped the next day. She was so courageous, not only to live through such horrors, but to have to re-live them nearly every day. I was deeply moved.

One way that I have pledged to help the Invisible Children is to stay silent on April 25th, for 25 hours, to represent the 25 years of Joseph Kony's horrid war. His forces have moved out of Uganda recently, but he and his child soldiers are ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo as you read this. This has to end. Join the 25 movement at http://www.invisiblechildren.com/25 and speak out without speaking.

Thank you for reading! Peace and God's blessings, until next time (and beyond :] )