Invisible Children is, to quote their website,
a non-profit organization dedicated to providing financial resources to invisible children by documenting their
true, untold stories in a creative and relevant way, resulting in positive change.
Basically, the invisible children we’re talking about are the children of Uganda, who are being kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night, and being forced to fight as soldiers for the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group led by Joseph Kony, which hopes to overthrow the Ugandan government.
The war between the LRA and the government has been going on for over 20 years, and thousands of children have been killed over the years. Three young film makers made a trip to Africa in 2003 and found themselves in the midst of the heartbreaking situation. They connected with the kids who were on the run from the LRA, who were scared and alone, knowing that if they were ever found, many of them would be killed on the spot, or drafted into the rebel group.
The three men witnessed hundreds of children commuting from their respective villages to a bus park in a larger city, so that they don’t get taken from their houses while they were asleep. They met two young brothers, who were wanted by name from the Lord’s Resistance Army, and would be killed on sight if they were ever found. They met many kids in these types of situations, who even at that young of an age, just simply wanted to die.
But the kids also have an immense happiness that can only be described as, hope. None of them have been alive long enough to know what life is like without the threat. But amazingly, even after all of the awful things that they have witnessed and experienced, they are kids. And they have a joy that we can’t really figure out.
Invisible Children: Rough Cut is the documentary. They are planning on making a feature film, but there are issues there that they are working out. However, the Rough Cut is no less powerful, even though it’s an early version. It is $10 on their website, and well worth the purchase. It shows what the three men experienced while they were in Uganda, it documents the history of the war with the rebels, and it showcases what these kids are dealing with every day, on a personal level.
Go to http://invisiblechildren.com and learn more about the movement. Read about their current campaign, to get President Barack Obama to pass an LRA Disarmament Bill, and raise national awareness of the situation in Uganda.
Currently 253, 512 people have signed the Citizens Arrest Warrant for Joseph Kony, and 193 members of Congress have co-sponsored the LRA Disarmament Bill.
Here’s the trailer for Invisible Children: Rough Cut. If it interests you, I encourage you to order the DVD. It’s worth it.
With the guidance (and creativity) of my friend Ed Palumbo, I’ve started a year-long experiment. It’s called @TimeProject.
I’m going to tweet, then graph, every single time that I look at a clock for one year.
This is happening. It’s real. I’m so excited about it. You can follow @TimeProject on twitter to see the updates, but be warned, it’ll probably be a lot of tweets that are just periods. I’ll be updating from my phone quite often, and periods will be all that I will have time to post.
Again. SO EXCITING.
I, like thousands of Americans, work with the general public.
And I, like those thousands of Americans, know that generally, the public is not very nice. Or fun. (Unless of course, you make it fun, like I tend to do).
But today I had one of those rare run-ins with an awesome customer that made me laugh. Genuinely laugh.
An older man was standing at the register at Subway. He let out one of those yawn/moan things. I turned to him and said ‘Man, I hear that.’
He looked at me and said “DON’T GET OLD.”
I couldn’t do anything but laugh and sputter out, “I’ll try.”
He continued on, saying, “I’M TELLING YOU. DON’T DO IT. NEVER GET OLD. FIND YOURSELF A GOOD LOOKING LADY. SETTLE DOWN. STAY YOUNG. NEVER GET OLD.’
I told him that it sounded like a good plan.
He gave me one last hard look and said, “DO IT.’ Then he went and had lunch with his wife.
It was awesome.
Heck yeah I just referenced Gwen Stefani. I’ll probably regret that at some point. But I don’t really care right now. Let’s move on.
It started like a normal Sunday. Everyone’s getting ready for church (I was actually watching RENT videos on Youtube) when I hear a yelp of pain. It was my dog, having a seizure. No big deal right? Dogs have seizures all the time, and she’s been having one about every month or so. I could hear my dad trying to help her out, so I didn’t worry about it.
But then I didn’t hear it stop. And I heard it get progressively worse. It was a massive one. She’s only 3 years old. That is weird.
I’m still not too worried, since there’s nothing that I could do about it or anything, so I just finished up getting ready for church/singing along with Broadway and went on my way.
Church was good. I got a good response from my ‘Because I’m Geoff Girardin And I Can Do That’ shirt (which you can see to the left, or a larger size version over on my DailyBooth account), worship went pretty well, etc. I had a good afternoon full of Starbucks and Sbarro, which were both delicious.
Then at about 7PM, less than 12 hours after seizure number 1, seizure number 2 comes out of nowhere and the dog has issues again. It was another massive one, and I hadn’t seen anything like it before.
For one thing, she looked like Stevie Wonder. That’s a weird comparison to make, I know, but she was swaying around in the exact same way that he plays the piano.
I went to bed at 8PM. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep forever. Okay I know that sounds bad but I don’t mean dying or anything. It’s an expression.
I slept for three hours. Now my body has decided that I’m not allowed to sleep anymore.
This is ridiculous.