The Slow Cooker: A writer's best friend Blog Hop!!!

I totally just signed up for this awesome blog hop that will take place on March 2nd! I'm so excited!!! I love cooking in my crock pot (hands free, low maintenance and all...) and I just yesterday bought a cook book of slow cooker Indian food recipes!

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with and to try some new dishes! If you want to join in, you can go to Rebekah Loper's blog and sign up!

In other news, I have now TWO exciting announcements that I'm on the cusp of being able to reveal to you. I know, I know, the wait is killing me, too! Just a few more things to finalize before I can spring my good news on you. I'm so excited!!! (Hints are in the post tags, if you want to take a guess or two.)

Do you know what day it is???

That's right folks! It's time for NaNoWriMo! Write write write!!!

We're still without power at our house... I am currently set up at the library (thank god for public services)... it's go time, yo!

Kony 2012 **UPDATED**

(**Updated at the end of this post)
Ok guys. I have to talk to you about something close to my heart. They said we should tell all our friends, and... since I moved from California to Connecticut I don't have too many friends... but I have YOU! So I'm telling you.

I hope that all of you have already heard of Invisible Children. If you have, you can skip this next bit and watch the video below. If you haven't, let me tell you a quick story.

Almost 30 years ago a war began in Uganda. For the full history of the war, go here. The leader, Joseph Kony, formed the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) and began attacking towns and villages, raping, pillaging and murdering wherever he went. Unable to gain regional support for his movement, he began stealing food and abducting children to fill the ranks of his army. The horrific violence that he has perpetrated against the people of Uganda has gone unchecked for the last 30 years. You can watch Invisible Children: Rough Cut here and hear the story for yourself.

Invisible Children takes its name from the children of the villages of Uganda who, too terrified to sleep in their own beds in their homes for fear of being abducted and forced to become child soldiers, would walk many miles to the nearest large town to sleep on the streets every night. What Invisible Children seeks to do is make these children, and this horrible war, visible... to bring the war to an end and to bring Joseph Kony, #1 Wanted Criminal on the International Criminal Court's most wanted list, to justice. They have been working tirelessly over the past 9 years to raise awareness about the LRA, to bring hope and help to the people of Uganda, and to end this horrible war. Frankly, they make my life look pretty shabby. But they also make me want to get up and DO something.

Over the years I have participated in a few of the IC events. The Global Night Commute was my favorite. I have hosted viewings of the IC: Rough Cut in my home and passed out copies of the video to my family and friends because I believe we can all make a difference. Knowledge is power. But not if we keep it to ourselves.

I hope that you will take a little time to learn about the Invisible Children... and that once you know about them... once you know about Joseph Kony... you will share what you know with others. Together we can bring change in the lives of people who desperately need our help.

This is the latest video from the IC campaign to make Joseph Kony the most known man on the planet so that there is nowhere for him to hide. It's 30 minutes long, but worth the time. Please take it. Share it with others. And thanks for listening.


KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

**UPDATE**There have been many critics of Invisible Children in the past 24 hours or so raising some valid questions. Here is IC's response to the criticism. I support their position wholeheartedly.

NaNo day 21 - Moving along

It's day 21. I made excellent headway at the end of last week and wrote the usual quota of words on Saturday, too, so only writing 600 yesterday didn't really hurt me. I didn't get ahead that much, though, by only writing 600 words. So today's goal is to write to 40,000 words (a little over a 2,500 word count for the day). It's completely do-able since I wrote 5,000 the other day... in 2 and a half hours... This new app is fantastic for making my writing time manageable and productive. I love it.

This image is taken from

 http://a-faerietale-of-inspiration.blogspot.com/

In other news, the recent events at UC Davis have shocked and saddened me more than I can say. Especially when you expect that the police should be there to protect people and uphold their rights... which I do. Maybe everyone does not expect that. I know there is a lot of contention surrounding the purpose of the protesting going on across the country at this time... nevertheless, people have the right to make their thoughts and concerns known through peaceful assembly... and this kind of display of force in direct opposition to those rights chills me.

I never really considered my position of non-violence until now. I think I always assumed that I knew my own mind. And I have a hard time wrapping my brain around exactly how my ideals, my beliefs would work in an ideal world, especially given that this world is less than ideal... but I'm going to put it out there... to wish... to imagine what my world would be like... so bear with me, and converse with me. I hope you will...

In my perfect world, the police would use force only when absolutely necessary... because their lives or the lives of others are in imminent danger.

In my perfect world, people would have safe, open forums to talk about their wants and needs, their hopes and dreams, and to find support and fulfillment from others who have and are willing to share.

In my perfect world, disagreeing with someone would not be a cause for hate or war or violence, but a time for learning, if nothing else, how to respect a different viewpoint and allow that person to be and believe differently from you.

In my perfect world...

There are so many other ways to end that thought that I think I'm going to have to start a series, just to tease this idea out, to dream

I hope that you will play along with me. What do things look like in YOUR perfect world?
I reserve the right to delete any comments that are combative or out of sync with the spirit of this "perfect world".

Today is World Vegetarian Day!

Hey everyone! Just a little reminder that today is World Vegetarian Day! Go out and hug a vegetarian if you can! Ha! In honor of the day, I thought I'd link back to a post I wrote last year about my decision to become vegetarian. I would like to point out that, though I think the spirit of the day is presented a little differently on the World Vegetarian Day website, I am in NO WAY trying to make everyone stop eating meat... I'm not on a crusade... there's no judgement of character going on here, just honesty and authenticity.

That said, I would love to hear your thoughts on why you choose (or choose not to) eat meat! So tell me... are you a carnivore?

The end of an era

It is the end of an era, and I would be remiss if I didn't post something about Harry Potter today, given the special place those books, movies, and characters have in my heart.

I find myself tearing up a bit as I read other posts on the passing of a great age of anticipation... posts in which people talk about growing up with Harry Potter, the books and the movies, about what sadness they feel at this being the last film, or how the story never really ends...

I was a late comer to Harry Potter... Books 1-4 were already in paperback by the time I picked up "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," but I was immediately hooked. J.K. Rowling's clever plot and emotionally compelling characters stole my heart and my imagination. I found myself wishing that a secret world of wizards really did exist... and hoping that if it did, I was not a muggle! I cried when Dumbledore died... all throughout the 7th book, and also when Rowling shows Neville at St. Mungos with his mentally impaired mother... the deep feeling Rowling conveyed there touched me in a way that not many authors manage to do.

In the past 10 years, I have eagerly awaited the release of each movie and book, gobbled them up with equal relish, wondered what would happen next, grumbled when Hollywood altered details... Harry Potter has been, and will likely continue to be, great fodder for conversations. But we will truly lose that atmosphere of anticipation... we have to learn how to grow up out of that... to look forward to each day because it is a new day... to let anticipation evolve into something more meaningful.

I am a re-reader. I have already re-read the Potter books this year, as I have done in years past and will likely continue to do. Now is the time for a world fixated on anticipation to return and find the rest of the riches that come out of a deeper understanding of the story.

I am sad that after today there will be no new adventures in the world of Harry Potter to look forward to... but I am glad that the story and its characters remain, familiar friends to revisit and enjoy.

A firework fountain on the end of our dock at July 4

Consumerism/Fundamentalism/Idealism

This is an excerpt from my journal for the class I'm taking on Globalization and Gender... food for thought... not so eloquently executed... but it's a budding idea :)

During lecture on Tuesday, the professor mentioned Hezbollah and the reason it was so hard to extricate that organization from the communities it inhabits being that it provides much needed services to those communities, in effect taking the place of an impotent or weak government. Having read the article from Mother Jones on gold trade in the Congo, an unsettling thought occurred to me… If an organization like Hezbollah, albeit with ideals based on fundamental Islam, can command such loyalty from the community based on its willingness to provide basic needs for the people, why couldn’t… why DOESN’T a corporation such as Anglogold Ashanti attempt to cultivate the same kind of loyalty? And what would the ramifications of successfully doing so be?

If you think about it, the cost of providing those desperately needed goods and services is minimal in a country like DRC… say they set up a school that taught the kind of ideals/information that AA wanted to put forward. They could take over the world! I know it’s a bit of a stretch to think of consumerism and fundamentalism or idealism on the same plane like this, but it already works in the US. A current example would be the coal mines in West Virginia. Even with their horrible track record for safety and the fact that coal energy is grossly polluting the environment, people in the communities where the mining companies operate fiercely defend those companies… because without them, their communities would have no resources at all. They’ve convinced the communities that their lives depend on the protection of the mining companies’ rights to conduct business there, extract resources for a profit from there.

Why must we speak without thinking?

Stuff like this REALLY gives me heartburn. I don't understand some people's latent desire to heap judgment on others. Honestly... Leave the judgment to a higher power. Telling people that the reason children are born with disabilities is because of God's judgment is just asinine, hateful, and wrong. But to come from a place of leadership and spew that kind of filth... seriously... heartburn.