Chumdinger

Take a look at Acholi Beads, a socially proactive business started by an old friend. James Pearson took his experience from working with Invisible Children and living in Uganda for 2 years to help Ugandan refugees affected by war and injustice. James is there in right now for two more weeks, and it’s picking up momentum and creating awareness.

For the last 21 years Africa’s longest running war has ravaged the northern regions of Uganda, home to the Acholi people. Over 2 million people fled their homes to seek safety. Some made it as far as Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, where they could only find refuge in a hillside slum, now called Acholi Quarters.

Acholi Beads are made by these refugees living in the Acholi Quarters slum. As they struggle to rebuild their lives, the sale of Acholi Beads provides a vital income and helps share their story with the world.

Acholi Beads is a socially proactive business. As we grow we hope to hire more displaced people to make these beads, and to offer them training in how to best use their incomes.

Oh, what an eventful day. For downtown El Segundo anyway. I’m going to miss this place when we leave.

See, we share our ground floor office space with online ad agency Gigya. And downtown El Segundo is a nice slice of small town America. Very quaint. Not much happens here. 

Today we had a fairly normal middle-aged lady come into the office.

There’s a shattered beer bottle on the sidewalk near your front door.

Yup,  its a shattered beer bottle alright. She doesn’t ask for a broom or even request that one of us could take a broom out there to clean it up.

Her intention was to warn us. See, she didn’t want us to “get in trouble” in case the cops come to question us. Why would the police come you may ask? Cause she had just been to the police station across the street the report said “crime”. Morgan thanks her for the heads up and she walks back outside to wait for them to show up.

It wasn’t any of us. We surmised that if the police did come in to talk to us, we could prove our innocence by letting them take our fingerprints and compare them to any prints found on the broken pieces of glass outside. 

We noticed that she started directing pedestrians around the “crime scene” and I really do think she was being sincere about it all. She was just looking after the well being of her beloved town. 

After about 10 minutes, the police still haven’t showed up. She comes back into the office to tell us she doesn’t want to wait anymore and that she’s gonna go home and take a nap. Morgan responds with something like…

No problem, we’ll wait for them and let them know you left.

Another half hour goes by and we all think the police aren’t ever going to show up today. And they don’t— we got away with that one

Yes, this was the drama in downtown El Segundo today. I really do love this place.

We’ve all heard the story about Adam and Eve. God tells them they can have all the pleasures of the Garden of Even except for the Tree of Knowledge. And what do they end of doing? Going where they’re not suppose to. They go to that tree and eat of it’s fruit.

Ever since this history changing even, its been human nature to test the limits of authority. I noticed this in the most subtle way this past weekend while visiting my little 11 month old nephew Zach.

He has a lot of toys. Toys that make music, toys with flashing lights, toys that bounce, toys that promote creativity, toys that he always puts in his mouth, and Zach has a dog named Skylar. Zach’s mom and dad have given him free reign of the house to discover and explore. But they’ve set one thing that is off limits.

“Stay away from Skylar’s chew bone. It’s not a toy.”

And guess what Zach keeps going back to even after repeated warnings against such action. Yup, the chew bone.

Ok, he’s only 11 months old. His brain is not developed enough to know the difference. Maybe thats true. But what about us adults? Don’t we do the same thing? Don’t we keep going back to the things that eventually get us in trouble?

I know I do, and it’s a constant struggle to change our human nature. But there’s good news. Like Zach, there are those in our lives to correct us and set us back on the right path. It’s amazing what life lessons you can learn from this little kid and his puppy.

I thought this was worth revisiting. James posted an inspiring blog on how we could react to the things that are stagnant in our lives, how we could build a greater community, how we could love those around us. 

I’ve heard it now from every generation – we are not satisfied with the easy demands of Sunday morning church. We can see that people living the way Jesus taught would create a strikingly different kind of community, and it’s clear that if the story is true at all then it calls us to follow that way with vigor…

If you’re in the Houston area, it’s time to leave. Hurricane Ike is slamming into the area tonight as a potential category 3 storm with 110+ mph winds.

From CNN: Floodwaters surged into Galveston Island neighborhoods Friday morning.

Waves washed for blocks inland, the beginning of a storm surge that forecasters warned could reach up to 22 feet and bring “certain death” to anyone who remained in Galveston Bay homes. 

Be safe all. 

Over the last couple months, the Shell station by my house has been draped by fabric and a construction fence. Upon it’s reveal, a hydrogen pump appeared. 

Here’s some more info on the program. Not sure who’s gonna use it other the the handful of Honda FCX Clarity drivers driving around SoCal, but it’s a good start in transitioning out of foreign oil. 

Wonder what it would take to convert my car?

I’ll be taken a little time off due to travels. San Diego this week. And then headed to Zion National Park next week for some camping and hiking with a bunch of friends. The Narrows hike is one of my favorites of all time. 16 miles though the narrow (hence the name) Virgin river canyon with shear cliff walls rising up 1000 feet on both sides. Trudging in and out of the river with sunbeams illuminating the rocks in shades of red, orange, and brown. Truly amazing.

And I’ll be cooking for everyone too. What’s on the menu? Pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and chicken apple sausage. Grilled salmon with mango salsa. Omelets made to order. Yup, we’ll be camping but we’ll be far from roughing it

What, you say??? Yes, they make paper out of elephant dung. But for a good cause. The proceeds go to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center which help to feed and take care of these amazing animals.

www.elephantdungpaper.com

I was there last year to take a tour. They run one of the only elephant hospitals in the region and they do a great job in taking care of these animals and building awareness for the need of their preservation. 

Here’s some facts about the process from their website: 

1. An elephant will eat 200-250kg of food a day….. from that they make 50kg of dung

2. One elephant provides enough dung to make 115 sheets of paper per day. 

3. Elephant dung does not smell that bad. If it does, then maybe the elephant is ill.

4. (edited for content – see their website on this one)

5. An elephant’s dung is just fiber. Elephants are poor digesters of their food. Over 50% of what they eat comes straight out the other end.

6. Elephant Dung Paper does not smell at all.

7. We do not use chlorine. It is 100% bacteria free.

8. Dung is a waste product if we don’t make paper from it.

So there you have it. Paper from crap. Which James and I started brainstorming on how to make this a viable business. Any ideas?

A little less than an hour ago at 11:42:15 AM (PDT), we had a 5.8 5.4 magnitude earthquake in Socal. Everything seems ok.

Most impressive was how people used (and are still using) Twitter and Facebook to communicate about the event. Both sites lit up like candles on my birthday as it was still happening. While the phone lines jammed up and calls couldn’t be made, these sites kept working (which is ironic since Twitter has been spotty lately).

I was in the process of writing a tweet, and the room started shaking so I changed my message to “EARTHQUAKE!” while the shaking was still going on — an instant news feed to those not in LA everyone following my feed. Forgot what I was originally writing.

My phone was also going off with SMS messages from other folks on Twitter. It took the AP 9 minutes to get the story out. While this may not mean much for a moderate earthquakes, think about what this could mean for a bigger natural disaster. Instant communication to dish out life-saving information or to request help.

Anyway, I took a screen grab of Twitter documenting the action (pics below) and here are some good quotes from others’ experiences:

The earthquake registered ~ 120 TPM (tweets per minute) on summize.com. Now we have to listen to 8 hrs of news about what people were doing. — Matt Singley

Glad there are no earthquakes in Georgia. — Joanna Duff

Hanging onto the escrow rollercoaster. — Jon Ericson

Just experienced earthquake number six during a haircut with Candace B. Quakes are fun until they hit 7.0. — Benton Walker

Did not survive the earthquake, send flowers to my family and checks to me. — Davis Derus

Getting to evacuate work because of an earthquake is kind of like recess without playing 4 square. — Jordan Beal

I LOVE EARTHQUAKES!!! We were rockin’ & rollin’ in our highrise. I know it seems weird, but it’s like being home — Ruthie Fowler

If it weren’t for facebook statuses, people might never find out about earthquakes. — Ashley Taylor

Dang earthquake coverage is breaking into my soaps!!!! Ch.11 darn you!! — Ashlyn Bishop

Felt the earthquake from Paris. — Eddie Looper

Disneyland is still standing…so we are all good. — Jeff Savage

UPDATE: More Quotes

Thinks that not even an earthquake can keep me from the James Taylor concert tonight… — Jackie H.

…is thinking wow… that was an earthquake? I thought it was a helicopter going over too close to our house! haha — Bree W.

…”loves” being in charge of 20 8th graders during an earthquake. — Meghan S.

…is in awe of God’s power after experiencing her first earthquake! — Marissa B.

More photography!!! Yesterday, I entered the photo below into Wired’s new photo contest and it’s doing well. The theme this time: “Cities” (remember the last time?)

Show us entire Dickens’ novels wrapped up in a single image, the clash of classes, the roar of industry, the sickening high of syrupy commerce. Get out there and capture the faces behind the rat race and iconic, everyday make-or-break moments. Just be sure to make it out alive.

The photo is titled “Reflections in Berlin” and it was taken last year with my Canon Rebel XTi (before it got stolen).

Please take a moment and vote for it if you get a chance (the score is tallied by subtracting negative votes from positive votes). Thanks!

http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2008/07/submissions_cities