Welcome to the Cliffs of Mount Soledad

Apologies.

My apologies. Sorry. It has been a very busy week at Invisible Children. Everything from booking screenings, to calling TRI members, to tackling Nova Scotia, Canada to book screenings... to getting ready for TOUR LAUNCH. We've been spending longer hours at the office, and doing IC related things. I haven't had time to call people, nor blog. It's killing me- but, it is TOTALLY worth it.

I have a ton of pictures, I wish I could put them up now, but I am not on my computer. Maybe later.

So, last Saturday we as a house went to La Jolla.. a beautiful suburb of San Diego.. lets just say, cliff jumping is a must there. There are caves, everything you can imagine about a coastal city on the shore. Its EPIC. We spent the day there, and ate dinner at a good mexican place. Oh how mexican is different 15 miles from Mexico.

This week, we haven't done to much except work. On Tuesday we got a new house mate, Eric. Cara's last day is today (she is the head accountant for IC), so he will intern this semester, and take her job at the beginning of the year. :)
He lives with us until then, and he is super dope (dope is another word for rad [its a Chicago thing I guess.])

Last night around 5pm in the office, they made us all report to the work room to tell us a secret. They gave us a riddle, told us we had 30 minutes to find dinner, without eating it, get in the vans, and find the place the riddle led us to. It led us to Mount Solidad. It is an AMAZING PLACE.

All 80 of us ate our dinner, then played running games with Jed. He's awesome. Then, he said, "oh wait guys, we got to meet the other staff.."

Which basically meant, we were headed some where else. That we were.. to Mission Beach, where we would sit around a bon fire at the shore of the Pacific Ocean, roast smores, and listen as TOM SHADYAC spoke to us.. again! This is the THIRD TIME I'VE MET HIM, he actually remembers me now. Awesome.

For any of you who don't know who he is.. he is a famous director.. all kinds of them, most recently, Bruce Almighty, and Evan Almighty.

And now.. its time for work.. again.

THRILLER; Invisible Children Sytle

We at Invisible Children like to go the extra mile for special occasions. For example, perform musical's for Oprah in the middle of the street outside Harpo Studio's and the middle of the night.. and in this case, learn the THRILLER by Michael Jackson dance and sing for Margie (the movement director at Invisible Children) on her birthday. It's just what we did.

This is a combination of staying up late in the middle of the street with 80 others learning this all for the first time.. ever.

Enjoy.

Pebble.

"Anybody can make a difference in people's lives.
All it takes is a little bit of effort and some creativity."
-David Mortlock

Ocean Beach (aka: OB)

The Pacific Ocean from a cliff near in OB.

Ocean Beach is one of thee MOST amazing places I have ever been, seriously, and literally. I have never stood where the waves crashed in and soaked you. Last night I did for the FIRST time ever.. it was pretty EPIC. We decided that we wanted to enjoy Acai bowls on the sands of the Pacific while the sun was setting, so we went.. took some pictures, then headed off up Newport Ave (an amazing street in OB)looking for the small orange building that made the "best bowls known to man," but instead we found a Mexican place where we decided to eat dinner.. so, we ate tacos, then decided to skip the bowls and come back again.. We went back to the beach, and walked it, then walked up to the fishing pier (which feels like it goes 2 miles out into the ocean). Spent the night there, it was great.


This is where the waves crash against the rocks and soak you.. I was here. I want to live there.


The waves crashing.. amazing.


That's me.. smiling by the cliffs and waves..


Me jumping..

But, anyways.

Tradition.

Thursday night, Invisible Children let us interns and roadies out early and sent us on the traditional photo scavenger hunt in San Diego.. with only a few rules.. 1. You must fit 15 people in a van, 2. You can only drive the vans 300 miles, 3. Be creative, and don't go over the border.

So, we took off.. it was a great night of bonding with roadies, and a few interns. Here are few pictures..



..and then we headed towards the Gaslamp Quarters (and up and tight district of downtown). We met Kiptyn (he is FAMOUS) literally.. check it.



.. there he is.. and there I am. He was soo nice. He was on the last season of the Bachlorette, runner up. ;)

Until later..

A Sneak Peek.

This is a sneak peek blog as to whats to come soon. Let me tell you, the next blog will be EPIC, and very powerful. But for now, chew on this.

"The world is run by one million evil men, ten million stupid men and a hundred million cowards. There are only one million of them, the truly evil men, in the world. The very rich and the very powerful, whose decisions really count - they only number one million. The stupid men, who number ten million, are the soldiers and policemen who enforce the rule of the evil men. They are the standing armies of twelve key countries, and the police forces of those and twenty more. They are often brave, I'm sure, but they are stupid, too, because they give their lives for governments and causes that use their flesh and blood as mere chess pieces. Those government always betray them or let them down or abandon them, in the long run. Nations neglect no men more shamefully than the heroes of their wars. And the hundred million cowards, they are the bureaucrats and paper shufflers and pen-pushers who permit the rule of evil men, and look the other way. They are the head of this department, and the secretary of the committee, and the president of the other association. They are the managers, and mayors, and officials of the court. They always defend themselves by saying that they are just doing their job, and its nothing personal, and if they don't do it, someone else will.They are the hundred million cowards who know what is going on, but say nothing, while they sign the paper that puts one man before a firing squad, or condemns one million men to the slower death of a famine. So that's it. The world is run by one million evil men, ten million stupid men, and a hundred million cowards. The rest of us, all six billion of us, do pretty much what we are told."

From the book, Shantaram

.. like I said, this is a preface to the next EPIC blog. It will be so powerful and personal, you WILL NOT know what to do.. what will it's title be you ask? It's simple..

"The ABCD's of Life, and your Personal Story"

Think hard. Prepare yourself, and much love. -Shawn