The Chronicles of the Intern House... continued.. and orange juice.

Yo. There is not much going on in the house tonight. Everyone is tired, sore, eating, and just ready for bed.. but, we're baking cookies, in which apparently we are going to give to the Art Department as a gift (its where the top dogs work, and all the cool people who work 24/7 to get the deadlines made.)

But, anyways.. the lizard problem here is intense.. I was outside walking around, eating my pasta for dinner, talking on the phone and I looked down and saw what looked like a snake. I ran inside to get my camera, went back outside, and it had moved.. I leaned over to look and it ran away.. This was no snake, it was practically a baby alligator- no lie. Check it.



Today was a good day for me, and the office. I was given a list of things to do before my supervisor returns from vacation. I completed 3/4's of the tasks.. it was tough counting work, but I did it, and did it good. The IC warehouse is looking mighty fine. ;)

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, for some reason, being the behind the scenes dude is very fulfilling- this is actually something I would not mind doing for the rest of time... and it helps that I LOVE SAN DIEGO! It's such a good city.

So, I hate doing this.. but, I have too.. Living on nothing, and getting paid $0 dollars to work just isn't good.. it takes money to live.. if you see it possible to donate to IC indirectly by funding my internship- I WOULD LOVE YOU. Here is how you can do it..

Send a Check written out to: Invisible Children
with: SHAWN SCHMALKEN DIRECT SUPPORT labeled CLEARLY in the MEMO LINE.
throw a note in the envelope stating that it is strictly for SHAWN SCHMALKEN

pop it in the mail and mail it to:

ATTENTION: SHAWN SCHMALKEN
INVISIBLE CHILDREN
1620 5TH, AVE. SUITE 400
SAN DIEGO, CA 92101

It's that easy.. or just put together an amazing "care package" and send to the same address, OR just write an amazing letter- I'd love to get letters via snail mail, it will make me smile, :)

If you're thinking of me, and/or praying for me.. I ask that you pray for a Roadie here, who is from Australia.. he lost his grandfather today. It's too bad, but he will stay strong. Chad- I am thinking about you and your family.

This is random but.. I am craving orange juice. Luckily, when I went grocery shopping last night at Ralph's, it was only 99 cents.. so I bought some. I was smart and knew I'd be craving it.


... oh, btw, family back home- I decided I am buying a house here, this is the one too..



Anywho.. I am planning on taking more pictures of downtown SD, to post and email, I just haven't had much time to do much. Until later..

<3 Shawn S!

I Could Only Imagine..

As Jason says, "*%$!ing DREAM IT!"

The Chronicles of the Intern House

...That's right, now you WANT to read this..

"We at Invisible Children like to go the extra mile and make everything ghetto and last minute."

That quote explains it all, we are all about going the extra mile, and making it as ghetto as possible.

The intern house is infested with Flea's, and nasty ones (they're biters all right.)We decided we wanted to fix the problem, but how do we go about it? Flea spray? Flea bombs? Well, we of course Googled it and discovered that flea bombs work well.. so, we bought three of them.

Tonight we bombed room #1- the one that if you walk into, you turn black because fleas instantaneously jump and stick to you, and of course that would be Marissa's room.

Well, there was a slight problem, there is vents, and cracks under the doors- we discovered that after we started the bombs, so we duct taped everything shut.. and that is what you get..

This was definitely ghetto, last minute, and beyond our thinking..!

First there was no running water, second we had lizards, third we have fleas, and finally, we're blocking half the house off with duct tape to remove all living things unwanted. Great.. whats next? A mountain lion in our living room?

How it Ends: Our Fighting Chance

How it Ends mustered a whole lot of Congressional support for the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, but we need more co-sponsors to ensure the bill is passed in the House and Senate. We need to amplify this issue to rescue Joseph Konys child soldiers.

This is our fighting chance. This is How it Ends.

Please visit http://www.invisiblechildren.com for more information.

P.S.- I now work for Invisible Children, and I was there at How it Ends. ;)

The Legend of the Iguana

This the lizard (iguana like thing) we chased out our house.

Remove Joseph Kony from the Battlefield!

This one is going to be an epic post.. read it all.

Friday was a good day. It all hit home- I was actually sitting in the office of Invisible Children in San Diego, California working for free for the better good. It was a long day packed with super high tech trainings, to history of the IC tours and events, to history of the war part 1 taught by Laren. Friday was the day that I actually began growing friendships with fellow interns and roadies.. getting to know them more and more.

Friday night all of us interns wanted to go out, and eat.. and so we did. We walked up the street about a mile to 'Pita Pit' (its very good.) I had never had it before but was willing to try it out.. I had a breakfast pita for dinner. Then, we walked next door to Paradise Yogurt- let me tell you.. yummy! I will be going back before we move houses in September.

Yesterday we all got up and got ready to go to the beach, and we wanted an adventure so we decided to take the trolley and the bus. We went to Pacific Beach- amazing place. See..


This is kind of a family picture.. at the Trolley stop.. a few are missing.


Meet.. Taylor (Roadie; Team Texas), Amy (Mission Dept. Intern), Kayla (Office Manager), and me!


Pacific Beach.


The shoreline of Pacific Beach from the pier.

So, after the long day at the beach with friends, us interns headed home, ate dinner, and just hung out. When the art department interns got home they told us what was going to happen..

They were given the directive to wheat paste posters to a wall in downtown San Diego for a photo shoot that would appear in something secret (can't tell you, muahaha!). So, first of all- wheat pasting is very illegal.. scary, I know.. and of course, I went.

So, here are few pictures from our heist in downtown San Diego..


This is.. Ashley (art dept. intern), Natalie (s4s intern), and me.. all dressed in our distracting not so illegal outfits..


Us in the IC van getting ready.. from left to right.. Chris (art dept. intern), me, Ashley (art dept. intern).


Heh.. there we go.. we want Kony removed.. so, this is how we go about it.





We got home at 5am this morning- then we slept. Until next time..

<3 Shawn

I am a Bully.

So, this is cute. I am going to write about Kayla, a super fantastic epically amazing fellow intern. I think she is amazing. I think she should stay working at Invisible Children- she will be dearly missed, seriously dude. If you don't believe me, *&^5ing believe it (inside joke for anyone else reading this.)

Kayla, you're eating Baba Gannouj and Focaccia Sticks. I have no idea what it is.. let's google image it, and I will show you..



Kayla also, oddly, loves the song Mmmbop by Hanson, well, I mean, who doesn't? Just a little FYI, she is like actually dancing right now on the couch (awkward.)

... and now, she is talking about the movie, Hitch. ;)

Now we are dancing to sandstorm in the living room of the intern house. Kayla is complaining about how I am actually writing a blog about her.. lame. I was nice and decided to do it.

By the way, she will be writing a book that is 300 pages long and has four major parts.. she also already has a copy editor.

Want to know something random about Kayla? Okay good.. she kind of introduced me to Paradise Yogurt (frozen yogurt). It was sooo good.

Peace out.