Uganda Lobby Day '08

So last week was one of the craziest of my life. From around 4 on Sunday to the end of the day on Tuesday I had been running non-stop. I was a volunteer for the Uganda Lobby Day and Symposium from this past Sunday night to Tuesday. I originally was supposed to be volunteering for World Vision, just doing whatever they needed me to do. However, after talking to some people me and Matt became the "official" videographers for World Vision. Don't ask me how we pulled that, I'm not really even sure. Anyways, we got put in charge of documenting the whole event and are going to make a documentary for World Vision. Crazy I know...

I got to interview a lot of interesting people including the head of advocacy for World Vision, Jason from Invisible Children, and a man who grew up in Northern Uganda. On Tuesday we went to a bunch of different Senate and Representative Offices to film students advocating. It was really cool to see the number of people that came out to talk to Congress. I think the people in Washington were pleasently surprised by the passion and dedication of people to Northern Uganda.

I think I got about 7 1/2 hours of sleep in the 3 days so I was exausted by the end of Tuesday. It was a great experience non the less and I hope to be able to do it again. Maybe World Vision will even let me video tape them again...who knows, anything is possible.

Peace and love.

New Video!

After a lot of lost sleep I finally figured out an idea for my video. I thought of the idea after sleeping through my first class on Thursday. (who says skipping class is always a bad thing?) On Friday I filmed the entire project and began editing it. I just finished the final touches on it and it is ready for your viewing pleasure! I want to give a very big "thank you" to M. Chase Whittemore for helping me film and edit and Nathan Forschler for staring in the film. I hope you enjoy it...

Help!

I am taking a digital video class this semester which up until this point has been a lot of fun. I have a video due next week however, and I am in a bit of a panic. I cannot think of anything to do for it. We need to do a 2 min story, commercial, or music video. That's about all the guidelines we have. Normally it's nice to have that kind of creative freedom, but I am in a bit of a creative slump. This is where you come in... If you have any ideas, any at all, please let me know by commenting on this post or emailing me at jordan.smith12@gmail.com. Anything would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Peace and love.

I'm back!

You can credit this new post to M. Chase Whittemore and Scotty B, their nagging has been noted and forced me to start writing again. With that said, I'm glad they bugged me because I really needed to start this up again...and hopefully keep it up this time. My problem is that in the past I felt as though I needed to say something deep or profound on my blog. I have since realized that "being profound" is not a necessary part of blogging. So here we go again, welcome to my life...

I am in the process of what one might call an existential crisis. I tend to have these about three times a year. Houghton is good at cultivating them. It's hard to stay positive and focused on your goals in a place that is so far removed from the rest of the world that it seems sometimes that you are in a never ending black hole of academics and sub-zero weather. I say this all in jest of course; but it does get frustrating, especially for someone like me. I know what I want to do and I am struggling to figure out what my purpose is here at Houghton. I feel as though I am here just to go through the motions, which is quite frustrating. I feel like I need a jump-start, something that will get me excited again. I don't know what that "jump-start" would look like, but I'm searching. Until that time I'll have to tough it out and look for the good in life. It's good to be back.

Peace and love.