!deation conference

After hosting three great idea camps in 2009 (including #icdc & #icpnw) – Charles Lee @charlestlee is planning a new conference event geared specifically towards non-profits and those interested in humanitarian relief.

The initial !deation conference will be held April 5-6 in Long Beach, CA.

The !deation Conference is intentionally formatted to create a rich learning and sharing experience. Each element of the conference facilitates a different mode for engaging the content as well as fellow participants. The hope is that these various experiences will lead to inspiration, encouragement, new explorations, refinement, collaboration, and strategic implementation.

I chatted with Charles a week or so ago for the podcast and he shared some of his vision for !deation.

The conference will be a bit more structured than Idea Camp with key note addresses from folks like Scott Harrison, Eugene Cho, Wade Kawasaki and others.

There will also be smaller workshops to help folks connect with others in their given field.

Should be excellent!

The registration will be capped at 400 attendees – and the early bird special only lasts till Friday – Jan. 15th – so register now!

It’ll be a couple weeks till we publish the full Charles Lee interview on the podcast – but you can hear a snippet of it (dealing with !deation) here:

[audio:http://www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan/wp-content/uploads/ideation-charleslee.mp3|titles=ideation-charleslee]

I truly appreciate Charles’ heart for justice and compassion and wish him the best in all his endeavorers.

Weekly menu (1.10.10)

A day late and it looks like this week will be fairly light on leftovers (which means bring on the sandwiches for lunch). We expect to be getting home later than normal on Tuesday night for sure – thus the quick and easy corn dogs.

Monday Dinner
Tacos (ground beef)

Tuesday Dinner
Corny Dogs

Wednesday Dinner
Pot Roast and Mashed Potatoes

Thursday Dinner
Frozen Pizza
Corn

Friday Dinner
Dinner with friends

Saturday Dinner
Small group

And for those of you who are interested, we’ve found a couple keepers over the last two weeks.

Southwestern Turkey Chili (a lot like Taco Soup)

And

Beefy Cheesy Pasta (similar to the boxed meat and pasta meals without the dry cheese/seasoning package)

So what are you planning to eat this week?

Help end modern day slavery (and five ways you can help)

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day…

It’s also the just a few days away from the 146th anniversary of the day our 13th Amendment was introduced to Congress — which set out to abolish slavery in the United States.

Yet today — modern day slavery still exists — in so many forms.

Sex trade, immigrant farmers working in Florida, children mining for coltan, chocolate and coffee farmers around the world — and so much more.

I encourage you to do a 5 things today…

1. Change your Twitter/Facebook/MySpace avatar to support One Voice to End Slavery:

2. Join One Voice to End Slavery

3. Visit the Human Trafficking section on Change.org and read at least 5 articles

4. Share the link to at least one story from Change.org on Facebook or Twitter

5. Watch David Bastone talk about human trafficking at Google:

Then let us know what you learn.

What impacted you the most? What did you learn when doing one (or all) of the steps above?

What other steps have you taken to end modern day slavery?

Dealing with the pain of infertility

pain by trying2

I’ve really been impressed and appreciative of all the things Jason Kovacs does. It’s been great getting to know him and his ministry over the last several months via his blogs and Twitter (@jasonkovacs).

Last week, Jason shared a great post on what he learned from the story of Hannah (1 Samuel 1) and her husband in Scripture…

Hannah taught me that it is natural for a woman to desire to have children. Woman all around the world can relate to her. My wife painfully longed to be a mother. Initially I didn’t know what to do with her emotional response to not being pregnant. To me it seemed so disproportionate to how I felt…. I felt like Hannah’s husband, who said to her: “why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” That approach didn’t work in Hannah’s day and it still doesn’t work today.

I ditto that statement. I will never fully understand the pain and sadness that Laurie feels as we struggle with our infertility. Yes, my heart hurts because we haven’t been able to get pregnant — but my desire is no where near that of Laurie’s.
Continue reading Dealing with the pain of infertility

Love is all you need

On December 7th, 2009 at 1:30pm GMT Starbucks invited musicians from all over the world to sing together at the same time to raise awareness for AIDS in Africa. In that one breathtaking moment, musicians from 156 countries played “All You Need is Love” together. Watch now, as musicians from all around the world come together and share a song.

You can still take part by donating your a video of yourself (or you and your friends) singing the song. Starbucks will donate a nickel to the Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa for every video that’s submitted.

Find out more http://starbucksloveproject.com/

My favorite point in the video is the boy belting out “All you need is love!” from Israel, around the mid-point in the song.

What’s your favorite point(s)?

(ht @knightopia)

The cost of food

We saw Food, Inc. Friday night. It’s a great eye opening story (much along the lines of Michael Pollan’s other work).

Watch the trailer.

Good Magazine has a great two minute video highlighting some of the ideas Food Inc. brings out in the documentary:

Both Food Inc. and the Good video remind me of one thing, “It’s never quite worth what you give up to get it.”

like style made by slaves
like bribes to throw the race
like women who know their place
like an indian casino or a tank of unleaded
it’s never quite worth what you give up to get
– derek webb

What have you given up (or done) — only to find out later it wasn’t quite worth it?