The ONE Campaign has started a petition in attempt to make sure the fight against extreme poverty is an important part of the platforms of both the Democratic and Republican parties when they are unveiled at their respective conventions later this month and early next month.

The petition reads as follows:

As a proud American, I urge you to make ending extreme poverty and global disease in the developing world a core part of your 2008 platform by including commitments to:

• Fight AIDS, TB and malaria and improve basic health services, particularly for mothers and young children


• Ensure access to clean water, basic sanitation and sufficient food supplies


• Spur economic growth through equitable trade and investment policies


• Modernize and increase development assistance, focusing on partnership, transparency and accountability Achieve universal primary education

You can get involved and sign the petition by going here and filling out the form on the right.

ht: the ONE blog

Labels: activism, africa, aids, injustice, water

No, we are not looking for those guys. We are looking for a babysitter for Saturday evening. We have a wedding to go to for the third Saturday in a row and we need someone to watch Palmer for the evening.

Let me know if you are interested.

Labels: indiscriminate

A few weeks ago, I posted about one of our photos being on the short list of photos being considered for inclusion in the fifth edition of the Schmap Orlando Guide. Well, today, I got an email saying that our photo had been selected. You can see it here.


Pretty sweet. I think.

To clear up some confusion, Kim and I did determine that it was her, not me, that took this photo. So, I am a little disappointed that my name is listed under the photo and not hers.

So, congrats to my lady for being a published photographer.

Labels: photography, travel

I posted another video of Palmer playing on his blog.

Go check him out.

Labels: blogosphere, family, video

I just saw this article on BBC News. Some former Google employees have created their own search engine, in an attempt to rival the internet powerhouse.

Here's what they say makes them different/better...

Instead of just looking at the number and quality of links to and from a webpage as Google's technology does, Cuil [pronounced "Cool"] attempts to understand more about the information on a page and the terms people use to search.

I decided to give them a shot to see if they really are "cool". They failed miserably.

If I search for "shannon smith blog" on Google, I come up number four. If I search for "shannon smith blog" on Cuil, I am not even on the first three pages of results.

What are your thoughts on Cuil?

Labels: internet, technology

About a year and a half ago I was introduced to the crisis that is Africa by Mr. Paul Hewson, aka Bono of U2. I was at a leader conference, or Summit as it were. They played a pre-recorded interview with Bono where he explained a bit about the hardships facing many African nations and then spoke of how the Church should be responding to this. Orphans and widows abound in the motherland and the bible speaks directly of it being the responsibility of the Church to take care of them.

I left that conference on a we-have-to-do-something-about-this high. If you've ever been to a Christian leadership conference, you know what I am talking about. You get pumped up while you are in the bubble and then you walk out ready to change the world, only to get smacked in the face by life. Well, at least that's how it works with me.

After the Leadership Summit, we played the interview on a Sunday morning at Visio Dei. Listening to it a second time reaffirmed that we-have-to-do-something-about-this feeling. Then, it was like I couldn't go anywhere with hearing something or read anything without it relating back to the crisis in Africa. Then, one day, I read something that said that the lack of clean drinking water is a core component of many of the issues facing Africans today.

You should know that my personality, as I am finding more and more to be true, is such that I can see a need and see in the big picture "if only we could do A, B and C, we could fix this." The problem is that when it comes to the details of accomplishing A, B, or C, it's not always as clear or easy.

So, my response was, "We have to find a way to bring people clean drinking water." Seems easy enough, right. Pay someone to drill a hole in the ground and put a pump at the top. Voila. Done.

Over the past year and a half, I have learned that though it seems that simple, it is simply not. There are cultural, governmental, and geographic factors to consider.

So, at times, my passion wanes and the going is slow. Then, at other times, I get a lead and I am once again excited about the opportunity to bring water to people that need it. Right now, I feel as though I am on the cusp of making a major breakthrough and it scares me like nothing else.

Labels: activism, africa

I was slack last week and never put up a video. So, this week is a two-fer.



I feel good about having kept up with the challenge for nine weeks. Follow through is not my strong suit. I like the changes I am seeing in my body composition. It gives me more incentive to keep it up when I start to see some muscle develop.

Thanks to everyone who has continued to ask me how it's going. That provides some great accountability.

Once Carlos gets his post up, I'll link to it so you can see how everyone else is doing.

Peace and Hair Grease
-Shannon

Labels: health, video, weight loss

On July 4, my brother-in-law and two of his cohorts released a hip-hop album. Their self titled album, 154, is an EP with six tracks. It is currently available in the iTunes Store, on Amazon.com and in a few independent music outlets. You can check out their myspace page to hear a few tracks and to see the list of stores selling the album.

In the past few weeks since their album dropped, they have been getting some air play on WKNC 88.1. DJ Nominal even had them in the studio for an on-air interview during his time slot. He podcasts his shows. So, you can check it out here.

I asked Joel, aka JP Flowz, for an exclusive quote for my blog, but he was being modest. He's still working on his PR skills. I did get this out of him, "We've got some old school, some new school, and some tracks that will make you bob your head." Personally, I like North Cak and Work It Out does make me bob my head.

So everyone go check him out and show him some love. If you end up buying a track or the entire album, he has asked me to ask you to leave a review.

Do any of you even listen to hip-hop?

Labels: entertainment, family, music

Palmer has been developing a lot of new skills recently. Head over to his blog and see a video of him in action.

Labels: blogosphere, family, video

My lady is. That's who. In case you missed it, Kim is now twittering, or tweeting, if you prefer. Give her some love. You can follow her at @kimberlymsmith.

If you aren't on twitter, you should be.

Labels: family, twitter

Well, this video is about five days late. I weighed in on Saturday and recorded it, but I just got around to making the video last night. Check me out down below.



Last week was a good one. I did some working out and I am seeing some muscle definition develop. That's sort of like a bonus. I lose a little fat and gain a little muscle. Nice.

Check out how everyone else did last week.

Labels: health, video, weight loss

I am interested in acquiring a domain for my blog. kimandshanon.com is not bad, but I have other ideas for that site. I'd like to give my blog a new home.

Any thoughts on what domain I could use?

I tried to get leadfollow.com and lead-follow.com, but they were both taken.

Do you think having a .net is lame?

Please weigh in.

Labels: blogosphere, internet

I just got a message on my flickr account that the picture shown above "has been short-listed for inclusion in the fifth edition of our Schmap Orlando Guide, to be published at the end of this month."

That would be pretty sweet if my photo made it into the travel guide.

Labels: photography, travel

So, this is pretty late, but I wanted to get it up anyhow. Last week we were on vacation. So, I didn't get to weigh-in until Monday morning. It was not pretty. Check out my video to see what the damage was.



This week has been pretty good thus far. I think I am going to get back off most of what I gained. Check in next week to see how I do.

You can check out how everyone else is doing, here.

Labels: health, video, weight loss

This week will be brief. We are on vacation for the week at Carolina Beach with my mom and sisters. Currently, Kim, Palmer and I are on the patio of a fancy little wine shop/coffee house called the Grind. It is the closest connection to the internets that I have found.

Last week I was up a half a pound to 220. My goal for this week was to lose three pounds. Check out my video to see how I did.



This week since we are on vacation, my goal is not to gain any weight. Thus far, I'd say I'm doing okay. There's a lot more working out going on than I had anticipated. We are on the third floor so just going to the beach is a session on the stairclimber.

I hope everyone did great on the challenge this week. You can go here to see how they did.

Labels: health, video, weight loss