Maximise the Power of Your Brain - Tony Buzan MIND MAPPING

Here is a video the further explains Mind Maps.

Christian Education

There is great blog called GRACE Writes, which focuses on Christian Education and teaching. It is very applicable to Youth Ministry. Today, Dr. Galindo (one of my favorite contributors to the site) talked about the importance of teaching how to learn. In the post, he included a video by Tony Buzan talking about creativity. Tony Buzan is famous for his Mind Maps - a way to organize information and take notes.

The question is (as my professor says) do we teach or do we facilitate learning?

Blogger Play

Josh over at Simply YM finds the most interesting items to post. Blogger has a new feature called Blogger Play. Turn it on if you want to waste lots of time watching the pictures of what has just been posted to blogger. Be aware, they try to filter out all the naughty stuff, but some slips by the filters.

September 11th Remembrances

Two of the blogs, which I regularly read are Jim’s and McNair’s. Both of these blogs had a post remembering September 11th. Please pause and read them, they are both very good. I responded to Jim’s blog with where I was on Sept. 11th. This is what I wrote:

“I was home with my 2-year-old daughter, while my oldest was at preschool and my wife and our youngest were out. I turned on ESPN and started folding laundry. By chance, I changed channels at about 9:30am and watched everything unfold before my eyes on many different news stations. My daughter still remembers me crying while watching TV even though I tried to protect her from my reaction and the images. Living in Philadelphia, it felt very close and very surreal.

We found out later that a couple from our church was staying at the World Trade Center Hilton and was having a late breakfast in their room when the first plane hit. They fled immediately and he did not remember to put on his shoes. They walked south; someone gave him a pair of shoes and then took a boat to NJ. That is how they got out of NY.

It is still hard for me to watch the images. I still have not seen they movies about 9/11. I am not ready yet.”

What I did not write is that my brother lives in NY City in the Village. His apartment was downwind of the towers and receive some of the dirt. He had to show is ID every time he left the Village and returned because he lived in the area that was quarantined. I remembered how worried I was about him, until I spoke with him.

Another significant event that happened around 9/11 was on Friday, September 14; my wife went into the hospital with a blood disorder. She spent 5 days there and I made many trips back and forth. It was a very emotional time.

Hopefully someday I will ready for the movies about 9/11, but not yet.

Don't smoke or sell pot

Here is a great story that illustrates another reason not to be involved with pot. Two freshmen at Northeastern we busted for selling pot and then expelled from the university, all because one yelled out the window that they had pot for sale. Don't smoke pot and don't sell pot, you could get kicked out of college.

Summer Movie Results

At the beginning of May, I made the following movie predictions as to which movies would gross the most money over the summer. Since summer ended with Labor Day weekend, it is time to see how I did.

May 2007 Predictions:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean – At the World’s End
2. Spiderman 3
3. Shrek 3
4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
5. The Transformers
6. Ratatouille
7. Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer
8. Ocean’s Thirteen
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. The Simpsons Movie

Here are the US totals for movies that opened this summer:
1. Spider-Man 3 $336,530,303
2. Shrek the Third $321,012,359
3. Transformers $310,578,372
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $308,681,208
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $286,825,495
6. The Bourne Ultimatum $202,810,455
7. Ratatouille $201,249,448
8. The Simpsons Movie $178,526,451
9. Knocked Up $148,170,675
10. Live Free or Die Hard $133,614,216
11. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer $131,597,271
12. Rush Hour 3 $122,695,339
13. Ocean's Thirteen $117,033,632
14. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry $116,637,095
15. Hairspray (2007) $112,415,489

Not bad, I picked 8 of the 10 movies correct, I just had the wrong order. In fact, I did not predict the correct order for any movie.

Here are the worldwide totals for movies that opened this summer:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $959,800,000
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $911,800,000
3. Spider-Man 3 $890,200,000
4. Shrek the Third $757,500,000
5. Transformers $685,600,000
6. The Simpsons Movie $481,100,000
7. Ratatouille $391,700,000
8. Live Free or Die Hard $356,400,000
9. Ocean's Thirteen $305,500,000
10. The Bourne Ultimatum $278,900,000
11. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer $276,800,000
12. Mr. Bean's Holiday $210,400,000
13. Knocked Up $185,400,000
14. Rush Hour 3 $175,700,000
15. Evan Almighty $147,200,000

I was much closer here predicting the highest grossing movie worldwide. I also correctly predict 9 out of the top 10 movies, just in the wrong order.

You can also see why some movies keep being made like Mr. Bean. They make a lot of money around the world. Thanks to Box Office Mojo for all the data.

Robot Chicken Top 10 Star Wars Special Clips

Thanks to Josh for this very funny video. If you love Star Wars, you will love this.