preview of wednesday wwwisdom possibility for Wednesday, Feb 3.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter
Can people get smarter? Are some racial or social groups smarter than others? Despite a lot of evidence to the contrary, many people believe that intelligence is fixed, and, moreover, that some racial and social groups are inherently smarter than others. Merely evoking these stereotypes about the intellectual inferiority of these groups (such as women and Blacks) is enough to harm the academic perfomance of members of these groups. Social psychologist Claude Steele and his collaborators (2002) have called this phenomenon "stereotype threat."
Yet social psychologists Aronson, Fried, and Good (2001) have developed a possible antidote to stereotype threat. They taught African American and European American college students to think of intelligence as changeable, rather than fixed - a lesson that many psychological studies suggests is true. Students in a control group did not receive this message. Those students who learned about IQ's malleability improved their grades more than did students who did not receive this message, and also saw academics as more important than did students in the control group. Even more exciting was the finding that Black students benefited more from learning about the malleable nature of intelligence than did White students, showing that this intervention may successfully counteract stereotype threat.
via apa.org
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Why Do This?...
2009 - 0503 Why Do This? In Remembrance Of Me by Johnson, Darrell
Download now or listen on posterous
2009-0503 Why Do This_ In Remembrance of Me.mp3 (7282 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
Pastor Darrell Johnson's Communion message at First Baptist Church Vancouver from May 2009.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Director! Victoria 2009 Division A - Round 7 = Standings
Check out this website I found at victoriascrabbleclub.org
I was 3rd in a Div of 10 in the Victoria Scrabble Tournament last Saturday. Not bad for being 4th seed, I'd say... what a weird distribution of wins, no one with 4 wins out of 7 (or 0, which is always nice too).
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
shane sings 5 octaves on piano
via youtube.com
Some YouTube-y goodness, or How Not To Sing (Edna, do we need one of these in the FBC Choir?...).
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Blue Like Jazz author enjoys 'editing' his own life
I've occasionally thought about working out life on paper before living it. I called it brainstorming my life. "Editing" is shorter, though. Neat article, I particularly like this bit:
Miller concluded his talk by encouraging Christians to stop shouting about what they don't like -- and to focus, instead, on what they are for, and what they think is beautiful.
"We have to start telling better stories," he declared.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Oh yeah, I'm married!
Zoiks: my first blog entry as a married guy is about bad behaviour.
Just behind on a bunch of "breather" activities. It feels like we hit the ground running on many things when we got back.
On this blog I can only speak for me, although I believe Dana echoes similar sentiments: marriage came highly recommended to me. Any time anything gets rave reviews, I get a little leery, actually. So far, though, living with Dana has been really really cool, way cooler than I'd imagined it could, would, even should be. I could go into more detail, but I think I've milked my lunchhour overmuch as it stands already... A quick thank you to everyone who's advised me/us already on the big adventure of getting married to each other.
[way more thank yous are on their way]How behind am I? As far as I know, my cousins Angel & Derek were the first to get me some Media to see from our wedding.
It's taken me till just now to open it up.
Here's the video they posted. Angel's voice is in the background. Derek is taking pics in the background.
Up front:
flowergirl Sarah (Dana's niece)
ringbearer Griffin (my nephew)
maid of honour Karen (Dana's sister) Enjoy this little tease (aww who'm I kidding, the photos are out there already, aren't they?...)!
Serena, Joe, Kanye: It's a new social disease - The Globe and Mail
Entitlemania is the new social disease alluded to. I do so enjoy getting my news all grouped-up and commented on like this...
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Griffin runs the bases
My nephew Griffin got to run the bases after a Vancouver Canadians game where they scored 2 home runs! (because Griffin wanted to see homers!).
Griffin's in black. Sorry, not the best video quality...
Friday, July 31, 2009
PosterousFolio: Stick Em Up
Two washroom ads (yes, they were actually in washrooms) placed in Pacific Coliseum.
Results:
1. A new Memorial Cup Tournament attendance record was set during the Semifinals, so the total eclipsed the previous mark set by venerable hockey town, Quebec City.
2. Washroom Ad 1 was liked so much by the media outlet, they placed it into the Province for us. And the issue it landed in was the one celebrating the BC Lions' Grey Cup victory.
3. The Vancouver Giants won the Memorial Cup in front of their home, defeating the Medicine Hat Tigers who had edged them in the WHL finals (Game 7 overtime) less than a month before. Is this the power of advertising?...
Results:
1. A new Memorial Cup Tournament attendance record was set during the Semifinals, so the total eclipsed the previous mark set by venerable hockey town, Quebec City.
2. Washroom Ad 1 was liked so much by the media outlet, they placed it into the Province for us. And the issue it landed in was the one celebrating the BC Lions' Grey Cup victory.
3. The Vancouver Giants won the Memorial Cup in front of their home, defeating the Medicine Hat Tigers who had edged them in the WHL finals (Game 7 overtime) less than a month before. Is this the power of advertising?...
Saturday, July 25, 2009
24's Jack Bauer Returns a Happy Man - Yahoo! News
via news.yahoo.com
It took me till the 7th Season to follow a full season from start to finish. These shows like 24, Heroes, Lost, they're a bit like homework. Anyway, I'm imagining Jack Bauer doing a "I'm not dead yet" like in Holy Grail. I could totally write for this show.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Download “Prince of Peace – God of War” For Free | The Movie Blog
via themovieblog.com
Did they have you at "Free"?...
This is a pretty straightforward doc as far as letting people state their case. As much as the views are wide-ranging, I get some sense of grace, that the opposing sides express and are allowed to, and somehow it still works that we are all following Christ. It's an hour long but even the first interview with Tony Campolo plants a seed for some interesting thought.
If this works as I think it will, it will link back to the blog post, then you scroll down to the movie where there's two or three options for download.
Other interesting note: this was originally posted on my birthday!
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Joey Chestnut defends hot dog eating title with world record 68 franks - ESPN
The anchors at ESPN are showing what I'm sure are fairly typical reactions to this bit of annual surrealism. To think that eating 64 hot dogs in ten minutes is good for second...
Friday, July 03, 2009
Regina Spektor - Laughing with
I was kind of blindsided by this song on the drive in to work. The DJ said to listen to the words, and I was actually ready to not be impressed. I wasn't totally paying attention. Then there was a mention of God. Then one soon after. Then the realization, this is a song about God. Or rather, about our reactions to the God we perceive.
Regina Spektor is no theologian (I don't think) but what she expresses about God rings true. And lately I'm appreciating this qualitative "true" more than the "true/false" kind. A broad stroke simplification is right brain/left brain, or feeling/thinking. While our feelings aren't important, they point out way more than I was led to believe growing up.
That said, I'm not a big fan of the last line, and leaving it at who's laughing and who isn't and leaving us all hanging to consider "so what do we do about that?" rings truer, albeit probly less song-like.
Still, I'm overall pleased that God is "out there". For what it's worth, I'm thankful for your song, Regina. It spoke to me.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Taking a breath: a Bridging the Gap synchroblog
Same gender attraction and Christianity.
It’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it?
A big, complex, multi-faceted and often scary deal.
Current conventional wisdom (at least in a few of the circles I’ve been reading) recommends breaking down a big, menacing deal into a number of smaller, more manageable deals (I’m paraphrasing a whole lot here, and clearly not citing any sources), so here’s what I suggest is an attainable Step 1. Maybe not even 1, maybe it’s Step 0.5. And it’s as simple as breathing.
In fact, it is breathing.
So we hear about another legislation about gay marriage, or someone confesses a friend’s (or their own) struggle with sexual identity...
And one of our gut reactions… is to wince.
And we’re not talking about just a facial expression: I see it played out in an extreme, instantaneous facial expression, and the very next breath we take in is audible, and shrill, and quite honestly, often heartbreaking.
Why we wince is a whole big, complex, multi-faceted deal within the big, complex, multi-faceted deal we’re already dealing with, having a lot to do with engrained learning so many of us grew up with (and many still grow up with) in our churches.
I wonder: what if we slow down that first breath?
I used to read about a 10-second rule, that if you’re inclined to respond with full frontal rage, to count to 10 before reacting harshly. Maybe this kind of thing has fallen out of favour, maybe it didn’t really work (was 10 not enough, maybe?...), but I do think that slowing down is, at times, the beginning of wisdom. As is taking a deep, intentional, life-giving breath: connecting a few dots here, I was reminded in a PodCast from The Meeting House that the Greek word pneuma (pronounced NOOMA… yes, that Nooma) describes both 'wind' or 'breath'… and the Holy Spirit.
I honestly don’t know how much we can, or should, control that automatic reaction but I see some pluses in a world where the church is seen less as the people who freak out about morals, more as the people who embrace, love & accept people with differences, like Jesus did, because we draw on the resources that He did (or rather, breathe in THE Resource).
New Direction is taking a stand in a battle that could very well define us as a church. They do so with tons of grace and wisdom, as I witnessed from taking their Sexual Identity & The Local Church seminar. It’s an important part of the even bigger, complexer, multi-faceteder and often scarier deal of our collective identity as Christ’s followers. I believe that if wince less and “breathe the right stuff” with more intentionality in these instances, it will help us take good, proper breaths in all instances.
Please check out the other blogs (I really liked Beth’s) at:
www.btgproject.blogspot.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Why God didn't make you more beautiful than you are (!)
Why God Didn't Make You More Beautiful Than You Are by Stackhouse, Dr. John
Download now or listen on posterous
Why God didn't make you more beautiful than you are.mp3 (6203 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
Dr. John Stackhouse is perhaps the funniest preachuhman I evuh did hee-ah.
Quote me on that on your blog, Dr. Stackhouse, please please please do!
This mp3 also has me reading Scripture.
I volunteered.
They used the take where I slipped up.
...also available at www.FirstBC.org/sermons
I told my fiancée Dana it's my speaker crush, and now she mentions it to me almost daily.
Rest assured, Dr. Stackhouse, I refer to you as Stax in conversation, but that's as far as it goes! If there's a tent out in the bushes outside your house, that is not me.
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