And then tonight, I SOLVED IT!

I have used all kinds of systems. I have had post-it notes on it, going row by row. I have made photo copies and cut it up and tried sorting it. But I never finished any system. Then here, in my new house in Colorado, I hung it up in the restroom in the new Kidology office thinking there I might have more time to devote to this evil poster. (I know, TMI!) And today, I was in there patiently dealing with one of my Colorado bloody noses (I get those a lot here, part of my adapting to the altitude, and since I’m on blood thinning meds due to my heart episode, they take longer to stop… yeah, more TMI!) I was looking at this infernal poster and tried a new strategy…

If I was the artist, where would I put the two identical pen men?

and suddenly, I SAW THEM! Seriously! All these years of starring, and systems, and going row by row, and all I had to do was get into the mind of the artist, and WA-LA! I solved it!

So…. can YOU find the two identical Pen Men? You can click on the photo for a larger view. Don’t put the answer in the comments (moron) but send me the answer (row and number from the left) via e-mail me or private message via FB or DM via twitter and the first person to tell me I will mail you a prize! Seriously, I will! I PROMISE, and it will be a GOOD PRIZE! I’m very generous.

What is the Kidology Handbook? CLICK THIS TO FIND OUT:

It’s the craziest video I ever made! The “back story” is I spent all day on a promo video that I had to trash because of a table saw in the background that I didn’t hear until I went to edit! My webmaster left on vacation with the Kidology newsletter  already cued and ready to go with a file name where I was to upload a video! So I had to head back to the Kidology headquarter after midnight to film… late, tired, wired on Dew, and desperate for a promo video… and this was the result! Turned out to be one of the best promo videos I’ve ever done. Last minute wackiness at its best! Order a Kidology Handbook Today. And just for reading this far, use the coupon code ‘penmen’ get $5 off your order, never expires! How’s that oh faithful blog readers! (Will work only on the handbook, once per e-mail address.)

A Kid Making a Difference

Cam is the son of a woman I met at CPC last week:

Heather and Me @ CPC Nashville 2010

I first ‘met’ Heather when she e-mailed me via Kidology.org and told me about the amazing and moving testimony on YouTube by her pastor’s 19 year old son just ten days before he died of lymphoblastic leukemia last August. He died on Wednesday and her team needed to lead VBS in the midst of their grief knowing that Ben, who had once been a prominent leader at such events, was now with Jesus. His story is both sad and yet moving and wonderful at the same time. I was moved to tears hearing of how it has impacted their church and was delighted to meet Heather after one of my workshops.

I then got to hear about the “Ben Ripple” – how Ben’s life and testimony has been impacting the children since he died, including Heather’s son, who announced to her recently that he would be hosting a concert to help others survive what took Ben’s life.

Please take a moment to read this article in the Beacon Heard: Finding Purpose After the Pain.

Why did I title this post “The Last $1000 Needed for Leukemia Research” ? When Cam was at the Canadian Cancer Society setting up his event so they could accept donations, he said to them “Wouldn’t it be awesome if this were the last $1,000 that needed to be raised for leukemia research?” I love the faith of children! I think it would be AWESOME if it was the last $1000 needed!

Cam at the Keyboards Practising

I was so moved by this boys desire to make a difference and  I was disappointed I couldn’t be there for the concert, so I gently pushed Heather to live web-stream the event and guess what, she is doing it!

So let me encourage you to DONATE, even a little. Here’s the scoop:

If Cam raises $1500, his dad has to shave his head! I don’t think his dad was counting on a guy with a highly read blog helping his son, so let’s make sure his dad goes bald folks!

And, if you want to bless them a little more, drop in for the concert, as you’ll be able to chat during the concert too. I’ll be there, so let’s encourage this young boy.

I’ve always said, kids don’t yet believe they can’t make a difference – so we need to encourage them!

UPDATE: The event is over, here is a video hightlight, enjoy, it only 50 seconds:

Here is the text of the e-mail: (source unknown)

I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down. First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by. Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.

It was fun while it lasted

Hope you get a kick out of it too! I thought it was pretty creative, but can totally see why the poor guy had to take it down! It’s something I’d do but my wife would make me take it down long before the police would get a chance too! Merry Christmas!

"BUZZ BUZZED" (my caption)

OTHER ENTRIES:

To manyz donutz hurted my tummiez… (Allison Waters)

“i said KRYPTONITE!” not krispy kreme! (Barbara Neiger)

Luke became overwhelmed after learning that Buzz Lightyear – not Darth Vader – was his true father. And to think, the clues were there all along. (Jordan Bastian)

To infinity and beyond…the Krispy Kreme! (Todd Liebenow)

Buzz asked Jr. to taste test his new recipe that he got from Karl’s new cookbook! (Tammy Jones @vbscrazy)

Toy Story 3: No Doughnut Gets Left Behind (@alyssaglick)

To Immodium and beyond! (@marc_romero)

the evil pirate Zorkons were approaching us from the aft vector to raid our donut loot, but I was able to prevent them. *burp* (Glenn Woods @thurios)

Donut try this at home, I’m a trained professional (@samluce)

EXPOSED: Buzz Lightyears secret desire-join the police. (@j_doss)

To Naptime and Beyond! (@fathershousekid)

This is what happens when those intergalactic cops have their fill of doughnuts. (@franktan)

AND THE WINNER IS:

“To infinity and….oh, are those doughnuts? Um….never mind, saving the galaxy can wait. MMMMM….. doughnuts……” (Rob Siebert)

Rob: Twitter or FB message me and name and claim your prize!
(What do you want? Ask reasonably and ye just might receive!)

]]> http://kidologist.com/2009/11/05/buzz-buzzed-caption-this-contest-winner/feed/ 2 http://kidologist.com/2009/02/17/a-real-noahs-ark-life-sized-boat/ http://kidologist.com/2009/02/17/a-real-noahs-ark-life-sized-boat/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:40:55 +0000 kidologist http://kidologist.com/?p=1693 (This was e-mailed to me, but I wanted to post it to share and save)

Man builds working replica of Noah’s Ark (exact scale given in Bible) in Schagen , Netherlands

The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was opened to the first crowd of curious townsfolk to behold the wonder. Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark , built by Dutch creationist, Johan Huibers, as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible.

The ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold.

A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine. Biblical Scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been.

Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son, Roy. Construction began in May 2005. On the uncovered top – deck not quite ready in time for the opening – will come a petting zoo, with baby lambs, chickens, goats and one camel.

Visitors on the first day were stunned. ‘It’s past comprehension’, said Mary Louise Starosciak, who happened to be bicycling by with her husband while on vacation when they saw the ark looming over the local landscape.

“I knew the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big.”

There is enough space near the keel for a 50-seat film theater where kids can watch a video that tells the story of Noah and his ark. Huibers, a Christian man, said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands , where church-going has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years.

Now that I am old and Gray…give me the time to tell This new generation (and their children too) About all your mighty miracles. Psalm 71:18

I never win anything. Ever. Until today when I got a package from Mountain Dew! (actually New Media Strategies) They teamed up with BevReview.com for a Win Dew Stuff contest – all I had to do was comment on a post about Mountain Dew. (not too difficult!)

Next thing I know, I’ve won a hat, a flash drive and a cool light up pen.

My day is off to a good start!

WEDNESDAY EVENING, October 1st, 2008 is the Kidology Celebration Banquet as the Kick Off Event to Kid U Celebration Conference. YES! We are celebrating 10 YEARS of KID U! Actually, we’ve done FIFTEEN of these large conferences (in different states same year) and I’ve literally lost track of how many of the smaller Kidology To Go events we’ve done, including their predecessor, “Science of Kidology.” We are takin the opportunity of this 10th anniversary event to celebration, look back, and vision cast for the future of Kidology!

We have many family, friends and fans who were not able to make it to Chicago for the banquet so I’m excited to announce that we are planning to broadcast the event LIVE via Ustream.com.

GO TO: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-with-the-kidologist or just visit the home page of Kidology.org. You not only will be able to watch the event, but chat with others who are watching as well. I recommend you register on the site for a free account so your chat name will be your username. I did a test braodcast last night and got to chat with four members from virginia, florida and oregon all at once and they got to see my Star Wars museum in my basement. What a perk for being the first! I will send out a reminder via Twitter if you follow me there or on facebook.

I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE - well, you’ll be able to see me, I’ll be able to say hi at the camera and occasionally in the chat room! Now you can attend the banquet no matter where you are! (Isn’t technology fun?)

Enjoy:

and as long as I’m at it:

As mentioned in my podcast interview with Speed Stack’s Roger Washburn, I was sent one of the very first BattleStack games! And wasted no time in arranging the ultimate battle between boys and girls with my nephew and niece!

Here is the video via YouTube:

Or you can download a higher resolution QuickTime file. (37.4mb)

AND, YES! You can buy a BattleStack Game in the Kidology Store: BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO OWN THIS!

I know at many churches I’ve seen Speed Stack cups available to kids, but they often don’t know what to do with them if they’ve not been taught. But with the BattleStack any kids can instantly start to play using the BattleStack cards. What a GREAT GAME to make available for the kids that are early or hanging around afterwards waiting for Mom and Dad to get them! (Hint: you need at least two!)

What is your guess for what this is for?

DARTH VADER GETS AN UPGRADE: 

and one more:

Now we know where we gets some of his evil ideas.

Several years ago (before I blogged on an official “blog”) I created a page that showed me and my friend Ryan Yoder assembling my Lego Star Destroyer, which at the time, was the largest Lego kit that Lego had ever created up to that point.

I often am telling kids about it (as I was this weekend in Canada) and wishing it was posted on my blog, so I am posting a post about the post where I posted about it: For all the pictures step by step (and cool star background) SEE THE ORIGINAL LEGO STAR DESTROYER POST.

 It took us two full days to assemble the 3000+ pieces of this Lego work of art! So now it is linked and searchable on my blog so I can just tell kids, search my blog for Lego Star Destroyer and you’ll find a link to it!

CHECK IT OUT THE COMPLETE PICTURES HERE. 

How DO they do it?

[flv]http://media.kidology.org/flash/kblog/cheezit.flv[/flv]

Then today he tells me she is back from vacation! (not stalking, huh?) Well, to make up for it, I immediately logged on to Live News Cameras and e-mailed Kat again and this time asked how her vacation was and asked her to say hi to Steve for me, and she did! Hopefully this puts me back on good terms with Steve. It’s a good thing that me and Kat are obviously such good friends now and that she has twice responded to my e-mails live on a channel that is watched nation-wide by probably millions of online viewers.

Maybe someday Steve will get the courage to e-mail her himself and say “hi.”

[flv]http://media.kidology.org/flash/kblog/juggler-timnolan.flv[/flv]

I wish I had the time to practice enough to get this good at anything!

(Click image for full size view)

There are several pages of live cameras you can click on and watch.There are the old familar (boring) webcams of highways, etc., but there are also live cameras of newscasts, but you get to see when they are “off the air” – even saw a news gal fixing her hair, doing the news blurb and then asking someone off camera how she did. The change from when she was “on” and then off the air was fascinating. Real people!

My favorite was watching the space shuttle as it did a full rotation as it passed over Australia so that the space station (where the camera was) could take photos of the entire exterior of the space craft for analysis. Then I watched it dock to the International Space Station! Pretty amazing stuff to watch live on your computer while working!

There is a moderator at times in the small screen in the upper right hand corner. At the time, a young lady named Kat Bockli was online. You can hear her feverishly typing away and then from time to she gives an update or a tip on something interesting on one of the many channels. A funeral for a fallen fireman, a school lock down due to a hostage situation, a multiple car crash as seen by helicopter. None of these got me to switch off of NASA2, but then she reported that there was a bomb threat at a church and the bomb squad was sending in a robot and you could watch it live! This was too much excitement when I was supposed to be working!

Periodically Kat asks her viewers to e-mail her with any questions, suggestions, feedback, or just to say hello. I figured the only way I could know FOR SURE that this was indeed live was to e-mail her and ask her to say hi. I sent this:

and within ONE MINUTE this was her response:

CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY VIDEO

Pretty cool, huh? So jump over and check out: www.livenewscameras.com. Thanks to Steve for Twittin’ me the URL. He said he’s been following the site for awhile; guess I missed the discussion on his forum about it: LIVE NEWS CAMERAS. Steve is always the first to know about everything.

I now can offer my Mac usin’ blog readers a very cool Kidologist.com RSS Mac Widget:

Just DOWNLOAD HERE, then open the ZIP file and double click on the file that looks like this:

It will ask if you if you want to install the widget, and, of course, you say YES!

Download Details

• Version: 1.0
• License: Freeware
• File Size: 396K

System Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.4 or later

THANKS to Chad for making this cool Mac widget for me! This kid’s got talent! For Mac tips, tricks and advice, be sure to visit Chad’s Mac Blog.

Yes, they had construction machinery moving the snow. MAN, was I jealous, that looked like so much fun!

That is some serious snow removal! They take all the snow and put it in one corner next to a retention pond. By the end of the day, the pile was HUGE!

I was told that their snow pile last into July! I just HAD to see the view from up there! It was a lot bigger than it looks in these pictures, and teens were snow boarding down the other side!

Why did I climb the mountain of snow, with a cane and a sprained ankle?

Because it was there!

So I went to investigate and I got one for myself. They are very cool and are promoting their newest VBS Flight School. But always with my readers in mind, I ask Michael Martin (founder of TruthQuest and CP Extraordinaire) if he would e-mail me the PDF to share with y’all here, and he agreed!

Download – Only 856kb – PDF

Brain Works Free Download Test 

I’m cleaning out my home office (January tradition) and I came across my “brain results” that I printed out several years ago because it PEGGED me in both some positive and not-so-nice-to-read but TRUE aspects of my personality. I googled it and it’s still online, but it is PC only. (.exe file) But if you have a PC I think you will enjoy taking the quiz and I’m curious if you find the results as insightful as I did mine. HAVE FUN!

For a more serious personality test recently recommended to me check out www.uniquelyyou.com It is not free, but very good.

OK, for the first time I am asking my vast reading audience to help out a friend in need. It’s not a crisis, but with just a few minutes of effort you can help a good buddy of mine.

His name is Pastor Andy, and his brother Ray (Raymie) VanDerLinden has been chosen as a finalist in a contest to design the paint job on a NASCAR (Ryan Newman #12. The Kodak car). There are three days left in the competition and he is in second place.

Here is were you come in. If you are willing, you can visit the web link below and cast your vote for his brother’s car. It only takes half a minute, and could make the difference in him winning or coming in second place. You will need to fill out a quick entry form before you can vote. You are able to vote once per day for the next three days.

If he wins he will get to fly to California (all expenses paid) for a NASCAR race and his design will be painted on Ryan Newman’s race car. Andy’s brother is a huge NACAR fan, and this would be so cool if it happened. Make sure when you vote, you vote for Ray VanDerLinden, Springfield MO. His car is the only one with black in it.

If you vote, post a comment here so Andy can be encouraged! And if you don’t want to give out your e-mail, you can put a fake one in and still vote!

AND his car design really is the coolest, so you can vote and keep a clear conscience too!

Is that cool or what?!?!?!

COME ON! HELP HIM OUT!

As we say in Chicago, Vote Early, Vote Often!

8-10 UPDATE: He’s now in first place!

Thanks everyone who voted…

we will know the winner in from now!

CHECK OUT THIS PICTURE:

1) If you follow the moving pink dot with your eye, it will stay pink.

2) If you focus on the center cross, you will see a green dot moving around the pink ones.

3) If you keep concentrating on the cross all the pink dots will disappear and there will be only a moving green dot.

BUT! There is NO GREEN DOT! Ever. And the pink dots DO NOT disappear.

Just just illustrates how what we think we see is not always accurate. It could also illustrate how if we focus on the Cross the little things of life will fade and we will begin to see God move in ways that others can not see!

Thanks to my Uncle John for sending me this!