From the Inside Out

Have you ever found yourself mindlessly doodling while sitting in a boring meeting or class? I do — a lot. I always thought it was just a tactic to keep my mind busy, plus I enjoy drawing. Now I’m learning that there are other benefits to doodling.

According to researchers in the United Kingdom, doodling helps your memory. Test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message’s details than those who didn’t doodle.

For the experiment, a two-and-a-half minute listing of several people’s names and places was played for test subjects, who were charged with writing down only the names of the people said to be attending a party. During the recording, half the participants were asked to simultaneously shade in shapes on a piece of paper without attention to neatness. Participants were not told they were taking part in a memory test.

When the recording ended, all were asked for the eight names of those attending the party as well as eight place names mentioned in the audio. Those asked to doodle wrote down, on average, 7.5 names and places, while those who didn’t doodle listed only 5.8.

One of the study researchers, Professor Jackie Andrade, suggested that doodling may be sufficient to stop daydreaming, which distracts people and results in poor performance. However, the simple act of doodling seems to keep people focused without affecting performance on the main task.

So the next time the urge to doodle hits you, don’t resist. Go ahead, it’s good for your brain.

The number 14 is:

…the number of years you have to be married to celebrate an “ivory” wedding anniversary

…the number of nights in a fortnight

…the number of pounds in a British stone, an official British unit of weight

…the atomic number if Silicon (Si)

…the number of petals in a Lavender Pink Peony

…the number of vertebrae in the neck of an owl

…the number of faces, edges, and corners in a tetrahedron = 4 + 6 + 4 = 14

…the number of chapters in the Hosea

…mentioned 23 times in the King James Bible

It’s also the number of hours I worked today. Thank God for the weekend! I’m going to get some sleep now.

Abundant Life Church will soon have a new location in Plano, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! An overwhelming majority of church members approved the purchase of the new facility tonight during our annual business meeting. The building is located on Premier Drive in West Plano near highway 75 and Park Blvd.

It offers 40,000 sq. feet of space, and compared to our existing 18,000 sf facility, it is downright spacious! We will have a 550-seat worship center, a 250-seat auditorium/gymnasium for youth, a children’s theater, numerous classrooms, and plenty of office space for our church staff. We will also have a pad of land where a new 40,000 worship center can be built to accommodate future growth.

God has truly blessed us with an amazing opportunity at a fabulous price. He is SO good, and it just goes to show you that He is in control of our destiny in spite of human shortcomings, failures and mistakes. The “man downstairs” tried to break our spirit, but God used our struggles to unify us and make us stronger. In the end, His plan prevails.

We already have 3 purchase offers on our existing facility — a miracle considering that it’s only been on the market for a couple of weeks and the real estate market is in recession. It’s just another testament to the fact that God seems to be ordering our steps.

I’m extremely excited about the opportunities that this new building provides us, not only for drama ministries, but also for our youth, children’s, and adult ministries. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us at the new property. If everything goes smoothly, we may be making the move in late May. I can’t wait!

Gazing at the night sky this week will give you a rare glimpse of an unusual comet. Lulin, a green, backward-flying comet, is on its closest (and possibly final) approach to Earth. Lulin is 38 million miles away, but in dark locations, you can see it with the naked eye. In the city, binoculars are all that’s needed. To the naked eye, the comet looks like a fuzzy patch of hazy light. With binoculars or a telescope, you should be able to see the comet’s brighter center, along with its dual tail.

Comet Lulin is remarkable because it travels backward around the sun in the opposite direction of the planets. Because of this, it appears to move in relation to the stars while you watch, something you don’t get to see very often.

To find Lulin, look high in the southeast sky for big, bright Saturn. Comet Lulin will be a fuzzy smudge slightly above and to the right of the planet. Refer to the chart below courtesy of Sky and Telescope.

If you miss it tonight, Lulin will still be visible the rest of the week. And if you miss it altogether, you could be out of luck. Astronomers aren’t sure Lulin will ever reappear in the inner solar system.

It’s week 3 of rehearsals for Prisoner (the next ALC Players drama), and it’s going well so far. We have some familiar faces for this show and a few new ones too. It’s fun to watch everyone progress each week and see what they bring to our stage.

We’re still in the early stages of rehearsals so the focus is on blocking, but I’m starting to see some of the characters take shape at the same time. I like what I see so far, and it’ll only get better as we begin to focus on characterization and dynamics.

Derrick is directing this production, and I have a smaller role than I’ve had in previous dramas, so I’m under less pressure than before. I’m excited because it will allow me to focus more on my role and my producing duties. It’s nice — I could get used to this!

Below are a few “behind the scenes” pics from tonight’s rehearsal. Enjoy!

Derrick filling in for Steve and doing important “director stuff”

Threasa and Mary rehearsing a scene

Gary overacting on the sleeping instructions in the script

Derrick providing some more important blocking instructions to the guys

Gary and Daphryne improvising during a scene

Greg, Threasa and Kris rehearsing one of their scenes

Visiting hours are almost over