Watch a Word-Changing Film

Last year I made a world-changing film for, and with, a group of year 5 and 6 students. I just watched it again with around 4000 students at a talk I gave at the Halogen Young Leaders Day in Brisbane. The participants were really juiced on it and had lots of their own world-changing ideas.

The film has had a few thousand views on Myspace and Youtube and there's a bunch of positive energy around the project. I hope to make a longer world-changing film for kids and teens. 

I'd love you to check it out, pass it on and leave your comments and suggestions either here or on Myspace or Youtube.

:-)

www.tristanbancks.com

Write to Someone Who's Lonely

My Nan's in a nursing home and, while she's well looked after, I live a long way away and don't get to visit her as often as I'd like. I have a lot to thank her for - hundreds of games of Boggle, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit as a kid, trips to the city to see Rocky  movies and buy books in gigantic bookstores. She's an important force in who I am.

This morning I spent my five writing her a letter while my wife printed a photo and my boys made her some artwork. I usually think of doing something like this but then don't make time to do it. Hope this is the beginning of something.

Read to a Child (Even if You Are One)

Stories are a place where you get to do stuff you'd never do in the real world. Like I recently read a Barack Obama bio, so I got to hang out with B-Rock for a couple of weeks.

Everybody loves to be read to but, for kids it's especially important. Listen to this, from Action 2 in Change the World for Ten Bucks - 'Reading and listening to books actually rewires a child's brain, speeds up their grasp of language, helps reduce stress and boosts self-esteem. So how terrible that 60% of children go to bed without a story.'

So go find a kid to spend 5 minutes reading to. Or, if you are a kid, start a campaign and don't let up till someone agrees to read you something every night. Maybe you'll get to hang out with Barack or some other cool cat.

www.tristanbancks.com

Praise People

This is action 059 in the book, Change the World 9 to 5.

I work from home so I went out into the kitchen and praised my family for one thing each. I think they thought I was slightly creepy. Not that I never praise them. I just don't usually do it with a slightly creepy look in my eye as though I got the idea from a book... which I did.

But when I gave them all a gold star the creepiness was forgotten in favour of pride.

Not sure I officially 'changed the world' today but I'm gonna keep working on the praise thing this week. Maybe it'll be less weird via email.

Turn Down the Hot Water Temp

Aaaaaaargh! 

That was a simulation of me being scalded in the shower when somebody in another room turned on the tap. Quite realistic, huh?

My hot water is so hot that I always have to mix it with cold to use it. Most hot water heaters are set to 75 celsius (167 Fahrenheit) or higher, burning tonnes of fossil fuels unnecessarily.

I figure I'll avoid third-degree burns, save a stack of cash and change the world by turning it down to 55 celsius (130 Fahrenheit). If you're not an adult, pressure your folks to do it. 

It actually only takes four minutes, leaving a lazy minute to kick back and smell the compost... or whatever else is close to yr hot water heater.