How to Like School!
November 7th, 2008
Posted by Ivory Vendig
The excitement of the first day of school is over. You already know what teachers you have. You have memorized the head shape of the kid you’ll be sitting behind for the rest of the year, and you’ve worn your first-day-of-school-outfit at least three times already. Bored yet? You may notice that magnetic fields are beginning to form between your classmates’ foreheads and their desks. School is basically a six-hour nap.
A pandemic of apathy like this almost made me write off my junior year Spanish class as a total waste of time. No one seemed to care about learning the language (or even just about the grade), so naturally I didn’t either. You know, it’s a little difficult to get excited about a class when the guy to your right is showering the floor with the crumbs of contraband potato chips, there are a couple of students in the back of the classroom decorated in the cords of various electronic devices, and the teacher is too “nice” to say anything about it.
How to Shut Up
November 5th, 2008
By Joel Hilliker
In a previous post we learned why we ought to be quiet under certain conditions. Let’s go over the formula for learning how to be quiet. Here’s the art of shutting up in four simple steps.
Step one: Admit it!
Admitting you have a problem is half the battle. The first thing you must do is catch yourself speaking up in a situation where you should have “zipped it.” Maybe you said something nasty about someone else, or found yourself running at the mouth in a conversation. Admit it!
Four Steps to Saving Your Money
November 4th, 2008
By David Blondeau
That’s it! That’s the one I’ve been looking for. It’s perfect! As you admire the bike, its sleek metallic body glistening under the store lights, you reach into your pocket for your wallet. Your eyebrows crest into a frown. Uh oh—it feels really thin. You unfold it, and to your immediate displeasure discover it’s void of any monetary material, save one quarter tucked in the corner. Great—I’ve already spent all my money. How come I can’t seem to save anything? Do you find yourself in a situation like this from time to time? Here are four easy steps that, if applied, can help you to save up your money.
“Yeah, wudyawant?”
October 28th, 2008
By Shane Granger
You might be leaving a bad impression without even showing your face!
Do you care what people think of you? Does it matter to you if others consider you intelligent, thoughtful and mature? Do you want adults to see you as trustworthy and responsible?
What sort of impression do you leave with others? What if you are making a bad one, and don’t even realize it?
One of the ways people form an impression of you is by how you use the telephone. The way you handle everyday phone calls reveals a lot about your character. How so?
What’s That on Your Wall?
October 24th, 2008
The Art of Shutting Up
October 6th, 2008
From the archives: True Education, Winter 2000By Joel Hilliker
TO BE OR not to be, that … is the beginning of a famous soliloquy, where one person speaks by himself for a long time. In theater, a good soliloquy is considered the peak of achievement for a playwright or an actor.
In conversation, however, a soliloquy is downright irritating.
Do you realize there are times when it’s best to just keep your mouth closed? Wise King Solomon wrote these famous words in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Now read verse 7: “A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
A Grandfather’s Advice
October 2nd, 2008
From the archives: True Education, Fall 2000
By Ron Fraser
Some people never grow up. It’s possible for someone 45 years old to still be adolescent in mood, thinking and outlook. In many other instances, youths become thoroughly responsible by age 18, with the ability to act independently, making decisions that some people twice their age would shy away from.
Why this difference?
What It’s Like to Be a Junior at AC!
September 26th, 2008
By Deepika Azariah
Deepika (front row, purple dress) with her class at an AC formal event
Are you a junior? A freshman recently asked this of me.
“Uh, yes. Yes, I am!” This realization, that I’m an upperclassman, has taken a while to sink in. I remember being a freshman at Herbert W. Armstrong College like it was yesterday. But then the upperclassmen graduate, and you fill their shoes. Along with that, you look back on two years of experience, education and training.
So what’s it like?
“To Be, or Not to Be …”
September 22nd, 2008
By Rick Breth
“To be, or not to be.” That is, of course, a line from William Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet.
I just need to insert two words right here: “To be on time, or not to be, that is the question.”
Oh, I know. You’ve heard it so many times before. Over and over, probably. But just hang on a minute and keep reading. There is a reason you keep hearing about being on time!
The Parable of the Leaky Pipe
September 16th, 2008
By Rick Breth
Just the other day, I was working on a fire sprinkler system installation in a new building. We had just filled the piping with water for the first time, and I found a small leak.
It was just a puddle about the size of my hand.
“No big deal,” I thought.
So I went and got a ladder and a flashlight for further investigation. I climbed up the ladder and began to examine the piping to see exactly what was leaking.
I found that the threads on a 1-inch pipe were leaking right at a fitting. Apparently the fitting was not tight enough. So I wiped away the water and watched to see how quickly it was leaking, and—SPLAT—another drop of water hit my hard hat from above.