HOUSE PARTY

(This is part 3 in a 11 part series of things that Andy learned in college - sometimes the hard way - so hopefully you don't have to)

Its lure was strong during my college years. Maybe it was the funny name, or the incredible orange chicken, but the chinese buffet near my college made me get a C in my Old Testament History class.

I had the best intentions!  I would be on my way to class, when one of my friends would ask the innocent question "Chinese Buffet?"  To which, I often said "yes."   It was the only class I missed on a semi-regular basis, and it showed.  I forgot to follow the number one rule of college.  SHOW UP!

You can't pass if you aren't in class!  (I didn't even mean to make that rhyme)

The other 12% of College?  Doing the work!  I never missed a homework assignment, and I didn't do the best on tests, but other than that class I missed all the time, I pulled B's or better.  Even if it is late, you might lose some points but still, DO THE WORK!

These are both so common sense, but these two things that trip up college students academically are also some of the easiest thing to do.

Show up.  Do the work. Don't fall into the temptation of the Chinese Buffet. And the rest will work itself out!

This song was inspired by the bag of popcorn that always shows up at the station the day after we do an event at the Poncan Theatre...  And how nobody seems to be grossed out that it is a garbage bag...  So here's the FIRST House Party parody song-

Click here to listen to "In a Bag (Popcorn)"

Here's the lyrics so you can sing along:


Give me a second chance
I need to explain one thing
my friends are at the counter
munching on some popcorn that you may
ask why it's in this bag
that usually houses things
like fruit peels, milk jugs and some
meat with some mold
and...
I could come up with something else to put
it in but I don't know what to do
But the volume of the kernels and
butter leaking from paper bags
You know I'm trying hard save it all
So when the poncan closes
and the trash can is around
I'll carry you home

[chorus]
Popppppcorrn, in a trash bag
there's nothing that is better
if you're a fretter
just close your eyes

cuz popcorn, in a trash bag
you can share with everybody
noone goes hungry
there's enough
Tonight
[end chorus]

[end]
So when the poncan closes
and the trash can is around
I'll carry you home tonight

 You're gonna have people who are "haters", the ones for whatever reason have made it their life goal to make your life miserable.

Sometimes they are friends, and in extreme cases, they are your family.

Just like Joseph in the Old Testament.  His brothers were so jealous of how much his dad loved him, that they threw him in a pit and sold him to slavery.

Years later, Joseph is second in command in the most powerful country in the world at the time, and his brothers must bow before him and beg for enough food to live.

They're also afraid that Joseph might try to do what they failed to do: Kill and destroy their lives.

But, Joseph says something that I'm going to remember every time things don't quite go the way I want them to.

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. - Genesis 50:20

Haters are always gonna hate.  Our job is to love, and let God take care of the rest.  

(This is part 2 in a 11 part series of things that Andy learned in college - sometimes the hard way - so hopefully you don't have to)

The first few weeks of college as a freshman is like a whole new world, with new foods, new places and new things to learn.

But you won't be focused on any of that.  You'll probably be noticing people of the opposite gender.  Most freshman act like they are wearing a sign that says : "LOOK OUT WORLD, I'M SINGLE AND READY TO MINGLE!"

WELL, Hold on there for a moment cowboy (or cowgirl)!

The WORST thing you could do is start dating someone right away.  Actually if you can avoid it, I would suggest holding off from dating your entire Freshman year!

You can have friends of the opposite gender, that's great!  But what you will notice is two days minutes into orientation, couples will start forming.  These couples will usually make it all the way through the first year of college.  Fast forward to the next year, they come back as single people and not only do they not have each other for company but, THEY HAVE NO FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO BUSY BEING A COUPLE AND NOT HANGING OUT WITH ANYONE ELSE.

I'm sorry if it seems harsh, but this is the truth.  Of course, there are exceptions, but know that friendships are forged quickly those first few weeks of college, and often times those are the friendships that you will treasure many years after you have graduated.

So can you date after your Freshman year?  Absolutely!  You'll still want to be careful of course, for many reasons (one of which we will explore later regarding your reputation).

But as your brain and your heart are still "gelling", stick to being friends.  You'll have plenty of time to jump into the dating pool the other 3 years of college.  And you'll be a lot less wrinkly than everyone else.

(This is part 1 in a 11 part series of things that Andy learned in college - sometimes the hard way - so hopefully you don't have to)

The alarm goes off on your phone, you look at it realizing that you only got 3 hours of sleep, you have two choices.  You can:

1) Get up right away
-OR-
2) Sleep in until 5 minutes before your class

I would always suggest option "2" for a few reasons.  One of them we will get into later (everyone looks frumpy), but lack of sleep is one of the things that will DESTROY your routines in college.  All-nighters are bad too, the next day you feel awful and for me, I found that I did worse on tests if I tried to stay up all night to cram.

Sleep is very important, and sleeping is more important than hygiene (at least first thing in the morning).  BUT, and this is important to remember, that GOING to class is more important than sleeping.  So wake up, go to class, then take a shower.  If this has confused you, here's the order of importance of sleep, class, and showers:

CLASSES > SLEEP > SHOWER > XBOX (sorry guys)

Come back tomorrow, as I tackle the tricky world of dating!  How long should a freshman wait to date?  stay tuned for more!

Janelle Keith from McCoy in the Morning brought an entire garbage bag full of belts to the station today, hoping to give them away.

There are just so many of them, I'm afraid that she will have to get the word out to House FM listeners to get rid of them all.

So I worked on an advertisement for her to help spread the good news about this belt blowout:

Listen to Janelle's Belt Closet Commercial here

I had a chance to talk to my 5 year old son last night about Jesus. To be honest, I hadn't really pushed it much, not sure that he would understand what having a relationship with Christ would be, and my fear of not being able to communicate it well.

Then I remembered how my dad led me to christ when I was a kid, with a book called the "4 spiritual laws" - a quick google found that there is a version of this book for kids now! so I pulled it up on our iPad and walked Joash through the steps. And at the very end, before I could even ask if he wanted to make Jesus his Lord and Savior, he said "I don't want to be separated from God any more."

And he is no longer separated! If you've been a little nervous sharing with anyone, the Four Spiritual Laws for Kids is a great tool. You can read it here: http://www.cru.org/how-to-know-god/good-news-for-children/index.htm

I can't keep this secret from you for any longer.

The Washington Projects (one of members is Je'kob, who you also hear on The House FM as a solo artist) released a remix project.... and EVERY song will get you moving in the minivan or cleaning the house, or whatever you need this summer... THIS IS YOUR JAM! Listen to it below, then please buy it so that more awesome music like this is made!

This is my ugly bathroom vanity.  I'm pretty sure that this medicine cabinet is from the 70's:

gross.

While on vacation earlier this summer, I stayed at a hotel that had a mirror with a cool border in their bathroom... I thought, "I wonder how hard it would be to do that in my bathroom" ?

There are things that I am not good at putting together, namely things from Ikea, and things that are lego.  So when my son got a spaceship lego kit for Christmas, I tried to put off making it for as long as possible.  But tonight was the night of reckoning (after hearing my son ask me enough times where I finally gave in), and I pulled the lego box out to finally put together.

What the spaceship was supposed to look like

 At one point, my son did take one of the bags of pieces out of the box and we lost it.  So I already know this is going to be even more difficult than it needs to be.

As we are trying to follow the directions, and finding replacement pieces in his huge box of legos, my son finally looks at me and says something that I hadn't even considered as we did this.  Something that was so freeing, so simple.  He said:

"It's okay if it isn't perfect, daddy."

it was at that point that I stopped trying to do every little part according to the instructions, and we started having fun!  We added extra wings, more people, bigger windows, and made the coolest spaceship ever.

NASA has nothing on this beast

I realized that I was so concerned that the ship was perfect, that I forgot why we were doing it in the first place.  My son wanted to play legos with me.  He didn't care about decals on the side of the ship or that the nose cone wasn't the right shape.  He just wanted my time, perfect or not.

Not quite the same ship

Oh, and when I put together IKEA furniture, it does end up looking much more like the picture on the box.