• Quote of the Day: Jesse Jackson

    31Dec
    Categories: Political, Quote of the Day Comments: 0

    “If in my low moments in word, deed, or attitude, through some error of temper, taste, or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or revived someone’s fears, that was not my truest self. If there were occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head, so limited in its finitude, not to my heart, which is boundless in its love for the entire human family.”
    –Jesse Jackson, “apologizing” in 1984 for anti-Semitic comments
    “Apologizing in Public” by Marvin Olasky in WORLD Magazine

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  • Acclimating to Kansas

    31Dec
    Categories: Personal Comments: 3

    The other day in church, I asked a guy, “You live on the South end of Yoder Mile on the West side of the road, right?” I think I’m becoming acclimated.

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  • Cambodia - Day 4

    29Dec
    Categories: Personal Comments: 0

    On this day, we went to Angkor Wat, one of the wonders of the world.







    Eric




    Alex


    Eric vainly trying to stop himself from walking into my picture



    Angkor Wat started out as a Hindu temple, but has since been converted to Buddhism



    Climbing the rather steep stairs



    Katrina gazing out an upper window






    The group of us: Hans, Alex, Katrina, and Eric. Kelly and Dru had already been to Angkor Wat, so they didn’t come



    Dru teaching English in the village


    One of the temples had ancient tree growing all over it



    It would be exceedingly hard to pinpoint who the clown was on this trip



    I like this picture. If you look at the filename, you can see one “tweak” that I made.







    Kiat talking to the children at his friend’s orphanage


    Kiat decided he wanted to figure out what Americans liked to eat, so on this trip many times he ordered whatever Alex ordered. In this case it was a Coke, fries, and a cheeseburger (with an extra Asian flourish of an egg on the cheeseburger). However, Kiat loves milk, which he also ordered. He had a few travails in getting the kind of milk he wanted on this trip–he tried to order fresh milk, but he kept getting about every imaginable permutation of milk.

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  • With Republicans Like These, Who Needs Democrats?

    29Dec
    Categories: Political Comments: 0

    Slate: Good ad, never run, by McCain about Romeny:

    With Republicans like Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, who needs Democrats?

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  • How Atheists Misunderstand Biblical Christianity

    29Dec
    Categories: Christianity, Science Comments: 9

    I came across a comment on Digg today that expressed a sentiment that many atheists have erroneously tried to argue.

    julielynn1009:

    What I think is funny is how people consistently tie scientific understanding to atheism. Being an atheist has zero to do with evolution. Evolution has zero to do with a complete understanding of our existence. Evolution is a well supported theory of the development of every species on this planet. That is it.

    While I grant that technically you can be a non-atheist–you can believe in some Eastern religions or an inaccurate view of a monotheistic god–and a believer in evolution, one cannot be a Christian–a little Christ, a follower of Christ–and a believer in evolution.

    Many atheists have insisted that one can be a Christian and believe in macro-evolution for the origins of the species. Their fundamental error in that argument is that they are projecting a “Christianity” that is acceptable to their atheistic worldview. They believe that religion is acceptable as long as it is a convenient fairy tale to impart morality to masses–an opiate of the masses. However, that is only their convenient, sanitized, “atheist-approved” version of “Christianity”. While it is putatively Christianity, it is in actuality atheism. It is a fairy-tale “Christianity” that everyone, *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*, knows is not true. It is not an actual belief in God. It’s atheism.

    Jesus said very clearly, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father” and “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man… everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man”. James, Jesus’ brother, said, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

    It is a fairly simple fact of logic that if one believes something, one will act upon it. If I truly believe that a piano is falling on my head, I will step out of the way. True Christianity is the same way. Christ said many times throughout his time on earth, “I tell you the truth.” He did not come to proclaim a clever psychological trick of morality and wellness, he came to proclaim reality.

    Yes, you can be a fantasy-based “Christian” (in reality, atheist) and believe in macro-evolution as the origin of species. However, it is impossible to be a reality-based Christian and believe in macro-evolution as the origin of species.

    I would like to rest my case with a quote from G. Richard Bozarth in American Atheist Magazine:

    “Atheism is science’s natural ally. Atheism is the philosophy, both moral and ethical, most perfectly suited for a scientific civilization. If we work for the American Atheists today, Atheism will be ready to fill the void of Christianity’s demise when science and evolution triumph. Without a doubt humans and civilization are in sore need of the intellectual cleanness and mental health of atheism.”

    “Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing!”

    Richard Bozarth, American Atheist, Feb. 1978, p. 30

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  • Cambodia - Day 3

    28Dec
    Categories: Personal Comments: 0

    Kiat and Dru left us to go to a village where the org we were with had an outreach. They taught Book classes and English classes and simply hung out in the village. Bathing was done in the traditional SE Asian way–at the village well. Dru held off taking a bath for as long as he could, but finally, he could no longer find excuses not to. So he donned his skirt (1, 2 - they are called different things in different countries) and went to village well. The local shepherd was quite concerned that he put it on tightly so that it wouldn’t slip off. He waited until it was almost dark, and carefully went to the village well which was in the midst of several huts and took a very quick, clothed bath. He said he felt very… white.

    Dru and Kiat were at the village most of the time we were in Siem Reap. We’d see them during the day sometimes because it wasn’t all that far from Siem Reap.


    A baby sleeping in the village


    Alex cheesing wildly upside down in the reflection, while consuming his ever-present Coke


    Katrina consuming some of the finest cuisine of Cambodia: fried yellow noodles!


    Some of Katrina’s amused students


    Katrina, our professional English teacher (she TESOL‘ed for a year in Taiwan), leading a class of young’uns while receiving assistance from the two native teachers


    Playing soccer at recess


    A shy young lady not playing with the others during recess


    Kelly trying to comfort this poor young maiden in despair after being on the receiving end of a tragic affair


    The tragic affair: the beautiful helium balloon wafting skyward after being lost in a tussle. The previous pictures shows the heartbreak that ensued.


    Kelly was rapidly outmaneuvered in this game of soccer and finally gave up in mock tears


    Playmates sweetly trying to console the young maiden of the lost balloon


    Kiat with a Cambodian acquaintance who had attended Payap University in Chiang Mai; this man now runs an orphanage in Siem Reap.

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  • Cambodia - Day 2

    27Dec
    Categories: Personal Comments: 0

    Most of our time in Cambodia most of the group stayed at a guest house in Siem Reap. Each day we would go to The House of Dad (as it were) to teach English at that organization’s school. So any thorough narrative of each day’s events would grow quickly boring.Therefore, my narrative shall be non-exhaustive and anecdotal with many pictures.


    Kiat


    Hog transport


    Tuk-tuk driver taking a siesta


    Trademark infringement is apparently not a serious crime in Cambodia


    Happy kids during our English class

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  • Introductions

    27Dec
    Categories: Blogosphere, Personal Comments: 22

    I know my readership is quite diverse–and that’s only the ones I know! If you read this blog, please introduce yourself in the comments of this post. If you are shy, simply introduce yourself anonymously by saying a few things about yourself.

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  • Beautiful Kansas II

    26Dec
    Categories: Photos Comments: 2

    In response to some blissfully ignorant people, I am posting these pics taken by my uncle Lowell and his daughters with their Canon S3. Indeed, KS is beautiful, even if my set of pictures (which was simply a practice round and learning device for HDRs) did not skillfully show it. :-D





    Read more »

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  • The Dragon Slayer

    25Dec
    Categories: Christianity, Political Comments: 4

    Since I’ve moved back to Kansas, I was digging through old papers and unearthed the original of a handwritten poem written by Nyle Henderson. Nyle describes himself quite accurately on his business cards as a preacher-poet-horseshoer. He could add cowboy to the list. He performed this poem at Yoder Day and I loved it. I asked him for a copy and gave him my address for him to send it to me. He generously sent me his handwritten original! I’ve been wanting to share this on my blog every since I got it 1.5 years ago, and now I finally am.

    The Dragon Slayer
    by Nyle Henderson

    Tonight I’m thinking of my childhood,
    and of the stories that we read.
    Although it’s been many years ago,
    they still linger in my head.

    Those days of dragon slayers,
    who took no thought of self,
    they risked their lives to save others,
    and they did it not for wealth.

    Nations saved and lands were spared,
    by those men both brave and bold.
    The innocent were protected,
    and justice prevailed, or so I’m told.

    The dragon was bad and evil,
    and good defeated him every time.
    The knight was then the hero,
    and that’s the purpose of this rhyme.

    It was all so clear and simple,
    even as little children we understood.
    Because we were taught the difference,
    and we knew between bad and good.

    Read more »

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  • Spam Comments

    24Dec
    Categories: Blogosphere, Tech Comments: 7

    I have been having enormous comment spam problems. I have been deleting enormous quantities and in the process may have deleted legit comments. If you notice one of your comments has been deleted, resubmit it and then drop me a line at hansmast at hansmast dot com to ensure I approve it. I got a bout of worry that I may have been accidentally deleting legit comments when I saw two honest-to-goodness comments come through the moderation queue, something of an incredible rarity! (Thanks Caleb and Mike!)

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  • Cambodia - Day 1

    24Dec
    Categories: Uncategorized Comments: 0

    We left Chiang Mai at 6:45 PM on an overnight VIP bus. We boarded with a diverse assortment of trekkers and wealthy Thais. We spent the whole night twisting around from position to position trying to find a comfortable one. The roads were fairly good by Asian standards and I slept quite a bit. We arrived in Bangkok at 6 AM the next morning after about an 11 hour bus ride. We had a two hour layover in Bangkok after which we boarded another nice bus for the Cambodia border. An American with a Seattle Seahawks cap sat right in front of me. When we got the near the border, we stopped for lunch. Alex had three servings of kho pot moo (pork fried rice). When we got to the border around 2, we wound our way through the dusty border town. We were accosted by beggar children who wanted a handout or wanted to hold an umbrella for us.


    Alex relaxing in our VIP bus to the Cambodia-Thai border


    Eric cheesing


    Contemplation


    Contemplation sans audio


    Yours truly reading When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada


    Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia

    After going through Thai emigration and Cambodian immigration, we boarded a bus that took us to a money exchange place where our guide gave a broken English speech in an attempt to bilk us into exchanging money there at a horrible exchange rate. We declined and boarded a cross between a van and bus. It had two seats on one side and one on the other. We had an Australian gal, an American expat who worked (10 hour days, 7 days a week, for 6 weeks, then 3 weeks vacation) in Bahrain for a dredging company, a Japanese couple, a beer-swilling German, a quiet French lady who didn’t know much English, five Americans, one Canadian, and one Thai. The Japanese man, the Australian, and a Cambodian sat up front and talked about the World Series being between the Red Sox and the Rockies and how the first game was going to be tomorrow morning at 7 AM (local time). The guide told us upfront that the road between the border and Siem Reap is very bad and dusty and that it would take 5 hours despite it being only 150 km . “If it’s raining,” he said comfortingly, “’it will take 8 hours.” He cheerfully added, “In Thailand, many massage. In Cambodia, no need. Ride car, get massage.”


    Our “wonderful” little border-to-Siem-Reap bus

    As I was sitting in a jump seat writing this post on my laptop, I experienced a new phenomenon in computing—involuntary typing. Another phenomenon that I experienced was that my screen and keyboard kept getting dustier and dustier. A final phenomenon was a sudden crash as my jump seat gave way and I ended up on the floor.


    Laptopping, writing this very blog post

    Our guide wasn’t kidding about the roads! The road looked like the surface of the moon, only with more craters. It was so dusty, that while I started out with a red shirt and blue jeans, I ended up with a beige-ish dark red shirt and brown jeans. Smiling children played in the streets and waved cheerily to us as we passed. Naked babies gazed at us from their mothers’ hips. Our ride apparently at certain points coincided with bath time, so we got to observe quite a bit of their clothed bathing. We saw one nasty motorbike accident with the bike on its side, an unmoving figure sprawled out on the ground, and two men squatting beside him. Construction was everywhere on the road (taking advantage of the dry season to build bridges and put in culverts) and we followed far too many detours to count—probably at the average rate of about one every 10 minutes.


    A small example of the dust

    When we stopped at about 6 pm for supper, we were mobbed by little kids trying to sell us postcards or get handouts. We went in and sat down as one big happy family: Americans, Canadian, Australian, German, French, and Thai. Kiat didn’t eat. He said, “No need. Full. Full of dirt.”


    A Cambodian gas station

    We then got back in our bus and finished the last two hours of the trip. When we finally got to Siem Reap at 9:30—27 ½ hours after we left Chiang Mai—the bus took us to their preferred guest house. They pressured us to stay there, but we decided not to after we found we couldn’t put three in a room. So as we were leaving, they offered free tuk-tuk rides to another guest house (where they would also presumably get a commission). We accepted and stayed there. We had huge retinue of tuk-tuk drivers, tour company employees, and hotel staff hovering around us for quite a while in our rooms. They brought us cold bottled water, toilet paper, they let us use their cell phone to call a friend, etc, etc. After some time they finally left and I hopped in the shower. It has been a very, very long time since my hair (which was stiff with dust) has emitted such incredibly brown water when washed. Of course we don’t have hot water in our showers, as usual, but I’m amenable to that. Also, we have A/C in the rooms but we can’t use it unless we want to pay $15 a night instead of $9.

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  • A Christmas Mystery

    24Dec
    Categories: Humor Comments: 2

    Did you always like reading mysteries as a kid? Well, I have a crime for you to solve. Use your Sherlock skills to examine this newspaper front page. See if you can solve the identity of the wallet snatcher.

    This is the actual front page of an actual newspaper that actually got printed. Alert readers tipped off police and they arrested the man. If you can’t solve the mystery, read the explanation.

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  • Pilgrim Christian High School Choral Christmas Program

    24Dec
    Categories: Music Comments: 0

    Our church’s high school, that my sister Heidi attends, put on a choral Christmas (part Christmas, part German class choral, part general choral) program. In my unprofessional musical opinion, they did a stellar job. This is a few clips from Pilgrim Christian High School’s (Partridge, KS) Choral Christmas Program of 2007. The director is Lyle Stutzman.

    It includes the songs: Gentle Holy Spirit; In the Name of the Lord; Still, still, still (German); Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (German); Let All Mortal Flesh; How Great Their Joy; Pat-a-pan; Ding Dong! Merrily on High; Summer is Icumen in (Middle English); Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace) (Latin); Great Gettin’ Up Mornin’; A Deed of Simple Kindness (written by John Miller); Hallelujah (written by Lyle Stutzman); and Singabahambayo.

    The mic on my camera is somewhat less than professional grade and thus this is not as good as they sound in person. Especially on Pat-a-pan the location of the camera makes so the ladies drown the men.

    Or you can download the WMV (640×480, 1700 kbps, 14:45, 137 MB).

    I am pumped about living in Kansas! Musically especially. The other day in church I sat beside two of the leading conservative Mennonite choral conductors: Lyle Stutzman (Concordia) and Wendell Nisly (see Shenandoah Christian Music Camp). I am eagerly looking forward to the our youth’s choir practices and tour.

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  • Beautiful Kansas

    24Dec
    Categories: Photos Comments: 5

    Here are a bunch of HDR shots I took the other afternoon. Photo critics, let me know which ones you like, which ones I should tweak, shoot different, etc.

    They were all taken on the North-South road just East of Center.


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