Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Hans' LiveJournal:

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Sunday, July 8th, 2007
1:48 am	Irony Life goes on, and so I decided to post another entry on my blog. This amuses me: In an article on CNN, we read of a controversy that is now broiling in the Pan Am games: "SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- In a joke that made Brazilians cringe and forced the U.S. Olympic Committee to apologize, a USOC worker scrawled "Welcome to the Congo!" on a board in the organization's Rio de Janeiro media center for the Pan American Games." The article goes on to discuss the reactions of the Brazilians to this rather insensitive comment: "On Rio's Copacabana Beach, Brazilians said it reinforced their belief that Americans frequently stereotype other countries. 'Americans are full of prejudices,' said Alessandra Teixeira, a 29-year old model. 'Everything for them is bad, and they make it worse.'" But then I started thinking about it, and I realized that Ms. Teixeira fails to recognize is that in bashing Americans for "stereotyping" and being "full of prejudice," she demonstrates more clearly than ever her own prejudice against the stereotypical American that she has constructed in her mind. Rather than addressing this act as the possibly offensive actions of one man, she instead groups all Americans together under one broad stereotype and then demonstrates her own prejudice by condemning us all under the same name of American. After hearing about the stupid phrase written by one worker, she responds by saying, "Americans are full of prejudices." And maybe we are, but clearly no part of the world is entirely free from such feelings. So perhaps we all make things worse. In any case, it's probably best not to shift the blame too much to any one side. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
5:47 pm	The Dawkins Delusion ( My Response to Richard Dawkins ) Feel free to leave comments and start a discussion. Just keep it civil, regardless of which side you come down on this issue. Thanks! Sorry it's so long. I am sure that parts of it are unclear, and I apologize. Some of the ideas are fairly complex, and it's hard to get them out clearly. I will do my best to clarify anything that doesn't make sense. Just leave a comment. Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: Simon and Garfunkel (59 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
2:16 am	Long Post is Coming Soon... Hello all, I'm back from my very long blog-break, and hopefully things will get interesting. Right now I am on Christmas break, and I was asked by Alex Lozowski to write a response to an article by Richard Dawkins defending atheism. If you are at all interested in the topic, please read the article here. Hopefully my post will come either tomorrow or the day after. Unfortunately, I won't be around for a whole lot longer, because in just a little over a week, I am leaving for a semester in Italy, which, while it will undoubtedly be a lot fun, is not going to leave me a lot of time for upkeep on my blog. So please forgive me for the shortened discussion time; I'll do the best I can, though. :-/ Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: Missa pro defunctus -- Chanticleer (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 21st, 2006
2:38 pm	Anglo-Saxon Poetry Imitation I had to write an imitation of Anglo Saxon poetry for my Medieval Literature class. It turned out all right, I think. Anyway, it was fun to do. Thoughts? The html didn't keep the caesura, which is annoying. Thin Spots The setting sun seeks the hill Not day or night but dreary dusk And battle broken the warriors brave Find the fallen in frozen death Scattered swords and glinting steel Shattered shields and shining helms Glisten golden in glowing sunset A mournful moan pierces the mist Harsh harp-chord of a dying heart. The warrior-king’s wicked wounds Steal his strength snatching his soul. Breathing breaks and blackness comes. His soldiers seize their sovereign’s form Held head-high in unhappy train The bright blood stains the bier. The procession stops standing on sand Wading in water walking on earth; Sand in sea, sea on sand. Wind whips white water Shaking the ship on shimmering waves. Lifting their lord on the long-ship, The weapons won and wondrous gold They heap high in shining hoards, Luxuries of life, lost in death. Quickly cutting mooring cords Lines go limp and loosely fall The hardened heroes heave the ship And set the sailing craft to sea One ancient archer draws an arrow Flaming head in feathered flight Arching over earth and sea Singing star in lightning streak Burning brand of flying bark The arrow ember angles down Rending ship-sail’s shivering shroud Bringing flame to beacon bier Singeing sail and scattering sparks. Feathered flames feast on wood, Consuming ship and sovereign seafarer; Steaming fire on smoking sea Blazes bright in blackened water While smoldering snow softly falls Ashen flakes from ashen ship Bones of boat and brave lord Submerge silently in salty spray. Soul in smoke body in sea Like strings torn asunder never to sing. Glory and gold forgotten in death, His soul is safe with sovereign God. Current Mood: content Current Music: Starkindler (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 19th, 2006
10:58 pm	Mentoring... Today we began working with fifth graders in a mentoring program near my school. My mentee, Aldo, worked on his math, and then I asked him to write me a little something about his life. This is what he wrote: "Somo time we go somewe fey my breader gony to they gont to puret ande they fiety foret hu got to pito ande, wend my mom see wed they fiety she so serde my breader they stop fiety thene wenet, to the parock we live in the natck we go to selip." It makes me feel so bad for the kid. I certainly don't think that he's at all stupid. He's actually pretty good at math. But something is missing -- he can't communicate. Sometimes I forget the blessings of knowing a language and having a medium of communication. It's an wonderful priviledge that I too often take for granted. I hope that I can become good friends with Aldo, and if nothing else, maybe just inspire him a little to work hard in school, form good habits... I don't know. My heart goes out to him. I want to help him. Current Mood: thoughtful (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
2:55 am	My Thoughts on the Abortion Discussion Well, it seems that the abortion topic has cooled off, so I thought that I would make some summary remarks. First, I really hope that I didn’t offend anyone. No, I didn’t agree with you, and I gave my reasons. You probably think that I’m being stubborn and not really seeing your point of view, which is possibly true. Here’s the thing that I keep coming up against, though. All of the arguments tend to boil down to whether or not the infant is in fact human. There is no such thing as situational ethics in that sort of circumstance. The obvious way to prove that is just ask if there’s a way of justifying the killing of an already born child because of circumstances. If a child is born from a rape or from incest, I don’t think that anyone’s going to say that you can kill the already born kid. If a child is born and the parents don’t want to deal with the responsibility, I don’t think that anyone would argue that they could just kill the kid. I’m pretty sure that everyone would agree that there’s just no way to justify that. So, that means that we have to put situations and “what ifs,” so to speak, entirely aside. They really don’t have any bearing on the actual question. The real question is whether it is human. If it’s human, then it’s murder, at least according to normal definitions. Some people argued that the infant wasn’t human because it was wholly dependent on its mother. It is true that a child is dependent on his mother for nutrition, which he receives through the umbilical cord. However, the mere fact that the child is receiving nutrition from the mother does not make him simply a part of her body. When a child is born, he still receives nutrition from his mother and is wholly dependent on her for his survival. Also, when someone is on life-support, they are wholly dependent on a machine for their breathing, water, nutrition…basically everything except for the reflex that makes the heart beat. And that can be supplied if need be. But obviously that person is not a machine. No one would argue that. So there is nothing inherent about the nature of being wholly dependent that makes you one and the same with whatever you are dependent on. Am I being unreasonable here? Other people argued that it doesn’t have any brain activity. This has to be broken down into a few different questions. First, if we are going to base the question of humanity on brain activity, we have to ask how much brain activity is necessary. I say this not because I am insinuating that stupid people should be made illegal (although that is perhaps another discussion for another time… ;-) ), but rather because it cuts to the heart of this issue. If we say that it just has to be enough brain activity to keep a person alive on their own by running the basic functions, then we pretty much have to say that all partial birth abortions, and basically any abortions within the last two months are murder, because those children do have enough brain activity to support their basic functions on their own. But that still leaves the question about why we would say that. What is it that defines a human as someone who is fully capable of functioning off their own mental impulses? It seems a purely arbitrary distinction, and once again one that we would not necessarily hold up in other circumstances. There are times, for example, when a person is in a deep coma and cannot be roused when they have only the basic functions to keep their heart beating and their lungs breathing. But surely we wouldn’t say that killing them is a matter of our choice. They are still human, as we all agree. So is it really completely formed brain activity that defines us as human? Put simply, when is the magical moment when the cell-mass, as some of you put it, becomes human? What changes fundamentally? Because something must change in order for a pro-abortion stances to hold water. But I cannot see that anything changes on a fundamental level. So I still feel like the pro-abortion arguments are lacking something. What am I missing here? Again, please don’t think that I am trying to be annoying. I really am not. I just don’t think that the pro-abortion arguments are sufficient to explain away the problems. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Chanticleer (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 10th, 2006
5:51 pm	A Response to "Prosperity Theology" Interrupting the current debate... ---------------- I just read an article on CNN that has made me extremely angry. (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/10/time.cover.tm/index.html) Normally I wouldn’t post something like this on my blog, but because CNN and Time magazine have collaborated to bring this to the public eye, I feel that I can do nothing but respond likewise. In their front page article, “Does God Want You to be Rich?” Time explains a growing movement in mainline evangelicalism that claims that God, since he loves you, doesn’t want you to be poor. This movement, according to the article, goes under various names including “Word of Faith, Health and Wealth, Name It and Claim It, Prosperity Theology,” and is influential primarily in the Pentecostal movement. This makes me sick. For thousands of years, Christians have understood their calling to give up their material possessions in favor of receiving the blessings of God. The principle is simple: everything that we have is the Lord’s, and thus, we can claim nothing for ourselves. If Christ so chooses to trust us with material wealth, then we are to use it for his glory. If he does not, then we are to live for his glory anyway. We can put no value in the material goods themselves, nor can we expect them. We live by faith, not money. To say that a God who loves us will give us material goods is nothing more than to say that a God who loves us will fulfill our own selfish desires. This is utterly contrary to the heart of Christian teaching. In the midst of His Sermon on the Mount, Christ illustrates this principle: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where you treasure is, there will you heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21) This, then, is why Christ tells the rich man, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Matthew 19:21) Indeed, as Christ goes on to say, “Truly I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23-24) To equate God’s love with material wealth is to reject the heart of the Christian message. We are not to expect anything from God; we are to be wholly content with what we have. The message put forward in the so-called “Prosperity Theology” is not one of self-denial; it is one of self-promotion. Have these people not read the book of Job? In the story of Job, Job loses all that he owns, and his friends tell him that it is because God is displeased with him. But Job knows that it is God’s will to do what he desires, and that his material wealth had nothing to do with the amount God loved him. God clearly condemns the views of Job’s “friends” who claim that his material hardships are due to God’s displeasure with him. Job rejects this by saying, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21b) Do these people have no understanding of anything outside their own [wealthy] congregations? Do they not understand that the Church is prospering – not materially, but spiritually – in China and East Asia, where the people are incredibly impoverished? How can they be so foolish as to think that earning money is a sign of God’s pleasure? God has given them a great blessing, and they receive it as something due to them by their God. We can only thank God that there are so many Christians who do understand the nature of God’s blessing in Christ. I can only imagine what would happen if the missionaries I have met from Africa thought that God owed them material prosperity because they were doing his will. Or what Bonhoeffer would have said if he thought the same thing while he was being interrogated by the Gestapo in Nazi prison camps. Or far back when Polycarp was being burned alive by the Romans. Or the disciples when Christ told them, “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worth his wages.” (Matt 10:9-10) Or Christ Himself when he said, “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?” when he hung on the cross. How can these people attempt to combine the self-denial demanded by the Christian faith with the self-promotion of expecting wealth? It is small wonder that the Church in America is ineffective when people believe such complete nonsense. By making Christianity a means of material comfort, they emasculate the message of utter joy and glory that is the true Gospel. The glories of the faith are so far beyond material wealth and prosperity that even the comparison is disgusting. According to the article, their signature verse is “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) I guess they forgot that Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” God have mercy. Current Mood: upset Current Music: Chanticleer (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
1:56 pm	The Great Debate So... I decided that my blog was quite boring, since I never seem to have the chance to update it. I am back at college now, and I’m just finishing up helping out with freshmen orientation. It’s been fun. But now... I am introducing a new topic. It’s a topic that I’ve avoided on here for a while, because I figured that it would only make people extremely angry. But I’m so curious about what some people will have to say that I am going to bring it up anyway. Don’t get angry. I want to know what people think about abortion and the legal controversies that surround the whole issue. However, I am going to ask anyone who is opposed to abortion to not say anything. I have heard a lot from that side, and I want to hear the other point of view. If you are against abortion, feel free to read the comments, but don’t reply to anything. Your turn may come later. :-) If you support abortion or abortion rights, please do comment. Explain your views and the reasons that you believe your views are correct. I’m very interested. If I respond with questions and comments, please realize that I am not attacking you, nor do I think that you’re stupid, nor am I interested in making you angry. I simply want to understand all the points of view in this discussion. Pro-abortion/pro-choice? On your mark... get set... comment! ;-) Keep it civil, if it’s not too much trouble. :-) ~Hans Current Music: the calm before the storm... (42 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 29th, 2006
5:00 pm	A Short Musing on a Bumper-Sticker I should note that I am not terribly annoyed, but I figured I'd write about this anyway. :-) I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said, "Annoy a Republican; Think for yourself." To me, this presented a perfect ironic picture of the schismatic nature of our culture. Let me explain. First, and perhaps less humorously, the creator of the bumper-sticker is implying that Republicans don't think for themselves. This isn't a terribly original accusation, but it is obviously not true as a definition. Upon further inquiry about just who thinks for Republicans, there can be little alternative that Republicans think for Republicans. I mean, supposedly, all Republicans are being brainwashed by the Bush administration and so on and so forth, but as I recall, the Bush administration is Republican, not Democratic. And if you accuse the Bush administration of listening to big business and the rich, I still daresay that most of the oil tycoons and other folks like that are Republican, not Democratic. So who is thinking for the Republicans? The Democrats? I doubt it. The fact is, Republicans do think for themselves, just like Democrats do. But to me what is so telling about this bumper sticker is that it shows how we as modern Americans perceive disagreement. Rather than seeing the other party as incorrect, we try to label them as stupid or unintelligent. This drives our culture apart and further widens the gap between opposing views, rather than bringing them together for a compromise. People who disagree with us are stupid, not wrong. That's why our cultural and political dialogue has degenerated from The Federalist Papers to bumper stickers and picketing. But really, even aside from the large-picture political and cultural ideas this brought to my mind, I couldn't help but notice one thing. Does anyone else find it ironic that there is a mass-produced bumper-sticker accusing the opposing party of not thinking for themselves? I laughed. :-) The truth is, we're all human, so we all just think that we're just smarter than everyone who disagrees with us. What do you think? Be sure that you are thinking for yourself... ;-) Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Romance of the Violin (19 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 5th, 2006
4:58 pm	Is this about Psychology or Philosophy? News Flash! http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/06/05/road.rage.disease.ap/index.html I can't understand this. I really can't. Before I explain my response to this article, I should say that I have no training in either medicine or psychology, but nonetheless, I feel that this illustrates an impression that has been growing in me for some time. I cannot help but think that this illustrates yet another example of our culture’s fanaticism with materialism. It seems that we think that science can explain everything. In this case, scientists now claim that many of the people who have road rage may suffer from a “disease.” It appears that doctors have discovered that there are biological reasons for the way that the mind works. Yes, of course there are. There are biological reasons for the way our bodies function. I can raise my hand because there is an electronic impulse that runs from my brain to my arm and prompts my muscles to contract. I can speak because of electronic impulses that go to my diaphragm and vocal cords. Our culture hasn’t stopped there, though. Now we take apart our emotions too. Fear is simply the strong presence of certain hormones and other chemical stimuli in various organs of our bodies. So is happiness, sadness, bravery, and even love. Emotions are just chemicals, according to our culture of scientism. In this example, road rage is reduced to a “chemical disorder.” As soon as we have reduced everything to the material level, then we no longer have any responsibility. Any outburst – any expression at all of what everyone knows are bad emotions – is simply an overbalance of negative chemicals. It’s a disorder. How can we blame anyone for having a disorder? The weird thing is, we are only willing to take this as far as it lessens our responsibility. If we were honest with ourselves, we would realize that this worldview has consequences. How can we claim out of one side of our mouth that we are purely material beings, while at the same time lay claim to such principles as, say, our natural rights. If we are merely “gene lifeboats,” as famous scientist Richard Dawkins said, then that must lead us to certain philosophical conclusions. If we are purely material beings, then yes, we have no responsibility, it is true. After all, who claims that a rock has responsibility if it happens to finally fall from a cliff and kill someone? The rock is purely material, and it therefore has no responsibility. On the other hand, since a rock is purely material, it has no rights, no greater significance, and no meaning. If we reduce everything to material, then life is simply the presence of self-sustained electrical impulses within an organism comprised of one or more cells. If that is true, though, then death is just the lack of electrical impulses in the same organism. Is this really what we believe? Of course not. Why would people be so afraid of death? Everyone recognizes that there is something more – something greater that comprises life and death. This isn’t about science at all; it’s about responsibility; we wouldn’t be running away from responsibility with such a desperate effort if we didn’t know that it existed. We’re just using science as an excuse. So long as we can escape responsibility, we will, using whatever means possible; we just won’t accept the real logical conclusions of our own hypocrisy. ----------------------------- My two cents. I could be wrong. What do you you all think? Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: More Music from Gladiator (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 2nd, 2006
11:05 pm	Returning... It has been a very long time since I updated this thing. Perhaps too long, perhaps not. In any case, here is a post. I am home from college. The year went pretty well, although I didn’t do as well has I hoped in my grades. They are nothing really to complain about, but I wanted to do a little better. Ah well; we cannot have everything we want. I have many high aspirations for summer, and most of them involve doing things that I don’t get a chance to do at school like translate Greek and read books. I love holidays! I am hoping to translate the different accounts of the Sermon on the Mount from the various Gospels where it is related. I also plan to read The Four Loves, Calvin and Augustine, Orthodoxy, Augustine’s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, and possibly Brave New World, if I can fit it in. It should be a fun reading load. :-) Other than that, I am working this summer. I still have my old summer job of checking bug traps, which though not very exciting still pays fairly well and allows me to drive around the wonderful Hood River Valley. Having lived in Texas for so many months, I really appreciate the beauty of Oregon so much more now that I am back. It’s lovely. I am also audition for Pirates of Penzance tomorrow. My audition piece is terrible, so let’s hope that I can pull things together before the audition. It’s going to be tight. Ach. ---------------------------------- A few days before Memorial Day, I went to the cemetery to post flags at the graves of deceased veterans. It was a nice blustery day to do it, and it was very nice to spend some time with my brothers. We were lucky enough to get assigned the [most] historic section of the cemetery. Granted, that’s not saying a whole lot, because the cemetery hasn’t been there all that long. However, there are the graves of several Civil War veterans, which is pretty cool. However, I encountered something there that made me rather angry. There are three Confederates buried in our cemetery. Of these three, only one has a gravestone that states it outright. We only had American flags, so we didn’t post a flag there. However, since we all knew it was there, we did make note of it. Unfortunately, some other person had also made note of it. When we found it, we saw that someone had thrown dog excrement on the face of the gravestone. I could not help but find this to be a rather exceptional demonstration of ignorance. Allow me to say before I go on that I in no way support the Confederacy. I have met people who do, but I disagree with them. Even aside from the very obvious point of slavery, I think that the South’s arguments for secession were politically unsound and unconstitutional. That said, however, this whole thing still made me angry. First, and perhaps most obviously, to do such a thing shows simple childishness. After all, the person buried there is long dead. For the person to deface his grave shows about the same depth of character and intellect as the cowardly kid who waits to speak up against a peer he doesn’t like until there is a teacher around so his peer can’t do anything to him. Secondly, the statement is pointless. He fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side. By smearing his gravestone with excrement, the person will not convince him or anyone else to change sides. The war has been over for nearly 150 years. No one is fighting. There aren’t any more sides. If whoever did that wanted to make a statement, he was born in the wrong century. Thirdly, it is pure historical ignorance to claim that the Civil War was fought purely on the grounds of slavery. Though slavery clearly played a major role in the politics behind the war, many of the soldiers who fought for the Confederacy did not support the institution. For this person to assume that whoever was buried under this headstone was pro-slavery demonstrates a lack of understanding of what was actually going on during the war. Finally, it demonstrates an amazing lack of basic respect. I suppose whoever did it didn’t think that this particular guy deserved respect. Who are they to say, though? I daresay that they did not know the guy. Unless they did a lot of research (which their actions would tend to hint against), they have no way of knowing what else this guy did. Perhaps he lived an upright life. Regardless, though, there is a basic respect due to the dead that need not be earned. I mean…come on…Achilles learned this 3,000 years ago. Ignorance, in my opinion. Thoughts? Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Songs from Albion III (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
2:14 pm	Back to School Days... Well, I'm back at school. Homework calls my name, and I must answer. Life goes on, eh? ;-) In other news, my neighbor downloaded a song from the "soundtrack" of a Final Fantasy game. It is two minutes forty eight seconds long, and he has played it three hundred and one times in the past two days. We can hear it perfectly through the walls. My sanity weakens as times goes on...do the math...that's over fourteen hours of one song...day and night. Woohoo college! ;-D ~Hans Current Mood: tired Current Music: CANADIAN BRASS (real music) (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 16th, 2006
2:45 pm	This is a Post. Okay, so it has been way too long since I updated this blog. It’s kind of sad, I know, but I daresay everyone has gotten along fine without consistent updates. :-P Things that have happened: I went back to school. I was elected as Hall President for the Residence Hall Association. I did homework. I didn’t sleep. I did more homework. I got negative sleep. I did more homework. I came home for spring break. I got lots of sleep. Yay! Now that we are all caught up on life at school, we can move on to more important things. Stolen from Kristoff… 1. Full Name: Hans Zachary Decker 2. Who were you named after: Uh, well…my parents probably didn’t know this, but there are an awful lot of German doctors and lawyers who share my name. Just try Google. Of course, if you try Google, you will also find that there were two different Nazi officers who share my name. Let’s just say I was named after no one in particular. 3. Which finger is your favorite? All ten, thank you. I couldn’t play piano without them. 4. Have you ever sang into a hairbrush? Uh, I do real microphones, thanks. 5. When did you last cry? Umm…I have a heart of stone. 6. Do you like your handwriting? It’s okay. It got a lot better when I learned elvish. I’m not kidding. 7. What is your favorite lunch meat? Roast beef? 8. Any bad habits? Is this a question? Give me a break! No duh! 9. What is your most embarrassing CD on the shelf? Why would I be self-conscious of my CDs? For goodness sake, I listen to them because I like the music. I don’t care if other people think my music is stupid. That’s there opinion. It really doesn’t matter. I just won’t listen to music that bothers people when they are around. 10. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? I am a terribly boring person, and if I were someone else, I would probably make myself mad, so I would probably be more likely to kill me than be good friends with me. 11. Are you a daredevil? Not really. 12. Have you ever told a secret you swore not to tell? No. 13. Do you own any burnt CD's? Yes, that people have given me. 14. Have you ever said a word and it sounded absolutely stupid? Um, yeah, I suppose so. Some English words sound weird. For that matter, so do some Greek words. 15. Do you think there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Yes, but the gold always melts into a cold soup of false dreams and hopes for the idiots who go chasing after it. 16. Do fish have feelings? Nervous systems? Yeah. Souls? Give me a break. 17. Do you like school? Do you know how much I am paying for my education? If I didn’t like school, I would be a huge idiot. I might be a huge idiot anyway, but I don’t think that it’s for this reason. 18. Do you ever say never? Never. 19. Where is your second home? University of Dallas, Madonna 207 20. Do you trust others easily? I try to pick carefully, I suppose, but then, yes. 21.What was your favorite toy as a child? Okay, let’s put it this way. My parents tried for years to get something for my brothers and me besides Legos. They tried over and over, but it never worked. We always stopped playing with whatever they got us after a few days and went back to Legos. So they gave up and just gave us Legos until we grew out of toys. I think last year was the first year that I didn’t get any Legos. 22. What class in school do you think is totally useless? It’s school! It’s all amazing! Ancient Greek is awesome! If anyone tells me otherwise, I will hunt them down and…give them an introduction that explains what they think about Greek to Dr. Mauer. I’ll let him eat you. 23. Do you have a journal? Well, technically a blog is a journal of sorts. 24. Do you use sarcasm a lot? That is probably for other people to judge more than myself, but I don’t think I do a *ton*. I’m sure that I do some. 25. Do you have a crush on a lad or girl at the minute? Some of these questions…who comes up with this stuff anyway? 26. What do you want in a boy or girl? This isn’t fair either. I have to come up with my list still. Once I do, I am hardly likely to post it as a response to a journal survey. 27. Do you get along better with girls or boys? In general, perhaps girls, though the question is somewhat academic, since I get along extremely well with my guy friends. 28. Would you ever bungee jump? Why? I’ll spend the money on my Rome semester instead. 29. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Not usually, actually, but who cares? 30. Do you think you're strong? In what sense? But no, not strong. 31. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Carmel pecan, since you must ask. This is ridiculous. You have fifty questions to ask a person! Why does this even come up?! Who cares?! It’s ice cream! 32. What's your favorite color? Oh my. Don’t get me started. This was seriously like my first philosophical debate with someone. I think that I was about six years old. Poor Hannah Mason. 33. Are you in love with any one? *falls on sword* 34. How many wisdom teeth do you have? Yay! None! They’re all gone! 35. Are you organized? I am more organized than some, but certainly not completely neat. My dorm room tends to stay fairly clear of my junk, though. 36. How many people have a crush on you right now? I’ll let them figure it out. I have no idea. How am I supposed to make that sort of judgment anyway? Do you disclose that sort of information to the people you have crushes on? Yes, I am talking to you! Seriously, do you? Do you just go around telling them? No? Then do you expect me to be some sort of intuitive genius and know this by instinct? I only pretend to have an intuition. I can’t answer this type of question. 37. Who do you miss right now? I’m on spring break, which naturally means that I miss all my good friends back at UD who are missing out on Beautiful Oregon. 38. What food do you most want to eat right now? Uh…an almond granola bar. 39. Where do you most want to be right now? Durham Cathedral. 40. Do you ever make up your own words? I just did tonight – randomosity 41. Do you find it easy to forgive? In general, yes. There have been difficult times, of course, but in general, it isn’t difficult. 42. What was the last thing you ate? A bagel sandwich. 43. How are you today? I am doing well. I have been exonerated from certain charges relating to things that I said because I slightly changed my views for the better and managed to better explain what I was talking about. Hooray for discussions! 44. Favourite alcoholic drink? Teetotaler!!! Woohoo! 45. Siblings and their ages: Sasha, 22, Sonja, 17, Kristoff, 14, Johannes, 11 46. Favorite fast food? Cheap is good. I lived off of McDonald’s in Europe. That was good. 47. What are three things you love about yourself? Myself in what sense? I think that I’ll skirt the issue and say my family, my friends, and the opportunities I have been given. 48. What is one thing that you hate about yourself? My remarkable stupidity. 49. Favorite time of the year? Mid-December 50. Are you too shy to ask someone out? No. 51. Scary movies or happy endings? Sad endings! Hooray for tragedy! Scary? Meh… Happy ending? Bah, mundane. 52. Summer or winter? Winter! 53. Hugs or kisses? Hugs are more, er…universally applicable, shall we say. Hugs are nice, then. ------------------------------------------------ Okay, that was pretty much terrible. I'll try to think of something clever to say or find a topic to argue about. Then this blog can be interesting again. :-P In the meantime, I apologize for dullness. ~Hans Current Mood: content Current Music: Simon and Garfunkel (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 13th, 2006
3:31 pm	Thanks for finding this, Timothy... Woah, woah...this is way better: http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Hans%20Decker Please fill this one out. I'd really appreciate it. :-) ~Hans Current Music: Michael Card (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 12th, 2006
3:47 am	Possibly Interesting Quiz...for you! Perhaps this is a silly thing to do, but it is late in the evening / early in the morning, so forgive the silliness and answer it. :-) http://kevan.org/johari?name=Hans%20Decker Thanks. Oh, and one of these days I'll get around to a real update. Suffice to say that college is going well and keeping me rather too busy. :-P ~Hans Current Mood: tired Current Music: My neighbor's Beatle's music...argh... (Comment on this)
Friday, January 13th, 2006
2:29 am	Bringing story to my blog... Here is a rather odd fairytale for you all to read. Let me know what you think of it. Story + blog = bad combination? *EDIT* I changed a few details and added an ending, for those of you who really wanted one. ;-) ( A Fairytale ) Good night! ~Hans Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: Chanticleer (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
1:27 pm	Oh my... Oh dear...and this is why it is so difficult for me to choose a major: You scored as Philosophy. You should be a Philosophy major! Like the Philosopher, you are contemplative and you enjoy thinking about the purpose for humanity's existence. </td> Mathematics 100% Dance 100% Philosophy 100% English 100% Engineering 100% Journalism 100% Linguistics 92% Art 83% Psychology 75% Sociology 75% Anthropology 67% Theater 50% Chemistry 25% Biology 8% What is your Perfect Major? created with QuizFarm.com Back to Greek studying... Current Mood: happy Current Music: Finding Neverland (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 1st, 2006
12:28 am	Happy New Year! Hullo all, This is how everyone should greet the New Year: Of course...I'm not sure if some of our neighbors enjoyed the concert like I did. ;-) Kilts are wonderful. Happy New Year, everyone! ~Hans Current Mood: happy Current Music: Kristoff on Bagpipes (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 28th, 2005
1:05 am	A late night post from wonderful Oregon! Hullo all, It's been too long again; now I update. I am, of course, at home for the holidays, which is lovely. The plane ride back was a little odd. I wore my kilt, of course, because that is the thing to do in airports. However, I wore the one that I got in Scotland, which has buckles on the side of it. Unfortunately, those [metal] buckles are not removable, so when I went through the metal detector, I set it off. However, the guy who had to wand me down was a trainee, and hadn't done it before. It was really funny. He did it all wrong, and the supervising lady (who had a British accent) kept telling him to do it over again. "Okay...now wand the inside of his leg...No!! Not that way! That's illegal!!!" :-D (...And yes...she did say that... :-P ) While he was wanding me down, the guy (who was a middle-aged overweight black man) kept telling me (in a strong Texan accent) that even though he was sure that I was very proud of my Scottish heritage, pants were much more convenient. I had a good time. The time at home has been largely uneventful, which is a very nice break from the mad pace at college. I have mostly sat around, enjoyed a bit of casual chain-mailing, and had a lot of conversations. I've also tried, though rather unsuccessfully, to get a bit of reading done. I hopefully will before break is out. :-/ On the Sunday after I got back, we went to church in Vancouver like always, but while we were visiting family friends, the snow/ice storm hit. Our car ride back home took five hours, which was total craziness. We were sliding all over the road, and it was delightfully exciting. However, the best part of it happened about four hours into the trip home. Kristoff, Johannes, and I were all sitting crammed in the back seat of our minivan, and we were all excessively bored. So...we handed up a CD of fast music and proceeded to disco dance (sort of) while seat belted. So, for all those who wanted to see me dance like a maniac for all those years -- you missed your chance. We were dancing so hard that my dad couldn't keep the back windows defogged. ;-) However, that Monday I went in to the dentist's office, and they set up an appointment for me to get my wisdom teeth removed...on the next day. So, on Tuesday I got up and went to the office in the morning and got them out. Thankfully, they were all erupted, so I didn't have to have surgery...he just pulled them. Unfortunately, that required about 20 shots of anesthetic, which ended up numbing my ears and chin and everything in between. I got a few stitches and was out of there in about an hour and twenty minutes. I must say, the best part of the whole experience was coming out into the waiting room after the whole little operation was done. You have to picture me with my mouth stuffed full of gauze and swollen from getting teeth ripped out, in addition to the stupid look of a numb face. I walked out into the room and was checking to make sure that I had everything before I left, and when I looked up, I saw a middle-aged woman sitting there looking at me and trying *really* hard not to burst out laughing. I almost started laughing myself, but it's a good thing I caught myself, because I would have sprayed blood, saliva, and gauze all over the room. It was really funny though. She had to hide her face to keep from laughing. I enjoyed that little moment of knowing that I looked like...well...a total doofus. It's a great feeling. :-D Anyway, the recovery process has been mostly uneventful. I was able to eat Christmas dinner, which was very nice. It didn't even have to be blended, which is even more awesome. :-P Christmas itself was a little different. Because Christmas fell on a Sunday, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve so that we wouldn't be rushed on Christmas morning to get back from church. It was a little different, but fun. I am extremely happy and grateful to have been given a digital camera. Timothy, this means that I will not be stealing your's anymore. :-D Anyway, Christmas was different because we went to church in the morning, and since church is an hour away, we didn't get back until after one in the afternoon. Then the Armerdings came over for dinner, which was cool. Daniel spent the night, and we talked about all sorts of things. However, it was just a very unusual Christmas since we didn't do any of the traditional Christmas things. However, I do have some pictures from Christmas and just family in general: To all of my friends, and particularly to guys: do not mess with my younger sister. She will kick your backside (like she's probably going to kick mine for posting this... :-P ): Since none of us got much sleep on Christmas Eve night, the car ride home was much more sedate than the previous Sunday: Anyway, even though I haven't updated in a while, not a whole lot happens during vacation, so I can't make this entry too long. Before the end of break I plan to visit the gym at least once and say hullo to my gymnastics coaches, finish reading a book I started last summer, as well as a few other books, finish a chain mail coif I started about a week ago, which only needs a bit more work done, and have a whole lot more interesting discussions and arguments. However, if I'm going to get all that done, I need to get some sleep. :-) Good night! ~Hans Current Mood: happy Current Music: Simon and Garfunkel (25 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 9th, 2005
3:48 am	The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Movie Review Well, I just came back from the midnight showing. There is no way that I will be able to remember all the details of what I did and didn't like about the movie, so I won't say that this is my final opinion. However... *SPOILER WARNING* (Sorry, Rosa) Overall, I really liked it. I thought that the filming itself was very well done. There were a number of creative shots, and I enjoyed the cinematography. I think that the four child actors did very well. Lucy managed, IMO, to be cute but not annoying. Peter was great, although he used his smirk twice too many times. :wink: Edmund was good, and he played the redeemed pout/Judas character quite convincingly. Susan was annoying, but she's supposed to be, so it was fine. Tumnus was awesome! Honestly, I don't know anything about James McAvoy, but he did a fantastic job at capturing all the warmth of the character. It was beautiful. His first scene with Lucy was magical. Totally fantastic. I am a huge fan now. :) The Beavers were pretty good. I was concerned that their animation would make them seem stupid, but somehow they managed to break that with the first line. I won't spoil it for you, but it worked well to break the tension of anticipation. I enjoyed Mr. and Mrs. good-natured bickering quite a lot. They were fun. Aslan was good. Liam Neeson did a great job with the voice, and I thought that almost all of his animation was fine. There were a couple of parts (I don't remember specifically) where he seemed slightly cartoonish, but overall, it wasn't bad at all. Tilda Swinton rocks. Her White Witch had just the right amount of weird sweetness blended in with the harsh coldness that she is supposed to have. I have never seen dreadlocks quite like her's, though. :shock: Wow. Quite impressive. Father Christmas should have been wearing chain mail and a bit more green, and they didn't *have* to modernize that one line. You know. :) I'm not sure at all what the fox was doing in there. He seemed kind of random and slightly annoying. The wolves should NOT have American accents, which I *think* that they did. :P Argh. A couple of over-dramatic moments just used for tension that were annoying. I love Father Christmas in the book partly because of the way that he appears. No need for a chase scene. Similarly, they can just walk across the frozen river or climb over the top like the more intelligent wolves did, rather than run around on breaking ice. If nothing else, I dare you to find me three kids who could get dunked in a semi-frozen river and crawl out of it without shivering. Sorry. Call the paramedics for acute hypothermia. Oh, and there were a couple of moments that were taken right out of LotR. Can we say hello to the Uruk-Hai...I mean, minotaur who goes and stands on the rock in the middle of the battlefield, raises his axe, and gives an echoing roar as the forces of evil surge around him. The music was variable. Parts of it were great. Tumnus' pipe was cool, and the music when Aslan was killed was fantastic. Parts of it were rather too poppy for me, though. Not terrible, but a little cheap sounding to me. Oh, and please couldn't we have a better credits song? :-) Mostly, though, I can deal with that stuff. The one thing that I really didn't like about the movie was that it attempted to give the children far more credit than they are due. It seems to me when I read the book that the children come to Narnia because Aslan is on the move, not the other way around. In the movie, it seemed like the winter ended and spring came because the children showed up, and Aslan came to make sure that they did everything right. No. Like Aslan says in the Silver Chair -- "You would not have been calling to me unless I had first been calling to you." They come because Aslan is waiting for them. The winter melts into spring because Aslan has come. Similarly, when Aslan described the Deep Magic, It was vague, so it didn't necessarily make it completely clear what his relationship was to the Deep Magic actually was. It seemed to me that Aslan was somewhat degraded when he seems to insinuate that the Deep Magic as some sort of all powerful force, binding the universe together...wait, wrong movie. But really, the Deep Magic is something far deeper than that, but it's a part of Aslan, not some sort of force controlling his destiny. Anyway, I despite my complaints, I still give the movie a very high grade. I thought that they did a great job capturing a lot of the feel of the books, and I really hope that they continue making the movies. I've got another six of them that I *really* want to see. Off to bed now. It's almost four. :-P ~Hans P.S. Sorry if the review is a bit scattered and badly written. Such things happen at this ungodly hour. :-/ Current Mood: happy but tired Current Music: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Soundtrack (6 Comments |Comment on this)