No video =/

Ok, so I tried to upload a video for you... but it was an epic fail.

You better enjoy my stupid video.
Peace out bruuu. ( Bro with an Aussie Accent)

Stubborn writers strike from J.

Oh, so you are alive after all! Austria, Australia they are basically the same! Well I won't write until you write something.

As a side note...

First of all, Justin you make it sound like I am dead.
And secondly I am in Australia.

The Sharp Pencil (Part 2)

So as I was saying, or writing, is that writing is important. But writing is not nearly as important as writing well, but who is the judge? Well everyone is me, you, kids, adults, grandpa. How? I believe that writing is good when it impacts someone. Now there is lots of writing out there that is good, yet spurs on evil thoughts, or false beliefs. So we as Christians have a duty to write not only good writing but GOOD writing, writing that pleases God. I used to believe that it was pretty cool to curse in my writing to emphasize what I am saying, or make it "stronger". But people listen (or read) when the language is cleaned up.
But even if your writing is awful, you are STILL contributing to the world of literature, so if you are terriblizing the world with your stupid blog then STOP, you are tainting literature.
Think about it this way: picture all of writing as a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake like Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. And there are mere trickles like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don't matter. The lake matters. We must keep feeding the lake. (That was from Jean Rhys, I didn't put it into quotation marks because people never read quotes, but since it wasn't in quotes you have already read it.)
Rhys says that we must keep feeding the lake of literature, I agree, but don't you dare throw toxic waste in the lake!
What I am mostly trying to say is that I am just so happy that the internet was made (besides the porn) so that I can be a contributor to the lake, so that I can have my OWN tiny little stream.

On a side note, Hannah Patterson has been in Austria for the past couple of weeks and has been unable to write. Too bad!
Side note No. 2 Halloween is coming up and I am so excited, I am going to be a shooting star, with a GUN, get it?! A "shooting" star!

-Justin (not a walrus)

The Road Ends (unabridged)

Death could possibly be one of the most talked about subjects; philosophers analyze it, scientists attempt to beat it, and people fear it. It is also perhaps one of the most mysterious subjects to most men; there are many speculations on why we die and what happens to our souls after death. Nearly every religion has a theory as to where we go when we die. Death is something that every human being takes part in; it does not matter if that individual is rich or poor, powerful or weak, smart or moronic. Everyone has the same end to their existence.
So what is the meaning of our existence if everyone fades away to dust? Do we have purpose, or do we just invent it in our minds? Everyone has a theory as to why humanity exists. Even if that theory is that we exist for no reason, it is still a theory. One of the most common and modern goals, in American life especially, is success. We often measure our time on earth by how successful someone becomes before they pass away. Americans look for success in a variety of different areas: success in the business world, in family life or social circles, or generosity, kindness, peace, beauty, or the general pursuit of happiness. When we say “so and so led a good life” what do we mean?
We have many examples in this world of the pinnacle of success, many of those men and women could very well have happiness. Even if they are happy, do they feel fulfilled, like they have purpose? Does Bill Gates have the most meaningful life because he is the richest man on earth? Is President Obama, arguably the most powerful man on earth, worth more than any other American? Or how about Michael Jordan, one of the world’s biggest sports idols, is he of greatest worth and meaning? Are the world’s most influential wealthy people happier or more important than me or you? Do they feel more fulfilled than you or I? I believe that they might fear death more than I do; they have more materialistic things to lose. If success doesn’t make a life more significant, then what does? Let me propose something different.
I believe that we have the wrong approach, because the writer of Galatians says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (2:20) yet us think about that for a moment, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. First we know that the author has not physically died, so what I believe he is saying is that Christ has taken over his life, his wants and desires. The author of Galatians wants
A lot of times in my teenage life I have bashed on Christian rock bands, because they can't rock and their messages sound occasionally fluffy and biblically fallible. But Switchfoot put great words into what I am trying to say in their song “A Beautiful Letdown”: It was a beautiful letdown/The day I knew/That all the riches this world had to offer me/would never do/In a world full of bitter pain/And bitter doubts/I was trying so hard to fit in/until I found out/I don't belong here. Switchfoot says that the world is a letdown, but that it is beautiful because it there is so much more to live for. Switchfoot is a popular band, and they are fairly wealthy, they had to be reminded that fame and riches don’t satisfy the soul and that this earth isn’t their home so they should be thinking about God and his kingdom.
Without Jesus we live without purpose, lost, scared, alone, shameful, desperate, confused, and never living a significant life. We must remember our life is just a blip on the radar screen of eternity. In all honesty we aren’t significant, we are just meaty vessels for God’s work, but lucky for us God cares about the meaty vessels he made. He has a plan for us and he is going to save as many other vessels as he allows and then those vessels putting their trust in Him will try to save more meaty vessels, until every vessel has heard that God came to this earth, a perfect man and died on a tree two thousand years ago to save all the stupid insignificant meat bags, and he happened to be the Lord Jesus Christ. Then Christ, being the perfect sacrifice came back to life defeating all sins!
So who cares about money and sex and parties and drugs and cars and yachts and houses? All of it will not stand the test of time, it will all fade away; it’s all a letdown. When we invest our live in anything other than Jesus it will leave us feeling empty and void. There is this giant crevasse in our souls and only God is great enough to fill it, everything else feels like pouring a glass of water into a dried up lake bed.
When I was a child I had two friends at separate times that I considered to be best friends. Both of my friends used drugs, and both of them came out of the drugs with very different stories. My first friend’s name was Bobby, him and I were kindergarten pals, we ran around, talked about football, played with dogs, made forts, drew pictures, I always looked up to him like an older brother. To me Bobby seemed to be invincible, he wasn’t afraid of anything. Bobby moved away when we got to second grade and I didn’t see him for eight years. Then one day in July of 2005 when Bobby and I were both 15 my mom came into my room and she was crying and when I asked her what was wrong, she said that Bobby had killed himself by overdosing on drugs. Death can happen at any moment, it is not just for the old or the weak, when we were kids Bobby was the most spirited and courageous kid I knew, I thought he was invincible.
My second friend has a similar story, but with a better ending. My friend Sam was into drugs for a year, and he turned his back on God. So Sam moved out of his house and was doing whatever he wanted every day. Sam slept as much as he wanted, ate as much as he wanted, showered as little as he wanted, and got high whenever he wanted. He was “in control” of his own life, but what he would not admit for an entire year is that life was horrible! Sam missed his family and friends and a warm bed, and most of all Sam missed God. We can try and run away, we can try and pretend that we are in control, or we have the power to make ourselves truly happy. But as humans we are constantly trying to be happy with things that aren’t God. When we turn away from God we become trapped in our sins and inadequacies.
Both Bobby and Sam Struggled with Drugs and both of them turned their backs on God saying, “God, you’re not powerful enough to handle the things I am going through, I got my own life.” I believe that most people at one point or another wish for a life had no responsibilities; it is not an uncommon thought that crosses the mind. It is part of the same lie that Satan has been telling humanity since the beginning of time, “God is holding out on you, sin is actually fantastically wonderful and it brings thrill and excitement into life, just turn your back on God.” Satan wants us to participate in drugs, pre-marital sex, drunkenness, and addiction because it slowly brings us away from God. A life without God is a life without meaning.
God is in control, and the best part is that He knows what we want better than we do, He sees past, present, and future and He wants what is best for us. All we have to do is put our trust in Him as we obey and give Him the glory for all the good things he asks us to do. It is going to be hard, and it’s going to feel like a long time, but in the end we will have had a life of meaning.
Mary Oliver speaks to me when she says, “When it is over… I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” In her poem “When Death Comes”. We are visitors in this world; we are here for only a blip of time on the radar screen of eternity. Even though most people on this earth assume that this life is all we have they still take advantage of the time we have. These people waste minutes and days watching TV or going shopping; why would they do this when they seriously believe they are only going to live approximately eighty years? I would think they would want to spend as much time as they could try to make anyone else’s eighty years better. What about us as Christians, we have multiple purposes and many missions from God. So what I take away from Oliver’s poem is that one day the world will end and it will all be over, and everyone will stand before God and there will be people who impacted the world standing right next to you and me, and there will be people who didn’t. I know that personally I don’t want to be the guy who stands before Christ and says, “Dude, I know you asked me to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. BUT, I was too lazy and it was more fun to smoke pot and have sex with my girlfriend, hope you don’t mind Jesus.”
I just want to end with this, Life is SHORT, it is tainted by sin, and it is so easy to be distracted now a days. But this is not the end, everyone is going to go on after they die, the only question is “where?” It breaks God’s heart when people turn away from him, when you or I turn away from him and say, “I got this God, stay out of my life.” It breaks my heart to look around at so many friends, family, and strangers and know that they are going to hell and I can do something about it, you know who gave me the desire to save people for the kingdom of God. We have purpose, and we fulfill our purpose we live a good life, and we die and stand before Jesus and he says, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

Writing with a sharp pencil...

I was just surfing the web and I realized that most every blog I see is vomit on a page. So I came up with some things that sets apart good writing from bad writing. How do we think clearly? How do we process things logically? So one of my professors helped me out with some things we can do so that we can make our flakey overrated blogs into coherent thoughts.
So in order to write clearly we have to think clearly. So there are two main “pit falls” that cause poor thinking: the first one is PRIDE, when we are prideful we can get stuck in the illusion that what matters most is us. Our selfishness and egotistic mindsets will reflect onto our writing and ultimately give off a vibe of self-centeredness. Who wants to read what a prideful person writes?
The second “pit fall” is the opposite of pride, insecurity, insecurity breeds literature that reflects a lower view of self worth than is actually true. Insecurity creates writing that is filled with loathing, self doubting, self pity and unappealing content all around.
Not only are there “pit falls” there also barriers that hinder us from thinking clearly and ultimately writing clearly. The first one is being busy; when we are busy we are distracted. We especially have this problem in the United States where we never have time to think, just do, mindlessly. The second barrier which is closely related is information overload; nowadays we have so much technological clutter that it causes us to think less on our own. If we want information we don’t search our brains we search Google! We don’t fill our brains like people used to when they didn’t have computers and cell phones. And the last barrier is tiredness, but that one is more obvious.
One tip to writing well is this, if you read well then you will think well and if you think well… you will write well! So read intelligent books!

I was going to write more but I decided to split it up into two posts so standby for part 2!

-justin

Update 2 followers

Hey sorry Hannah and I haven't had very much time to write recently since she is going down under and I am studying at Biola. I promise that I'll have a new post up this week; it will be about writing well and what that constitutes. I just want to thank Andy and Katie for staying on board for the upstart of this blog.And just remember "To write with a broken pencil is pointless..."
-Justin

Are you in the nice car when the road ends?

Death could possibly be one of the most talked about subjects, philosophers analyze it, scientists attempt to beat it, and people fear it. It is also perhaps the most mysterious subject; there are so many speculations on why we die and what happens to our souls after death. Nearly every religion has a theory as to where we go when we die. Death is something that every human being takes part in; it does not matter if someone is rich or poor, powerful or weak, smart or moronic, everyone has the same end to their existence.
So what is the meaning of our existence if everyone fades away to dust anyway? Do we have purpose, or just invent it in our minds. The common goal in life is often success, we often measure our time on earth by how successful someone is; whether it is success in the business world, in family life or social circle, or generosity, kindness, peace, beauty, or the general pursuit of happiness. When we say “so and so led a good life” what do we mean? In my opinion life leads us, not vice versa. Does Bill Gates have the most meaningful life or is it President Obama, or how about Michael Jordan? Are the world’s most influential wealthy people happier or more important than me or you? Do they feel more fulfilled than you or I? I believe that they might fear death more than I do; they have more materialistic things to lose. So if it isn’t success that makes a life more significant what is it?
A lot of times in my teenage life I have bashed on Christian rock bands, because they can't rock and their messages are fluffy and occasionally biblically fallible. But Switchfoot put great words into what I am trying to say: It was a beautiful letdown/The day I knew/That all the riches this world had to offer me/would never do/In a world full of bitter pain/And bitter doubts/I was trying so hard to fit in/until I found out/I don't belong here.
Without Jesus we live without purpose, lost, scared, alone, shameful, desperate, confused, and never living a significant live. We must remember the life is just a blip on the radar screen of eternity. In all honesty we aren’t significant, we are just meaty vessels for God’s work, but lucky for us God cares about the meaty vessels he made. He has a plan for us to save as many other vessels as he allows and then those vessels putting their trust in Him will try to save more meaty vessels, until every vessel has heard that there was a perfect man that died on a tree two thousand years ago to save all the stupid insignificant meat bags, and he happened to be the Lord Jesus Christ.
So who gives a rat’s ___ about money and sex and parties and drugs and cars and yachts and houses? All of it will not stand the test of time, it will all fade away; it’s all a letdown.
It is going to be hard, and it’s going to feel like a long time but in the end we will have a life of meaning.
“When it is over… I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”
-From When Death Comes by Mary Oliver

Justin Humble

An Awfully Big Adventure

"To die would be an awfully big adventure," this perhaps one of the most famous quotes from J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan". "To die would be an awfully big adventure." To die really would be an awfully big adventure. What happens? No one knows. That's just it. There are speculations, beliefs, and philosophies dedicated to life and death, life after death, or the lack there of. But you can not be one hundred percently sure until you yourself have experienced death, of course from which there is no return (unless of course you believe in miracles).

Life is so short. What defines life? What is life, everyone breathes... but animals breathe, plants breathe, and yet we are significantly superior to such beings. God put us in charge of other creation. Humans. Humans have existed for thousands of years; each one living, breathing, and eventually, dying. Theories, and ideas, cultures, religion. So much remains the same, but the world is constantly changing. Human culture no matter where you are in the world is obvious different from a thousand years ago, even a hundred years ago. There is nothing new under the sun- well, except everyday.

Death obviously is not a new concept or happening. Our lives are but a vapor in the wind so to speak. What if people did not die? How would life be then? Would it mean anything? Everyone lives such vastly different lives from each other. Sometimes, people do not have the opportunity in life to make something for themselves, as their parents farm, they too one day will grow up to be farmers. Other people have countless opportunities in any field they chose, to steer life down many different roads. The apple does not have to fall far from the tree, true, but at least they have the chance to leave. How do you measure life? People spend years, well generally a whole life time building up a name for themselves, but death eventually comes and suddenly one day all is forgotten. Who they were, what they did, gone. So what about those people who did not have that same chance to make a name for themselves? How is their life counted? Is it less significant? What about POW or other people who had their lives destroyed right in front of them. Everything they had known, taken away from them. They were left to decay starting with their material lives. Their lives were taken away from them, but was their life?

It's an odd thing really. Knowing one day we all shall die, in one way or another. As J.M. Barrie puts it in the beginning of his book, "Peter Pan", "All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end." From a young age, we strive to grow up. Our games revolve around being grown up, and that's all we ever want to be, is a little bit older.

"Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows."

— john betjeman

I think there is something beautiful about children; their ability to live completely in the moment, sometimes something inside me hurts knowing there's no going back simply because I know more then I use to. But perhaps that's what life and death is; an awfully big adventure. It is full of enchantment, and wonder, of baddies, and stormy days, with time always against you, chasing you until it finally catches up because your young legs that once carried you so fast you flew with the wind have turned into a wheel chair waiting for someone to push you.

You best be off on your way, off on another grand adventure, instead of reading my mind vomit on a page.

- Hannah

On death...

Justin here:
You can stay tuned for the next topic soon; it's going to be an oozy doozy, because it is death. Of course Hannah and I are the least emo people you will meet, so it will more be speculations about life after death or something. So it is on, on like a prawn at dawn on your lawn!

Packing is poooooooop.

Gah! I hate packing. So so so much. I hate leaving. My heart hurts every time. No matter how long I've been there. Where ever it is, the beach, America, a basketball tournament, anywhere! Leaving means it's over for good. I love being in the moment, here, now. But too often I worry about later and what not. I over think things, and then when I sit down to write nothing comes out. I think about situations so much and life happens and it turns out to be nothing you ever expected. But now I am packing up my life. Well physical life belongings. And tomorrow my room will be as if I were never even here... Scary though eh?

Later! Gots to go finish packing. Pannah

Home is a feeling a thousand miles away from here...

I always get this odd feeling in my gut as I leave one place and move to another. It always feels to me as if I have to pick up and leave right as I was getting settled in. You have to pack away bits and parts of your life, compartmentalize them for a later time, move on. It seems weird to me how much more you notice when you realize something may or will be your last, and you when you return the next time it won't be the same. Over time you've grown attached to the people and places. Sometimes I feel that it would just be easier to get up and go without a word, and sometimes that is how is goes. But then when I think about it, a proper "good bye" is only good manners. And it is good for everyone. For yourself, others... life! But everywhere you go there seems to be that little bit of you missing, if it's not here, it's there, and you'll never completely be together (it feels).
"She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It's easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said" (story people). It does make it the skin on your back feel a bit lighter not lugging your life around, but at the same time, there is always that bit of you that wonders what you're missing out on... over there (wherever there is). But if you asked me if I would redo anything, I would not change my life in the least, well maybe there are a few redos that would be nice, but having lived where I lived and met who I met would not change. But somehow home is never where you are. It always feels like home is a thousand miles away from wherever you are, or maybe each bit of home is a thousand miles away from each other, another thousand miles away from you. And sometimes I think it would be nice just to go home. Which I am. I am going "home" in a few days. Ahh! That word. Drives me crazy. But you know what I've come to realize... as humans, we always manage to find something to worry about. If it's not one thing it's something else. If my life had a completely different story I would still be worrying about something.
I love meeting new people, and going new places, but sometimes I wonder if how different it would be if I wasn't as open? (not sure what the right word is) to life, I know it would not make things easier, but it would definately be a different kind of experience. A different kind of pain too I suppose? Maybe regret of not having done certain things or meeting people when presented with an opportunity. Regret of an opportunity not taken is one of the greatest, but that is a completely different topic for another day.
Leaving. It's a hard thing to do. To pack up your life into 25kgs and throw the rest into storage. Hmm. *Sigh* Home.

-Hannah not Montana

Going to new places: drained and energized

This fall I just started attending Biola University in southern California, and that got me thinking about moving. Every day I drive 30 minutes to and from school, every day I walk around campus at least once. Movement is part of life, including moving away… I am used to moving away, I have moved away more than 9 times in my life, sometimes I don’t even tell someone I am moving away.
But in this post I am going to talk about moving to or moving in. at Biola I am not living in a dorm, but I intend to make my place at the university. Over the first 2½ weeks I observed my own behavior (as I often do) and the behavior of other freshman around me, here is what I found:
People who are new to a place spend much time of their first week looking around, I would watch freshmen eat and they wouldn’t look at their food, they watch people like a gazelle at a watering hole. After they get over the initial shock then they, or we, act completely not ourselves. The first few weeks of school, I was quite, tame, and only friendly if I had to be. On most days I never got the inclination to go and hangout outside (I mostly studied in the library). Then slowly I got back my original personality and started pumping energy into people through my hand shakes. I am such the extrovert that whenever I am not socializing I get drained.
So then I was conversing with a friend about this and she said, “Justin, you and I are exact opposites.” Then she began to tell me about how the more people are around the quieter and quieter she gets, and that just made me laugh.
It is funny how people are wired, I have been taking an UNDECLARED seminar, and the class is pretty good, and 1 thing I have learned is that strengths aren’t necessary the things you’re strong at, no it is the things that make you feel stronger, the things that energize you. People are my energizer!
One last thing, today is September 11, 2009 and it has been 8 years since the WTC fell. Please keep the people whose families were lost in 9/11 in your prayers.
-over and out! Hustin.

Promise

According to the American Heritage Dictionary,
Promise: (n) A declaration assuring that one will or will not do something; a vow.

To say I promise then means it should be kept, hence I try my very hardest never to make a promise if I cannot keep it. Honesty is something that is important in life, and how good are words that are never kept? If you are going to make a promise then, it should be kept. It's just after enough times of getting your hopes and people falling through, you get tired of being disappointed. But hey! we're only human right...? Well. That was when I decided I was not going to be a person that disappointed. A person who fell through. A person who forgot. So. I made a promise to myself that I would keep a promise or not make one at all. After all, you can only expect of others what you expect from yourself. So Justin, be that the "noble" reason you were looking for or not, Hannah was just tired of life getting her down, and did not want to be one that got others down.

On when Justin and Hannah REALLY started writing together...

Justin here:
Yes we did decide to start a blog after Hannah finished up my article for the notorious "The Paper" (the paper I used to write for, which had an incredibly dull title, AND which no one read) but Hannah has forgotten the REAL beginning, it happened along time ago... in James Griffin's Creative writing class. I started a short story about a boy who was only one inch tall and still tried to live a normal life. Then Hannah was supposed to finish it... but when I read the ending and thought it was lame, I insisted that she rewrite it, after very little squawking Hannah promised to make a very good ending that would top off the brilliantly creative story and make it something worth reading. Now don't ask me why, but for some noble reason Hannah ALWAYS keeps her promises, without fail. needless to say the second ending was much better, and the one inch mighty warrior fought and killed a spider... and lived happily ever after.
AND that is when our "writing togetherness" started, while we were sophomores in high school trying to make passing grades in James Griffin's Creative Writing class. The funny thing is I believe I still have that short story lying around somewhere, if I find it I will type it up and post it on the blog.

I thought it only appropriate as a first entry.

Below is the article Justin and I ended up writing together for his column (the one that got us started with this whole crazy thing in the first place):

" So this is the last "Humble Opinion," the last article before I leave the nest, before I kick the bucket (I don't think that last idiom works very well). It is a funny thing, all my high school "career" I have worked up to graduation, up to the moment where I get handed the diploma. There are a lot of things that seniors don't do, that they should have done before they leave Indonesia. For instance, I have never heard a senior say goodbye to a jaga, or start a food fight in the pavilion; I don't think Mountainview students have ever had a food fight (not that I'm suggesting it). Or gone fishing in the rice paddies, and then gone and gotten themselves bitten by an eel. Or eaten roti bakar at the pancasila in the middle of the night.

Other things seniors should do are eat at all their favorite local warungs before they leave, such as Bu Wati's, Soto Kesambi, and Es Kesambi, and buy a box of Indo Mie before they leave... and also get a class picture where everyone looks good (if that is even possible). It's sad when you realize a couple hours before your departur from this place, that though you may return, it won't ever be the same again. You will no longer be a resident, only a stranger visiting. It's sad knowing that your wish-list of things you've said "we have to do," or "that would be fun to do," never got done, and you're graduating with less accomplishments than you'd hoped for.

So learn to write those silly little wishes and wants down, and as ridiculous as it sounds, keep a check list (besides the one in your brain). Set out realistic goals if necessary, but don't forget to have fun! Don't turn your high school career into a job; don't grow up too quickly. Always remember that at the end of it all, you are going to remember that each relationship and event is going to hold more meaning than what you got on your english vocabulary quiz or that chapter 12 math test. So go out now, and get some batagor and es kelapa muda with your friends because it will be too late all too soon. Then what are you going to have left to remember? Go bounce on a bed, or pick a dandelion and blow a wish into the wind and remember what it feels like to be a kid and to live in magic before it's too late."