What I hate about blogs

There are a number of things I hate about blogs, from cloying attempts to find some sort of significance from "being heard," to the inane and senseless mutterings of the political right and left, an endlessly stagnant Styx. But what I dislike the most is the cheap closure that many bloggers feel the need to end every post with. There always seems to be some tidy conclusion, some plastic-wrapped, unhealthy platitude to assure the reader that there can be closure, that everything is, or will be, okay.   

Death is the only closure.  Friendships don't last forever. The only thing that endures is pain. 

End of Year Resolutions

Hello

NIMM has survived the year, rejoice readers. I hope we can have another year of short, sporadic post and I will do my best to realize that. As I listen to the ghostly Intro by alt-j, I'm reminded of the past year. Strangely, I can divide weeks and months into artists and songs I've listened to repeatedly. The nostalgia is sweet like honey. There were week when I just listen to the same album for a week while hunched over studying. I'd remember cracking open the back door to the apartment and letting the sun bath my back heat. A pool a sweat would collect beneath me as I at there for hours. Though I say good luck with finals, also enjoy them. There is a deliciousness in the exertion of learning that industrial, profit driven labor can not produce.

Today I got a financial statement from my employer recapping my total earnings. It's shocking to see my time and stress broken into numbers and trace back past expenses. I'm grateful for God's provision and grace for His children. Looking back, I a pinch sad I missed out on my dream job. I only just realized it five years too late. What is it you ask, stay-at-home-dad #whamo
If you miss your calling, I suppose you just have to make a hobby, shrug.

Now, time for some end of the year resolutions. Here is what I hope to get done before the end of the year

1) Visit Hanson tribe in Dallas

2) Set up retirement account, like a Roth IRA

3) Play one song on piano

4) Survive

5) Make a grill cheese sandwich for dinner

6) Work out the pecs

7) Laugh hysterically

8) Hug someone

9) Go to church

10) Eat just Chinese food for an entire day

End of the year resolutions have a more depressing tone, but I like them more since I'm more of a "let's take it one day, one hour, one thought at a time" person.

I suppose I could specify that I'll be leaving ID on December 19th for TX. Counting the days is agonizing, but the days pass.

Well, this was a nice diversion before going to bed. Finishing this post on the song Ms, not a clue if there was some opportunity for a poetic outro. Love you HanThatWan

Nathan H
 
PS Can't say this enough, Thank you Isaac for an amazing letter!!

nother

i simply remember my favorite things

and then i dont feel

so bad

there are a few lot of "things" missing from this picture

(picture of Micah Wang, Timid, the Brave, Ben Howard, Great Expectations, limited edition EP release from Isaac Wang, asam laska, HanThatWan etc.)

Miss you HanThatWan!!

Nathan H

Writer's Blockade

So I've had a mean case of writer's block, not when it comes to blog posting mind you. I'm talking about music. Over the past two years, I've mostly played stuff I've written, picked up, or played for RUF worship - the last one now being mostly removed. So basically I just play stuff I make up and recognize that I'm playing other artist's stuff. So writer's block means I don't play much music.. boo

I mostly play on the front porch which ha been quite nice. At first most of the neighborhood kids left me alone, but since they saw I was making it a habit, they started playing on the streets again evading the attentive Gooding traffic. The first question I got was, "are you a singer?"

"Not really, I'm practicing"

"You should sing louder. I can't hear you."

What!! It's like I'm back in NM where they all told me my playing was to soft.. which was true. Today, as I was playing, some tenish year old girl yelled from the house across the street, IN AN ITALIAN ACCENT

"You sing'a very good"

This was the most exciting thing that has happened to me in weeks. Oh and I'm brewing komucha.

It's like taking care of a reptile, gotta be 76 F else it could mold. Now I have to get a heating pad for my pet yeast culture!!

Miss you HanThatWan

Big thanks to all participants in the name-your-holiday. I will make sure to mark each on my

Love

Nathan H

PS to our midterm bound/exiting uni students, go get'm!!

HanThatWan Holiday Thing-That-Few-People-Will-Partipicate-In-So-Prove-Me-Wrong

September!! i was thinking that there really isn't much celebrating in for anything in September (sorry to everyone who has a birthday in Sept, i forgot..). I suppose many of us are busy with new schedules or doling over the old routine. Fear not, NIMM won't let the monotony start.

We are now accepting applications for the first ever HanThatWan holiday!! Please enter the following for proper holiday processing:

1) Name of holiday

2) Exact Date (leap years are excluded)

3) Date can not coincide with current celebrated holiday

4) Must have universal instructions on how the celebrate holiday
     (probably won't take a day off the celebrate the holiday so be creative and cultish)

5) Submission must be made in September

6) Voting will begin Sept 27 and end Oct 1 (to be done by blog comments)

Thank you to all future participate. Don't forget holiday does not need to be in September.

Quick update about me: not much happening, miss you

Nathan H

throw it in a shoebox

so i got me very own ballot sent in to the election board. let it be known, this is my first vote cast in any sort of official election. So first and for most, thank you Sarah and Ellie for initiating what is sure to be a good laugh and a long cry in the who-knows-when future. let it also be known that NIMM has previously brained stormed this idea aggressively but it included offering first-borns to the winner and was hence decisively scraped. Seeing as you've some how circumnavigated that pitfall precedent, i am now a participant, praise to you.

I won't boast or allude to the accuracy of my vote, but I did have insider information at the casting time.
-and I am right.

with great confidence, i now offer my fir- sorry my bad. This really is a stumbling block in my bartering\negotiating\marriage-voting-prowess

big love,
Nathan H

PS Shout OUT to Micah for being an awesome human friend
SAY WHAT!!- (repeat above line till believer)

NIMM Lounge Summer Special! Retards Only!

Yes, I did it. Enjoy and don't ask questions.

   

Do Grown Ups Still Hug?

One more post before the end of July would be nice, least that's what I thought before I started. A minute ago, I finished a letter to my family and then thought I should write another to the rest of my family. Recently I thought about a club my mom was in when she was a kid called the Pee Wee Five which was club among the Choo sisters. What a cool club I thought, then I realized that HanThatWan is our Pee Wee Five. I'm so grateful to have such amazing, loving, God worshiping friends. And the best part is that you can't grow out of HanThanWan, yay!

So that concludes the orientation for all the new members of HanThatWan... no one new yet?.. New members!!- what a thought

To address the title of this post, yes.

Michael will be post perhaps the strangest post on NIMM yet in a few days/weeks (really up to him, I only helped create the source material). I'm trying to get a song finished to post for late next month.

August will be another transition month for many in HanThatWan: Oahu, full time work, college, full time ministry, (more) patience, new house, trips out of state. Praying for peace in the tussle- and let HanThatWan know if you just need someone to talk to.

Use the comments to update me on what's happening in your life!! I'm quite curious (really quite bored of my own)

big love,
Nathan

The Bareness of a Busy Life

As a little less than one fourth of this endeavor I thought I should at long last get my hands dirty and dive into this quagmire.  Add an L and that works.                                                                           
I love how everything points to God.  Everything is His, and understandably then, screams He is all.  But the first and most important thing in my life has a way of becoming the second thing, then third…  

I’ve never been so busy before in my life.  I spend my hours, when I’m not immobilized by stress and the increasing list of things I need to do, planning, working, studying, and worrying.  

Basically only stressing.  

It began to consume and drain me.  To the point that I finally saw I had nothing and there was nothing to be had living how I was.  I had focused all of me on a phantom, my happiness I drew from idols.  When I could scrape no more from one, I moved on to another.  I traded real joy for what was cheep and easy.  

Imitation chicken nuggets.
I couldn’t find enjoyment in anything.  I wanted to be alone but not to feel so alone.

A worn out shell, an imitation of a great gift, life.  And the only word I could find was tired.  

I was tired.  I felt like crying even.  I had come to the end of me.
And for three days I stayed that way; until at last I saw the lie and wanting lack of peace and joy.  The most important thing I had shifted into the background.  I finally gave up on all the things I had been holding on to; all the little nothings that could never equal something.  I also gave up on the idea that I could even be holding anything.  I just prayed, really.  I hope I have let go.

It’s much easier to see through the mess when your life becomes insensible and translucent.  
God’s voice is loudest in our pain.  Thank goodness He lets us go through both the good and bad.
It’s just been so odd; knowing God is all there is, but then at the same time getting so caught up in things that don’t matter.  It’s scary how easy it is to lose sight and forget.  
I need that reminder.  I put all the worries first and life became a cage.  But don’t worry, I left the zoo.  Actually that means I quit life.  Oh well.  At any rate, I was picked out of the quagmire I had so carefully hand crafted.
Busyness and feeling isolated have way for showing us where we put our faith and the idolatry in our lives.
God isn't the means to an end; He is all.
I hate being a snail, gradually catching on, but I hope to never inch away from these truths.
God is so good.  He has put people in my life who have helped to lay the foundation.
I feel like I’m a child again; slowly learning what I will never fully know on this side of eternity.

“It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"
"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan.
"Are -are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund.
"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Also, 

Happy Fourth of July.  Let me be clearer as to what I really mean.  Happy Birthday, Missingnomer!  

Always remember where your tacos come from.  

Project Hedgehog: SAIL!!

Wha- SAIL!

It is really cool seeing people using the blog! Ahahaha.....ha....

Thanks for Project Otter, bro. The video was the amazing icing on the glorious NIMM Lounge cake. Yup, Isaac, I suppose I can give you your capitalization, however, I still want to hear you and Micah on a podcast! Though, if you find it taxing to make a podcast then by all means, forget about it. I don't want a blemished podcast. You either do it and have a ton of fun or do nothing.

I made a new banner (probably already noticed). I worked on this one since I did my last post. So about two months. I am so very proud of the new updated banner. Good times putting this junk together. Alone. In the middle of the night..... Man.

Hope you guys like it too, no complaints allowed, I don't wanna hear them. And yes, I put a little personal touch on each photo. Nathan with his guitar, Isaac sleeping away, Micah...huehuehuehue, and me with my scarves (yes, I still love scarves). It took me forever to find those blasted photos, never mind the editing! Gah! May Project Otter come to a close with this post.

Project Hedgehog commence! (that means do a stupid podcast or post)

I said I said I said......SAIL!

HanThatWan Summer

well well well- didn't think i'd be so active on NIMM aye. well it just so happened i had nothing to do this saturday so i finished a video. guess getting a job does have so up sides

Please watch the trailer first

TRAILER

Then enjoy the four part feature

FEATURE

then finish PROJECT OTTER


Love y'all

PROJECT OTTER

so i got bored looking at my post. Its stagnation on the blog gave off a wretched odor that my blogging olfactory senses could no longer bear. The revitalization of NIMM will require chronic creativity, thus I offer PROJECT OTTER.  

Now for a quick update on Idaho and I. Things are going better. I feel more useful to my coworkers which may be an idol of mine. Needing prayer that I starting attending a church. Haven't yet gone to one of the few churches here(our selection in includes Baptists, Episcopal, Assembly of God, Nazarene, United Methodist.) I've been tired from lack of sleep. But I'm also really excited for a 1970 road bike I bought from Ebay. 

Back to PROJECT OTTER!! Here's what I'm asking of y'all, my talented brothers. Write one or two verses. Could be prose, poetry, stream-of-babbling, or if your like Michael random hyperbole. Post it in the comments. I'll post mine the comments by the end of the week, if y'all could too then we can start PHASE II of PROJECT OTTER!!

Love y'all
Nathan

PS An even better idea is for each of us to start a PROJECT. Be thinking

PPS Gals you can participate too. just don't destroy us

GoPro or GoHome?

No, that's not why I decided to get a job! GoPro's are cool and all, but would anyone really take a job that would send him to Gooding, ID and then who knows where else just so that he could afford a GoPro? Ridiculous- unless it was to travel back to Hawaii and GoPro his beautiful friend who used to GoPro him viciously, perfectly sane. Watch yourself or I'll be doing it for you someday, Micah.

No, I'm really here so that I can afford a bike and ride the county side on the evenings which are bright till 9!? Weird right(that will be true in a few weeks maybe)

Since last week Friday, I've been a pinch crazy leaving family. So grateful that Dad drove me all the way to ID, 22 hours, all him. It was gorgeous drive through pieces of TX, NM, CO, WY, UT, and ID. Props Pa

This is very similar to starting college freshman stuff. There's not much work(that I can do) and no one is harassing me(all my coworkers and seniors have been nothing but kind), I just get stressed like mad... and may cry a little bit everyday. Especially when I'm driving which would be very dangerous except there's hardly anyone on the road over 60 lbs. No, I mean it- there are lots of kids in the neighborhood playing on the streets and leaving their bikes littered along the roadside. Sweet i tell, i'm getting a toothache just think'n about it.

Now, now, no need for a pity party... cause it's not really a party at all. There's just alot of pity. (joke from Andy of The Office) [I can't just take that it's brilliant, though I did make a "New Zealand Doubles" joke today to my boss that I thought quite witty]

Well that's all I can fluster for now beloveds. Moment of silence for Hyperbolic...........................

Yay!!- joking, I miss that blog already. Let's keep NIMM running strong boys!! Seriously, I like pretending you're in the room when I read your posts. I have individualized sock puppets for each of HanThatWang members and great voices to match, maybe the next podcast could feature some of "you"...

so ya prayers needed. can someone just get married by the end of the year already. do(n't) force me to pull the 'queen' up my sleeve.

Haha,
Nathan

PS laugh through the pain

Having listened to the podcasts (and I'm actually listening to Nathan and Michael right now), I feel like there's not much I can contribute to reach the level of awesomeness attained so far. It makes me miss you guys a lot. I'm just sitting here, my computer on the ping pong table, my phone on my right, my water bottle on the left. For some reason, whenever I drink from my water bottle, there's a weird aftersmell (though not aftertaste) of cockroach. It's kind of gross. I probably should wash it out.

Ugh. I really should wash it.

There are several ideas I had floating around in my head for blog posts, and so I'll just do one for right now (I have another that is written, but it's pretty much just a rant, and another one that isn't written, but is about how romantic relationships suck. I'll do those later). I don't know if this one is actually going to be good enough to earn my capitalization, and I know this is super late... but hopefully there is grace for me.

Okay, here it goes. (Taking another drink of cockroach water.)

Ellie and I were talking the other day about all our camping trips, and as the golden haze of nostalgia was starting to color everything, Ellie pointed that last summer was the last time. Not just “the last time,” but THE LAST TIME.

I hadn't really thought about it before, but nothing will be the same. I mean, we could see each other for our weddings, but that is actually kind of a depressing prospect. As Ellie told me, when one of us gets married, the band is forever broken. Either another person will have to be added into HANTHATWAN, or a person will have to be taken out. And who knows what this future spouse will be like. They could have six fingers, or be a dwarf, or even a giant. But the point is that they will not understand the bond that we have. They will not understand the fire of bromance that burns in our chests. They will not understand that special life-partnership that is not marriage, but is as close as you can get with actually breaking the law. Actually I take that back since they changed that law. But you guys know what I mean.

The point is that we're growing up. Looking at Nathan's graduation pictures stabbed that home just a bit more. We moving away, we're starting our lives, and at some point, we might actually be starting our lives with someone other than our respective bromatic partners. That's kind of scary. It's scary because I don't know what is going to happen, or how it's all going to work out. Or even how we'll keep in touch.

There's a song by Gungor that I really like. The chorus goes, “You have me, you have me, you have my heart completely.” The rest of the song basically says whether we wander to heaven's gates, or make our bed in hell, God is still there. He still has us as we grow up, and move to different states, even if we get married. In all these things, He has us, and He's not letting go. I think there is a lot of comfort in that, even as far as our bromance goes: Even though things will change, God will still be taking care of us, and we will always have that in common. We are brothers. And nothing will change that.

Time to wash my water bottle.

NiMM Podcast Episode #03 - The End Already? Or Am I Just Being Pessimistic? (feat. Nathan and Missingnomer)

This is the third episode! My ego is starting to hurt. For real. This will be my last one for a while. This one was recorded a while back during Spring Break, so the info might be dated. Hope you enjoy it. If you don't, I don't blame you at all. The audio quality and actual Podcast was pretty lackluster. But Nathan and I had a lot of fun that night. So I don't really care. This may or may not be the last Podcast. Honestly, I think I am the only one that really cares, and I am starting to care less and less as time goes on. So! It was fun. But I am bowing out till I see the other members do something. If not, well. So be it.

                                                                                      ~Missingnomer, signing off indefinitely 

NiMM Podcast Episode #02 - Friendships That Are Forged And Refined By Bromance (feat. Micah and Missingnomer)

Ta-dah! Here is the second podcast! Wow. This is actually a thing. This was the second one we recorded on the same night as the first podcast. Since it was my last time staying over at Micah's place we decided to squeeze in two podcasts. Here is the final fruit of our labor on that night. Hopefully I can have another one next month. We will have to wait and see.

I hope you guys enjoy it even more than the last one. I got a lot of positive comments and reactions. That's AWESOME! I need to improve on my editing skills. But this will have to suffice. It is just so much fun putting these together! So keep giving us support and feedback (trust me, we need it). Thank you so much for listening to us idiots! Laugh at us and cry for us. Here is to the hope of more to come!

                                                                                                     ~Missingnomer

NiMM Podcast Episode #01 - The Sadness That Is The Beginning And Possibly The End (feat. Micah and Missingnomer)

Hello my fellow brothers! It is I, Missingnomer. This is the labor of two of the four brave souls that have worked (or who haven't even lifted a finger) to bring you the idiocy that is known as the "NiMM Podcast." Yes, it exists, and YES we will stick to it. This is the first time either of us has done something like this, so it is very exciting and embarrassing. 

Sorry, Listeners, for my horrible voice and speech impediments. I sound like a moose in the first stages of bleeding out. Micah, your voice sounds great. Please continue to help me out with all of the great things we will be doing! Since this is the first of many podcasts I hope this is the worst of them as we get better with our speech and conversation skills. Not only do we have to be interesting to each other, but we now have to sound smooth, talkative, and somewhat witty. Please bear with us as we suck together. I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast. I know we had a blast making it. 

                                                                                                          ~Missingnomer

A Welcome, Followed by a Demonstration

Words can't really express how glad I am we can talk and share over this blog. Forgive me for being a bit clumsy this first post, it's been a while. Though I'm not sure the next time I'll see any of you, reading this will be a time of rekindled feelings and fresh memories... wow that sounded like something on the girl's blog

This is a man's blog. A blog for showboating, gallantry, excessive use of the word "bradda", dog-eared pages, beards, baking soda volcanoes, and tailor-made jokes. There is not time for whimsy, half-made smiles, Instagram filters, sugar-substitute baked goods, and glass Christmas ornaments. Growing older we all realize time is a valued resource. Not bought or sold, but now to be spent on silly and far-fetched blog posts. Be loosed-leafed and tenacious in your posts, not daunted by normal diction and the sneers of those who insist on audible vocalizations of fanciful words, polqifguphal.

With these notions and disputable slurs of text, I welcome the bloggers of NIMM.

We are intrepid,
Nathan CH

PS I'm concocting a suitable pseudonym