Michael Hanscom

Enthusiastic ambivert. Geeky, liberal, friendly, curious, hopepunk; trying to be a good person. (he/him)
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He’d spent hours staring at the paper on his desk. The longer this took, the more clear it was: the most difficult part wasn’t the tubes in his arms that pumped blood into the quill in his hand, but figuring out just what to say. The former was far less painful than the latter.

On This Day: Nov 11

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 23 posts previously published on November 11th

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • He’d spent hours staring at the paper on his desk. The longer this took, the more clear it was: the most difficult part wasn’t the tubes in his arms that pumped blood into the quill in his hand, but figuring out just what to say. The former was far less painful than the latter. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 11 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 11 ➡
  • 2019
    • Floating above the planet, tethered to the shuttle as he worked, was one of his favorite places to be. At least it was until he felt the first tentative touch of something on his arm,  pulling him away from his station—and knew it was inside his suit. Microblogvember: touch ➡
  • 2017
  • 2016
    • We had a weekend in Spokane planned…but then the election happened, and we just couldn’t countenance spending pleasure time on the red side of the state. So here we are in Port Townsend, surrounded by green (trees) and literal (water) and metaphorical (voters) blue. Much more comfortable. (316/366) ➡
  • 2010
    • On Normality Being normal is probably the lamest thing you can try to be. ➡
    • Unpopular Questions So, folks, which is it? Do we decry the censorship of ideas that are unpopular, or do we celebrate the censorship of ideas that are unpopular? ➡
  • 2008
  • 2007
    • The Nerd Handbook While as with any broad overview of a particular genus or species, there is plenty of room for small or even large variations at the individual level, this field guide to understanding the common nerd should be required reading for many, many people, especially those involved with, living with, dating, or parenting nerds (also most varieties of dork or geek). ➡
  • 2005
    • Reconnecting Touched off by a couple of random Google searches, over the past couple of weeks, a post of mine has become an impromptu meeting point and simple message board for quite a few of the Anchorage scenesters of the '80's. ➡
  • 2004
    • Voltaire at the Vogue Just a few quick impressions, because it's way past my bedtime on a weeknight (and having to say that before it's even 1am is so depressing…). ➡
    • The United Cities of America Do not despair. You don't have to leave. You don't have to move to Canada. You may feel out of place in the United States today. You may feel like you're surrounded by fundamentalist-church-going, gun-hugging, gay-bashing, anti-choice Bush voters. But you're not. ➡
    • The Cannon I'd never heard of Sarah Vowell, the voice of Violet Parr in The Incredibles, before I started to read the various reviews of the film once it opened. Turns out she's a writer and radio personality, which is how her voice caught director Brad Bird's ear when he heard her story about her father's cannon on This American Life. ➡
  • 2003
    • The other night I…oh, hi mom! I already know that Mom reads my weblog, and by now, she should be quite aware that I occasionally imbibe alcohol, I experimented with drugs for a few years, and that I take every single one of my multitudes of daily sexual encounters with random strangers very seriously, and not casually at all. ➡
    • Two out of three ain't bad! In Singapore, prostitution is legal, the age of consent is 16 — but oral sex is illegal. ➡
    • Supreme Court looks at Guantánamo Setting the stage for a historic clash between presidential and judicial authority in a time of military conflict, the Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether prisoners at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are entitled to access to civilian courts to challenge their open-ended detention. ➡
    • Theodicy survey Well, just think about it this way. All power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. ➡
by

The elderly woman was always at the same spot at the corner, sitting on a bench and watching people go by, and she always had a smile for him. She was so familiar that it was decades before he started to wonder that she hadn’t died—or even aged as far as he could tell.

On This Day: Nov 10

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 17 posts previously published on November 10th

  • 2024
    • Mad Max 🎥: ⭐️⭐️: In today's franchises, it would be the origin story that no-one really asked for but the studio felt compelled to make. ➡
  • 2023
    • 🎥 Asteroid City I don’t always entirely _get_ Wes Anderson’s films, but I invariably enjoy watching them. ➡
    • Year 50 Day 192 Since we had the day off today, we decided to make it a movie day. ➡
  • 2020
    • The elderly woman was always at the same spot at the corner, sitting on a bench and watching people go by, and she always had a smile for him. She was so familiar that it was decades before he started to wonder that she hadn’t died—or even aged as far as he could tell. ➡
    • I Guess I Just Expected a Little More from This Country: “How could a people that had to be explicitly told not to eat Tide Pods be so short-sighted? Or are some things simply beyond explanation?” ➡
    • Toolkit for Supporting GA US Senate Races – Jan 2021 (FEEL FREE TO SHARE!): “This doc is a volunteer-generated effort by Ana Diaz-Hernandez. Follow her on Twitter at @anadzhz. Ana is originally from South GA and wants to help folks from out of state plug in to help.” ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 10 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 10 ➡
  • 2019
    • Perky and bubbly as ever, the real estate agent opened the door and ushered them in, exclaiming as he did that, “you’ll be amazed at the space in this one!” He watched them fall into the void until they were out of sight, then carefully locked the door. Microblogvember: space ➡
  • 2016
    • Not a good day. Nothing more. (315/366) ➡
  • 2010
  • 2008
    • 2008 Puyallup Fair It took a while, but I finally got my photos from the Puyallup Fair processed and uploaded. Prairie and I went on a whim late in the summer, and had a really good day wandering around the fairgrounds. We didn't go on any rides, but did play some of the carny games, got some cotton candy, looked at exhibits, and had a _blast_ watching the Mutton Bustin'! ➡
  • 2007
    • Tideland Tideland is one of the most bizarre and disturbing films I've seen in a long time. Terry Gilliam certainly isn't getting any more normal as the years go by. ➡
  • 2004
    • From the vaults I've been playing with HTML for quite a few years now. Every so often over the years, I've actually been bright enough to make a quick copy of my website and archive it. Tonight, in a mad burst of misplaced nostalgia, I pulled them all out of the digital dustbin and have put them back online. ➡
  • 2003
    • iTMS = IotY …for finally finding a middle ground between the foot-dragging record labels and the free-for-all digital pirates and for creating a bandwagon onto which its competitors immediately jumped, Apple's iTunes Music Store is Time's Coolest Invention of 2003. ➡
    • Traditional Christian marriage The consecration of Gene Robison as bishop of the New Hampshire Diocese of the Episcopal Church is an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that the church's founder, Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine of Aragon, and his wife Anne Boleyn, and his wife Jane Seymour, and his wife Anne of Cleves, and his wife Katherine Howard, and his wife Catherine Parr are no longer here to suffer through this assault on traditional Christian marriage. ➡
    • Klienfelters Syndrome While for most people these days, any discussion of men with breasts will immediately lead to quotes from Fight Club, it's a very real medical condition called Klienfelters Syndrome. ➡
  • 2001
    • Just dropping in My monitors are here! It's still going to be a few days before I'm online more regularly from the looks of it -- but at least they're here. ➡
by

The old house stood abandoned at the end of the street, slowly decaying as the years passed. The only signs of life were the sickly grayish weeds that would force their way up through cracks in the boards, covering and engulfing everything except the bodies seated at the table.

On This Day: Nov 9

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 28 posts previously published on November 9th

  • 2025
  • 2023
  • 2020
    • The old house stood abandoned at the end of the street, slowly decaying as the years passed. The only signs of life were the sickly grayish weeds that would force their way up through cracks in the boards, covering and engulfing everything except the bodies seated at the table. ➡
    • U.S. election maps are wildly misleading, so this designer fixed them: A nice background piece on the viral “land doesn’t vote, people do” animation switching between a standard county-by-county electoral map and one with points sized by population. ➡
    • Black People Repudiated Trump Like He Was a Piece of Used Gum: It’s time for centrist Democrats to stop whining about Black Lives Matters protests and start recognizing that Black voters literally saved the election. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 9 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 9 ➡
  • 2019
    • They had always hated the cold, growing up. Thick clothes and as many layers as possible defined the winter months. But now, as they felt the heat of the overworked reactor move through the ship, they actually looked forward to feeling the cold of space. Microblogvember: cold ➡
  • 2018
    • Book forty-four of 2018: The Romulan Stratagem, by Robert Greenberger. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
    • Linkdump for October 2nd through November 9th An automatically generated list of links that caught my eye between October 2nd and November 9th. ➡
    • Bringing Optimism Back to Star Trek This quote from Michael Chabon, writer of the just-released Short Treks episode Calypso, about his work on the in-development Picard series, gives me a lot of hope for that series. ➡
    • The first Short Trek, focusing on Tilly, was cute and funny, but had too many plot holes to really stand up. But this month’s, Calypso, is much better. Plus, as its writer, Michael Chabon, is part of the team behind the in-development Picard series, I’m more optimistic about that one when it appears. ➡
  • 2017
    • Happy Thursnesday! :) ➡
  • 2016
    • Spent much of the day in a jumble of the various stages of grief, I think. Pretty sure I’ve settled on anger. Acceptance can kiss right off. (314/366) ➡
  • 2010
    • Drama-Free Facebook Leave it to the kids to figure out how to make Facebook as safe, secure, and drama-free as possible. ➡
  • 2007
    • $8,000 for Wrongful Detention of Photographer An amateur photographer who was taken into custody last year after shooting pictures of two Seattle police officers making an arrest on a public street received an $8,000 settlement this week. ➡
  • 2006
    • Jumping Ship? ...if, while moving over to my new digs, I were to take advantage of the one-click WordPress installation offered by Dreamhost and finally dip my toes in waters other than those of Movable Type, are there any pieces of advice I should know about? ➡
  • 2005
    • Lost s02e06: Abandoned Scribbled notes while watching tonight's episode of Lost. Spoilers, obviously, so only read further if you want to... ➡
    • Lots of Pictures I've spent much of the afternoon and evening continuing to work on scanning in old photos that I've had lying jumbled up in various boxes. Quite a few have been scanned in and uploaded to my Flickr account. ➡
    • Who’s going to die tonight? A few weeks ago, after the promo for tonight's episode of Lost promised that, 'one of these survivors will be lost forever,' I put a poll up (both here and on my LiveJournal) to see who people thought was going to be the unlucky party. Here's the results... ➡
  • 2004
    • Schrödinger’s Arafat I hinted at this in one of my linklog posts last week, but this whole situation with Arafat keeps reminding me of the Schrödinger's Cat quantum mechanics paradox. Maybe he's dead, maybe he's alive. Nobody seems to really know, and nobody wants to open the box to find out. ➡
    • Voltaire at the Vogue tomorrow Just a heads-up for anyone who might be in the area and interested: Voltaire will be playing at the Vogue tomorrow night, along with The Arid Sea. ➡
    • Delicious Library Ars Technica has a great review of Delicious Library, the new book/movie/music/game cataloguing software from Delicious Monster. I've downloaded the demo and have started to poke around with it…so far, quite enjoying what I see. ➡
    • P2P: Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece In the summer of 1990, just after my junior year of high school, I was accepted into the People to People program as a 'student ambassador' and got to go on a six-week trip across Europe. Starting with a few days in Washington, D.C., we travelled through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, and Greece. ➡
    • Brad Bird Like the Brothers Grimm, Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak, Brad Bird knows that kids can handle some tough concepts, and he never insults the intelligence of his audience. The greatest children's entertainment has always been challenging and sometimes difficult. But those are the books, films and shows that transcend pop culture to become timeless classics. ➡
  • 2003
    • Feed of the day Nifty — I have no idea what the selection criteria is (quality? frequency? content? entirely random?) but it seems that I'm being highlighted as 'Feed of the day' on Feedster. So…hello to all of you who wander my way! ➡
    • Employment is a good thing Oh, by the way...starting Tuesday, I'm working again. ➡
    • Taking cues from Reagan Much as I may dislike Rumsfeld (along with the rest of the Bush administration), I always figured he at least had some amount of intelligence. But this latest 'I didn't say that' spiel is nothing short of ludicrous… ➡
  • 2001