Michael Hanscom

Enthusiastic ambivert. Geeky, liberal, friendly, curious, hopepunk; trying to be a good person. (he/him)
by

Maybe not the most exciting way to spend an afternoon, but at least the weather is nice so I can wait outside comfortably.

On This Day: Oct 29

by

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 26 posts previously published on October 29th

  • 2023
  • 2021
    • Achievement Unlocked: New job acquired! After five years in the corporate tech world, I'm coming back to higher education — as of December 1, I will be the Program Manager for Accessible Technology at Highline College! ➡
  • 2020
    • 🖖 Discovery S03E03: The ship travels to a planet only to find itself caught between two warring factions, and they must try to convince both sides to stand down and find a resolution. This may be one of the most “Star Trek”-y Discovery episodes yet, and it pulled it off. Plus lots of good character ... Read more ➡
    • Maybe not the most exciting way to spend an afternoon, but at least the weather is nice so I can wait outside comfortably. ➡
    • On This Day: Oct 29 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from October 29 ➡
  • 2019
  • 2017
    • The misty fog makes for perfect Halloween spiderwebs this morning. ➡
  • 2016
    • Me and my inspiration for my costume. :) #lego #goth #emo #spooky #halloween #halloweencostume ➡
    • Happy Halloween from a sad little Lego goth boy! 👻💀🎃🕸 (303/366) #halloween #costume #halloweencostume #lego #goth #emo #spooky ➡
    • While getting ready for bed, I noticed I’d gotten a souvenir from Frank N. Furter, who sat on my lap during part of “I’m Going Home” and kissed my cheek as he moved on. 💋 #rhps #rockyhorrorpictureshow #lettherebelips ➡
  • 2013
    • Death of a Furby I've always felt a weird sort of guilty glee at my role in the (temporary) psychological torture and murder of a poor, innocent Furby. ➡
  • 2008
  • 2004
    • I’ve voted! Thanks to the joy and convenience of voting by mail, I've just filled out my ballot, and will be dropping it in the mail momentarily. For the record, my votes on two of the most important issues that I've been watching over the past few months: Kerry/Edwards for President and No on I-83. ➡
    • Time to Vote Want to vote on Tuesday, but don't think you'll have the time? Think again — thirty states have laws giving workers the right to take time off to vote. ➡
  • 2003
    • Are you on the blacklist? The NRA has a 19-page 'blacklist' of groups, associations, companies and individuals known to support gun control legislation posted on their website. Feeling left out 'cause you're not on it? Sign up to be added! ➡
    • More E-voting issues The security breaches and known vulnerabilities of the current E-voting systems make it clear that in their present state, they cannot be trusted — and I, for one, would greatly prefer it if I could be sure that my vote in 2004 goes to the candidate I intend it to. ➡
    • Automatic defrag in Panther Everytime an application opens a file for reading, HFS+ checks if the file is fragmented and is less than 20MB in size. If so, it copies the file's contents to a continuous region on the disk and frees up the previously allocated blocks. ➡
    • I always knew she was evil! New from Mattel, just in time for Halloween — Secret Spells Barbie! ➡
    • Two days to Halloween… …and I still don't have a costume. Maybe I should go as Bill Gates? ;) ➡
    • Fifteen minutes of fame Another major followup post, answering questions about my experiences over the past couple days -- Slashdotting and all! ➡
    • Yikes! Oh my lord -- I've been slashdotted. ➡
  • 2002
    • Remember the 80’s? I just took the 80's Purity Test. It's weighted a bit more towards 'girl stuff' (lots of questions about wearing scrunchies and jelly shoes and the like), but I still didn't do too badly. ➡
    • Renovation is fun! Oh, now this could get interesting. Our building just started undergoing renovation — new carpets and paint in the hallways, a few new units being put in, upgrades to the heating system (I think), things like that. A minor pain, but nothing too bad, right? ➡
  • 2001
    • Quotes: OS X, iPod The iPod certainly got a lot of attention when I showed it to people, including a Windows guy named Bill Gates. He spun the wheel, checked out the menus on the display screen and seemed to get it immediately. 'It looks like a great product,' he said. And then he added, incredulous, 'It's only for Macintosh?' ➡
    • One very cool weekend Apparently I have a second cousin who had a meeting scheduled in the World Trade Center on September 11th. He had to duck a fair amount of falling masonry and other debris, but he managed to get out of the area, and is apparently doing well. ➡
by

Have a couple hours to kill this Saturday before the evening revelries? Join my DJ alter-ego for Spüki Tünes with DJ Wüdi on Halloween Afternün!

1 p.m. (Pacific time) on my Twitch channel. Old classics, newer goofiness, and some stuff I just thought would fit in.

On This Day: Oct 28

by

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 October 28th

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021
    • 📚 40/2021: Boogeymen by Mel Gilden ⭐️⭐️ 🖖🏻 ➡
  • 2020
    • Have a couple hours to kill this Saturday before the evening revelries? Join my DJ alter-ego for Spüki Tünes with DJ Wüdi on Halloween Afternün! 1 p.m. (Pacific time) on my Twitch channel. Old classics, newer goofiness, and some stuff I just thought would fit in. ➡
    • Difficult Listening Hour 2020.10.27 Week thirty-one of my unplanned, unrehearsed, seat-of-the-pants goofing around. ➡
    • On This Day: Oct 28 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from October 28 ➡
  • 2016
    • Don’t dream it…be it! #rhps #rockyhorrorpictureshow ➡
    • Rather pleasantly surprised that my insurance company offers AD&D insurance. That’ll be handy if I decide to do a dungeon crawl! 😄 #adnd #advanceddungeonsanddragons #dungeonsanddragons #dnd #idontknowwhatthatactuallymeans ➡
    • Happy to see these #culturenotcostume posters by @cwudiversity get put up on campus. A little bummed they just showed up today, Oct. 28th, when many costumes will have been made/purchased already, and on a Friday, when my building is nearly deserted. Much better than nothing at all, though! ➡
    • Tumblr encouraged me to “take a spooky selfie” today, and this was the overlay it provided. I guess I’m spooky now? This is silly. (302/366) ➡
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2005
    • OpinionOutpost Apology Last June, I got a comment on my site that as far as I could tell was comment spam advertising a site called Opinion Outpost. Not being a fan of that style of advertising, I posted about it. Yesterday, I actually got an apology from the person who originally left the comment that started it all. ➡
    • More family photos A couple of months ago, Prairie and I drove down to join my parents at my brother's house in Corvallis, OR for a weekend. Dad's just uploaded his pictures of the trip, and two in particular caught my eye. ➡
  • 2004
    • Prognostication You know, back in 2000 a Republican friend of mine warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. ➡
    • 2004’s Scariest Halloween Costumes On my way back to work from lunch I passed one of The Stranger's distribution boxes, paused a moment to check out this week's cover — and probably startled a couple of the people around me when I burst out laughing at the cover photo. ➡
    • Wishlist: Bank transaction RSS feed Just something that popped into my head. I want a daily update from my bank via authenticated RSS feed. Are there any banks (especially in the Seattle area) that offer this as part of their online banking? ➡
  • 2003
    • Thank you! Many thanks to all of you who've passed on words of encouragement. Here's some answers to a few of the questions that have been brought up over all this. ➡
  • 2002
    • George Whatever the cause, the effect was an animal more purely and innately demonic than any other that I've ever run across, or would care to run across in the future. ➡
by

📚 forty-three (yes, again; this book was a two-in-one) of 2020: Collision Course by Robert Silverberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shaky first half, but the latter half actually reminded me of TOS Star Trek’s “Errand of Mercy” (two warring races forced into detente by a third more powerful race).

On This Day: Oct 27

by

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 19 posts previously published on October 27th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
    • 📚 forty-three (yes, again; this book was a two-in-one) of 2020: Collision Course by Robert Silverberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Shaky first half, but the latter half actually reminded me of TOS Star Trek’s “Errand of Mercy” (two warring races forced into detente by a third more powerful race). ➡
    • On This Day: Oct 27 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from October 27 ➡
  • 2016
    • In the lobby of CWU’s music building before tonight’s Halloween concert (which was very good and a lot of fun). (301/366) ➡
    • Hey, CMK: You’re not cool or a rebel, just a childish jerk. #cwu #ellensburg ➡
  • 2011
    • Occupy the Vote. Make a Difference. #occupythevote Yes, protests are important. Yes, we need to make our voices heard. But we also need to remember that shouting in the streets _isn't_ the only way to make our voices heard. Fill out your ballot. Put it in the mail. Put it in a drop box. If you don't live somewhere where you can vote by mail, then take the hour out of your day to go to the polls. #occupythevote ➡
  • 2008
  • 2005
    • America’s Next Muppet I'm not sure what I got more excited about -- the fact that there's a Muppet-centric weblog that I just discovered, or that the Muppets may be coming back to TV! ➡
    • Frappr I've created a Frappr group for Eclecticism readers...feel free to drop by and add yourself to the map. I'd love to get an idea of just how widespread my readers are! ➡
  • 2004
    • Happy Anniversary One year ago today, I lost my job because of a photo I took, and began my fifteen minutes of fame. My, how time flies. ➡
    • Lunar eclipse, Seattle, WA After finding out about tonight's eclipse earlier today, I started wondering if I could get any halfway decent shots of it. Since the camera I'm using allows longer exposures (up to eight seconds), I figured it'd be worth a shot. ➡
    • Lunar Eclipse tonight John reminded me that there's a lunar eclipse tonight. If the skies stay as clear as they are right now, I may climb up to the roof of my apartment building and see if I can get any decent pictures. In the meantime, I present this handy-dandy guide to eclipse terminology. ➡
  • 2003
    • Of blogging and unemployment And that simply, as of about 2pm today, I once again joined the ranks of the unemployed. ➡
    • Nothing to see here…move along… The White House is excluding Google and other search engines from indexing any whitehouse.gov page with 'iraq' in the address. Can't go making real information easy to find, now can we? ➡
    • Gene Robinson under FBI guard The lengths that people will go to in their homophobia in the name of religion is really scary. Bishop-elect Gene Robinson is currently under 24-hour FBI protection due to death threats. ➡
  • 2002
    • Small updates Finally grabbed some time to do some small updates to the site I'd been meaning to do for a while now. ➡

On This Day: Oct 26

by

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 20 posts previously published on October 26th

  • 2025
  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021
    • The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in MS-DOS: The Oscar winning screenwriter of ‘Dune’ writes in an MS-DOS program that can only hold 40 pages in memory. ➡
  • 2020
    • Even though they’re parked on the moon, Kent-built Apollo Lunar Rovers are now Historic State Landmarks These high-tech electric buggies were used in Apollo Missions 15, 16 and 17 in 1971 and 1972, and helped astronauts explore more of the Moon’s surface. ➡
    • On This Day: Oct 26 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from October 26 ➡
  • 2016
    • Love the streets here in the fall. Also glad I don’t have to clean up those leaves. (300/366) ➡
    • Forgot yesterday’s photo, so here’s my Snapchat filter as penance! ;) (299/366) ➡
  • 2006
    • Time to Move For the past couple years, this weblog has been hosted through the kindness and generosity of Michael at Rain City Story. However, he's decided it's time for him to move on to other projects in his life, so it's time for me to start investigating other hosting options. ➡
  • 2004
    • Eminem: Mosh I've never been a fan of Eminem. I tend to find his music boring, and his lyrics violent, misogynistic, homophobic, and offensive. That said…hot damn this video is a powerful piece of work. ➡
    • iPod Photo It's time to upgrade my iPod. Too bad I'm broke. (sigh) ➡
    • You’ve gotta be kidding me Who comes up with these headlines? Damn near made me spew my drink all over the computer screen. ➡
  • 2003
    • Ash to ash, dust to dust The stories posted of people coming out to find ash covering everything do sound very familiar, though — only for me, it was due to volcanoes. ➡
    • Bush's plans to expand the Patriot Act President Bush doesn't think the current Patriot Act is good enough. In an attempt to 'close loopholes' in the original legislation, he's proposed three very frightning changes. ➡
    • Panther goodies Lots of interesting tips and tricks for Panther are showing up on the web now that it's been out a few days. Some of the niftier ones I've run across so far: ➡
    • Bush in Oz While it's certainly no surprise, apparently Bush's visit was heavily stage managed to make sure he got the most possible accolades, and the fewest possible questions… ➡
    • Kill Bill, Vol. 1 I'm going to keep my comments here fairly brief, as this is only the first part of a two-part story. So, briefly, first impressions of the first half of Kill Bill… ➡
    • Ooooh…spooky! Seeing as how we've found our way into Halloween week, I thought I'd find some appropriate colors for the week. Enjoy! ➡
  • 2001

On This Day: Oct 25

by

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 18 posts previously published on October 25th

  • 2023
  • 2021
    • This is really clever, and I’m totally on board: What if every film Keanu Reeves has starred in is actually just Neo in another iteration of the Matrix? ➡
    • The Muslimness of Dune: A Close Reading of “Appendix II: The Religion of Dune”: “Dune does not cheaply plagiarize from Muslim histories, ideas, and practices, but actively engages with them.” ➡
    • Dune’s Not a White Savior Narrative. But It’s Complicated. | by Haris Durrani: “Do you think Dune is a white savior narrative? Well, you’re wrong. To accept that interpretation is to re-inscribe an account of the novel promulgated by adolescent white boys since the first of Frank Herbert’s Dune books came out in the 1960s.” ➡
  • 2020
  • 2008
  • 2005
    • Autumn in the Arboretum There are some gorgeous colors in the fall in the Seattle Arboretum...as well as some rather odd wildlife. ➡
  • 2004
    • The Topfree 10 In the lawsuit, the Topfree 10 points out that the only legal means to expose female breasts is for the gratification of others, not for a woman's comfort. ➡
    • Book Meme Reading preferences, meme-style. ➡
    • I just don’t get it. How anyone can claim to care about the state of affairs in the country, but not care enough to vote, is beyond me. ➡
    • Why are we in Iraq again? 21 reasons for war with Iraq, by 10 key players, circa September 2001 through October 2002 via a study by University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign student Devon Largio (now graduated). ➡
  • 2003
    • Fall back… Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight! ;) ➡
    • Bubba Ho-Tep On a whim for something silly and fun, Prairie and I went out and saw Bubba Ho-Tep today. It was exactly what we were in the mood for. ➡
  • 2002
  • 2001
    • Job frustrations 6/17/05: My lord...Microsoft canned me for a photo, but this post slipped right by Xerox? I got _really_ lucky. In retrospect, a really stupid thing to post publicly. ➡
    • O Brother, Where Art Thou? Incidentally, now I'm going to have to find Down from the Mountain', which apparently is available both on CD and DVD. Hmmm...Christmas is coming up pretty soon... ➡
    • Enterprise: Terra Nova If I can't make first contact with a group of humans...I don't deserve to be on this ship. ➡

On This Day: Oct 24

by

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 19 posts previously published on October 24th

  • 2023
  • 2021
    • 📚 39/2021: R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2020
  • 2016
    • Having another moment of amusement at the slowly increasing grey in my beard. (297/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Giant dragon! #chineselanternfestival ➡
    • Spokane Falls. Now to climb back up the path I took to get down here… ➡
    • At the bottom of Spokane Falls (well, as far as is publicly accessible, at least). ➡
    • Run, runner! #logansrun #carousel #renew ➡
    • Spokane Falls. ➡
    • Seen on the ceiling of the men’s restroom at the Satellite Diner. Made me laugh. ➡
    • The Radio Flyer Wagon/slide, also from last night. #latergram ➡
    • Sunset along the river as we walked to dinner last night. #latergram ➡
  • 2014
    • The temporary setup as data transfers to the new machine. Two 27″ iMacs and one 20″ second screen take a lot of desk space! ➡
    • This seemed like the right shirt to wear while setting up my new iMac. ;) #applehipster ➡
  • 2003
    • Metadata is a good thing While I've played with it a bit, I don't see myself becoming a big user of the iTunes Music Store for one very simple reason — their metadata doesn't meet my standards. ➡
  • 2002
    • Breaking news: something happened Now, this breaking news. Something has reportedly happened. Details are sketchy, and we really don't have any idea of what it might be, but let's show these impressive aerial shots from our helicopter. Now let's go to our correspondent in the field to tell us that he doesn't know anything. Bob? ➡
    • A reminder You are an arteest, and no longer have time for things like cooking and grocery shopping and laundry. Start demanding favors and treats from friends and loved ones now. That way they'll be fully acclimated to the new you once November rolls around. ➡
  • 2001
    • Wild phlebotomists loose in the building! Downsides to having a tattoo barely a year old -- from what I understand, I can't give blood for another year. I'm sure they'll be fine, though, they had willing volunteers in the chairs already. ➡
    • For a wonderfully surreal time ...pop in the new Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD, set the audio track to French (or maybe just mute it if you actually speak French), and turn on the 'subtitles for people who hate the film.' ➡