Michael Hanscom

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

🎥 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023): ⭐️⭐️

Having now watched the purported fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, the best thing I can say about it is how glad I am that, much like Star Wars, the creators knew that they could never recapture the magic and success of the originals and never tried to make anything beyond the original trilogy. (Highlander also falls into this category, though it had a single self-contained story rather than a trilogy.)

Too long (that did not need to be a nearly three-hour movie, and tightening it down to right around two hours would have helped the pacing greatly), not nearly the humor of the originals, and felt very much like it was made due to cynical studio greed in an effort to pander to Gen X-ers rather than out of any real love for the franchise or strong belief in having a good story.

Really, the best thing about this is that I now know that when I get around to upgrading my Indiana Jones DVDs to Blu-Ray or 4K, I can just get the trilogy films individually and not bother with any sort of full collection box set. Might save me a little money that way.

Year 50 Day 235

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Me (masked) in a grocery store, with a confused expression and holding two cartons of Darigold egg nog, one labeled 'classic' and one labeled 'old fashioned'.

Day 235: Classic vs. Old Fashioned: What’s the difference? Seriously, I haven’t got a clue — aside from different names with essentially the same meaning, they appear to be identical, even down to the marketing copy on the side of the carton (though I’ll admit, I didn’t do a line-by-line check of the ingredients). I ended up choosing by which one had the most forgiving expiration date.

📚 Storm Front by Jim Butcher

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71/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

According to my reading history, I read this 13 years ago. I have no memory of this, even while reading it this time; and after reading it, I’m not terribly surprised that I don’t remember it. Not that it’s bad, it’s just…not really my thing, I guess? I’ve enjoyed urban fantasy, and noir, and noir urban fantasy, so I don’t think it’s the parts, but they’re not summing up as well as they have in other books I’ve read. It was entertaining enough that I’ll likely read at least another one or two in the series to see how it progresses; this is a first book, after all, and the series has gone on long enough and has enough fans that there’s a chance I’ll find later installments more engaging.

Me holding Storm Front on my iPad.

Year 50 Day 233

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Me in my office at work, standing next to a door jamb decorated with a series of National Park style postcards advertising various places in the solar system. I’m wearing a black short-sleeve button-up shirt with holiday gifts, Santa hats, gingerbread people, candy canes, mittens, hot chocolate mugs, and snowflakes.

Day 233: Pre-holiday-break week work shirt number three: Holiday gifts, Santa hats, gingerbread people, candy canes, mittens, hot chocolate mugs, and snowflakes.

Year 50 Day 230

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Me standing in front of a couple bookcases filled with books. A Lego sailing ship and ship-in-a-bottle are on display on top of the shelves.

Day 230: Thankfully, feeling much better today. Still a little more tired than usual, and I was glad it was a work from home day, but not feeling the body ache or complete lack of energy I did yesterday. Vaccinated is far better than not, but I’m glad it’ll be a few months before I have to do this again, and that the shingles series is a one-time thing, not annual!

📚 Debtors’ Planet by W.R. Thompson

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70/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one surprised me in good ways. I wasn’t optimistic at first, with its focus on Ferengi, who can be annoying (especially in the pre-Quark days), and with it bringing back an (intentionally) annoying character from the show. But it handled both of these elements surprisingly well; the primary Ferengi antagonist is a little more thoughtful than most of the era, and the returning character is actually given some depth and is able to use his traits and quirks in ways that advance the story. Add in some amusing Worf/Riker bits and Wesley actually being treated like a worthwhile character as he forms a friendship with an alien ensign, and this (notwithstanding some confusion over how the Federation handles money and an “offscreen” sexual assault that wasn’t really necessary) is definitely an above average entry in the series.

Me holding Debtors' Planet

Year 50 Day 229

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Me sitting in our living room with a slightly pained smile on my face.

Day 229: Shingles vaccine effects update: Oh, damn. Ow.

So, normally I’m what my wife has termed an “insensitive mutant”. When it’s time to get my annual flu or (now) Covid shot, I show up, get poked, and go along with life. I rarely even have much arm soreness to deal with.

This time, though? Uff. I got the vaccines yesterday at about 3 p.m. (both Covid and shingles), and though I definitely felt the shingles shot going in and got the arm soreness, other than that, I felt fine through the rest of the day until bedtime.

This morning we woke up about 6 a.m., and I still felt fine. I commented to my wife that I didn’t trust that, though, given what I’d heard from other people…and I’m glad I went that route instead of crowing about my insensitive mutant status.

We went through our morning and headed off for our grocery shopping rounds, and by 9 a.m. I was definitely feeling some generalized all-over body ache. Nothing too severe, just a general sense of discomfort — I compared it to the Monday after convention weekend and feeling the effects of barely stopping moving for four days. Uncomfortable, but bearable.

But by the time we got home, put the groceries away, noon rolled around and we had lunch, the aches had just kept going, and suddenly all energy just disappeared. Since my wife was also feeling the effects of her vaccinations (flu and Covid), we decided it was nap time, crawled into bed, and promptly passed out for a couple hours.

Post-nap, we’re both still achy and exhausted, so initial dinner plans, which actually involved cooking, have been put on hold in favor of ordering good Indian delivery.

And I can no longer claim to be an insensitive mutant. (At least, not all the time.) Harrumph.