Michael Hanscom

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

First Timer

by

Good night last night. My friend Richard is in town for a week, vacationing from Anchorage, and I met him outside the Vogue just a little after 9pm. We hung out outside for a few minutes until Valindria came out, harassed me (I didn’t realize she was there already, so we had been waiting for her to show up), and we headed in. She’d brought Ross, a gaming friend of hers, so the four of us settled in at the table closest to the entrance.

I always have fun introducing someone to the Vogue for the first time, as I always end up stepping back a bit mentally and trying to look at the club from an ‘outsider’s’ point of view. At one point, I just started laughing a little bit, Valindria asked what was up, and I had to take a moment to try and explain that I wasn’t really laughing at anything — rather, I was just enjoying the club itself. The dark club, good music, pretty people, seeing the colored lights flash across the face of a pretty brunette in a full-length black vinyl dress, my arm around Valindria as she stood next to me, watching Richard dance (and then proceed to come back to the table and half-seriously bitch because he hasn’t been out dancing to decent music in far too long)…I just love the club, the atmosphere, and the friends I have there.

It’s a good thing.

Eventually we all wandered off (aah, the joys of working at 8am) — Valindria and Ross a little after 11pm, Richard and I just a bit before midnight — and now the week begins again.

Richard and I have plans to hang out today after I get off of work. We’ll probably wander around downtown Seattle for a bit and see some of the sights that are within easy walking distance, do general catch-up and all (and if we’re lucky, this fog may lift enough to actually see some of the city by then…though, of course, the sun will have gone down by then, so we’ll just have to see what happens). Should be fun to play tourist for a while.

iTunes “We Are Free” by Doof from the album Return to the Source: Deep Trance and Ritual Beats (1995, 7:19).

Four More Years of…

by

Last night, while I was standing outside the front door of the Vogue to cool off and get some air, there were a couple guy standing around and chatting with Ogre (the doorman). Talk had turned to the election, and various doomsday scenarios were being bandied about. One of the guys was laying out possibilities for World War Three, the subject of moving to Canada came up, all the usual stuff. As they were chatting, a group of people coming into the club overheard them and tossed a few equally cheery opinions of their own out.

Ogre looked around at everyone, leaned back against the wall of the club, and said, “You know what I’m not looking forward to?”

“Four more years of listening to this!”

I think I’m in the same boat right now.

iTunes “Casino (Solid State)” by Eckart, Tommi from the album Run Lola Run (1998, 5:44).

Star Wars Episode 3 Trailer

by

This conversation between Prairie and I pretty much sums it all up.

Me: oooh – you’re so not going to care about this — and I really shouldn’t, either — but the first trailer for Star Wars Ep. 3 came out today
Me: (laughs)

Prairie: giggles
Prairie: oh… how… wonderful…

Me: i sat and watched it, knowing that I shouldn’t care, but…dammit…it’s Star Wars, and Lucas still makes it look like Star Wars
Me: lol
Me: even when I know the movie’s probably going to suck, it’s got the music, and the space ships, and lightsabers, and Darth Vader…and…garggh!

Prairie: haha–just keep reminding yourself that it’s only pseudo-Star Wars

Me: and then I had to remind myself that the last two sucked
Me: and I really didn’t need to go buy them to complete the collection

Prairie: aww! I promise not to make too much fun of you if you go to see it
Prairie: although if you go twice I’ll probably mock you brutally

Me: :laughs

Prairie: you definitely don’t need to buy the whole collection
Prairie: (hides your wallet just in case)

Me: (sighs)
Me: i know
Me: but…
Me: (whine)
Me: lol

Prairie: no!
Prairie: not REALLY Star Wars
Prairie: no matter how much it might LOOK like it is

Me: yeah

Prairie: (steers you in a different direction)
Prairie: (takes the new trailer away from you)

Me: my brain knows that
Me: the fanboy in me that grew up with the movies and still loves the space battles and cool aliens and laser swords and all that is still having difficulties accepting that, though

Prairie: (distracts you while a team of hypnotists goes to work on the part of your brain that still thinks there’s a chance that the new movie will be good)

Me: :laughs

Prairie: I’m in favor of watching the old ones as often as you want
Prairie: but unless a miracle occurs and the last of the new ones is good, I hope never to see those

Me: ah, well
Me: i’ll have to see it once

Prairie: just ’cause you’ve gotta know Prairie: (and ’cause you’re braver than I)

So, here you are, if you’re as masochistic as I am — the Star Wars Episode III trailer (Star Wars Episode III trailer).

(via Ryan)

iTunes “Main Theme from Star Wars” by Williams, John from the album Sony Classical: Great Performances 1903-1998 (1990, 5:53).

IQ redux

by

Almost a month ago, I signed up for the free StatCounter statistics tracking service, and I’ve been checking in every few days to see what kind of traffic I’m getting on my site.

From the 11th to the 31st of October, I’d been averaging around 1,333 page loads per day, with 1,090 unique visitors, 1,022 first-time visitors, and 68 returning visitors (keep in mind, those are all averages). Not anywhere near the top of the ‘net, but not terribly shabby, either.

Then, over the past few days, I’ve suddenly been watching my traffic start to spike, topping out (so far) yesterday at 2,757 page loads…

Graph Daily Summary

A little curious about what was causing the spike, I checked out my referrers and search terms. Turns out that the majority of the spike is caused by people searching for information on how states voted combined with the state’s average IQ, which first started going around the ‘net back in May regarding the 2000 elections. The table that was flying around the ‘net was later declared a hoax, but apparently the meme is still fairly popular, and a lot of people have been landing on my post because of that.

Turns out that someone has actually updated the table for the 2004 election — though they’re using the same data for the IQ, so I’m sure the table is just as faulty for this election as it was for the 2000 election. As it still seems to be amusing people, though, I added a quick update to my original post noting the new table (and calling attention to the fact that it’s a hoax, though most people probably won’t care about that), and in the meantime, I’ll just enjoy the upswing in traffic.

iTunes “Tripnotized Vol. 1 (Part 1) (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Tripnotized Vol. 1 (full mix) (1995, 1:11:25).

Works for me…

by

From Mickey:

Had a realization about what bugs me about an awful lot of horror with the “vanity kills” moral to it. Usually the girl (almost always a girl) is being harassed by her male significant other about how she’d look better if she lost a few pounds, had bigger tits, etc… She decides to do something stupid (not unlike a lot of girls in real life) and has horrible retribution visited upon her for her(?) sin of vanity.

Just once I’d like to see the psycho killer show up, hand the girl an entire Sara Lee cheesecake and say, “Eat up. I’ll go take care of the asshole for you.”

iTunes “Damned for All Time/Blood Money” by Brox, Victor/Head, Murray/Keith, Brian/Choir from the album Jesus Christ Superstar (1970, 5:08).

Red vs. Blue

by

The problem with the typical “red vs. blue” map of how states voted is that while it accurately represents the final casting of each state’s electoral votes, it doesn’t accurately represent how each state actually voted on the individual level. Here’s a map created by Jeff Culver that colors each state according to the proportion of votes each candidate got.

Purple USA

(via Boing Boing)

Update: here’s a map that sticks to the usual red/blue, but breaks it down by county rather than by state.

(via Dave)

Update: Yet another map, this time combining the two above, to give a county-by-county shading.

(via MeFi)

iTunes “Groove Radio pres. House (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Groove Radio pres. House (full mix) (1997, 1:13:46).

Editorial commentary

by

I don’t know how long this will last — probably not very long, but as of right now if you go to this page, right click on the image of George and Laura Bush and save it to your desktop, you’ll get an amusing suprise…

…the filename of the image is ‘asshole.jpg’!

Bushhole

Forgive the crudeness of the above screenshot composite (I’m no graphic artist), but just in case this disappears, I had to save the moment for posterity. Click on the image for a full-size version.

Seems someone in either CNN or Netscape isn’t too thrilled with the election turnout.

Good for them.

(originally discovered by Jonas, passed on to me by Jeannie)

Guest post from Prairie

by

An excerpt from an e-mail from Prairie this morning that she’s granted me permission to post:

I think my biggest fear now is that all of the momentum that was built before the election will vanish now.  People will become apathetic.  “What’s the use of trying–there isn’t anything I can do.” The post on your website from the guy saying we should support the president terrifies me.

If we don’t continue to protest with every breath, to fight with every weapon granted to us, if we decide it’s a lost cause and surrender, we will be the cause of the downfall of at least the country, if not the world. There is no way that a country so divided can continue in the manner in which our country is trying to function.  The potential that was once possible for our country is vanishing before out eyes, and unless we fight with all our strength, it will disappear before most people even realize it’s gone, never to be retrieved, into an abyss so deep and so permanent that that wonderful potential will never be recovered.

To surrender, to blindly support someone just because he is the president, is the equivalent of saying we don’t care about the future.  “Damn all of those who may come in the future.  I’m going to offer support for policies I know are wrong, for policies I know are hurting people, just because I’m too afraid, too ignorant to stand up to authority.”  We cannot allow this to happen, and yet I fear that we will.

People will go back to believing that their votes don’t count, that they are helpless to fight the oppression they see coming, that they have to support the president just because he’s the president.  Will we allow ourselves to be led like sheep toward hatred and fear?

I won’t. I’ll go out fighting in whatever way I can.

iTunes “Rusty Nails” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Rusty Nails (1994, 1:04:04).

Looking forward

by

Josh Marshall:

This isn’t 1964 or 1972 or 1980. This wans’t a blow-out or a repudiation. It was close to a tie — unfortunately, on the other guy’s side. Let’s not put our heads in the sand but let’s also not get knocked of our game. Democrats need to think critically and seriously about why this didn’t turn out 51% for Kerry or 55% for Kerry….

Take time to feel the desolation and disappointment. But I remain confident that time is not on the side of the kind of values and politics that President Bush represents. It took conservatives two decades to build up the institutional muscle they have today. Though I was always nervous about the result, I thought we could win this election. But it was always naive to believe that that sort of institutional heft could be put together in 24 or 36 months.

President Bush and the Republicans now control the entire national government, even more surely now than they have over the last four years. They do so on the basis of garnering the votes of 51% or 52% of the population. But they will use that power as though there were no opposition at all. That needs to be countered.

Leave today for disappointment. Tomorrow, think over which of these various groups and organizations you think has made the best start toward what I’ve described above, go to their website, and give money or volunteer. After that, okay sure, take a few more days for disappointment, maybe a few more weeks. But this takes time. And you shouldn’t lose heart. The same division in the country remains, the same stalemate. The other side just got the the ball a yard or two into our side of the field rather than the reverse. And we have to deal with the serious consequences of that. Tomorrow’s the day to start.