Michael Hanscom

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

Government Benefits

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Interesting — according to this questionnaire, I am or may be eligible for the following government programs:

  • Byrd Honors Scholarships
  • Community Food and Nutrition Program
  • Community Services Block Grant
  • EMI Independent Study Program
  • Emergency Food Assistance Program (Food Commodities)
  • Federal Direct Student Loans
  • Federal Work-Study
  • Grants for Public Works and Economic Development Facilities
  • Immigration and Naturalization Service
  • International: Overseas Group Projects Abroad
  • National Ocean Service Intern Program
  • Perkins Student Loans
  • Preventative Health and Health Services Block Grant
  • Property Improvement Loan Insurance (HUD/FHA)
  • Social Services Block Grant
  • Stafford Loans for Students

Now to just investigate these and see what all that actually means.

iTunes “Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix) (1998, 52:53).

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

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I was going to put up a lot of links to discussion about Jon Stewart’s recent appearance on Crossfire — but then Safari crashed (it’s rare, but not unheard of) and I lost all the tabs I had open.

However, on the off chance you haven’t heard about or seen this yet, you really should watch the video.

We need more people like Stewart on the airwaves.

iTunes “Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Urbal Beats Vol. 2: The Classics (full mix) (1998, 52:53).

Seattle Storm victory rally

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Seattle Storm victory rally, Westlake Plaza, Seattle, WAAs I walked out of the building for lunch today, I heard some sort of big ruckus going on down towards Westlake Center. Being fond of ruckuses (ruckusi?) in general, I made a quick run back to the apartment to grab my camera, and then went back towards Westlake.

Turns out that there was a rally going on celebrating the Seattle Storm‘s recent WNBA championship win.

Now, I’m no big fan of sports in general, but it was fun to wander around the rally for a while. Local cover band The Hit Explosion was playing a surprisingly good set of 70’s disco and funk (amusingly, I think they played just about the entire Muppets From Space soundtrack), so the background music was quite bearable, and it was a fairly welcome break from the usual day-to-day routine.

Some photos from the day are in this flickr photoset, as usual.

Green Glass Turtles

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While I’ve met Ted and Julie Leung and their daughters a couple times at local weblogger gatherings, for one reason or another, their sites never found their way into my newsreader — I’m not quite sure why, but that was the case. A couple coincidences this morning (Paul Beard linking to a post of Julie’s, then adding randomseattle to my Flickr contacts, which then led me to both Ted and Julie on Flickr) prompted me to finally fix that oversight.

While I was catching up on Julie’s posts, I found out that she’s set up a photoblog for her daughters, and it became a sweet way to start my day, looking at the world through their eyes for a few minutes. As I’m still getting used to this whole getting up at 6am routine, I don’t often start my mornings off with a smile, but chipmunks, unicorns, and purple snakes sure did it for me today.

iTunes “Forest, A (Tree)” by Cure, The from the album Mixed Up (1990, 6:56).

Different companies, different standards

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One of the few disadvantages of my current job situation is that I’m bound by the rules and regulations of the company I work for, rather than those of the company I work at (the print shop is a contracted deal, where my company has an on-site shop that does the internal print needs for a local telecommunications company).

I just spent a few minutes chatting with a gentleman sporting a denim Utilikilt, one of seven that he owns (one for every day of the week). Unfortunately, while the company I’m working at obviously has no problem with kilts in the workplace, the company I work for is far more strict with their dress code.

I actually looked into the official company dress code when I first got my kilt, and while the corporate policy merely states “black slacks or skirt”, regional and district managers have the authority to fine-tune the dress code policies, and our district manager has decreed black slacks across the board (and thus preventing any possible discrimination charges).

A shame, really, but that’s just the way it is. Someday I’ll manage to land myself a dream job (good hours, good pay, something I enjoy, and a decent dress code), but until then…well, the bills do need to get paid.

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Analysis saying Kerry won?

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I’m not entirely caught up with the post-debate threads that made it into my newsreader last night and this morning, but according to a couple posts from Kos last night, I may have been too pessimistic in my debate wrap-up — people seem to be giving Kerry a definite win.

The Scorer’s Table unenthusiastically reports this bout as going to Senator John Kerry by 12 rounds to 4, with 5 rounds even. On individual points, Senator Kerry is awarded a net total of 19 points, and President Bush a net of 2, having undermined his own effort with no less than eight points subtracted, three of them in a disastrous 12th Round in which the President had to be told time was up, answered a question with, in essence, ‘all of the above,’ and stumbled by inadvertently criticizing himself by claiming the borders of Texas were tighter than they’d been when he was Governor there. He also lost points for having twice invoked the 2000 election, and for once having given back at least a minute of time when the question hadn’t really been answered.

So — final tally 3-0 for Kerry? Not bad, not bad at all.

iTunes “Download” by Skinny Puppy from the album Last Rights (1992, 11:01).

Shots of Gig’s Music Theatre

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Gigs, Anchorage, AK Continuing in my little bout of nostalgia for my days running around at Gig’s, tonight I get to present a set of shots from the club, taken roughly between 1997 and 1998 or so.

There are actually a lot more pictures than just these in the pile that I just discovered, however, I’m holding off on posting them just yet, as they’re a lot of old pictures of my group of friends from back then. Possibly eventually, but for now, this will do.

Some shots of the building, and some shots of a few of the bands that played there from time to time. Most of these shots were given to me by clubgoers at a point when I was working on the Gig’s website.

Anyway, feel free to browse and enjoy — some of you might even be able to join me in my nostalgia! ;)

Presidential Debate #3

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Almost time for tonight’s Presidential debate, the last of this election season’s round. Will Bush actually look like a President? Or, more likely, will we get to see him stumble and fall yet again?

As before, I’ll be watching on C-SPAN, and will update this post with my usual random babbling after the debate’s done with.

Read more

Kill Switch…Click

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Y’know what I’d like to see in tonight’s debate? I’d love it if the moderator had a “kill switch” for the candidate’s microphones, so if Bush tried to railroad a statement through (as he did in the last debate), the moderator could just turn him off.

Considering how he flew off the handle last time when the moderator was already planning on letting him have rebuttal time, can you imagine how furious he’d get if he was actually penalized for breaking the rules of the debate? I’d bet we’d see a real Presidential-quality tempertantrum if that happened. Heck, I’d pay good money to see that happen.

Registered to vote? Are you sure?

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You might want to double-check your voter registration if you live in the Las Vegas area (and possibly somewhere in Oregon, also), as one RNC-funded organization has been destroying Democratic voter registration applications.

Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.

Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.

The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.

[…]

Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

“We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me,” said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.

Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.

[…]

The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.

(via BOPNews)