Michael Hanscom

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

Bumbershoot 2004 lineup

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The Bumbershoot 2004 lineup has been announced. Sweet. Quite a few big names catch my eye and will be fun to see, but I’m also looking forward to discovering a few new acts that I might not have heard of otherwise (I find at least one or two more each year).

Just calling out a few that catch my interest…

Friday: The Clumsy Lovers

Saturday: Seal, Nancy Sinatra, Robyn Hitchcock

Sunday: Public Enemy

Monday: The Pixies, Toots and the Maytals (Kevin just played some of their stuff for me on his way through last weekend), Critters Buggin’

Not as many “must see” acts as there have been in the past few years for me, all in all. In fact, the only one to really make me sit up and get excited was Public Enemy. Still, it’s certainly not a bad initial list of possibilities, and as I said before, it’s the unexpected discoveries that can be the most fun.

iTunes: “Pine Effect” by µ-Ziq from the album In Pine Effect (1995, 4:51).

Noah Avery Hanscom

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Many, many congratulations to Kevin, Emily — and Noah Avery Hanscom!

Noah Avery Hanscom was born this morning, the Feast of Sts. Helier, Plechtelm, and/or Steven Harding Tenenan, at 3:56 AM (Memphis time), weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. Emily and Noah are doing well, and Noah, so far, in his less than a day outside of his mother, seems to have his father’s laid back attitude toward life.

Yay!

iTunes: “Happy Birthday” by Concrete Blonde from the album Free (1989, 2:22).

Yawn

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While I’m sure it wouldn’t be that bad if I did this every day, when I’m used to closing the store down at 9pm and going to bed around 2am, getting up at 5am to open the store in the morning — especially after working the usual closing shift the night before — is not very fun.

What kind of hyperactive overachiever needs to make copies at 7 in the verschluggin morning anyway? Don’t you people sleep?

Okay. Just had to get that out of my system. On the bright side, I’ll be bustin’ out of here at 3 in the afternoon today, which isn’t entirely bad, even if all I’m going to want to do when I get home is take a nap.

Mac OS X Panther Hacks

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I just wanted to toss out a quick congratulations to Phil, who with the release of O’Reilly’s Mac OS X Panther Hacks, is now officially a published (co-)author!

I haven’t even managed to wrangle my infamy into that particular accolade. ;)

iTunes: “Life In Ecstacy (Long Dong)” by Trust in 6 from the album Techno-Trax Vol. 1 (1991, 6:37).

In the not very distant future…

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One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Ave, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the US Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.”

The old man said, “Okay” and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same US Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”

The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it,”

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”

(via amberglow)

I’m (almost) an uncle!

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Last weekend I got to hang out with by brother on his way down to Oregon, where he’s looking for job and housing possibilities for an upcoming move to Corvallis, where his wife will be going to school. The plan was for us to hang out this weekend too, on his way back to Mississippi — but all that just changed.

Emily started labor last night, and so Kevin just called to let me know that he’s flying back to Mississippi to be there for the birth of his baby! Apparently things are still early in the process — the hospital sent Em home last night after she went in — so chances are good that Kev will be able to be there for the birth.

I’m about to be an uncle. Pretty cool, huh?

iTunes: “Block Rockin’ Beats” by Chemical Brothers, The from the album MTV’s Amp (1997, 5:00).

Photographers Protest at the Ballard Locks

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How wonderful. I can’t claim total inspiration for this, as all I did was point to the article regarding Ian Spiers’ run-in with Homeland Security while photographing the Ballard Locks, which brought it to the attention of Myk O’Leary of Life, it is a Travesty. After reading that article, however, Myk is organizing a peaceful protest at the Ballard Locks.

In response, I will be trying to organize a photo shoot at the Locks as a means of protest. Anyone else who cares about our rights as Americans to photograph interseting PUBLIC subjects are welcome to join me. If you are a photographer in Seattle, please consider coming.

If you are hesitant (and this is fair given what already happened) at least pass this on to others you know who may want to come along. Feel free to post the link to any and all boards that may have folks who would come (I’ll be posting to dpchallenge in just a few minutes after this post goes live.)

DETAILS: Sunday August 1st, 2004 1PM – 4PM We’ll meet at the front gates at just before 1PM, if you’re late, just look for the gaggle of tripods inside the property by the locks.

I’ll do my best to be there. Thanks, Myk.

iTunes: “Ya Mama” by Fatboy Slim from the album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000, 5:38).

Men and Sex

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From Dr. Joyce Brothers — how much do you know about men and sex?

True or False:

  1. There are at least two spots on a man’s sex organs where you can see proof that all men start out as females.
  2. Unlike women, men never fake orgasms. It simply can’t be done.
  3. There is actually a scientific reason why men sometimes roll over and go to sleep right after sex.
  4. At every age, men daydream and fantasize about sex more than women do.
  5. Men don’t really have sexual peaks at any one time of day.
  6. Men who masturbate after marriage sometimes feel guilty.
  7. Men and women both tend to have the strongest and longest orgasms after a period of abstinence.
  8. Men expect women to fake an orgasm most of the time.

Read more

The TSA: Security, or petty thieves?

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Fellow weblogger John Hoke had an interesting experience with the TSA yesterday while flying from LaGuardia to Dulles…

One screener asked to manually inspect one of my bags, knowing that I had nothing in it that was prohibited based on the TSA’s own site I allowed the search. This inspector found a lighter that I was given by my step daughter for our first Father’s Day together. It was a cigar lighter that did not run on Liquid Fuel, but gas. (Unabsorbed Liquid fueled lighters are prohibited based on the above PDF). He looked at it and exclaimed, “Wow I have always wanted one like this”. Then proceeded to tell me that he had to confiscate my lighter.

I calmly explained that it was not on the list of items that are prohibited on his own Department’s website. He replied he was allowed to use his judgement (what little of that there apparently is) and he was confiscating it. I requested to speak with his supervisor as he was not wearing any TSA identification, no name badge, not badge at all.

The supervisor came over and the screener was confiscating it, end of story. Tried to be helpful in that unhelpful supervisory way.

…I will be writing (and posting here) a letter to the TSA, even though I was told by the supervisor “Go ahead and complain, there is nothing you can do to us.”

Seems to me that this is pretty simple — petty thievery, compounded with harassment and the overbearing attitude that any amount of power will instill upon the small-minded. More and more, the TSA seems to be less concerned with actually providing any amount of security, merely using the power they’ve been granted to harass, humiliate, and steal from anyone coming through the gates of the airports. Sad.

And on a semi-related note, who comes up with these lists of what can and can’t be admitted on the airplanes? My mom came through Seattle on her way Florida from Anchorage a couple of months ago, and I was flabbergasted to see that she was allowed to bring her knitting needles on the airplane. Sure, “knitting needles” sounds innocuous enough — but these were two six-inch long metal spikes connected by an approximately eighteen inch metal wire. Two stabbing implements and a very effective garrote, in other words, should someone choose to use them as such. Yet these are allowed? Just bizarre.

Just watch what you take on the planes these days, folks — and hope you arrive at your destination with everything you left with.

iTunes: “Genauso Wie Ich (Future Pop)” by Beborn Beton from the album Tales From Another World (1994, 5:55).

Google to me in eight clicks

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Meme time, started by A Whole Lotta Nothing, and being tracked by Kottke: how many clicks to get from Google’s homepage to your website without using the search box?

For me, it’s eight.

  1. Google »
  2. More »
  3. Blogger »
  4. Knowledge »
  5. Working With Blogger »
  6. How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog »
  7. Seattle Times: Microsoft Fires Worker Over Weblog »
  8. eclecticism