Michael Hanscom

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

Vacation time!

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In something of a minor miracle, I’m actually managing to plan something three months in advance — rather amazing, considering I’m usually lucky if I plan something three hours in advance.

I received notice a few weeks ago that my friends Marc and Laura are going to be getting married this year, on Saturday, the 11th of September (apparently, when making reservations Laura was asked why they chose that particular date, and it was all she could do not to blurt out, “Because we’re a couple of SICK TWISTED FUCKS!!” — I do love my friends…). Seeing as how I’d actually like to be there for this event, if for no other reason to see whether the earth cracks open and swallows them both whole for daring to upset the order of nature in such a way, it seemed like it would be a good time to look into planning a vacation.

Plus, there are a couple of other important dates in that general area — specifically, my friend Erika’s birthday is the 12th, and my dad‘s birthday is the 15th.

So, I’ve requested and been approved for a week off of work (paid, even, hooray for vacation time!). I don’t have actual airline tickets yet, since this is rent week, but that will come as soon as possible (gotta take advantage of the cheap airfares, after all). The current (rough, but probably close to accurate) plan is as follows:

Friday, Sept. 10th: swap shifts at work to work 10am-6pm or so. Get off work, head straight to the airport, and catch a 9-ish flight up to Anchorage. Get picked up (I hope) by either family or friends, crash out somewhere for the night.

Saturday, Sept. 11th: see my friends get hitched. Harass Marc for ordering a kilt to wear at his wedding, but then chickening out and not wearing it properly (at least, that’s what Laura has told me the current plan is…).

Sunday, Sept. 12th: celebrate Erika’s birthday. Take her out somewhere, get her nicely toasty, try to take advantage of her, and get shot down in flames (all in fun, though).

Monday, Sept. 13th / Tuesday, Sept. 14th: bum around, see friends and family.

Wednesday, Sept. 15th: celebrate dad’s birthday. No drunken debauchery this time, though. That’s just icky.

Thursday, Sept. 16th – Saturday, Sept. 18th: bum around, see friends and family.

Sunday, Sept. 19th: fly back home and return to the day-to-day drudgery of normal, non-vacation life.

I am so looking forward to this. I haven’t had a real vacation in years — generally, my other visits have been rather hasty, fit-it-in-over-a-weekend deals with a lot of running around, but very little actual relaxing involved. This should be far, far better.

iTunes: “Let It All Come Out” by Giblin, John/Simple Minds from the album Street Fighting Years (1989, 4:56).

Suggestions: Good candidate overview sites?

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A conversation this morning…

D: i have a question

Me: i’ve got an answer
let’s see if they match

D: part of my reluctance to vote or even spend the time educating myself in preparation to vote is my assumption that the election comes down to the electoral college, thus making the public vote essentially worthless. true or false?

Me: there were times when I’d have agreed — I’m no big fan of the electoral college system — but if nothing else, the 2000 situation in Florida should (to me, at least) make it clear that the public vote does count…it’s what determines who gets the electoral votes, after all

D: ok, so tell me how the public vote affectes the electoral process

Me: lol this always makes my brain hurt…but I’ll give it a shot

D: hheheh

Me: each state has X number of electoral votes, determined by population
the popular vote determines how the electoral votes are cast
if the majority of a state votes Dem, the electoral votes are cast for the Dem nominee
(which is one of the reasons I’m not a fan – I’d prefer it if the electoral votes were split roughly by how the popular vote went…so, if a state voted 2/3 Rep and 1/3 Dem, the electoral votes would also be 2/3 Rep and 1/3 Dem, rather than all Rep)

D: ahh

Me: some states might split the electoral votes already, in fact – I think some do, but i’m not entirely sure
It’s a goofy system, but it’s the one we’ve got
and sitting it out…well, no personal offense, but I have no respect for people who voluntarily give up their right to have a say – my feeling has always been that if you don’t vote, you’ve got no right to bitch about the outcome

D: oh, i agree. while i might (and sometimes do) complain about how bush is an idiot, i have no right to do so since i didn’t vote for or against him

Me: lol (though I do like that you do bitch — means there’s more of a chance of your voting against him come november (which you should (dammit (grin)))) lol

D: LOL

Me: was that enough parenthesis?

D: very nice

Me: ty
if you’re really bored, I could look up some of my old soapbox rants about voting lol
i grew up in Alaska, where in many very real ways, my vote didn’t count
never stopped me, though

D: perhaps one day i’ll get informed and vote
maybe even this year
w’ll see

Me: you should

D: i know i don’t want bush in office again, but i don’t want to vote for just anyone, either
if you can find me a site that lays it all out in a clear, concise manner, i’ll read through it all and see if i can’t decide which person i feel would do the best job in office

Me: hmmm…not sure if there’s any one particular site…i’ll see what i can come up with, though

D: :)

Me: actually, mind if I blog this?

D: nope

Me: might be the easiest way…put out a call for suggestions

So, folks. Any suggestions for my friend?

If I were to move anywhere…

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…I often think it would be San Francisco.

First they give the gay marriage movement a rousing kick-start — now a San Francisco judge has ruled Bush’s recent ban on abortions unconstitutional.

A federal judge Tuesday declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional, saying the measure infringes on a woman’s right to choose.

The ruling applies to the nation’s 900 or so Planned Parenthood clinics and their doctors, who perform roughly half of all abortions in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton’s ruling came in one of three lawsuits challenging the legislation President Bush signed last year.

“The act poses an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose an abortion,” she wrote.

Now, I’m not planning on moving anywhere anytime soon. But I can certainly think of worse places to go, if I were to get the wandering bug.

iTunes: “Ave Maria (Walz That Noys)” by Noys from the album Radikal Techno Vol. 2 (1992, 5:22).

Most naturally beautiful women

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A “panel of experts” (beauty and fashion editors, make-up artists, model agencies and photographers) has just released a list of the top 100 most naturally beautiful women. Here’s the top 10, in reverse order (just pretend the numbers count from 10 to 1 instead of from 1 to 10, HTML can’t do reverse-ordered lists [why not, dammit?]…oh, and the links are to Google Image Searches, and may not be worksafe):

  1. Elle MacPherson
  2. Helena Christensen
  3. Halle Berry
  4. Juliette Binoche
  5. Natalie Imbruglia
  6. Grace Kelly
  7. Angelina Jolie
  8. Cate Blanchett
  9. Liv Tyler
  10. Audrey Hepburn

I don’t agree with all of the list (Liv Tyler at #2?), was pleasantly surprised at some of it (hooray for putting Cate Blanchett in the top ten — while I’ve often thought that she’s gorgeous, she has a somewhat odd [angular?] look that some people I’ve talked to don’t appreciate as much), but putting Audrey Hepburn in the number one spot?

That is so, so, so absolutely perfect.

(Swoon…)

Personally, though, I’d knock Liv entirely off the top ten and put Nicole Kidman in her place. Part of what caught my eye about this story, though, was seeing it posted on Fark. Each link submitted to Fark gets a small category tag associated with it — “amusing”, “asinine”, “boobies”, and the like — and the tag assigned to this story was “unlikely”.

Unlikely?

My lord.

Reading the comments on Fark, I was quite gratified to learn that I wasn’t the only person to take umbrage at that “unlikely” tag…

(leans out of van, grabs poster by lapels, pulls him into van)

Okay, nodog, drive, drive!!

(turns to poster)

Just shut up and don’t scream and you’re going to be okay.

(lights cigarette)

Lissen, you. My friends and I just wanted to take you for a little ride so you could clear your head.

Now what exactly is your problem with Audrey Hepburn?

(smacks poster)

Hey! Don’t you f*ckin’ turn away from me when I ask you a question! I said, WHAT IS YOUR F*CKING PROBLEM WITH AUDREY HEPBURN?

(looks at poster)

What, are you going to cry now? You scaaared?

Well, you should be scared. Running around town with no taste whatsoever, you gonna get in big trouble someday, punk.

(draws on cigarette)

How old are you, kid? 30, 31? Don’t you know anything?

You dare sit there and badmouth Audrey and what do you bring to the table, huh?

(searches pockets of poster, looks at what he’s found)

This is your ideal of a beautiful woman? BRITNEY F*CKING SPEARS? And what’s this? ARIA GIOVANNI? What are you, f*cking ten?

Listen, I’m going to tell you once, so you listen good. Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Kim Novak. Before you were a f*cking squirt on a towel these women ruled the earth. Raquel Welch, Grace Kelly. GRACE F*CKING KELLY.

You get me? Don’t you ever–and I mean ever–bring your taste for dried up, pre-fabbed, over-hyped, no-talent, unattractive coozes around here again.

(flicks cigarette in poster’s face)

Now get the f*ck out of here before i do something you regret.

(throws him out of the moving van).

— LarsThorwald

iTunes: “Earth Chakra” by Azukx from the album Return to the Source: The Chakra Journey (1996, 8:21).

More on the Monorail fire

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Earlier today, I linked to a breaking story about a fire on the Seattle Monorail — at the time, it was only an hour old — in my linklog.

Now that I’m home, I took some time to go through the various stories on the local news sites: KOMO’s story has been updated, plus KING5, an AP story printed verbatim in both the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI (I found it quite odd that the two competing local papers, rather than doing their own reporting, ran the identical AP story), plus one from CNN that Prairie pointed out.

Sounds like quite the freaky event, there — and, unfortunately, one certain to be hounded upon by the anti-monorail crowd in town, especially combined with two monorail stalls earlier in the year. (Ahem, and ahem.) Me, I’m somewhat amazed that there are as few problems as there are, considering how much mileage is put on those trains!

Amusingly enough, while talking with Prairie about the stories, where her reaction was to be a little freaked out and quite glad she wasn’t around, my first reaction was, “Well, no-one got hurt. Wish I’d been there with my camera!”

I’m such a boy sometimes.

iTunes: “Starsign” by Apoptygma Berzerk from the album Welcome to Earth (2000, 5:35).

Memorial Day

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To dad, any of my relatives living or deceased that served, and to all those serving now…

Thanks.

And now, while the rest of you enjoy your holiday — I’m off to work.

Whee.

Can Bush do anything but lie?

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The Washington Post takes a look at the slew of false advertising coming out of the Bush administration:

It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine.

Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry “has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all” and said the senator from Massachusetts “promised to repeal most of the Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office.”

On Tuesday, President Bush’s campaign began airing an ad saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt terrorists.

The same day, the Bush campaign charged in a memo sent to reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents.

On Wednesday and Thursday, as Kerry campaigned in Seattle, he was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes education changes that he supported in 2001.

The charges were all tough, serious — and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than \$200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.

Of course, as Tom Schaller points out on Daily Kos, it would be pretty damn difficult for Bush to run any campaign ads that actually told the truth about what he’s done for this country.

iTunes: “Ship Song, The” by Concrete Blonde from the album Still in Hollywood (1992, 4:20).

On motivating your actors

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While filming the new Harry Potter film:

…during filming, when [director Alfonzo] Cuaron needed [Daniel] Radcliffe to convey the proper look of astonishment, he took his young charge aside and coached: “Pretend you’re seeing Cameron Diaz in a G-string.” (Cuaron: “It worked. I’ll let audiences guess what shot it is. I don’t want everyone thinking about Cameron Diaz in a G-string.”)

iTunes: “Dance or Die” by Dance or Die from the album German Mystic Sound Sampler Vol. II (1989, 4:05).

Bush displays Saddam’s gun as trophy

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Bill Clinton got his rocks off in the Oval Office and lied about it to the American people. He [nearly]{.underline} got impeached.

George Bush got his rocks off in Iraq and lied about it to the American people. He got a souvenir.

A handgun that Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. forces captured him in a hole in Iraq last December is now kept by President Bush at the White House, Time magazine reported Sunday.

[…]

Bush shows Saddam’s gun to select visitors, telling them it is unloaded, both now and when Saddam was captured, Time reported.

“He really liked showing it off,” Time quoted a visitor who had seen the gun as saying. “He was really proud of it.”

Sick and wrong.

(via Daily Kos, with thanks to 60s Reloaded for the initial 2-line summary)

Folklife 2004

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A few shots from wandering around the Folklife festival at Seattle Center today, since our “mostly cloudy” day soon turned into “mostly sunny” and it seemed like a good way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Folklife 2004 #1

Gold old down-home Americana — The Kitchen Syncopation.

Folklife 2004 #2

What’s quickly becoming a cliché in my photo subjects: children playing in the International Fountain.

Folklife 2004 #3

Two little girls learning how to dance (or if not actually learning, having a lot of fun doing their best).

Folklife 2004 #4

He was just sitting on the bench, watching the world go by. I’m guessing his owner was somewhere in the vicinity.

Folklife 2004 #5

Lots of creatively dressed punk/alternative teens were collected on the lawn by the International Fountain.

Folklife 2004 #6

And one last “playing in the fountain” photo to wind things up.