Michael Hanscom

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

Scooby-Doo

by

I just got back from seeing Scooby-Doo. It was a mildly entertaining way to waste a couple hours when I had nothing to do, but I can’t really say much more than that about it.

Plotwise — well, it’s Scooby-Doo — not exactly a subject known for its in-depth plots. The effects were passable, but barely. I was a little surprised at some of the more adult-aimed humor that was tossed in — enough that I got a giggle (or at least a smirk) from time to time, but not enough that most parents would have problems taking their kids to see it.

I can say that while most of the cast didn’t really impress me, I was really surprised with Matthew Lillard as Shaggy — he became Shaggy just as much as I thought Hugh Jackman did as Wolverine in X-Men.

All in all — well, a rental if you’re curious, but I can’t give it much more than that.

I’m alive!

by

I do exist! Really, I do…

I’ve just been more or less ignoring things here for a little while. No real reason — it’s just that there hasn’t been a whole lot going on. I’ve been spending a lot of time playing with music and hanging out in the chatrooms, which — unfortunately — means some of my other pet projects have been getting short shrift. This should be changing, though….

Good ruling, bad timing

by

Okay — so the Pledge of Allegiance has been ruled unconstitutional, and everyone in the country seems to be up in arms over it.

My take on the whole thing? Good ruling, bad timing. I happen to think that the ruling is quite correct — for a country that is supposed to have a Constitutionally-mandated seperation of church and state, the two words “under God” in the Pledge have always stood out to me as being a bit inappropriate. Of course, when you realize that those two words were added in 1954 as a counter to similar pledges being recited by the “godless commies” during the Cold War, it becomes even more obvious that it was a deliberate blurring of that speration between church and state.

However, I don’t think that the ruling is going to stand. In today’s political climate, with both patriotism and religious fervor running high due to the (ahem) “War on Terrorism”, I just don’t think that even the Supreme Court (should the case make it that high) will have the will to uphold this ruling. A shame, too — no matter my personal religious beliefs, I fully support the decision that was made here.

Simplest solution? Why not just take the words “under God” out of the Pledge?

I know most of these

by

Here’s a fun little read — someone’s made a list of the top 40 gay themes, compiled not (necessarily) by popularity, but by the songs themselves and their relationship to the gay world. More interesting and less campy than I expected at first.

(via MeFi)

Political compass

by

Here’s an interesting online test — a Political Compass that adds a vertical Authoritarian/Libertarian line to the traditional horizontal Left/Right line and uses a series of questions to map out your political position. I ended up with a score of -6.12/-5.90, which puts me in the same rough area as Ghandi, from the looks of it. Here’s the analysis, though they recommend that you take the test before reading it.

(via Rebecca Blood)

I’m back! Really! I’m here!

by

I got back in Monday night, I’ve just been too caught up in either resting or getting life as usual going again down here to have tossed anything up on the page for the past couple days.

I’ll get a more detailed post up soon — in the meantime, I’ve uploaded some pictures of the trip: James and Stacy’s wedding, the post-wedding relaxation, the Pride parade, and having fun at The Last Frontier with some of my friends from the Alaska chatroom in Yahoo! Chat the pictures that used to be on my .mac server have since come down.

Enjoy!

St. Patrick’s Gargoyle

by

Dad loaned me St. Patrick’s Gargoyle last time I was in Anchorage, and it was exactly what he described it to me as being — an enjoyable little piece of fluff, basically. Using the concept that some of the Gargoyles we see on churches and buildings are actually angels assigned to Earth, Katherine Kurtz creates an entertaining little mystery story with a touch of light theology thrown in here and there. Not a lot to it — I read the entire thing between Anchorage and Seattle — but a fun little read.

Off to Anchorage

by

Well, Laura’s here, and we’ll be heading off to take me to the airport in the near future here. Then it’s off to Anchorage, to visit friends and see James and Stacy get married — woohoo!

If I manage to get any further posts up over the weekend, they’ll be from way up north somewhere….