Michael Hanscom

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

Quicker archiving, twins, frustration

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Seeing as how I’m actually starting to update this thing on a more regular basis — and given my tendency for loquaciousness — I figured I’d drop the archiving settings down to weekly, instead of every two weeks, so that this page didn’t just keep scrolling on and on and on and on and on…. I also removed the link to the old hand-generated archive pages (from before I started using this software to automate the updating process), since it’s all really old stuff, and it’s easier for me to just stay with the automatically generated archive pages.

Even though I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, I just got around to watching Dead Ringers last night. Wow…what an incredibly fascinating film. David Cronenberg almost never fails to dissapoint me — he’s got an incredibly twisted mind and excels at putting his ideas on screen — and the one time he has (Crash, which I never even made it all the way through) I’m now starting to consider renting and giving another try. Anyway, the combination of Cronenberg and Jeremy Irons‘ absolutely mindbending performance as a pair of identical twins in Dead Ringers was absolutely mesmerizing. The fact that Irons could play two such identical people and put just enough subtle differences into the performances that it was always clear which was which was absolutely incredible to watch…he just proves yet again why he’s on my list of favorite actors.

In other news…well, not much. E-mailed my resume over to the temp agency, so all I can do now is ‘hurry up and wait.’ Spent most of last night here at home being frustrated with life in general…I’m so burnt out on just about everything here in town, especially with all this drama with TimeFrame, that I’m looking forward more and more to the day that I can just pack up and leave. Ah, well…some days I do better than others.

Now, I’ve got to go jump in the shower and head off to work at Suncoast, selling movies for a few hours. Fun fun fun….

First steps…

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…into a field I haven’t investigated in years: job searching.

Went ahead and took Friday off to do a bit of job hunting. Ended up going by Chugach North Technical Services and turning in an application and getting an interview there…hopefully that might bring something my way soon. Things seemed to go pretty decently, I took one test on Microsoft Word and got a 94% (only missed two questions), and my typing test clocked me at 81 WPM with 95% accuracy…not bad in the least. Just have to get my resume e-mailed over to them and harcopy dropped off on Monday, and then wait and hope. If they’re able to find me something, then in goes my 2 week notice at TimeFrame. Hard to believe I actually got to this point, but if it’s time, it’s time.

Doing Trekkies (-ers?) proud

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Having been a fan of Star Trek practically since birth, I’m not sure it would be possible for me not to be excited about this little tidbit of information. It’s been known for a while now that Paramount was going back and doing some work on ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ for its upcoming DVD release — we just weren’t entirely sure just what that meant.

Well, this article from the New Times Los Angeles Online website gives a lot of really good information on just what we can look forward to. Check it out, if you’re at all interested.

Ups and downs, and some possible changes

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Yesterday was not exactly the best day I’ve ever had — not the worst overall, but certain moments may have some fairly large impact on days to come.

I’ll start with the good stuff, though. First off, my bowling continues to improve, which is cool. After last week’s run I brought my average up to 113, then surprised myself by managing to pull off my best series yet — 142/168/140! Not just my best series so far, but that 168 is my best score so far…I’m hoping to be able to get at least one game where I break 200 before I stop bowling.

Secondly, I got a chance to swing by Suncoast and picked up Love’s Labours Lost, and watched that after I got home from bowling last night. It turned out to be a really fun film, though it takes a little getting used to at first. Since Branagh combined Shakespeare with a 40’s style musical for this production, it opens with a ‘newsreel’ to give you some background information, then moves into some expository Shakespearian dialogue…then breaks into “I’d Rather Charleston”. Really caught me off guard at first, but after one or two numbers you just get caught up in the spirit of the experiment, and it just becomes a whole lot of fun. The only real downside I found was Alicia Silverstone trying not just to act, but to sing — luckily, she only gets a few verses completely on her own. I found her character to be this film’s eqivalent to Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing — an essential character who is unfortunately really badly miscast. Aside from lil’ miss Clueless, though, it’s a wonderful little romp, once you get past the initial shock.

Unfortunately, those were the highlights of the day. Not that they were bad highlights…just that the rest of the day kind of overshadows them.

Did my taxes — I owe $146. Bleah.

The big thing, however — if I’d had any more money in the bank than I do, I would have walked out of my job at TimeFrame yesterday. This is a really major thing for me — one way or another, I’ve always had an almost overdevolped sense of responsibility to whatever job I’m working, and will stick out some really uncomfortable situations when I deem it worth it, and I’d been doing my best to deal with all the little things at TimeFrame that bug me for a while now, as I didn’t want to either lose the paycheck or throw away the four and a half years I’ve got there just a few months before I leave state. However….

It just isn’t worth the headache anymore. While it’s not the job itself that bugs me, and I still enjoy the actual work I do, the work environment is so screwball that I’ve finally reached my breaking point. So, today I’ve called in to take a personal leave day, and I plan on running around to some of the temp agencies in town to take their placement/skills tests and see if I can find anything upwards of $10/hr for the next few months. I figure if I can find some data entry position — the kind of thing that often pays $12-$15 an hour because nobody wants to deal with it (usually a night position, shoved in a hole somewhere typing numbers in for hours on end), then as soon as I’m confirmed there, I can turn in my notice at TimeFrame and lose a fair amount of the stress in my life at the moment.

It’s really kind of bizarre for me to have gotten to this point — I’m still kind of amazed at myself for being willing to do something like take a day off to go job hunting. But, things have been going steadily downhill for me in regards to my job there, and there’s really only so much that I can take. So, today begins something of a grand adventure, in seeing if I can find something else to do for the next few months until I can afford to bail state. Should be interesting.

Of course, what’s going to be really interesting is if someone from TimeFrame actually ever stops by and checks my site and reads this….

Of blogs, site content, and something funny

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So it appears I’ve (without really knowing or planning it) become one of the growing number of ‘bloggers’ on the web. Blogger? Well read on…the following text is from Blogger, a service for helping people create and maintain their blogs. While I don’t use them, the definition was useful:

What is a weblog/blog?

A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically — like a what’s new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly — from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.

Blogs posts are like instant messages to the web.

Having realized while websurfing today that I’ve joined the blogger community, I went ahead and retitled this column on my page to reflect that, and added a couple of blog-related links to the lefthand sidebar on the page.

As far as site content goes, I’ve taken down the link in the Contents bar to the Ak Events side of my site, as I’m planning on going ahead and discontinuing it in the near future. It just isn’t getting the traffic I was hoping for…a good idea, but others are doing similar things, and I’d rather let someone else a little more into the idea play with it.

And finally, an amusing link I found while bouncing around the ‘net today: Pornolize! Warning: don’t follow the link if you’re underage or easily offended (or both) but if you’re neither of the above and have a good sense of humor, it can be all sorts of amusing. Don’t say I didn’t warn you….

Shadow of the Vampire

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Went out to see Shadow of the Vampire last night after I got off work. Not bad at all, though not quite as good as I’d hoped it would be. The previews had made it out to be a little more creepy than it ended up being — while it wasn’t strictly played for laughs, it wasn’t as much of a ‘horror’ film as I thought it might be. Definitely worth seeing at some point, though — Willem DaFoe just seems to relish has part as Max Schreck. They also occasionally do an incredible job of taking film stock from today and altering it to look as if it had been filmed on the equipment of the day for certain scenes.

One of the few downsides of the movie for me was actually Carey Elwes. Even though I’ve been a fan of The Princess Bride for years, and think that Carey did a great job as ‘The Man in Black/Wesley’, almost nothing I’ve seen him in since then has impressed me in the least, and I’m afraid this is another one. My main curiosity with his character for most of his screen time was actually just what sort of accent he was supposed to have…it certainly didn’t come across as German to me. Ah, well — a good matinee flick, but I can’t quite recommend a full-price show, and it won’t be a keeper once it hits video.

In other news, I just got a call from Suncoast that a movie I’d ordered has come in — Kenneth Branagh‘s Love’s Labours Lost. I’m all sorts of excited to see this one…I think that Branagh consistantly creates some of the best screen adaptations of Shakespeare, and when he decides to present this one as an almost Busby Berkely-style musical, complete with 40’s style dance numbers, I’ve just gotta see it. Besides…I’m still working on building up my collection of Shakespeare adaptations. Ones I know I’m missing that are on DVD at the moment are the recent stylized Romeo + Juliet, and the production of Othello with Laurence Fishburne. If only Branagh’s full 4-hour long version of Hamlet would come out!

1941 toepick cannibal line

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Now — the newest additions to my movie library. Big surprise, huh?

1941: While this is definitely far from the best of Steven Spielberg’s movies (some would say it’s the worst, though I personally reserve that particular honor for Jurrassic Park: The Lost World), I’ve always thought that there were certain pieces of it that shone far and above the rest. The fight/dance scene in the USO club, for example, is one of the most amazing pieces of coreography I’ve seen, and I get a real kick out of watching it every time.

The Cutting Edge: It’s fluff. I know it’s fluff, and nothing but fluff. But it’s fun fluff, and nearly everyone I know who’s seen it agrees. A silly little romantic comedy about a pair of skaters — one figure, one hockey — going to the Olympic Figure Skating championships…well, okay, fluff. So sue me. “Toepick!”

Manhunter: The first of the (soon to be) three movies involving Dr. Hannibal Lecter, this mid-80’s film directed by Michael Mann is an incredible thriller, seen by more than a few critics to be better than The Silence of the Lambs. It’s certainly my preferred portrayal of the good doctor — though he’s not nearly as central to this story as he is in SotL, I find this version’s more subdued take on Dr. Lecter much more chilling than Anthony Hopkins‘ somewhat over-the-top version. With Michael Mann’s directorial style, I found myself to be very impressed by this first chapter in the semi-series of films surrounding Hannibal “The Cannibal.”

The Thin Red Line: I have to admit, this one’s still on my to-see list. However, the high number of stellar reviews I’ve heard of this (both around the ‘net and from friends who have seen it) convinced me to give it a buy — especially since Fox has just re-released it with a newly enhanced anamorphic picture and DTS soundtrack. Now I just need to find the time to set aside to watch this one uninterrupted, as I’m told that is by far the best way to see it.

So — not a bad haul this week. Woohoo!

Occasional downtime

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First off, about the downtime for the past few days. This may be happening on and off for a while. I’m working on my CD collection again, which often necessitates switching my ‘puter over to Mac OS 9. As my webserver only operates when I’m running Mac OS X…well, no webserver when I’m working. I’ll do my best to remember to switch OS’s before I leave for the day, however there are no gaurantees. Most of the time things should be up and running, however.

Balls and beats

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Bowling balls and musical beats, that is…

I don’t even want to know what you were thinking, you perverts.

Anyway, apparently my bowling game actually is improving — my average is up to 111, and tonight I managed to pull off a good three sets: 134/125/136. Not bad, considering this is the first time I’ve ever bowled on a regular basis.

I also may have an opportunity to start spinning again…albeit in sort of a cheezy fashion. The bowling alley in Muldoon is one of the ones in town that does Neon Bowling on weekend nights (blacklights, smoke machines, fancy lights, and loud music — everything you need for a good night of bowling, right?), and they’re looking for a DJ for their Saturday nights. I’d have to restrict some of my set a bit — as a “family establishment” I’d have to stay away from anything with swearing, overt sexuality, or drug references (which, I have to admit, knocks out a fair amount of the more popular tracks I own)…and while it’s not exactly a dance club, it would at least be spinning again. I’m thinking about it…not entirely sure yet, but you never know….