Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
General ramblings connected to my personal life and activities.
No, seriously, I am. I’m not kidding.
If you were to watch the video for “Chase That Feeling” by the Hilltop Hoods, just past the one minute mark, the camera pans down over the top of a desk, and sitting on that desk is a very familiar family portrait…
Thanks much to Shoog for pointing this out to me. Bizarre and funny!
Prairie and I went to the EMPSFM on Wednesday, using some free passes very kindly given to me back when I lost my job. I’d been to the EMP once before, just after I moved down to Seattle, but hadn’t ever gotten around to visiting the SFM side since it opened.
The last time I went, sometime around 2001/2002 or so, when it was just the EMP, I wasn’t entirely impressed, and came away thinking that it was neat, but more expensive than I felt it was really worth. No such worries anymore, though: I think the tickets have dropped in price a bit (I remember them being around $20 back then), and with the addition of the SFM and any special exhibits — especially the current Jim Henson’s Magical World — it’s totally worth visiting.
Finally getting to see the Science Fiction Museum was a lot of fun. Back when it was being created, I was excited enough to blog about it twice, but for one reason or another, I’d never checked it out. I’m glad I finally did, though — while not huge, they’ve packed a lot of neat stuff into that section of the museum, from old costumes and props to lots of first editions of classic literary sci-fi. In fact, one of the things I was impressed by the most was how much attention was paid to the written word — it’s not as “flashy” as film clips or movie props, but it’s such an important part that I was quite happy to see that it was celebrated, rather than neglected. They even had the entire handwritten manuscript to Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, which blew me away. It’s huge!
I’ve got a few pictures from the trip on Flickr, and below is a clip of me trying my hand at being a puppeteer for the Mudgarden Experience.
I think my puppet looks the best — not only did I know the lyrics, but I have that version of “Rainbow Connection” in my collection, so I was able to keep “Kurt” pretty synced up with the music. Fun!
Another benefit to the “going-back-to-school” plan — Prairie and I are starting to plan a big summer vacation during the gap between summer and fall quarters. We haven’t been on a big vacation since the trip to Hawaii for H and P’s wedding a couple years ago, and haven’t even had a lot of chances for smaller weekend ‘mini-breaks‘ lately, so we’re really looking forward to this.
Details are still pretty unformed at the moment, but the basic plan is to take about 2 1/2 weeks in late August/early September to head down to California to visit the many members of Prairie’s extended family who live down that way. The basic plan is…
We’re both really looking forward to this. We’re also starting to (even more vaguely) discuss next summer’s big vacation, as we’ll be on the same schedule again, and the summer of 2010 should see us in Alaska for a few weeks. We did a week in the winter about three years ago, now it’s time to show Prairie Alaska’s other (and much more comfortable) extreme.
Plans are afoot!
There’s been a change of plans that’s taken place over the past couple weeks, and now that I’ve verified that talking about it publicly won’t risk my status with the unemployment office: I’ve decided to take advantage of having a lot of unclaimed free time and head back to school!
Prairie and I had discussed this in the past, but I was always nervous about not bringing in any money and leaving Prairie as the only provider. One of the benefits of having been unemployed these past three months, though, is finding out that with careful budgeting, we can survive on just Prairie’s salary (I haven’t even had unemployment insurance to help out, as my case is taking a little longer than usual to review thanks to the current backlog) — and so, now that we know that, I filled out the financial aid paperwork, put in my application, and yesterday got the official acceptance letter from Central Washington University.
Rather than moving out to Ellensburg, I’ll be going to classes on the Des Moines branch campus, going for a double major in Psychology (.pdf link) and Law and Justice (.pdf link). Once I’m done with that in two years or so, this should give me a very solid foundation to find a good spot somewhere within the general area of social work, which fits right in with a lot of my family’s background (Dad’s work as a custody investigator for the State of Alaska; Mom’s years working at the Covenant House runway shelter in Anchorage; and in a smaller way, my time at Gig’s helping give kids a safe place to be off the streets of Anchorage…and occasionally keeping an eye on kids that had also been helped by Mom and Dad in their respective jobs).
So, in just a few weeks, at the start of summer quarter, I’ll be a full-time schoolboy. About time!
I’ve made a couple mentions of finding an old Hanscom family photo on the new Awkward Family Photos weblog, then watching in amusement as the AFP site and our photo gained popularity and popped up in more places around the web.
Well, here’s one more for the list! Yesterday I was interviewed by a reporter for ABC News who was working on an article about AFP and the reactions from people who’ve stumbled across their photos on the site, and the article went live this morning! It features both of the shots of our family that are on AFP, and my part of the article comprises a fair chunk of the last third or so.
The Alaska Hanscoms are famous!
As briefly mentioned earlier, Prairie and I went out to see Star Trek on Friday evening, and, long story short: given the unenviable and potentially disastrous goal of reinvigorating a much-beloved but floundering and stagnant franchise that most people had written off as long past its prime, J.J. Abrams and company managed to beat the odds and pull it off with style. In the many long months leading up to the release of the film, I’d wanted it to be good, I’d hoped it would be good, and as we got closer, the many outstanding reviews gave me hope — and for once, I wasn’t let down.
The biggest question, of course — beyond even the redesign of the Enterprise and her big nacelles, or how well the story would mesh with established canon — was whether recasting characters that we’ve known for so many decades would even work. Could they manage to be the characters without either slavishly aping the original actors, or fall into parody? Would Kirk be Kirk without Shatner’s (not quite) inimitable delivery?
Thankfully, the answer is yes. As I’ve been thinking back over the film over the past couple days, the biggest thing that stands out to me is just how incredibly well the cast did at inhabiting the essence of the characters and their personalities without falling into the trap of mimicking the original actors. Pine, Quinto and Urban as the “holy trinity” of Kirk, Spock and McCoy likely had the toughest jobs in making us believe in them as the characters, but all three of them (along with the rest of the primary cast) managed to make me a believer.
Given that much of what was done in this film was necessary to ‘reset’ the franchise so that they could move forward from here without being trapped by canon — really, I don’t quite understand how people can be upset about the device used to reset things, as without that, we’d know the future of the characters and there wouldn’t be much long-term suspense or real sense of danger — I am really looking forward to seeing where we go from here on out.
I want to see this movie in the theater again, I want to have it at home to watch again, and I already can’t wait to see what this team can do with the sequel, when they’re free to move forward.
More thoughts under the cut, as they’re going to be more than a little spoileriffic…
My pictures from my birthday trip to the zoo to see the new penguin exhibit (and the rest of the zoo) with Prairie, P, H, and N are up! Well, at the time I’m writing this, they’re still in the process of uploading, but some are up, and the rest will be up soon…probably by the time most of you read this post. ;)
When I get a haircut…
…I get a haircut!
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So I turn 36 on Sunday. Pretty sure I can still claim “mid-30’s” at this point, though I’m getting perilously close to the “late-30’s.”
Upcoming or recent birthday-related bits include:
On Sunday, I’ll be losing the ponytail and sending it off to Locks of Love. This will mark six years since I decided that if I ever wanted to have long hair again, I better start growing it out now. I shaved my head one last time on my 30th birthday, then started letting it grow, and outside of a few trims to take care of split ends, have just let my hair grow since then. As the hairline goes and the forehead grows, though, it’s time to dodge the skullet bullet and shave it all back down again.
Also on Sunday, we’ll be going to the zoo to see the brand-new penguin exhibit. H, P, and N will be joining us. Penguins yay!
On Friday the 8th we’re going to the 7pm showing of the new Star Trek movie. Set phasers to ‘awesome’ (I hope…advance word is looking pretty good though).
At some as-yet unspecified Saturday night in mid- to late-May, I’ll be heading down to Vogue Night. It won’t really be a birthday party as much as my monthly “gotta get out and bounce” night, but if someone were to say hello and perhaps spot me a drink, I doubt I’d complain.
On July 3rd we’re going to Jason Webley‘s 11-year Extravaganza concert at Seattle’s Town Hall. This is very exciting for both of us. For a number of years, Jason did two big shows a year, one in fall and one in spring, which would always be very close to either my birthday or Prairie’s (which is Nov. 3rd, exactly six months after mine). It’s been a few years since we’ve been to any of his shows, though, as he’s been playing venues more suited to his younger, more energetic crowd, and as we’d prefer to sit in the back and enjoy the show rather than getting pushed about and stepped on (not intentionally or in a mean way, just the kind of thing that happens in a club show atmosphere) by rambunctious young’uns, we’ve been less inclined to head down to his more recent Seattle-area shows. Town Hall works very well for everyone, though — the kids get to bounce around in front of the stage, and us old fogies get to sit in the back and enjoy the music and show — so we’re looking forward to this.
And that’s everything I can think of.
And, of course, the annual bit of shameless greed*: on the off chance that someone should feel all birthday present-ish, feel free to poke around at my Amazon wishlists (helpfully categorized into photography, audiovisual, literary, gadgets, and other) or just hit the PayPal button on my about page and contribute to my Nikon D700 fund. ;)
* Disclaimer: this is mostly tongue-in-cheek, the economy sucks, and I expect nothing except perhaps some rolling of eyes and gentle mocking. Hugs and/or kind words are always acceptable birthday presents. Still, you never know what might happen, and it can’t hurt to toss the idea out there, right?