Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
August 30, 2005
Princess Mononoke
Hayao Miyazaki makes films you would never see coming out of the west. The plots strike as unusual or weird, but they are utterly fantastic. I very much enjoyed his earlier films, Castle in the Sky, and Spririted Away. With their unique plots and characters these animated features introduced a type of cinema I had not delved much into before - that of Japanese animation.
Princess Mononoke captivated me in a similar way. From the beginning you are immediately empathetic with the plight of Ashitaka and his village that was attacked by a demon-boar from a far away forest. Ashitaka voyages to the forest and the adjacent mining town that has declared war on the forest, the creatures inside, and the forest spirit. Mononoke is a human that lives in the forest, raised by wolves. The people of the mining town are hard working folk who want to progress foward and mine parts of the forest. The forest creatures resent the encroachment of humans into the forest. In their actions the humans unwittingly create evil revenge filled demon creates when they fight the boars and wolves of the forest. Ashitaka strives for peace between the two factions.
What makes Princess Mononoke so compelling is that (in our western manner) we like to take sides and the film takes you back and forth between both sides until you don’t know who is good and who is evil. While this seems like a straight forward concept it is virtually unknown in western film. When there are two opposing sides there is always one side that is portrayed as ‘good’ in the film, for the viewer to root for.
In the war between the Iron-town and the forest there is no victor, only an on-going desire for revenge. Such is the reality of war.
August 29, 2005
Dude, your a seventh level magic user, things are great for your character right now… *
When I was a kid, afterschool program meant watching The Great Money Movie with Eddie Driscoll. Not that I didn’t try to start up my own after school D&D session, it just didn’t work out so was relegated to a weekend event at various kids homes. None of our parents really understood what that was all about, some of them actually thought we were doing some sort of satan worshipping and relatives were horrified. One guy told me the demon statue on the cover of the Player’s Handbook was going to come and eat me while I slept. Hell that wasn’t nearly as scary as the demon guy on the Dungeon Masters Guide. RPG games continue to be a very misunderstood game and remain in the realm of geeks. Hell, I still get made fun about my RPG days from some people.
Wizards of the Coast are sponsoring a D&D afterschool program in public libraries. Would an afterschool program to get kids to play D&D work? Would it really increase interest in the ailing table top role playing games? Wil Wheaton’s all over this one and he’s right on, D&D is a great creative tool that fosters creative thinking. I learned an incredible amount from RPG games and the fantasy genre and is something I still hold close in my memory.
August 28, 2005
J’apes me faire un si-si a’ dents *
The waiter returned to our table, “I apologize sir, but the rock shrimp was not thawed out early enough. Would you care for a bit of alligator or crab meat with your Jambalaya instead?”
Now I really don’t eat beef at all but perhaps I was in a adventurous mood or perhaps it was just the Cruzan rum. “Sure, I’ll try a little alligator”.
Kim and I were enjoyed a rare night out and had dinner at Crescent City Bistro, a unique restaurant featuring Cajun-Creole cuisine. My Cajun Chicken Jambalaya was very tasty but the alligator meat wasn’t all that great. It is similar to pork, but had a gamey taste I wasn’t too fond of.
I’ve never been to New Orleans but between the food and the Cajun and Zydeco music I think I would find it thoroughly enjoyable. Let’s all hope for the best with New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.
I’m feeling a hankering to re-read A Confederacy of Dunces.
* “I’m making myself an if-if with teeth” - see Cajun History by Maurice Lasserre
August 22, 2005
Omnium-gatherum redesigned
Redesigning Omnium-gatherum started several months ago when I decided that my first cut not only lacked in it’s crude layout but also in it’s unchanging frontage. The front page was never changing with the What’s New page holding infrequent updates each containing usually massive changes and picture updates. I decided that not only did I need to update the look but I also need a more sophisticated way of sorting and viewing the enormous amounts of pictures. I came across Wordpress and spent scattered months playing with it, learning it’s own library of functions, how to use templates and other intricacies without fully commiting myself to using it. After having fully learned of it’s capabilities and building my modified template I have decided that Wordpress, and the blog style format, serve my purposes quite well. I can now update the website on a more regular basis and indulge myself in writing down other random thoughts to whoever cares to read.
You’ll notice that I’ve been keeping entries for a couple months now. I started when I had my final site layout in place and was migrating the old stuff over. Even though the site hadn’t gone ‘live’ I used it as if it had. I have also migrated all the original entries into the archive, as well as all the old galleries. This is pretty arbitrary but all the galleries dated prior to 2000 are actually archived due to add date. Later entries are archived also archive by add date, but this usually corresponds (within a couple weeks) with the date of the gallery. Is this confusing yet ? If you want to browse all the images contained here visit the Galleries page.
I’m not even going to go into all the gallery additions that have been made, it has been too numerous.
Comments are allowed in most places on the site, you can even leave comments on specific galleries.
Gatherings
We always have a at least one gathering of the friends in the summer. I helped the Tibbetts move along with D, Pac-0-derm, and C.C. one fine (hot) summer day. A few pics of their new home, but not of the two and 3/4 sheds. Then a pool party chez moi with a cool sequence of C.C. jumping in a tube in the pool. Finally a housewarming at Tibbetts-house later in the summer saw the usual suspects as well as some new Tibbetts-neighbors.
August 19, 2005
Hey, I’m Superman
It was almost dusk as Andy and I walked across the creaky floorboards of the Highland Superette and out into the summer air. Our pockets were filled with Dinosaur Eggs, Nerds, Charms lollipops, BottleCaps and candy cigarettes. The trick to mazimizing your spending power was to buy 1 piece of candy at a time that was 10 cents or less. At this price there was no sales tax which would add up to crucial pennies.
It was a mile walk to my house where we would spend the night and wake early for Saturday morning cartoons. The woman stumbled out as if out of nowhere a few houses up from the Superette. Her large frizzy black hair and toothy grin were scary enough for two kids who wanted nothing but to eat the packs of sugar in their pockets. But just then it got worse as she spoke to us. “Heey, i’m supahmaan” she slurred.
The walk home took us a little less time that day, a few exta minutes to spend with our fresh gotten booty.
August 17, 2005
Crashed Hard
The last time I went down this particular descent I braked too hard and skidded out of control. I bent my back wheel pretty badly but was unhurt. This time I made the same error but the consequences were much worse. I flew off my bike and hit a large rock with my head, then my arm and hip. The rock poked a pretty good hole in my side and broke off a piece of my hip bone. Mark (of Tri-City Bicycles in Rochester, NH) and I managed to walk out of the woods. The emergency room at Wentworth-Douglas took good care of me with 6 stitches and now I just have to take it easy while I recover.
I haven’t had many accidents in my life: 2 sprained ankles (1 in high school track and 1 mountain biking), 1 car crash, 1 bike crash.
One thing is for certain - if I hadn’t been wearing my helmet I would have cracked my head wide open.
August 13, 2005
Red or Green ?
I’m not a big fan of travelling for work but I do always enjoy having to go to Albuquerque. I like working with my colleagues at Sandia, I love the New Mexican food, and it has one of the most stunning views of any place I’ve been. My colleagues are a smart hard working group. The food is hot and chilies are not a common food item in New England. The view is of the Sandia Mountains.
All in all it was a productive trip but was good to get home to the family. The flight home was a bit stressful when our first attempt at landing was canceled due to a landing gear problem. The plane headed back up and one of the pilots came back to open a floor panel in the aisle. It must have been a manual switch for the landing gear but it also depressurized the cabin a bit rapidly and hurt the ears. Safe and sound now.
August 8, 2005
Jewel’s Two
Jewel turned two as her mother, Lisa, was about 6 months pregnant with her sister. We headed to the party at Ryan and Lisa’s newly purchased home in Weare, NH where there was tasty vittles and the making of hats. What will two bring to the Belanger’s ?
