I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Casual by Koji A. Dae: Book 3 of 2026: Casual by Koji A. Dae. First Philip K. Dick award nominee of the year.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Biweekly Notes: January 12–25, 2026: Two weeks in the life of…. Thoughts, photos, links, and miscellany from the past fortnight.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Challenger by Diane Carey: Book 2 of 2026: Challenger by Diane Carey: ⭐️⭐️⭐️. As a capstone to the series, it wrapped up all the major plot points well enough, but the odd tone was really off-putting for me.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

My social circle has crowdsourced/community-labored half a dozen weddings (including mine), countless club nights, multiple conventions, art shows, secondhand markets, fundraisers, and more. This is the ENTIRE POINT of community. Weirdo antisocial losers don't get that.

From the explosions outside, I'm guessing that 1) the Seahawks won the sports ball thing and 2) apparently it was oddly quiet on New Year's Eve because our neighbors were saving up all the fireworks just in case this happened.

Hey WA residents. The WA leg is considering bill, HB 2641, that ban ICE agents from being hired as LEOs in our state. Please use this portal to tell your state reps to support his bill. ICE agents are all unsuitable to serve as LEO’s app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/...

Shame that the pattern doesn't seem to be available any more though. Maybe on the cross stitch black market somewhere. 😄

There's an actual poster for my Thursday night dance at @norwescon.org this year! Tell me what you want to hear now (www.norwescon.org/con/events/d...) and come get your groove on at #nwc48 this April! Background art by our Artist Guest of Honor @gdbee.bsky.social!

Congratulations to @thomasha.bsky.social, @oliverklangmead.bsky.social and Aliya Whitely, and @caspargeon.bsky.social, whose #PhilipKDickAward nominated works for this year are also up for BSFA awards! www.bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-...

Question for #StarTrek art aficionados (@portalrealm.bsky.social, @starfleetdesign.bsky.social, probably others): is there a good archive/source/resource/pointer for finding old Trek book cover art? Clean would be great, but not critical. Attached is a current favorite as an example.

Affinity by Canva Accessible PDF Output Test v2: The results are nearly identical; the only change I noticed was a regression: The footer text on the master page now appears once at the very bottom of the tag tree instead of being properly artifacte… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

This is the stupid shit that needs to stop. Seriously. No. Wrong. This LIE that "my vote must be earned" is the most over-privileged BULLSHIT ever invented. Voting is your civic duty. You owe your vote to not just yourself but to every vulnerable person and citizen. Withholding your vote is STUPID

Not at 100%, but far enough along to be back at work. Figured I'd encourage people to be a little cautious for the next few days, though.

2026 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced: The judges of the 2026 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce the seven nominated works published in 2025 that… buff.ly/XaJyyHR

semi-regular reminder that ICE was only created in 2003 when you are asked to imagine a world without ICE, you're basically being asked to remember where you were when Lilo & Stitch came out

Weekly Notes: January 5–11, 2026: A week in the life of…. Thoughts, photos, links, and miscellany from the past week.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Here's my photoset of signs and sights from today's #IceOutForGood rally in #Seattle.

Interested in being a vendor for Kent Nerd Party 2026? We are looking for AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS, ARTISTS, and local creators/makers #booksky #art #pnw #washington

Weekly Notes: December 29, 2025–January 4, 2026: A week in the life of…. Thoughts, photos, links, and miscellany from the past week.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Thin Air by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Book 1 of 2026: Thin Air by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch: ⭐️⭐️⭐️. I’m starting to wonder if they’ll actually be able to wrap up all the dangling threads in just one more book.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

For all that the media has spent years freaking out about what social media does to our brains, I don’t understand why there appears to be little effort to grapple with the fact that these chatbots are, for some not insignificant portion of the population, literally psychosis machines

It's cold out there so let's start planning for warm weather! Join #norwescon for the annual camping trip and hang out in the woods with fellow geeks.

2026 Resolutions: Yes, I make this same stupid joke every year, ’cause it makes me laugh.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

2025 Reading Round-Up: Every year, I set myself a goal of reading at least 52 books over the course of the year; this year I read 67. Here's a quick (not really) overview…… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

The Flaming Arrow by Jerry Oltion and Kathy Oltion: 📚 67/2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ A particularly imaginative doomsday weapon that really had me lost as to how they were going to technobabble their way out of it.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

I never would have guessed that giving a computerized paint-by-number application first-person-shooter game mechanics would work, but Apple Arcade recently got Power Wash Simulator, and…y'know, it works for me. Not sure I'd call it "fun", but it's definitely _satisfying_.

Answering the SFWA’s Survey on LLM Use in Industry: While I'm not an SFWA member or even an author (beyond this little blog), as a lifelong reader of SF, I figured it was worth a few minutes to add my response to their current Survey on LLM Use in Indu… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Someone has lifted the QuickTimeVR movie files from 1994's "Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual", upscaled them then built an in-browser replica of the ITM's "Tour" module. mijofr.github.io/st-panorama/ #StarTrek

Don't forget, we're celebrating the 40th anniversary of Labyrinth at #nwc48 featuring a complete shadow cast. Auditions for all roles open now! We're looking for performers and backstage assistance. All are invited to audition and participate. buff.ly/g2taTB2

If the #StarTrek universal translator is as good as it's often shown to be (near-instantaneously translating unknown alien languages), Archer should have been able to have a stern talk with Porthos about urinating on that tree, and Data and Worf should have heard Spot's every yowled "fuck you".

Rough Trails by L.A. Graf: 📚 66/2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: A solid mid-series entry, with a good focus on Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

Weekly Notes: December 22–28, 2025: A week in the life of…. Thoughts, photos, links, and miscellany from the past week.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Complete Guide to the Nikon Z5II by Thom Hogan: 📚 65/2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Excellent reference guide to the Z5II in need of a bit more editing.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Belle Terre by Dean Wesley Smith and Diane Carey: 📚 64/2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: The setup sounds far-fetched, but works to keep the overall tension going.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Wagon Train to the Stars by Diane Carey: 📚 63/2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: An interesting start to this six-part series, but with some very odd Orions.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Dragon’s Honor by Kij Johnson and Greg Cox: 📚 62/2025: ⭐️⭐️: Not one of the better TNG entries.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

This is possibly the most brutal review I've ever read. I'm not one for negativity, but there is a point at which negativity becomes so incandescent for such good reason that it manages to uplift rather than depress. "Wow," you say, dazzled at the human capacity for righteous verbal violence.

Weekly Notes: December 15–21, 2025: A week in the life of…. Thoughts, photos, links, and miscellany from the past week.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Right now, I think the only thing that's surprising me about the Epstein files that have been released is that they apparently managed to do the redactions correctly so the information can't be recovered.

Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente: 📚 61/2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: So much of this made me laugh, and it all wrapped up in an extremely satisfying way.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

Friendly reminder! While I check in here and occasionally post and reply, I'm more active on Mastodon…but you Bluesky-only people can now follow me here at @djwudi.tenforward.social.ap.brid.gy (and if you're on the Fediverse, find me without the Bluesky bridge at tenforward.social/@djwudi).

Oh my god y'all I had not seen the rest of the Vanity Fair photos holy shit. Christopher Anderson deserves a medal. Look at this. He left the LIGHT SWITCHES in the edited photos! These assholes look like their well-meaning mom took a picture of them on their first day in a grown-up job.

Weekly Notes: December 8–14: A week in the life of…. Thoughts, photos, links, and miscellany from the past week.… michaelhans.com/eclecticism/...

We stopped by to gawk at the Green River flooding around Kent’s Meeker Street bridge, Riverbend golf course, and Old Fishing Hole park. #Kent #WA #GreenRiver #flood

At last week's #Norwescon planning meeting, I was handed this mint-condition #StarTrek #TMP promotional newsletter from 1979. It's in incredibly good shape; it looks like it could have been printed yesterday!

Here he is taking the photo.

I obviously cannot verify this, so I welcome those who can to do so, but yet again as a foreign writer who loves going to cons, one of the ways we make cons safer in the US is for fandom to not only reject policies like these but do whatever they can to provide avenues of safety to travelers.

Anti-A.I. stamps! For illustrations, comics, photos and all your creative works, printed and digital! You can download the transparent file for free here: ko-fi.com/i/IT6T718NAKF (but consider donating please 😘)