Michael Hanscom

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

Year 50 Day 333

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Me wearing a shirt that says 'yes, this is me flirting with you', standing in front of a group of convention photographers with their cameras aimed at me.

Day 333: Day three of Norwescon is done! While I had much less on my schedule today, it was still a very full day, with a mix of socializing, helping out here and there where I could, and some very well-deserved mid-day napping. Both of today’s shirts got a lot of laughs, and though I certainly wasn’t costumed, I got hauled into having my photo taken in the evening photography area, which seemed an obvious opportunity for a good selfie. Then a night of floating between the dance and the parties until it was time to fall over.

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Year 50 Day 332

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Me wearing a black cap, black suit jacket with grey pinstripes, black shirt, and Star Trek bow tie, in front of a stage with a screen showing a slide that says 'Welcome to the 2024 Philip K Dick Awards'

Day 332: Norwescon day two is done! (Yes, once again, posting this the next morning and backdating.) Today was all about the Philip K. Dick Award. I wore my now-traditional Friday morning/day “electric sheep” t-shirt, and attended the readings for each of the three attending nominated authors. The afternoon was a bit more hectic than expected due to tech demands requiring us to move the location of the ceremony from one ballroom to the next on four hours’ notice (physically, not much of a move, but arranging logistics and getting set for the needs of the new location kept me very busy), but in the end, the ceremony went off quite well, and it was kind of fun to have it on the main stage this year. The rest of the evening was dancing and then watching a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast from the back of the room (because I didn’t have enough energy to be very participatory). All in all, another good day!

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Year 50 Day 331

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Me wearing a t-shirt with a parody of the famous Joy Division image, this one says 'Nimoy Division' and the imge shows a Vulcan salute. I'm standing on a stage in front of a large screen with graphics showing turntables, wave forms, and my DJ Wüdi at Norwescon logo.

Day 331: Norwescon day one is done! (So done, in fact, that I’m actually posting this on Friday morning, though I’ll backdate the post so it shows up on the right day on my blog.) Most of the day was running around, socializing, and helping out where I could, and then the evening was me DJing for the Thursday night dance. The dance went well for a Thursday night (since it’s the first night and still in the work week, it’s always a little more sparsely attended), and as always, I’ve recorded the full thing and in a few days will have it posted for anyone who wants to listen to four hours of music (with only a few fumbles).

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Year 50 Day 330

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Me in a hotel lobby wearing a shirt that says, "'That's what.' She". Behind me are a few people setting up tables.

Day 330: It’s day zero of Norwescon! Wednesday is when a bunch of us show up to do all the setup…and it takes a lot of setup to run a con like this. Lots of running around and Doing Things, with breaks to say hello to people, some of whom I see at the con meetings, and some of whom I haven’t seen since last year. Lots to do, but a good time is being had by all.

📚 Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

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22/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1994 Hugo Best Novel

The colonization and terraforming of Mars continues, as does the high quality of Red Mars. Managing to balance the hard sci-fi of the terraforming processes and effects and the associated technological advances with political maneuvering among multiple parties across two planets and the interpersonal conflicts and relationships of multiple generations of Martian residents is no mean feat, and Robinson pulls it off well. Easily as good as the first book, and I’m looking forward to when I get to the next and final book in the trilogy.

Me holding Green Mars

Year 50 Day 328

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Me walking outside, wearing a grey Norwescon hoodie and a black cap, both of which are spotted with raindrops.

Day 328: We checked before heading out for our morning walk, and our phones told us it wouldn’t rain until sometime in the afternoon. Our phones lied. (But it wasn’t raining hard enough to prevent the walk.)

Year 50 Day 327

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Me on a path next to marshland, with a Canadian Goose visible in a pond just behind me.

Day 327: While on our walk this morning, the goose just visible in the pond behind me was standing with another goose on the side of the path. As we walked past, it apparently decided I was a bit too close, and gave me a bit of a hiss as we walked by. Warning taken! These suckers get mean. We stayed well on the other side of the path as we walked back.

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Year 50 Day 326

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Me sitting in a chair by a sunny window with my laptop open on my lap.

Day 326: Just a nice afternoon sitting in the spring sunshine and working on Norwescon bits (making sure the website schedule is up to date, getting as much music as possible on the laptop for the Thursday night dance, and preparing the social media posts that will get posted during the weekend).