Alan Henry
LightNews LightNews
banner
halophoenix.bsky.social
Alan Henry
@halophoenix.bsky.social
3.3K followers 450 following 2.1K posts
Author: Seen, Heard, & Paid: https://amzn.to/4dXOAHv
Now: Managing Editor, @pcmag.com

Then: WIRED, NYT, Lifehacker. Forever: Yours. Recovering physicist. Always Black. He/Him. 🎨: @mavisdeluna.art

https://www.alan-henry.net | https://www.novawerks.net
Posts Replies Media Videos
halophoenix.bsky.social
Apropos of nothing every single day prestige journalism finds a new way to disappoint me
Craig (left) and Kit (right) from the TV show Craig of the Creek, staring and frowning at something off screen. I use this image to communicate "staring with disapproval in Black."
November 19, 2025 at 8:52 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Born to be a shitposting gremlin loudmouth

Forced to be a laid back, thoughtful, vibes for days, warm and playful guy

Follow and we can hang out sometime?
twitch.tv/halo_phoenix

(both of these by my friend @nightfawn.bsky.social, who has a vgen: vgen.co/nightfawn)
A gremlin version of my own OC, with stick arms and legs and a jagged little mouth. His headphones are around his neck and he looks kinda angy. A dreamy version of my personal OC, and the current PNG I use for streaming. I'm looking at the viewer with a dreamy vibe, resting my head on my right hand with my headphones around my neck.
November 12, 2025 at 4:34 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
I mentioned this on stream, but the Big Backlog Bracket is finally real, and this is what it looks like! God help me.

(I had to break it up into two brackets because there were too many for one, but not enough for two full ones...)
The primary backlog bracket, which is a whopping 128 games pitted against each other in single elimination. Forgive the lack of a detailed list of games, but the point here is that the tournament is simply HUGE. The secondary backlog bracket, which is 64 games in single elimination, but I only had about 48, so there are a few "N/A" spots. Forgive the lack of a detailed list of games, but the point here is that the tournament is still MASSIVE, even on a smaller scale.
November 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
I'm live with Balatro and yapping, because I wanted to stream and have no plan for it whatsoever. Come say hi, or don't, I'm not your dad.

twitch.tv/halo_phoenix
my "dead" emote from my Twitch channel - featuring my OC version of myself with his soul leaving his body, very disconcertedly.
November 9, 2025 at 9:41 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Happy Birthday VIVI! I said it in stream, but thanks for so many years of good times, and thanks for being an incredible inspiration.

And thanks for this meme which I still use to this day and when people are like "who is she" I get to tell them all about you!
A screenshot of Vividly Vivi smiling on a white background with a chat bubble next to her that simply says "Jesus Christ."
October 27, 2025 at 8:05 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Hahaha anyone know a tool that can build a tournament bracket for... [checks notes] ....oh. oh no. This many entries? It's an even number, it should work, right?
A closeup screenshot of the number column my game backlog spreadsheet, showing there are 168 entries in it.
October 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
ICYMI, in my newsletter last Friday, I talked about media literacy, which...well this weekend proved we need more of it, huh?

Read on for a primer on what media literacy really is, and why it's important to apply even to reputable sources:
buttondown.com/alanhenry/ar...
Obviously, we don’t want to live in a world where misinformation and disinformation flow freely while fact-checked, credible journalism lives behind paywalls and is paid for by affiliate sales (spoiler alert: we already do), but it’s important to remember that any media organization of any type, from a cable news network to a globally-distributed newspaper, is made up of humans. And all of those humans have their own biases, their own interpretations of the world around them, and their own backgrounds that inform their work. On top of that, even an individual story could be touched by several people, each one leaving their own ideological fingerprints on it, whether they’re doing so for an ideological purpose or to obscure potential ideological interpretation. Remember, media literacy isn’t just “ah hah, I see that this publication/story wants me to think X,” it’s also “this publication is using passive voice to describe the victims of violence…why?” We all know to treat claims without evidence as problematic, as well as publications that publish claims without evidence (right?) but we also need to pay close attention to, for example, publications that always seem to talk to the same sources over and over, discuss topics or whole communities without giving them representation or space in those discussions, or reporters who only call the same “experts” to talk about problems well outside of their areas of expertise.
October 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
I'm so sorry you're not doing well Monarch - thinking of you today, and hoping it passes quickly and you and yours get a much needed break soon! <3

I humbly present one of my favorite memes that I know you'll get plenty of use out of too, feel free to steal and use freely!
A hopecore meme of a two lane street, slick with rain and flanked on both sides of the road by trees. The sky is grey and the atmosphere is slightly gloomy. In white text across the image reads, on two lines: "Hello darkness my old friend The whites are at it once again"
October 18, 2025 at 6:39 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
As if on cue and just in time for my birthday, @karckade.bsky.social finished this INCREDIBLE commission yesterday, and I'm in LOVE with it - thank you so much!

"Oh! We didn't have this when I was young! These new magicks are so...~interesting!~"
A halloween commission of my character, draped in black robes with purple trim and highlights, wearing a dark hood with purple undertones and stars lighting the scene. I'm paging through a magical tome by candlelight, with two wax candles burning blue flame in the right side foreground, and two purple carved pumpkins casting blue light from their eyes on the left foreground. It's incredible, and I'm grinning mischeviously.
October 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
It's newsletter time! This time it's about something everyone talks about but not enough people understand: Media literacy, what it is, and how to build it.

Patreon subs get it tomorrow morning:
www.patreon.com/halophoenix

Everyone else on Friday (my birthday!):
buttondown.email/alanhenry
Banner image for my newsletter. It reads "Productivity, without Privilege" in block text over a blue and brown background. In smaller text below reads "by Alan Henry."
October 15, 2025 at 12:08 AM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Tapping the sign, again, forever.

buttondown.com/alanhenry/ar...
So here’s my suggestion: Rip the op-ed pages out of the publications entirely. Force them to stand on their own, without the protective shield of the real journalists doing actual work in the trenches. Turn them into standalone magazines or inserts to their associated newspapers. Give them their own domains and websites, completely separate from real journalism. Let The Times publish their columnists on nytopinion dot com, and only there, and then see if their commentary and analysis is so necessary that people will subscribe to it the way people subscribe to NYT Cooking or NYT Games. Let them sink or swim on their own merits. If they thrive, that’s great: it proves there’s an audience for what they’re selling, and it doesn’t need to leech off the newsgathering capabilities of the paper’s parent newsroom. If they flounder, well, that should make things clear, shouldn’t it? And if you’re reading this and suddenly worried about whether opinion writing can flourish under such a regime, ask yourself whether it’s even necessary in its current state.
October 7, 2025 at 2:18 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Libra Szn is underway! Let's yap a bit and build the big backlog bracket together, shall we?

Come along and help me pick out games I haven't played that I need to. Live now:

twitch.tv/halo_phoenix
One of my twitch emotes, featuring my face, laughing, with > and < for eyes.
October 5, 2025 at 12:08 AM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Did you know that for only 50,000-75,000 USD I can buy the cooling system for a quantum computer and hang it in my apartment like a sickass chandelier anyway I'm gonna start a gofundme
A dilution refrigerator from the company Bluefors, which makes them to cool quantum computers. It's a series of metal disks, cascading down with wires and cooling pipes arranged neatly from the top to the bottom, but the structure of the disks and rods is still visible.
September 23, 2025 at 3:35 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
For no reason at all, I was just thinking back to that time I wrote about what happens when you give bad people second chances, and who really gets hurt when they get to fail upwards with no accountability...

buttondown.com/alanhenry/ar...
But of course, the desires of the privileged—whether it’s to get back to the office, to brutalize with no consequences, to refuse to work with a union, to remove people of color from their industry (and their sight)—always seem to be more important than the basic needs of the people forced to deal with them. Whether those needs are intangibles like psychological safety at work and the freedom to do your work without fear of reprisal, or they’re highly tangible and specific, (like a physically safe and disease-free work environment that’s also free from harassment or discrimination,) they all seem to be soft things that should be “nice to haves” when it comes time to let an abuser into your midst. Here’s the thing though: you don’t have to forgive. You certainly can, if you feel that’s the right move for you. But especially once you’ve been abused or the target of someone else’s actions, you should never feel a forced responsibility on you to play nice when society should be punishing the systems or the people who have wronged you. Of course, walking away from problematic situations like that requires its own privilege, usually monetary or class privilege. So for those who don’t have the money or options to never interact with their abusers again, my advice is never ever forget, even if you choose to forgive. You know how it goes: you don’t have to be kind to be nice. That applies to family, coworkers, companies, or businesses.
September 20, 2025 at 4:48 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
It's newsletter time, and you already know the topic: Marginalized voices are still being silenced, and this industry is not up to defending them. But why, and what can you do?

Patreon subs get it tomorrow:
www.patreon.com/halophoenix

Everyone else on Monday:
buttondown.email/alanhenry
Banner image for my newsletter. It reads "Productivity, without Privilege" in block text over a blue and brown background. In smaller text below reads "by Alan Henry."
September 18, 2025 at 10:58 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Every god damned morning I wake up and do this
Yakko Warner from Anamaniacs looking despondantly at his phone with a mug of coffee in the other hand, disgusted with what he's reading. He's wearing a bathrobe, sitting in his kitchen, with a half-empty pot of coffee in the foreground. He is all of us right now.
September 18, 2025 at 2:04 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Now that they're approved (and I remembered to post) check out these glorious new emotes that @obxidienne.bsky.social made for me!

Thank you so so much, they're PERFECT!
Three twitch emotes, from left to right: my persona/OC looking perplexed with math symbols around their face (per the meme), my persona making an adorable UwU face, and my personal licking the screen with huge adorable eyes because he loves you. All by @obxidienne.bsky.social! The emotes are arranged on a blue bokeh background.
September 7, 2025 at 7:20 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
I know I talk about my newsletter a lot, but hey, I'm just trying to build something new and survive out here like so many other creatives, so forgive me.

Besides, there's this, which I think is timeless:
buttondown.com/alanhenry/ar...
I love it when that happens. I love it when someone finds some piece of media or creative work that really resonates with them on a deep and personal level, and as soon as they dig into the person who created it, they find someone they look up to on a level they didn’t know they would before. Don’t get it twisted: I’m not talking about the kind of hero worship that’s so common in American politics and pop culture. I mean seeing another human being for who they are, as much as you can, not just through the lens of the work they produced that matters to you, but continuing to perceive them through reading more of their work, reading their own words and commentary, reading interviews and stories about them from people who knew them, and so on. To truly be seen and considered, and, hopefully, remembered. Isn’t that what we all want?
September 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Thanks so much, and take your time!
A screenshot of my donation to Heal Palestine
September 3, 2025 at 3:19 AM
halophoenix.bsky.social
The incredible @nightfawn.bsky.social made me look BEAUTIFUL. Thank you so so much for this! (And you'll see more of it very soon...)

Go commission my friend right TF now, I love ALL of her art, and I'm so glad she took my commission:
vgen.co/nightfawn/se...
An image of my self-inspired OC, wearing his trademark bi pride hoodie and headphones with a bi pride heart on one earcup. I have one hand on my chin and I'm looking at the viewer with a slight smile on and glow to my face. Watermark on the image reads: No AI | Not for Resale Thank You! For Halophoenix @nightfawn
September 2, 2025 at 11:45 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Done! I donated to Heal Palestine, the receipt and my ref are attached! (I also attached a sheet of my other emotes as an example (but obviously do your style!)

May I have a lick, an uwu, and a math meme? :D Thank you so much, let me know if you need anything else, and thanks for doing this! <3
A receipt for my $25 dollar donation to Heal Palestine. My ref sheet, featuring my look-alike OC, clad in parachute pants, tall boots, and a black hoodie, trimmed in bi-pride colors. A sample sheet of my current emote set, including a heart, hype, laughing, dead, and heart-eyes, made by Twee.
September 2, 2025 at 10:54 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
So how about that newsletter, huh?

ICYMI, I walked about creative inspiration, people who inspire you to keep going. No surprise then that a guy who owns a "Baldwin University" t-shirt would be inspired by the one and only:
buttondown.com/alanhenry/ar...
I’ve probably mentioned it before, but James Baldwin is my creative north star. Not because I want to be like him, or because I think my writing could possibly compare to his, but I draw inspiration from the way he was able to both speak profoundly and truthfully about the things that mattered to him and to so many others. He was able to communicate difficult topics in a way that cut them open and laid them bare for everyone to see and interpret. His books were formative for me, and I’ll never have the words to thank the 10th-grade English teacher who introduced me to both his work and the writing of Richard Wright. That kind of inspiration is, sometimes, what keeps me going. Especially on those days where I’m struggling, where I read the news and I want to go back to bed, when I’m sitting in front of my computer working on an article I don’t think anyone will read, or even when I’m working on a book proposal that’s been shelved because of the pushback against “DEI” at publishers. There’s still truth to tell, and there always will be.
September 2, 2025 at 2:31 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Comrade Chiitan, thank you. 💕
A screenshot of Chiitan liking my quote skeet from yesterday, which reads: "The hilarious irony of this political moment is that someone at DHS expects anyone to take "reporter says fuck on twitter" more seriously than "we regularly post manifest destiny was awesome, chattel slavery wasn't bad, white supremacist fanfic on twitter." Just fantastic, chef's kiss" - and is in reference to Anna Merlan's investigation into who's posting white supremacist nonsense on the Department of Homeland Security's official twitter account: https://bsky.app/profile/halophoenix.bsky.social/post/3lxhuoztcdf2p
August 29, 2025 at 6:01 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
Time for a very special Labor Day newsletter. In this edition, I talk about the importance of having a creative north star—someone whose work inspires you to keep going, and who mine is.

Patreon subs get it tomorrow:
www.patreon.com/halophoenix

Everyone else on Monday:
buttondown.email/alanhenry
Banner image for my newsletter. It reads "Productivity, without Privilege" in block text over a blue and brown background. In smaller text below reads "by Alan Henry."
August 28, 2025 at 8:24 PM
halophoenix.bsky.social
It's newsletter time! This edition of PwP goes back to my career advice roots with tips to make 1:1 meetings—whether you're leading them or forced to be in them—more useful.

Patreon subs get it tomorrow:
www.patreon.com/halophoenix

Everyone else on Friday:
buttondown.email/alanhenry
Banner image for the newsletter. It reads "Productivity, without Privilege" in block text over a blue and brown background. In smaller text below reads "by Alan Henry."
August 12, 2025 at 9:06 PM