WWdN: In Exile

Going Boldly . . .

I just added some pictures to my flickr stream from Star Trek the Tour. My battery died real fast (stupid me for not bringing an extra) so there aren't many. However, I'm really happy with the ones I got.

This is my favorite, which was taken by my awesome wife:

"When I was a teenager, I got tired of sitting in this chair really fast. As an adult, though, it brings back only fond memories. Seconds before this photo was taken, I typed my fingers across the Okudagram, using the same series of commands that I made up to send the ship to warp speed.

Yes, I was such a geek, I invented my own fake logic for driving the spaceship. When you're sitting there saying 'Aye, Sir,' for hours at a time, you've got to do something to keep yourself entertained, right?"

the pre-con jitters and ramblings about books

I haven't written much lately, because there just isn't that much going on around here that I can talk about. I'm writing a lot -- not as much as I want to, but still doing it every day -- and I've discovered that if I talk with anyone other than Andrew about my ideas, they lose the need to be told.

It's like I've said before: there are these ideas, knocking at the door, trying to get into our world, and the way we writers open that door is by writing the ideas down. I've also figured out that, for me at least, talking about story ideas is like looking through the peephole so I can describe what I see, but when I try to open the door by writing, whatever was on the doorstep has vanished.

So I can't talk about the ideas I have, which is what I'd probably be talking about right now.

I leave for Phoenix Cactus Con tomorrow, and I have these pre-con jitters that I haven't had in years. I've never been to this show, so I don't know what to expect (though I guess they're conservatively estimating over 4000 people.) I shipped out 160 Happiest Days, 25 Barefoots, and 25 Geeks yesterday to meet me at my hotel tomorrow afternoon. It seems like an awful lot (and I'm not expecting that I'll sell them all) but I'd rather deal with getting extras back home, than not having enough to sell. I'm bringing out some 8x10 pictures, too, because people seem to like those.

Once the rain settles down here, I'm going over to the office store to buy some sharpies, and then I'll start packing up my stuff. I've gotten really good at packing for cons over the years. You didn't need to know that, but occasionally I like to share fun facts that make me seem cooler than I am.

If you're going to the con, I found out that it's super affordable to get in: $25 for the whole weekend including preview night tomorrow (I'll be there for preview night, of course) or $20 on Saturday and $15 on Sunday. You know what rules even more than that? Kids under 10 are free! I love that the promoters are doing this, because it makes it an affordable family activity that allows geekdads and geekmoms to help their little geeklings gain levels in, uh, geek, I guess.

If you're going to the con, and you've never been to a con before, you may want to read my GiR "Concerning Conventions" which I wrote after doing several conventions last year.

Here's the schedule for Phoenix, by the way:

Friday Preview Night:

6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Vendor Room
6:30 PM to 11:45 PM Programming

Saturday:

10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Vendor Room
10 AM to 11:45 PM Programming <-- I'm performing at 8pm! Come see me or I'll cry.

Sunday:

10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Vendor Room
10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Programming

 

And there's gaming! Did I mention that there's gaming? Yeah, there's gaming, and you can get a gaming-only ticket for just eight bucks. Eight bucks! If I hit a lull in signing and stuff, I am so going to the gaming area. While the leak in my roof would rather I didn't have a lull, the geek in myself sure would like to play some German games, so I'm trying to convince myself that, either way, I win.

I plan to do a lot of conventions this year, partly because I'd like to fix this leak in my roof and finish some work around my house that's been delayed for over a year, but mostly because I just love going to cons. I feel at home when I'm at a con, and if I don't take care of my inner geek by going to conventions, he rebels in the most unsavory of ways. Everything I've seen about Phoenix Comic/Cactus Con makes me feel like this is the perfect way to kick off this year.

Semi-related, but on my mind so I'm posting it:

If I don't finish it tonight, I'll finish Elizabeth Bear's Hammered on the flight tomorrow. I really love this book, and can't wait to review it. Candidates for the next book include Joe Haldeman's Camouflage, Charlie Stross' Atrocity Archives or Halting State, or The Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthology from 1970 that I picked up on your (that's the royal "your") recommendation. I'm also working my way through Wastelands, which is an awesome post-apocalypse anthology, and perfect for picking up and putting down while you're "really" reading something else. I'm also considering Spook Country, though after Hammered -- which is the first post-cyberpunk novel I think I've ever read -- I may want to go with something different, like maybe Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners. Or maybe Coraline, which I'm deeply ashamed to admit I own, but have never read.

I just realized that I really like talking about books. Hm. Nice. Maybe I should get back to writing one.

the geekiest thing i've ever posted on my blog

Newsflash: I'm proud to be a geek. I can't imagine life without comics, hobby games, dice, science fiction, movie soundtracks, and the people who love them. Well, I can imagine it, but it's just about the most boring goddamn thing I can imagine.

When we were younger, it was cruel and hurtful to call someone a geek. These days, though, it's a badge of honor, and I'd like to think that I've been able to play a very small part in the geek pride movement.

So with that in mind, I now post the geekiest link I've ever posted on my blog, everything you ever wanted to know about Retconning, but were afraid to ask.

Retconning comes from "retroactive continuity," meaning "taking the continuity of your storyline and retroactively changing part of it so things didn't happen the way they happened," and there are many ways to do it. Let's talk about them together, shall we?

I've posted some geeky stuff in the past, but I honestly think this is the geekiest of them all.

(5d12 GP to DJE for the link)

good news, everyone!

Well, good news to everyone who is going to Phoenix Comicon, anyway (which is in just five days, demonstrating how effectively a convention can sneak up on me when I'm doing other things.)

UPS just dropped off 25 copies of Just A Geek and Dancing Barefoot, which I purchased from O'Reilly at great expense to myself and my heirs. So if you're hoping to get your hands on The Collected Works of Me, Wil Wheaton, we'll probably be able to exchange shiny gold rocks for bound collections of dead trees and words.

the best thing i have ever read on the internets

Jonathan Coulton:

Really? This is a good use of your time, to make someone you’ve never met feel bad just because they made an amateur fan video about something they really like? Where’s your thing that you made and put online for everyone to see, you chicken-shit cockhole?

He writes this in response to the idiots who have left hurtful, cruel, hateful comments on a fan-made cover of Still Alive that's on YouTube.

Not that my opinion matters at all, speaking as someone who's endured something similar for two decades, I deeply respect the courage this girl has to create something like this, and put it out on the Internets where chicken-shit cockholes can take cheap shots at her from the safe anonymity of their own miserable little lives.

I would also be remiss if I didn't point to xkcd and Penny Arcade, which are both relevant to this post.

UPDATE: Yes, I am wilwheaton on YouTube, and I'm touched in the bad place that anyone thinks I'm worth impersonating.

propelled!

I'm working like crazy to get this Angel One review finished today so I can get started on some other (awesome) stuff that's been bouncing around in my brains.

Until I have something new and interesting of my own to talk about, I'd like to share some really cool links I've found while Propelling in the last 24 hours:

Gordon Freeman crank calls Coast to Coast AM

Video Games – A theoretical physicist named "Gordon" called up the conspiracy wonks at Coast to Coast AM to tell 'em all about a mysterious government agent -- a "G-Man" if you will -- that he keeps seeing around. Lots of fantastic Half Life and Portal jokes for those who can read between the lines, here.

Marching band's classic video game themed halftime show

Popular Videos – In this video, the UC Berkeley marching band performs a video-game-themed halftime show, playing the beloved themes from such old friends as Tetris, Zelda, Mario Brothers and others, all the while marching in animated formation and reenacting scenes from the
game. Bravo! [via boingboing]

The History of 'It' Girls (And Their Predictable Downfalls)

Celebrities – History has no dearth of young women who, once thrust into the limelight, manage to screw things up in astounding, stupefying ways. From extremely public and scandalous affairs to drug addiction to homelessness, It girls through the ages have been there, done that, and few have lived to tell the tale.

Now, it's back to Angel One, where -- contrary to what you've read in travel guides -- they're not as into the snu-snu as they once were.

Cloverfield

I saw Cloverfield yesterday afternoon, early enough so I could avoid a theater filled with douchebags. I understand that this was a good thing, because people I know who saw it at night with the aforementioned douchebags were so annoyed by them, and so pulled out of the movie by them, it seriously fucked with their ability to enjoy the film.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. I gave it 3 out of 5, but only because the first-person shaky camera stuff made me violently seasick, causing me to look away from the screen more frequently than I did with Blair Witch (a movie, by the way, that I enjoyed as much as "meh" can be enjoyed, and which doesn't deserve to be compared to Cloverfield, IMHO.) On story and effectiveness, I give it a 4.6 out of 5but the camera stuff really messed with me, and I suspect it will mess with other viewers, as well.

Assume there will be spoilers in comments, because I'm starting the comments off with my extended commentary on the film, which you should not read if you haven't seen it yet.

The Bad Astronomer (who I owned in a Techonobabbloff yesterday) has some nitpicks and a review that I agreed with pretty much all the way, too.

joe morello is a god

Take Five and check this out:

(This is from the classic jazz album Time Out. Video via Indie Laundry)

announcement 5 of 4 (math is hard!)

According to Eventful, 84 people have joined a demand for me to come to San Diego. I usually come down for Comic-con, but with the eleventy billion people down there every year, it's not exactly the most intimate environment for a reading and signing. So I've been looking for a more reasonable venue, where I won't have to compete for attention with half-naked cosplaying MILFs.

So I talked to the Awesome Patrol at my favorite indie bookstore in San Diego, and I'm coming to Mysterious Galaxy Books on May 3 for a reading, signing, and geekfest.

I had a whole bunch of fun the last time I came to Mysterious Galaxy with Just a Geek. There was a great crowd, and it's a fantastic store. I'm really looking forward to doing this, and I think it's appropriate that Mysterious Galaxy will be the first official in-store signing on Wil Wheaton's Happiest Tour of My Life, which I've just decided to launch and may cancel due to lack of interest at future date.

Mysterious Galaxy has a page with details and book ordering information, and I've also created an event page at Eventful that doesn't have ordering information, but does have a spiffy picture of me, Wil Wheaton.

Library of Congress puts thousands of photos on Flickr

File this under Coolest Damn Thing I've Seen All Day: The Library of Congress put over 3100 pictures on Flickr:

Library of Congress staff often make digital versions of our popular image collections available online as quickly as possible by relying primarily on the identifying information that came with the original photos. That text can be incomplete and is even inaccurate at times. We welcome your contribution of names, descriptions, locations, tags, and also your general reactions.

It's divided into two different sets:

1930s-40s in Color:

These vivid color photos from the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white. Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944.

News events in the 1910s:

Welcome to the daily news scene from almost a hundred years ago, as photographed by the Bain News Service in about 1910-1912. We invite your tags and comments! Also, lots more identification information. (Most of these old photos came to the Library of Congress with very little description.)

This selected set of 1,500 photographs is from a large collection of almost 40,000 glass negatives. The entire collection spans 1900-1920 and richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, and political activities, with a special emphasis on life in New York City.

I've only looked at a few dozen of these pictures, but they're just astonishingly beautiful. Many of them have a haunting quality, as well, and would make great Ficlet inspiration.

I Propelled this link the instant I saw it, if any propeller heads wish to vote for it.