I feel like I’m on a roller coaster right now . . .
My cat Sketch will be eleven years old in April. I’ve had him since he was five weeks old.
Friday night, I came home from ACME, and he was acting strangely: he was in the hallway (not on my bed where he usually is) breathing very heavily and rapidly. There was something clearly wrong with him.
Saturday morning, I took him to the vet, and she took some Xrays. They showed that his lungs were about 1/2 full of fluid, and none of the vets could figure out why. They think it may be something with his heart.
He spent the weekend at this 24 hour emergency vet, where they gave him some oxygen and some other medication, to help clear out his lungs. They took more Xrays yesterday evening, and there wasn’t any significant change.
This afternoon, the vet told me that he hasn’t responded to any of the medication, so tomorrow morning I’m taking him to get a cardiac ultrasound. The vet told me and Anne that he should be okay to stay with us overnight, so Anne brought him home, where he can sleep on our bed with us, and be close to his brother, Biko.
I just got back from ACME (the running joke is that I secretly live under the stage there now) and Sketch is in my bedroom with Anne.He’s really struggling. He hasn’t gotten worse (if he does, I will take him right back to the emergency vet), but he’s not getting better, either. If the ultrasound shows that he’s got some heart thing that I can’t remember the name of right now, he’ll get on medication right away, and it should clear out his lungs and put him back together.
But if it’s inconclusive, or shows something worse, I’m not going to let him suffer because I can’t say goodbye. I hope I don’t have to make that decision, and I’ve been appealing to The Universe all day to give Sketch a natural 20 on his saving throw. Please?
He’s such a tough little guy, I never thought that he would get sick like this, and so suddenly. Biko is the runt of their litter, and Felix has been in and out of the vet so many times, they’re naming a boat after him . . . but I love Sketch so much, I don’t want him to go. It would mean a lot to me if anyone who reads this would take a moment and send Sketch some kitty mojo, especially to his heart and lungs.
You can call him “Tubby,” or “Fatty,” or “Fat Boy,” or “Chunk,” too, because he responds to all those names. He’s my tubby little guy.
Thanks.

Do you ever have something really exciting that you want to share with the world, but you’re not allowed to talk about it? It drives you nuts that you have to keep it to yourself, so you quietly mention it to Janet, but Chrissy overhears you from the kitchen, and thinks you’re dying, so she tells Larry, and pretty soon you’re attending your own wake down at the Regal Beagle. You think this could be a chance to get Mr. Roper to give you a break on the rent, and maybe get a little something-something from that Kaylnn girl who passes out skates at the roller rink, but Mrs. Roper finds out the truth, and somehow you’re learning an embarassing lesson in front of all your friends, rather than getting lucky on the waterbed in your cousin’s van conversion.
In other words, I’ve been sitting on this big news for weeks, and I just got the green light to announce it. So pay attention, Chrissy:
I am writing a weekly column for The Onion A/V Club! Yeah, that’s right! The Onion A/V Club! Wooo!
Check out the spiffy announcement:

The Onion A.V. Club also extends a hearty welcome to a new contributor who comes to us from Hollywood via the Internet. Each week, actor/author/gaming enthusiast/icon/renaissance man Wil Wheaton, who maintains an online presence at wilwheaton.net, will take a look back to games past with his Games Of Our Lives column, reaching beyond Pac-Man and Donkey Kong to find the dusty arcade games and worn-out cartridges that paved the way for the games of today.

(When I read that, I told my editor, “I love it. Can I just tell you how happy I am that it’s not all ‘Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek (tiny font: writes some stuff too.)’?”
He said, “Well, the original draft referred to you as ‘the spunky lad who saved the universe’ and then went on to say ‘Star Trek, Star Trek, Star Trek.’ Then I had second thoughts.”)
Can you freakin’ believe that I get to write for them?! Holy shit! Writing this column is as much fun as doing Love Machine at ACME each week. I get a chance to be funny, add something pretty prestigious to my resume, and I finally have an excuse for playing so many classic video games. I mean, how many people do you know who could deduct an X-arcade Controller? 🙂
I did an interview with The Onion A/V Club in 2002. If you haven’t seen it, you can read it here.
My first Games of Our Lives appears tomorrow. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

I just got off the phone with my manager.
The casting people loved me, and thought I gave a great reading, but . . . (wait for it) I’m not going to get a chance to bring The Script to life. The producers want to go in a different direction, and some of my essences (too smart for my own good, Passionate with a capital “P”) worked against me. The tiny silver lining is that the people I read for know what I look like and what I’m bring to a role now. That’s good, because there will be other shows . . . sigh.
I still haven’t heard anything about the 28 January, 2005 Wil 97 Comments

I am joining a growing list of Americans who oppose the confirmation, of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General.

As the prime legal architect for the policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration, Gonzales’s advice led directly to the abandonment of longstanding federal laws, the Geneva Conventions, and the United States Constitution itself. Our country, in following Gonzales’s legal opinions, has forsaken its commitment to human rights and the rule of law and shamed itself before the world with our conduct at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. The United States, a nation founded on respect for law and human rights, should not have as its Attorney General the architect of the law’s undoing.
In January 2002, Gonzales advised the President that the United States Constitution does not apply to his actions as Commander in Chief, and thus the President could declare the Geneva Conventions inoperative. Gonzales’s endorsement of the August 2002 Bybee/Yoo Memorandum approved a definition of torture so vague and evasive as to declare it nonexistent. Most shockingly, he has embraced the unacceptable view that the President has the power to ignore the Constitution, laws duly enacted by Congress and International treaties duly ratified by the United States. He has called the Geneva Conventions “quaint.”
[. . .]
With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and we urge the Senate to reject him.

While it is vital that we defeat our enemies, we must not become them in the process. As a nation, we must stand united against Albert Gonzales and everything he represents. Torture is not an American value.

I’ve run into a database error with MT-Blacklist, and until I get it worked out, I have to manually approve or deny comments, and it’s taking up a lot of time. It turns out that spammers totally ::heart:: my blog. It also means that if I’m AFK for an extended time, non-typekey users won’t get their comments added to the site for a loooong time.
So until I get this issue worked out, I’m changing my blog configuration to only accept comments from TypeKey users.
Now, listen, privacy is a big deal with me. Here’s what they say about it:

What about my privacy?
We’re committed to providing a service that respects user privacy. Therefore, we will not publish information that you have not chosen to make public, nor will we share your information without your explicit permission. We’re not in the business of selling email addresses, and we give users the option to choose whether they’d like to send their email address to the sites which they are commenting on.

I’m pretty comfortable using Typekey, for what that’s worth. I don’t mind being held accountable for my comments, either, and I believe that the vast majority of WWdN readers feel the same way. Actually, we’ll see how it goes with Typekey enabled. Maybe it will bring back some of the cool interaction that we used to have here a few years ago.
There’s more information about the service in the Extended TypeKey FAQ, and readers are always encouraged to privately share their thoughts with me via e-mail.