WIL WHEATON dot NET: 1.5

This is beyond cool. Follow this link to You Tube if the embedded player thingy doesn't work. I removed the embedded player thingy because it was slowing the load time of the page. The video is still really cool, though.

(via Waxy)

Update - I'm just going to add a two more cool things here which don't fit anywhere else, but go nicely together with the video above:

This guy bought an old Superman pinball machine, customized it, and it was reborn as a Futurama pinball machine, complete with spinning Slurm can. Awesome.

At boingboing, Cory linked to this ten minute video of Disneyland's Main Street USA, right after it opened in 1956. Very, very cool.

Posted by Wil at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBacks (4)

Sean Bonner spilled meme all over me, so . . .

Four Jobs I've Had In My Life in LA:
Working Actor
Struggling Actor
Desperately Struggling Actor
Writer

Four Movies About LA I Could Watch Over And Over:
Swingers
LA Confidential
The Big Lebowski
Blade Runner

Four Places I've Lived All Over L.A. (With Food Memories From Each):
Sunland: Walking to Bob's Big Boy for Big Boy Combos with my parents
La Crescenta: Big chicken and beef bowls from Yakis
Westwood: 45-cent frozen burritos from breadstix
Pasadena: Super Fire Hot Wings at Hooters in Old Town, where it all began

Four LA-Themed Shows I Love(d) To Watch:
CHiPs
Alias
Three's Company
Emergency!

Four Places I Would Vacation At In LA:
Shutters in Santa Monica
Any campground in the San Gabriel Mountains
The Biltmore downtown
The Ritz Carlton in South Pasadena

Four LA-Based Websites I Visit Daily:
blogging.la
BoingBoing
Nickerblog
Bill Rini

Four Of My Favorite Foods Found In LA:
Huevos rancheros from Cafe Verde
Big chicken bowl w/ potato salad and extra green sauce from Yakis
Petit fillet from The Arroyo Chophouse
Grilled Dodger Dogs from the Inner Reserve level at Dodger Stadium

Four Places In LA I Would Rather Be Right Now:
Somewhere with my wife
Amoeba Music
Echo Mountain
Zuma Beach

Tagged:
Annie
Shane
Xeni
Ryan [done, and happy birthday!]

(photo via atomicShed on flickr)

Posted by Wil at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (1)

When I posted about the Race for the Cure last Sunday, I hoped that I'd generate $500 in donations, but I expected to get somewhere closer to $200.

I am so pleased, and so thrilled to announce that WWdN:iX readers joined together to contribute eight hundred and twenty-four dollars to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in Los Angeles County.

I've thanked each of you individually, and now I'd like to thank you all publicly:

From PokerStars -

1. Johnny
2. Carsten
3. Misty
4. Big Slick Nuts

From WWdN:iX -

1. Daniel G.
2. Lara W, in honor or Aunt Catherine
3. Rob S.
4. Christian R.
5. Kate L.
6. Michelle M.
7. Carrie I.
8. Kirsten W.
9. Ray and Erica B.
10. Tony and Elizabeth M.
11. John D.
12. Shauna R.
13. David V.
14. Wendy M.
15. Christina C.
16. Holly H.
17. Ryan W.
18. Christopher E.
19. Christine R.
20. Chris S.
21. Anonymous, for Shannon.
22. Damon B.
23. Paul S.
24. Mary M.
25. Martin R.
26. Paul G.
27. Jean S.

I love the "distributed fundraising" part of this whole thing. Thanks to the Internets, I was able to reach more people, more easily, and more quickly than if I'd sent out a ton of paper letters, or walked through my neighborhood knocking on doors. In fact, some of you even sent donations from Great Britain, which arrived here almost instantaneously thanks to Pay Pal. Ten years ago, that wouldn't have been nearly as easy as it was this week, if it was even possible at all. You know, we can make a very positive difference in the world, simply by coming together when we have an opportunity to build something that's greater than all of us individually.

For those of you who wanted to be part of this, but couldn't, our friend Kris is back in the hospital, so Anne and I are doing the Rock and Roll Marathon again this year, and our fundraising is just about to get started. This year, we'll have a blog dedicated to training and updates, as well as some in-person fundraisers in Los Angeles and some virtual fundraisers online (poker tourneys, eBay auctions, etc.)

Thank you all for your kindness, support, and generosity.

Posted by Wil at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Okay, I am really sick, with a fever and the coughing and the aches and the whole damn thing. So I haven't been able to get as much writing done as I'd like, because the aches are so severe in my arms and hands, the tips of my fingers occasionally hurt, especially when I type the letter "p" ouch.

This means that I've done a ton of reading today, and I've subjected myself to a few hours of CNN. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. No wonder so many Americans are misinformed, if they are getting their information from cable news. These douchebags do everything they can to create controversy where there is none, and they don't even try to hide it.

Example: Wolf Blitzer, on The Situation Room (which is only watchable because of Jack Cafferty), just teased a segment on Jon Stewart thusly: "He says it will be the most controversial Academy Awards, ever . . ."

Wow. That sure sounds provocative, Wolf! Let's go to the transcript and see when he said that:

     KING:  All right, let's move to some things.  Jon Stewart will host the Oscars Sunday night.

     STEWART:  It's going to be the most controversial Oscars ever.  I would not be surprised if the whole country tunes in.

     KING:  Will you, truthfully will you get into politics?

     STEWART:  Sorry?  You mean after I retire as a comedian?

     KING:  No, will you get into politics Sunday?

STEWART: Oh, I'm sure there will be references and such like that but I'm not -- I'm not going out there, you know, looking to blow the place up. I want to -- I want to do a nice job. Really for the most part the pressure I feel is for the actors and actresses and people that are nominated and who are there and it's their big day and you don't want to screw up their wedding. You don't want to be the deejay going, you know, all right everybody let's play Celebrate. Where's my CD? You know.

For fuck's sake. Are you idiots at CNN so invested in propping up your useless bullshit hosts that you'll deliberately mislead your viewers? Watch the fucking tape, and try real, real hard to see the gleam in Jon Stewart's eye, and then try real, real hard to hear the sarcasm in his voice. Then watch a few seconds longer, and see that Jon clearly doesn't intend to do anything to fuck up the Oscars, and in fact understands exactly what he's supposed to do as the host. Here it is again, just in case you missed it:

STEWART: Oh, I'm sure there will be references and such like that but I'm not -- I'm not going out there, you know, looking to blow the place up. I want to -- I want to do a nice job. Really for the most part the pressure I feel is for the actors and actresses and people that are nominated and who are there and it's their big day and you don't want to screw up their wedding. You don't want to be the deejay going, you know, all right everybody let's play Celebrate. Where's my CD? You know.

I wonder if someone at CNN is upset that Jon Stewart made Larry King look like a douchebag, and is still upset that he exposed to the world what a colossal joke Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson were on Crossfire.    

Posted by Wil at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

Technorati added  a new service to the already useful search, explore and watchlist functions they offer, which allows users to create a list of their favorite blogs. Though WWdN dropped out of their top 100 when I hosed the database back in September, I was still invited to participate in a "featured favorites" thing, with people like Arianna Huffington and David Sifry.

You can see which blogs I chose here. If you'd like to add WWdN:iX to your own list of favorites, you can use the handy link over on the right side there, where you can also add my blog to several different RSS readers.

All this stuff will be built into the redesign of WWdN, which should be finished and launched shortly before Duke Nuke'Em Forever ships.

Posted by Wil at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

In case you missed Jon Stewart on Larry King the other night, Crooks & Liars has video and a partial transcript (but you really need to see or hear it, because a lot of the way Jon Stewart talks is lost in the literal written tranlsation.) Larry King made several feeble attempts to create controversy, and Jon Stewart kicked him square in the nuts each time. Witness this exchange:

KING: You don't want Medicare to fail?

STEWART: Are you insane?

KING: No.

STEWART: You're literally asking me if I would prefer -- yes, Larry, what I'm saying to you as a comedian I want old people to suffer, old and poor people to suffer. That is -- that is -- what we want is -- what seems absurd to me is the length that Washington just seems out of touch with the desires of Americans to be spoken to as though they are adults.

Nice try, Larry; too bad Jon didn't go for it. Maybe you can team up with Nancy Grace for a two hour Aruba Special to get back on familiar, more comfortable ground.

That question was just one of several "gotcha" attempts which failed spectacularly when Jon refused to take the bait, and instead turned the ludicrous question back on Larry King, who of course had no response other than this painful frozen half-smile that was equal parts fear and lothing. When Larry King wasn't completely controlling the tone and content of the show, you could feel how uncomfortable he was. Jon Stewart was so funny, and so quick-witted, and so smart and so insightful, if Larry King wasn't trying so hard to create controversy where there was none, you'd almost feel bad that he wasn't able to keep up.

Posted by Wil at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

I just realized that the Grand Slam convention in Pasadena is coming up in just ten days, running from the 10th until the 12th at the Pasadena Convention center.

I haven't done any conventions since this show last year, because I didn't feel like I had any new material, I thought it made sense to take a break from cons, yadda, yadda, yadda, but since I have Just A Geek: The Audio Book, and some advance material on Do You Want Kids With That? I thought it made sense to attend this show.

I also thought it would be a fantastic and unique opportunity to do a Star Trek podcast, with interviews of anyone I could talk to, as well as an audio diary of my experiences at the show.

So I gave Adam at Creation a call, and even though it's super last minute, he added me to the schedule. I doubt I'll be doing anything up on stage (everything is booked already) but there's a chance I may sneak on to introduce someone, or do something cool.

Hope to see some of you there!

Posted by Wil at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBacks (1)