WIL WHEATON dot NET: 1.5

Remember when I had free time, and I could work on this website?

Yeah, those were the days, I tell you what.

Check out this thought of the day, sent to me by someone with an incredible story of his own:

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man's life a sorrow and a suffering enough to disarm all hostility."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Posted by Wil at 6:36 PM | Permalink

I so don't have time to write today...I've got a pretty big deadline tonight...but I just had to share this: from my office, I can look out into a building that's currently under construction, about 2 miles away. The coolest thing is that I can see these bright flashes of light, spread out across many floors, from the welders doing their welding thing.

Computers Suck

Posted by Wil at 1:42 PM | Permalink

I was thinking today that the Cave Troll in Lord of the Rings looks an awful lot like the offspring of Sloth and the Rancor Beast from Jedi.

Discuss.

Posted by Wil at 4:06 PM | Permalink

Living in Los Angeles, my car has never seen the inside of a garage, and I intend to keep it that way. Garages, despite their name, are not for cars. They are for your stuff, and if you can actually walk from one side of your garage to the other without climbing, your name isn't Wil Wheaton.

After three years of climbing, Anne and I decided that it was time to go through our garage, and get rid of stuff that we don't need anymore. I mean, we've lived in our house for 3 years, and we still haven't completely unpacked our stuff from the old house. So we spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday going through box after box of stuff. Man, I have lots of stuff. I never throw anything away, and I attach massive sentimental value to just about everything that I own, so cleaning things up and throwing things out is never an easy task for me...until this time. I found stuff which used to be really important to me that just wasn't anymore. T-shirts that I thought I'd never throw away, books that I had never read, but intended to read, pictures, knick-knacks...they all went right into the dumpster, or to the Goodwill.

I found stuff that was really wonderful, like a birthday card to me from the entire cast of TNG, from my 15th birthday, and the poster from Toy Soldiers, signed to me by Dan Petrie, Jr, who wrote and directed it. I found Anne's original Atari 2600, and my old TI 99/4A, and more pictures of me and my family than I can count.

I also found some stuff that I'd rather forget...I came across stuff that I had written when I was about 20 and working for NewTek...holy shit. What an ass I was. I mean, I've read some arrogant, loud-mouthed, cocksure rantings before, but this crap really takes the cake. If I could travel back in time and find me, I'd smack me a good one, right in the mouth. I recently heard from someone who said that he'd met me when I was about 19 or 20, and I was a total dick. Well, dude, you were right on. I was a complete ass, and I need to make a public apology to anyone who dealt with me between the ages of about 15 and 21. Those were 6 very angry, self-righteous, frustrated, confused years for me, and I wasn't exactly quiet about my feelings.

Buddhism teaches that one of the main causes of suffering is desire, and that living a simple lifestyle, devoid of unnecessary stuff, is part of the journey towards enlightenment. This really makes sense to me, and I was very anxious to clear out my junk. It was amazingly freeing, to get rid of all this stuff, in both a practical way, and a spiritual way, also.

I got to thinking about this thing that some people call your "Saturn Return". Check it out:

Astrologers call the period between ages twenty-eight and thirty "Saturn Return." That's because it's the first time the planet Saturn completes its cycle through your birth chart and returns to the spot it occupied when you were born. Internationally respected astrologer Rob Hand calls Saturn Return "one of the most important times in your life. . . a time of endings and new beginnings."

Now, understand that I put exactly zero stock in astrology (but I don't judge those who do, so save yourself the trouble of flaming me about it, okay?), but I found this to be really interesting, because while I was cleaning out the garage, deciding what I was going to keep and what I was going to throw away, I felt like I was examining myself, where I've been in my life, and where I am headed. I felt like I was saying 'goodbye' to older periods of my life, and embracing some new beginnings, and removing old physical and spiritual baggage that my life doesn't need any longer. It was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment and growth, and if you've never done this, I can't endorse it enough.

On Sunday, Nolan had an All Star soccer game...so I once again got to enjoy the stunningly bad behavior of soccer parents. That was nice. It's been at least 2 weeks since I saw some parent taking out their frustrations with their own inadequecies on their kid. Once again, for those of you keeping score at home, when a bunch of 10 year olds are playing soccer, it is, in fact, as important as the World Cup.

Sunday afternoon, I went and did an interview on The April Winchell Show. It was really fun. April is supercool, and the show was really laid back and silly. We talked about FARK, Jane White, and life in general.

Then, last night, Ryan and Anne made dinner: Steaks on the George Foreman Grill. Once again, I can't tell you how awesome this Foreman Grill is, man. Get one, and use it. You won't be sorry.

The only drag for me, the whole weekend, was that The Simpsons wasn't on at 8 last night, so we missed it.

I'm thinking that if the worst thing that happens on the weekend is not being able to watch The Simpsons, things are going very well.

Very well, indeed.

Posted by Wil at 1:14 PM | Permalink

Really busy today, but I wanted to share a couple of things:

This is amazingly funny, scary, and stunning all at once. No, it's not pictures of Emperor Bush doing the funky chicken. It's the story of one man's dealings with a spammer. Hilarious.

Also, if you're in the LA area, and you want to see a really cool show tomorrow night, you should head over to the ACME and see Shane and Rowan's Late Night Comedy Sideshow. These guys are really cool, very funny, and their show is the closest you're going to get to seeing a real "variety" show. Tell them Uncle Willie sent ya. I won't be in any ACME shows for a couple of months, but you should still head over there and catch the funny.

Congrats to all the auction winners! I think I'm done with auctions for awhile, with the exception of that VHS of "The Curse"...it's already stinkin' up my house, and I think I need to find a new home for it :)

Posted by Wil at 10:57 AM | Permalink

Good [appropriate time-related greeting], everyone.

I just found out that TRON is coming out on special-edition DVD on Tuesday. Holy crap!! How many of you, if you're near 30 or so, left the theatre, got a frisbee, and began battling with your friends as soon as you got home?

When I was in 5th grade, there was this kid named Brad. Brad's mom made him a TRON costume, by drawing blue lines all over some long underwear, and painting blue lines on a hockey helmet. I thought Brad was certain to win the school costume contest, but he lost...to some kid who was dressed up as "David"...that's right. "David", is in , "David and Goliath". Complete with sling. I guess the parochial school I was attending thought that "David" furthered their agenda a bit better than TRON did. Besides, we all know that computers are sent stright out of the mouth of hell, right?

I think the only other movie from my childhood that I wanted to emulate as badly at TRON was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not even Star Wars did it for me the way those two films did. I think it's because there were action figures for Star Wars, so I could play with them, and, while there were toys for Raiders and TRON, they weren't as cool.

Wow, that was one hell of a TRON tangent.

I recorded my VO for the A&E Biography of River Phoenix yesterday...it was really tough. I had to stop a couple of times, because I felt like I was going to cry. I haven't thought about him, really, for years. I didn't know River when he was a messed up. I only really knew him when we were kids, working on Stand By Me. I don't know what drove him to be a drug addict, because it's different for everyone...but I suspect that a big part of it was a desire to numb the pain that often comes with being a professional actor and celebrity. River hated celebrity, and had a very hard time with it...that I do know. There are times when I don't like celebrity, either, but I am lucky enough to have survived my teens and early twenties, and now that I'm almost 30 (!) I can put stuff into perspective.

I often wonder what would have become of River, if he'd lived. I think he'd be giving actors like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt a run for their money, man.

The producer told me that it should run sometime in March. I think it's going to get noticed.

I'm having SHOUTcast problems. When my stream has been going for awhile, it freaks out, and just starts broadcasting static. I can't seem to figure out what's triggering this, and the help forums don't seem to have any info about it. If you've experienced this problem, or know how to solve it, would you drop me an email? I'd like to get the RFB going again.

Have a great [day, evening, night, walk through the park], everyone!

Oh, if you're bidding, don't forget that the Star Trek lunch box auction ends tonight at about 8PM PST.

Posted by Wil at 8:37 AM | Permalink

I'm sitting at work, listening to the Hi-Fi stream of the RFB.

There is something amazingly satisfying about this. :-)

3:48 PM Well, not anymore. It's gone to just static again. Bummer. I won't be able to fix it until I get home.

Right in the middle of Radiohead, too.

Dang.

Posted by Wil at 3:12 PM | Permalink

Good morning, everyone! I just have a minute, this morning, and I wanted to make a few announcements.

*I've had this auction up on eBay for about a week, and it's ending in 1 day, 12 hours. I just thought I'd remind anyone who wanted to check it out.

*This morning, I'm going to be recording my nararation for the A&E Biography of River Phoenix. I was reading over it last night, getting ready for today, and it really brought back a lot of happy memories, and a feeling of extreme sadness...there are parts of this that are going to be very hard to get through, and I would like to personally say, "Fark You, A-hole", to all the people who knew River was using cocaine and heroin, and didn't try to stop him. Good job, guys.

*I just found out that my brother and his fiancee are moving really close to me!! Like 5 minutes away!! I can't wait. My brother and I spent much of our childhoods at odds with each other (mostly because I was an idiot), and we've gotten much closer in the last 6 years or so, and I am so excited that he's moving closer to me, so we can hang out more often.

*I'm looking into a permanent message board solution, that would be hosted off-site, so that we don't have these problems, anymore, like we've been having with the soapbox. It's really tearing me up, because I really want to just use OS stuff, and support that movement, but I have to find a balance between stability, my technical skills, and reliability for all of you guys. Remember how happy you all were when the soapbox crashed twice?

*Yesterday, I went down to Lightspeed Fine Art, and signed a few lithos for them. I've been getting lots of requests for autographed stuff, and since it looks like I won't be able to make that manay appearences in the near future, I thought that it was a good way to get some stuff out there for the people.

*Recently, I've searched for my name on eBay, just to see what people are selling, get an idea of what I should charge for shipping, etc. I have seen lots of faked autorgaphs. I mean, TONS. I sent email to one seller, and they took the picture in question down, but there are others. If you're going to be buying autographs there, you really have to do your homework. I think it just sucks that people would rip other people off, like that, so you gotta be careful.

*I also saw that Stile said that "Wil F***ing rules!" (without the *** of course. I'm trying to keep it sort of clean, here, kids. :-), and that Alex has writen niceys about me, again. Cool! (Both of these sites are NSFW, BTW)

*Finally, *I want to say thank you to everyone who's emailed kinds wishes, advice, and support over the last 6 weeks or so. I've been reading all the emails, and I'm very sorry that I haven't been able to respond. Actually, it doesn't look like I will be able to reply to every email, now, because my time is just not there, between my new job, auditions, and trying to spend time with my family. I will continue to read everything, but replies will become the exception, not the rule. It's not because I don't care...I mean, it's not you, it's me! You're fine, I just...well...uh...I need my space, because we're getting older now, and, well, I just don't want you to get hurt.

Hey, we can still be friends, right?

Have a great day, everyone. Don't forget to check out the return of the WFS shirts, for a limited time!

Posted by Wil at 9:03 AM | Permalink

When my alarm went off this morning, I was in the middle of a dream. I was talking to Jean Stapleton, but she looked exactly like she did when I worked with her in "The Buddy System", and she was a teacher at my elementary school. I was about to tell her something really important, and the alarm went off.

So the first thing I thought was, "damn. I was in the middle of a dream." The Bangles did the rest, without any prodding from your humble writer.

My first day at G4 was awesome.

I was so scared on my way in, I can't even tell you. I was absolutely terrified that I would mess up, or do something wrong, or crash the network, or just not fit in...but everyone there really is amazingly cool, and really made me feel at home. It's weird...I've never sat at a desk before. Usually, for me, work means that I go to a set someplace, get ready, then sit around and read a book for a while, or play a game or something. I actually "work" for just a few hours out of the day...so I was really out of water, to say the least.

But it really worked out well. I had a couple of meetings, got used to my desk, watched a huge structure fire in Beverly Hills, ate lunch with my friend Travis, who was instrumental in getting me this job.

[Tangent: my friend Travis has really been amazing in my life since we started the whole "Mind Meld" thing for Vega$. That show would never have worked without his help, because I so didn't know how to produce anything, and Travis did. He kept me sane and made that show come off without a hitch. Without Travis, the holidays would have been so much worse than they already were. The short version is, I owe Travis more than I will ever be able to repay, and I am eternally grateful for his friendship. If you have a friend like Travis, and if you do, you know it, consider yourself one of the luckiest people alive, and make sure that friend knows how important they are to you. Travis also has the coolest girlfriend, ever. She watches him play video games. For reals. Okay, end Tangent]

After lunch, I played my first ever game of Counter Strike...and I must say, I can't believe that I'm getting paid to play this game. It is awesome. Yes, I know that I am a bleeding pacifist, but it's just a game, folks, and it is REALLY fun. Especially when you're playing on a LAN, and you hear the computer next to you errupt with gunfire, and across the office (we have the whole top floor of this building) you hear somone yell out, "Aw shit!"

Finally, I watched a beautiful sunset. There is something wonderful about watching the sky turn from silver to gold to red and finally to indigo and black. There's nothing between our building and the sea, too, so when the air is clear, I get to watch the sun sink into the Pacific. I think I'm going to be really happy here. The only thing that I don't like are the absolutely awful flourescent lights that sit above my desk. I had a headache in my eyes by 11 am. I'm told that everyone hates the floursecent lights, though, and I think we'll be getting rid of them shortly.

ACME

The ACME show was awesome on Saturday night! All the sketches just killed, and I got, as Ed Marques put it, "sitcom-style exit applause" whenever I left a scene. A couple of people who read this site actually came to the show!! Kat came with Alex, and Dawn came with a whole OC posse. Dawn doesn't have a website, and you're sorry she doesn't, guys. Dawn is a babe, and really nice, too.

I really, really miss the show that we did last summer. I made such great friends in that show, and things have been so busy and stuff since then, I haven't been able to hang out with them at all, and, since haven't been in the last two shows, I haven't seen them every week. If you're one of the pussies (that's what we were called, like the "sweathogs", but you can't say it to your mom...sorry mom.), I MISS YOU GUYS!!

My friend Debra also came to the show, and she brought her cousin, who gave me a stile project T-shirt, which I wore proudly to the new job today. It was very funny to watch people look at it, and realize that they knew what the website was. I'd say the recognition was split about 50-50 between "That site is SICK!" and "That site is FUNNY!"

After the show, I went next door with the cast, and had a beer. We laughed like crazy, complimented each other on the great show, and talked about how much we needed to all get together.

I don't know what's more sad: not being able to get together, or saying we'll do it, knowing that it's not going to happen.

Return

By popular demand, I have brought this back. It will only be available for a short time, though, so if you've been beating yourself up about missing it last time, now's your chance.

Posted by Wil at 10:58 PM | Permalink

Wow. I found this via Pyramid at Steve Jackson Games.

Posted by Wil at 10:03 PM | Permalink

Boy, what a day, yesterday. I sat here, all day, working on the old weblog entries, trying to get greymatter working again. I guess that when my site was on the old server, and the server kept having to be reset, because of the traffic and the load, one of the entries got massively corrupted, and was making GM spin whenever I tried to rebuild.

So, I got on the horn with Domesticat, who is currently maintaining GM, and we spent close to 4 hours tracking down this corruption, and fixing it. Thank you, Amy!! Without your help, I would have never been able to figure out the problem. I am in your debt.

Now, I have absolutely loved using GM, because without it, I don't think that my website would be worth a damn. Well, maybe worth a damn, but not worth shit, that's for sure. Having the ability to just login and write whatever was on my mind has been amazing, and it's what I enjoy the most about having this website. It's been nice that I can use blogger, but I'm afraid that blogger is going to have to start charging, because the economy is in such bad shape, especially the online economy. But I'm going to have to switch my journaling software to Moveable Type, because I think it will do all the things that I want it to do, and, more importantly, be able to handle the load that my site puts on the server. GM is amazing, but it just can't handle the huge amount of comments we all make around here. While I was working on GM, talking to Amy, we spoke about journaling software...I realize that the vast majority of webloggers feel pretty passionate about the software they use, and loudly proclaim that anything else "sucks!", but I would suggest this: the best journaling solution is the one that works best for you. When I was at the lame old page, Blogger worked best for me, then GM worked best for me, and now, I'm using Blogger again. Not that it's a big deal, but it was an interesting conversation, and I thought I'd muse about it this morning.

I know what you're thinking. I said "all day" and I've only accounted for 4 hours of it. Oh, here comes the fun. I followed MT's extremely easy instructions for exporting GM entries, and importing them into MT, and everything was going beautifully, until we hit an error in one of the date headers. So I poked around for awhile, and figured out what was wrong, and I totally fixed it *beam*. So I restarted the import process, and I foolishly tried to do some other things while it was importing...I'm working on getting the soapbox back and running, so I was importing the databases, and that started to spin, then my brother wanted to try out his new netcam, so we tried to start a netmeeting, and that farkin' netmeeting crashed my computer. 2 hours into the import. So I restarted my computer, which was an ordeal in itself, because there's something wrong with my keyboard cable, and sometimes my system doesn't see my keyboard. So I have to reach around back, unplug the keyboard, and plug it back in. Not that big a deal, right? Well, not unless you set yourself on fire while you do it.

That's right. I set myself on fire. I keep this candle near my computer, because it smells good and I think the simplicity of fire balances out the complex technology of the computer...but when I leaned over the desk to mess with the cable, my shirt fell into the flame, and caught on fire. I'm sure that I looked very funny, trying to put it out. I should have remembered to "Stop, drop, and roll, Dick, roll!"

The fire extinguished, and computer restarted, I hopped onto my server and killed the runaway processes, and went into MT to restart the whole thing, and guess what? MT is corrupted now. Beautiful. I was trying to delete the entries that had been imported, so I could start over, and the goddamn thing spun, and now it's completely borked. So I will have to do a complete re-install of MT, which I'm not going to have time to do right away. Dammit. Oh, and I can't get the database to upload, either. I was so excited, too. The site was going to be so much closer to it's original...uh..glory(?) The wait will have to continue...because I am about to get really busy...because I GOT A JOB!!!

That's right. I got hired to be a host and writer for a new TV Network. It's AWESOME. The network is called "G4" and it's all about video games, and the people who play them. I am so excited. I get to work with my friend Travis, and, I get paid to write! I start on Monday.

This job is going to be awesome, and the people I'm working for are just amazing. I get to play games all day long, write commentary about video game culture, and, the best part is, when I get work in a movie or series, I can take that job, and write my stuff from home, or the set!! It's so the best of all worlds.

So, back to my day. When I realized that this wasn't going to work, I cursed loudly at my computer and the internet, and took Ferris to the pet store for food and treats. I love to take her there, because she gets so excited when we pull into the parking lot, and I let her go to the aisle with the bones, and I let her pick out one. It's so funny to watch her sniff around, and finally settle on one. While we were there, I learned just how strong Ferris is, because she saw something that excited her, (she has two speeds: excited and asleep) and yanked me into a huge, heavy metal bin, filled with rawhide chewies. My foot smashed against the corner, and I have a huge bruise on it...but while I was regaining my balance, I saw this sign, off to the side of the bin:

Didn't Find What Your Looking For? Call [something, something]

Read that again. This is a printed sign, in a nationally owned pet store, (PetSmart), and it says "Your" instead of "You're". So, I know that it's probably pedantic, and anyone who reads this site knows that I am not the best speller, and if you were my high school English teacher, you know that I can't write at all...but "Your" and "You're" are BASIC FREAKING SEVENTH GRADE ENGLISH!!! Have people really gotten this stupid? Or lazy? Or disinterested?

So I mentioned it to the cashier when I was checking out, and she looks at me, so incredibly put out that I even brought it up (which was done very politely, with a great amount of self-deprecation), and she sighs, and asks me if she should get a manager. I told her that it really wasn't the most important thing in the world...but I just thought that it made the company look foolish.

Ferris was really ready to go at that point, so I thanked her for indulging me, and we left, got some In-n-Out on the way home, and split the evening between Tony Hawk 3 and website stuff.

All in all, it was a good day. I didn't even have to use my AK.

I'm off to ACME for the sample class. Remember that you can come and see me tonight in the ACME show.

I'll leave you with a Thought For Today, from The Dalai Lama:

Our planet is blessed with vast natural treasures. If we use them wisely, beginning with the elimination of militarism and war, every human being will be able to live a healthy, prosperous existence"

Posted by Wil at 11:59 AM | Permalink

A Great Disturbance in the Force

So I'm sure that, by now, everyone knows that George Lucas is putting the guys from *Nsync into the next Star Wars movie.

The resounding cry all over the 'net has been something along the lines of, "Nooooooo! Bring us more Jar Jar! Bring us a whole army of Jar Jars! Put Wesley in it! Just don't put *Nsync in there!"

Harry Knowles wrote a great piece at AICN (scroll down a few screens to read it), and there's a discussion at FARK, and here's my take on the whole thing, for what it's worth:

I once met some of those 'Nsync guys...and they were some of the nicest people I've ever spoken to.

They were so nice to my step-kids, who are completely nuts about them, and, even though I really don't like their music, I have wanted them to be successful, because they seemed like nice people.

Now, putting on my cynical, "burned by Lucas in Episode 1" cloak, I will say this: This makes perfect sense to me, and anyone who doubted Lucas' complete disregard for the long time, older Star Wars fans, in favor of the 13 year olds who loved Jar Jar need look no further.

Also, I've been asked countless times by countless people to suggest some books that they can read about acting and writing. Until I make a page here all about that (a fairly major undertaking), I've made a list at Amazon, of the books that I always suggest to people.

Posted by Wil at 12:18 AM | Permalink

Workin' for the weekend

Well, it's official. I'll be bringing my unique brand of comedy to the ACME Comedy Theatre this Saturday night, at 8 PM.

I just got the lineup, and I'm in a bunch of REALLY funny sketches, including 2 that I wrote: "Shut Up, Wesley!" and "Cold*eze". Both sketches were very well reviewed the last time I did them, and the other material in the show is hilarious.

So if you haven't made plans for Saturday night, yet, why not come see the funny at the ACME theatre? You'll be glad you did.

Oh, important note: if you're some freaky weirdo who would have to travel a thousand miles to come here, stay home.

Unless you're a hot 19 year old cheerleader. That's female cheerleader, dorkus.

Posted by Wil at 9:35 PM | Permalink

Sugar Free Jazz

On my way home from getting my hair cut this afternoon, I drove right past the Rose Bowl, where a few people are watching this football game, that used to be played between the two teams with the best record...but something's all farked up this year, I guess.

I'm sitting in some traffic, and I hear this awful, loud, angry, screaming, explosive sound, and I think that a tanker truck has crashed, or something. I start looking around to see what the source of this was, and there is this huge, firey explosion off to my right...and I realize that the noise is yet another squadron of fighter jets doing yet another fly over. The firey explosion was fire works inside the Rose Bowl.

Boy, my heart was pounding. I'm glad I don't live near an airport.

When I got home, there was a rather strongly worded email from my friend Mark, who directed "Foreign Correspondents". He was a little cheesed off at me for forgetting to mention that the film is now available, on DVD and VHS.

Sorry, Mark. Blame the holidays, and the F-18's.

Lots of people have emailed, and asked when they can see ForCor, and Jane White. Well, you can get those DVD's and VHS's of ForCor here, and, if you live in Southern California, you can see a screening of Jane White! Information about our screenings is here.

Also, due to the overwhelming demand, I have put up a Toy Soldiers photo and the Star Trek lunch box on eBay. Have fun!

Posted by Wil at 6:24 PM | Permalink

Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago

From the ever-growing list of bands I am so bummed broke up, Soul Coughing, comes today's title. This is from the great album, "Ruby Vroom".

I'm starting to realize that mainstream stuff just annoys me, because it all sounds alike...I think that's why I so love bands like Cake, and Radiohead, and Soul Coughing...the Pixies...I gotta tell you, I am so upset that the most recent releases from Save Ferris and No Doubt are so "ready for radio" and pop-ish...they feel so "produced" rather than "created", if that makes any sense...and Save Ferris is one of my favorite bands of all time. No Doubt...well, they've become sort of disposable to me recently, because you can't even get within a hundred feet of them at a show for less than a hundred bucks...but you can still see SF at normal venues, and they will actually hang out and meet people after the show..Save Ferris rules. I mean, c'mon. I named my dog after the damn band!

I'm bummed that the new album is more pop-ish than their other stuff, because it feels like it's not true to what they really are. It feels like some producer or record exec said, "Let's make them sound more like [currently popular band]"...but if that's what you gotta do to survive and keep workin', hey...I am not going to cast stones at that...look no further than "Python" or "Deep Core" to see my acting-world equivalent.

Besides, the new album has "Angry Situation", which is one of the best Save Ferris songs I've ever heard.

I hope they are amazingly successful, and when they get huge again, they pull a Tony Clifton and record an album of just the old stuff. :)

But that's not what I sat down to write about today.

I want to tell you all about this great thing that I got for Christmas...and this is *so* going to sound like a lame commercial...but I just love this thing so much, I wanted to share it with the world: my mom got me the George Foreman Grill, and I'm cooking everything on it, and it rules. If you're a college student, or you live in a one-room apartment, you gotta get one of these...it makes the most amazing burgers and chicken breasts, and it's so easy to use, I don't even burn anything. I made chicken breasts in it a couple of nights ago, and I used it to make sausage this morning...oh man, it rules. My consumption of grilled, marinated meats has increased 5000%. Thanks, George Foreman!

Okay, so now that I'm done with that, I really don't have anything else to say...I just didn't like that I hadn't written anything in a few days, mostly because there was nothing worth writing about, except for the damn B2 bomber that flew over my house on Jan 1 at 7AM, shaking the whole damn thing and scaring the hell out of me, even though I knew it was coming. Stupid Rose Parade.

Anyway, that's all for right now. I'm going to be updating the site pretty soon, switching to Moveable Type, and really making the concerted effort to get the old GM entries exported. I'll also talk to Loren and Josh about bringing the Soapbox back up, and it looks like I'm going to have to completely re-install the gallery. Dammit.

OH! I almost forgot: I'm getting lots of emails asking if I'll do another auction, so I'm going to go ahead and do that. This time I'll be offering that cool Star Trek lunchbox, and I think I have a Wesley Crusher action figure around here, someplace. I also won another auction...get ready...it's a VHS of "The Curse". Yes, that's right, I have, in my possession, a copy of one of the worst movies ever made, starring yours truly, and featuring my sister.

Pop quiz, A-hole. You've gotten a copy of the worst move ever. What do you do? What do you do?

Well, you offer that for an auction, too, of course. Duh.

So, that's three things for the collectors, which I hope will make some people happy. Those should be ready in a couple of days or so.

Finally, I completely forgot to post this earlier this week: The ACME Comedy Theatre, where I teach and perform, is starting a new session of Winter Classes. This Saturday, we're holding a sample class, where you can come out and see how we teach, and what we teach, and it's all for free. Here's the email that our company's director sent out:

Subject: ACME WINTER CLASSES
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

last chance for 2002 winter session! (begins Jan. 12)
ACME COMEDY WORKSHOPS
Offering classes in improv and sketch comedy!

Become a member of the
critically-acclaimed ACME Players!

Attend this Saturday's FREE Sample Class!
Saturday, Jan. 5 -- 1 p.m. (lasts approx. 90 min.)

NOW UNDER THE DIRECTION OF M.D. SWEENEY
Study and Perform Comedy on the same stage as WAYNE BRADY, RYAN STILES,
BRAD SHERWOOD, FRED WILLARD, WIL WHEATON, ADAM CAROLLA, ALEX BORSTEIN,
UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE and many more.

Company Members who developed their writing skills at ACME include
Emmy-nominated writers of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, writer/producers of FRIENDS,
GROUNDED FOR LIFE, Emmy-winning writer/producers of WARNER BROS. ANIMATION,
THE SIMPSONS, JUST SHOOT ME, VERONICA'S CLOSET, NORM, 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN
and many more.

To Register or for More Info
CALL 323 525-0233

ACME COMEDY THEATRE
135 N. La Brea Av
Hollywood, CA 90036
(1/2 block south of Beverly Bl.)

I think I'm going to be in the show this Saturday night. If I am, I'll be doing a sketch called "Shut Up, Wesley!", that always kills. So if you're in LA on Saturday, come and see us. The show starts at 8.

I hope everyone is enjoying the first week of the new year! I'm going to get my hair cut now.

Posted by Wil at 3:21 PM | Permalink

One more thing

I really thought my last post would be my last post for 2001...but I just got off the phone with my mom, and I'm gonna get on a soapbox for a second.

My dad is a perfusionist. That means that he runs a heart lung machine during open heart surgery. Basically, when someone is having their heart operated on, my dad keeps them alive, running the machine that performs the function of their heart and lungs. My dad also helped pioneer this process called ECMO, which is extended heart bypass for newborn babies who have heart defects. ECMO has saved countlless lives since they invented it, and I'm really proud of my dad, and all that he's done.

Ever since I can remember, my dad has been on call during the holidays. Before this year, I can't remember the last time he wasn't, and he gets called into the hospital every Christmas. This used to bother me, because I wanted to spend the time with my dad, until I thought, when I was about 15 or so, that while I was upset that my dad was not at home, he wasn't at home because there was some other family who was hoping that their dad, or mom, or whomever was not going to die. Perspective is important, you know.

So here's what my mom told me: My dad got called into the hospital at 3AM, for an emergency trauma surgery. One more note: my dad is one of the best and most respected perfusionists in the world, especially in California. He's so respected and so good, that when George Bush the first was having all his heart trouble and came to Los Angeles, my dad was hand-picked to be on standby the whole time Bush was here, just in case. If you're going to have heart surgery, you want my dad on the open heart team, is what I'm saying.

So he's called in at 3AM, because there is an emergency.
This man and woman had taken their son and daughter to see a movie. On the way home, they were hit by a drunk driver. Their daughter was instantly killed, and my dad was called in because their son had massive internal injuries, and I guess he needed open heart surgery. I'm not sure what happened to the parents, but I do know that the drunk driver who murdered their daughter survived without a scratch, and was fortunately caught by the police.

I want you all to listen, now, and please think about this: life can change in an instant. One moment, you're driving along, singing with the radio, or arguing about the movie you just saw, or simply sitting in silence, and the next moment your daughter is dead. Forever. Your son is clinging to life in a hospital, and you and your wife are never giong to be able to have a Christmas or New Year's with both of them again.

I'm sure this happens all the time, because that's what happens in life.

But this family has been torn apart because some stupid fucker had to drink and drive.

We all know that people do it. Maybe you've done it once or twice, and you've gotten away with it.

We've all heard the "don't drink and drive" message so much that it blends into the background noise of our lives...and here is my wish: please listen to it this time. Please, if you or someone you know is planning to go out and party like it's...well, not 1999...but you get the idea...please think of this family, and think of the loss of their child, and how preventable that loss was. Please don't drink and drive, and please stop your friends from drinking and driving.

I know this sounds like a silly PSA, but I really do mean it. Thanks for indulging me.

Have a happy new year, everyone!

Posted by Wil at 5:02 PM | Permalink

2001

I can't believe that this year is already over.

I also can't believe that I haven't written a thing since the 27th!

Well, I'm glad I took the little break. I've been spending the last few days with just my family, uninterrupted by computers, TV, the phone, and all that...and it's been really nice. If you can remove all outside distractions and just hang with your family, or your significant other, I highly suggest it.

Yesterday, we took the kids and two of their friends to this local skatepark, where Ryan tried out his new skateboard, and Nolan proved again that there is nothing he can not do, when he just tries. I swear, this kid is amazing. All he has to do is put the slightest effort into something, and it's like he's been doing it for years. Soccer, complicated math, baseball, Tony Hawk 3, whatever it is...Nolan is just amazing that way.

I told him that he should try to jump this table-top, and he says, "okay", and just fearlessly goes for it. He bails, hard, three or four times, but he keeps at it, and the rest of the day, he looked like the X-Games. For reals.

I guess the lesson there is that you can do just about anything, as long as you do it fearlessly and

[complete tangent: the stealth bomber just flew over my house. for reals. crazy.]

Okay, so the lesson is, you can do anything you want to, as long as you do it fearlessly and commit to it 100%.

So that's my lesson for the end of the year, and my wisdom for the new year.

I had so much more to say, but I would rather we all think about that, so I'll sign off now.

Have a happy New Year, everyone, be safe, and I'll see you all in 2002.

Posted by Wil at 10:45 AM | Permalink

Roast Beast

Finally recovered from Christmas. I've never eaten so much in my life. In fact, I ate so much at all three holiday meals, I never had room for pie...until the final dinner, last night. Then I gorged myself on punkin pie.

mmmmmm pie. Mgarragghhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, I am so glad that Christmas is over. It was a very stressfull one this year. But I did something that I've never done before: Anne and I replaced our normal, 17 to 25 member Christmas Eve dinner with a "just the 4 of us, plus two friends" dinner. We had our friends Mykal and Kevin over, because they didn't have anywhere to go...so we told them they could come to our "dinner of misfit toys". It was wonderful. We didn't have to worry about putting on certain airs for not-so-pleasant relatives who we'd rather not invite, or deal with bratty kids who ruin our carpets and chase our dog. It was just the four of us, and our two friends. I think that's going to be the theme for every Christmas to come.

We'd told the kids that they couldn't wake us up until at least 6:00 on Christmas morning...Nolan was standing next to our bed at 5:59! Anne told him to give us a second, and then fell back asleep. It was 6:12 on the clock when Nolan came back in, helpfully prodding Anne's head, telling her, "Mom! I think you fell back asleep! C'mon! There's presents!"

So we got up, and enjoyed the wonder that is children on Christmas morning. Christmas this year was very light. Anne and I haven't worked a whole bunch this year (thank you very much, runaway production), and we had decided that we'd give gifts only to the kids, and not to each other (although I did manage to sneak her a card, and she snuck me some boxers ). It was so cool. Because it was sort of a "light" Christmas, the boys really enjoyed everything that they got. Nolan got a new CD player, Ryan got a Toy Machine skateboard, and they both got Tony Hawk 3 to share. Oh, and Anne and the boys all got me a bonsai tree and Zen meditation rock garden, which I've put right next to my computer, with the fountain Anne gave me last year. When I switch over to MT, I'll post a picture of it. It's really nice.

We all ate breakfast, where I managed to not burn the cinnamon rolls for the first time in years, and then went up to my parent's house for more festivities. It's always great to see my parents and siblings on Christmas. When we all get together, we're all kids again. My brother is running around, barely able to contain himself, my sister is carefully evading the teasing of Jeremy and me, and my parents are struggling to keep order over the whole thing. I just love it. We exchanged gifts, Anne and I dropped the kids off with their dad, and awaited dinner.

I wrote about this earlier, about how badly I wanted a tradtional Christmas dinner, and how badly I had to fight for it, and it was totally worth it, even if Anne and I were falling asleep at the dinner table. We went to sleep at 9:30 that night.

On Boxing Day, we had Anne's brother and sister-in-law over, with their friend (another misfit toy. I'm beginning to really like this idea) and my neice and nephew, who I absolutely adore. They are 3 1/2 and 2, and so wonderful. I had this conversation with my nephew:

Him: Who's that?
Me: That's Ferris.
Him: Who's that?
Me: Ferris is my dog.
Him: Why?
Me: Well, we found her. Want to pet her?
Him: Why?
Me: Because I think she likes you.
Him: Why?
Me: Beacause you're nice!
Him: I'm [his name]!

I just love the two of them, and I don't see them nearly enough. My brother in law is coming over to help me fix some sprinklers, because nearly all of my grass is dead, and my lawns (front and back) look like Eastern Europe. I hope he brings the kids.

The One Ring

Tonight we saw "Lord of the Rings". I'm not going to deconstruct it, because that's been done better, elsewhere...but I am going to say, "Best. Movie. EVER!"

If Trek X is half as cool as LOTR, I'll be happy.

Going once...SOLD!

I won an eBay auction tonight! My first! I'll be putting more stuff up this week. I just found a Star Trek lunchbox, with the thermos, that's got me on it! COOL!

Happy day after the day after Christmas, everyone. :)

Posted by Wil at 10:04 PM | Permalink

Feliz Navidad

Happy Christmas, everybody!!

If you have children around, you should track Santa, and then you should tune in "A Christmas Story" on TNT.

Posted by Wil at 7:02 PM | Permalink

Boot to the Head

Wow. Can you believe that there's just 3 days until Christmas? Anne and I are going absolutely crazy, trying to get all the holiday baking and shopping finished, wrapping all the presents, and stuff. It totally sucks, but we have so much stuff to do, we can't go to any of this weekend's holiday parties.

I was up until 3 this morning, painting ornaments, and cleaning up the kitchen, and I came across one of the greatest comedy albums of all time: The Frantics' Boot to the Head. I had this album when I was in 9th grade, and my friend Ryan and I would listen to it constantly. We were always quoting "Boot to the Head" and "Driving Chicks Mad" and "I Shit a Piece of Pie"...you know how annoying 14 year old boys are? So we were like that, but multiplied times being dorks, and comedy album weenies. We were such complete dorks, that, get this...Ryan's mom had a drill team, and we never scored. I mean, we were constantly surrounded by athletic girls in spandex, who were doing the splits, and we never even got to first base. It's amazing that we ever talked to any girls, at all. Even more amazing that we now have beautiful wives and families.

So when I finally went to bed this morning, I'd left a plate out with some paint on it, that'd I'd been using to mix colors for some ornaments. When I came out to the living room this morning, there were all these little red kitty prints all over my dining room table (where I'll be signing those eBay pictures...), and all over my kitchen floor and counters. Okay, Felix? Bad kitty. My house looks like an Urban Legend..."The Ghostly Cat" or something.

Oh, speaking of auctions, there are two ending in about 2 hours (here and here), and I won't be home to send the immediate "congratulations" email, because I am going out to visit my gandma for a few hours. So if you're the winner, don't worry. I'll get in touch with you tonight. :)

So that's it, for now. I really have to get back to painting, baking, doing the laundry, and mailing out the Christmas cards. I am, without a doubt, the world's biggest procrastinator.

There is a very good chance that I won't have much time to update until after Tuesday(unless I find some time to do an RFB Holiday show), so, I would like to wish all of the readers of WWDN a very, very, Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukah, or a Happy Yule, or Solstice.

I wish you all the most wonderful New Year, and thank you all for your support since I launched this lame website back in Summer, and I hope that you'll continue to stop by and see what's up.

Be nice to someone, and call your mom. She's worried about you.

Posted by Wil at 11:52 AM | Permalink

Stormy Weather

Wow. We are in the midst of a HUGE thunderstorm tonight. Massive thunder and lightning, rain pouring down so hard the gutters are overflowing...(I really need to clean those out...my friend Darin saw grass growing out of one of them a few days ago)

So it's been a busy night...I made 6 dozen cookies, and painted a ton of Christmas ornaments, because every year, Anne and I paint an ornament, date it, and give it to our friends and family. We've done wooden snowmen, trains, jack-n-the-boxes, and stuff. I won't say what we're doing this year, because my friends and family come and read this website. (My friend Seth, who directed the recently-selected-for-a-pretty-big-deal-film-festival-in-France "The Good Things" said to me yesterday, "I don't need to ever talk to you anymore. I just read about your life on your website." Well, Seth, just so you know, I don't talk about everything here, so you should still call, and occasionally take me out for a Guinness.)

While waiting for things to bake and whatnot, I also managed to move the RFB, mess up the stream, fix the stream, and I think I've messed it up again. Fear not, however! I have the help of the intrepid guys (well, one of them who doesn't mind my lameness) at Shoutcast, who's offered to help me out.

I've also written another story for BBSpot, and made one last eBay auction. I got TONS of emails asking for more Star Trek stuff, so I put up one more picture. This auctioning thing is working out really well...I'll be sure to put more stuff up as I find it, when I'm cleaning out my garage next week.

I think that's all for tonight. I'm going to go finish painting, and hit the sack. Have a great night, everybody.

Posted by Wil at 9:47 PM | Permalink

Movin' The Burrito

Extra special thanks to the cool cats at Shoutcast!!

Live365 was skipping, and sucking, and all that junk, so I've moved the RFB.

The new HI-FI stream is here.
The new LO-Fi stream is here.

The RFB page hasn't been updated, yet, so use these links right now, if ya don't mind. Also, you can search for "Burrito" at Shoutcast, and see what song is currently playing...very, very cool, indeed.

One down, two to go...

The first auction has ended! I'll write all about my experiences with it just as soon as the transaction is completed.

I hope everyone is having a great night!

Posted by Wil at 6:02 PM | Permalink

I am Jack's Holiday Program

I just got back from watching Nolan's holiday program at his school.

Nolan is in 5th grade this year, so it's the last elementary school holiday program I'll see for quite some time.

Well, I guess I could just go hang out there, like that guy who graduated in 1995, but still hangs out on the football field at the high school...c'mon, you know him...but that'd just be lame.

Anne and I were actually very excited to see the program this year, and I felt badly for all the years I sat there for an hour, enjoying it when it was one of my step-kids up there, but really just wanting it to be over...so let this be a lesson to all of you who are the parents of a 3rd grader: You only get 2 more of these, and you'll miss them when they're gone...so enjoy it.

So I'm watching today's show with a certain sadness, but excitement, because I love to watch my boys do things like this, so I'm even more hyper-aware than I usually am about the awful behavior of the people around me. (Oh, yeah. You don't want to see a movie, play, or performance with me. I'm that guy who gets super pissed at the people who talk, or leave their cell phones on, or eat that popcorn with their mouths wide open...I have actually gotten so pissed in theatres, that I've left the movie, gotten my money back, and waited for the damn thing to come out on DVD, so I can watch it alone. Dammit.)

The cafetorium at the school is filled to overflowing, and it's 50 degrees today in LA, so everyone is bundled up in their finest parkas, taking up twice as much area as they normally would, and the place is just, well, stinky. Imagine a subway in winter, during evening rush, and add to that the smell that is unique to an elementary school...and you've got it. Anne got there before me, and staked out a good seat, because every year, we end up getting there right as it starts, and standing in the back, with all of the other parents who overslept, or took too long for breakfast, or who had to grab a quickie once the kids were at school.

Anne got really good seats, as far as being able to see the stage goes...but as far as people you're sitting by? Not so good. In the running for most annoying audience member are the woman sitting next to me, who kept loudly farting (really awful, stinky ones, that just linger...but they sounded good, reverberating off the metal cafeteria chairs), the two little kids sitting behind us, to the right, who did not stop talking the entire time, except when their mother told them that a good way to stay occupied would be to stand on the floor and bang on their chairs in time to the music, and the kid immediately behind me, who had one of those little kid colds, and coughed and sneezed throughout the whole performance. I especially loved it when he sneezed all over the back of my neck, and his mother didn't even make a showing of apologizing, or offering something to wipe it off...so I used my sleeve. Nice.

All of the classes were great, and the kids were just adorable. The theme this year was Peace and Diversity, which is very funny, considering that I live in the most reactionary, demagogic Republican area in the freakin' world. (All of my neighbors had those offensive "Protect Marriage" signs last year, when the homophobes were trying to make it certain that marriage should only be between men and women. Because those marriages always succeed. And we have to keep the gays from soiling that sacred, unspoiled institution, right?) Sorry. mini-rant. I'm back now.

My absolute favorite moment was when these kids were reading poems about winter. I think they were 4th graders, maybe 3rd graders. Anyway, there are 4 kids up there, all in their holiday finest, reading poems, like "The Snowman" by Shel Silverstein. The last kid, who looks a lot like Dewey from "Malcolm in the Middle", and is wearing a checkered shirt and non-matching clip-on tie (it was so damn cute, I couldn't stand it), and he recites, from memory, a poem by elementary school staple Jack Prelutsky. No small feat for a 3rd of 4th grader, okay? This kid does a great job. I mean, it's really, really good, and he is doing it from memory. When he's done, he looks towards where I guess his family is sitting, and he shrugs, like, "Well, that's about as good as it gets", and picks his nose and eats it.

It was awesome. I realized this morning how much I'm going to miss these things, and I got to enjoy farts, sneezes, metal-chair-drums, and the nose-picking kid.

All is right with the world.

Posted by Wil at 11:53 AM | Permalink

RFB

I'm warming up for a supercool Radio Free Burrito Xmas show, so the RFB is streamin' today. Check out the mix, and let me know what you think: radio@wilwheaton.net

Posted by Wil at 9:25 AM | Permalink

Santa Claus is back in town

Boy, my auctions are going really well! I'm sure that regular readers are getting a little tired of hearing about them, so I'll just point you to the totally lame "about me" page I made...boy, it took me back to the old Pagemaker days, I tell you what!

While I was waiting for my eBay stuff to process, I headed over to Slashdot, to see what was up in the world of "news for nerds, stuff that matters", and, while I was being a wiseass, I saw this story, about the new Joss Whedon show, which he is calling "The anti-trek". It sounds awesome to me, and I put in a call to my agent, and he is going to call Joss Whedon's people, and see if we can't set up a meeting...how cool would it be if I were to play a bad guy, on a SF show?

When I talked to my agent today, he told me that we're just finishing up the details for me to narrate the A&E Biography of River Phoenix. I'm really looking forward to that. It's about damn time someone did River's story in a non-exploitive way. He was an amazing person, and this will be a great way for me to honor his memory.

Pretty damn cool, baby. Pretty. Damn. Cool.

Anne, the boys, and I are doing massive Christmas baking tonight...it's one of my favorite things to do during the holidays...fire up a little Elvis' Christmas album in the old CD player, put a fire in the fireplace, drink some hot apple cider, and make the whole house smell good.

It certainly beats the hell out of shopping, that's for sure!

Speaking of Christmas, watch this space for the exciting, Radio Free Burrito XXXmas Extravaganza show!

Posted by Wil at 3:25 PM | Permalink

eBay for Xmas, Part Deux!

Well, the success of my first eBay auction is really exciting, and totally unexpected!

Many, many people have emailed me, asking if I'll be doing another one, and if I'll be putting up anything from "Stand By Me", so I've gone ahead and put up two more:

This one is of me and River, behind the Blue Point Diner, right after I've shot the trash can. It's one of my favorite stills from the movie.

This one is of just me, looking sad and doe-like, wistfully wondering what life is like across that trestle...o(r looking towards the grip truck while the photographer says, "Beautiful, babe! Keep looking off that way! Oh, you're amazing, baby! We love it! love it!" I can't remember which.) :-)

Did some holiday shopping for the kids today, and remembered why I always promise myself that I'm going to have my Christmas shopping completed by May, each year.

Push, shove, complain, argue, repeat.

Posted by Wil at 1:50 PM | Permalink

A Christmas Story

I think that A Christmas Story is the greatest Christmas movie ever made. Each year, I watch it, over and over, on TNN or TNT or TBS, or whatever T-channel does that marathon, and I never, ever, get tired of it. Every year, when I watch it, I am reminded of the time, when I was about 10 or so, that I auditioned for it. The auditions were held on a cold, rainy day in late spring, down in some casting office in Venice, I think. I saw the same kids that I always saw on auditions: Sean Astin, Keith Coogan, this kid named "Scooter" who had a weird mom, and Peter Billingsley, who was very well known at the time, because he was "Messy Marvin" in those Hershey's commercials. I sort of knew Peter, because we'd been on so many auditions together, but I was always a little star struck when I saw him. (One time, I saw Gary Coleman on an audition...now, this was HUGE for all of us kids who were there, because we're talking 1982 or 83...and he was Arnold freakin' Jackson, man...wow). [tangent] Whenever I see Sean Astin, I sob at him that he got to be in Goonies, and I didn't, and he always says, "Hey, man, you got Stand By Me. I'd trade all my movies for that." I haven't seen him since he did Lord of the Rings...but something is telling me that he wouldn't be so keen to trade that. ;-) [end of tangent]

So I remember that audition, for Christmas Story. The scenes we had to read were the one where Ralphie is telling Santa what he wants, and panics, telling Santa that a football is okay, the one where Ralphie is decoding the Little Orphan Annie message, and the one where he thinks he shot his eye out.

I don't remember much more than that, except that my dad took me on the audition, and helped me learn my lines. I can still see my dad, in all his permed, mustached, corduroy-pantsed, 1983 glory, helping me understand how badly Ralphie wanted that BB gun. It's a really happy memory, because my dad and I didn't do too many things together when I was a kid, and I always loved it when he'd take me on an audition. [tangent] Once, I had an audition for Frosted Flakes, and, this I will never forget, my dad took me to the call, over on Sunset near Gower, and there were tons of kids, running around (yes, Scooter and his weird mom, who wore a wig and low-cut evening gowns to auditions in the afternoons, were there). My dad was helping me learn my copy, which had something to do with me and Tony The Tiger sitting on an airplane together. My dad told me that when I was done with my reading, that I should "tag" my audition, by saying something funny or memorable...he suggested that I point to my orange (well, more like raw umber) Le Tigre shirt, and ask Tony, "How'd you get off my shirt!?" I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard, and I raced through the reading, just so I could give up the funny. I don't recall if they laughed or not, but I sure did. It was just cool to be there with my dad.[end of tangent]

So, if you haven't seen this movie, you really must. At the very least, rent it, and enjoy the performance of Scottie "I left the industry to do porn" Schwartz as Flick. (I can tease Scott, because I sort of know him, too.)

A Christmas Carol

Boy, if you live anywhere near New York, you simply must go see Patrick's performance of "A Christmas Carol" when he brings it there. I think he starts on the 24th, for 8 performances, all for charity.

Anne and I took the kids to see it on Sunday, because Patrick gave us tickets. We got to sit in the fifth row! It's the closest I've ever been to the stage all the times I've seen it, and it was really amazing to watch the sublteties in his characterizations. I saw stuff that I've never seen before.

You know, I was at the very first performance of this, way back in 1988 or 89, at the Wadsworth theatre near UCLA. I went with most of the cast, on a freezing cold, rainy December afternoon, and sat in a theatre, more empty than full, where the heater did not work, and just marveled at what Patrick could do. He was still mostly on book back then, but he was still amazing. It's been so exciting for me to watch the evolution of this work, because I feel like I was there at the very beginning...well, I guess I was there at the very beginning...but you get the idea.

I got to take Anne and the kids backstage to meet him, which was really kind of odd...there were all these people, excited to meet him, waiting in a long line...it just struck me as so odd that I was waiting in a line to see one of my friends...but I didn't mind, in the least. When we did get into the Green Room, Patrick was talking to everyone, and, I swear, each person he talked to was made to feel like they were the only ones there, including me and my family. It was really, really cool.

A Christmas Auction

Boy, the eBay auction has drawn much more attention than I thought it would. As of the last check, 2735 people had viewed it, and the bidding was up to $132.50! I've gotten lots of requests, in email, for more auctions, so I'll put up a picture from Stand By Me later today. Thank you to everyone who is interested...watching the bidding is really exciting for me, in a totally dorky way. :-)

A Christmas Miracle

Finally, loren got MT and GM working last night, so I'm awaiting help from the GM gurus to get my old entries recovered. I'm really excited to bring all the old entries back. There are stories in there that I really like, and stuff that I'm really proud of, and I'm very hopeful that we'll get it back. I tell you, it's been so damn frustrating, the past week or so, trying to get this stuff working, and not being able to figure it out...I finally broke down and asked for help. Yep, you read that correctly, Mr. "I have to do it myself, give me the scalpel so I can remove this lesion from my face" asked for help.

Thank you, Loren. I mean it. :-)

Posted by Wil at 10:33 AM | Permalink

eBay for Xmas!

I've gotten lots of emails recently, asking me if I'd be able to sell any autographed pictures in time for Christmas. I really haven't been able to set up the online store, yet, so I did the next best thing: I made an eBay auction, where you can bid on an autographed picture of me, wearing the infamous Ugly Grey Spacesuit(tm), which was affectionately known as "The Iron Maiden" when I was working on Trek. The cool thing is, I can personalize it to the winner. It's tough to get personalized pictures from Trek actors these days, and I know that it's important to some collectors, and since I'll be signing this at my dining room table (I'll even include a picture of me signing it, so you know I'm not sitting in The Grotto while I'm doing it), I can write whatever you want on it. Even, "I hate Wesley" or something. :-)

I've made this a 3 day auction, so this can be sent out to the winner in time for Christmas (or Boxing day, or whatever you celebrate).

This is the first eBay auction I've ever done. If it works out, I'll put up auctions for lots of TNG stuff I have cluttering up the house, that my wife would just love for me to get rid of.

Posted by Wil at 2:50 PM | Permalink

News

Good morning.

I'm working really hard to get MT installed, but my technical lameness is really showing, while I try to do it. :/

I have all the old GM entries, but I still can't get GM to run properly, and rebuild the files.

I tell ya what...I really hate computers these days. The time and effort that I'm having to put into this crap really isn't worth it right now, and I'm this close to just saying "screw it". I'll work on this for about one more week, and if I can't make any real progress, we're just going to have to accept blogger without comments, no soapbox, and no gallery, until at least after the first of the year. There's nothing as lovely as holiday stress compounded with website stress. Just ask my poor family.

In other, better, news, this afternoon, I'm taking Anne and the boys to see Patrick Stewart read "A Christmas Carol".

Posted by Wil at 10:02 AM | Permalink

Peace?

Yesterday, I wrote something about Peace, and I made an offhand comment about how everyone wants Peace, except the military/industrial complex.

I didn't think much of it, since I'm always making stupid, throw away remarks, in conversation and in my writings.

Well, I got this email, and it's made me think about it a bit more deeply:

Interesting comment on your website:
"Of course everyone wants peace (except the military/industrial complex, but I digress)."

As an officer of 14 years in the Air Force, I would suggest to you that anyone who's been shot at in a conflict, or faced the potential for that, is pretty disposed toward wanting peace. It's not just a hypothetical concept for us, it's our work environment.

I notice that you consider talking to William Shatner as a first step toward peace. Good for you. I think people need to be a hell of a lot nicer to each other, perhaps more so to strangers because that's more unexpected and may have a longer positive effect. But that seems to be as far as you want to go. Let me point out to you some of the things that I, a member of the military/industrial complex, have done for peace:

- 4 years pulling 24-hour shifts in an ICBM launch control center during the final years of the Cold War

- another 4 years at the Air Force Academy, teaching cadets about how the military works in concert with (and, preferably, defers to) diplomatic, economic, and informational means of national influence

- deploying to Macedonia, being forced to wear civilian clothes and have a bodyguard due to terrorist threats, so I can help them develop a military that works under the control of a democratically-elected government, rather than a military that IS the government

- returning to Macedonia and donning a baby-blue beret as a UN peacekeeper so a war in neighboring countries wouldn't spread into a nation that was just starting to make it

- sewing a NATO patch to my uniform and deploying to Bosnia to keep the locals from killing each other long enough to get their economy started so they might see the benefits of peace over war

- parking myself in a little cubicle in Alabama for 2 years developing plans for responding to terrorism, plans the existence of which I had hoped would deter a terrorist from attacking

- attending funerals at Arlington Cemetery for my former Academy students who have died in the line of duty

- serving as an active member of the ACLU chapter in every state where I've been assigned and working with youth-oriented support groups

I've given up a lot to do that. I've lived in places I didn't necessarily want to live. I've taken on responsibilities most people won't accept (when you were 23, were YOU prepared to accept a job where you might have to kill millions of people? I didn't particularly want to do it, but somebody had to be prepared to, thanks to the threats to this country). I've had to keep quiet about my religious beliefs...I've accepted less pay than my peers from college. And yeah, I've been shot at.

And a lot of people in uniform have done a hell of a lot more than me.

I applaud your efforts to be nicer to people. But feel free to get down off your high horse and quit making generalizations about people of whom you know nothing. Contrary to what Charlton Heston, Barbra Streisand, or Rush Limbaugh may think, a career in the entertainment industry may give you a "bully pulpit" but it doesn't make you an expert on public policy.

Just my $.02 worth. Feel free to tell me to go [fark] myself.

Well, far from telling this writer to go fark himself, I have to apologize, and clarify.

I have always supported the members of the military, who are in the field, sometimes getting shot at, whether I agree with the war, or not. Regardless of how I feel about it, leaders are going to fight wars, and people are going to be involved in those wars. I think that I can support the men and women in the armed forces, without supporting Bush and Company.

Matter of fact, I so support the men and women in our armed forces, it really pisses me off when I see a president using them in ways that I think are inappropriate. But, this writer is correct. Being in the public eye does not make me an expert on any policies, at all...I told him in an email that I was just a guy, with a webpage, who talks about stuff that's on his mind. I never meant to be on a high horse (when I'm on a high horse, I'll make sure you know), and my generalizations were in the spirit of humor. I mean, all people who generalize are idiots, right?

So, consider this another step in letting Peace begin with me. If my comment yesterday offended anyone, please accept my deepest and most humble apologies, and please read it again, focusing on the larger message.

And let's not forget that there are people, like this writer, who are, right now, 11 days before Xmas, far from their families, and nowhere near a Dr. Demento CD and a fireplace.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Posted by Wil at 12:59 PM | Permalink

Peace

I saw this sticker today. It said, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me."

My first cynical thought was, "well, duh. everyone wants peace."

But, as the night wore on, I got to thinking about that. Of course everyone wants peace (except the military/industrial complex, but I digress). How can I make peace begin with me?

Well, I did some puzzling on that, and here's what I came up with: letting peace begin with me is pretty easy. IT begins with me when I say, "Thank you," to someone. It begins with me when I let a car in front of me in rush hour traffic. It begins with me when I take a chance talking to WFS. Peace can begin with all of us, and, cumulatively, we can and will make a difference.

Think about it.

Think back to the last time someone you didn't know did something nice to you. That good feeling stayed with you for hours, maybe even days, didn't it? You can't help but spread that feeling to the people around you, and they to those around them, and so on.

I got all bent out of shape about the person who put me on all those mailing lists. I got really angry. I'm pretty sure that whomever did it is coming here to see what I'll do about it, and I played right into his hands.

So, I'll let peace begin with me. Fark it. There's worse things in the world than this.

Posted by Wil at 10:04 PM | Permalink

Watery Fowls

Boy, what a day. If you live in Los Angeles, I hope you got to see the AMAZING sunset we had tonight. Ryan took pictures from the car while we were driving home, and as soon as I fix the gallery, I'll put them up.

We got our Xmas tree last night. I'm so torn about that...on the one hand, I totally hate the idea of killing a tree and putting it in the house for a few weeks...but on the other hand, it's such a long-standing family tradition, and, especially after the loss of my Aunt Val, I've realized how important traditions are to me.

Example: I listen to this guy, Dennis Prager, on the radio here in LA from time to time. Dennis is very conservative, but he's not a jackass conservative reactionary like Rush or Sean Hannity, who's recently been thrust upon us here. Dennis is very honest, and amazingly smart. He's also not one of these idiots who toes the line no matter what. He talks about issues of morality, without succumbing to demagoguery and hyperbole. (Jesus, I feel like I'm writing an essay here. Score me an extra 3 points for big, important-sounding words). Suffice (there I go again) to say that, even though I'm pretty out there on the Left, I can listen to Dennis, and, although I disagree with him often, I always think a second time.

So, today, on his show, Dennis was talking about the importance of tradition in human existence. He was talking about the difference between having a day off, and having a day where we engage in some sort of tradition. It's the difference, to me, between not going to work and drinking beer, and finding a Veteran to thank, on Veteran's Day.

So, tradition is very important to me, and this recently came up, at my mom and dad's house.

The whole family was there, and we were talking about Xmas dinner. My brother was pulling for this German potato salad that we have eaten since we were kids, but never as a holiday meal...I mean, getting together at mom and dad's for Melted Salad is just awesome, but I was really not into it for our Xmas dinner meal. I wanted to have the traditional turkey, candied yams, mashed potatoes and stuffing, punkin pie, and the whole thing...and I was getting a lot of resistance from the rest of the family about it, until I explained to my mom how important it was to me that we have what we've always had, because it wouldn't feel like Xmas to me otherwise, and, eventually, they all came around.

What I didn't realize, until I was listening to Dennis this morning (while stuck in traffic on the Four-Oh-Farking-Five-Freeway-Farking-Farking-Farking), was just how important that tradition has become to me.

This is my 5th Xmas with Anne and the kids, and we've really established our own traditions, and tonight we'll have the mashed potatoes and turkey meatloaf, then we'll build a big old fire in the fireplace, while we drink egg nog and hot apple cider, and decorate our tree, while listening to Dr. Demento's Greatest Xmas CD.

Bring on the Jingle Dogs, dammit!

Posted by Wil at 7:59 PM | Permalink

Score one for the good guys

Charges to Be Dropped Against Russian Computer Programmer
The Associated Press
Published: Dec 13, 2001

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Charges will be dropped against a Russian computer programmer accused of violating copyrights on software made by Adobe Systems Inc. in exchange for his testimony in the trial of his company, a spokeswoman for the programmer said Thursday.
Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, had been charged in the first criminal prosecution under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Sklyarov and his employer, ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow, were charged with releasing a program that let readers disable restrictions on Adobe's electronic-book software. The program is legal in Russia.

Sklyarov was arrested after speaking at a hacking convention in Las Vegas on July 16. He lives with his wife and two children in an apartment in San Mateo and was working on a doctorate in computer science.

AP-ES-12-13-01 1602EST

Posted by Wil at 6:54 PM | Permalink

Breakfast

Anne doesn't go into work until late in the day on Thursdays, so she usually sleeps in and I get up with the kids, get them ready for school, and all that jazz.

So this morning, after I took them to school, I came home, and made Anne breakfast while she was asleep. Strawberry waffles, freshly ground coffee and OJ (the drink, not the murderer and drug dealer).

It was awesome. After we ate, we walked Ferris, who chased birds and attacked sprinklers, then went and watched Ryan's school play.

It's been a good day. If you haven't, make your wife breakfast some time. It's cool.

Posted by Wil at 6:50 PM | Permalink

El Oso

I did this interview for Salon about a week and a half ago. It ran yesterday, and I forgot to post about it.

Posted by Wil at 8:54 AM | Permalink

Sheep Go To Heaven

I was so damn impressed by CAKE on Monday, they are the only band I've been listening to. If you want to hear them for yourselves, you can tune in to the RFB, where I'm streaming some CAKE while I work on the website.

Posted by Wil at 5:44 PM | Permalink

Nugget

Well, someone has been out of town.

Someone has been too busy to update his website.

Someone has been spending time with his wife, instead of his posse.

I think we all know who I'm talking about...

Damn you, Adam Curry!! Write a damn story about Ace of Base, already!

So I'm back from outerspace, and I just came in to find you here with that sad look upon your face. I changed my stupid IP, I even changed my URL. The only thing left to do is put up pics of naked girls!!

Yes! Rhymin and stealin.

Enough with the vague references, Wheaton. Get to the point.

Yes. Sorry about that. I bet you're wondering where the hell the Star Trek updates are, and why the hell you can't comment on these little perls of wisdom that fall from my mouth behind the firehouse, to say nothing of the absence of Soapbox and galleries.

Well, first things first: The Trek updates are being *gasp* edited by me. They're important, and I want them to be just so, and that means it's taking time. Hey, it was worth the wait for the slashdot interview, right? (wasn't it? ::fret::)

The comments will be returning when I get Movable Type all configured to my liking, and I import all the old entries from Greymatter. Soapbox will return when we get the server issues worked out. I think we've moved now, but I haven't had a chance to talk with loren, so I don't know.

What I really want to talk about today, is Amway. But I won't. What I will talk about, though, is the KWOD Boomer and The Dave's Twisted Christmas concert last night, where I got to sit in with the band "Nine Inch Males" and play my harmonica, and stuff.

How'd all this come about? When I was going to be on Weakest Link, NBC asked me if I'd do some press for them, to promote the show. I told them that I'd dig that, and they gave me a HUGE list of radio stations to call for some live interviews. Normally, I'd link to the old entry about this, but...yeah. Broken. Sorry. Take my word for it.

One of the stations I called was KWOD in Sacramento. I used to listen to the morning show on KWOD (That's pronunced "Quad" not "Kay-Wad") when I'd go to visit my brother up in Hella (which is what we called Sacramento back then) while he was working and living up there. So I sort of felt an affinity for Boomer and The Dave, and I told them that. We had a GREAT interview, and The Dave asked me if I'd be interested in coming up on December 10th to be part of the Twisted Christmas show. He mentioned that Cake would be playing.

That's all it took. Cake is in my top 3 bands of all time. The only reason they're not number one is because I have this sad attachment to Depeche Mode from when I was a kid...but I'm getting help for it.

So, long story longer, I piled me, my wife, my brother and his fiancee into a rental beast, and we drove to Hella on Sunday. I did the morning show with Boomer and The Dave on Monday morning, and then attended the concert last night.

It was so goddamn cool.

We got to go backstage, in this big arena. Now, it's the first time I've ever gotten to do that, and it was exactly like "Almost Famous", as totally lame as that sounds. But it's true. Anne, Jen and I ate dinner backstage, with the roadcrew, and sat at the same table as the guitarist for Cake. Now, when we were sitting there, I didn't know that he was who he was, which I guess is okay...if I hadn't been going on and on about how much I love Cake and that I can't believe I'm getting to see the best band ever...fortunately he didn't say anything, which is good, because I would have been pretty damn embarassed. I mean, it would be like me sitting within earshot of some Trekkie completely freaking out about TNG, or something. But it was totally cool. Eating beef stroganoff, which I normally hate, but, hey, it was Rock Food (TM), so it was okay by me.

After eating, we got to go meet some of the bands who were playing the show. Tantric was really cool, even though I'm not crazy about their music, while 2/3 of Alien Ant Farm was really cool. Let me tell you something about AAF: The lead singer was really nice, the bass player was beyond cool (even gave me an autograph for Nolan, who is crazy insane for them), while the guitar player was a complete dick. I was stunned at what a complete A-hole he was, and how badly he treated all these kids who were waiting to get his autograph. Made me glad that I really go out of my way to make people feel good when I'm doing autographs for them. Also made their music less enjoyable for me to listen to, knowing what a jerk that guy was. I sure hope he was just having a long day( I know they've been on tour awhile).

Now, here is how much I love Cake: I actually waited in line so I could meet them, and tell them how much I love their music. It was funny, because with each passing moment, I got more excited, and more nervous, fearing that they would be lame, like the AAF guy was...and, again, it reminded me of what it's like to be on the other side of that autograph table. It was some nice perspective.

Finally, I get to the table, and I tell the first two guys, "I don't have anything for you to sign, but I just wanted to tell you how much I love your music, and how much it means to me."

I was trying my best to not sound like a freak...I mean, there's a fine line between "I really love your music" and "I'm a complete freak who drove 6 hours to see you". I know, because I've met both of those people, many, many times, at conventions.

I guess I didn't come off too badly, because I met the whole band, and they were all cool to me! Even the lead singer, who I'd been warned could be kind of a jerk from time to time. They were so nice to me, and totally made me feel like they cared that I liked their music. I was so moved, that after I walked away, I ran back, to tell them thank you for being so cool and nice, because I'm always afraid that the people I admire will be dicks when I meet them. The lead singer told me that it really meant a lot to them, that I went back there and told him that, because he worries that people think he's a jerk from time to time. So that was really cool.

The show starts, and I play my harmonica with the Nine Inch Males, and I was told that I "wailed". Wailed! YES! ROCK!
**METAL FIST**
**DEVIL HORNS**

I totally got to tell a guy to "rock out with your cock out". It was hellarad. Hella. Hella. Hella.

Tantric played, and they sounded really good, then AAF played, a great show which I would have really loved if that guy hadn't been such a dick. Then it was Sum 41, who were amazing, even though I'm not really into them. They also came off as really nice guys, too.

Then, it was time for Cake.

Oh.
My.
Farking.
God.

They are even better live than I could have ever hoped for. They just owned that place, and their stage presence was incredible. They were just beyond cool. They played nearly all of my favorite songs, including "Stick Shifts and Safety Belts", "Nugget", "Never There", and "Sheep Go To Heaven". They closed with an amazing, haunting, beautiful version of "Jolene".

If Cake is ever coming to to a show within 6 hours of your house, you simply must go.

Matter of fact, if you don't have them already, you MUST get their new CD Comfort Eagle, and my personal favorite, Fashion Nugget.

It was a GREAT 36 hours, which I got to spend with my wife and brother, and future sister-in-law. A huge thank you to my brother's friend Bill, who let us sleep on his floor, to Boomer and The Dave at KWOD 106 for inviting us up, and, especially, to CAKE for not being dicks, and giving me the most memorable concert experience since I saw the Concert For The Masses back in 1989.

I gotta take more road trips like this one.

All that other stuff will be worked out in the next few days, promise. :)

Posted by Wil at 7:52 AM | Permalink

Saturday

Look at me! I'm a cowboy! Howdy, howdy, howdy.

Yes, I realize that I have not made good on my promise to update regarding Trek X, but it's actually taken me this long to just get the smile off my face and catch up with stuff at home.

I'm sorry for the delays, but I've just gotten so damn busy this week. We're doing yet another move for the site, because the traffic is just insane. Loren and I have been moving everything over to a new server (last time it was just it's own IP, my bad), and poking at it with sticks to make sure that it works. The site may be unreachable for 24 hours or so, when we do the DNS update, so I'll apologize in advance for that.

There are wonderful stories to tell, from this week, and I will tell them, but my house really needs to be cleaned up, and I really must wash my clothes...I'm running out of socks. :)

Oh, I'm also working on getting the old GM entries moved into Movable Type, which I'll be using as the new journaling solution. Also, watch for a nifty phpWebsite-based section, opening sometime next week.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Go Lakers.

Posted by Wil at 2:49 PM | Permalink

Am I annoying or not?

I'm trying to catch up a little bit on emails (there were over 100 when I got home this morning), and this is one of the things that was sent to me.

LMAO.

Thanks, Nina.

Posted by Wil at 11:54 AM | Permalink

A sort of Homecoming

It's 1:15 in the morning. The crew is tired. I am tired. Most of the cast has been released, and it's only me, Patrick, and Gates left, along with about 30 background actors. It's the last shot of the night, and we're finally doing my scene.

We block it, rehearse it once, and then we shoot it. It's a pretty complicated shot, camera-wise, and I can tell that the director is getting frustrated with the constant re-takes, and we all know that the studio will not let us go past 1:30., so there's a touch of urgency in the air.

Late on a Wednesday night. Long hours. Most of the cast has been released, because they've got a long doy tomorrow.

It's like I never left, and I love it.

There's much, much more, but I have to go back to the studio in a couple hours, and I've got other work to do, so I'll write more tomorrow. Don't worry, I've made notes, so I won't forget.

A few highlights of the day:

*Hanging out with John Logan, who is as excited to me me as I am to meet him.

*Talking with Rick Berman, realizing that we are "cool" with each other.

*Having dinner with Brent.

*Racing about the lot with Jonathan in his golf cart.

There is so very, very much more. Check in tomorrow.

I hope everyone is having an awesome day.

Posted by Wil at 11:24 AM | Permalink

Funny

So last night I hardly slept, I was so giddy and excited about going to work on Trek X today...my call is 8:30 AM, which means that I have to get up at 6:45, and leave by 7:45.

So I go to bed last night at about 10, so I don't look like hell for the movie. Too bad, because I didn't get the call at 11:30 last night that my call time had been pushed to 11:30 this morning.

I found out that my call had been changed when I was walking to the stage from the parking lot, and my cell phone rang. It's Anne, and she tells me that she checked our messages and my call had been pushed.

I'm sure that this is somehow funny, but I'm a little scared now...what if this is all an elaborate (and expensive) practical joke, and I'm really on SpyTV?

We'll find out more, later today.

Posted by Wil at 9:57 AM | Permalink

Wired

I did this interview with Wired News about 2 weeks ago, and it's running today.

I am just beyond happy.

I spent quite a bit of time talking with Noah Shactman, who wrote the story, and it seems like he really 'gets' me, and what this whole thing is about.

I've also done an interview with Salon, and People magazine is coming over this afternoon to take pictures for a feature story they're going to be running very soon.

It's just weird, all this stuff that's going on in my life right now...I've spent the last few years just doing my own thing, you know? Enjoying being married, raising kids, working on a few movies here and there, but mostly just writing and doing things I've always wanted to do, like sketch comedy and improv...and now that I'm ready to make a return to movies and TV, those opportunities are presenting themselves to me. I think a lot of it has to do with me being ready to balance my family and acting responsibilities and desires. A year ago, I really just wanted to be with my wife and step-kids, and that's what I did. I wasn't ready for success as an actor again...but now that I'm ready for it, it seems to be happening. Glad the Universe is listening to me. At least for now. :)

I had a meeting with a VERY big casting director last week, and he started out the meeting by telling me that
I was totally wrong for this project, but he really respected me as an actor, so he'd talk with me, since I
was already there...then, after we'd spoken for about 10 minutes, he told me that he was totally wrong about me. He said that I was smart and funny, and I held myself very well, and lots of people were aware of my work, so I would be right after all. His exact words were: "Well, Wil, you've completely changed my mind about you."

How cool is that?

Changing people's minds is exactly what I've been wanting to do, and this Wired article sort of validates that, and so does the meeting I had last week. That meeting yieldied a test deal, and we're just trying to work out the details.

Nemesis

I read the script for Star Trek X last night.

Holy shit.

Holy, Holy, Holy shit.

It's easily, far and away, the best Trek movie since maybe "Wrath of Khan"? Certainly the best TNG movie. I am so excited to be in this movie, I can't even begin to describe it. Matter of fact, I'm so excited that I've decided to go ahead and write another installment in the SpongBob Vega$ Pants saga! That should be up later
tonight, or tomorrow.

I talked to Brent Spiner yesterday, and he told me how excited they are that I'm going to be working with them. I'm gong to call Rick Berman today, and tell him "Thank you" and let him know how excited I am...I'm really, really nervous about that phone call...so hold a good thought for me.

I am having my final costume fitting tonight, and I work Wednesday and Thursday. I will take all the pictures I can get away with, and I'll post them when I get the OK from Paramount.

News

We're completing the move to the new server tonight. When that happens, I'll be able to move all the old GM
entries to Movable Type, and that stuff will be available again.

I've had to take the Soapbox offline until the move is finished, and I'm still fixing the gallery. Please check the update page for info about that stuff.

Posted by Wil at 11:40 AM | Permalink

Lowtax!

Well, we all gave it our culture-jamming best, but it looks like EW is determined to listen not to the teeming masses of internet weenies like us...
---
Fan Flare

Britney tops our yearend poll nominees. But fans went beyond Madonna, Nicole, and Julia to contribute surprising finalists by Michael Small

THE KID With two hits this year (''Moulin Rouge'' and ''The
Others''), Kidman made the cut .

Glance at the results of EW.com's nomination poll for the Entertainer of the Year, and you'll see some usual suspects -- Julia, Britney, Madonna -- but also a few surprises. For instance, James Marsters.
Though he plays the spiky-haired Spike on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'' he seems like a long shot compared with his show's main star, Sarah Michelle Gellar. But Gellar didn't even make the top 40, and Marsters finished in the top three with Madonna and Britney Spears (who earned the most votes).

Well, it just goes to show, ya don't always know what will happen on the Internet. Especially when it comes to a poll. As EW.com viewers seem very happy to prove, online polling methods are far from scientific. Fan groups tend to regard it not just as an opportunity -- but a duty -- to get their favorites on the list. But because
we're looking for the year's top entertainer -- not necessarily the person with the most avid fan base -- we reviewed the top contenders and, when the voting was roughly equal, selected only those for whom
2001 was an important year.

That disqualified some fan favorites, including Insane Clown Posse, the Detroit-based, makeup-wearing hip-hop performers who put out two albums last year but lost their major-label deal this year. Likewise for Wil Wheaton, a favorite with entertainment fans from the
discussion site Fark.com. Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on ''Star Trek: the Next Generation'' until 1993, appeared in some indie movies this year and runs his own website, but it's a stretch to say that 2001 was his shining hour. (Maybe next year, though, when he has
a cameo in the movie ''Star Trek: Nemesis.'') Another contender who didn't make the final cut is Dave Grohl, frontman for the Foo Fighters and guest drummer for Queens of the Stone Age. Though he toured this year, Grohl didn't release an album.

Then there are those who got thousands of votes -- but only from a few sources (a hacker's trick that our polling system can detect and correct). One that's worthy of special mention: Rich ''Lowtax'' Kyanka, who runs the humor site SomethingAwful.com. To reinforce their case, fans launched an email campaign in his favor. We received praise (''he is undoubtedly the most brilliant man of this decade''), incentives (''I will gleefully pay newsstand prices for any issue of your magazine with any mention of Mr.Kyanka''), and near poetry (''[His site is] amusing like a clown. And sometimes scary like a
clown too, but a good scary. Like a roller coaster.'') Alas, the repeated votes from few addresses (and the similar phrasing in many of the emails) were a giveaway of something fishy. So Kyanka didn't make the cut. At least until next year.

Which leaves us with the 10 finalists. Other than Spears, Madonna, and Marsters, there's Christina Aguilera (who qualified for her ''Lady Marmalade'' video), Nicole Kidman, 'N Sync (Surprise! Well, not really…), Julia Roberts, Jack Black (who earned more than twice
as many votes as his ''Shallow Hal'' costar Gwyneth Paltrow), and a fictional guy who's entertaining a few people this year, Harry Potter. Oh, and finishing off the list, there's another longshot entry: Les Claypool, singer/bassist for the alt-rock band, Primus;
he's also a member of the supergroup Oysterhead (with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and Police drummer Stewart Copeland), which released its debut album, ''The Grand Pecking Order'' this year.

So now it's time for the final poll when viewers will choose one Entertainer of the Year from these 10 nominees. Voting begins at 5 p.m. EST on Fri., Nov. 30, only on AOL -- and it continues through 5 p.m. EST Thurs., Dec. 6 (AOL Keyword: EWPoll). The results will be
printed in the yearend issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine, on newsstands starting Dec. 14. You can also check in with Rich ''Lowtax'' Kyanka, who will -- undoubtedly -- have something to say about it.

---
Progress continues to be made on bringing the site back to normal.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. I taught a GREAT class today. :)

Posted by Wil at 6:41 PM | Permalink

If you are a regular visitor, you know that I run this whole site entirely by myself, which, until now, has been really cool. Unfortunately, because it's just me here, I can't fix things when they go wrong. And boy, have they gone wrong. Something happened in the last week, and Greymatter, which is what I use to power my journal (the centerpiece of this site), barfed. I lost all my entries, and all their comments. All is not completely lost, though, asI have a call for help in to Noah Grey, who wrote GM, and I *do* have all the archived entries on my local hard drive.

Sadly, I don't know if I'll be able to get them back. I'm currently looking at php-based alternatives, including phpNuke, and phpWebsite. So it will most likely be days, if not a week or more, before the site comes back to normal.

The good news is, I've made this backup solution, using Blogger, and all the other areas of the site are working, with the exception of the gallery, but the authors of gallery are helping me repair that. I also had to take the soapbox offline until we move servers, but fear not! The data is secure. The bad news is, you can't comment on these entries.

Thanks for your patience. I hope you'll keep coming back to WWDN. I should be back to normal next week, just in time to report from the set of Star Trek X.

Posted by Wil at 11:26 AM | Permalink