WIL WHEATON dot NET: 1.5 http://www.wilwheaton.net/ Not quite WWdN 2: Electric Boogaloo, but rebuilt and restored from the old WWdN files. Current blog entries are at wilwheaton.typepad.com en Copyright 2011 Wed, 31 May 2006 21:38:11 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.34-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss WIL WHEATON dot NET: Version 1.5 Wil WheatonIf you'd like to read my most recent blog posts, head over to WIL WHEATON dot NET: In Exile, my backup blog at Typepad.

Hi there. WWdN is currently undergoing a redesign and some maintenance. If you'd like to know what the status of the redesign is, or see some of the older WWdN files, read this entry.

What in the wide world of sports is going on here?

Way back in September of last year, I attempted to upgrade Movable Type, the blogging software that powers WWdN. I also attempted to move a few thousand entries and hundreds of thousands of comments into a newly-created (and faster) MySQL database.

And, uh, I broke it.

Actually, I didn't break it. Someone who left a comment broke it when they used a seemingly random string of characters to indicate a break in their comment. Unbeknownst to me and them, it was the same string of characters MT used to indicate the end of an entry and its associated comments. When MT was moving all the data into its new (did I mention faster?) database, it came to that string of characters, and said to itself, "Oh boy! I get to start a new entry now! Let's see, what's the TITLE of that entry?"

Look . . . look . . . look . . .

"Uh-oh, there's no TITLE. I'd better look some more."

Look . . . look . . . look . . .

"Yeah, it's still not there. Well, I don't know what the next entry is TITLEd, so I'm going to just barf all over the server now, and fail. I'm sure one of the Users I heard about in TRON will figure this out and fix it quickly. There's no way my User, Wil, would stay in some backup blog for six months!"

Ha! Stupid smug software. I've been in Exile for nine months! Who's laughing now, jerk? Who's your daddy! Say my name, bitch! Yeah!

Uh. Sorry about that.

Off to Exile

I didn't know how long it would take me to figure out the problem, fix it, and get back here to WWdN, so I set up a backup blog at Typepad, called WIL WHEATON dot NET: In Exile. I intended to hang out there for a couple of weeks while I worked on this blog, but I quickly discovered that WYSIWYG editor at Typepad is great, and since it did all the heavy lifting for me (formatting, marking up links and inserting and modifying images) I had much more time to just take creative ideas and put them into my blog. Around this time, I also got some new writing jobs that actually put money into my pocket and food on my table -- jobs writing about poker for CardSquad, writing a column on classic gaming for the AV Club called The Games of our Lives, and editing the geek news at Suicide Girls. In my spare time, I played a lot of Texas Holdem Poker at Poker Stars (where I'm a member of Team PokerStars) and did things with my family. I had one of my first real "grown up" moments the day I realized that there really are only 24 hours in a day, and I had to choose very carefully how I wanted to spend them. You know what I didn't want to spend them on? hand-coding html and tweaking software settings. It's sad, and I'll probably lose a 3d20 geek points for saying it, but those days are way, way behind me. After a day of making freelance deadlines, the last thing I'd want to do is try to repair and redesign my website, and since I was happy in Exile, it just wasn't that important to me.

The database was eventually repaired, thanks to the efforts of Mike Pusateri and his co-worker Yoshi, who managed to scrape the entire blog for me, and put it into a MT-readable format as an Xmas gift, and the technical support staff at Six Apart, who figured out what the hell was wrong with my dabase in the first place. Repaired database in hand, I found myself with a delimma: return to the now-totally-outated and badly-in-need-of-a-redesign WWdN, or continue using Typepad? Mostly, it was Typepad's awesome WYSIWYG editor that was keeping me in Exile, but there was also the redesign issue: no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with anything that I really liked.

A few weeks ago, the design problem was unexpectedly solved, when I wrote a series of posts in exile (part one, part two, part three) that helped me clear out a bunch of mental logjams. Seconds before I hit publish on the final one, the way I wanted the redesigned WWdN to look sprung into my mind fully-formed. I grabbed a piece of paper, sketched it out, scanned it, and e-mailed it to my friend, who is working on it at this very moment. I've found two great replacements for the WYSIWYG editor I loved so much: ecto, which is a desktop blogging application for Windows and Mac, and Performancing, which is a free Firefox extension that runs on just about any platform in the world, and is optimized for WheatonIX. (In fact, I composed and published this entry using Performancing. Yes, it's that easy to use.)

So this post represents a bridge between WWdN, and WWdN 2: Electric Boogaloo. All the links you would see on the front page of the old WWdN are in this post, so if you're new to WWdN you can explore some of the old (and massively outdated) sections.

WWdN will be re-launched very, very soon. Until then, you can use all the nifty information to explore what's already here. You can also come over to WIL WHEATON dot NET: In Exile to find out where my mind is right now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Old WWdN Content
Nifty WWdN 1.0 graphics: get them before they are retired!

WIL WHEATON DOT NET

WIL WHEATON DOT NET

My first two books

Just A Geek

Dancing Barefoot

Did you read all the way down here? That's awesome. Thanks! Everything else you want can be found in the archives, or behind your couch. Good luck.

[Hosting provided by Logjamming.com | This entry powered by Performancing]

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/wil_wheaton_dot_net_version_15_1.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/wil_wheaton_dot_net_version_15_1.php Wed, 31 May 2006 21:38:11 -0800 West Coast - I'm on WPT tonight Wil_wpti1_1
I just found out that I'm on the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel tonight. It's the WPT Invitational from Commerce Casino, where I outlasted all the other celebrity players and finished 23rd to land $10,000 for City of Hope. I doubt I'll get much screen time, but my friend Burns! just called Anne to tell her that he saw me.



So . . . now you know! If anyone gets an mpeg or something, let me know and I'll link it up.



Update: WWdN:iX reader Andrew sent me the following captures:



XviD (9 MB)



mpeg2 (30MB)



It 's a great segment. I got a lot more camera time than I expected, and so did Darwin!  If anyone wants to seed .torrents, let me know and I'll update again. Thanks, Andrew!



(image via Dr. Pauly)

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/west_coast_im_on_wpt_tonight.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/west_coast_im_on_wpt_tonight.php Games Wed, 31 May 2006 19:42:17 -0800 broke the bonds and loosed the chains Pauly:
If more Americans read books every night instead of watching TV, we'd live in a more productive society. If more Americans watched the news and read real newspapers and magazines, instead of crappy programs like American Idol, then I'm confident that George Bush would not be our president. But heck, that's what our leaders really want deep down... a mindless, uneducated populous that will work 40 hours a week so they can earn enough money to buy things to keep them distracted from the evil deeds that our leaders and suits in Fortune 500 companies are conducting everyday under your noses.
Amen. It's interesting to think of turning off the television and being less of a consumer as an act of rebellion, but I think Pauly has a valid point, at the very least worthy of consideration if not action. I know how happy and free I feel after cleaning a bunch of needless stuff out my house (and life) recently, and since I'm not completely overwhelmed by stuff that is ultimately not that important, I feel like I can address various mental and spiritual aspects of my life that need attention, now that I'm not constantly battling with a huge pile of material bullshit on a daily basis.

I've been making an effort to turn off the TV, walk away from the Internets, turn on the radio, and read lots of books. It's nothing heady -- I just finished Monster Island, and I'm in the first third of Cell -- but I agree with Pauly. Reading activates and nourishes a different part of my brain than watching TV, even if it's not Hemmingway or Feynman or something weighty. It also makes me want to write more, which is something I sorely need.

I've also made an effort over the last few weeks to unplug, and get out of the house every day, even if it's just out into my yard, or my patio garden. Anne and I have been getting out of the house and walking like crazy, in preparation for the marathon this weekend (you can still sponsor our team here), and though we're down to the "easy" six mile walks this week (we're just tuning up to walk a half marathon, instead of running a full one, remember), it's still great to get out of the house and breathe deeply for a couple of hours every morning. All the flowers in our neighborhood are in bloom, too, so it's almost like walking through the best flower shop in the world, but it's also filled with birds and those really friendly people who get up early to walk during the week.

My soul still needs nourishment, and my life is still out of Balance, but I'm getting closer to finding it. I think all this physical pain in my hip and up my back and on my shoulders is a physical manifestation of my current disarray, and I'm glad my body finally forced me into tuning up my diet and getting more exercise, both physical and psychic.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/broke_the_bonds_and_loosed_the.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/broke_the_bonds_and_loosed_the.php Television Wed, 31 May 2006 15:33:14 -0800 two burning questions, answered Question the first: What if comic geeks re-enacted comic book battles the same way history geeks re-enact Civil War battles? Answer: Re-Enacting Marvel Secret Wars. (via Wired)

Question the second: What would happen if the Enterprise D battled with the original Enterprise? Answer: Sci-Fi Battles: Kirk vs. Picard (Thanks, Columbo!)



]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/two_burning_questions_answered.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/two_burning_questions_answered.php Television Tue, 30 May 2006 14:21:10 -0800 i meant every word i said Dinner is finished, and Anne is helping Nolan with some homework at the dining room table. I'm sitting outside by the fire pit, enjoying the fruits of our weekend of patio labor. I am surrounded by freshly-planted wildflowers, two types of tomatoes, and the sweet smell of lavender, roses, and just-turned dirt.

I was listening to Big Tracks on XM, through DirecTV, on our home stereo. I sang REO Speedwagon's Keep On Lovin' You a little too loudly while I sipped a Stone Pale Ale and digested the most amazing chicken soft tacos (marinated in tequila, lime, salsa and Tapatio) I think I've ever cooked, when Ryan came out to the patio from the kitchen.

"Can I turn off XM and put on Live Aid?" He said.

"No, you can't," I said, a little perturbed that my REO Speedwagon rocking had been interrupted.

"But you've been monopolizing the TV, and you're not even inside," he said. Very reasonable.

" . . . I meant that I loved you foreverrrrr, and I'm gonna ke--" I sang. "Dude. I'm trying to get my rock on, and you're totally harshing my mellow."

"You're trying to get your rock on . . . to REO Speedwagon?" He said, incredulous. Tough to argue with that. "You're the only one listening to this, so isn't it fair to consider the rest of the family?"

Dammit. I raised him to think like this. I'm so proud of him, but . . . Big Tracks, and Stone Pale Ale, and sitting by the fire pit! Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Did you ask your mom what she thinks?" I said.

"She's going to say that she doesn't care, because she's helping Nolan with his homework." He said.

REO Speedwagon ended, and Asia began: "I never meant to be so bad to you . . ."

"Okay," I said, "let's go inside and ask your mom what she thinks."

We walked into the house, and found Anne and Nolan at the dining room table. Ryan related our discussion, and asked Anne if she cared if he changed the channel.

"I don't care," she said.

Ryan jumped up and pointed at me. "Ha! I told you!"

"I don't care about the radio, either," Nolan said, with a pointed smirk at me.

"Yes! I get to put on Live Aid!" Ryan said. He started toward the living room.

"Uh, wait." I said, "we haven't reached consensus."

"Oh, we totally have, Wil," he said with a grin, "you're 25% in favor, and mom, Nolan, and I are
75% opposed. We have a majority."

I was done. I'd lost, and now it was time to take it like a man.

"Dude, I have, uhm, extra . . . uh . . . powers." I said.

"What?" Ryan said.

"Yeah, I went up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start," I said.

"Okay," Ryan said, "so you get extra lives on Contra. What does that have to do with the radio?"

I don't know how he knew that it was the Konami code, but I'm sure he picked it up from me, somewhere over the years.

"Okay," I said, "just because you knew that, you win. Go put on Live Aid."

Queen is blasting out We Will Rock You, from Wembley Stadium in 1985, as I type this.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/i_meant_every_word_i_said.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/i_meant_every_word_i_said.php music Mon, 29 May 2006 19:56:42 -0800 radio silence Some days, you just have to accept that you're not destined to do the things you want to do. You just have to say, "I did my best, but it's just not going to happen."

Like this fucking podcast, for example. After spending nearly three hours working on it yesterday, only to have my machine completely eat all of it and leave me with nothing but an empty feeling and a tiny ball of rage to show for it, I sat back down today to give it another go. As a bonus, I even convinced my wife to let me take out the old iRiver and ask her some questions about dating, and then being married to a geek. It was awesome.

However, the gods had other plans, because when I imported my audio from my iRiver to my Powerbook, it was totally useless, just like it was after the Grand Slam convention. Only this time, instead of being totally blown out, it decided that it needed to skip all over the place and drop out about every three seconds. I've discovered that the only thing this particular iRiver is good for is hitting with a sledgehammer, then setting on fire, stomping into a ball of goo, and launching at the invading Viking army via a trebuchet. (And it's not even very good for that, to be honest.)

This really needs to just work. I really need to be able to just sit down, take what's in my head, and put it into a recording. It's clear to me that if I want to do this podcast on any regular schedule, it has to be as technologically easy as it is for me to write, and I just don't have the tools for that right now. I have to get some sort of reliable recording rig that is NOT a USB headset into fucking Garageband that crashes, and the iRiver that decides to just stop working one day. I need stuff that just works.

This is all a roundabout way of saying: I'm really frustrated, and really upset that I've poured five hours of my time into this fucking thing, and I have nothing to show for it. It's the end of the week, I'm hungry and cranky, and instead of trying to start all over again and force a show out by the end of the day today, I'm going offline for several hours, to have dinner with my wife. Thank you all for your questions and the time you spent asking them; I'll do my very best to get the technical side of things worked out quickly, so your time will not have been wasted, as well.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Please drive safely.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/radio_silence.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/radio_silence.php podcast Fri, 26 May 2006 16:30:03 -0800 guinness is good This is funny because it's true.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/guinness_is_good.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/guinness_is_good.php Food and Drink Fri, 26 May 2006 09:48:31 -0800 learn to swim Eventful is getting lots of press, which is great for Brian and his entire team, because I believe that it's a tool that indie artists and guys like me will be able to use to connect with our audiences in ways that just weren't possible as recently as a year ago.

But I'm getting really tired of reading things like this:

The Eventful demand system is still new, and right now the system is overwhelmed by a collection of demands to hear former Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton speak. But don't let that put you off.

I'm sorry, but why would that put anyone off? Because it'd be better if Eventful was filled with demands for huge artists that don't care about meeting their audience, and wouldn't listen to demands, anyway?

Yeah, it's a really terrible thing that I hopped on board with Eventful, and consulted with Brian before it even launched, because I believe in it, and my upcoming trips to Montreal and Boston are perfect examples of how it can work, right? And it's equally off-putting that because of Eventful, the people who read my blog and I have a way to figure out where and when I should come perform, right? Yeah, that's just terrible! It's so off-putting!

And excuse me if this puts you off, Mr. Web 2.0 writer, but could we maybe retire the phrase "former Star Trek actor?" I know it's hard for you mainstream media types to understand that I've done a few things with myself since Star Trek ended over a decade ago, (like publish two books, write several weekly columns, and provide voices for several video games and animated series,) but I have a lot more in my life than just being a "former Star Trek actor," which you would have known if you'd done your homework.

Update: The article's author has apologized:

I'd like to apologize to you, Wil. I did not mean to offend nor to diminish your work. My tongue-in-cheek comment about how a ton of Eventful Demand posts to see you might be overwhelming to people trying to set up their own demands was not meant as a slight to you personally (although I can see how it was insensitive). As I said to one person who wrote an email to me, it's clear that you've done a lot for Eventful and Eventful has done a lot for you. That's how good business gets done.

I'll buy a ticket to see you when you come to SF.

Thank you, Rafe. Whenever I hear "former Star Trek actor . . ." without any mention of anything else I've done with my life, I do feel diminished and slighted. Apology accepted and appreciated very much.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/learn_to_swim.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/learn_to_swim.php WWdN in Exile Fri, 26 May 2006 09:08:12 -0800 the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have Today is Towel Day, a day when all geeks can carry their towels with them in tribute to the hoopiest frood of them all, Douglas Adams.

I absolutely love that I'm recording an all-geek podcast on this most sacred of days.

Updated: Oh! You know what I love even more? Spending 2.5 hours working on the podcast, then losing the entire thing to some weird confluence of system lockups and crashes.

I'm taking a long, long, long don't-break-anything walk, and I'll try again in the morning. Sigh.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/the_most_massively_useful_thin_1.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/the_most_massively_useful_thin_1.php Books Thu, 25 May 2006 15:09:23 -0800 the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have Today is Towel Day, a day when all geeks can carry their towels with them in tribute to the hoopiest frood of them all, Douglas Adams.

I absolutely love that I'm recording an all-geek podcast on this most sacred of days.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/the_most_massively_useful_thin.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/the_most_massively_useful_thin.php WWdN in Exile Thu, 25 May 2006 10:47:54 -0800 bearing 325 degrees Unspeakable32 I am about to begin production on Episode 9 of Radio Free Burrito, but before I get started, I wanted to share a hilarious John Kovalic cartoon with you all.

More to come later . . .

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/bearing_325_degrees.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/bearing_325_degrees.php WWdN in Exile Thu, 25 May 2006 10:12:09 -0800 radio free burrito: all geek edition I think it's time for a new episode of Radio Free Burrito, don't you?

I had a super good time with episode eight, which was entirely Q&A, so how about this experiment:  I'll do another Q&A show, and focus it on a single topic, guided by whatever is on your mind: The topic is Geek. (Hey, you should go with what you know, right?)

Send your questions to ask at wilwheaton dot net, (with a descriptive subject line, please) and I'll get a new show out by Friday.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/radio_free_burrito_all_geek_ed.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/radio_free_burrito_all_geek_ed.php podcast Wed, 24 May 2006 10:40:51 -0800 klingon law Klingonlaw Presented without comment.

Except, of course, saying that it's presented without comment is actually a comment in itself, and then commenting on that comment is a meta-comment.

So how about if I just say: WWdN:iX reader Justin sent me this, all the way from far off Canuckistan. I thought it was funny, and I thought some WWdN:iX readers would find it funny, as well.

(Image from: Toothpaste for dinner)

(Click to embiggen.)

(Click for TMBG, via Roughy.)

(Click for absolutely nothing.)

(//slashie)]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/klingon_law.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/klingon_law.php WWdN in Exile Wed, 24 May 2006 07:29:29 -0800 Future Shock: W2 + E3 = ROCK I wrote a column for The AV Club about my trip to E3, and it hit the web about an hour ago. It's my first foray into my version of gonzo journalism, and I'm really happy with the way it came out.

Take the largest video arcade you remember from your childhood. Now quadruple its size, put it in the middle of Shibuya Crossing, dim the lights, and crank the volume to 11. Toss in a bunch of celebrities, charge $300 for a stale slice of pizza and a soda, crank the volume up to 11 one more time, and you've got E3: the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

E3 started during the halcyon '90s, when Pets.com ruled the world. Now every May, gaming giants like Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and Sega gather at the Los Angeles Convention Center to present their newest hardware and software releases to a very select audience: about 30 percent entertainment media, 5 percent distributors, and 65 percent people who have managed to scam press passes so they can spend a day playing video games and checking out booth babes (who this year are required to wear nothing more revealing than miniskirts—the trade-show equivalent of burkas).

[. . .]

Four televisions, eight guitars, and a small crowd stood beneath a mockup that looked remarkably like a concert stage. I could hear Kiss' "Strutter" being played with varying degrees of proficiency as Gen-Xers rocked out in the highly anticipated co-op mode.

"Hey, isn't that Guit—" Spencer asked.

"Muh… guh… huh…" I answered, walking on autopilot to the front of the booth.

"Hi, I'm Wil Wheaton," I said, "and I love your game." Probably not the most professional way to introduce myself, in retrospect. "I'm writing about Guitar Hero II for The A.V. Club."

You can read the entire story at The AV Club, and while you're there, you can check out my Games of our Lives column for this week: Congo Bongo.

I feel really good about this column, and I'm really happy that the type of writing I've perfected over the years on my blog earned a spot in an actual print publication.

Oh, and if you think it's worthy: digg story. Thanks!

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]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/future_shock_w2_e3_rock.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/future_shock_w2_e3_rock.php Games Tue, 23 May 2006 17:27:46 -0800 your earth moves beneath your own dream landscape Wesleybeverlypicard_2 I found this photograph of Wesley, Beverly, and Captain Picard that goes with the scene I posted earlier today. I look like a total dork who is so excited he's about to burst, but I'm cool with that -- it was exactly how I felt the day we shot that scene. I never noticed until just now that Gates looks like a proud mom, and Patrick looks like a proud, uh, Patrick. I wonder if they were channeling real emotions like I was, or if they were just acting really well?

I had to scan it at a low resolution, because I'm pretty sure Viacom's goons would come after me if it was printable and whatnot, but if you always wondered what that scene looked like, well, now you know.

]]> http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/your_earth_moves_beneath_your.php http://www.wilwheaton.net/2006/05/your_earth_moves_beneath_your.php WWdN in Exile Mon, 22 May 2006 13:19:53 -0800