WIL WHEATON dot NET: Where is my mind?: Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers

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March 29, 2004

Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers

I'm working on a recap of some convention highlights, before the memories sink to the bottom of a pint of Guinness. While I take care of that, check this out . . .

I have a few selections in this new anthology that came out today called Never Threaten To Eat Your Co-Workers - The Best of the Blogs.

It's co-edited by fellow O'Reilly Author (okay, that sounds too cool!) Alan Graham, and Bonnie Burton.

Alan is the guest blogger at bOINGbOING this month, and he announced the book this morning.

Best Blogs has more information about the book:

The Best of Blogs features the most provocative online writing by unknown writers and underground celebs. MTV's The Real World's cast member Neil Forrester gives new meaning to the phrase "Bite your tongue." Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton gives his take on the Hollywood system and fleeting stardom. Web designer Heather Hamilton finds herself in the unemployment line after publishing work stories in her blog, Dooce.com. Humorist Choire Sicha gives advice on broken hearts and timeshares. Illustrator Mark Frauenfelder throws out his cell phone and uproots his family from Los Angeles to the sandy beaches of Rarotonga. Plus tales of creepy video store customers, online love lies, Iraqi politics, office pranks gone wrong, jury duty, a childhood meeting with Darth Vader and so much more.

Sounds cool, doesn't it? Well, you should really read the Forward by Doc Searls, which Alan sent to me when he asked me if I'd be part of the book. Here's the part that grabbed my interest:

A lot of what I write is about journalism, which I am pleased to see reequipped and transformed by weblog technologies. By transforming millions of passive users into active journalists, blog tech is equipping the Huns to overrun Rome. It’s a wonderful thing to watch. I hated Rome.

Amazingly, Big-J journalism hardly knows it’s being sacked and taken over by all these little-j journalist because Big-J media, on the whole, hardly know what to make of the Web that’s been around since 1995, much less of the latest developments there. So they trivialize blogging and dismiss it as “noise.” I still haven’t seen a good major media story about blogging that isn’t by a blogger.

Even my favorite broadcast journalist, Scott Simon of NPR, had an essay on blogging last November that was wrong and dumb from start to finish. In the absence of knowledge he offered nothing but dismissive prejudice. It was disappointing but understandable. He’s a Roman, doing what the Romans do.

I guess the "literary elite" (Alan's words, not mine) totally blew off this book as "just a lame collection of online ramblings" (my words, not Alan's), and I think that Doc Searls is onto something in his forward up there: this whole blogging phenomenon threatens to shake up the accepted order of things (see: Dean, Howard -- Campaign of) and the Establishment doesn't understand it, but they know they should be a little afraid of it. (I was recently contacted by a major magazine writer, who was looking for very negative stories about blogging: do I know any bloggers who have lost their jobs becase of their blog, or eaten any dead babies, or set fire to any churches . . . because, you know, they're bloggers.) I'm all about shaking up The Establishment (and stopping The Man from keepin' me down, yo. \m/), and even though I am nowhere NEAR the top in this group, I'm proud to be collected alongside these writers.

Check it out.

. . .

Go on, do it. Do it.
/stiller

Posted by wil at March 29, 2004 11:33 AM

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Comments

wtg, gratz! :D

Posted by: mcfoo at March 29, 2004 11:35 AM

w00t go wil! now all youve gotta do is muster up the balls to run fdisk on your hda!

Posted by: popa at March 29, 2004 11:35 AM

Cool, cool. And, hey -- is your eye still twitching? I have the same problem, my doc said it's stress, and caffeine exacerbates the problem. I know you like coffee like I like coffee, but I will say that the time that I tried it it really did help. Of course, I'm back on the (caffeinated) sauce now. Twitch twitch twitch. Anyway, congrats on your inclusion!

Posted by: Kenner at March 29, 2004 11:45 AM

Yet another stop on the train to success...in your eyes, that is. You're already a success in ours. Awesome news, Wil. Congratulations.

Posted by: Abby at March 29, 2004 12:00 PM

foreword, Wil. Foreword.

You're a great guy anyway. :-)

Posted by: englishNazi at March 29, 2004 12:05 PM

you rock. thanks.

Posted by: seasnail at March 29, 2004 12:08 PM

Hey cool! That's the same book my friend J's blog is featured in (he's the Washington Interns Gone Bad guy).

Either you're in really great company, or he is. I can't decide which.

Posted by: Amy at March 29, 2004 12:09 PM

Sounds like an interesting book, and blogging aside it's a cool idea. All these different perspectives on curious topics, assembled in one place in an organized manner. Duh!

Posted by: Anders at March 29, 2004 12:11 PM

a few years ago, i started getting turned off by big-J journalism.
For me, it ceased to be relevent when i noticed that certain news reports were laced with the bias of corporate interest..

yeah yeah, i know..nothing new..but for me, once i started noticing, it just turned me right off...

i check out north american pravda (CNN) now only to check on certain events, or to see something noteworthy....but i dont' stick around there anymore to try and learn something..
it's simple..
keep abreast of the major events of the day via a big J journal,

but read the real news of what happened later on
the web at
www.zmag.org

http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm

i trust REAL writers like Chomsky, Fisk, Edward Herman, Naomi Klein, Justin Podur and Arundhati Roy a whole helluva lot more than the talking heads on CNN anyday....

Posted by: Tyson at March 29, 2004 12:45 PM

Good post! Fits in nicely with today...

Posted by: Patty at March 29, 2004 12:46 PM

Oh my god! An obscure Ben Stiller Show reference? God love you, Wil. You've gone up in my book, sir. That book being of course "Dianetics".

Posted by: Dweezil at March 29, 2004 12:49 PM

The sad truth is that many bloggers would love to be unemployed, baby munching church burners but they are too busy LOLOMGWTF'g most of the time.

You rock.

Posted by: Cindi at March 29, 2004 02:13 PM

w00t!

Any press is good press, right? Right. You should be very proud, Wil. Published work left and right, VO work, Con appearances - the hits just keep piling up!

There's good mojo on the rise here as well, and I'm sending some of it your way so your streak continues. Now, if only Hollywood would get the hint and give you some on-camera work...

Posted by: Eric at March 29, 2004 03:09 PM

I'm a fellow blogger who is also included in Alan's book.

I have enjoyed your site for years, and especially relate to your growth as a writer. Congratulations with your book's success and good luck with your new projects. It's a privilege to be on the same page with you (metaphorically).

Posted by: Janet at March 29, 2004 06:04 PM

I just had to say, "do it, do it"

S&H was great!!! Stiller and Wilson together again.. (ZooLander)

:)
cheers!

Posted by: crissy H at March 29, 2004 09:01 PM

The only thing that concerns me about the proliferation of blogs as "news" sites is the massive amount of shall we say, "imprecise" reporting.

I mean this is how we ended up with Matt Drudge as a real news man!

Sorry, my sides are still hurting from that last line.

Love your site Will, your book and musings have me regularly looking wistfully at my two daughters.

Posted by: Ian Eisenberg at March 30, 2004 05:05 AM

What scares the Establishment is that there are better writers out there, carrying real messages - news - stories - BLOGGING - than the mass media mind control crap spewed through traditional media. God forbid Free Speech ever catches on...

-Scott
TwoPeanuts.com

Posted by: TwoPeanuts.com at March 30, 2004 08:21 AM

Great...now there are two freakin' books I've got to look for...I'm never going to be able to afford my OS X upgrade at this rate...

Posted by: Roberta at March 30, 2004 09:27 AM

I read two blogs everyday, this one and Dave Barry's. Dave's is filled with links to "informative" news articles and "productivity enhancers" and his commenters keep me laughing. This blog I visit because I like Wil Wheaton. That is not to say that I agree with everything written, but that I can read the entries and that they can evoke strong emotions or pleasant entertainment, and then I can go back to being a mother of three with more responsibility than I ever thought I would have. I don't feel like this comment is very readable, but my head aches at the moment, so sue me.

Posted by: Jessica at March 30, 2004 11:25 AM

MM has no idea what blogging is about. I saw a Today Show feature on Blogging. They infer that blogging is a teenage fad used by high schoolers so they can meet up with each other. It was the biggest misconception of blogging that I have even seen.

My name is Jeff and I'm a blogger.

Posted by: Jeff at March 30, 2004 02:52 PM

I read two blogs every day--this one and Heather's dooce.com! It's so cool that I can pick up one book and read both of you!

Congrats, Will! I will add it to my Will Wheaton library collection!

Posted by: Dawn at March 31, 2004 05:26 AM

It was an honor to have you be a part of our book, Wil! Thanks for all your hard work.

I know fans of your writing will get a real kick out of it. The interview I did with you is also in the book, so I think fans will enjoy your thoughts about blogging.
;-)

Posted by: Bonnie Burton at April 15, 2004 03:09 PM

Hello friends! from http://groups.msn.com/St-Petersburg-Russia

Posted by: http://groups.msn.com/St-Petersburg-Russia at January 22, 2005 03:49 AM