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Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago

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.

Sugar Free Jazz On my

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!

Workin' for the weekend Well,

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.

A Great Disturbance in the

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.

Blue Sky Mining

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"

Coolest Thing, EVER!

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

Manic Monday

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.

Four Sticks

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!

Never sleepy, it keeps me going during my workday

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.

MCP

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.

Pushit

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 :)

The Distance

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.

Hey you guys!

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.

A View From the Bridge

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

Over the weekend, I'll be working on installing the new Ikonboard 3.0. I tried to install it yesterday, but there's something REALLY annoying going on with my server. It won't run .cgi's at all. I will devote about 3 hours to this over the weekend. If it doesn't work, I'll be removing the soapbox and the gallery, permanently, and I'll be staying with blogger. This is just too much goddamn work, and way to frustrating.

Thought for today

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

A (not so) small victory

Well, it's been most of the night, and I'm still working it all out, but I've gotten Moveable Type to work!

I exported all the old entries, from the old website at geocities, from the original Greymatter weblog, and from the more recent blogger weblog.

One of the cool features of MT is that you can assign categories to everything, so you can look for the category title, and it will tell you where the entry was originally posted.

I know that the archive pages don't quite look correct, yet. I'm going to worry about the styles later on.

Now I'm going to work on the Soapbox, and the Gallery.

Sheesh. What a night.

At last, a picture

Quite some time ago, Anne and I went to the zoo. We took this really cool picture of ourselves.

I've also added quite a few items to some of the stores, for Valentine's Day.

Also, I know that the styles are all screwed up right now, but I've got bleeding eyes. I'm going to take a break, and work on this some more later.

I have a dream.

Today, we in America are observing the birthday of the great civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I admire Dr. King for many reasons, among them his commitment to nonviolence. In the face of great violence and adversity, he chose a policy of nonviolence to bring about a very necessary change.

I think that Dr. King's words about violence bear repeating, and ring especially true to me, today, given all that is going on in our world:

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Dr. King is one of my heroes, and today, I honor him, and his great legacy, by reprinting a speech he gave, which still moves me to tears when I hear it.

Dr. King delivered this speech on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. It is commonly known as the "I have a dream" speech. Within this speech, Dr. King said, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

I share this dream today and everyday for all people. Let us resolve today to judge a person only by their character. It will be a better world for our efforts.

--
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation
until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and
tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to
Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"

Satan is my motor

Good morning, everyone.

Boy, I'm still getting used to the new Moveable Type interface. It's crazy. Cool, but crazy.

I just have a few announcements this morning:

1. Cake is playing a live concert on the internet, today. It starts at 11AM PST, which means I'll miss most of it, because I'll be on an audition.

2. I wrote another story for BBSpot a few weeks ago, and completely forgot to post about it here.

3. I saw this really cool story all about the history of video games, from 1889 to the present, at Gamespot.

4. I have some very exciting and fairly major news about some live shows that you can see me in, provided you're in Los Angeles. I'll make the announcement in the next few days.

5. Have you checked out the new crap^H^H^H^H cool stuff I added to the stores, just for Valentine's day? Can you think of a better way to tell your sweetie you love her than with a WFS box of candy? Mmmm...Classy!

Har.

6. I got an email over the weekend, that I am a pre-finalist for several Bloggies™, including best new weblog, and weblog of the year. Holy Crap! I've never really won anything, ever. So just being a pre-finalist (is that like being "pre-selected" by Ed McMahon for the publisher's clearing house thingy?) is pretty exciting to me. :)

Finally,I need to publicly thank forever_the_optimist for her patience. forever_the_optimist won the eBay auction of my Star Trek Lunchbox, and I've been so busy with work and family obligations, I haven't been able to properly sit down, sign the stuff, and send it. If I was forever_the_optimist, I'd be seriously stressed out at TVs Wil Wheaton, but she's been really cool and understanding. It will be signed and sent tonight. No more delays.

I'm off. I'm going to put myself together, and get ready for my audition.

Have a great day, everyone.

Wonky

I got an email last night that described the current state of styles on WWDN perfectly: it said that the styles were "wonky".

My feelings exactly. I hope to have some time to work on it today.

If you happen to know of a really useful book about CSS, please let me know in the comments. I'm looking for something really useful, like an O'reilly or Peachpit Press-style book. Something that will teach me the underlying theory behind CSS, and how to set up div.classes (or however you say it) and the like. Moveable Type makes extensive use of the [div] tag, and I think I'm going to re-write the site to follow that guide...Imagine a world where the navigation menu looks cool! Someday, you may even be able to skin this site, like you can at domesticat's.

I must confess, I never really fully understood how CSS worked...I was just able to make it go. Sort of like having a cool old car, and knowing how to do limited things like change the oil and stuff...now I have to rebuild the engine, and I don't know how.

I think this is as close as I get to asking for help...unless you're roughy or loren. Then you really get to hear me whine.

Thanks for the help :)

Rumble in the Jungle

Over at FARK, they are discussing who would win in a fight if it was Wesley vs. Annikin Skywalker.

The debate started here.

I spent some time thinking about it...read more to see what I came up with...

Well, the way I see it, you've got two possible scenarios here:

1. Annie and The Weas agree to fight it out, without the benefit of The Force or The Traveller's Mystical Thingy, on some neutral planet. They fight it out, WWF-style, and The Weas wins, when Hulk Hogan (circa 1980) runs into the ring, and flattens Annie with an Atomic Leg Drop. So really, it was the Hulkster who beat Annie, but later on, at King of the Ring, The Weas denounces Hulkamania, and Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan force The Weasel into retirement, so, in essence, both Annie and The Weas lose, which I think is the best outcome here.

-OR-

2. Annie and The Weas start fighting, realize that they have more in common than not, and they team up against France. You know the rest.

Chile and Lime Chips

This week has been the busiest week I've had in months. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, at all. I like to be extremely busy. Matter of fact, I go absolutely nuts when I don't have anything to do...so nuts that I make work for myself...like WWDN, for example. :)

I had 2 really big auditions this week, and I major deadline at work. I talked with my boss, and she said that I still can't talk about G4 at all...but I can say that I'm doing some really cool work there, that I'm already very proud of, and I can't wait until you all can see it.

Many people have this complete misconception about actors. They think that actors just have their agents call someone up, and then that actor is magically placed into a role, or into a movie. The way things really do happen is quite different. It sort of breaks down like this: After a role is created, the writer, and producer usually sit down, and talk about "types", like "we want a Paul Rubens type" or "we need a brooding, mysterious, handsome man for this role". They then think of all their friends and relations who don't come close to any of these "types", and try to make that square peg fit a round hole. Then they hire a casting director, and the casting director goes through his or her list of actors who he or she likes to work with, and the casting director brings those people in for auditions.

Sometimes, managers and agents hear about roles, and they submit their clients to the casting director, but, more often then not, the casting director doesn't want to hear from an agent or manager, because the casting director would like to work with the people they already know.

This trend can benefit actors, because there are lots of casting directors who have good relationships with agents, and they'll call those agents up, asking for a type to fill a role, and the agent can then tell the CD that he has a client who fits the type, etcetera, etcetera. This works out great for relatively unknown actors, but if you're sort of known, like I am, it can hurt me.

There's also this thing about not being wrong. The entire entertainment industry is extremely insecure, because everyone knows that they're playing to a very fickle public, who can be in love with someone one week, and hate them the next (see "Mariah Carey"). So casting people get it in their minds that they "know" a person, and they don't like to be wrong about that. They're not adverse to "discovering" someone, but they are (sadly, understandably) reluctant to take a chance on someone, because, more often than not, the casting person gets burned.

So this process goes on for a few weeks, and, ultimately, it's weeded down to me and one other guy, and they hire Jimmy Kimmel's cousin.

Kidding.

Here's why I tell you all of this: I recently added management to my team. I was really reluctant to do this, because I've had managers before, and they've never really managed to make any major difference in my career, as far as getting auditions or work goes. Basically, I haven't been able to find a manager who works as hard as I do for me, and who cares about my career as much as I do.

Until now, that is.

One brief thing about managers, that you have to know, so this makes sense: Managers really should be an extra set of hands for an actor. They should be able to make calls when the agent isn't able to get to somone, or is being told "no" by a casting person.

I think I'm a pretty good actor, and I know that I'm very dedicated to my craft. But that's really not enough these days. For example, it really helps to be related to Jimmy Kimmel, or have a nice rack. As I've said before, many months ago, there has been this misconception within Hollywood that I was still 14, or still on Star Trek, or whatever. Casting people knew me as a strong dramatic actor, but not as a comedic one. They knew me as a child, but not as an adult. Basically, they knew me as Wesley or Gordie, and that was it.

This is where a good manager comes in.

My agents, who are simply amazing, awesome, hard-working bad asses, have struggled mightily the last year or so to convince casting people that I wasn't that kid anymore, and to just give me a chance to change their mind, and the casting people were always saying "no". Until two weeks ago, that was the end of it...but this time, things were really different, thanks to my new additions to my team.

My agent submitted me for a role in a very big MOW, that will end up being what they call "an event". That's just slightly bigger than "a very special" episode, I'm told. The casting director calls back, gives my agent a few reasons why she won't see me, and that's that. But this time, my agent calls my manger, explains the situation, and my manager gets on the phone to the casting director, does his thing, and I have an audition three days later, because the casting director decided to trust my manager and take a chance on me.

I have a final producers and network call back on Thursday for this role. I think there's 3, maybe 4 of us left, out of the entire entertainment industry, within our type, going on this call back. How cool is that?! I went from "no way" to producers and network call back. I've been doing the happy dance all week.

Then, this morning, I got a call from one of my managers (there's 3 of them, and they all work together. I'm sure this is terribly interesting to everyone. But it's my damn website, so get off my back.). She had called a very important casting director at a major studio, and talked him into seeing me. He had told my agent that I was a great dramatic actor, but that he didn't know about me for comedy. So my manager talks to him, gets him to give me a chance to change his mind, and he relents. I go into the audition, and I did a really good job with the material. As a bonus, I really liked the guy, and he really liked me (we know some of the same comedy people, it turns out). My manger was calling me after she'd gotten off the phone with him, where he raved about me, about how funny and nice I was, and told her that he was bringing me back to producers for his show.

I think it's just awesome that these casting directors gave me the chance to show them what I can do, and I'm so thrilled that I brought my "A" game, and didn't let them down.

I'm really excited about all of this...I think my years of suffering as the constant runner-up are going to come to an end, and pay off, finally.

Besides, Kimmel can only have so many cousins, right? :)

Wil and FARK, sitting in a tree...

It has just come to my attention that I haven't given up the love for FARK recently.

I really need to take a second out of my day, stop cleaning the house, and give up the farkin' love for FARK!

FARK voted for me to be entertainer of the year, before lowtax and I were squeezed out by The Man!

FARK provides the world with boobies, weeners, and beer!

FARK may even have a Los Angeles FARKFest this year!

Fb- is the father, France surrenders, and Wil Wheaton sucks. Long live FARK!

Blowing the lead, 101

What the hell happened with the Lakers today?

Spudnuts?

Hazy shade of Winter

One of the things I love about my new job is that I can sit at my desk, and look out across Century City, and see the Hollywood sign and Griffith observatory. Then I can get up, walk for 15 feet, and look out across Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean...on a beautiful day like today, when we have lots of little fluffy clouds (to borrow a phrase from The Orb, who borrowed it from Rickie Lee Jones, from a conversation she was having with LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow), it looks magical, like an animated movie. On days like today, I am insanely envious of my friends who live in Northern California, who get to have days like this all the time.

Now that the sun is low in the sky, and just about to sink into the ocean, the sky has darkened, and the clouds have lost that friendly look, in favor of a sinister, brooding, stormy look. In the time it has taken me to write this paragraph, the sun has lit of the reflective sides of the buildings in Century City, and there are these beautiful pillars of fire and ice reaching into the indigo January sky.

It would seem that Winter has at last decided to come to Southern California. It's about time!

Dr. Benway

I have no idea why the site was down for a little bit this morning...but Loren fixed it, and we're back in business, as they say.

There is a really funny contest going on at Worth1000.com featuring an image of yours truly. You should take a look. It made me laugh out loud.

Some people have emailed me, asking about the earthquakes we had here last night. I didn't feel them, at all, which is weird. In our old house, if a truck drove by a half-mile away, it shook the whole thing, but in our current house, we never feel anything. I was watching the news at 10 last night, and they were talking about this 4.2 or something that had just happened, and the newscaster says, "Woah! We're having an aftershock!" so I waited to feel it, and I never did. I'm not too upset, though, because there are much worse things than living in a house where you don't feel earthquakes. Trust me.

Today, at work, we turn in our pilot for my show. I am so excited! We've worked really, really hard on it, and we've created something that I am extremely proud of. I'll post details, as soon as I get the "OK" from the Big Bosses(tm).

One last thing before I leave for work: Today is the last day that you can vote in the 2002 Bloggies, and WWDN is a finalist in a few categories. If you have some time today, you should check out the finalists, and cast your votes. I guess the results will be posted late tonight. Wouldn't it be cool if we won something?

I've spent all my spare time in the last three days reading up on CSS (and getting some very valuable help from my friend Roughy), and I'm getting a very good understanding of the whole beast. Thank you to everyone who sent in suggestions for books and websites. I realize now that I'm going to have to re-write the entire site, which will be a bear, but really worth it in the long run. I sense great things in the future...stay tuned!

ForCor

I just found out that Foreign Correspondents is available at Amazon.com!

I'll put it up on the right in a week or two, but I'm pretty excited about it being available at the evil amazon, and I wanted to share that with everyone. :-)

Bloggie results have not yet been revealed to me...so I don't know if we should be getting tanked to celebrate, or to drown our sorrows... ;-)

Neverland

Today was a ridculously long day. Anne and I are working on our friend's movie (she's the hair dresser and I'm one of the actors), and we're shooting it really, really far away from where we live...so we drove something like 160 miles total today. We also had to juggle where the kids were going to go before and after school, and what we'd do with Ferris for the day. We are going to have to repeat this for the next 8 days, and I have a very strong, and new-found respect for families with 2 working parents, who have to deal with this sort of thing every single day.

The shoot went really well, today. All the actors are wonderful! They're all from the theatre, so they know what the hell they're doing, which is not something that usually happens on low budget movies. The whole crew is really wonderful, too, and we're all having fun, and getting good work done, too.

Tomorrow afternoon, I have my second callback for the producers for this MOW. If you've got some mojo to spare at 4:30 PST tomorrow, send it my way, and I'll be forever grateful.

Awesome!

Guess what?! I just checked the results of the 2002 Bloggies(TM) , and I swept my nominations!!!

I am so proud, and so humbled, and so excited!! I share awards with websites like Slashdot, FARK, MeFi, and Little, Yellow, Different!

I have worked really hard to make this website not totally suck, and I love it that so many people enjoy coming here (90,000 of you a month, eating up close to 25 gigs a month), and I am so giddy that you cast your votes for me, and WWDN. There is so much more that I want to do with this site, and, not ever being content to rest on my laurels for too long, I will be building some really cool stuff over the next couple of months.

I want to thank some people, since I don't know when I'll ever get to give and "acceptance" speech again...but first, I'd like to call attention to the plight of the...haha. Just kidding.

I would like to thank my wife, for enduring the website-as-other-woman, and my step-kids for hearing, "Not now, I'm working on my website", but still asking me to play with them the next day.

Loren, Josh, Ben, Ashley, and Logjamming Hosting, for helping me get this thing going in the first place, and extra-special thanks to Loren and Roughy for really helping out with some techincal issues.

Jim and .drow for some bigtime behind the scenes help.

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Noah Grey, who wrote Greymatter, the weblog program that I originally used, and Amy, who helped me fix Greymatter and get all my old entries exported into MoveableType, which I am currently using. I also have to give recognition to Ev, and Blogger, which was so easy to use, and so reliable, I was able to continue this weblog, even while I was having hellaproblems with GM and then MT.

Finally, I want to thank the entire community of people who read and contribute to WWDN. Whether you've been here from the beginning, or if you've just found us recently, you guys have added a great deal to this lame little website. I consistently get emails praising the thoughtful discourse we have here, and the fact that most of the people who read and post to WWDN are smart, thoughtful people, who will argue issues, not personalities, and I am proud to say that we've had some great arguments here over the last 6 months or so, without a single stupid flamewar.

For those of you keeping score at home, here's the categories that WWDN won:

• Best Merchandise of a Weblog


• Best Tagline of a Weblog


• Most Humorous Weblog


• Best American Weblog


• Best New Weblog

and...

• Weblog of the Year, 2002

I am humbled, shocked, awed, excited, and extremely grateful.

Thank you.

/me does the happy dance

RTFM

This made me laugh out loud.

It's been quite some time since we had some controversy, too...I think that, regardless of political ideology, we can all agree that the political process must be put back into the hands of the people, and taken away from wealthy individuals and corporations. My greatest hope is that the Enron collapse, and the subsequent investigations (if ever something was screaming for an independent counsel, I'd say this is on the list), will get some real campaign finance reform passed, and maybe people will be so outraged that they'll actually register to vote, and participate in our government.

You are registered to vote, and informed about your choices, aren't you?

Happy Birthday, KC

Today is my friend Kevin's birthday.

Kevin hates it when people make a big deal about his birthday, so that's exactly what I'm doing.

Ha.

Being Wil Wheaton

Despite what the title says, there is not a small space that you can crawl into and take over my body...not yet, at least.

It refers to the title of this really wonderful story that was written about me and WWDN by this guy Tod Goldberg (BAHHH!!! Who's next?!).

Big thanks to Joyce who emailed me about it...makes me want to finish SpongeBob Vega$pants.