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Day 1: Saturday, May 31, 2003, 6:50AM, HST
Aloha from Honolulu!!
I am writing this from the balcony of my hotel room. When I look up from my iBook's screen, I can see Waikiki beach. To my left, I can see NAME OF BAY, which currently has about 30 surfers riding the beautiful Hawaiian waves.
Anne and I arrived here in Honolulu yesterday morning at 11AM local time, after a surprisingly comfortable and very pleasant flight from beautiful downtown Burbank. Thank you to everyone who sent me some of that "don't be such a wuss and just enjoy the flight" mojo. The five hour and 24 minute flight was very smooth, and went by fairly quickly: I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit on my iBook, (I forgot how much I love that movie, and how truly amazing it was when I first saw it), took several naps, and then watched Chicago (hilariously edited for our safety) as the in-flight movie. We also ate some unexpectedly good airplane food: some warm apple crepes, and tasty Hawaiian sweet rolls.
When we got to our hotel, our room wasn't ready, so we ate a nice lunch, drank lots of POG juice, and talked to lots of birds. When our room, which is on the 39th floor and has the most spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean you can imagine, was finally ready, we dropped off our bags, and took one of those quick 20-minute naps . . . that turned into nearly three hours. I guess the last few weeks of stress and anticipation finally caught up with us, well, that and the fact that we'd only gotten a total of six hours of sleep the previous two nights. When we woke up, we took a walk down the beach, where we enjoyed spectacular views of Diamond Head, and not-so-spectacular views of the gross over-development of the rest of Honolulu.
When we got back to our hotel, we went up to the special, super-secret, you-must-know-the-password concierge club level, where Anne sat with Chase Masterson and Lolita Fatjo, while I stood on the balcony with Randall Schwartz, talking about website design (practice and philosophy) with this guy Manu who was on Voyager.
We watched the sun set over the bay, and Anne and I returned to our room around 8 p.m. We ate a light dinner, and were both asleep by 9. Thank you jet lag.
So far, I'm having a wonderful time. When I stood on the balcony of the lounge last night, watching the sun set, I thought about how insanely lucky I am: I'm happier and more content than I've been in years, my book seems to be a success, and a much bigger success than I ever thought it would be, and I am in Hawaii with my beautiful wife, standing on the balcony of this amazing hotel, watching a the sun set the sky aflame as it vanishes into the sea.
Today, the organizers of Cruise Trek (the whole reason I'm here) have put together a small convention that I'm attending. I get about 45 minutes on stage, so I'm going to read "The Trade" and "Fireworks" from Just A Geek and an excerpt from "The Saga of SpongeBob Vegas Pants," from Dancing Barefoot. Before that, I think Anne and I are going to pay our respects at the Arizona Memorial, and then ride some of those awesome waves I've been watching for the last hour.
Aloha, everyone!
Day 2: Sunday June 1, 2003, 8:04 a.m. HST
Honolulu Hawaii
The convention yesterday was fantastic. It was small -- about 300 people -- but that seemed to be the perfect number of fans. I brought 20 copies of Dancing Barefoot with me, and sold them all!! Many people came over to me and told me that they read my site, and wanted to get my book. One guy told me that my site was "some of the best writing on the Internet." :-)
At most conventions, it's always such a giant CF, and this was really different. When it was my turn to take the stage, rather than do the typical Q&A thing, I just read some of my stuff: The Trade, from Just A Geek, and a previously unpublished selection from SpongeBob Vegas Pants that's in Dancing Barefoot. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves, despite the cellphone that kept ringing, and the guy who thought it was really entertaining to constantly shoot at me with the laser gun, complete with loud "zzzaaapp!" sound effects.
After the Con, Anne and I walked on the beach, (there's a lot of that in Hawaii) and changed for a Bon Voyage Luau that Cruise Trek and Geek Cruises were throwing. I am not a big fan of luaus, but I had a nice time, and gorged myself on sweet potatoes and guava juice.
Thanks to jet lag, Anne I I fell asleep at 9:30 p.m., while the strains of "She Love You" exploded up from beneath our balcony, played by a Beatles cover band. Thankfully, 39 stories between us and Anne's sleep cocoon (ear plugs and an eye mask) ensured a good night's sleep.
Day 3: Monday June 2, 2003. 6:30 AM HST
Off the coast of Hilo, Hawaii
As I type this, I am sitting on my verandah, looking out at the Hilo coastline. The sun is just risen, and is sitting between the sea and the clouds. The ocean is calm and the air is warm and humid. This truly is paradise.
I was very happy to leave Honolulu yesterday. While the beaches are beautiful, and the water is clean, warm, and placid, the entire city feels like Santa Monica or Venice, in California: there are homeless, panhandlers, and shifty-looking hustlers everywhere. There is graffiti on most of the buildings, and trash litters the gutters and doorways along most of the streets. There seems to be a great deal of poverty just a few blocks away from Hotel Row, and the whole place just reeks of desperation.
We're only in Hilo for a few hours today; our ship sets sail at 1:00 p.m. The plan is to rent a car and drive to the Volcano National Park. Anne and I rarely take traditional shore excursions through a cruise line. We prefer to rent a car, and use a map to make our own tour, or hire a local guide to drive us around. When we were in Alaska, we took a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier for 5 bucks . . . while our fellow passengers took the exact same trip on a cruise line organized bus for sixty-five!!
More later.
Day 3.5 1:17 PM HST In port at Hilo
We are pushing away from the dock as I write this. The ship shudders and the water between us and the dock boils violently.The ship's horn just blew a long blast, and Anne and I looked at each other and said, without any planning, "The looovvveee boooaatttt . . . "
Heh.
The Big Island of Hawaii gets 278 days of measurable rainfall each year, and today was one of those days. But it didn't matter at all. The clouds and rain kept the heat and humidity away, and the grey sky provided a wonderful contrast to all the tropical vegetation. There were some palm trees that positively glowed with an internal, emerald luminescence that took our breath away.
We had an awesome adventure this morning. We rented a car, and drove to Volcano National Park. It was awesome! It took us about 45 minutes from the port, and only cost us 54 bucks, plus 3 bucks for gas.
Once inside the park, we made a stop at the visitor's center, where we picked up a map, and found out that our time on the island (just under 6 hours) didn't allow us to drive all the way to our planned destination: the lava flow.
(We've just left the dock, and are sailing out past the breakwater now. The island is a patchwork of various shades of green, where fields and trees come together, sitting placidly beneath thick, grey clouds.)
Instead, we drove a circular road, 11 miles around the crater of Kilauea, called, appropriately, Crater Rim Drive. The road starts out in a full-on rainforest, where we stopped at some steam vents and got our first glimpse of the crater, and then travels around the edge until it crosses several enormous lava fields, which are completely devoid of any life at all. The silence that surrounded us while we stood at the edge of the caldera was like being in a vacuum. I told Anne that the lava reminded me of pictures I've seen of the Moon or the surface of Venus . . . and I found out later in the day that some of the Apollo 1 astronauts actually trained in the crater in the early days of the Apollo Program. I also read in my awesome Lonely Planet Guide to Hawaii that they filmed some scenes from the remake of Planet of the Apes in the Kilauea Iki crater. But don't hold that against the volcano, okay?
It was an amazing, breathtaking experience, and it was wonderful to feel the Earth as a living thing -- it's hard not to with all the steam and sulphur and micro earthquakes all around you.
On the drive back to the port, Anne and I talked about what we'd seen, and decided that we weren't disappointed to have missed the lava running into the ocean. We got to travel from a rain forest, to an alien landscape and back again in just three hours, we did it entirely on our own, and we wouldn't trade it for anything.
Now, I am off to participate in a CruiseTrek event, as we head down to Fanning Island: 1200 miles south east of Hawaii, in the Republic of Kiribati. I just realized that I've written 4 entries since I got here, and I haven't had time to upload any of them . . . I wonder when I'll get to put this one up? :-)
Aloha!
I am writing this from the Reading Room aboard the Norwegian Star, as we cruise between Hawaii and Fanning Island.
I am such a dork, I wanted to bring my garmin, so I could update position with much greater accuracy . . . but it was forgotten in the chaos that surrounded our leaving Los Angeles a few days ago.
So.
Since this is the first time I've had Internet since we left Los Angeles, there will be three entries following this one, each of them representing one day since I left.
Onward . . .
Cruise Trek --Day 4
Tuesday, 02 June, 2003
8:00a.m. HST
Somewhere in the Pacific, between Hawaii and Fanning Island
The air is heavy and humid. We are under a blanket of grey clouds, but it doesn't look or feel like rain. The seas are exceptionally calm, too. I doubt they are more than five feet. The Pacific ocean is very . . . well . . . pacific!
This ship that we're on is HUGE. She holds over 2200 passengers, and over 1100 crew. She has something like 12 restaurants, two swimming pools, a health club, a spa, and several bars. There's even an English pub on board where I had Guinness and Fish-n-Chips.
Yesterday, I did two CruiseTrek events. In the first event, Anne and I played in the "Not-So-Newlywed Game," against three other couples, all of them Star Trek fans. I was certain that we'd do well on the standard questions, but I knew that if there were any Star Trek questions, we were dead, because Anne doesn't watch Star Trek at all. I think she humors me when I am watching it on TNN and I say, "Honey! Come watch this! It's so cool!" but other than that, she's not interested.
However, there were only two Star Trek questions. The first, asked of me, was, "Which Star Trek male will your wife say she would most like to be with?"
I said, "My wife doesn't watch Star Trek, at all, which is one of the reasons I married her."
Laughter.
"I mean, she'll humor me when I'm watching TNG on TNN, or searching for some scene on one of my DVDs, and she does a great job of pretending to care about things like reversing the polarity and emitting a pulse into the heart of the anomaly . . . "
More laughter. It's fun to entertain these people.
"But she just doesn't like nerdy things like I do. So she wouldn't know to answer 'Picard,' or 'Kirk,' so she had better say 'Wesley!'"
Huge laugh, and some applause.
When they brought the girls back in, and the question was asked, Anne looked horrified and said, "I don't watch Star Trek."
It was like that time Bart Simpson said, "I didn't do it." It brought down the house.
"I mean, I'll watch it a little bit if Wil is watching it . . . but I just don't get it. So I'll say . . . Wil's character?"
I jumped out of my chair, and held the card up high. Everyone, including the people we were playing against, cheered for us. It was very cool.
The next question was, "Which Star Trek woman will your wife say she would most like to be?"
Okay, Anne could care less, but I know that she's heard me talk about Ashley Judd a lot, and people ask her about that scene (you know the one) all the time . . . so I knew that there was a good chance she'd answer "Robin Lefler," which she did. Bingo, baby! We went four for four!
When it was time for the wives to answer questions, the first Star Trek question was, "Which Star Trek woman will your husband say he fantasizes about?"
I said, "Have any of you seen my wife? Why in the world would I want to fantasize about anyone else?!"
How's that for scoring points, eh? Feel free to use that one, guys. *wink*
After the laughter died down, I said, "Well, Dr. Crusher is right out, (har har har) and Anne hasn't seen the Detox Gel scene from Eneterprise . . . .so I'm pretty sure that Anne would say . . . 'Ashley Judd?'"
She held up the SAME CARD I HAD USED for her question, because she gave the same answer! Yes!!
The next question was, "What is your husband's favorite food?" (Guinness, which we got right) and the final Star Trek question was, "Which Star Trek male will your husband say he'd most like to be?"
I paused a second and said, "Picard?"
Anne jumped out of her chair, gave a "whoop!" and held up the card that said, "Captain Picard."
She later told me that she was pretty sure I wouldn't want to be Wesley, and that she's heard me go on and on about how cool Patrick is, and how much I liked that character.
When it was all over, we went seven for eight, and took home first prize!!
The second CruiseTrek event I participated in was an actor's panel with George Takei, who played Sulu on the Original Series, and Vaughn Armstrong, who has played something like 11 different aliens on all four new Star Trek series. Vaughn is a really wonderful man, and I've really enjoyed talking with him. I found out yesterday that he played one of the main Klingons in the "Heart of Glory" episode we did on TNG.
Heh. Anne just woke up. She has her "I just woke up" face on . . . it's too cute and I love it.
Anyway, I sat on this panel for an hour, answering questions and listening to the two of them talk, and, for the first time in years, when the inevitable "What are you doing now?" question came, I didn't feel like a loser.
In the past, when that question has come, I have struggled to keep my head up when I've said things like, "I just did this movie called Python," or "Well, I keep coming in second on auditions, but I know I'll get something soon," (trying very hard to convince myself that it was true, trying very hard to believe that I still had a chance to be TV's Wil Wheaton again.)
I was so happy yesterday to hold my head up high, look the woman who asked the question right in the eye, and answer, "I've written a book, and I'm very proud of it. It's called Dancing Barefoot, and it's available through my publishing company, Monolith Press."
One last thing, and then I'm going to eat breakfast and play shuffleboard.
When I signed up for my Internet access, the guy who works in the Internet Cafe looked at me, and he said, "Hey! It's Wil Wheaton, the author!"
It's the first time anyone has said that to me. I think I could get used to it.
CruiseTrek -- Day 5
Wednesday, 03 June, 2003
2:59 p.m. HST
Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati
Greetings from tomorrow!
The voyage thus far has been quite lovely. The seas are mostly calm, the CruiseTrekkers and Geek Cruisers are awesome, and Anne and I are really enjoying our time away from our so-called real lives.
Yesterday, we spent the whole day at sea, traveling 1200 miles Southwest of Hawaii, on our way to Fanning Island, which is 220 miles North of the equator, and across the international dateline (hence this entry's greeting).
Yesterday afternoon, I played poker with Vaughn and his wife, this guy Trenton, and this other guy Dan. We had a really good time, and gave Vaughn all of our money . . . which he later used to buy everyone beers. :-)
Last night, I ate dinner with the rest of the speakers on the Mac Mania and Perl Whirl cruises, which was just awesome. I enjoyed being able to talk with people who are smarter than me about things that interest me, and feel like I could keep up.
After dinner, Anne retired to our cabin, and I joined some other geeks for more poker. We even had some normals join us: two very nice guys who played well and provided pleasant company.
I understand that everyone with wireless has been reading my updates from the ship . . . that's so strange to me, but, uh, hi there, everyone who is on the ship. Especially Tom and Dori, who are too cool for words.
Today, we spent our time at Fanning Island. There is too much to write about Fanning Island, but I'll do it when I have more time.
Until then, take a look at what I see when I look out of my stateroom . . .
The ship's internet chokes when I try to upload lots of big jpegs to the gallery,so I used iPhoto's cool "export image" feature to scale down some pictures from today.
Here they are: Note: Changed to links. Now with bigger pictures!
Anne and I are on the tender, going from our ship to Fanning Island
Here I am, throwing the goat in a tropical paradise.
And here is another view of Fanning Island from my stateroom.
I am home.
Happy, rested, and staring at over 900 e-mails.
50 of them are actually not spam!
The boat continues to rock, the dogs are thrilled to see us, and I had a wonderful time.
I'll update about the last few days of the cruise tomorrow or the next day.
Couple of interesting things:
1. Randal Schwartz is a svengali when it comes to perl. I wrote my first five perl scripts today, while making my way through the Learning Perl book on the plane. And they worked. So there.
2. I am madly in love with my iBook after this trip, and I think I'm going to be getting myself an Ipod and Powerbook before Summer is over.
3. My class went really well. I was terrified that I was going to suck, but I didn't. That was cool.
4. The past 10 days have confirmed that my wife is the coolest person on the planet. I hope that everyone who reads this page finds someone to spend their life with who is as cool as Anne is. I can't wait to do the massive road trip to Tulsa with her in 2 weeks.
I'm going to have a beer, eat some good food (the cruise food redefined "sucks"), and go to bed.
YES! I'll be speaking and signing at Comic-Con!! News here.
We packed and shipped a TON of books today, bringing the total number of orders shipped to about 450. The rest will be shipped by the end of the week.
Monolith is a three man operation (with occasional help from my stepkids) and I really appreciate everyone's patience while we try to deal with the totally unexpected demand for Dancing Barefoot. Once we get caught up on the pre- and backed-up orders, new orders will be processed much more quickly than they are right now.
Also, you can now buy your very own autographed copy from Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego! Mysterious Galaxy is the very first "Brick-and-mortar" store to carry my book, and I'm thrilled!
I'll be heading over to Vroman's in Pasadena tomorrow with a press kit and review copy. Cross your virtual fingers for me . . . I buy almost all of my books there, and I'd simply die to do a signing there, and have them stock my book.
I'm still finishing the final Cruise updates, but I have to finish an introduction to a very exciting and SUPER SECRET book before midnight tonight. I should be able to post it, and upload most of the pictures, tomorrow after I take the next big old batch of books to the post office.
Finally, there is an iPod in my future, thanks to a mysterious stranger, who hooked me up with his / hers / its 25% employee discount! 30GB, man!! WOO!!!
So far, my personal favorite: Traaaiiinnn!
Close runner up: Here
And if they can't fulfill their duties, the crown will be worn by: This
I'm almost done with the CruiseTrek updates, but I'm real busy packing and shipping book orders, so it will probably be another day or so.
However, I've added tons of pictures from our trip to the gallery. It's not completed, yet, but it's a start.
Somehow, I have to find the time to pick up Hail to the Thief today, too.
Update: My kick ass wife just walked in, and announced that she had a surprise for me. When I spun around in my chair, she was holding Hail to the Thief proudly, arms extended to the sky.
"Because I knew you wanted it, and I knew you wouldn't make time to go do something for yourself today!"
She even made a special trip home from Tower Records to drop it off, before she went to work, because she wanted me to have it right away. How cool is that?
"Best part?" she said, "it was 19.99, but I got it for 9.99! Woo! Sale, baby!!"
Rock.
UpdateUpdate: OMFG. This album is amazing. And the art is brilliant. Buy it now.
I just walked into a slumbering house. Ferris met me at the door, wagged her tail like mad, ran a couple of small circles, yawned, and trotted back to my bedroom, where I heard her hop up onto my bed.
74 pounds of dog, most likely on my pillow. That's going to be fun to move in a few minutes.
Tonight, I met a bunch of ACME people down at a pub on Main street in Santa Monica called O'Brien's. It was our company director's birthday, and we were all doing a sort of "get together and have a talent show" thing for him.
Here's a secret that I don't share with too many people (so I'll share it with 500,000 of you all at once): I am probably the least-funny guy in ACME. It's sad, but true. I'm not as good a writer as Travis or Jeff or Ashley, and I don't play characters as well as Kristen or Jonna or Ed . . . but somehow I keep my head just enough above the water to stick around. But I have the most fun, ever, when I do shows with these people, and being in the Bravo show back in 2001 kept me sane at a time when nothing in my life seemed to go right. I'm about to start writing for the next show, which starts in the end of Summer. If I don't make it into this show, I'll prolly be cut from the company.
But that's not what this is about. This is about the show we did tonight, how great it was, and how I hit The Big Comeback right when I needed to hit it, rather than in the car an hour later.
The show was full of brilliant comedians, talented musicians and singers, and me. There is no freakin' way I'm going to go up in front of my friends who are all funnier than me and try to tell my lame jokes: Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One of them says, "I think I lost an electron." The other one says, "Are you sure?" The first one says, "Yeah. I'm positive." Thank you. Try the fish.
But I figured that since other people would be doing stuff that wasn't straight comedy, like singing, I could bring my book, and read a short bit from it.
I was terrified. Absolutely terrified. It is so insanely important to me that I do well around these people . . . it's like performing in front of my family. But these guys don't have to tell me that I'm great if I really suck. (It's so strange that I can stand in front of 5000 Trekkies, and not flinch, but in front of 30 people I know, I panic.)
I went up about halfway down the list, after several extremely funny people, and read a bit from VegasPants.
"I know you all pretty well," I said, "but we never talk about Star Trek, which is where I spent quite a bit of my life. So I'm going to read you an excerpt from my book, where you can see what a Star Trek convention is like."
I read them the story of when I totally bombed on stage in Vegas, and how I found my funny. There was some good laughter in places, and I got some nice applause when I was done . . . but I'm not sure if I did well, or if it was even appropriate for the lineup. But I took a chance, and I'm glad I did.
After the show was over, we all left the back room, so a band could take the stage, and most of us gathered on the patio out front to visit and stuff.
I started saying goodbye at about 11, I guess, and didn't leave until close to 12:30. It's like that when I get around people I genuinely like, and hardly ever get to see.
I was talking with Kevin, Chris, and Kurt, three of the guys who are also in Earnest Borg9 with me, when a tall fellow comes out of the bar. He puts one arm around my shoulder, holds his Budwieser aloft in his other hand, and says, "Suck my fat one, you cheap dimestore hood!"
He looks at his buddies, who are also holding Bud in bottles, and they all look at me, waiting to see how I react to this frat-guy move.
"Hey, buddy, if you're going to talk to me like that, you have to take me out to dinner, and buy me a drink," I said.
He looked a little stunned that I replied with good humor, his friends all looked at him like he was the asshole that just got burned, and then they offered to buy drinks for me and my friends. I declined, because I was on my way out, but they made good on their offer for the rest of the group.
Another performer from Acme, Ashley, turned to me and said, "Does that bother you?"
I shook my head. "It's not about me. It's about him and his friends. And that line . . . that's not even me. That's some kid from almost 20 years ago. And you got a free drink out of it, so you'd better put me in your sketches in the next show, fucker."
We laughed.
"Seriously, that doesn't totally suck for you?" he asked.
I told him, "I've been training for this moment since 1986, and it just paid off. That was my best line all night."
I am going to buy myself a present today.
First, I thought I'd get a trophy, then I thought I'd get a pizza, but I settled on picking up a new game for my PS2.
Since I haven't gamed in months, I am totally out of the loop on what's good and what sucks these days.
Anyone have a reccommendation for me? I was thinking of SOCOM or NHL 2003 (is 2004 out, yet?) or something like that. I'm not into the racing games, or the fighting games. Comments are open on this one, if you care to share.
Wow.
Check this out.
*biggest smile in the world*
I have huge news to report on Monday.
(how about that teaser, eh? :)
And thank you to everyone who suggested games yesterday. I have a good list to check out. I'll let you know what I get (yeah, because you won't be able to sleep without that knowledge, right? heh.)
Hope everyone is having a great weekend. It's awesome here in SoCal.
Dear William Hanks at Mardox Networks:
Please do the following:
- Fuck yourself
- Stop spamming me.
- Fuck yourself again.
Fuck you,
Wil Wheaton
PS- please pass this along to all the other spammers at safemaildeluxe.com, and have a lovely day.
Oh man, I heart Fark so very, very, very much.
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be roasted by the Friar's Club someday. This is so much cooler.
The big question on everyone's mind is . . . "Is The Hulk really going to suck as much as I think it's going to suck? Because I am really tired of comicbook movies sucking."
Of course, the answer to that can be best expressed in Wil's Law of Movie Suck Potential: A movie's suck potential is directly related to the amount of "product tie-in" which preceeds the film's release.
For example, if there are several pop songs and fast-food children's meals, or we're seeing OREOS that tie-in to a movie, the odds of that movie sucking go up exponentially. If there's a special Mountain Dew can . . . just forget it.
I'm cheating a little bit, here, because I've seen the trailer . . . oh dear god. Every time they screw up another movie based on a comic book (Daredevil? I left the theatre, raced into the shower and scrubbed myself raw.) It moves us farther and farther away from a "Watchmen" or "Sandman" movie. If LoEG sucks, we can pretty much forget it.
The second-biggest question on everybody's mind is: "Where the hell is that big news you promised us, you jackass?"
The answer is: It's not quite ready. I thought it would be ready on Monday, and it isn't done, yet. When it's done, I'll announce. That should teach me to make teaser announcements when I don't have the project in question totally finished.
Sorry . . . but I think it's pretty cool that anyone even cared enough to e-mail me about it. :)
You can hear me tonight on Your Mac Life dot Com. I'll be talking about my iBook, the eMac Anne and I bought for Ryan as a graduation present (that's right, I'm the parent of a 9th grader -- forgiv me if I'm a bit testy for the next four years), my book, Star Trek, and Muskrats.
Finally. The Big News is here!
Last week, I was contacted by Amazon dot Com. A very cool Amazon employee, who reads the exact site you're reading right now(spooky!) suggested that Amazon would be interested in carrying Dancing Barefoot.
We did some business stuff with Monolith and Amazon, and I can announce that Dancing Barefoot is now available on Amazon dot Com. I couldn't announce it on Monday, like I wanted to, because the cover art, reviews, bio, and all that stuff hadn't been updated, yet.
I can also announce that I'll be signing copies of Dancing Barefoot at the OSCon in Portland next week, at Powell's Technical bookstore (Two signings: one inside the con at 1PM on July 10th, and one in the actual store at 7PM on July 10th. I think I get to read from the book, too!). . . and they placed a HUGE order with me already!!!
AND in August (It's looking like the 14th) I'll be in Portland again, this time doing a signing at the Big Store. That's right, I will be signing at Powell's City Of Books, in the heart of Spudnuts country.
EDIT: My bad. It's not Powell's City of Books. It's Powell's in Beaverton. Go suburbs!! :-)
All of this is totally overwhelming to me. We packed another massive bunch of books tonight, (until we ran out of postage . . . dang!) and we'll be shipping them all out tomorrow. We're totally sold out of our first 1000 books, and I'm expecting another 1000 (with some minor corrections, and a cool new cover with some of the awesome reviews I've gotten) to arrive soon, so I can sell them in Tulsa at the convention.
Speaking of conventions, the gang over at Creation has once again heard the mighty voice of the fans, and invited me to attend the Vegas show! I'll be there with (say it with me) books to sign, and I'll be doing a reading, too.
I'm almost done with the Cruise entries, and there are still about 100 photos to be uploaded. I think I'll have some time later today to get them put up.
Oh, and check this out:
The UPS dude stopped by around 4:45 this afternoon, and dropped off a tall rectangular box, addressed to "Wil Wheaton, c/o 1000 Barefeet Dancing."
I opened it, and found a bottle of Macallan Cask Strength Highland Scotch Whiskey inside. It was sent to me by my friend Barry, to celebrate the 1000th sale of my book.
Barry, if you're reading this, you effin' rule, man. Thank you. (Yes, it's as good as we thought it would be!) :-)
I really feel like all this great stuff that's happening is Balance for all the shit I went through when I was struggling so hard to make it as an actor. I no longer feel like I'm struggling against a mighty current, and it is wonderful.
Thought for Today:
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
--Thoreau
My iPod arrived day before yesterday. While I was putting music on it, I decided to take a look at the iTunes Music Store, and see what it was all about.
I know what you're thinking: What's that? See what it's all about? Wil, you just told us the other night on Your Mac Life that you didn't like the iTunes Music Store! What gives?!
Well, here's what gives: I misunderstood what the iTunes Music Store was about, didn't fully grok how it worked, and I have changed my mind entirely about it.
I said that I wasn't all that thrilled with it, and cited the (incorrect) fact that the buyer wouldn't be able to take the music he / she / it bought and burn it, play it on different machines, etc. Last night, I realized that I was hasty in my condemnation, and I totally misspoke.
It was lame of me to answer the way that I did without having the facts at my disposal. I mean, I've always thought that people should have all the facts, and have them straight, too, before they form an opinion, or commit thousands of troops and billions of dollars to a military occupation.
I spent quite a bit of time last night poking around the store, and I bought 6 songs that I really like. If they'd had all of Arizona Bay or Rant in E Minor, I would have bought those entire albums, too. Once the prices over at Audible come down, I will probably pick up some books there (and look into offering an audio version of Dancing Barefoot!)
I think it's really cool that I can put that music on my iPod, keep it in my iTunes library, and burn it to a CD and take it into my car. I don't see any major limitations, so far, and I wish I'd had my shit straight before I opened my big fat stupid mouth.
I feel awfully embarrassed right now, but I think it's better to be honest than it is to be right.
If it makes anyone feel any better, I am totally paying massive karma for this idiocy: ALL THREE of my linux machines won't access the 'net, and my iBook is pissed at me too. I'm having one of those "tanj" technology days.
This summer, Anne and I will be taking planes, trains, and automobiles to get to all sorts of places. We're taking a plane to Vegas for the Creation Star Trek convention, we're taking a train to San Diego for Comic-Con, and tomorrow, we'll be taking an automobile all the way to Tulsa, for the Starbase 21 convention. (Info for those cons is here.)
I'm looking forward to this trip so much! I can't think of anyone in the world I'd rather sit in a car with for three days than my rockin' wife, and I can't wait to see all the nifty sights along Route 66. I will return from this trip with:
- Something with a Jackelope on it
- A plastic or rubber tomahawk
- A photo of a WWdN OBEY sticker on the "Welcome to \$state" sign
- A greater understanding of the majesty which is the Interstate Highway system, and the beauty of the open road
Thanks to my iPod, this is the road trip where Anne gets introduced to David Sedaris . . . and we have XM Satellite Radio to keep us entertained on the drive! I've been listening to XM for about a week now, and I'm about to become XM's most vocal unpaid cheerleader.
I'll be doing my best to update from the road, depending on what our hotels have in the way of networks . . . but check it out! I've signed up for an account with Audblog, and I will be phoning in updates along the road. (Huge thanks to Xeni for giving me some useful pointers on audio blogging))It should be really fun. (And don't worry -- I'm finishing the CruiseTrek entries. I'll try to post them before the end of the week.)
Finally, the biggest news of the day: on Thursday, when we arrive in Tulsa . . . I get to throw out the first pitch at the Tulsa Drillers baseball game!!!!! (I also notice that it's redneck country music night . . . and, uh, lots-of-beer night . . . so there is a very good chance that someone may take a swing at your dear old friend and cherished Internet companion, Uncle Willie.)
I'm one step closer to singing "Take me out to the ballgame" at a Cubs game! Put me in, coach!
I love this road trip! Anne and I have been taking our time, exploring small towns (abandoned and otherwise) all along the way. XM radio has provided a wonderful soundtrack, (it's all about Fred and Ethel, the classic rock station, and the 60s . . . but I will admit that we turned on classic country when we drove into Texas. It seemed appropriate at the time.
Is anyone listening to the audio blog? It's fun for me, but I haven't found my "voice" yet. It will get better, though. I thought it may be cool to take my phone on stage at the Trek convention, and have the audience shout something out. Something like, "The Trogdor comes in the night!"
I just love spending all this time with my wife, too. It takes a very specific type of chemistry to sit next to each other in a car for 8 hours a day, and I'm proud to report that our marriage is safely intact. :-)
Couple of things I forgot to mention in the audblog:
When we stopped in Williams, we ate dinner in a hotel restaurant, where our waiter was:
1. Left-handed
2. From California
3. Named "Wil" and spelled with JUST ONE L!!
Those of you who are official stalkers will know that I fit all three of those criteria. He had a beard, so I decided that he is The Evil Twin.
Somewhere before Williams, Anne said, "What does this button on the mirror do?" as she pushed it. The radio fell silent, and a voice said, "Connecting to On*Star . . ." (I swear, you could hear the asterisk in the computerized voice)
We both looked at each other, sort of shocked, and I said, "It's a rental car. there is no way the On*Star (again, I made sure to pronounce the asterisk) is going to be turned on."
"Why are you pronouncing the asterisk?" Anne asked.
Before I could reply, a soft and friendly voice came out of our speakers. It said, "Welcome to OnStar (no asterisk, this time . . . weird). How are things out there in Arizona?"
It was like the teacher came into the classroom, and caught me setting my desk on fire. And I wasn't wearing any pants. And the other kids were all tied up with electrical tape.
"Oh, uh . . . it's fine!" we said.
"What can I help you with tonight?"
"Well, here's the deal: this is a rental car, and we're just fooling around with the buttons . . . so . . . how are you?"
She laughed, and we talked about stupid stuff for a few minutes. I thought it was really cool, despite my inner privacy-zealot screaming at me "THEY KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!! THEY KNOW YOU'RE DRIVING TEN MILES OVER THE LIMIT!! THEY KNOW YOU PRONOUNCE THE ASTERISK WITHOUT KNOWING WHY!!!11"
We told her we were heading into Williams, and she told us to have a nice drive.
Which we did.
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