One of the primary reasons I got a waterproof point-n-shoot camera was so I could do stupid stuff like this:
Before I write anything here at all, I need to give an enormous and heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who made stuff and put it here while I was gone. I almost don’t want to write my own dumb stuff, because I’m dragging the curve down. I’m lucky and grateful to know so many awesome and creative people. If you haven’t, yet, go check it out. It’s way better than this thing I’m about to write, I promise.
So. I am home. Castle Wheaton sits in moderate seas, according to my inner ear, and Anne and I were never coming back, according to our pets.
This was our sixth JoCo Cruise, and I am so grateful and I feel so lucky to be asked back five times more than I probably should have been. This cruise was the second best for me, coming in just a few lengths behind the first one, and I am already counting down the days until next year’s cruise. (By my math, it’s 6000 days away, because I am not that good at math or counting or numbers and instead choose to do this thing called “emotional math” that I learned from TV. It’s the kind of math that lets me believe the things I want to feel, and it’s all over cable news so it must be true).
Anyway, it was the same incredible gathering of incredible people that it always is, with some truly wonderful concerts and performances. I’ve been a fan of Imogen Heap for ages, and getting to see her perform live, in a relatively small space, creating an entire song using her own technology is something I can’t adequately describe but will never forget. The comedy performances were hilarious, and inspired me to at least attempt to write some new material and start working out a new set.
I only have two regrets: that I went to sleep before the Ted Leo and Aimee Mann show (as The Both) because it was at midnight, and that I didn’t have the courage to at least try to do something in the David Bowie tribute show, which is almost certainly making its way onto various video and blog sites as I type this now. Yes, I spent three days without a voice because I did something my friend Mike Selinker called “The Human Mic Drop” (worth it), but I think I could have made it work, if I’d had more courage. Maybe next year, as Cubs fans say.
I want to get into more details about some other things, but I’ve been awake since 5am my time, and I don’t have a whole lot of motivation and creative focus at the moment, so go read Scalzi’s post about the boat, and come back tomorrow for more from me.
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How AWESOME is it that you got to see Imogen Heap live?! I’m sure that was magical.
http://www.hanniepat.com
I’m glad you had a good time. You made my friend’s day when you stopped her in the hall to ask about her cheese tray. (and yes, she really did bring a suitcase full of cheese with her.
Welcome home, Wil.
Mr. WW.
The wife and I came to three conclusions tonight:
1.) You did a wonderful job with the guest bloggers. Great stuff.
2.) We need to go to Kapa’a for a week in the near future and get some sun because Oregon in February is, um… Rainy.
3.) In an unrelated note, it has been too long since we’ve watched Undercover Brother (furiously digs through DVD collection)
Glad you had a safe journey.
Welcome home! Spiffy quicky recap. One thing: Cubs fans don’t know the word “maybe.” There’s nothing halfhearted about our perpetual, unfounded blind optimism.
I direly want to make it on one but adding in Australia to USA-X flights is killer. Am literally searching for a new job to try and give me a chance at making #7, but tell me #8 will still have you on it, no matter what. Right???
If it’s a choice between Gen Con and JoCo, skip Gen Con. You’ll have more fun on the JoCo Cruise and we’ll have tons more time to hang out.
I work in a lab which are surrounded by a woodsy-ish sort of area. There is one particular spot that is a little unusual in this woodsy area for there is a slight inclined path which once you get to the top kind of leads to nowhere. My friend and I had conjured up the notion that there was some portal there kind of like a Stargate that when the apocalypse or things get a little too crazy here in the Matrix, we could go through the portal and you would be there to save us.
To our dismay, they have been tearing down the woods to make more labs which in turn means the portal space is missing. We were hoping you were searching out new locations for us to be transported to when the time comes. Thoughts like that get us through the day.
Glad you had a good trip. Welcome back.
HEYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Oh, I need to describe that Human Mic Drop for posterity.
I was on a panel called Teach Aimee Mann to Be a Nerd, with Aimee, Ted Leo, NK Jemisin, Matt Fraction, Paul Sabourin, and Kelly Sue DeConnick. Oh, and John Hodgman. John said something like “As Chris Hardwick would say, ‘Being a nerd is not about what you love; it’s about how you love it.” Now, in my head I think, “Huh. I heard Wil Wheaton say that, but maybe Chr—” and then I see Wheaton storming from the back of the room STRAIGHT AT ME. In a rare moment of self-preservation instinct, I angled my microphone to Wil and prepared for the worst.
And Wil screamed. “I am not Chris Hardwick! I do not have a successful television show, or a mansion, or a newspaper heiress fiancee! The one thing I do have is that I SAID THAT!” The blowback caused Hodgman to recoil, and in that moment, Wil literally DROPPED THE MIC right onto my lap.
So yeah, I was the Mike in the Human Mic Drop.
Mike