I can’t believe that I haven’t written since Friday. I have a good excuse though: when I wasn’t at the Star Trek convention, I was playing NetHack. Can you believe that I’ve played nethack for over 10 years, and I still haven’t found the goddamn amulet of Yendor? I even play pocket rogue on my handspring, and I haven’t beaten that, yet.
It’s truly sad.
Anyway, it’s been a cool few days, and I’ll do a quick recap here:
Thursday, we did another studio run through of my show, for G4. I’m not allowed to get into specifics, or G4 will send their hired goons after me, but I will say that I am extremely excited about my show. I think it’s going to be one of the best ones on the network.
Sometimes, when I’m working on something, I’ll get this “oh my god this is going to suck” feeling. It can take a few days, or even as long as a few weeks to settle in, but once it’s there, it doesn’t go away, and there is nothing worse for me than working on something that I know is going to end up sucking.
Fortunately, I do not have this feeling about “Arena”. Matter of fact, I am extremely proud of what we’re doing, and I can already see stuff that’s going to get cooler with time.
Friday, I went to the Creation Grand Slam convention in Pasadena. It was a good time. I got to meet lots of fans, and many of them told me how they read my lame website, and that they really liked it.
I even got to meet a WWDN reader, named Mike, who came all the way from Swizterland! He was wearing a WWDN T-shirt!!!! I took a picture of him, but I’m lazy, and I’ll post it later on.
I was so excited to hear from so many people that they read my site. I mean, I can look at the stats, and see that I get lots of traffic, but it’s something completely different to actually meet real people, and have them tell me how much they like it. I heard from people, over and over again, that they thought my site was funny, insightful, and unlike any other “celebrity” site on the net, to which I would respond, “That’s because it’s not a celebrity site. It’s WWDN!” Hey, it was funny at the time.
Friday night, I did the J. Keith vanStraaten show at ACME, and there were TEN people in the theatre (which only seats 99 people) who were WWDN readers!! And get this: 6 of them were girls! Hot girls!
YES! Uncle Willie’s still got it!
*metal fist*
*devil horns*
Oh, speaking of the metal fist, I was listening to System of a Down on the way to the show, and I had this thought: Toxcicity really reminds me of Metallica, circa “…And Justice for All”. I’m down for SoD, because they’re hometown boys, from Glendale.
Rock.
Anyway, the show went really well. I felt like Keith and I were really in synch with each other, and we were able to give up lots of the funny.
The next show is on April 12th. Make reservations now!
Saturday was also really cool at the convention. I got to meet many more people, had the time to actually sit and talk with some guys who I always see, but never get a chance to visit with, and play a practical joke on my friend Aron, who played Nog on DS9.
I also ran into Jonathan back stage, and he says to me, “Do you know who got your part?”
I told him no, I didn’t.
“Jeremy Piven,” he tells me.
He tells me that I did a great job, and he really wanted me to have the role, but they needed to go older.
I tell him that I sot of knew, when I walked in and saw that I was easily 10 years younger than everyone else, that I wasn’t the guy.
“Well, I thought you were the guy. And I really appreciate you coming in and reading for me. You shouldn’t have to do that.”
He then tells me that he was having a really hard time finding an actor for the role, and his wife said to him, “Why don’t you bring in Wil?”
So, he tells me, that I need to give all the credit to his wife.
While I’m talking to Johnathan, WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER goes on stage, and I listen to him for a few minutes. He does a really great job with the fans, you know? As I was watching him, I was thinking to myself, “Goddamn, man. That guy is 70 years old.”
I went back, and signed some more autographs for people. I gave lots of trading cards away to little kids, and I met some really interesting people: I met a guy who is working on a linux distro which he swears will take over the desktop. I met a guy who is called “Red Shirt” by all his friends, because he was killed by Worf in the 7th season of TNG. I also met his girlfriend (I think) who is, get ready…a full-on porn star. Only at a Star Trek convention could you meet someone who is going to change the world, and a porn star within minutes of each other.
Saturday night, I had hoped to go out and see the closing of Paul Frank’s show here in LA, but I ended up going to sleep at 9:30.
On Sunday, the convention was winding down, so I spent most of the time wandering around, looking at stuff in the dealer’s room (where, for the first time in hundreds of conventions, I didn’t buy a single thing! My wife was so happy). I did get to see this guy I know named Gabriel, who I know from way back when. He was that kid in Trekkies, and he’s also on Beat The Geeks from time to time. Gabe is a really, really good guy, and, like me, he has left that 14 year-old weenie behind, and, like me, people still give him shit about it.
But we had fun joking with each other, and we even traded autographed pictures.
The only thing that I didn’t like about the convention was the talk I gave on Sunday. There were only 20 or so people there, because they’d booked me into the little room, against Ricardo Freakin’ Montalban in the big room. Now, honestly, who are you going to go see? Mr. Rourke, or TV’s Wil Wheaton?
Duh.
Because there weren’t a lot of people in the room, there wasn’t a lot of energy in the room for me to draw on, and I just sucked. I think I was able to get a few good stories out, but I left feeling very let down. Fortunately, I don’t think that the crowd felt let down, but I didn’t meet the standards I’ve set for myself, at all.
Luckily, the whole weekend, I didn’t meet a single weirdo, or anyone who needed to tell me how much they hated me. I’m looking forward to the next show.
One last thing: Last night, the family and I gathered around the old TV to watch “The Simpsons”, which is a Sunday night ritual in our house…only to find that FOX was running Independance day. We couldn’t figure out why, until Anne and I remembered that last night was the Oscars.
Duh again.
So we watched just a little bit of it, and I must say that watching Halle Berry accept her Oscar made me cry like a little sissy bitch.
See, The Academy is dominated by old white guys, and women of color have been marginalized for 74 years in the awards.
Watching Halle Berry win, and then Denzel Washington, was not insignificant, at all.
Here’s what Halle Berry said, which is our Thought for Today:

“This moment is so much bigger than me. It’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened. I am so honored, I’m so honored, and I thank the Academy for choosing me to be the vessel from which this blessing might flow.”