Stream

Off the top of my head, without any editing, a stream a consciousness:
Man, I really want to write, but I am just out of ideas. It’s not that I’m “blocked,” or anything, I just can’t think of anything to write about.
So I’ll just make myself write, and maybe something interesting will come out.
Maybe it’s because there’s not too much going on in my life right now: no auditions, nothing really exciting at home . . . I’ve just been working on rewrites of Just A Geek, and collecting some other weblog entries that I really like, (but couldn’t put in JAG) for their own smaller book.
Just A Geek came in at over 350 pages today, and “Dancing Barefoot” comes in at about 90. I’m applying for ISBNs tomorrow.
I did some heavy rewriting of SpongeBob Vega$ Pants, to clean it up and make it flow better, and while I did that, I relived those five days. Jesus, what a great time that was. What a great con.
Jesus, I really hate Puddle of Mudd, and POD, and all those shitty bands that sound like them.
I’ve been trading calls with Adam from Creation about the Grand Slam show, and it sounds like he’s excited to have me there. I’ve been thinking about conventions a lot lately, because I talk about them a great deal in JAG, and realized something: I have ALWAYS had more in common with the fans than the franchise, and attending conventions, as a speaker or a paying fan, is something I’ll always love to do. Now that I have stories to read, a website to talk about, and comedy shows to do, I don’t feel any angst about doing the shows. I can’t tell you enough how great that feels.
As I get closer to finishing JAG, and it’s younger brother (which requires far less work) I’ve been looking for printers . . . and actually got some quotes today for the first printing. It’s very exciting, and also terrifying.
If anyone reading this has experience with a printer, and you’d like to share comments about that printer (good or bad) I’d really like to hear them.
I mowed my lawn tonight, and my shoes are grass stained and smelling like a summer morning.
When I mow the lawn, I like to listen to Jimmy Eat World on my car radio. “A Praise Chorus” is one of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard. This afternoon, I didn’t listen to the radio, but I did sing “Dogs” from Pink Floyd to myself as I mowed in a circle, rather than the diagonal lines I usually make.
My cool neighbor moved away on Friday. He’s like 80, and Anne and I both felt like he’s moving away to die. He’d lived in his house since 1951. That made me really sad. Now his house is empty, and will remain that way for a long time, according to neighborhood gossip.
Ferris wants to go outside.
Nolan is watching WWE. I remember when I was a kid, and I’d get up each Saturday morning to watch WWF when it was on KCOP here in Los Angeles. I loved it, once I figured out it was fake.
Anyone remember M.U.S.C.L.E. figures? The Dark Tower game from Milton Bradley? I bought a new GURPS 3E last week, to replace my old and falling apart copy. Boy do I love RPGs.
This was more fun than I thought it would be, but I can guarantee you that I’ll read this in a few days and want to take it down. Well, I feel pretty satisfied now. Maybe I am blocked.
Does everybody really love Raymond? Because I really don’t.
Anne just walked in, and Ferris doesn’t want to go outside any more. Now she just wants to run around with Anne.
I really love Anne a lot. She is TRULY my “other half.”
I have Red Hat 8.0, and I want to install KDE 3.1. Has anyone else done this? Is it going to bork my machine like it did when I tried to upgrade on Mandrake 8.2? Why can’t I get CUPS to work?
I have to go make dinner: Falafel, tabouleh, and hummus. How Greek^H^H^H^H^H Lebanese of us.

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264 thoughts on “Stream”

  2. Wil,
    Just this week I’m putting final touches on my own book before it goes back to the publisher. They’ve had it for some weeks, with a copyeditor who has queried me on stylistic points, clarifications of some things in the text (it’s an astronomy book), etc. Now I have one last chance to put in her corrections, any corrections I want to make (plus additional images and illustrations), before it goes to be typeset and laid out on paper.
    One thing I’ve learned after doing a half dozen books myself is to ALWAYS keep a pristine file of the stuff you send to layout and typesetting. When you get back the typeset copy for final approval, go over it with that pristine printout to make sure that every word gets on the pages. Believe it or not, layout folks occasionally miss lines and words, esp. over page breaks. When you are happy with it and approve the copy, then go back and match the page numbering scheme on your personal electronic copy with the layout on the proof pages. When you go to update for a second edition, it will be fairly easy to fix any typoes, etc. that made it onto the page anyway.
    It sounds like you’re self-publishing, so I don’t know much about that. But if you ever need services of a copy-editor, well… I know how to do that. Copy-editors are invaluable as dispassionate “back-up” readers. They help you fix pesky stuff like commas, grammar booboos, and point out where story flow needs to be tightened, etc. It’s not the same as acting as the writer, but the CE gives you “real world” feedback from the POV of the reader.
    Anyway, be sure whoever you get to do your printing allows you at least one typeset draft to look over and make corrections to as part of the service.
    Good luck! You’re almost there!

  3. I work(Computer Tech) for a printing company that’s pretty cool. A Mid-size printing company in Ann Arbor called Malloy Incorporated. As far as geekness goes we print all the O’reilly books ( and a good portion of Peachpit books too). And it’s a family run company, so no corporate bs.
    But I’m looking forward to reading your book no matter who prints it.

  4. wow, I can’t believe you said that you hate puddle of mudd and POD in one sentence then in another you state that Jimmy Eat World has one of the best songs you ever heard. Thanks for that laugh out loud moment! I really appreciated it.

  5. Whenever I hear that “Everybody Loves Raymond,” I immediately think of this National Enquirer cover I saw at the grocery store. It was the lady who plays the mother on the show. She looked extremely angry!
    The headline?
    “I hate Raymond!”
    Guess you had to see it.

  6. Wil, loved this entry! Hope you don’t take it down later. It’s neat to just get inside your head and see where your thoughts ramble. I do that on paper a lot, myself. This was a fun read!
    Tracey

  7. Hey, I still have my old muscle men. Yes, I had the brick wall guy as well, if fact, there were many different guys made out of ‘brick’. Most of them has some kind of sun pattern on them as well.
    Clear Skies.
    W’raa

  8. If Riker would have listen to you in the first place, the Traveller would have never taken you to the outer rim of the universe.
    God damn you, Riker….
    …God damn you

  12. Hehe…sounds a lot like my online journal…Jimmy Eat World rocks, man. I think “Get It Faster” is one of my all-time favorite songs.
    I hate Raymond.
    For the record, even though I COMPLETELY disagree with your ENTIRE political beliefs system, I still have huge amounts of respect for you as a person, actor, and writer. Isn’t this a great country we live in?

  13. Wil,
    If you’re having problems with CUPS, try the following:
    1) make sure that cupsd is running:
    /etc/init.d/cupsd start
    2) add it to your services if it’s not:
    chkconfig –add cupsd
    3) configure your printer. RH8 is good with its tools that way. Buy you may even try the web utility:
    http://localhost:631
    Hopefully that works for you.
    Oh, and keep on writing man. Journaling is a good way to keep going about it. šŸ˜€

  14. Jimmy eats world sound like someone is strangling a cat. Puddle of Mudd and all that sound like them are pretty good to me.
    Difference of opinion.

  15. Ultimately very interesting to see what streams from Wil’s mind as well as to watch what people pick up on and comment about.
    Anyway:
    Wil, you might look at garnome. It’s supposed to be able to install Gnome or KDE but under a separate directory so you can try it out before installing it on your system:
    http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/garnome

  16. Dark Tower runs on eBay for $100? Why doesn’t MB still make the thing? I betcha you could get a computerized tower together super-cheap, and still make hella hella profit off of it.
    Oh well. I would like to concur with everyone who sings Dark Tower’s praises. A better board game has never, but never, been devised.
    Well, maybe chess is up there.
    And allow me to throw my take into those who thinks Wil needs to take another listen to POD as well. I still remember hearing “Selah” for the first time and being blown away. And since that was two or three years BEFORE “Rock The Party…” well, you tend to have more invested emotionally in bands you knew about way before everyone else.
    So I’m biased. So sue.
    chuck

  17. Who the hell is this Raymond guy anyway. I never heard of him until the show. I watched a couple of them, GEEEEEEZUZ, what’s funny about a bunch of people who get their laughs out of making sarcastic and hurtfull jibes at each other….
    Come to think of it, some of my family is like this….sigh…..their not funny either.

  18. Wil:
    There is nothing quite like a challenge.
    Circular mowing sounds like fun.
    Do you start in the middle or the outside?
    I may want to try that, but alas.. mine will be oval, darn rectangular lot.
    TJ

  19. I’ve got nothing against Raymond, though I suppose the show at this point dulls how much I really enjoyed his stand-up stuff.
    And, you know, I’m sure Puddle of Mud is no Christina Aguilera. Or Avril Lavigne even. Go Napanee!

  20. love it, wil. when it seems that nothing’s really going on in your life, it means that there’s nothing bad happening. and that’s a very good thing. i totally dug your post today, because it’s a lot like the ones i write in my blog. except for no one ever comments on mine. see, you’re popular! šŸ˜‰

  21. I do not love Raymond. Quite the opposite in fact. Your post today reminded me a lot of mine. Long, random, and rambling. Can’t wait for the book. It’s on my list of things to buy this year up there with two towers. Cheerio.

  22. I hate the fact that my color printer will not work unless both the color and the black cartridge have ink…even if I only want to print out a black and white document. That really sucks. Also, I have to buy origional cartridges, specifically made for that machine. It will not accept substitutes. Very picky. And maddning… when it just won’t work at all for no specific reason!

  23. Envy me, for I still have Dark Tower and play it every couple of years. It’s on my parent’s basement fridge, awaiting four D batteries. “blip.. blip… [whirrrrr] blip-bleeeeeep!!”

  24. You’re having trouble with CUPS because its horrid for personal use. It was designed by IBM and company for network print servers, and basicly takes an admin to work with. Its like sendmail in this regard.
    Try http://pdq.sourceforge.net
    Its a simple, scripted, print queue. No magic filters, no strange password/permission problems, its pretty easy. And the linux printer o-matic can generate pdq files for all printers that work for linux, too.

  25. I never really got into ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’
    Narna, I too am in the Land of the Long White Cloud. I also think we are going to lose the Americas Cup. But it’s only a boat race, and better to let it go to the Swiss than back to the Yanks. No offence.
    xx

  26. Dark Tower was the best board game EVER. My little brother got one for his 8th birthday, and we played that thing night and day for a year. Then one of my much-older sisters, who was married and had two kids of her own by then, told my mother it was Satanic and she should take it away from us. So she did. At the same time, she confiscated all of our D&D stuff and hid it away in the closet. Years later, when my brother and I were in college, we found it all in the closet. We tried to play D&D but found we’d forgotten most of the esoteric rules. We put batteries in the Dark Tower but it wouldn’t work — the motor is fried, I think. Do you suppose we could get it repaired somehow? And did anyone else have the same childhood experience with well-meaning but seriously misguided parental units?
    Thanks for the post!
    Laura

  27. Wil,
    Yet another very enjoyable posts. I really enjoy when you talk about fun, carefree things, like mowing the lawn or Ferris wanting to go outside. I also feel the same way about my wife, she is my “other half” as well. Good luck on the book and with the pc stuff.
    As always my best to you and your family……
    Ozzy.

  30. Yeah, I’m pretty sure falafel, tabouleh, and hummus are middle-eastern foods. They certainly sound Arabic. However, Many middle-eastern countries border on the Mediterranean, and therefore there’s a lot of crossover foodwise. Schwarmas, Shish-ka-bob, etc are common in greek cuisine, as well, I believe. Ouza is, of course, forbidden in many arab nations.
    Wil, it looks like you may have missed the line where the error actually occurred. The lines you posted were just what happens when make encounters an error, and pulls out of the make. Somewhere up further there should be a gcc error, or install script error, which tells you what actually happened. If not, see if you can find in the Makefile a line that says “CFLAGS=”, and then add -Wall to it if it’s not there already. Then you could post any warnings that gcc throws off.
    Another possibility is to use make -k, which will keep trying, even after it gets an error.

  31. I’ve written before (when you hurt your arm) about what I learned in my training to be a massage therapist, but my day job (or what I do to pay the bills) is as a print production manager – I purchase print for a living.
    I’ve found that the best deals on printing are not found in cities. Your preference may be to have it done nearby, but pricing for printers in city areas tend to run considerably higher.
    I work in the NYC metro area and I’ve never used New York City printers for that very reason. I’ve used printers in Kentucky, Minnesota and PA in the past to get better pricing. I wish I had some contacts to give you, but I work primarily with PA, southern NJ and upstate NY vendors now.
    One word of advice, don’t work with brokers – basically a middleman who use their experience to justify inflating costs. I’m sure that there are many printers who will walk through the process with you.
    Good luck and I’ve left my email if you have any questions.

  32. When I worked at Atlas Games before moving to LA for grad school, we printed a lot of books at a Michigan printer called McNaughton & Gunn. They were very inexpensive for short runs (2000-5000 copies) of softcover trade paperbacks and full-size (8.5 x 11) books. Check any Ars Magica Fourth Edition softcover, or pretty much anything else released by Atlas since 1995 or so, for quality. If you’re looking to do hardcovers, check out a Minnesota outfit called Bang printing. I’m less familiar with them, since most hardcover printing at Atlas began after I left the company. If you drop me an e-mail, I can probably track down contact info for either of these printers.

  37. Long-time reader, first time commentator.
    The best way I know to combat writer’s block is to tackle it head on. Keep a notebook with you at all times and set a goal of five pages and just write. Don’t worry about your writing looking like cr*p or not making sense, just get the words down. That’s why God made second drafts. This is the only system that works for me, I completed my last two manuscripts by hand.
    Peace,

  39. Nobody loves Raymond. That’s the joke.
    And yes. RPGs are great. I spent this weekend at a gaming convention. You should come up (to San Ramon, CA) next year for DunDraCon, if you get a chance, or go to one more local to you. Much fun and silliness!

  40. Hi wil, Why don’t you start a “Wil cooking” section on your site. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but if you don’t know what to write… I’d love to see how you made that Falafel etc..
    Regards

  41. …feta cheese is great!:) hmmm…
    once my printer is drawd in halfly a paper and writes out: No paper…and there was 10 more under that one…harrrrrr!!!!

  42. Hey Wil, if you are looking for publishers, check this out…I work here and it sounds like we do what it is that you need done. Very ethical company with a good track record, worth a peek.

  43. Hey Wil, if you are looking for publishers, check this out…I work here and it sounds like we do what it is that you need done. Very ethical company with a good track record, worth a peek.

  46. I have a Dark Tower game. Loved it from moment one. Sadly the tower no longer works (I think the motor bit it, as opposed to the little computer dieing). The reason Milton Bradley doesn’t make the game anymore is that they had stolen the concept from someone and lost the infringement court case. Hence, working copies of the game sell for high dollar numbers (comparatively) on Ebay today.
    I’d still be playing it if the darn thing worked.

  48. Ok I’m gonna try this again seeing as last night it said i wasnt allowed to post I dunno what that was about.
    Anywho, Sundried tomato and basil hummus on pita bread is the stuff dreams are made of, I must say.
    Its awesome to put random thoughts, it clears your head especially when you are having problems writing. I am suffering from writers block wiht my screenplay right now myself. Its cool though I will overcome it.
    Never fear Wil, everything will turn out the way you want it to if you really strive for it. I have all the hope in the world.

  49. Oh yeah I forgot, uhh Not everybody LOVES raymond. I mean he seems like an ok guy but really, love is a bit strong of a word dont you think? Well hes cool i guess but yeah the show does sharply intake air.(suck in case there are people on ocean time out there).
    I downloaded one POD song in my lifetime and thats all I ever will download. Give me Depeche Mode, Nada Surf, Placebo, anyday.

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