I’m getting ready to speak at Jimmy Doohan’s Farewell Convention tonight, and I’ve been writing and re-writing all afternoon. I spent all morning finishing my Dungeon Column, so it’s been Wil’s Big Day Of Getting Shit Done.
I’ve written more stuff in this one sitting today (I’m closing in on six hours) than in the last month, so I’ve been taking breaks and surfing the web to give myself time to recharge between furious bursts of creativity.
In my travels across teh intarweb, I ended up at the blog of my friend and fellow ACME writer, Shane Nickerson. Shane’s Good People, and he’s a fantastic writer. He’s also about to turn 33, and he’s blogging about some milestones in his life. Though Shane is a year older than me (ha! Old Man! Old Man!) and he grew up in New England, we share some remarkably similar childhood memories:

1977- My first movie in the theater: Star Wars. Later on in life, I would make the tragic social mistake of getting “Star Wars Sneakers.” I wore them with pride the first day and then instantly regretted it when I was lambasted by ALL of my friends wearing Zips.

A few years after 1977, I was caught in the furious grip of Michael Jackson mania, and wore a “Thriller” T-shirt to school on “Graffiti Shirt” day . . . and all the kids wearing Van Halen T-shirts brutalized me for it. After first recess, I ended up turning it inside-out, and lied to everyone that I had spilled punch on it.
Man, kids can be cruel, can’t they? I’ve often wondered . . . if I ever ran into one of my childhood tormentors, what would I do? Pretend nothing ever happened? Cock-punch? Point and laugh? I don’t know . . . I’d like to think I would rise above it and act like the mature adult and parent of two teenagers that I am . . . but I’m pretty sure I’d end up doing the cock-punch.