ten items

A bunch of random thoughts that I need to get out of my head so I can write some other stuff that’s in my head:
Item the first:
WWdN reader Gia sez:

“. . . my sister and I are running a marathon in just over 3 weeks. My sister is running for Team in Training, just as you and Anne did. My sister still has just over $1000 to raise by Oct. 10th.
This is a message from my sister:
I am running in honor of my boss, Lynn. She was diagnosed with lymphoma 4 years ago (when she was 34). Her daughter was only 5 years old at the time. I just can’t imagine how difficult that was to face death with such a young child.
My minimum fundraising goal ($4700) covers ONE night’s hospital stay and care for a newly diagnosed blood cancer patient. Considering that treatment can last months to years, and there are over 500,000 Americans living with blood cancers, there is a HUGE need for donations. Thanks to BushCo, 40% of Americans do not have health insurance. My boyfriend, daughter and I are part of that unfortunate group. Hopefully, my fundraising efforts can help someone fight the cancer and survive to see their child grow up.

Here is her sister Sari’s Team In Training Homepage. She needs about a thousand bucks. Are there one hundred WWdN readers who can part with ten bucks each? I think it would be awesome times a billion if we could send the power of WWdN her way.
Item the second:
What’s your favorite RSS reader? I’m looking to try some different ones out. Bonus points if it runs on Linux.
Item the third:
Opie and Anthony got the royal fucking shaft job by Viacom, and they just came back on the air this morning, on XM 202. It’s $1.99 a month for the show, and it’s totally worth it. O&A fucking rule, and they are way ahead of the curve by making this move to satellite radio.
Item the fourth:
After reading Viva Las Vegas, a lot of people have asked me to tell them my favorite poker books. I talked about them in my Poker Lizard interview, (which now has a second part that’s all about Hollywood, I’ve just discovered) but here are my top three “how to be a better player” books, ranked according to how much profit they’ve resulted in for my game:

  1. Winning Low-Limit Hold’Em by Lee Jones

  2. Hold’Em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner by Lou Krieger

  3. The Theory Of Poker by David Sklansky

I have left off the great no-limit books, like Super / System or Cloutier’s books, because I don’t play no-limit very often. In order to be a winning no-limit player, anyway, you have to be a great limit player, and I’m still developing my skills as a limit player. When I can consistently win at limit and move up, I’ll figure out a list of no limit books.
Item the fifth:
The Mount St. Helens Volcano Cam is producing some amazing images right now. Go look.
Item the sixth:
There is no item the sixth but you all knew that already, didn’t you?

Item the seventh:
I have no idea what HYPNOTIZE is, but it comes to us from The Absolute Kimiaki Yaegashi, where quality and performance have no substitute, apparently. It’s weird and wonderful, and not for everyone.
Item the eighth:
WWdN reader Graham sez:

I was on a rare trip to London (London, England, as you colonials call it), waiting outside the club where I was later to enjoy 2 pints of Guiness and a superb gig by the astonishing Carlos Guitarlos (How cool is he? He has Marcy Levy in his band, that’s how cool he is) when I sensed a presence….
Turning round, I saw your face glowering at me from the windows of Foyle’s bookshop, via several copies of Just A Geek.
Now, 98 year old Foyles is infamous in London as although it is probably the biggest bookstore in the capital, you can *never* find anything in it, as they mostly order the books by publisher.
So, since your book is published by O’Reilly & Associates, JAG is not in the StarTrek section, nor in the biography section. It is in the geek section. In the window it was between “how to configure OSX” and “WiFi hacking tricks”.
Not bad, eh?

Not bad at all, Graham. Not bad at all! Thanks for sending this awesome news!
Item the ninth:
It turns out that Entertainment Weekly listened to the tons of WWdN readers who wrote letters and e-mails to them about their “Whiner of the Week” thing, and they printed the following:

Triumph of the Wil
I’m very disappointed in the misrepresentation of Wil Wheaton as “Whiner of the Week” (Books.) Wil has matured into an exceptional writer and comedian, and his weblog speaks brilliantly for Gen-Xers. The use of his acting experiences to jump-start a few personal stories falls far short of whining and doesn’t represent the tome of a well-written and entertaining book.
Ellen Rhatigan
Staten Island, N.Y.

I’m stunned that EW would print anything in my defense, and I’m even more stunned that they didn’t take another shot at me. I know for a fact that this wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t gotten a TON of letters from people, and I have to thank everyone who spoke up on my behalf. As I said before, I was upset because I was misrepresented, and the fact that they ran that letter is a victory for The Truth. Ellen, and everyone else who wrote letters: you ROCK! \m/
Item the tenth:
I absolutely can’t believe that my Dodgers not only made the playoffs, but also made them by coming from 3-0 in the bottom of the 9th to beat the hated Giants! It happened while I was at Gnomedex, and I didn’t get to see it on TV . . . but I think that Finley’s grand slam is going to take its place next to Gibson’s 1988 homer in the halls of Dodger lore. Awesome.

Okay, now that all these items are out of my brain, they’ve cleared the way for my gnomedex report, which should follow shortly.
Or maybe tomorrow . . . it’s really nice outside.

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100 thoughts on “ten items”

  4. I was at the St Helen site when it occured. One second it was calm and clear. A reload later, there it goes. Was a little disapointed that they temporarily went from a 5 minute update to 10. Oh well. still some great pics.
    The one thing I found amusing was that two pics before the smoke there was a fly sitting on the cam

  5. Mozilla thunderbird is an awesome RSS program, and email program. And its not even in a final release state. All platforms too(well major platforms Win/Mac/Lin). And its open source. How can you go wrong? ^_^ Also thanks for the poker links Wil, way helpful

  7. I want to thank you so much for encouraging total strangers to donate towards my fundraising goal with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I really appreciate everyone’s generosity!

  8. To use Firefox’s RSS reader, if there’s a ‘RSS’ logo at the bottom right of your status bar, click it, then check your bookmarks.
    To use RSS with Thunderbird, go to New->Account, then News/Blogs. Then in the left hand mail area, right click on ‘News & Blogs’ and click ‘Manage Subscriptions’, then ‘Add’ and type in the RSS url. Then ‘Get Mail’ to retrieve the news item.
    You will need the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird to do this.

  9. I’ll give another vote to Thunderbird, it works well as an email/RSS news program.
    I’m surprised no one mentioned Yahoo! RSS feeds if you setup a My Yahoo account. It works fairly well, and it lets you check from any computer. Not quite as full featured as bloglines, but still nifty.

  10. When it comes to RSS readers, I’ve tried quite a few of the free ones, but I ended up speding the money on FeedDemon (runs on Windows only).
    http://www.feeddemon.com
    Nick Bradbury has done a great job with this program and is very willing to entertain enhancement ideas submitted via his web site’s forum.
    Spend the thirty bucks and support Nick’s work. You won’t be disappointed.

  12. I love reading your blog for lots of reasons…but one is a glimpse into the mind of a write. I’m a wanna-be writer and its nice to see someone else has the same strategies and sometime new strategies for “getting on with it”.
    Rock on,
    Pixie

  13. Wil,
    I use the Sage extention for Firefox for my RSS feeds. Also the new Firefox 1.0 supports “live bookmarks” which is a fancy term for RSS feeds. If the page you are browsing has a fees, an orange tab labeled “RSS” appears in the botton right hand corner of your browser. Click that and it will prompt you to add it as a book mark. It is pretty cool!
    Ian

  15. As far as RSS readers go, I’ve stuck with rawdog (http://offog.org/code/rawdog.html) because it’s very easy, outputs a simple html file with all of your feeds which you can then read from your browser, and you can call it from cron, so updates happen automagically. It supports Atom, all flavors of RSS, and even CDF (whatever that is).

  16. Too much RSS talk in these comments, and not enough baseball. The playoffs start tomorrow, fer cryin’ out loud! Priorities, people.
    I’ve always liked the Dodgers as a franchise and team. That being said–Cardinals in 4.

  17. yeah, i’m gonna hafta go with the latest Mozilla Thunderbird for RSS feeds. Thunderbird just rocks, and it tastes great with Linux, too.

  20. Will,
    Thank you SO MUCH for mentioning my sister’s Team in Training page! You rule!
    She still has a lot to raise, but donations are pouring in from your readers…
    Thank you again. I owe you.

  21. Wil,
    I’m always happy to read about you and your family’s involvement with “Team in Training”. I interviewed them back in August for my lil radio program here in Kansas City and thought they were a great group of people…hopefully I’ll have the opprotunity to sit down with them again for another episode (hopefully sponsor an upcoming event. Also thanks a lot of posting the suggested reading for us ignorant on how to play great poker. And as always KUDOS on the great site!
    Bryan
    KCMO

  22. I’m extrememly excited to hear O&A have made it back onto the airwaves. And signing with XM just allows for the creative freedom to say what’s funny without that fucking FCC getting in the way.
    It is a very controvercial program (one which I believe to be BEYOND hysterical), so if people don’t like it, all they have to do is not listen. But it is a wonderful show to promote some of the best comics out there that many people may have never heard about any other way. And who doesn’t love Opie’s tussable golden locks? 😉
    p.s. O&A always win in the end.

  23. Thanks Wil for posting about my friend’s sisters Team in Training!
    As soon as I have a chance I’m gona draw you since you’re a great guy!

  24. So far, I’ve only been reading WWdN via RSS, but I’ve been using Mozilla Thunderbird, and it seems to work pretty well. I like how it handles my email as well….
    I did, however, have to open up the page in Firefox to post this comment.

  25. Random Wil Moment: I was at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md. this weekend and saw that someone was selling colored chibi (or super-deformed) fan art pictures for $10. He had his portfolio page opened to a section that had a chibi-Borg and chibi-Geordi on it, so naturally I asked him if he could do an Ensign Wesley Crusher for me. Best $10 I ever spent at a convetion; I’ll scan it in and show it to you when I get a scanner.
    EW: I was very happy to see that the letter that was printed in EW was a very nice moderate letter. Shows the quality of the WWdN readers, y’know? Moderation is very good.
    PokerLizard Interview: Great second half. He asked questions that I don’t think I would have asked, and that’s the mark of a great interviewer. I also empathize on the “whole lack of press” thing. It feels like shouting into a void, doesn’t it?

  26. Many thanks, Wil, for helping my daughter, Sari, with her donations to the Leukemia & Lymphona Society. As my daughter, Gia, said: “You rule!” Thank you, good kharma people.

  28. I’ve beeen using Bloglines.com, which is browser based and can be accessed from anywhere while keeping your read documents in sync. There is also a feature to establish email addresses for a mail feed. You can also publish your blogrole and manmy other nice features. They seem to add something new every week or so.

  29. My favorite RSS Reader is NewsGator. I always have Outlook open anyway, so it’s one less appliation running.

  31. Count me in the TON who wrote to EW in your defense. 🙂
    Also, hate to break it to you, Wil, but your Dodgers are goin’ down courtesy of the Cardinals. Sorry, but I’m a born and bred Cards fan.

  32. For RSS, I use Sharpreader [http://www.sharpreader.net/] because it works the way I expect it to, and the way I like to work.
    Windows only though.

  33. You did great until you got to “the hated Giants” thing. That is such an L.A. thing. I’ve never heard “the hated Dodgers” up here. And everyone hates the Dodgers up here. It’s just a game. I am definitely rooting for the Cardinals.

  34. Bloglines – I love bloglines. Web-based, and accessible from anywhere. Easy-to-use interface. It’s great.

  35. Said Wil: “I’m stunned that EW would print anything in my defense, and I’m even more stunned that they didn’t take another shot at me.”
    Actually they snuck a nasty one in where you weren’t looking, dude. 🙁
    “Triumph of the Will” is a documentary praising Adolph Hitler. And they referenced it while talking about you.
    Nuff said.
    (sigh)
    Do we have to clue them in AGAIN??!!

  36. 10th YEAH WHAT A GAME!! My wife and 2 boys and I watched it, and had to “relive the moment” MANY times later that evening. What a game!

  37. Game 1 of the 1988 series was featured on “Beyond the Glory” this past weekend. I was 17 years old when that happened. It has to be the greatest sports moment I’ve ever seen in person. I scrounged up enough money to buy a ticket. Packed my bags and drove the 6 hours from San Jose to L.A. in time for the game. The plan was to turn around and head back home after the game. I was way too exhausted after it was over and wound up sleeping in my car at a rest stop a couple hours north of L.A.

  38. You’ve NEVER heard “the hated Dodgers” in NorCal? I am a Dodger fan who lived in NorCal for 22 years. EVERY time they play the Dodgers at some point you hear the chant…”BEAT L A, BEAT L A”… you never hear that kind of chant at a Dodger game! You also can;t get even part way through the stadium without seeing a “Duck the Fodgers” T-shirt.

  40. Concerning newsreaders — I use Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) because it’s accessible any time I have net access — which, coincedentally, is the only time I’m concerned about getting my RSS feeds. Synergistic? Perhaps. Convenient? You betcha.
    Concerning EW: There’s probably a couple of writers who have it in for you, but the editor is neutral. Now that there’s been letters, if this is the case, you may see more balanced stuff in the future because that same editor may be watching for your name from now on…

  41. I have to agree with you Will on your comment about Steve Finley’s grand slam homerun against the Giants being right up there with Kirk Gibson’s homer in the 88 World Series.
    Sadly though it appears our beloved Dodgers are getting their butts handed to them by the Cardinals as I typed this. Hopefully they will mount a comeback but down from 7 runs could be difficult . Go Dodger Blue!

  42. Item Seven- (what a coincidence) is a total gas. My co-workers seem to find enjoyment as well. They’ve been making that damned sheep say “Ooh la-la!” for the past two hours. The boss has already threatened to kill me twice. Where do you find this stuff.

  43. Several months ago I was asking this exact same question. I demanded Linux support, so that limited my options.
    Executive summary: Bloglines roxors my world.
    I was looking for something that behavior similarlly to a good Usenet news reader or email client. The ability to save interesting posts was important.
    I tried NewsMonster, but never got it working. It should work on Linux, but seems finicky (demands root access to install, never quite worked right).
    I used Straw. It’s tolerably good. On the down side, it needs PyGTK which isn’t quite standard on most Linux distros yet (but probably changing). It did the job, but the HTML rendering wasn’t yet up to par.
    A few months ago I switched to Bloglines. Bloglines is web based. It Just Works. I can use it almost anywhere (although it does use frames and javascript, so the simple browser on my Sony Clie don’t like it) It’s got a solid interface and over the last few months they’ve added some small but cool features. It’s free. A cool feature I recently started using is the ability to set up disposable email addresses. Subscribe the address to a mailing list and see the list integrated as part of the feed. I use this for several low volume news-letter things I like and it works great. Bloglines rocks. I’m happy enough that if they end up going commercial I would subscribe if it was reasonably priced.

  44. Can I just mention how utterly freaked I am by being mentioned on the front page of WWdN? And not just mentioned, quoted at length? And how ashamed I am at spelling Guinness wrong? I blame living in England, they make it with water from the Thames, not the Liffey, so I can only bring myself to drink it in stressful situations. (Fear not, readers, Wil is OK – in the USA they import it)
    I’m clearly going to have to send $10 to Sari in penance (appropriate since she is running the Dublin marathon)

  45. Firefox 1.0 has an RSS reader built-in. Major usability points: when a page has a feed, an RSS icon shows up, which you can click on to bookmark in a feeds folder. These “livemarks” are shown in the sidebar, and update when you click on them. A bummer that it doesn’t show text previews of the entries however.

  47. I use Sage, a plugin for Firefox, to handle my RSS. I like it because it sits in my sidebar, and i can have it update while I’m reading other stuff, then click on whatever bolds up. Your site is in there, of course.
    P.S. Mentioning this again – I heard you’ll be in Dallas for a con this month! Will there be poker at the con? 🙂

  49. Favorite RSS reader? I like to use Opera to read my RSS feeds. Mainly, it’s because it’s already running as my primary browser. I don’t have to have multiple apps running on my slow machine. The new stuff just pops up automatically, and I can click on urls in those special ways that only Opera does, so I don’t have to re-think those movements that are already natural.
    It’s not perfect, but I find most imperfections have more to do with RSS providers not doing things correctly.

  50. O & A were okay. Only just. I thought their B-team at WNEW, Ron & Fez were on an entirely other level. Ron & Fez dealt with the same themes, but where O & A were all ballpeen hammer root canal, Ron & Fez were nuanced and funny as fuck.
    My .02

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