my con sars. let me show you it.

It looks like I picked up a touch of the convention sars at Wizard World: sore throat, coughing my guts out, massive headache, and other upper respiratory stuff that is too disgusting even for me to describe.

So I’m back onto the goddamn couch for at least 24 hours. At least this time I have LEGO Star Wars 2 to keep me entertained. It’s fun to play, really cute, and hilarious. I’m only into story mode on Episode IV, but if the whole game is as entertaining as it’s been so far, I’m going to give it a massive thumbs up.

Four things, however, that I wanted to mention while I can fucos long enough to mention them:

Thing the first: Arthur C. Clarke died yesterday. I don’t have anything profound to say, but 2001 was one of the most important movies I ever saw, way back when I was a young geekling in 1987. It was in the Cinerama dome, a special screening one afternoon, and I wouldn’t have known it was playing if I hadn’t been doing some ARD recording for Star Trek at Modern Sound across the street. There were only a dozen or so people in the theater, but seeing it on that screen, in that setting, increased its already power over me by several orders of magnitude. I bought Clarke’s book on the way home, and read it in the next two days. There’s an amusing image, I’m sure, of me in the horrible rainbow uniform, sitting in Engineering or something, reading 2001.

Bonus that I didn’t know until yesterday: he pretty much invented the geosynchronous satellite. In 1941. Holy. Shit.

Thing the second: Barack Obama’s speech "A More Perfect Union" yesterday is one of the most inspiring and wonderful political speeches I’ve ever heard. He wrote it himself, too. Not a consultant, not a speech writer. He did it. That’s phenomenal. He talked to us like we were grown-ups, and addressed something Americans have needed to deal with for decades. It brought tears to my eyes, inspired me, and reaffirmed why I’m so proud to support him.

Thing the third: Today is the 5th anniversary of the beginning of George W. Bush’s disaster in Iraq. Does it surprise anyone that this man, who has run every single business he’s had into the ground, has done the same to our country?

Thing the fourth: I’m smart enough to separate the soldier from the war. Having said that, It’s important to me to sincerely thank and honor the men and women who have served, and are continuing to serve, in our armed forces.

Oh, last thing: Ryan came home for spring break (rather than run off to some idiot fest with idiots. I’m really proud of him for making safe and mature choices.)

Last night, I made a veggie stirfry with ginger rice and tofu. I served it with some tamari and Sriracha sauce on the table. I love Sriracha sauce, but I know how insanely hot it is, so I always put just a few drops on, mix it up, and apply more if I feel like it as I eat.

Nolan, however, put it on his dish like frosting.

"What in the world are you doing?" I said.

"I’m putting my chili sauce on like a man," he said, "not like a pansy."

Nolan took a bite of his food, and his face turned as red as the sauce.

"Yeah," he said, in a pinched voice, "that’s the stuff right there!"

I took a bite of my food.

"How’s your dinner treating you?" Nolan said to me.

"It’s good," I said. "I don’t need as much hot sauce as I used to, because after my surgery, I can taste food a lot better than before."

"And you’re a pansy," he said.

Ryan put his chopsticks down, wiped his mouth with his napkin, and said, "The difference between you and him, Nolan, is that he’s enjoying his food, and you’re enduring it."

"Owned," Anne said.

It’s good to have Ryan home. He’s grown up a lot since he was here two months ago, and it’s nice to have my whole family back under the same roof, even if it’s only for a week.

Okay, that’s all for now. Back to Sars Wars. (Ha! Ha! Ha!)

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55 thoughts on “my con sars. let me show you it.”

  1. The Star has always been my favorite Arthur C Clarke story.
    I think pretty much everyone got the same cold you did. I did. Most of the people at work did. Most of my friends did.
    Last night I decided I was done with it and picked up some NyQuil. I took it at about 9:15 or so and at 11:30 I woke up absolutely tripping balls; dizzy, sweating like mad, had no clue who I was or where I was at, and I swear I saw monsters. And then I was better.
    I don’t remember it being that…strong.

  2. While you’re vegging out, go check out the T-Shirt Contest winners over at Coulton’s site. JoCo fandom f*ckin’ OWNS.
    I think I just got over that cold. My brain kept bringing up your “chicken liver” comment from your post-surgery Surgery Post whenever I blew my nose. Damn you, Wheaton!
    Feel better, dude. You’re due.

  3. It’s good to have Ryan home. He’s grown up a lot since he was here two months ago, and it’s nice to have my whole family back under the same roof, even if it’s only for a week.
    Hey, awesome! Yeah, it’s amazing how much growing up people tend to do during their first year away.
    Oh, last thing: Ryan came home for spring break (rather than run off to some idiot fest with idiots. I’m really proud of him for making safe and mature choices.)
    Just for the record, it’s not either or. My sophomore year, some friends and I road-tripped from Minnesota to Washington DC to visit his parents. It was pretty fun. One of the friends read _The Princess Bride_ out loud on the way down (I’d seen the movie but not read the book). It was cherry blossom season in DC, well before the serious tourist season, and it was really beautiful.
    I just wanted to plug that there are cool, wholesome, fun stuff that can be done that don’t involve going home.
    Hope you kick the infection soon. Have a good break!

  4. for loving the soldier while hating the war, i’m a big fan of books for soldiers.
    dudes and chicks serving overseas say “IF ONLY I HAD THIS BOOK/GAME/WHATEVER” and hoopy froods over here mail it on over.
    it’s the only reason amazon prime has been worth it to me, because mailing a whole bunch of single book packages kind of adds up.
    someone asked for games, and i sent over apples to apples. and someone was looking for comics, and i got to hook him up with some sin city.

  7. Sorry to hear you’re sick. Get well!
    When I was seven years old my dad took me to see “2001 – A Space Odyssey” at the dome. It was the most amazing movie I had ever seen, even to this day. But a lot of what I grokked from the experience were things my dad whispered to me throughout the screening to keep me engaged in the story.
    Afterwards we went to Pickwick Booksellers on Hollywood Boulevard and bought the paperback book. We read it together at bed time trying to make sense of the story. I read it over and over and over again until the pages started to come out.
    The following is a video that Arthur C. Clark took a few months ago. He knew his time was fast approaching:
    http://tinyurl.com/2oef2m

  8. LEGO Star Wars 2 is thoroughly fun and entertaining all the way through. Let me know how long it takes you to destroy the Death Star in Episode VI. 😉
    I’m impatiently awaiting the release of LEGO Indiana Jones this summer.

  10. Agree with you on all points.
    And I was possessed with playing the entire saga of Lego Star Wars on my DS while recovering from bronchitis. It was cute, fun and I think probably saved my sanity while I was sick. Feel better.

  11. Ah, the Sriracha sauce – we’ve been using that as our defacto hot sauce in the house for about 5 years now. We call it rooster sauce though cause of the rooster on the bottle (at least the brand we buy).

  14. Just think of how Arthur C. Clarke changed our world. Because of him, we have 100 channels of tv, cell phones, gps devices. I grew up reading him before we were on the moon. I recall the world that was and it was small.
    He had his own communications satellite you know.

  16. You know, Wil, I love your blog and think a lot of you (even to shell out some ducats on your books) but I wish younger people (despite my 34 rides around the sun) would just stop using the words pansy and gay as put downs.
    “That’s so gay” is so yesterday.
    Slips out at family dinners, I know. But change starts somewhere.

  17. apropos of nothing, “Stand By Me” somehow became the hot topic of discussion with my 7th graders today – a lot of the girls thought that River Phoenix was “so fine”, but fret not, Good Wil Wheaton, you had some fans too, and a goodly amount of the class agreed that it was one of their favorite movies – tonight I worry a little less about the adults of the future…

  18. Obama gives a good speech that much is obvious. But that said doesn’t matter that he wrote it himself, I am sorry but we are electing a President not a speechwriter. So that won’t get my vote, what will I haven’t heard from anyone, but I am actively listening.

  19. I’m already sick of the presidential race myself. Being from Florida, I’ve already decided not to vote for Obama (or Clinton) since they agreed with the DNC to punish the Democratic voters for the actions of the Republican FL legislature.
    I also won’t vote for McCain because he’s a conservative (isn’t that enough?) running on a foreign policy platform and doesn’t even know a Sunni from a Shiite (among other reasons). I won’t vote for Cynthia McKinney (presumptive Green nominee) because she’s an old-fashioned idiot. I won’t vote for Ralph Nader because he’s a self-important feminine “hygiene” product. And I won’t vote Libertarian because they’re completely insane. So I’m going to leave the presidental ballot blank unless there’s a write-in spot. Colbert-Stewart is always a good choice in that case.

  20. The Star Wars Lego games are my 5 year old son’s favorite games. He’s loved them for about a year now. He loves ’em.

  24. Mad Monk
    I couldn’t agree more about using “gay” as an insult but “pansy” i don’t get. I honestly think you’re being a bit oversensitive. Just my .02

  26. At some point you unlock Super Story mode — which is all of the chapters of an episode strung together in one long level.
    And it is timed.
    You have to finish it under some time limit to get the gold brick.
    One of my best gaming experiences ever was racing down the Death Star trench as the timer was counting down dangerously close to zero. I fired the torpedo and it entered the exhaust port with less than a second remaining.
    It was such a perfect movie moment and I jumped out of my chair cheering. I totally felt like MacGyver.
    Which is odd since I should have felt like Luke Skywalker.
    But then I would have been a whiney bitch.
    “But I was going to go to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters.”
    I feel like I can pick on young Skywalker because he really was my hero growing up.
    And I probably was a whiney bitch.

  27. A Pansy is a sweet, cute, delicate flower.
    You should get Nolan with your chicken liver nose gun – and watch him scream like a little girl “Get it off! Get it off! Eeeeee!” when he realizes the chicken liver leeches have attached themselves to him… and then ask him who the pansy is.
    Personally I like flavors other than pain…
    Hope you feel better soon, that particular coughing brand of misery has washed over us here too – and I tell ya its no fun for anyone.

  30. Wil be glad (if that is possible)that all you have is a respiratory type illness. Up here in Ontario we are suffering from a really nasty stomach flu. It has affected a huge portion of the people I know. It consists of the victim worshiping the toilet bowl deities for days on end. One of my friend’s babies was hospitalized for several days from this nasty bug.

  31. On Lego Star Wars… those games on the consoles are SO worth the money. My kids LOVE them! We just got the complete saga for the Wii. They’ve beaten the PS2 versions a few times. Now that The Force Unleashed has been pushed back *again* they’re now waiting for Lego Indiana Jones.
    On the Obama speech… mega kudos! I’m so glad he gave that speech in my city. He was more inspiring that I had ever seen him before, and we know how inspiring he already is. Like Jon Stewart said that night “And so a politician talked to us about race like we were adults.” So true!
    Hope you’re feeling better soon! My hubby, all 4 kids, and I have a nasty cold and fever going on so I can commiserate!

  32. I swear I was not at Wizard World, but I had that stinkin’ bug last week and it knocked me the Ef out! I feel for you.
    SW Legos is the best. My son(4 years old) and I beat all the levels together. It was a great bonding experience. We unlocked Lego City, and I can’t get him to play any other level now.
    Indiana is going to be great…and if they release Batman that will be the trifecta.
    My buddy and I hit up the Mongolian BBQ before, and he decided to go extra hot while I kept it mild. He was definitely muscling through his meal. It was like watching Man vs. Spicy Beef. “Here’s some extra napkins for your forehead, sir.”

  33. I agree whole heartedly about Obama’s speech. Am I convinced he can/will affect the level of change that I hope he will? I don’t know. But I do know, if any of the candidates that we have this year (or for many years running) he is the sole candidate that could actually pull it off.
    I just hope the populous isn’t so jaded that they can’t demonstrate a teensy bit of hope and make some of his visions come true.

  34. Regarding the manner in which Ryan changed, I submit for your review the most profound quote ever regarding teenagers.
    Mark Twain: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
    There. You. Have. It.

  37. Hope you feel better. That’s gotta suck just coming off your recuperation. However….

    I’m just not sure how equating his grandmother’s soft racism ( being afraid of black men ) expressed within the context of her own family with that of a raging bigot who preaches hate to his flock and to thousands more on DVDs, etc, makes that a great speech.
    If it was revealed that a white man running for president had been attending a supremacist church for 20 years (20 years!), his political career would be over (and rightly so).
    Do you think its ok to support (financially and morally) an organization that teaches that the US government invented AIDS to kill off the black race? Does that show particularly good judgment in a man who would be president?
    The bloom is off the rose. Obama has now lost the thing he had going for him. Experience? No. The fact that he had “transcended race” by letting everyone else talk about it while remaining above it. He was a safe black candidate that white people could vote for and then feel vindicated because it would prove we aren’t racists. Yeah. Take that, Jesse. Take that, Al. See world, we’ve gotten past all that!
    Oh, and remember how he had been denying all those things about his church? Can you say “liar liar pants on fire”?
    The nomination fight just got nastier, because he’ll probably lose now when the superdelegates realize what they’ve gotten into.

  38. Know what sucks? March 19th, 2003 is also the day that I gave birth to my oldest son. So an otherwise happy occasion will be forever tainted by that.
    By the way, I was one of those obnoxious fangirls of your in the ’80s. I even met you once and gave you some lame gift, which I hope to God you threw away. How funny that the fangirl side of things is long gone, but I now enjoy reading your blog so much as a fellow parent and geek.

  39. I still remember the first time I read 2010. It’s on of those things that you never forget.
    Did you know that two of the space shuttles are named in his honor: Endeavor(from Rendezvous with Rama), and Discovery (from 2001)…
    RIP Arthur C. Clarke!!

  40. Wil. 2001 A Space Odyssey on ACID! Yup, 1970. Front row! First time taking! Scared shitless! Had to leave for a minute during that weird topographical kaleidoscope scene. Very psychedelic man.
    I was rivited to my chair when Sen. Obama spoke. Dazzling display of charisma.

  41. Really liked the dinner time story. When you write about things like that, I get it, I feel like I was there living that moment.
    When you capture that feeling is when your writing is at it’s finest.

  44. 1. AC Clarke was one of my few heroes. I’ve devoured every one of his fiction works (even the marginal collaborations with Gentry Lee, Stephen Baxter, et al.). I can’t wait till Rendezvous with Rama hits the big screen. (BTW the Clarke Orbit geo comm satellite was posited in 1945.)
    2.) Obama’s good speech aside, his campaign is on the ropes – the pastor issue makes him look really bad (and oh what a pass the media has given him). The best Obama will look out of this is that he lied about the strength of his relationship with the church to sidestep the religion issue.
    3.) Most anyone who’s been successful in business will tell you there are typically many many more losses than wins.
    4.) To truly support the soldier buck up and stop making their jobs tougher.

  46. Wil,
    I listened to podcasts 0-8 and enjoyed them all. Please reconsider abandoning this powerful medium.
    I especially enjoyed your comments on your v.o. work and I hope you can gather your fellow T.T.’s for a round table discussion of your work on the show and v.o. work in general.
    Best,
    Shane S.

  47. Crap. I just realized that I worded things poorly in my comment. I meant that the event of my son’s birth will be forever tainted by the stupid war. I was tired yesterday. Poor boy was very sick. Way to make a good impression. :-p
    Oh, and Sriracha sauce rules! My husband is Chinese, and introduced me to the joy of it. I like to mix it with soy sauce, black vinegar and just a drop of sesame oil to make dumpling sauce.

  48. To all who are rethinking Obama because of the Rev. Wright issue, please reconsider. From what I’ve been hearing in other reports, Rev. Wright didn’t talk like that all the time. Yes, it was offensive and yes it was wrong. Obama has already said he doesn’t agree. If he said he did agree with him, then by all means walk away. But, he doesn’t agree with him. Please reconsider.

  50. Very nice piece, Wil–feel better soon. Couldn’t agree more about Obama’s speech. It seems to be shaking out that those who were already inspired by him are further wowed (that’s me); those who didn’t like him were unimpressed (some who could stand back and be objective were impressed but “one speech isn’t enough”), and those who were a little uncertain probably can’t be pulled back over the fence Rev. Wright pushed them off of. It’s a real shame Sen. Obama can’t be taken at his own words and how he’s lived his life and conducted himself–take him or leave him on his own merits. Should Republicans who take the support of Pat Robertson & ilk disavow his/their more radical/crazy ravings? Well, yes, but do we hold their feet to the fire to do so? (Okay, some of us do, but the media/punditry sure doesn’t). Should Catholic politicians (or any Catholic, for that matter) get up and walk out of church every time it’s revealed that yet another pedophile priest who was quietly reprimanded in-house and transferred to another parish has abused another child, because couldn’t that be construed as implying that the Church sanctions such behavior? Okay, so that’s a little crazy, but the point is–judge not lest ye be judged, as was once written. People pouncing on Obama for associating with Wright were just waiting for something to come along and now they’re just a little too gleeful to be in any way objective. If you don’t like his politics or don’t think he’d be a good leader, it would make no sense to support him, but if you’re afraid of something a friend of his believes–first, look in the mirror. Then look around at your friends and family and everyone you love or care about. Think real hard. Then listen, read, discuss, and think some more, and then by all means vote for SOMEBODY in November!

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