status updates and a keyboard cat

This gets less funny over time, but it made me laugh really hard the first time I saw it (NSFW language):


There are many more, of varying quality and levels of offensiveness, at Play him off, Keyboard Cat.

Somebody once said that you can’t successfully write a blog and a book at the same time. I am here as supporting evidence for this claim.

Status updates:

Happiest Days Expanded Edition – This would have been turned in to Subterranean Press 6 weeks ago, but OpenOffice totally fucked me on formatting and notes, so my copyeditor and I have had to go back to the old “print it out and mark it up with a red pen” method of editing that takes considerably longer. I may have to get [choke] Word for Mac [gag] [bloat] so this doesn’t happen again. Yes, I am extremely annoyed.

Memories of the Future – Rewrites are almost completely finished. Cover design is pretty much nailed down, and interior design should be finalized shortly. I have to tackle The Last Outpost, which I’m dreading, but if I could make Farpoint entertaining, I’m sure I can do the same with it. I’m still on pace for a late spring/early summer release.

Convert Sunken Treasure to Various eFormats – This is harder than I thought it would be, and is temporarily delayed while I finish the other projects on this list.

Project X – Nothing to see here. Move along.

I’m not going to lie to you, Marge: I’m especially excited about Project X.

(keyboard cat via Fark)

55 thoughts on “status updates and a keyboard cat”

  4. Was wondering what was up with the expanded Happiest Days. I think this will count as the longest I’ve ever waited for an XMas gift. No matter, the wait is worth it, keep up the awesome!

  7. I totally agree about Pages. I’ve been using the iWork suite for a little over a year now, and I’ve found it to be a an enjoyable experience. I tried OpenOffice and NeoOffice for the Mac both, and found each of them lacking. My wife has Office for Mac on her Macbook, and the only feature I’ve found I like from the suite that iWork doesn’t have is the notebook view in Word. I wish Pages offered that view as it’s just damn fun to write in.

  8. Very awesome.Looking forward to reading the expanded Happiest Days and Memories of the Future. Also, Project X sounds… mysterious and exciting.
    Let us know if the WWdN Army needs mobilization!
    Cheers!

  9. I admit the video made me giggle…if any of you get a chance and have family that is or has ever been in the military, check out Sun Kings on Youtube. Some of the biggest geeks I have come across were in and one was Special Forces in the Army. He was the best DM ever for our DnD games in VaBch../end hijack

  10. Yes, yes, yes! Dude, I’ll wait all three out for as long as possible, sucks that you had to do all the re-edits though. Project X, huh? I’m with Angie, mysterious and exciting, indeed!

  11. So poking sticks at Project X would be a bad thing? Sorry! I just couldn’t help it!
    PS- Re: The Watchmen: I think the news vendor was right: DR212=$3.

  13. Just read “Just a Geek” via Kindle edition. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to e-versions of any other books you care to publish that way.

  14. Hahahahahaha!!! I totally forgot about that movie until just now. Please, somebody get the Haitian so I can forget about it again…pretty, pretty please?!?

  15. I am actually now lamenting the fact that I don’t own it.
    And wishing for the Haitian to purge my memories of the show that Haitian would be coming from to purge my memories. Of his show. That he’s coming from. To purge my memories.
    Wait, where am I?

  16. Can’t check vid now (I AM at work, with small children no less ;P), but yay for updates, and projects getting done!
    That sucks about OpenOffice, I like (and use) it myself. I use it on Linux though. =P

  17. ROFL!!!! Oh God, people, please explain why other people should NOT engage me in such discussions? Or even encourage me to engage in such discussions? Suffice to say, both our heads asplode. LOL

  20. Actually, instead of Word for Mac, which is god-awful and terrible in every way: get Crossover and install the Windows version of Office 2007.
    Vastly superior in every way. Crossover is basically a souped up version of WINE, and has installation packages pre-configured for Office 2007. I use it on my work mac and it’s been flawless so far.

  22. Done and done, Ms.! Remind me to recheck the notification system on Blogger.
    And hey Wil, you might wanna read the comment Danyiel posted on my blog. She’s absolutely right!

  23. People that video is why god created ear buds. Nothing visually offensive…nobody can hear it…There for I can listen to it. *Sage nod*
    *Squee of delight* I can’t wait for Memories of the Future. My husband and I are huge fans both of you and the show. Project X doesn’t sound exciting and mysterious. It sounds like I’m going to have to build another bookshelf. *heavy sigh* Stupid authors writing stupid books I want to stupid read over and over again. *JK*
    Yeah! More books! Wil you rock! You keep writing we’ll keep reading. 🙂

  25. “wilw FTR: I was told it was a video featuring geeks like us, not Shaq and Ashton Kutcher. I’m annoyed and embarrassed to be associated with them.”
    Brother, you know whats a little sad about it… Shaq is actually a geek. The man has a superman tattoo ffs. And Ashton well.. ok. You got me there. Im not sure if that guy qualifies… but hes sleeping next to Demi Moore so that has to count for something.
    Man you need to review Star Trek ive been waiting since you saw it.

  26. Welcome to the fold Sir. *hugs you* If you liked Just a Geek you need…NEED… to read/listen Happiest Days of Our Lives. You are going to get so frikken nostalgic reading/listening to it. I suggest ya listen to it. Reading it rocks… but Wil reads his own stuff so its all the much cooler because you can actually hear the emotion in his voice when he was going through whatever he was writing about. Just a suggestion.

  27. A Superman tattoo does not a geek make. Superman is way too mainstream for it to be geeky. Besides, for some people, things like that aren’t signs of being a geek but would rather be classified as an eccentricity. Jerry Seinfeld is a huge Superman fan, yet he’s nowhere near being a geek.
    Nowadays, we have a real, thriving geek culture that you have to be a part of in order to be a real geek. It’s not enough to simply like science-fiction or know what a lightsaber is. You have to be opinionated/aware of things that *aren’t* part of mainstream culture. There are things that only a true geek would get, e.g. why the surprise stage appearance of Felicia Day singing “Still Alive” with Jonathan Coulton at PAX gave most geeks a geekgasm.
    At least, that’s my humble opinion.

  28. I just used Office 2004 for Mac to write an MS Thesis, and let me tell you is was a most miserable experience that took way longer than it should have do to the issues. When I would send a copy to my advisor, formating was often lost, or getting randomly changed in different ways throughout out the doco. Excel graphs used in the Word document would have different errors depending on which other computer the file was opened on. It would magically gain 1 or 2 pages every time I would send it to someone. Random lines would disappear every time the campus print shop tried to print it.
    And it crashes like a windows machine. Regularly and often.
    I don’t know if the new version is any better, but I personally have no intention to find out. I was thinking either NeoOffice or iWork for the next time I need to use an office suite.

  29. eh. all kinds man. I dont think its up to anyone to decide who is and who isnt. If someone thinks themselves a geek. Then let them be one… Im I more a geek than the next person because i know who Felicia Day is and enjoy the Guild? I dont think so. Or because I can sit here and configure a cisco router? I dont like Jonathan Coulton music because im not into it…other are and thats all well and good. Sooo am I not a geek then because I dont like his music?

  30. Hoo boy, I’ll just say that when I’m sleep deprived, some really, really ludicrous concepts come into my thoughts and my fingers just type out the first thing that comes out of my sleep deprived brain.
    Getting the Haitian to help you forget about the show he came from sounded an awful lot like something I would post, that’s why I was cracking up so bad.
    As always, it’s a pleasure coming over to WWdN:IX to prove that it sure is a lot of fun to be around you folks.

  31. Um, ahem…not to say that what you wrote was ludicrous! Damn, why does the edit function on this thing expire so fast?
    What I meant to say was that having the Haitian to help you forget about the show he came from was funny, but would probably be something I would bash out in a sleep deprived stupor.
    The ludicrous stuff I post while sleep deprived are things like oh, say…cloning Wil and then coming to the conclusion that his clone is, in fact, Evil Parallel Universe Wil, who is completely crazy, yet clean shaven since Original Wil has a beard. Yeah, things to that effect. I cannot believe I just typed all of that out again. Yes, again.
    Man, I need some sleep!

  32. Did it work in movable type? I kept screwing up that captcha thingy. I hate those! Come on, now, I’m not a spam bot, I can prove it! Although, the Flinstones vitamin jones is coming back again…lol.

  33. Wil, I’m a proud iWork user, and I haven’t had any problems with it in the past 3 years since I’ve used it. While it’s not FOSS, it doesn’t break, and looks great.

  35. Well, first of all I didn’t say that you weren’t a geek if you didn’t get why Day + Coulton singing Still Alive is geektastic. Just that *if* you do it’s a sign of geekiness. There are countless other signs of geekitude. It’s very possible Shaq is a geek, I just meant that Superman & twitter are mainstream pop culture and do not add geek points by themselves. For Superman to be geeky it’s not enough to think he’s cool or wear his symbol.
    For me, to be a geek is mainly to be unusually passionate about something that is not considered mainstream. I also think of a geek as someone who is both a lot more curious and opinionated by nature than what is the norm.
    And the thriving geek culture of today makes me think that if someone self-identifies as a geek, he/she would be aware and a part of that culture somehow.
    Now, I don’t consider this the ultimate truth or anything, just my random thoughts on the subject. I don’t mean to put anyone down, just trying to reason my way to an understanding of what makes a person a geek. 🙂

  36. I see, I’m ludicrous now….
    Wait, that is nothing new, never mind.
    Heh, I just could not resist the circular weirdness of the idea. And if that’s the worst thing you called me, I got no problems.

  40. OK…hold on a second…here’s where I pull out my handy “It’s all Wil’s fault!” card and just walk away and act like I had nothing to do with this whatsoever.
    Wil, don’t hate me, man, but since I haven’t played that card in probably over a year, it just had to be done, I’m in an impossible situation here!
    Damn, Wil…look what you did. You horrible, horrible person! LOL.

  42. Ah, but you don’t realize, I’m the person who invented that card somewhere around five years ago, and as the inventor of said card, it is never, ever too late in the game to play it. So yes, it’s still all Wil’s fault!
    Again, Wil…dude, so not cool, man. Just. So. Not. Cool.

  48. Thanks for the updates. Been wondering what the hell happened to The Happiest Days Special Edition. Now I know. Bring on those new books! I’m sure they’ll be worth the wait.

  50. I’d like to hear more about the openoffice snafu.
    It would be interesting to know if it is unique to the Mac version or present in other platforms.
    I’ve been using OO on linux for years and while I’ve never written a book with it, it seems to run pretty well.

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In order to survive, I disassociated for much of my childhood, but I clearly remember the books. That's where I found comfort, companionship, inspiration and validation. It's where the imagination that powers everything I do creatively in my life today was born. And it all started in that library, with that librarian. She was one of the first people I can remember asking me, "What do you like? What's important to you? What do you want to know more about? How can I help you find it?"

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