this and that and things and stuff

Back in the old days, before social media destroyed the world and blogs were a relatively new thing, we would do these posts that were a lot of random things, instead of one main thing. We’d usually do this when a lot of time had passed since our previous post, and we just needed an excuse to add something new. Social media kind of took that away, because now we just toss a link or a picture or something silly onto Tumblr or Shitter or Facebook or whatever.

But I cling to the Old Ways, from the Before Times, when Everything Was Better (even though it really wasn’t), so here’s a bunch of stuff that I have posted in other places since my last post here.

Last night, I got my highest ever high score on Mr. Do!: 251,000. That’s 100K higher than what was my highest score for over a year.

If you haven’t watched Big Mouth on Netflix, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s maybe the most honest, frank, truthful and hilarious look at puberty, ever. I wrote a little bit about it on my Facebook.

I spent much of the last 18 or so months writing a novel about being 12, so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how kids that age talk and feel (or at least, how I remember feeling when I was 12). At some point about 10 months ago, I came across the Netflix series BIG MOUTH, and I instantly fell in love with it. It’s an absolutely hilarious look at how weird and hormonal we are around 12 and 13 years-old, and it gets so much right about what we are like at that age. I just love it.

But as much as it gets right about the kids, I’ve always felt that the adults in the show were kind of cartoonish, which seemed kind of odd to me … until I realized last night that the adults are all portrayed THE WAY THE KIDS SEE THEM. So the parents are totally lame and embarrassing (Nick’s dad), always screaming about everything (Andrew’s dad), and trying too hard to be one of their friends (Coach Steve). [gif of Andrew and Jesse’s heads exploding]

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this isn’t intentional, but it feels like it is, and it would surprise me if it wasn’t, because everything else in the show, especially how frankly it deals with how hormonal and irrational we are at that age, is pitch perfect and grounded in reality.

I’m about 2/3 through season 2, and I’m doing everything I can to not binge it, because I don’t want to make my wait for season 3 any longer than is has to be.

Oh, hey, and speaking of season 3 … I’ll work for scale, if anyone at Netflix is interested.

Also on my Facebook:

I just realized that when I see a post on Reddit that is some version of “My idiot parents can’t figure out this meme” or “When your parents are so dumb they _______” I am likely looking at a post made by a teenager, whose parents are my age. (I’m 46).

I also realized that, until about ten minutes ago, I have always created a mental image of Boomers when I hear “my parents” because that’s *my* version of parents.

Getting old is weird, man.

My friend, Andrew, sent me this, because he just gets me:

Speaking of Bob Ross, Anne and I got a private Bob Ross painting lesson, and we both leveled up pretty substantially. I post all my Bob Ross paintings on my Instagram, but here’s a link to all the photos I took when we were learning. We both had so much fun, and as soon as I make meaningful progress on my novel revisions and rewrites, I’m going to try out my new skills and see how well I can use them.

They should make a sushi roll that’s squid, with every other fish in the bar wrapped around it. They’d call it Calamari Damacy.

My friend, Brad, is writing and hosting a new True Crime podcast that I think you’re going to love, especially if you are a fan of Serial, Heaven’s Gate, or Making a Murderer. Check out Murder, Etc.

TL;DR Wikipedia is one of my favorite new Instagram follows.

Mike Doughty is currently on tour, performing the entire first Soul Coughing album, Ruby Vroom. I’m seriously considering going full Deadhead for this tour.

Did I ever mention that I have an account at Goodreads?

I may as well round up my social medias:

Nazi punks fuck off.

I’m sure there’s other stuff that I’m forgetting, but that’s something we would say at the end of these posts back in the early 2000s, so there ya go. If you got this far, feel free to use comments in this post to AMA, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

109 thoughts on “this and that and things and stuff”

  1. That D&D image makes me giggle every time because I remember that one show where your Eladrin character decided it was a wonderful idea to climb up its rear. Have always thought of it as a moment of pure player imagination and creativity and it’s one of the many reasons I miss watching you involved in role-playing shows, you always struck a perfect balance between intensity with the character and outright silliness.

    A show I’ve been watching lately, and recommend is The Terror, it’s a fictionalised horror account of Sir John Franklin’s expedition to the Arctic. It’s pretty intense.

  2. Would love to know a little more about the novel revision process and how it’s going, if you have any interested publishers based on the first draft, etc. Anything you want to share with us. Thanks for posting, Wil, good to hear from you.

    1. I’m going through the manuscript and marking places where I can take some side trips, expand or contract portions of the narrative, and finding loose ends that I can tie together in the narrative. It’s kind of tedious and isn’t as fun as the first draft and first real rewrite.

      It isn’t with an editor or at a publisher, yet, though my agent tells me we have some strong interest from a couple of editors at publishers she believes will be a very good match for me. Once I finish these revisions and do the work I described, it’ll be ready for those editors to read. I presume that, once they do, we’ll find out if they are passionate about the narrative, and want to work together, or if we need to keep shopping. I’m anxious and unsure, but my agent (who has way more experience than I do) is confident that we will have multiple offers.

      1. Thanks for responding! I’ve bought and enjoyed your non-fiction, and I have your Star Wars story from the collection in my ebook queue to read ‘sometime’ (bought it just because your story was in it). I hope to be able to meet you on your book tour for this novel and get a signed copy. (Come to Baltimore…or at least allow signed copies to be purchased somehow over the ‘net. Fundraise for the Humane Society and I’ll pay the premium.) I do technical and policy writing as a part of my pay job, but I have not put the work in on any real fiction even though I’d love to be a qualified member of SFWA someday. To see you “doing it” to get a novel out is inspiring, and I would bet that you being honest about “process” in your writing is a big help to others.

      2. That is so exciting that you are closer to having it go to print. Looking forward to reading it . Thank you for the update 🙂

  3. I miss the days of blogging (I was an LJ person). Had a “large” list of 50 on my Friends List back then.

    Longer posts, more detail…really got to know people better.

    I feel like I had more control over my content too. Who could see the posts, in what order (chronological…go figure)…

    I always say I will get back to a format like that one day. One day…

      1. That one is really hitting me. I got used to FaceBook and told it to show me certain Fan/Like pages First in my feed. But Instagram is practically unusable for me now. Maybe things can swing back into a blogging realm one day. But I feel like everyone (especially celebrity blogs such as yours) need to only have links to the content and never the content themselves on places like FB and IG. I only know about your posts because I set up a WordPress and set it to follow you (not that I post much myself on here) so I get the email alerts.

    2. I miss LiveJournal terribly. I tried Dreamwidth, and though it is essentially the same, the audience isn’t there, and the way the site handles pictures is just odd. I have a WordPress account, but just never really ran with it. I’m still on Twitter, but don’t read my feed – just use it a little bit. I don’t do Facebook for a lot of reasons. But man do I miss the old days of setting each post to exactly who I wanted to see it, using actual long-form blogging, and being able to write a bit, insert a picture, and write some more. I miss the coms, where I met friends I still have (in the infamous Real Life, even) because one of us wrote a fanfiction the other liked. Aaaah, LJ. I did love you so. Too bad your audience left and then the Russians decided to be trolls about, well, everything.

  5. Hey Wil!

    I really like this style of post. I hope you do more. I loved Big Mouth. I watched it with my young adult children . It cracked me up too. So clever.

    Would you consider doing a fandom cruise again? Is it fun for you, or is it work?

    1. I had more fun than I thought possible on the Star Trek cruise (something I should write about, now that I think of it), and I would definitely do it again if they asked me. In the old days, the cruises were incredibly demanding and exhausting, and I swore off of them for … gosh, like 15 years or something like that. I was reluctant to do this recent one, but my friends who had done them before all swore that I’d love it, and they were right. It was work, but it wasn’t too much work, and it was really fun for me.

      1. Were you able to resolve the conflicts around your not being able to attend JoCo cruise as a fan rather than performer? ( Sorry if this was answered elsewhere)

        1. I can’t appear in any official capacity, or perform in any way, on any cruise in the Caribbean for a year. I suppose I could go as a passenger, but I don’t think I’d be able to talk about it, for fear of it being interpreted as promotion and therefore a breach of my contract.

          1. It’s odd that they don’t want you talking about it, seems to me it would be good promotion for them.

      2. Ohmygosh, I’m totally geeking out that you answered my question Thanks! !!

        I’m really glad you had fun, and that it wasn’t too much work.

  6. AMA eh? I finally listened to TV Crimes a few weeks ago and IT WAS AMAZING. Once I started I couldn’t stop; episodes had me laughing out loud in public places, at a time when I really needed that. I’m 46 too, so a lot of those shows were familiar.

    So… any chance of you and Mikey reuniting to do a few more episodes? I would happily pay (Patreon?) if it helped bring more hilarity to the world.

    1. We’ve talked about it, but neither one of us has space in our schedule for it right now. It’s a giant bummer, but I suppose it’s good that we’re both busy with things that actually pay our bills.

      1. I too just recently tore through all of TV Crimes and it grew on me until it frequently had me in stitches, so thanks for those chuckles…is there a reason eps 1-3 aren’t available and ep 12 shows as available but I can never d/l it?

        1. Jesse, there’s a glitch in the feed but you can download the episodes directly from the tvcrimes.net website. I’m so jealous that you have those to look forward to!

          Btw Wil, thanks for the response; that totally makes sense, and you’re continuing to bring light to the world in other ways. Thank you!

  7. I love this post! It’s not easy to keep up with everything you post online, since some of it is here, some is on Facebook, some is on Tumblr, some is on Instagram. I keep thinking I want to post more on my blog and less on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram, partly because those sites are commercial and my blog is my own, partly because those sites are all run by jerkass people with inconsistent, bad content policies, and partly because it makes sense to post all my stuff on one site instead of all over the place. New project for 2019: more blogging, less scattered bits all over the place!

    I’m going to be 50 at the end of this year, but when I think “middle aged”, I still think that’s at least 10 years older than me. It also hit me the other day that Robert Smith and Ian McCulloch are going to be 60 this year, but I can’t wrap my brain around that.

      1. I just turned 60 in January. Old? Well, there is that thing where my mind sort of just got stuck in time when I was 35 and never updated the visuals, just the skill set. And I did just pick up my guitar for the first time in like 40 years. 40. Fucking. Years. That does sort of freak me out to think in speed time. And the “new” music I want to learn is only 10 or 20 years old. And I still have a crush on Patrick Stewart, and kinda flipped when I saw you on The Guild and you were a grown up. (That’s when I actually appreciated social media and started following you.) I can’t tell you how many abandoned blogs I have. My art writing is the only thing site I semi keep up. I cannot be old, there is still too much I want to learn.

        1. Time is weird and age is weird. I still don’t really feel OLD. Most of the time I feel like a 10-year-old that somehow got stuck in an adult body, with the same muscle aches I’ve had since I was in my 20s. I have trouble wrapping my head about the musicians I love being “old” because they just don’t seem OLD to me. I have friends who are older than me that complain about being old and I keep thinking “But you’re not old, you’re just older.” And friends who are much younger than me who complain about being old.

      2. And a library patron just asked me if I could help him remember the name of “the old rock and roll singer named Bill something.” I wondered if he meant Bill Hailey and the Comets. Turned out he was talking about Billy Idol. gets on ice floe, drifts off to sea

        2. gently pats you both on the head but refuses to comment because she is only 30

          1. You’ve been on my mind, because I haven’t seen you on the Internets in awhile, and I’ve been hoping everything is good in your world. It’s great to see you here, Beth.

          4. Thanks, Wil! I always assume everyone forgets about me when I don’t talk to them (I mean, not my mom, obviously. And my brother is vaguely aware he has a sister across the country to send website links to, but everyone else) regularly, so it’s nice to hear you actually thought about me. 🙂 I know I’m not super memorable.
            I’m good. I’m full time at American Girl so that takes all my time, usually. I get a couple weekdays off, but work all weekends at the cafe so actually seeing friends and making plans is kinda hard. I REALLY wanted to see you and Anne at Go Fact Yourself but… work. :/ But I like the kids and it’s closest I can get to being a mom for the foreseeable future, so I’m happy there.
            I actually started taking anti-anxiety meds a month ago and was debating sending you a message on tumblr to let you know. You were part of the reason I said yes when the doctor suggested them. I have more energy, which is amazing! The depression and anxiety are still there, but I can quiet them a lot easier. So that’s been good.
            I FOUND A BOB ROSS TABLETOP GAME AND AM TRYING TO MAKE MY FRIENDS PLAY IT WITH ME, but we usually get distracted by CAH or Unstable Unicorns and such. But I shall prevail. Mostly because we meet at my place and I can hold the frozen pizzas hostage if needed. 🙂
            I wrote a terrible poem and a short fanfic (for my fave show The Magicians, WHO DID THE COOLEST STUFF WITH THESE SEASON’S STORYLINES heart eyes), which is more writing than I’ve done in, like, four months. So that’s good.
            Good, is basically the summation of this whole long comment as I reread it. I’m good. 🙂

          6. I played the Bob Ross game once at my library’s Tabletop Game Night! It’s very cute. I didn’t win. I recently got Unstable Unicorns and love it!

            Hooray for all the good!

  8. Ha ha! My mom is a certified Bob Ross instructor and I met him when I was little. My mom also attended one of his classes up here in Alaska. I’m glad to see you are giving this a try. I am an artist myself and used this technique to learn how to use oils. As an artist I can say with credibility, you did a good job and have an eye for this sort of thing—don’t stop!

    1. WOW you got to meet Bob Ross?! How awesome!!

      Thank you for your kind words about my paintings. It’s such a fun and relatively easy technique.

  9. I love the old ways. I guess that’s why I still blog and follow other blogs. Don’t need to change if you enjoy it.

    I always enjoy reading your posts, and the Players Handbook image is great. I spent so many “sick” days at home poring over that book and the amazing artwork.

  10. Hey Wil, enjoyed the post. Hope you had an excellent vacay, and are having a good brain day.

    I was wondering how your recent on-set experience was with the infamous WFS / William Shatner on BBT? Did he play nicely? 😉

    Thanks sir, take care!
    Jon M

    1. He was great. He was funny, he was charming, he was gracious, and he was friendly. He was really happy to be there, and he was a joy to work with.

  11. I prefer blogs to just about everything else, honestly. Reading them that is, I don’t write them myself.

    Why do you think you/people in general have moved away from blogs? I sometimes wonder if they get to be something you feel like you “have” to do, rather than something enjoyable.

    1. Back in the old days, blogs were all we had, so it was normal for someone to go through the list of blogs and aggregators they cared about. It was normal for us to go TO a place to read stuff. Social media changed that and inverted expectations. So now, instead of going TO a place to read things, we expect the things we care about to be DELIVERED to us, in our various feeds. I get the convenience of it, but algorithmic sorting is seriously screwing a lot of people, and we’ll never see another moment in time like we did in 2002 or so when Blogger and LiveJournal were at their height.

      For me, where I choose to publish is directly related to where the people are. I don’t post in my blog every day anymore because it’s discouraging to spend a lot of time putting something worthwhile together and feel like hardly anyone is reading it, when I can post the dumbest shit in the world on Facebook and know that tens of thousands of people are going to see it, and somewhere between 500 and 1500 people, on average, will interact.

      So it’s like playing to a mostly-empty house, or a place that’s sold out.

      Ha. “Sold out.” I didn’t even do that on purpose.

      1. The views are, sadly, a big part of it. I post something on my blog and get maybe 20-something hits at best. But I can tweet a goofy joke and get a lot more faves and retweets. I try to tell myself I shouldn’t care, but it is a little discouraging (understatement) to check my blog stats and see single-digit hits.

        1. I still blog, but pretty sporadically. I don’t pay that much attention to my traffic (as it’s always low-ish, me being not famous {yet – HA!}), but I love it when anyone COMMENTS directly on the blog, vs. on my inevitable social media link that I had to post so ANYONE would actually read the post.I haven’t had any commentary on my last three or four posts, so I do wonder whether anyone’s reading me anymore?

          Also, I’m getting fed up with WordPress! I’m logged in, I’m not logged in, I have notifications but it won’t show me them, I look like a new user when I’m not… grrrr. arrrgh.

          Still gonna keep coming RIGHT HERE to read what Wil’s got to say, tho.

      3. Love the dad pun :p
        I’m glad you still blog sometimes. I promise the house isn’t totally empty! I do appreciate the FB posts too tho, it’s nice to see content from people I admire and enjoy on a frequent basis.
        Side note (and totally fangirling) if no has told you recently: YOU ROCKED on The Guild. You’re my favorite character after Felicia Day’s. That show gave me life in so many ways, and I wish I could thank each of you in person for it.

  12. In the last year, I’ve cut right back on having celebs or pages in my Facebook newsfeed. It’s been great to have mostly my friends’ content/activity. So, what do you share/do on your Facebook? Should I follow you there, too, or stick with tumblr?

    1. There’s a lot of overlap, so you aren’t missing anything. HOWEVER, there is a community of people who consistently interact on my Facebook page, and they’re really great.

  13. Q: Wil. Love the honesty and the energy you bring. We’re about the same age and grew up in the same area. I don’t actually know though in this one-way digital way I can relate. I get different things out of each post. When I can, I try and put something in the comment that gives back. You’ve been doing this a long time, what do you get out of it? Has your payoff changed over the years?

  14. I still cling to the old ways too, Wil. I’ve got my Livejournal/Dreamwidth and my WordPress blog. I use Twitter and Instagram, but I find I still have the best actual conversations on the blog sites. Just had a fantastic conversation about last week’s episode of ‘The Orville’ and I posted the same thing on Twitter and got nothing. So yeah, I get you.

    I want to eat that sushi roll. Getting old is weird.

    And I need to watch ‘Big Mouth’ after I watch the bajillion other things in my queue! 🙂

    1. OMG The Orville is just great, isn’t it? Maybe I should get back on Dreamwidth to discuss it… hm… I honestly had been considering going back to LJ just because it was the best, but I just can’t support the politics… dang it.

      1. I’m on dreamwidth! Come on over! If you participate in a few friendzies you’ll have an active flist in no time! Feel free to add me there if you come back, I need more Orville fans to discuss things!! I left LJ but still crosspost there but I don’t give them money anymore since the debacle a few years ago. I feel you on navigating the hidden politics of all these social sites – all I can think is that my Good Place/Bad Place is score is going to be really low because I crosspost to LJ…

        1. My username on dreamwidth is jackwabbit, as it is everywhere fanfic related. wabbit89 everywhere else. I did/do the same with LJ and DW. Post on DW, but crosspost to LJ but don’t give them any money because reasons. I just can’t let the crossposting go, though…

        2. So, yeah…we have mutual friends on LJ. Because of course we do. So: Hi, I’m wabbit. And I think about Star Wars a lot. 😉

          Sorry to hijack, Wil, but lookie! Geeks with mutual friends who didn’t know it.

        1. Awwww, thanks. I haven’t posted much there, but maybe one day I’ll use it. I’ve kind of fallen off the writing wagon, which makes me sad, but life has been pretty creativity-crushing lately/my creativity has gone more into costumes in the past few years. But I still manage a few small things here and there. It’s all I’ve got right now. I’ll come over and add you, because why not? Same username?

  15. This is random, but what do you think River Phoenix would have thought of social media? Do you think he would have embraced it, or hated it?

    1. I honestly can’t say. The last time I saw him, we couldn’t predict anything about the world today. My suspicion is that he wouldn’t be into it, but I have no idea what 50 year-old River would think.

      …Jesus, he would be almost 50. That makes me so sad.

  16. Wil I’m a huge fan of Radio Free Burrito. It occurred to me that it would be fun to hear you and Anne interview each other on an episode. Any chance we could hear something like that in the future? Thanks, as always, for sharing your stories and adventures with us. Just got my shipment notification for my “Roll model” tees today!

  17. “I spent much of the last 18 or so months writing a novel about being 12”

    When I was 12, Next Generation had just started, and I really identified with Wesley Crusher: he was always awkward and wooden and saying stupid and inappropriate things … JUST. LIKE. ME! I think I loved that character for exactly the same reasons that other people hated him,

    Have you ever thought about (or tried not to think about) how you would have written that character?

  18. First I want to thank you for being you and sharing you with us. I have been a fan since TNG and my wife since Stand By Me. Your blog, your podcast and your books have really touch us. The way you speak about depression and anxiety and geekdom has helped me understand my wife and really helped my wife a lot knowing someone is out there goes through the same things she does on a daily basis. So thank you and we miss the Burrito and would love to have it feed our ears once again. Any plans to bring it back?

    1. I have ambitious podcast plans for this year! I’d love to get into some of the specifics, but until everything is locked down and it’s all happening, I can’t say anything. What I can say is that I’m going to be making something I think you’ll like.

      1. Very cool, I know you aren’t your character on Big Bang but I have to admit that after reading your blog I was disappointed you didn’t actually have a podcast like on the show. I just got into WTF the last year or so and the way Marc talks about his addiction is very refreshing, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

  19. I’m only just 32 (next week, anyway) and I definitely get the “wait, what? I’m…which generation now?” thing.

    Thanks for the instagram suggestion. Followed!!

  20. You’ve talked a lot in the past about your experience with panic attacks and anxiety growing up. I was wondering if you had any tips for dealing with panic attacks when you’re in a professional setting like in school or at work?

    1. I use the 5 Things method to bring myself back from the brink.

      5 things I can see
      4 things I can hear
      3 things I can touch
      2 things I can name
      1 thing I can hold

      By the time I get to the end, I’ve usually gotten myself out of the spiral.

  22. Bob Ross is such a hero to me, and a bit of a weird coincidence that I came across this post. I’ve been heavily enthralled learning about his technique and his mission to give back to humanity by way of promoting peace and joy through art.

    I wish I knew how he felt about digital programs like Photoshop….would he consider that cheating? In my head, I’m thinking ‘no’ since he frequently expressed how important it is to work in layers on his show.

    I bid you much success with your endeavors, new and old.

  23. They should make a sushi roll that’s squid, with every other fish in the bar wrapped around it. They’d call it Calamari Damacy.

    Should they, though?

    Sounds more like a sphere than a roll. With, like, shrimp tails sticking out of it at funny angles. And somehow it would never seem quite big enough.

  24. When I was 12, little did I know that within the year I would hear the Beatles for the very first time ever being played on the radio here in the US—-(I’m talking about a transistor radio here!), and life would begin to change drastically as I knew it. This was a great post, love all the stuff and nonsense and this and that!

  25. I was an avid blogger way back then, and was desperate to get a LiveJournal page but didn’t know anyone who I could ask for an invite (back when it was invite-only). Always felt like I was outside looking in while all the Cool Kids had fun with their LJs.

    I concur with the people above who would love more Radio Free Burrito and TV Crimes – so if and when you get the time, you’ll have one more guaranteed listener. 🙂

    Since this is an AMA… I always wonder, when looking at the bedhead shots on instagram, what’s in the mug? Tea or coffee? And how do you take it?

  26. I miss more blogs… I follow all my favorite blogs in my RSS reader (theoldreader.com, they are awesome), so I guess I’m old (30 now) too. I hate those new sorting algorithms. Why is chronological order suddenly wrong? I’m thinking about doing a daily thing (photo+short text) somewhere, but I don’t know where, because instagram is useless for this and blogs don’t get too much attention unfortunately. I don’t really have a question, just wanted to share the love for blogs 🙂 I used to have a photodiary (it’s gone now, the server was my friend’s somewhere at some uni, and it got disconnected), I still have a blog with my old teenage poems that I don’t update… Oh, fun times 🙂

    Also, I saw the episode of TBBT with you, that was fun 🙂 I don’t follow you on facebook or tumblr (I don’t use that one at all) or anywhere, you post too often for me 😀 But this blog is just the right amount for me 🙂 I spend more quality time with you here than on social media. Have a nice day!

  27. Speaking of cool Netflix shows and true crime stuff, have you watched American Vandal? I thought it was really good, and season 2 was even better. I’m terrible at watching TV these days (or maybe it’s been longer than “these days”) for various reasons, but I really liked American Vandal.

    Do you still run, Wil? I remember you started a few years ago, and wasn’t sure if you still do it. 2018 was a big racing year for me (I’m not an elite runner by any means, but I really love races of all distances), and I’m taking 2019 to kind of rediscover the fun of running without having any specific training plans or goals.

    1. I experienced a profound and incredibly painful loss in September, and fell into the worst and longest Depression of my adult life as a result. Right when I was coming out of it in December, I got hit by a different loss, and it turns out those are conditions that stack. I’m just coming out of both of them now, and this is a long way around of saying that I haven’t had any motivation to run, so I haven’t. I really miss it, and my body has been telling me that it misses it, too.

      I will run a marathon before I’m 50, and I’m 47 this year, so when the weather gets a little better here (it’s been cold for SoCal and it’s been raining for weeks), I’ll start up my couch to 5K program again.

  29. Hey, Wil, I don’t have a real question, but I do want to say that I love your blog– whether random thoughts or a carefully sorted single post it’s always great to hear from you here! And I’m so glad to see your paintings!!!

  30. You know… this is as good a place as any for me to paint this line in the sand, and maybe it’s about time I made this statement in public to, you know, put it on the record, turn this ship around, begin the slow, long march back to international sanity, but… I prefer Bill Alexander to Bob Ross.

    Now, don’t get me wrong. Bob Ross is obviously Solid Gold, but Bill Alexander is like Brother Theodore crossed with Klaus Kinski. He’s Heat Miser and Ross is Snow Miser. To this day, some four plus decades removed, I still hear Bill Alexander say “the mighty, mighty tee-towns (Tetons)” and “time to fire in some Prussian blue!” That’s part of me.

    It’s weird and disturbing to see Ross get all of the glory and Bill Alexander is largely forgotten. I won’t tolerate it. Not while I’m still walking This Man’s Internet. Okay, fine. Done now. Bill walks with me, and I walk with Bill. And when there was only one set of footprints on the beach? Well, that’s when Val de Vargas carried us both. Like babies. Shut up.

  31. I would, 1000 percent, eat a Calamari Damacy roll.

    I have lately had a friend that is doing “wine and paint nights” for my Geek Girls Meetup group, and she takes famous paintings and makes them nerdy somehow and then teaches us all how to do it. It is so much fun, and it is making me re-think my assessment that I have no artistic talent.

    Thanks for the update!

  32. I have a 4 year old, but I started WAY late and have childhood friends with young adult children so I sometimes get kicked in the teeth with a “oh right, I’m old” reminder.

    I am in the process of a career change, and I am an anomaly in that I’ve been with the same company almost 2 decades… as an actor and writer you face constant change, what’s your best advice for keeping moving forward through change? (And I’ll just say change two or three more times until the word becomes a meaningless blur of sound, got any change mister?)

    1. I wish I had good and useful advice for you, but if I’m being honest, I just do my best to not be too terrified of things happening unexpectedly, and I do everything I can to have savings and stuff built up as best as I can, to protect me and my family.

      For change that I instigate myself, I plan as best as I can, make sure I am working with or surrounded by the best people I can find (always get people who are smarter than you, if you can), and trust that there was a good reason I wanted to change up what I was doing for something new. The hardest part is staying committed to the new thing when it feels like it’s stalled out, because everything takes time and it’s rare for something to happen on the timeline we wish we could impose on it.

      I feel like this isn’t helpful, but it’s the best I can do right now.

  34. Glad for the updates, learned some new stuff I didn’t know you were doing before. Had to read that terrible dad joke for the second time grumbles in Youth The FB community you have sounds awesome and if I didn’t only use FB when it was necessary for communicating with my asexual group and/or my D’n’D group, I wouldn’t ever use it.

    My question is a selfish and probably dumb one: Any chance you might do the occasional CYOA stream again? I loved the community of fans there and trying to figure out our hashtag for the session and you doing the different voices.

    1. I miss doing that stream, but the commitment is just too much, and there isn’t room for it in my life at the moment.
      This year … well, I have a lot planned and I have no idea how much of it will actually happen, but making the CYOA thing happen again is on the list.

      1. This makes me so happy! I loved participating in the CYOA! (But the one week that really sticks with me is when you read The Monster at the End of This Book. I’d had a really bad anxiety day and hearing that beloved childhood book in your Grover voice…it was exactly what I needed and I was crying tears of happiness and relief while you read it.)

      2. Well if you need any assistance with the CYOA stream or the live show you want to do, you have my sword!. snaps off a sharp salute …Actually, I don’t have a sword, you have my bow!

  35. I decided several months ago to move back to my blog. It shoves content out to FB and Twitter, but links back to my site. It’s the control freak in me, I don’t have to worry about my content getting lost to some algorithm because anyone can go to my site and see the stuff I’ve posted.

    RSS is too hard for the muggles, and since there really isn’t any money in it, I don’t see companies falling over themselves trying to make it easier. Facebook and Twitter used to let me subscribe to user’s status, but that time is long over. They want people to go to their site and stay, and the internet is more bland because of it.

    Keep posting Wil, it shows up in my RSS reader and I definitely read it.

    BTW, I just turned 50, and try to restrain myself with old people comments. Now I’m working on anti-old people comments, such as a response to “I’m afraid what the internet is doing to the children”. “You know, they said the same thing about the Beatles…”

  36. My social media presence is minimal (FB & twitter). I guess my age is showing because I prefer blogs. So thrilled to see you post and open to commentary.
    Just want to say thank you for being you. For always being so honest. For touching my life (and so many others) in such a positive, helpful way. It is strange, but even your struggles are helpful..I guess it’s reminder that, even if we feel we’re alone, we aren’t. I guess it’s like living in the country – I may not have next-door neighbors – but I do have neighbors, they’re just a mile away.

    oh – and where can I get that Arrakis poster you showed in Instagram? Huge Dune fan here!!

    1. That poster was a gift from PBS when I did The Great American Read. As far as I know, they aren’t available for sale.

  37. I walked away from social media for reasons a couple of years ago but your blog is the only blog I ever paid attention to. Something about it makes the world feel less lonely. I love the randomness of this post. Time and aging is really weird — I am 41 but sometimes I feel like I am 106. I am kind of an old soul which can be hard to feel and navigate sometimes. I am definitely not made for this century. Do you believe in past lives?

    I had my first job when I was 12 – a paper route.

    …”in this post to AMA.” What does AMA stand for in this context? Sorry, showing my age.

    Thanks for being here Wil. Be well.

      1. Thanks for answering. How do you know when you are coming out of a depressive episode?

  39. Your friend Andrew missed the boat on turning a great joke into an amazing one by having a few little trees painted into the Bob Ross picture

  40. Nothing quite as frustrating as when those monsters suddenly decide to just turn on you and hunt. You. Down. No mercy. No escape. As if the game suddenly says “Enough! You’re wasting my time.” Can’t even pivot fast enough to release a ball.

    And the systolic jumps high and fast when, as you grab that centerpiece prize, that much, much needed award letter—whether it be an “X” or an “R” or an “A”—suddenly slips to the next letter. Can almost hear the “ricky-ticky-ricky-ticky” music laughing at you, right?

  41. I just want to say that you really are a geek God, and after watching Tabletop and Titans Grave; I realized 2 things; 1 I really miss Game Night. 2. Any dice game played against us two would be the equivalent of an episode of A Team combat.
    We’d both love it but no real injury would occur.

    PS. Thank you for your honest thoughts with depression. I too, suffer with it and between it and the “survivor’s guilt” from my time in the Army. Well any day I don’t listen to the “why don’t you just” voice is a victory.

  42. Hey Wil, was packing for JoCo just now and my brain went on a happy trip to memory town instead of being productive. Getting to chat with you on the tender last year, geek to geek, was one of the highlights of the vacation. My goblin child is now 6 and is actually using the kid’s programming site you talked about at her school, which I was really tickled about. I wanted to tell you that the Seamonkey are all really going to miss you this year!

  43. I blog and I’m on Instagram, and that’s it. Personally, I prefer the in depth thoughts, discussions, and interactions that come with the blogging world.
    Excited to hear that you might have a new book out soonish. I have everything you’ve published so far, and have enjoyed it all.
    Side note: I listened to your performance of the Interdependency novels the other week, and LOVED them. You do such a great job with everything you narrate!

  44. I wanted to mention that I stumbled across your episodes of TableTop on YouTube recently. They have been great to watch while I work on assignments for my college classes, but have also reminded me that I need to make an effort to get out to a local board gaming group and be a bit more social since moving to a small town for a job. It is easy to get into a funk or your own isolated bubble leaving close friends and family behind from the big city (Dallas) to take a job in a town of about 20,000 people (Los Alamos).

    Best wishes to you in getting the time and funding to do a another season of the series.

  45. I love this blog, I don’t like Intsagram or FB much. Please continue to post here? It can make my day to read your words.

  46. Okay the Calamari Damacy joke was so funny, I had to repeat it to my husband. We both love Katamari. Lol.

  47. TIL that “Bob Ross Painting Lessons” are a thing. Neat! I was confused at first because I was really sure that he died a long time ago.

    I love posts like this, keep em up Wil!

  48. I miss your monthly (was it monthly?) reboot check-ins. How about getting that going again? I really did find them inspiring. It was a wonderful combination of positivity and honesty that seems to be lacking on the interswebs right now.

  49. antes, por lo menos en dónde yo nací, soñaba con poder decirle a las personas que admiras lo mucho que te sirvió en la vida lo que hicieron en tu serie favorita (tng) o lo que escriben actualmente, Gracias Will cada vez que te leo me hace bien.

  50. Went and saw the Ruby Vroom tour in Austin this weekend after seeing your mention here about it, excellent show, glad you mentioned it!

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