I spent some time in the booth this morning, recording some pickups on an audiobook I still can’t believe I was chosen to narrate. I believe it will come out in March, around the same time as two other books I narrated.
March could be a big month for me, professionally. A project I have been developing and working on for almost two years may be ready in March, as well. After years of gratefully doing what I call “other people’s work,” I have been focusing intensely on something that is all mine. I’m even spending my own money on it, something they tell you to never do.
Whatever. They aren’t the boss of me. It’s worth it, and I believe in it.
Anyway. Since I’m coming home to my blog, how about one of those old school posts about random stuff I’ve been doing? It’s on the other side of the thingy.
* The news is all terrible, and it’s all overwhelming, so I’m looking for the helpers. I’m doing my best to be a helper when I can, too. I am fiercely proud to be from Los Angeles. I love our culture, our diversity, our endless collection of unique neighborhoods that generally coexist in harmony. Nearly everyone who lives here knows someone who was affected by the latest firestorms. It’s been so wonderful to see people from all over the county come together to support and help people from other communities who have suffered terrible losses and traumas.
It’s equally infuriating to see so many despicable people (who absolutely know better) spreading so many lies, and so much disinformation, all to get clicks and clout. I say this with all sincerity and full offense: Shut the fuck up forever, you pieces of shit. And to the incomprehensibly stupid people who credulously believe those lies: the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.
* I’m about halfway though The Ministry of Time, and I continue to love it. The way Kaliane Bradley uses her words is inspiring me to level up my own writing, which is nice.
* In November, I was talking about video games with a friend. I’d been in Fallout 4 for nearly 800 hours, and my experience in the game had shifted from story missions to building settlements. She asked me if I’d played Fallout 76. I told her I had not. I really don’t like games that require me to interact with other people, given the overwhelming volume of loud, angry, unaccountable, toxic masculinity I encountered literally everywhere. Hearthstone? Toxic men. Destiny? The MOST toxic men. WoW? I don’t like anything about this, and it’s not worth crawling over the broken glass toxic players kept scattering in front of me.
Like, I know that not all games are like this, and maybe I was just unlucky, but … it just wasn’t worth it to me, navigating all that shit for games I didn’t even like that much.
She told me how Fallout 76 encourages cooperation, how I can just mute other players and only use emotes, and her experience — as a woman, no less — was in a community of overwhelmingly supportive and chill players.
While I was processing this, she told me about settlement building, crafting, and her conviction that I would love all of it.
I saw that it was included in my PlayStation+ membership thingy, so I decided I’d spend at least an hour in it, using the settings she advised (turn off pvp and mute all players). I will admit that, at first, I wasn’t getting it. I was very skeptical about a game that wanted me to spend money on it every month, because most of the games I have played that have a “you don’t have to pay to play” option also have a “you must pay if you want it to be fun” requirement. I’m going to jump ahead and tell you I have about 120 hours in 76, haven’t spent a dime, and absolutely love everything about it. I am absolutely going to be spending some Fallout 1st money on this game, so I can design and build settlements.
It’s been such a fun escape for me. I feel like there’s a ton of story left for me to explore and uncover, and I haven’t even been into all of the areas on the map. I figured out early on that a lot of my fun and joy comes from just wandering the map and seeing whatever I come across. I haven’t yet done the Nukashine (is that what it’s called?) challenge where you ditch all your gear, get blind drunk on it, wake up in a random place on the map, and try to find your way home without using the overview map. That sounds epic, and I want to do it when I have an hour or more because who knows how long it’ll take and I think it’ll be more fun if I do it in one session.
And the community I have encountered has been awesome. People keep giving me really good gear and mods, and every player I come across either ignores me (best) or exchanges hellos (second best).
I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what is available in this game. I hope I’m right, and it’s going to be as much fun and as satisfying as I think it’ll be for hundreds of hours.
* Speaking of video games, I’m building the NES LEGO set. I have completed the console, and started on the TV yesterday.
Check out this Easter Egg that’s hidden inside!
When I’m done with this, it’s either Endurance or the Batmobile.
* Did you hear about the rumored TNG LEGO set that’s allegedly coming out next year? It’s the bridge of my Enterprise, and it includes minis of all of us — including Wesley! — and I hear a rumor about a GWP shuttlecraft with Ensign Ro. Dude, if LEGO goes nuts with Star Trek the way it has with Star Wars, I could be in some real trouble.
Good trouble, to be sure, but still. I’m running out of space and … oh, I hear myself. Never mind.
Earlier this week, I made the most amazing chicken soup I have ever made in my life. I wanted to write a post about it, but I couldn’t get it to a place where I thought it could be its own thing … so here it is in its imperfect form:
In every partnership, a division of labor emerges over time that allows each partner to play to their strengths, stay out of each other’s way, and efficiently get shit done together.
In our house, I do most of the cooking, because I genuinely love everything about it … with one very important exception: I always fuck up the salt.
So I’ll do everything in a recipe until the “salt to taste” step. At that point, I summon Anne (usually with my voice, though in my imagination I am using a bat signal that projects the Morton’s girl with the umbrella) and she uses whatever weird magical skill she has to put in exactly the right amount of salt.
A few weeks ago, I was making soup. Anne had to run to the store when I got to the “salt to taste” step, and I would be lying if I told you that I did not panic, hard. I mean, a normal person would be, like, “Oh, I guess I’ll wait until she gets back,” but not me! Bill Junior was a DAREDEVIL! Just like his old man.
“Look on the Internet,” a mysterious voice echoed in my head, “look for ‘how much salt for two quarts of soup’ and math will save you.”
The voices in my head have never lead me astray (well, except for all those times they did), so I did a quick search.
This is where I tell you that this post isn’t about the salt, but I know at least one of you wants to know the answer, so I’ll also tell you that it’s about a teaspoon, which is what I put into my soup, with trembling hands.
Fuck yeah, math! It was perfect.
But that’s not what this is about. This is about an entirely different recipe that I saw a little further down in the search results; it’s about the Martha Stewart recipe for basic chicken soup.
Martha Stewart always makes food in such interesting ways, I was curious to know what her take was on chicken soup.
Oh my god, it’s incredible.
She tells us to buy a whole chicken, cut it up, and use it to make the stock. Then we pull it out of the stock, cut the meat off the bones, and return that meat into the stock we just made.
Quick aside: this is the point in writing this post that yet another voice in my head asserts that this isn’t interesting and I should just delete it. I’m doing my best to push on through, though.
I showed the recipe to Anne when she got home (after I asked her to taste my properly-salted soup — she loved it) and then texted it to our family chat, because Ryan likes to cook as much as I do (I love that I passed that along to him, without even trying). We all agreed that it looked amazing.
Last night was the first opportunity I’ve had to make this recipe and HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS.
It’s so much fun, it’s so satisfying, and the resulting soup was so magnificent, I almost couldn’t believe that I made it.
And yet, I needed to go further. I needed to make some matzo balls.
That’s also something I’d never done before, but I knew it was simple enough. So I made some matzo meal in the food processor, followed a simple recipe, and ended up with something that wasn’t too bad for a Gentile’s first attempt.
I put it all together and …
It was so good. The matzo balls were a little too big, but that’s an easy fix for next time.
Oh, and the most important thing? It was perfectly salted.
Have a good weekend, everyone. Enjoy the last few days of America, and stay safe.
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WESLEY LEGO??!??!?????!!? this is crazy.
I don’t have the space. The board games. The project bins with 3D printed parts, old computer cables and spare doorknobs.
Okay … something’s gonna have to go. I’m looking at you Playmobil.
Will there is never anything bad about believing in yourself! Thanks for sharing your professional journey!
One way to get the salting right (for future experiments) is to put about 1/4 of the soup (or whatever) to one side, then lightly salt the remainder. Keep adding salt until you think “Oh, too much!” Then put back the 1/4 that you had to one side to reduce the saltiness back down below that threshold.
Works for many contexts.
… Oh … and the food looks fantastic!
I know the Canucks aren’t your favorite team but the city is still wonderful and would welcome you with open arms should you need to escape the upcoming hellscape.
In all honesty, at this point I’m just hoping he’s gone in four years because so many around him are refusing to say he can’t run for another term. Or, even worse, he just gets rid of elections all together.
We are in Michigan and my husband works on the Canadian side of his job and it’s extremely tempting.
That’s good news, I will look forward to your updates, wishing you and Anne a lovely weekend
I love this, Wil. Making soup is my jam, especially chicken and rice, with a whole chicken and making the stock. There is love in well cooked food. I find myself a 41yr old mom, about to be unemployed, suddenly going back to finish the last year of my Bachelors degree, and I’ve considered using my grandmother’s recipes to start a lil pop up cottage bakery to supplement our family.
Awesome post! And I agree I am not looking forward to TrumpMuskistan to begin next week!
Just wanted to say we are new here – thank you for the invite!
You and your creativity mean a lot to us.
We met you at Salt Lake Fan-X photo ops this September.
Hope you, Anne & the fur children are doing ok.
Susan & Mark
Finding that satisfying chicken soup is a cooking milestone, Wil – I’m glad you’ve found yours! Those matzah balls look great, as well. Somehow, my mother’s recipe that I loved as a child just don’t come out right for me, so I might have to actually go with other recipes and figure out how to achieve the texture I want from these.
I hear you, re: helpers. When I can focus on being a helper, which is kinda my job, and my community-volunteering, then I can get through those times I am not able to actively be helping. My level of news- and wider-reality-avoiding slightly worries me, but these are the times.
Also, of course, congrats on your own project, and I look forward to its reveal!
I’m going to make that soup. It looks amazing.
Cool and thank is very nice
Yup, I learned to make soup by making stock from the chicken carcass (and a lot of veggies and herbs and stuff). So much better than anything else.
Hey Wil! Don’t know what two of the three upcoming audiobooks are, but I’m definitely looking forward to “When the Moon Hits Your Eye”.
Also, as another guy who does all the cooking in the marriage, for pretty much the same reason, if you’re making homemade chicken soup starting from a whole chicken (two thumbs up, BTW), next you should totally look into homemade gumbo. Step one is basically the same thing! Heck, do a couple chickens (or a turkey post-Thanksgiving Day) and freeze some of that homemade stock for the future.
I, too, have recently rekindled my love of Lego sets, and have very limited space for any more projects. But I absolutely love it! It’s like working on puzzles. That Star Trek TNG set you mentioned… OMG… I bought the TNG version of Monopoly even though I hate that game, just because it had all the characters. I’ll have to find some space (and money, ha-ha) for that TNG set…
The chicken soup part of this post was absolutely worth including. I used to make a mean roast chicken, but I’ve been living on my own for so long, going through all the steps just for a chicken only for myself hasn’t felt worth it. But making a big pot of chicken soup where I can freeze some for later? I can do that!
Last year, Anne went away for a week. The morning she left, I started a huge pot of hearty beef stew in the slow cooker. Over the course of the week, I pulled some out, put some new stuff in, and never took it off the lowest heat. It was the most amazing thing I have ever made for myself, much more delicious than the typical bachelor chow I make.
I can definitely see myself doing the same thing with this recipe.
I’ve become a huge fan of one dish meals for bachelor chow, especially using the slow cooker since I’m usually out of the house for 8-10 hours most days. It’s so nice to come home to a place that smells like curry/chili/soup/stew that’s just waiting to be eaten.
This is the way, yes. There are legends abundant of food vendor carts in major metros that consistently serve the best, most savory _____ known to all sentient beings, and the common thread in those legends is that the cooking pot is never washed out or emptied. They just keep adding stuff to it as the level goes down.
Also, is it me, or have you slimmed up a bit?
A cooking show I watched a while ago suggested we dump the chicken that was used in the stock, then put some new roasted chicken in the soup. Haven’t tried it, myself, but the chicken may have more of its flavor inside it rather than in the stock.
So glad you are joining us in FO76! I’m on PC so I won’t run into you there but you will have SO. MUCH. FUN.
I love the Easter Egg of the hidden Warp Zones! So cool!
Hi Wil! Congrats on the wonderful and perfectly salted soup! It did my heart good to read that you’re the primary cook in your household, because my late husband was chef in our household, and your post reminded me of how terrific our life was. The last line of your post also resonated with me, about enjoying the last few days of America. I’ll try! Thank you as always for sharing bits and pieces of your life with all of us who care about you.
Have you ever looked into Guild Wars 2? It’s an MMORPG, no subscription fee (buy the box/expansions), it’s pay-to-fashion not pay-to-win (and you can turn in-game gold into store currency, so you don’t actually have to pay real money if you don’t want). PvP is kept 100% separate. Aside from Lord of the Rings Online, I’ve never come across a kinder, more helpful gaming community. It also encourages cooperation, doesn’t penalize you for helping other people or force you to group up if you don’t want to. There’s no settlement building, but they did recently introduce housing which has a TON of customizability. People have created some amazing works of art with it. Felicia Day did the voice of one of the characters (and a great job at it!) The gameplay is very fluid and the graphic style is (subjectively) beautiful.
Also, your soup looks amazingly delicious!!
That soup looks delicious and now I’m hungry, thanks for that! 😛
1- I would DIE to be in a Lego set. Best coolest thing EVER!
2 – I’m going to try the Martha recipe. My boys love chicken noodle and chicken dumpling that I make I’m always down for improvements!
3 – can’t wait for more audible books with you! No matter the book you manage to bring so much joy and life to it. Listened to the Martian with my oldest son (12) and he enjoyed it so much, I enjoyed it even more because he did! Thank you for bring that character to life.
Uncle Wil, I’m so glad to have you back in my inbox (which sounds dirty but I’m going with it) and to read you on the regular. I’m on f***book but not really and I missed your voice (font?). So, thanks for coming back to your blog!
Love that you made some matzo ball soup! It’s also one of my faves….and yours looks so delicious! Great reading your whole post. I’m not a gamer, but can appreciate your writing.
I love it, Wil! That chicken soup looks every bit as good as you described it. I might have to give that a try.
I would love to do Star Trek LEGO sets with my kid! That’s exciting. I hope they do a range of price points unlike the one super spendy D&D set. Also wanted you to know it made my day getting your blog post in my email.
Fantastic post, Wil. I followed you on FB, and so glad I found your blog here.
I am glad you included the soup recipe, I love to cook too and am going to give that a try. If you haven’t yet made an Italian Wedding Soup, I highly recommend you give that a try.
Back in the day, pre-TNG, my Lego Space figures left their team and joined Starfleet where they added the Starfleet badge (made from carefully cutting small Starfleet emblems out of electrical tape) to their uniforms. They took their stations on a Lego version of the Enterprise I had created where the saucer section consisted of only the bridge (similar to the TOS Playmobile Enterprise). So, when I heard about actual forthcoming Lego Star Trek figures, I was ecstatic! The problem is going to be how much money to sink into them and then where to display them. 🙂
As someone who has over 1500 hours in FO4 and loves building settlements, I bit the bullet and tried FO76 2 years ago (coworker did it at launch and because it was…rough, poisoned me on playing it). I almost exclusively play 76 now and have some IRL friends there and some new in-game friends including a fellow former coast guardsman who we just sit around and BS telling sea stories at one or the other’s camp as our active duty time overlapped so we have people in common! Fallout 1st has been worth it for me just for ammo/junk storage, and soon it will allow storing Fusion/Plasma Cores in the ammo box making more space for gear in my storage. I’m on PC (which shares Steam user servers) and have had 99% positive experiences. Any turds I just block or server hop and go on with my life, even starting a new character to goof around I get so much support and dropped items/plans. Really, surprising for an online game.
That soup looks amazeballs. Lol. I had to show my husband the SNES Lego set. That’s super cool and cute all at once.
Way to go on the soup! I made some a week ago that I was so proud of it had its own post. LOL.
This old-style “whatever I’ve been up to” blogging is so nostalgic, I want to cry. And now I’m moving on from FB to my old blog, as well. It actually still exists (thanks, Blogspot!), so I think I’ll just pick up from December 2010 to now…
Loved The Ministry of Time so much. I don’t often highlight passages in fiction (physical or electronic) though it’s something I do a lot with non-fiction. But I highlighted so many passages in that book. Beautifully constructed. Deeply thought-provoking. And ones that were quite funny. And the way we have to glean things revealed as they come into our POV’s sphere but she’s largely oblivious until events slap her in the face was so well done.
This has been my exact experience, and a big part of why I love the book so much.
It’s been added to the list. After I finish the Infinite Realm I’ll be reading the new Seth Ring books, then I’ll pick this up (I’ve been on a LitRPG tilt for a bit)
I’ve made that recipe before, and it IS divine. chef’s kiss There’s just something about using fresh garlic that gives it its perfected flavor profile; I made it once with garlic powder instead, and it was SO not the same! Fresh vs. powdered onion is not as noticeable, however, in a pinch. Thanks for reminding me of her recipe’s existence now that where I live (Phoenix) is actually cold enough to really enjoy hot soups/stews/chilis again (at least for a couple of months)!
I don’t make soup often, but this one looks really good. I’ll have to add some noodles to keep the hubs happy. I do make some awesome stews.
Star Trek LEGO – I’m going to need a bigger house 😬
I still play wow, I don’t like the having to group with strangers to do something either. If you come back let me know.
Hi Wil, Nice Lego. Glad you’re enjoying it. I’m also an AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego) and I got the Endurance set for Christmas. It was my gift to myself. If you are looking for your next build, it’s a good choice. It’s absolutely huge, by far the biggest set I’ve ever tackled. I spent three full days building it between Christmas and New Years. It was a fun build and there’s lots of great details in the model. Whatever set you chose please keep us updated on your builds. Thanks.
I really enjoyed this post So Much!!!❤️
Ditto
I was already drooling over the soup – I almost cried when you said “matzo balls”. Well done you! Mazel tov!
“Pow! He was decapitated!” Looking forward to the March thing.
I heard about the Lego Enterprise with the Lego Wesley and I needs the precious!!!! However I can’t justify the rumored price tag and it makes me very sad.
I am thrilled you’re in a place where you can be sharing stuff with us and giving us something to look forward to!
That soup, right there? That is a tiny bit of America, still wonderful and good.
First of all I love reading your posts. Second, where’s the recipe that soup looks amazing! What a great cold weekend to try it.
Oh, I do hope TNG Lego Wesley isn’t sulking!
This thought just occurred: why isn’t there a run on toilet paper, as there is whenever there’s a national crisis?
Come over and try Guild Wars 2. It’s free to play while learning and then you buy the rest of the expacks and just pay the one time. PvE, PvP and WvW are all separated, which is a good thing to avoid toxicity. If you do, look me up and I’ll guard your back till you level up enough. In game jael.8652
“Bill Junior was a DAREDEVIL! Just like his old man.” Had me cackling out loud, and now I need to go listen to the song.
I’ve pre-ordered When The Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi on Audible which I believe comes out in March. Sounds like a fun premise for a book.
I heard the rumour about the TNG Lego, too. When I read that it may include a Wesley mini-fig, I was so happy! I really, really hope it’s true. And that it won’t cost several arms, legs and kidneys.
I don’t know whether you know Bluebrixx. They’re a German company who issue (among others) Star Trek fake-Lego builds. They’re cheaper and pretty cool. I got their advent calendar last year and it was great to be able to build a mini-version of a quite a number of Star Trek ships and items. While waiting for a real Lego version of Star Trek to come out, the Bluebrixx ships and other models could be a good way to spend some time. (I’m not affiliated, just a fan.)