Author: Wil

Author, actor, producer. On a good day, I am charming as fuck.

a very limited (I mean VERY limited) autographed book lottery

Posted on By Wil

Yesterday, I said:

I found nine hardback copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives that I must have put there when they first arrived at my house a couple of years ago. They look as perfect as they did the day they were taken out of the box.

So I have this idea to sell them, that goes like this:

I will number these books 1-9, and sign them to whomever the buyer wants, with a dedication of my choosing. I will ship the book USPS Priority mail no later than Monday, which should ensure that it arrives before Christmas, in case that's important to you.

I'll do this for $50 a book, which will include shipping and handling.

I only have 9 of these, but I'm not sure anyone is interested in this, so before I go and set up the ordering and payment information, I need to know if anyone reading this is actually interested.

This would be a first come, first served sort of thing, sold to the first 9 people who leave comments at some time tomorrow (I'll figure that out and update this post later, if it's going to happen). I can ship internationally, but the buyer would have to cover the cost of shipping, because it's damn expensive.

I wasn't sure that anyone would be interested, and I'm delighted to discover that I was wrong about that. Initially, I thought I'd make it first come, first served, but I thought that might be a bummer for anyone who can't be at their computer at, say, noon today or whatever. So I thought that it would be more fair to everyone if it was a lottery.

So here's what I'm going to do: For the next 24 hours (maybe a tiny bit longer, if I sleep late tomorrow), you can leave a comment on this post, if you're interested in buying one of these ultra-limited signed copies of The Happiest Days Of Our Lives. 

Tomorrow, I'll roll dice (you know, like we gaming geeks do) to pick nine people who, uh, get a Golden Ticket, I guess.

I'll contact those people by e-mail, to let them know that they can buy one of these books. When those people respond, I'll get details and give payment instructions.

A couple important notes:

I'm only set up to take payment from PayPal, so if you hate PayPal (and I'm right there with you), don't bother with this.

Please ensure that you have an e-mail address attached to your identity here, so I can find you if you're one of the 9. Do not leave your e-mail address in your comment, because spammerbots will grab it and make your life miserable.

I will ship internationally, but the buyer will be responsible for shipping (express shipping to countries outside of the US can be very expensive, so find out how much that's going to cost ahead of time, so you don't get any unpleasant surprises.)

Please, please, please, don't use multiple accounts to enter this more than once. I can't stop you, but that would be really unfair to other people.

These books will be numbered "2010 Holiday Super Funtimes 1-9".

Yay!

Updated: Wow, 419 entries! That's awesome. I'll roll dice and notify the nine by Monday. (It's a very busy weekend here in Wheatonland).

Check. And. Mate.

Posted on By Wil

On our way home from the grocery store tonight, I said to Anne, "Have you heard of this Tumblr called I'm Remembering?"

"No," she said, "what's that?"

"It's all these images and things from the eighties and early nineties, and it's pretty awesome." In spite of myself, I added with a rather copious amount of enthusiasm, "Yesterday, I saw a picture of the Swatch phone!"

She looked at me, blankly.

"You didn't have a Swatch phone?" I couldn't believe it. I mean, we both grew up in Los Angeles in the 80s. Swatch phones were practically issued at the border when they gave you your smog alert reference sheet.

"Dude, I didn't even have a Swatch."

I nearly crashed the car. "You didn't have a Swatch?!"

"Nope."

Luckily for us and everyone around us, we had stopped at a red light. "How could you not have had a Swatch?!"

"Well, in my defense," she said, "it was hard to get one." She paused for a long moment, looked at me, and added, "since you were wearing them all."

I opened my mouth to retort, but before I could say anything, she concluded: "At the same time."

Check. And. Mate.

The Lexus behind us honked to let me know the light had apparently been green for some time. I slowly pulled through the intersection.

"Well played, Mrs. Wheaton," I said. "Well played."

 

possible (and very limited) autographed book sale

Posted on By Wil

I've been cleaning out my office, organizing comic books and games, and slowly crawling through a decade's accumulation of geek stuff.

It. Has. Been. AWESOME.

Last night, I went into the depths of the hallway closet, and behind a bunch of CDs and DVDs, I found nine hardback copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives that I must have put there when they first arrived at my house a couple of years ago. They look as perfect as they did the day they were taken out of the box.

So I have this idea to sell them, that goes like this:

I will number these books 1-9, and sign them to whomever the buyer wants, with a dedication of my choosing. I will ship the book USPS Priority mail no later than Monday, which should ensure that it arrives before Christmas, in case that's important to you.

I'll do this for $50 a book, which will include shipping and handling.

I only have 9 of these, but I'm not sure anyone is interested in this, so before I go and set up the ordering and payment information, I need to know if anyone reading this is actually interested.

This would be a first come, first served sort of thing, sold to the first 9 people who leave comments at some time tomorrow (I'll figure that out and update this post later, if it's going to happen). I can ship internationally, but the buyer would have to cover the cost of shipping, because it's damn expensive.

So, what do you think? Interested? Let me know, or ask your questions in the comments below.

UPDATED: Okay, it looks like there are at least 9 potential buyers, so here's what I'll do: I'll put up a post later, where you can leave a comment to be entered into a lottery. I'll leave that open for 24 hours, and then roll dice to see who gets them. Maybe I'll roll them live on Ustream, if that's not to totally lame and ridiculous. I think that's fair, and gives everyone an equal chance to get in, even those who are /away from their computers.

starry starry night

Posted on By Wil

I stayed up until almost one this morning, reading comic books.

I know, it's like I'm 12 all over again.

And it's awesome.

Around four, Anne woke me up.

"What's wrong?" I said, while I was still waiting to clear immigration between Dreamland and Reality.

"Nothing. I just couldn't sleep, so I got up and went outside to watch the meteor shower. It's really cool, and I knew you'd want to see it."

I sat up, pushed the covers to one side, and ignored the grumbling protests of our dog, who had just lost his primary source of warmth and cuddling.

"It's cold out, though, so put something warm on."

I grabbed a hoodie and put on my totally-not-lame-but-always-make-me-feel-self-conscious-to-wear-them slippers. I walked through the dark house, past the quiet and strangely comforting hum of my aquarium's filter, and out onto our patio.

I know it's cliché, but the stars were brilliant jewels against a field of black velvet. Betelgeuse was a brilliant red. The Orion Nebula was bright and fuzzy. Sirius, in Canis Major, was such a bright blueish-white I couldn't look directly at it. To the North, Ursa Major dominated the sky, and I could even see Mizar without any effort. Back on Earth, a distant train's whistle sounded from far away, probably from the train yard near Commerce.

"You just missed a fireball," Anne said, quietly. She pointed to the Eastern sky and added, "and there have been tons of little flashes from over there, too."

I wrapped my arms around myself to stay warm and let my eyes roam across the sky. I didn't see any fireballs, but I saw lots of meteors fly across the sky, greenish and yellowish trails flashing then fading behind them.

Maybe it's because I wasn't entirely awake, or maybe it's because I'd been reading about mutants and other worlds before I went to sleep, but as I looked up into the sky, toward Castor and Pollux, I really felt, for the first time in my entire 38 years on this planet, the overwhelming vastness of the universe.

Where I have always felt awe, I felt small. Where I have always felt inspiration, I felt vulnerable. "I'm on a planet, spinning on its axis, racing around a star, moving faster than my mind can comprehend, through that," I thought. "And right now, that planet is flying through an ancient asteroid debris, bits of dust and rock smacking into its atmosphere like bugs against a windshield." I felt a little freaked out.

I've quoted Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot so many times, I don't need to look it up anymore to get it right, but last night, looking up into the enormity of the universe, it was suddenly more than poetry and a reminder to take better care of each other.

I moved closer to Anne and put my arms around her. She leaned her head back against my chest and we looked up into the sky together, watching faint meteors streak across the sky every few seconds.

"I'm glad you woke me up," I whispered. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry you didn't get to see the fireballs," she said.

"Nah, it's okay. I didn't need to."

The train's whistle sounded again. This time, it didn't seem so far away.

We stood there and watched the sky for several minutes, until our hands and feet were numb with the cold, and went back inside.

When I got back into bed, I pulled the covers up over my head, and tucked them around myself as tightly as I could. It took a long while for sleep to reclaim me.