Author: Wil

Behold, the power of the WWdN Posse! (WARNING: Link contains blatant and crass commercialism) As of this writing, Wesley Crusher is currently not the most annoying character on Star Trek! \m/
Thanks for voting, and thanks to everyone who commented here and sent trackbacks.
I get asked a lot if I read comments and trackback. Yes, I always read them both, and I love it that Trackbacks often lead me to discover interesting and useful stuff on The Internets that I may have missed on my own.
For example, following a trackback to I Like Jason, I learned that Battlestar Galactica‘s executive producer (and former DS9 head writer) Ron Moore is providing commentaries on current episodes, in almost real-time! Oh my god, this is, without a doubt, the absolute best use of podcasting to date. As Jason says, “[I]t’s like the commentary feature on a DVD, except you [don’t have] to wait a couple of years for the actual DVD to come out; you load the commentary file to your iPod, hit play when the phrase “The Cylons Were Created By Man” appears on-screen, then pause it whenever a commercial break comes on. And even better, the whole thing’s hooked up to an RSS feed, so that commentaries can be automatically delivered to an MP3 player a few hours before the episode airs.”
If that’s not a brilliant use of tehcnology, and embracing your fans, I don’t know what is. And if that’s not enough, his blog (which I *so* wish was titled “Battlestar GalactiBlog”) does full feeds. SUBSCRIB’D!
I didn’t know Ron very well when I worked on TNG, but he wrote some of the best episodes we ever did, including All Good Things . . ., Yesterday’s Enterprise, and an episode that’s sort of close to my heart called Journey’s End. I haven’t had a chance to watch Battlestar Galactica, yet (though it comes highly reccommended from several friends) but I can tell you this much: Star Trek: The Next Generation was a better show because Ron Moore wrote for us, and I can’t wait to hear him talk about Battlestar Galactica.
I’m inspired, and as soon as I have some time (read: in 2023) I’ll do some commentaries on some of my acting work.
An interesting fact about this entry: It contains the greatest ratio of <i> tags to actual words in WWdN history.

Oh dear.
It appears that TV Guide is holding an online poll about Star Trek, and our dear, sweet young Ensign Crusher is currently leading in the “Most Annoying Character” category.
I know, it’s hard to believe it, especially when we consider that Wesley was given lines such as, “We’re from Starfleet! We don’t lie!” and “I feel strange, but also good!” and the ever-popular “Course laid in, sir.” But it’s true. And so very, very sad.
Not that I care about this sort of thing . . . but actually, I do. I’m really tired of wearing that “Annoying Character” albatross around my neck, and if Wesley is voted most annoying in TV Guide’s big old Farewell to Star Trek issue, I don’t think I’ll ever hear the end of it.
I’m not suggesting that thousands of WWdN readers go take the poll and stuff the ballot box. I mean, that would just be wrong, right?
Normally, I’d stuff this ballot box entirely on my own, but if some of you WWdN readers want to legitimately and honestly vote for another character, like The Computer Voice for instance — I mean, come on! How many times did the stupid Ship’s Computer actually save the crew? Yeah! That’s what I thought. She’s got nothing on Wesley Crusher — I would be ever so grateful.
Provided, of course, that you truly believe there is a different, more annoying character than Wesley — I’d never suggest taking actions which could call into question the legitimacy of an online Star Trek poll. Oh no, not me.
Never.
Perish the thought.
I’m serious! Start perishing (right after you vote, that is.)
Thank you.

This is an entry entirely about beer.
Though I’ve always been a stout drinking kind of guy, over the last year or so I’ve gradually moved toward hoppy pale ales and IPAs for my beer drinking enjoyment.
I’ve discovered that Stone Brewing Company, out of North San Diego County, makes my favorite hoppy beers: The Stone Pale Ale, The Arrogant Bastard Ale, and the Stone IPA.
I like their beer so much, I decided yesterday that I’d call their marketing department and see if it was cool for me to link to them. I got the phone number from their website, and while I was there, I decided to sign up for their newsletter, so I could find out if they were coming to any microbrew fests near Pasadena, and stuff like that. (That’s important, and it pays off in a second, so stay with me here.)
I called them up, and talked to a guy in marketing. I basically said, “I’ve got this website that a few people read. I really like your beer, and if it’s cool with you, I’d like to link to your website, and give you some free advertising, as my way of saying ‘thank you’ for killing off so many of my slower brain cells.”
He told me that Stone doesn’t really do advertising, but if I wanted to link to them, that would be cool. I told him that I’d e-mail him the address of my site, so he could see what my blog is all about, and that was that.
This afternoon, I got an e-mail back from him. Guess what? When I signed up for the newsletter, I was subscriber number ten thousand! I don’t think I win anything, but I thought it was random, and funny, and cool.
I’m totally putting “Number 10,000” on my resume. Take that, 1950s society!

Each week, when I sit down to write my The Games of our Lives column for The Onion AV Club, I have several “I can’t believe I get to do this!” moments when I giggle, spin around in my chair, and hope that nobody saw me.
Anyway, I’m particularly proud of this week’s effort, which is about a fantastic Atari 2600 game called Alien. Check out my column, and then try to get your hands on a copy of the game. It’s really fun.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) I’ll be performing with the Liquid Radio Players down at the ACME.
Liquid Radio is an improvised 1940s-style radio show, complete with live foley sound effects and a wonderful cast in swell vintage costumes.
Most of the comedy shows I do are decidedly not appropriate for children, but because Liquid Radio is set in the 1940s, the show is totally acceptable for teenagers, and middle-schoolers who can sit quietly through an entire show.
Details about the show and the cast are here. You can also buy tickets online.