I guess I’m going to do this every month or so, mostly because it keeps me honest and motivated and on track, and because I think that at least some of you are on the same path as I am.
How am I doing on my life reboot goals? Let’s see.
Category: Books
blog
Hello, world.
When I was a kid, I had an Atari 400. I spent hours sitting in front of that thing, copying programs from magazines and running the games I’d made from them. When I wasn’t writing my own (even though I was copying things from Atari Age or whatever, I was slowly learning how BASIC worked and felt like they were “my” programs), I played the hell out of Star Raiders and Pac-Man, and States & Capitals (which was loaded from a cassette, because that’s how we did things back then).
After the Atari 400, I got a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a. I loved that computer so much, and it was in that machine’s TI-BASIC environment that I truly grokked BASIC programming. I wrote text adventures, a rudimentary database to store news events I made up for a UFO research project that I also made up, and when I wasn’t doing that, I played the hell out of the weird and wonderful video games that machine offered.
Around 1984, I got my first Macintosh, and the first thing I bought for it was whatever BASIC ran on the 128K OG Macintosh back then. I was so excited to get into that language, and start doing things that took advantage of the GUI and this thing called a mouse, but 12 year-old me just couldn’t wrap his head around the language. I don’t know if it actually, objectively sucked, but in my memory, it really sucked. Nothing made sense, nothing followed the conventions I had grown used to, and just getting programs to respond to the mouse was beyond me.
So it was, in 1984, that I gave up trying to open BASIC to write computer programs, and instead opened MacWrite, where I began to write stories. I also played the everlivinghell out of every Mindscape game I could get my hands on.
Fast forward to a a few weeks ago. I was looking through my Humble Bundle library, and noticed that I had a book in there that teaches Python. I flipped through it, and the curiosity that I had as a kid bubbled up to the surface of my mind. I went back to the beginning of the book, and began reading. I downloaded Python for my Mac, and I started copying down the examples, starting to figure my way around the most basic aspects of the language. I’m a few chapters into it, now, and bits of it are beginning to stick. I’m having a lot of fun breaking things and then putting them back together, and just remembering the joy of turning a set of instructions into something useful and fun, like I did when I was a kid.
I have no idea if I’ll see this through to the end, and I have no idea what I’d actually use the skills (if I can even master them) for, but I really need a hobby that isn’t also part of my job, and this seems as good as anything.
Who knows? Maybe I can finally finish that dungeon adventure I started when I was 10.
A Guide To Being A Dog, by Seamus Wheaton, is now an actual book that you can own.
Poking my head up from my break to share this, because I think it’s awesome…
Some of you know that Anne and I have a non-profit foundation that raises money for organizations like NAMI, Planned Parenthood, and others. This month, as we do every September, we’re doing a fundraiser for the Pasadena Humane Society.
For a few years, I’ve written these silly tweets that are excerpts from a book that doesn’t exist, called A Guide To Being A Dog, by Seamus Wheaton. It’s all the funny things that Seamus would tell a puppy who is learning how to be a dog, like
or
and, of course:
These tweets always get lots of RTs and favorites, and people have been asking me to put them into an actual book for years … so we did!
Anne and I hired our friend, Lar deSouza, to illustrate about 90 50* of my favorite tweets, and we put them into a nifty little 8×8 book that is on sale through our foundation right now.
It’s pay what you want (minimum $40), with all of the profits going directly to the Pasadena Humane Society, via our Wiggle Waggle Walk team.
Here’s Anne, with a little more about this year’s project:
For the past two years, we have done a rescue pet calendar project in support of our participation in the Wiggle Waggle Walk; an annual event put on by the Pasadena Humane Society at the end of September. It was a really fun project to create, and between those two calendars, we raised about $76,000 for PHS, which was awesome.
This year, we decided to do something new, and I am so excited to finally share it! Over the last year, Wil has written dozens of ridiculously adorable tweets as if our dog, Seamus, is giving advice on how to be a dog, ending each post with “A Guide To Being A Dog – by Seamus Wheaton.” I thought it was such a cute idea (as did many others) so I decided to make them into a book. I wanted the illustrations to show that Seamus is giving our dog, Marlowe, this advice, seeing as how she’s the younger one and newer to our household, and it turned out cuter than I EVER imagined.
I asked our friend and amazing artist, Lar deSouza, to do the illustrations, and he happily obliged. He captured the personalities of Seamus and Marlowe perfectly, as well as the personalities in the cameos of our cats, Watson and Luna. As cute as this book is, I would not categorize it as a children’s book, unless you’re okay with your children reading about “taking a shit on the patio” or “dragging your ass across the rug.” But that’s your parenting call. The majority of the book is not like that, but I thought it best to warn you.
You can purchase a copy in our store, for a minimum $40 donation. Your donation goes to our 501(c)3 foundation, and your tax-deductible donation will help us support rescue animals in need. We anticipate that demand will be very high, so to ensure everyone who wants a book can get one, and that shipping and handling is manageable for us, there is one book per donation, please.
You will not be put on any mailing lists, and the information you provide us will never be shared.
Oh, and this book (and this year’s walk) are dedicated to a very special pooch:
Lots of readers have been asking for this, and I’m super excited that it’s now A Thing That You Can Have. I’m also hopeful that we’ll get close to or even break our existing Wiggle Waggle Walk records, with your help.
Please note that, due to demand and other practical considerations, we are not able to offer signed copies at this time. Books will ship near the end of September.
Okay, I’m going back to my break, now.
*math is hard
Tiki Tilt
Anne likes Mai Tais, and I like making things — especially things that my wife likes — so I’ve been learning how to make tropical drinks from the golden age of the American Tiki restaurant. My guide to all of this has been Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, specifically his books Beachbum Berry Reloaded and Potions of the Caribbean.
Both books have dozens of tiki drink recipes in them, which is why they are practical and useful, but the thing I love about these books is their history of the American tiki craze of the 20th century. These books are filled with pictures of long-forgotten theme restaurants from all across the country, and photographs of the drinks, the menus, the bars, and recollections from the people who made them.
So last night, I made Anne a Mai Tai, I made a Samoan Fog Cutter for Ryan’s girlfriend, Claudette (which we renamed The Tahitian Fart, because I didn’t have any sherry for the float, so I used 151 that I set on fire instead), some kind of Grog for Ryan, and a Planter’s Punch for myself.
It was fun and festive, and our drinks went well with the Les Baxter music I was playing on the Sonos, and the teriyaki-marinated chicken sandwiches we grilled for dinner. We watched a great movie, enjoyed each other’s company, and then when Ryan and Claudette left, it was time for bed.
Right. Well. It turns out that the sugar in the tropical drink plus the caffeine in the black tea in the drink had a stacking effect that gave me -10 to saves vs. Stay Awake, so I ended up just getting out of bed and shuffling into my office, where I fired up my new obsession, Pinball Arcade.
I desperately want to get a pinball machine for my game room, but there just isn’t room, so Pinball Arcade is a really good substitute for me. I’ve been playing it so much, I’m starting to get some pretty high scores (for me) on some of the machines I play frequently … and last night, this happened:
I got the highest score on this Attack From Mars table.
Then I got all the high scores on Elvira and the Party Monsters.
And then I got all the high scores on Medieval Madness.
I tried to run the table on Cyclone, but by this time my lungs were aching for air, and I was finally able to engage in some much-needed rock climbing.
Seven hours of sleep later, during which I had a dream that — I shit you not — featured me designing and then playing a pinball machine based on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, before I went to see The Wall with my son, Nolan, I woke up, feeling irrationally proud of what I’d accomplished.
Paraphrasing a certain smuggler: “Good against simulations is one thing, but good against the real thing?”
I guess I’ll have to head on down to a real arcade once I get the time, and see if I can count my experiences at the virtual tables as training, or if it’s just something I’m doing when I should probably be pretending to be productive.
The Titansgrave book goes on sale this Thursday. If you’re watching the show and plan to get the book, please read this first.
I wanted to have the whole series finished and released by today, so we could have the book come out after the story had wrapped up. Life happened, and now we won’t wrap up the whole thing for another two weeks.
This means that on Thursday, the script for Titansgrave — including the two unaired episodes — is going to be available. This means that anyone who wants to can find out how it ends.
I’m not the boss of you, but I beg you not to skip ahead, if you’ve been following the story week to week. I watched an edit of the finale yesterday, and it really is some of the best stuff we’ve done. If you know what happens before you watch it (at least, according to the module), you’re going to rob yourself of some cool stuff.
I want you to buy the book. I want you to love the book. I want you to run The Ashes of Valkana for people who haven’t watched the show. I want you to have your own adventures that are inspired by the book.
But I don’t want you to spoil the end for yourself, or for anyone else. So please, read carefully.
Thanks for listening, and if you do get the book, I hope you have fun in our world.
Oh, speaking of Titansgrave … here’s today’s episode:
And here’s a delightful song a young woman wrote about Jeremy:
Finally, if you have found or created Titansgrave fanart of any kind, I really want to see it so I can share it with the cast and the team. I’d love it if you’d leave links in the comments.