to all the wonderful bowies by scott campbell
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this isn’t possible

I woke up earlier than usual this morning, probably because I went to be earlier than usual last night. It’s all part of Operation: Reboot, and while it’s been a challenging adjustment, it’s worth it.

I sat up in bed, next to both of my dogs who looked confused. Dad doesn’t get out of bed for at least another three hours. What’s going on? Marlowe made a curious sound. Seamus grunted and buried his face into the covers.

I got out of bed, and shuffled into the living room. Anne looked up at me from the couch and said, “David Bowie died.”

David Bowie died? That’s impossible. I must not be entirely awake.

“What?” I said.

“David Bowie died,” she said, tears in her eyes.

I took a moment to run those words, in that order, through my brain. “How?” I asked. It still didn’t make sense to me. Sure, I’d only been awake — and barely, at that — for two minutes, but even if I’d gotten the news in the middle of the day, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“He had cancer,” she said.

Cancer. Well, fuck.

“I … Jesus.” I leaned against the kitchen counter.

It’s three hours later, and I’m awake. I’ve been listening to Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane and Hunky Dory, and I still can’t believe this is real.

David Bowie isn’t a mortal like the rest of us. This doesn’t make sense. This isn’t possible.

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the rest of the world was black and white

I wrote a thing awhile a go about getting a silly little point-n-shoot camera, even though I love my big old DSLR. The idea is that the best camera for you is the one that you can use the most, and since I didn’t want to schlep my 70D all around Yosemite while it was snowing like crazy, my little Olympus thing that fits in my pocket was a better choice.

I took a ton of pictures with it while we were in Yosemite, and this is one of my favorites.

Mirror_Lake_2016
Click to Embiggen

I just love how the whole world looks black and white, even though this picture was taken in color. I also like the snowflakes that are falling in a blur, because it gives a sense of just how freaking hard it was snowing while we were there.

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winter wonderland

Team Wheaton took a little vacation this week, to charge up our batteries before the work of the new year really gets going. So here’s a few pictures I took while we were away:

We stopped at a truck stop to get gas, and I put on this stupid stripper cowboy hat, because I thought it was silly. I was wearing my Wesley Crusher hoodie, and Anne said, “Oh my god, you’re Sparks McGee!” It wasn’t what I was going for, but, like Sparks himself, it was a happy accident.

Wil Wheaton as Sparks McGee

When we got to Yosemite, the sun was about to set, and it made the valley absolutely beautiful.

Yosemite Valley 2016

I wish I could claim credit for making this magnificent Jabba Snowhutt, but alas I just walked past it.

Jaba the Snowhutt

We hiked up to Mirror Lake during some seriously heavy snowfall. I really loved how the world looked black and white.

Mirror Lake 2016

I took the obligatory selfie, and Anne did the obligatory photobomb.

Wil Wheaton's Selfie With Anne Wheaton Photobomb

When we got back to the hotel, my boys were very tired from hiking 5 miles in the snow. I love that, even though they’re in their 20s, they are still my little guys at times like this.

Sleepy Ryan and Nolan Wheaton

It was a lovely trip, even though we almost got snowed in (that would not have been the worst thing, to be honest). I read a whole lot, played some games with the family, and relaxed with my favorite people on the planet.

 

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Tabletop Season 4: Status Update

Reader T asked me in an email if there were any updates about, or news I could share about Tabletop Season 4. T mentioned that he liked the constant updates Geek & Sundry sent out during the production process of last season, and that he missed that sort of thing.

I began to reply that there “isn’t much to share, because there isn’t that much going on, except” … and then I wrote a bunch of stuff that disproved my original thought.

So, considering that T may not be the only person on this planet who wants to know what’s going on with Season 4, here’s the stuff that’s going on with Tabletop Season 4 which can be announced now:

We’ve taken a longer than usual hiatus because I was burned out, frustrated and unhappy after a really terrible experience with a (formerly) trusted friend last season, and wondering if I even wanted to do another season of the show. After a long hiatus that has allowed me to work on other things and rediscover the joy of playing games for the sake of playing games, as well as time to heal the wounds from Season 3, I’m back to work with my team, and starting to get things together for Season 4. We are in the game review process right now. From an original list of over 450 submissions, we’re actively play testing about 85 games, and that will be reduced to 18 or 20 games for the season. It’s 18 or 20 because we’ll probably do another one or two episodes that are two parts, but we won’t know for sure until we get down to about 20 games.

We’re not going to do gag reels and stuff this season. I don’t think they’re necessary, and they’re more trouble than they’re worth. We’ll still have a bi-weekly release schedule. I’m not sure if there will be something different to release on the off weeks.

One of the biggest changes this season affects me on a personal level as well as a professional one. We have asked the game publishers to send someone from their company to consult with us on rules and gameplay during production, so we don’t have to rely on one person to know the minutiae of 18 to 20 different games.

We are going to focus primarily on boardgames, as usual, but I have a couple of RPGs on my list that I really like, that I think could be really fun to showcase. We’re also going to look at more family games than we have in the past, because it turns out that families who watch together make up an enormous part of our audience. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to choose “kiddie” games, but that I’m looking at games that are fun for parents and kids to play together. For example, Tsuro, Ticket to Ride and Sushi Go! are all games that are really fun for adults and kids to play together, but they’re also fun for just adults to play together.

I have chosen two games already. They are Lanterns and Code Names. I’m also looking very seriously at Tiny Epic Galaxies.
We are planning to go into production near the end of April. We’re going to shoot for three weeks instead of two, so our schedule is a little less grueling. We don’t have an official release date, but I think the first episode of the season will be around the beginning of June.So, as you can see, maybe there’s more to share than I thought, and there it is. Play more games!!

 

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running with the devil

The Doc told me that I was halfway through my free form run, and that I was looking good.

“Thanks, doc,” I said, even though I knew she couldn’t hear me. We’ve spent a lot of time together in the last two months, so I feel like I know her, even if I’m just another Runner 5 to her.

Another runner came toward me. As we passed, we waved to each other, sharing a little bit of strength and encouragement. It’s part of the camaraderie that I feel like all runners share, without regard to our individual levels of fitness.

My spirits lifted, and I involuntarily picked up my pace a little bit.

That’s when I felt the first twinge of tightness in my left calf muscle. I slowed immediately to a light jog, and then a walk. Fifteen feet later, I was sitting on the curb, trying to massage out what had become a full-on charley horse. I tried active and passive stretches. I massaged all around my calf, my knee, my ankle … nothing was working.

“Just two minutes to go, Runner 5,” said the doc.

“I’m down, doc,” I said. “My goddamn fucking useless body just cramped up for no reason.”

I pulled my phone out of my armband, paused and then stopped my mission, and felt a wave of fury overwhelm me. There I was, on the curb, not even fifteen minutes into my fifty-two minute training run, and I was pissed. I couldn’t walk, I certainly couldn’t run, and it was all because my body — my own goddamn body that belongs to me — broke down. I felt helpless and frustrated. I slowly stood up, and took a few tentative steps toward home. I wasn’t that far away — probably a half mile — but it was going to take me a very long time to get back to my house.

I limped a few steps and had to stop again. I sat back down on the curb and tried to work out the tightness that had now spread from my knee to my foot.

“What’s your fucking problem?!” I said, to my leg, completely aware of how dumb it was to talk to my calf, and too angry to care. “I’m trying to take better care of myself, get myself into better shape so I have a stronger body and a better life, and you pull this bullshit?! Fuck you!”

Then I laughed. Pull this. Ha. Ha. Ha. Durr. Puns are great.

I called Anne and got her voicemail. I left a message with my pathetic status and asked her to drive down the street to pick me up when she heard it. I began limping home, slowly, painfully.

“I can’t even listen to the story now, because of you,” I thought at my knee, in full on ranting dad mode, “It’s week six of training and something new is going to happen and now I can’t find out what it is because you couldn’t do the one fucking thing you’re supposed to do, you goddamn quitter!”

Anne flashed her headlights at me as her car came around the corner. I stopped and waited for her to make a U turn. I got into her car.

“Thanks for picking me up,” I said. “this is pretty annoying.”

“Yeah, I bet,” she said.

“I don’t know why this happened. I didn’t do anything different than what I normally do. It’s really frustrating.”

“Yeah, I get that. I’m sorry.”

“Getting older is awesome,” I said, as we pulled into the driveway.

Anne turned off her car. “Ask Nolan what you can do to help prevent this in the future. He’ll know what do.”

Our son, Nolan, is a trainer. He has helped me in the past, and I knew he’d be able to help me now … and he did. He ended up recommending some additional strength exercises to do on days I don’t run, stretching to do during and after running (you should never stretch before you warm up your muscles) and he showed me how to do some trigger-point massage with a golf ball, a tennis ball, and a foam roller. It’s a lot of stuff that I’ll have to make time for, but it will be worth it. It may be hard, but everything worth doing is hard, and at least I have a choice about it.

And that’s the thing: the choice I have about it, because even though I was pissed and frustrated, my body will heal. I will continue to do the things I’ve been doing to make it stronger. I will do additional things, like yoga and stretching and adding potassium to my diet so my muscles are less likely to — hurr hurr hurr — pull this again. But I have friends who live with MS and lupus and cancer, and I never hear them complain about it. Yes, I had an annoying and — in the moment — infuriating injury, but it will be better in a few days, and I can get back on the road with Sam and the Doc, getting closer to my first real 5K race, one step at a time.

Raise the gate! Runner 5 needs to go to the infirmary for a few days.