in which I am an indirect contributor to Highlights for Children

In february, I wrote about the time that Anne and I discussed Highlights for Children at great length:

"You know what I always hated about Highlights?" Anne said, "some idiot kid had always circled the hidden pictures."

"Seriously!" I said, "fuck that kid, man. That kid's a dick."

"And what kind of parent gives their kid a pen to draw all over a magazine that's obviously intended for more than one kid to read?"

"Asshole parents," I said, "it's called Highlights for Children, you jerk, not Highlights for your Children. Highlights should have done a Goofus and Gallant about that, man."

Well, look what arrived from the fine people at Highlights for Children a couple of weeks ago:

WilsGoofusandGallant
DUDE! That is totally me sitting next to Goofus, expressing my non-profane displeasure! DUDE! DUUUUDE! 

… I know, right?!

After all these years, I am an indirect contributor to Highlights for Children. 

My life is weird.

Make your own Zombie Dice Brain Counters

One of the most frequently asked questions about Tabletop is: "How do I get those awesome brains you used as counters in Zombie Dice?"

They were made by our AMAZING art director and prop master, Nick, (who made the show look incredible, and still came in under his budget) out of some kind of foam that apparently kills you if you eat it, so I can't exactly tell people to go and do the same thing we did.

…but look at what Mel From Hell showed me on Twitter just now!

image from i.imgur.com
This was made with Sculpey, and is awesome. So now you know how to make your own cool Zombie Dice brain counters. 

Get Excited and Make Something!

Hotter than July

I've spent most of today working on my setlist for w00tstock on Thursday, and reviewing all of my notes from Falling Skies, so I am prepared to moderate that panel on Friday.

Normally, I take extended breaks on a workday and go for a walk in my neighborhood, sit with an iced tea on the patio and read a book, and do other things that I wouldn't be able to do if I didn't work on my own schedule in my own house*. Today, however, it is 96 degrees in the shade.** In the sun, it's literally 681 degrees.***

So I've gotten much more work done in much less time than usual (there's a lesson here, if I'm willing to pay attention t– hey! Fallout New Vegas is almost done installing on Steam!) because it's just too goddamn hot to do anything that takes me out into the Sun****.

My dogs, who usually accompany me on my walks and sojourns onto the back patio, have been handling the ungodly heat the way all good dogs do: sleeping on the couch.

Seamus and Riley sleeping on the couches
Sleepy Seamus Face
Seamus renders sheets useless
MAKE IT NOT SO HOT OUTSIDE PLEASE OKAY.
No, really, I'm comfortable like this.
These couches are in our front room, and we don't really use them that often, because our TV is in the other room*****. Still, when we have people over for fancy grown-up things like playing games and drinking homebrew, we want them to be nice and free of dog fur, so we put those sheets on them. As you can see, the dogs have done a spectacular job of rendering them useless.******

Some of you who are particularly observant may notice that the colour scheme and interior decoration is very similar to Evil Wil Wheaton's house on the Big Bang Theory. This is not by accident; I've had friends from Big Bang over for dinners and things, so when they wrote Evil Wil Wheaton's house into the script, Bill Prady and Steve Molaro described the colours and interior decorating to the art department. It's pretty amazing how close they got it, without ever seeing it for themselves.

* Gotta take advantage of all the perks while I can, you know.

** Too hot, too hot, in the shaa-hay-ayayayay-ade.

*** Literally.

**** The Sun is the Nerd's natural enemy and greatest predator.

***** Where our beds and TV… is.

****** There are a lot of footnotes in this post.

This isn't a footnote, really, but I couldn't call this post Hotter Than July and not link to this, right?

Also: Sir Duke. You're welcome, Joel.

A troubling realization

This comes to us from my son, Ryan Wheaton. Click it to embiggen:

StarChild

Click to Embiggen

Footnote: If there was any question that love — not biology — makes a family, look no further than my son's delightfully twisted sense of humor, which I think I helped foster.

…across the gulf of space…

Last week, I got to do one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life: I went to JPL in La Canada to record a video for the landing of Mars Curiosity on August 5.

I have to believe that their first through eighth choices weren't available, because it's the only thing that makes sense, but somehow I was chosen to be the host and narrator of a video for, among other outlets, NASA TV, that explains how Curiosty gets to the surface of Mars, and what she'll do once she's there. It's pretty incredible stuff, and I am still astonished that I was chosen to be the guy.

While I was at JPL, I got to get up close and personal with the full-scale replica of the rover that stays on Earth while her sister goes to Mars, so I took a few pictures:

image from i.imgur.com
image from i.imgur.com
I grew up about 10 minutes from JPL, so I lived around a lot of NASA sceintists and went to JPL's open house every year. Being chosen to go to JPL to make the modern equivalent of the films I loved watching when I was a kid was a tremendous honor. I'll post the video I made whenever it's live.