I forgot to mention that I’m coming to Australia

This Friday, I'm heading to Melbourne to present Video Games Unplugged with Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub. The show is going to be amazing: the MSO will play music from games like Bioshock 2, Heavy Rain, and Final Fantasy. As the music plays, they'll show the games on a huge screen. And did I mention that it's presented by Scott, Kris, and me? Yeah, that too.

I'm also going to be at Supanova in Melbourne April 13-15, and at Supanova Gold Cost April 20-22.

I've never been to Australia before, and though I'm a little unsettled by the idea of a 16 hour flight, I'm currently about 55% excited, 45% teetering-on-an-anxiety-attack-about-the-whole-thing.

Because of the International Date Line, I leave on Friday, but I don't arrive until Sunday. Then, on the way back, I actually land in Los Angeles four hours before I take off. I'm considering wearing a bowtie and a fez for the trip.

Someone found my Kindle on the airplane this weekend. I’d really like it back.

I left my Kindle on an airplane this weekend (post-convention exhaustion will do that to you), and someone found it.

I know that someone found it, because they've been using my account to buy games and books. Based on the purchases, I'm fairly sure the person who found my Kindle (which is named Wheatley) is young, possibly a teenager or a college student. He or she likes Scrabble, Battleship, Spelling Star, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and something called Telesa. He or she also hopes to learn Samoan, French, and Spanish. He or she has spent a fair amount of my money on these things.

I used Amazon's Personal Document thing to send a note to my Kindle, thanking the person for finding it, and telling them that I can be contacted at [email protected] to arrange its return.

I'm hopeful that this person will do the right thing and get in touch.

*Updated*

I called Amazon, reported it stolen, and they deactivated it after refunding me the fradulent purchases.

This isn't the end of the world; I can afford a new Kindle (thank Steve the Fruitbat), and in the grand scheme of things, it isn't the biggest of deals… but I sincerely hoped that whoever has my Kindle now would have read the note I sent to it, which is titled TO THE PERSON WHO FOUND MY KINDLE, and gotten in touch to return it to me. I want to believe in the basic goodness of people.

I really hope that it wasn't just taken by some kid who decided to keep something because, you know, Finders Keepers. I really hope that it was taken by some dirtbag who turned around and sold it to a kid who is too young to know that "this Kindle comes with whatever you want and you never have to pay for it, just give me fifty bucks for meth!" or whatever is a pretty clear flag that something isn't totally honest with this thing.

Anyway, it looks like I'm not getting it back, and all someone has for their trouble is a useless piece of plastic and wires.

A few pictures from Emerald City Comicon.

I had a fantastic time at Emerald City Comicon. Until I have time to get my thoughts together and share some of the more awesome things that happened, I want to share the following pictures that I took while I was there:

Keep Calm and Don't Be A Dick

A girl made me this T-shirt. I'm so geeked out about it, I'm going to make some of my own.

Soft Kitty

These girls were totes adorbs in their Bazinga T-shirts. This Soft Kitty sings the song when you squeeze its little paw!
Sparks McGee Cosplay at Emerald City Comicon

This is the first Sparks McGee Cosplay I've ever seen. I love it. She made the entire thing herself!
Shut up, Picard

…and this is the tattoo Sparks McGee has.

Gameboy Cosplay

This girl was cosplaying as a classic Gameboy! She made it herself. It is awesome.

Super Nails!

The world doesn't have nearly enough superhero-themed nail art.

Nyan Cat Cosplay

Probably my favorite cosplay, ever: a couple who cosplayed as Nyan Cat!

I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, because my line was pretty long the whole weekend. I figured that if I was stopping to take lots of pictures, it would probably result in at least a few people not being able to make it through the line (which some people told me took three hours, in spite of my efforts to move it along as quickly as I could. Holy crap, that's a long line. I would never wait three hours to meet me. Hell, I wouldn't even wait one hour.)

I used the Vignette app on my Android (HTC Inc. CM7) to take these pictures. I think you can clicky-click them if you want to see them in all their epic huge glory.

ECCC Programming Question: What do you want to hear at the Awesome Hour?

I've been working on Big Bang Theory for the last week. We tape tonight, and tomorrow I immediately start work on an audiobook*. The upshot of this is that I won't have a lot of time to build a setlist for my Awesome Hour at Emerald City Comicon this weekend.

So this is where you come in. I need your help, whether you're going to be there or not. What do you want to hear me perform? I haven't been able to write very much new material since the last ECCC, to I'm leaning toward some stories about gaming, and maybe something from the deep archives, like something out of Dancing Barefoot or Just A Geek.

Please, please, please leave me a comment here so I have some ideas about what you'd like to see me perform if I was on a stage in front of you. If there's a particular post from my blog (especially if it's one of the older ones) leave me a link. I think it would be really cool to build an entire "fan created" setlist.

 

*It's the first nonfiction book I've done that I didn't write; I'm not sure I can say what it is, but it's going to be a lot of fun to read it.

On the set of Stand By Me

This picture was originally posted on Tumblr by thefactory-:

image from i.imgur.com

You know that montage when we’re walking back home, near the end of the movie, and we go by in silhouette during sunset? It’s what they used as inspiration for the poster.

This picture was taken when we filmed that little bit. That thing we’re sitting on is called a Chapman Crane, and it’s a really neat piece of film equipment that allows for those big, beautiful, dramatic, sweeping panoramic shots you see in movies.

It’s a little dangerous, though, because there are weights and things on the end of that arm to perfectly counterbalance the weight of the camera and whoever is sitting next to it. More than once in film history, someone has stepped off the crane before it’s been rebalanced, and, finding itself a hundred or more pounds heavier at one end than the other, the crane has turned into a very dangerous catapult. 

The way I remember it, we kept asking Rob Reiner if we could sit on it when the shot was over, because the idea of sitting up in the sky next to the camera was so awesome, and he eventually said yes, because he was like that.

We were so excited to sit on this thing, and so excited to ride it up as high as it would go — it seemed like a hundred feet, but I’m sure it was more like thirty — but we had to wear seatbelts, promise to sit still and not step off the thing until it was balanced. I don't remember what everyting looked like from up there, but I do remember someone deciding to give the slate to River (who, of course, has his serious face on, like he always did) because it was a fantastic publicity photo opportunity.

I’m glad someone took this picture, because it reminded me of a joyful moment that I haven’t thought of in over a quarter century.