Homebrewzinga!

Posted on By Wil

I buy almost all of my homebrewing stuff from my local homebrew supply, because without the kindness of the owner, I never would have had the courage to start what has become a passionate hobby for me.

It's important to me to support local businesses, especially when those businesses are part of a hobby, like game shops, comic shops, and homebrewing. From time to time, though, I decide that I want to try a kit or need a yeast or some hops that the local shop doesn't have. When that happens, I order from Austin Homebrew Supply or Northern Brewer.

A few months ago, I ordered an Arrogant Bastard clone kit from AHS. When the box was delivered, this was drawn on one side:

Homebrewzinga!
I thought it was incredibly awesome and clever, and then I saw on their G+ page that their shipping department occasionally draws beautiful and awesome artwork on boxes, and I was one of the lucky recipients who got something contextually relevant.

So here's to you, Austin Homebrew Shipping department! I'll hoist a homebrew in your general direction while I'm watching the hockey game tonight. Sadly, it won't be the one that was delivered in this box, because it turned out so well it didn't last more than a week after we started pouring it.

I’m hosting Falling Skies: Second Watch

Posted on By Wil

 

Wil Wheaton hosts Falling Skies Second Watch for TNT

Two creators, one geek.

 

Remember when I said 

I don't cancel convention appearances lightly, because I know how disappointing it is for the people who are attending. I assure you that this isn't a ploy to win a game of Mystic Warlords of Ka'a, or even a bowling match… this is just something that happens from time to time when someone like me is lucky enough to land a dream job that conflicts with a planned trip out of town.

This is what I was talking about:

TNT announced the launch of a new web show, 2nd Watch, hosted by Trek and Leverage star Wil Wheaton. The show will air on http://fallingskies.com with a live premiere episode on Sunday June 17 at 11pm ET – following the two-hour East coast season premiere of Falling Skies.

I love Hardwick's show Talking Dead (even though I wasn't crazy about last season's Walking Dead), so when TNT asked me if I was interested in hosting a similar show for Falling Skies, of course I said yes.

I mainlined Falling Skies over two days, watching every single episode from the first season and everything that they gave me for the second season. Also, [REDACTED]. 

I'm really excited about this for a few reasons: Number one, it's online, so you can watch it anywhere in the world whenever you want to see it. I believe that this is a fantastic step in the right direction for TNT (and all networks) because — let's face it — online is the future where everything is happening right now, and making it easy for fans to gather in one place and geek out over the shows they love just makes sense.* (Now if HBO would only listen to all the cord cutters who want to give them money… but that's slightly off topic.) Number two, I get to spend a ton of time geeking out with writers and actors who make a show that I love, and I get to ask them pretty much whatever I want. Number three, I'm standing on the shoulders of Chris Hardwick, which is always a nice place to be**. 

Most of the episodes are taped, but the season premiere and season finale will be followed by a live show (this is why I can't go to the Denver Comicon, and why I may have to miss GenCon this year.) I really want to say a lot more, but the NDA I have with TNT is terrifying, so I'm going to err on the side of shutting the fuck up, which is a new thing for me.

* I see in comments that you have to be a cable subscriber to get access to the show. Damn. Well, baby steps, I guess.

**I love this guy!!

GO KINGS GO!!

Posted on By Wil

This is me when the Kings went up 3-0 tonight against the Devils:

KINGS SCORE!

I sort of hover with excitement when the Kings score.

I can't believe they scored TWICE on the power play tonight.

I can't believe they won 4-0.

I can't believe they are up 3-0 in the STANLEY CUP FREAKING FINAL.

I can believe that Jonathan Quick got a shutout, because he's a future hall of famer who should win the Conn Smythe no matter what this year.

I can't believe that this team that I've loved since the early 80s when I went to my first Triple Crown Line game at the Forum is one game away from winning the Stanley Cup.

I'm working at E3 this week, covering the show and interviewing interesting people for Gamefront.com, so I'm going to actually be about 100 feet from the game on Wednesday. If I'm insanely lucky, I'll somehow end up inside, even if it's only for the second and third periods… but even if I don't, I hope that I'll be screaming and doing the Wilflail wherever I am when the game is over.

This is really obnoxious, TypePad

Posted on By Wil

Oh, hey, look! It's time for another ranty rant about the Internet. I swear to FSM, I've become Grandpa Simpson.

When TypePad was bought by an advertising company, we all knew the clock was ticking, and it would eventually be time to start looking for an alternative. To be honest, I'm surprised (happily) that it took this long.

Earlier today, I started composing a new post, only to see this on my composing screen:

Screen Shot 2012-06-04 at 10.53.50 AM
Little nuclear bombs went off in my eyes, and I wrote the following on Tumblr:

This is REALLY fucking obnoxious, Typepad.

Presenting this “easy way to embed relevant links” into a blog post may be worthwhile to some people, but not letting those of us who don’t care completely ignore the stupid thing and then putting precisely the kind of advertising we hate into it is worthy of me collating paper.

It’s bad enough that you won’t let me collapse this stupid window by default, but shoving promoted bullshit advertising into my fucking composition window on my own fucking blog when I am paying to use your service is totally unacceptable.

Small but important note: I use disconnect in my browser, so I suspect that it preventing TypePad from saving my preference to keep this stupid goddamn window closed. So that's on me. The argument about why we need to even use disconnect is its own thing, so I'll stay away from that, but it's relevant, nevertheless.

This is part of a pattern that I find exceptionally disturbing, and it's probably why I get all ranty when it happens: a company or product I love is bought by a company that I hate, and the thing I love is changed in subtle and unsubtle ways until it's just another example of why I hated that company to begin with. I'm always happy for developers to cash in and profit from that amazing thing they made that I loved, but I wish there was a way for them to do it without guaranteeing that that thing I loved will be trashed.

I really, really, really hate the entire concept of "promoted" anything — Tweets, posts, links, whatever — because it's advertising that tries to pretend that it isn't. At least on other services, I can accept it (they're free, after all, and everyone has to pay the bills) but when I'm paying a subscription fee to a service and this bullshit still shows up? HULK SMASH. 

I was a Movable Type user way back before TypePad even existed [HIPSTER KITTY], and a Grey Matter user before that. I love TypePad, and it's been a fantastic platform and service for me since I hosed my database at WWdN. In fact, it's been so easy to use and so stable, I haven't had much incentive to collect all of my things here in Exile and move them back to WWdN…

…until today. I guess it's finally time to leave Exile and go home. It will take a couple of weeks to get it all set up, but to be honest, it's something I should have done a long time ago.