Because, really, why wouldn't you interview a stick of butter?
please don’t drive like an asshole.
Want to know how I know that I'm old, out of shape, spend too much time sitting at my desk and writing, and not enough time exercising? I hurt my back yesterday … by standing up.
Yep. That's it. Doorbell rang, I stood up to go to the door, and the whole right side of my back seized up. Goodtimes.
It still hurt this morning, so I went out to see my massage therapist to get it worked on just after lunch.
She worked out a lot of the tension, reminded me (as always) that I need to take better care of myself, and I headed home … so I could write this story that my brain is demanding I write.
Shortly after I got on the freeway, I saw a huge crash happen, entirely because someone was driving like an asshole.
It really shook me up, because just this morning I said to Nolan, "Whenever you go somewhere with your friends, please make sure you are wearing a seatbelt, and never ride with someone who drives like an idiot."
"I do, and don't worry, because my friends aren't idiots."
"I have no reason to doubt you, but there are idiot drivers all over the place, and if one of them decides to crash into you, I want you to be wearing a seatbelt."
"Okay, Wil. Don't worry."
"Sorry, but I'm going to worry, because I'm your parent and that's just my thing," I said.
When I was on the freeway just about an hour ago, I was in the number 2 lane, cruising along with the flow of traffic. I saw that the number 1 lane was slowing down a lot, so I slowed down too, just in case people whipped out of that lane and into mine. It happens all the time, because people drive like assholes.
Sure enough, some asshole was speeding down the number 1 lane, and I don't know if he wasn't paying attention or what, but he whipped around into my lane – about 100 yards in front of me, I suppose – over corrected, spun sideways, and T-boned a van. The van flipped onto its side, and the asshole driver sped into the carpool lane. I'm not sure if he crashed into the wall or hit his brakes, but he stopped and got out of his car. I expected to see a 20 year-old kid, but it was a man in a suit who appeared to be in his late 40s or early 50s.
The van, on its side, was about two car lengths in front of me. I realized that I'd been holding my breath, and my hands were shaking so hard I could hardly grip my steering wheel. Just when I snapped out of it and thought I should get out to help, the door of the van opened and the driver climbed out. I couldn't tell if he was hurt.
I picked up my phone to dial 911, and saw that every car around me was already doing that. I started to get out of my car, and I saw that about six or seven different people had already gotten out and were checking on the people who were involved in the crash. I decided that I'd just be in the way if I stopped, so – very carefully – I drove around the scene of the crash and – very carefully – I drove home. When I got into our house, I immediately called Nolan to reiterate our conversation from this morning.
My hands aren't shaking as violently as before, but now I can't stop thinking that, if I had been less than 15 seconds farther down the freeway, I would have been in the car that was crashed into by the asshole driver.
Geek in Review: Star Trek Has Been Reborn, and it is SPECTACULAR
For this month's Geek in Review, it was only natural that I write a column about the new Star Trek movie. This was much easier said than done:
Since I saw Star Trek a little over a week ago, I’ve struggled to write an adequate review of the movie, and what it meant to me, as someone who was part of the first effort to make Star Trek relevant to the, uh, next generation of fans. I’ve started and abandoned a few thousand words, mostly because I can say everything I need to say in just six:
It was awesome. I loved it.
Seriously. Whenever I tried to write more than that, I felt like it was gilding the lilly, as they say. But I spent a lot of time thinking about the movie, talking about it with my friends, and I noticed that we kept talking about essentially the same thing. That's what I decided to write about:
Star Trek has meant too much to too many people for too long for those of us who love it to blindly accept that whoever makes it will treat it with the same love and respect that we believe it deserves. I think it was normal and natural for all of us to have reservations, especially about Star Trek.
It turns out, I think, that a lot of our fears, while well-founded, were unnecessary. JJ Abrams may not be one of us in the convention-going sense, but I think he has something in common with us, and I think it's a big reason why Star Trek made so many of us so very, very happy.
If you want to know what that is, head on over to the SG Newswire and find out. As always, the content of my column is SFW, but Suicide Girls is NSFW. You have been warned. Approach with the appropriate degree of caution, and enjoy.
PS – A comment at SG pointed me to this strip from PvP, which I think is a brilliant companion to this column.
PS2 – This press conference with JJ Abrams (mp3) is another, longer, companion to my column.
wilco (the stream) happens
I just got this e-mail from Wilco HQ:
Well, we made it nearly a month with copies of Wilco (the album) floating around out there before it leaked. Pretty impressive restraint in this day and age. But the inevitable happened last night. Since we know you're curious and probably have better things to do than scour the internet for a download (though we do understand the attraction of the illicit), we've posted a stream of the full album at http://wilcoworld.net/records/thealbum/. Feel free to refer to it as "wilco (the stream)" if you must.
We also have our usual guilt abatement plan for downloaders. If you have downloaded the record, we suggest you make a donation to one of the band's favorite charities, the Inspiration Corporation — an organization we've supported in the past & who are doing great work in the city of Chicago. Information and donation button here: http://inspirationcorp.org/.
That's all. Enjoy the stream. Tickets for summer shows, etc. http://wilcoworld.net/tours/ Note that we'll be holding a free online midnight screening of the "Ashes of American Flags" film this Friday night (at both midnight US Central time and again at midnight Pacific). So get the popcorn or whatever together and be sure to log on and tune in on Friday.
Wilco HQ
This is so smart, and I hope Wilco gets some public recognition for doing this. Sure, they could play whack-a-mole and try to get it offline until it's officially released, but what's the point of that? It's impossible to win that fight; it just wastes a lot of their time, money, and energy.
Giving their fans a legitimate way to hear the album reduces the incentive someone would have to steal it, builds excitement and buzz for the official release, and acknowledges that Wilco's fans love their music so much, they (we) just can't wait. They even suggest a really great way for people who downloaded the album to get some kind of "I was sort of a dick" offset.
I really admire the way Wilco embraces their fans (and reality) when they do things like this. I'll be listening to Wilco (the stream) in about five minutes, and I'll be purchasing Wilco (the album) as soon as it's available.
On the off chance that anyone from the band sees this: Thanks for all of your music, guys. I love what you do, and it's really meant a lot to me.
for those who want to whack kobolds with acquisitions, incorporated …
Well, you can't exactly play with Acquisitions, Incorporated, but you can go on one of our adventures, because Wizards has put Storm Tower, the adventure that Chris Perkins wrote for the D&D/Penny Arcade/PvP/me podcast online.
I can't wait to read this, find out about the stuff we missed, and see how the adventure was designed.
NB: You have to be a D&D Insider subscriber to get this, and speaking as someone who is a DDI subscriber, I can tell you that I think the membership is entirely worth having.