on a routine expedition

Posted on By Wil

Did you know that Walter Koenig (who, by the way, told me Happiest Days was "delightful," Squee!) created the character of Enik on Land of the Lost? Did you know that Harlan Ellison wrote a story for the show that was never produced? Oh! Oh! Oh! Did you know that David Gerrold came up with a whole backstory for the eponymous land that makes sense?!

I didn’t know any of this until I read the Land of the Lost Triviagasm at io9 last night.

When they announced it, I though io9 was going to be snotty, too cool for the room, and hideous (like most Gawker blogs, which seem to have have an attitude I outgrew in my twenties.)

They’re proving me wrong (like my opinion counts, right?) with content that’s consistently interesting and cool, and commentary that doesn’t seem to fit into the smug, condescending, dismissive tone that seems to be the Gawker model. It’s almost like they realized who their target audience is, and — gasp — actually respect and speak to that audience.

Speaking of Land of the Lost: did it scare the living daylights out of anyone else? I remember being scared by most of the Krofft shows, because they all seemed to feature kids who get separated from their parents and sent into a weird world from which they can never return, but Land of the Lost terrified me, even though the kids had their dad with them. Maybe it was because I was a young geek with an overactive imagination, but when I was nine or ten, it seemed to be the most plausible of all the Krofft shows.

Oh, and if you’re a fan of the Krofft shows, you should track down a copy of Pufnstuf & Other Stuff. It’s awesome.

real programmers

Posted on By Wil

Xkcd_programmers
In addition to being really funny, the latest xkcd is rather timely.

I was a vi or vim guy when I needed to use a text editor (that’s how I did most of the original WWdN updates, via ssh back in the old days,) and my standard line to give emacs fanboys was, "Emacs? Yeah, I’ve tried to use it, but I could never find the text editor."

Then we’d go back to arguing about stuff that really mattered, like which captain was better.

phoenix trip report, part 3

Posted on By Wil

(Concluded from part two)

When I was done a few minutes later, I walked back to the hotel —
which was only about 100 yards away — and stopped into the hospitality
suite for some pretzels and water. Normally, I’d grab a beer and unwind
after a show, but I’m having sinus surgery next week, and I’ve been on
doctor’s orders to have absolutely no alcohol, pain relievers,
vitamins, or fun for the last two weeks, so I’d have to unwind the old
fashioned way: geeking out with my fellow nerds about various geek
things.

Or so I thought. When I walked into the hospitality suite, they were playing Rock Band. Oh yeah.

I played a few songs, and left when I realized I was at that point
where I’d either stop, or keep playing for another four hours. Since it
was already after ten, I’d gotten little sleep the night before, and I
had a big day ahead of me on Sunday, I chose responsibly and went
upstairs to bed.

It was pouring rain when I woke up on Sunday, but that didn’t keep
anyone away as far as I could tell. By the time I was in my seat at 10,
the vendor’s room was already filling up with people, and lines were
beginning to form at my table by 10:30.

Sundays are always slower than Saturdays, though, so I got a chance
to visit with the indie publishers and artists around me. As I talked
with them — mostly with Daniel from Steam Crow — I realized how much
I’ve changed since I started blogging.

In Just A Geek, I recalled a trip to San Diego ComiCon in 2001:

ComiCon was nothing like I had expected, and the truth is,
it was a horrible experience. I went there expecting to sell hundreds
of autographed pictures to hundreds of adoring fans, but hardly anyone
was interested. I sat in a cavernous and undecorated area far away from
the main convention floor, surrounded by people who were definitely on
the downside of their careers.

While talking with Daniel, I noted that we were talking about
publishing costs and marketing strategies. We were talking about about
building our respective brands, and how much more fun and rewarding it
was to do this stuff on our own, rather than the so-called
"traditional" (I call it "old") way of doing things.

"Just a few years ago," I said, "I rarely came to conventions as a
guest, because I felt like I was trying to hold on to whatever fading
celebrity I once had. I didn’t do it because I wanted to be famous
again. I did it because, at the time, it was all I could do,
which was so much worse. But now, when I go to cons, I feel good about
it. I look forward to it, because I feel like I can share the Star Trek
thing with people who love it, but I’m really here as an indie
publisher, just like you."

I thought for a second and added, "You know what it’s like? It’s like — "

"Don’t say ‘rising from the ashes’ while you’re in Phoenix! Don’t say ‘rising from the ashes’ while you’re in Phoenix!" My brain screamed at me.

"It’s sort of like rising from the ashes for me, in a way, which is a pretty lame thing to say since I’m in Phoenix."

"Do you even listen to me anymore? That’s it," my brain said. "I’m out of here."

"I am so lame" I said. Daniel and his wife assured me that I was not, but we all know better, don’t we?

Shortly after that, the con was over. I packed up my stuff, thanked
everyone who brought me out for the show — especially Matt, who runs
the thing — and got a ride to the airport.

One annoying game of Airport Madness! and a pretty bumpy flight later, my wife picked me up from the airport.

"How was your trip?" She asked me, when I got in the car.

"It was awesome," I said.

"Did you have fun? Did you get your geek on?"

"Yeah, I totally did," I said. "I can’t wait for next year."

I leaned over and kissed her.

"I’m happy to be home, though," I said.

"Yeah, I missed my husband," she said.

I still love it when she calls me "her husband."

"I love that I’m your husband," I said.

"Stop it."

"Sorry. I do."

"I like that a whole lot." She said.

"Yeah, it’s pretty awesome."

She pulled out into traffic, and we drove home as the rain began to fall.

the loneliest number

Posted on By Wil

I have a sticker on my car that says, "There is no place like 127.0.0.1"

I get to explain it to a lot of people, and I’m usually rewarded with a blank look, followed by a pitying look, followed by parents holding on tightly to their children as they move away slowly at first, then quickly, never turning their backs on me.

Such is the life of a geek among normals.

My pal R. Stevens, creator of the always-awesome Diesel Sweeties comic, has a new T-shirt with a different take on the 127.0.0.1 joke that hit a little close to 127.0.0.1 for me:

Loneliestnumber500

There will be 10 kinds of people in the world: those who get this shirt, and those who don’t.

(Okay, that was taking it just a little to far, I will admit.)

is there life on mars?

Posted on By Wil

It would appear that I found my motivation, which has been MIA since the end of last year.

The key was answering some questions for an interview I’d agreed to do several weeks ago, but never finished because I was doing other stuff. I knew it had to be done, though, so part of my brain was constantly working on it, while other parts of my brain checked in on its progress, and bugged me to give it the attention it deserved.

If I think of my brain as a computer (and what geek doesn’t, really?) it was like my CPU was maxed out and my machine load was in the double digits, because of this process. Once I closed down everything else and let it finish, performance returned to normal.

With my CPU back to normal, a ton of creative ideas started popping up, so to shake off the cobwebs and stretch the muscles that haven’t moved very much in over a month, I wrote a new ficlet. It got the job done for me, creatively, and it would be okay on its own, but became worthy of mentioning on my blog when two other ficlet writers did sequels. Mine is called A Godawful Small Affair:

“I want to move to Mars, and open up a bar,” Gregor said.

Matti inhaled deeply, and let a cloud of pale blue smoke surround his head.

“What would you call it?” Matti said.

“Moonage Daydream.” Gregor said.

Check it out, and be sure to read both sequels. I think they’re great, and illustrate exactly why Ficlets is  such a great place to take creative risks: I didn’t much care about these characters when I wrote mine, but after reading the sequels and seeing my rough sketches develop some shading and depth, I want to know what happens next. I may even write it myself, once I get my "real" work done.