keep on jammin’ the rhino

Posted on By Wil

Activision bought RedOctane, the company responsible for Guitar Hero. Hopefully, this means more money for development, and not a bunch of corporate idiots screwing up my favorite game of 2006. Whatever comes of the partnership, epic congratulations to everyone at RedOctane (edited to add: and Harmonix! How could I forget Harmonix? -2 for me) who worked so hard to make the greatest fucking game in the history of me rocking out in my living room. You guys rock at least 97% of Cowboys From Hell on Expert, and I hope to throw some goats your way on Wednesday (which officially begins here in Los Angeles in 40 minutes) at E3.

Ryan and I have been having some serious Guitar Hero jam sessions recently. Last night, I finally five-starred Killer Queen and Fat Lip, and Ryan five-starred Stellar and Unsung (on medium; the kid slows down so he can play with the old man, which the old man appreciates.)

After I’d pulled a 99% on Killer Queen, I unwound with some Godzilla. As the song started up, Ryan said, "Dude, I think I hear cowbell in this song!"

I laughed a little bit, but maintained my focus: Yellow, blue, red green, yellowblueyellllooooowwwwww red yellow greenred . . . ROCK!

Ryan hopped up off the couch, and ran into the kitchen. A few moments later, he appeared back in the living room, a saucepan in one hand, and a wooden spoon in the other.

"What are you doing?" I said. Yellow, blue, yellowwwwwwww redyellow greenyellow rest yellowblue yellooowwwwwwww Star Power!

He held the saucepan about chest high, and began to tap it with the wooden spoon. "This song needs more cowbell," he said, "and this the closest I could get."

I played about twelve more notes before I collapsed into song-ending giggles.

limited edition chapbook available SOLD OUT!

Posted on By Wil

Morethanthiscover
I wanted to have something new and cool to show off when I went to the Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit back in March, so I worked like crazy and made a very limited edition chapbook called More Than This, which is a few stories from the Do You Want Kids With That? manuscript (which is a book similar to Dancing Barefoot, but all about stepparenting.)

I wanted it to be something really cool and worth having, so in addition to three stories that I really like, I asked Ben Claassen to do an illustration like the ones he did for Dancing Barefoot, and I asked my stepson Ryan if he’d write a foreword. Luckily for us all, they both agreed, and the result is really cool, if I say so myself.

I only made 200 of these books, and sold 51 58 of them at the convention. Since I gave Ryan and Nolan numbers one and two respectively, that means there are 147 140 left in the whole entire universe, including the far off Dangot (that’s pronounced "dang-oh," not "dan-got," which you may have heard) Nebula.

I was only going to make 100 for the convention, but it didn’t cost that much to increase the run to 200, and I figured that I’d be able to offer whatever was left on this here website.

See where I’m going with this? I knew ya did!

If you’d like to pick up one of these limited-edition chapbooks, you can use the "Buy Now" button below. I’ll sign the chapbook to whomever you want, and number it by hand with my very favorite squishy-handled pen. I’ll keep this offer up as long as I have books, and of course I’ll refund any orders that come in after they’re all gone (assuming they sell out.)

One last thing: in the writing and editing process of Do You Want Kids With That?, my editor and I have come to the conclusion that it probably doesn’t work as a full-length book (long story) but will almost certainly work very well as a 60-minute audiobook. So it’s quite likely that this will be the only way you can get your hands on this material in any sort of book form.

If you’re interested, here are the details:

More Than This – A Personalized, Autographed Chapbook by Wil Wheaton, featuring a foreword from my stepson Ryan.
Length: 20 pages.
Price: $25.00 (includes shipping)

Please allow 3-5 weeks for processing and shipping. At this time, I can only accept domestic US orders (international
shipping is a real bitch for a small time operation like mine, and I
have to increase the costs quite a bit to justify the extra time and
work. Sorry.) If you have questions, put them in comments, so I can sort of FAQ it up. Thanks.

UPDATE: As of 8:30 PM PDT, there are just 75 left. 74 left (I thought I should probably set one aside for my mom.)

UPDATE AGAIN: As of 9:38 PM PDT there are just 32 left. Wow.

UPDATED AGAIN AGAIN: At 11:05 PM PDT, there are only 11 books left.

UPDATED ONE LAST TIME: It’s 11:44 PM PDT, and all the books have
been ordered, so I’m going to bed now. I’ll start processing orders
tomorrow after breakfast. Thanks to everyone who placed orders!

Boston CONFIRMED – July 2nd!

Posted on By Wil

So it turns out that Eventful Demands really work! Thanks to everyone who demanded me in Boston (currently a staggering 209,) I was able to confidently contact a few bookstores and tell them that I was coming to town, with about 200 people who would come to their store, spend some money, and freak out the regulars.

As I’ve tried to put this together, I’ve learned that Boston has no shortage of outstanding bookstores, (especially indie book stores) and scheduling something for two days before the Fourth of July holiday is really, really hard . . . but I stuck at it, because this is such a unique opportunity to find out if decentralized tools and the power of the internets really does work for a guy like me.

On the advice of several WWdN:iX readers, I focused my attention and my efforts on Brookline Booksmith and Porter Square Books. If I was going to be in town for more than two days, I could probably do events at both stores, but since I’m only there for a brief time, (and because they called back first) I’ll be at Brookline Booksmith on July 2nd. The store is working with the theatre across the street from the store to set up a screening of Stand By Me, followed by a Q&A with me. If they can get a print of the film, it will start at noon; otherwise, I’ll just take the stage at one, do a reading from Just A Geek, and take some questions after. Either way, it’s going to be really, really fun.

More details will come as they get worked out, but so far, here’s what I have in easy-to-cut-n-paste form:

Who: Wil Wheaton, author, actor, cad, knave, raconteur.
What: Reading from Just A Geek, possible screening of Stand By Me.
Where: Brookline Booksmith – 279 Harvard Street Brookline, MA 02446
When: Sunday, July 2, 2006  – 12:00pm

This is really exciting for me. I feel the same level of anticipation and giddiness I felt when I was about to release Dancing Barefoot through Monolith Press, because this is something that I never could have done on my own (both practically, and courageously) and I can’t wait to see how this whole thing turns out.

Now, I can turn my attention to taking care of Montreal, which is going to be a hell of a lot easier, I think.

and now, some further reading

Posted on By Wil

I have pictures and stories about kyle + rosemary from yesterday, but
I’ve got to go to the cleaners and get my tights on my way to Warner
Brothers for my Legion of Super Heroes session that starts in an hour. Man, it’s so weird (and so
cool) to work two days in a row on different voice projects! If I’ve
got anything left when I get home, I’ll post about them both.

But if you’re looking for something to read until then, here’s your occasional linkfest to stuff I’ve written elsewhere in the last week, that you probably missed if you just read WWdN:iX:

Geek News @ Suicide Girls:

Earth’s Artificial Ring – (This is probably my favorite story I’ve ever put onto the Geekwire.)

During the height of the Cold War, American scientists were also geeked
out on the Ionosphere, because using it was the only reliable way to
communicate over long distances, should ground-based microwave or
undersea cable communication become unusable because of those godless
commies. Not happy to accept the Ionosphere as nature intended it, they
attempted to create an artificial Ionosphere by launching 480 million tiny copper needles into orbit, which briefly gave our planet an artificial ring in 1963.

The Last Webreference You’ll Ever Need

Protolize breaks everything down into categories, from General to RSS
to CMS and beyond, and then further sub-categorizes them into Tools,
Resources, and Inspirations. Just about everything you need to take
that idea in your head and make it something real online is gathered
together in one place, and if there’s a site you know of that isn’t
listed, adding it to the list is as simple as filling out a form. It’s
like Webmonkey meets del.icio.us, and exemplifies the power of sharing and organizing knowledge using the Internets.

Dude Tracks His Transatlantic Flight By Watching Internet Routing

The best part of Todd’s blog post is his explanation of routing
protocols and how the engineers at Boeing overcame what could have been
service-crippling problems, including all sorts of really cool and
useful graphics that even a level 010 geek can easily understand. In
fact, if you grok and get excited by his story, you’re probably on your
way to being a level 1010 geek. If you understand what I’m talking
about and are giggling right now, you’re a level 101010 geek, and we’re
looking forward to seeing you at the meeting tonight. Excelsior!

Poker Stuff @ CardSquad:

In Washington State, Online Poker Players Are Now Class C Felons, Just Like Sex Offenders

Lawmakers in Washington state have decided that they know what’s best
for all their residents, and recently passed Senate Bill 6613, which
"[reaffirms and clarifies] the prohibition against Internet and certain
other interactive electronic or mechanical devices to engage in
gambling."

I am the UltraGigli (note: in poker blogger land, Gigli is what we call the first person to be knocked out of a tourney. At the WPBT events in Vegas, the first person eliminated gets a copy of Gilgli on DVD from Dr. Pauly.)

Since I was Gigli’d in back-to-back tourneys, first with Aces and then with Kings, I now
declare that I am the JLo’s glorious ass part of Gigli. I am, in fact, the UltraGigli.

REVIEW: Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book of Poker

During the 2005 WPT Championship at Bellagio, I
had the great fortune of spending some time with Phil — not at the same table, thank gods — and he really helped me a
lot.

[. . .]

We had dinner together at the end of the first day, and Phil gave me a bit of a lesson while we ate. When we
were done, he told me that he was working on a little book that would compile lots of useful information from existing
works by Caro and Sklansky, filtered through and expanded upon by Phil’s personal experience. He was particularly
excited about the tournament chapter, and all the math he’d done to figure out very reliably how often players needed
to steal blinds, and make moves to survive into the deeper levels of play. He graciously offered to e-mail me a copy of
the manuscript so I could read it over later that night, and it significantly helped my game. The book,
of course, became Phil
Gordon’s Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold’em.

Thanks for reading!

Rev. Horton Heat and Van Halen in Guitar Hero II!!

Posted on By Wil

I’m kind of crazy in love with Guitar Hero. Does that make me weird?
 
I have a list of seven songs for Guitar Hero II, as well as some awesome rumors about the sequel, at the SGGeekwire, and I dugg a site that has tablatures for all the songs available in the current Guitar Hero.

The only reason I’m suffering through E3 this year is so I can play this game, and write about the quest. Somehow, I’m pretty confident it’s going to be worth it.

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