"Death is that state where one lives only in the memory of others,
which is why it is not an end. No goodbyes–just good memories."
    – Tasha Yar

I knew it was coming, but that didn’t blunt the sadness I felt when I learned yesterday that Michael Piller died. I didn’t know Michael very well — a consequence of my age when we worked together, and one of the very few lingering regrets I have about Star Trek — but I had (and have) tremendous respect for him, and I believe that he is more responsible than anyone else for Next Generation transforming itself into the amazing show it became in season four.

I last saw Michael at a Star Trek convention in Pasadena a couple of years ago. He was there to talk about Dead Zone, and I was there to read from my upcoming book, Dancing Barefoot. I had just finished watching the fourth season of TNG on DVD.

I felt the usual Prove To Everyone shame, but I walked over to him anyway. We spoke for a bit, and I finally said what I needed to say.

"I never understood how important you were to the show," I said, "until I watched it change under your leadership."

A group of kids dressed in Buffy costumes sped down the hallway, swarmed around us, and ran into the main hall, where one of their idols was about to speak.

"So I wanted to say ‘thank you’ now, because before, I was — well, I just didn’t know how."

He smiled and took my hand. "Thank you, Wil," he said.

"Good luck with Dead Zone," I said. "I hear it’s going to be fantastic."

He drew a deep breath. "We’ll see . . ." he said.

And that was it. We chatted for another minute or so, and went our separate ways.

I hardly knew Michael, but everyone who did loved him. As far as I can tell, he was
one of the very few genuinely good people who worked in the industry.

Goodbye, Michael, and thank you.

And now, your weekly reminder about the WWdN Friday game at PokerStars, which PokerGeek has dubbed "The biggest homegame in the world":

What: WWdN: Donegal Invitational
Where: PokerStars.
When: Friday, November 4th. 7:00 PM EST
Password: monkey
Tournament number: 14391236
Buy-in: $10+1

It’s hard to find a starting time that can accomodate everyone who wants to play, but the 7:00 PM tourney a couple of weeks ago drew the largest field, so I’m trying that time again this week. I know that it’s not the best start time for West coasters, but if I set the start time much later than that, it blows it for almost all of the people East of us. In an effort to accomodate as many people as possible, I’m going to add a game for us on Thursdays, which I’ll call the WWdN West Coast Warm-up, unless someone can come up with a better name. It will run as long as there are people interested.

For more poker blogger shennanigans, I also endorse Saturdays With Dr. Pauly:

What: Saturdays with Dr. Pauly
Where: Poker Stars
When: Saturday November 5th at 1pm EST
Tournament Info: #14338880 (check under Private Tournament Tab)
Password: hiltons

Eligibility: Anyone with a Poker Stars account
Attire: Pants optional

Pauy’s tourney has some really cool bounties and bustout gifts, so if you’re going to play, check out the details at Tao of Poker.

If you play a lot of online poker against total strangers, the social element of the game is largely lost. That’s a real shame, because when I play with friends, I always have a good time, win or lose. That’s the goal of the WWdN tourneys, and I’m sure Dr. Pauly would agree. Check out last week’s live blog to get a sense of what I’m talking about:

6:39 PM – The tournament is shocked into silence as we learn that the blogfather has busted. GG, Iggy.

6:44 PM – I finally got to checkraise! w00t!

6:45 PM –
I’m sweating PokerGeek’s table, and — no shit — they had THE HAMMER
the same time we had THE HAMMER on my table. I think that’s a goocher.

7:13 PM – Bouncin’ around the room: Ferris and Riley were
playing really rough in the hallway behind me, with the barking and the
running around and the wrestling . . . I guess it was too much for
Ferris, because she just walked into the room and flopped down at my
feet. Her little dog head is resting on my foot now 🙂

8:05 PM – Spaceman
just made another set with pocket rockets, and busted penneriii.
Spaceman has 18100 now, and lept over patrickjst to take second place.
GRobman is still the man with 25089.

Penner42 said: three sets in one orbit? Must be nice.
Spaceman said: I’ll take what I can get, Alan 🙂
EVDevil03, who is clinging to life with 4785, dryly observed: I just want to get out of this table alive.

See? The biggest homegame in the world. 🙂

If anyone has suggestions or comments about the WWdN games, I would love to hear them. See you  tomorrow!

I had a meeting with an agent tonight.

He asked me, "What do you want to do? What’s your five year plan?"

"I want to write," I said.

This week’s Games of our Lives is Demons to Diamonds. Anyone remember this game? I loved it when I was a kid.

Long before the Atari 2600 unsuccessfully tried to duplicate arcade classics like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, its programmers created wonderful little games that engaged imaginations as much as hand/eye coordination. Demons To Diamonds
took things one step further and put real life into its 8-bit graphics
with a cool little story in the instruction manual, which set the game
at a carnival, and included a churlish demon who told players, "So come
on, reach for your laser, exercise your trigger finger on us. Put us
through our paces and we’ll dazzle you with demonic tricks!" Players
knew right away that they were in for a good time.

[. . .]

Kids today might not like it because: After years of online gaming, playing with a person who is sitting the same room frightens and confuses them.

Kids today might like it because: The manual tells them, "Although DEMONS TO DIAMONDS was
primarily designed for children in the 6 to 12 age range, we find that
people of all ages enjoy this engaging game." Don’t argue, just do what
the manual says and nobody will get hurt.

Check out the full column. I think I snuck some funny into it, and I don’t want to rob the AV Club of your precious clicks.

Eleven days ago, Sean Bonner reported his unfortunate experience with Screamfest at Universal Citywalk, and I wrote a post about it where I said:

I hope that they’ll
make good on their promise to provide full refunds to the people who
couldn’t get them at the theatre . . . if they care at all about
their reputation, I’m sure that they will.

There are a ton of events scheduled for the rest of the weekend —
events that I’d really dig, like a screening of Friday the 13th — but there is no way they’re getting any
of my money until those refunds go out.

So we have another example of the importance of the reputation
economy. If I just read their website, I’d be totally into Screamfest.
But now? Until they give me a good reason to change my mind, Not so
much.

A couple of days later, Sean reported that all was not well with the unfolding saga:

. . . as of this moment I still haven’t received a refund for anything. What
I have received are a few e-mails arguing the situation and so far
claiming that I will NOT be receiving a full refund.

Sean detailed the exchange he had with one of the organizers, which when read objectively gives the appearance of an exhausted person, who is just trying to make sure that she’s not getting scammed by a cranky attendee. This is entirely understandable to me, as I’ve dealt with some unscrupulous fans and promoters over the years, and I can’t even begin to tell you how low some of these people will go to rip you off. Ultimately, they confirmed that Sean wasn’t one of those grifters, and he reports today that the organizers of Screamfest refunded all of his money.

I’d happily like to report that I’ve gotten a full refund for the tickets for both movies.

Good on ya, Screamfest organizers. We who are on the outside will never know what sort of issues you all had as you pulled this event together (unless you choose to share them with us, and that’s entirely at your discretion), but we know now that if something goes wrong with one of your customers, you’ll do the right thing. Whatever you refunded in cash, you’ve earned back tenfold in the Reputation Economy.