I hope the MMORPG Nerds have a better sense of humor than the Star Wars Nerds, because this is fucking brilliant.

Click the picture for hot, full-sized action.

(Link via boingboing.)

I heard Led Zeppelin coming out of Ryan’s room, so I put down my Sudoku book (yeah, I’ve been hooked for about a month), walked down the hall, and knocked on his door.

"Come in," he said.

I opened, and entered his sanctuary: astronomy posters hung from his walls, and a stack of books (Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, Macbeth, Divine Comedy and a host of other books that your average AP English student with a 4.0 in the class reads*) sat on his desk. A pile of (clean? dirty?) clothes lay in a heap at the foot of his bed. He sat at his desk, looking at The Internets.

He turned around in his chair. "What’s up?" He said.

"Oh, I just heard you listening to Zeppelin II, and I didn’t want to miss a chance to share in something we both love, that I happened to introduce to you in the pre-Pod days."

"I . . . just wondered what you were doing." I said.

He got very excited. "Oh! I found this awesome Family Guy Website, and I was downloading audioclips from it, and putting them on my computer." He clicked a few times, and showed me the website.

"When I was your age, I did the same thing, with The Prisoner and Star Trek," I said,  "on my Mac II."

He frowned. "Weren’t you on Star Trek?"

"Yeah," I said, "but the sounds were from the original series."

He looked back at me.

"So it was geeky, but it wasn’t totally lame," I said. Why did I feel like I our ages and roles were reversed?

"What’s The Prisoner?" He said.

"A show that I love, that I don’t think you’re geeky enough to enjoy."

He clicked his mouse, and iTunes fell silent.

"Wil," he said, "you didn’t think I’d like Firefly."

"Touche," I said with a smile. "Any time you want to watch The Prisoner, I am so there."

"Actually, any time you want to do anything, I am so there, because I don’t want to be a stranger to you for the next five years, and I’ll close the gap any way I can."

"Okay," he said. "Maybe after school some day next week."

"When –"

"When my homework’s done," he said. "I know, Wil."

He wasn’t snotty. He wasn’t rude. He wasn’t impatient or unpleasant. He just . . . was. I saw a lot of myself in him.

"I need to work my a–" he began, "I need to work very hard this semester."

I nodded my head. "I’m glad you know that, Ryan."

He turned back around to his computer. I stood in his doorway and looked at him for a minute.

"He may not have my DNA, but I’ve given him some of the things that matter in life," I thought.

"Ryan?"

He didn’t turn around. "Hmm?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Wil."

"Ramble On, And now’s the time, the time is now, to sing my song.

I’m goin’ ’round the world, I got to find my girl, on my way.

I’ve been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On,

Gotta find the queen of all my dreams."

*Yes, I’m proud as hell. Sue me.

For this week’s Games of our Lives, I looked back at an awesome game called Cavelon:

Once upon a time, an evil wizard kidnapped a beautiful princess and
imprisoned her at the top of a scary tower. She cried and cried until a
brave knight entered the castle to battle the wizard and rescue her.

Once upon a different time, some video-game designers turned this
story into a pretty cool little game. For reasons that are best left
buried in the mists of Avalon, they didn’t name it "Magic Tower" or "Happy Princess Rescue." They named it "Cavelon," even though it has nothing to do with caves, and there aren’t any lons to speak of.

Kids today might not like it because: There’s no Custer’s Revenge-style reward when you finally rescue the girl.

Kids today might like it because: Cavelon has real, undeniable retro-gaming charm. After a few games, they’re just a waffle-cone away from a full-on 1983 flashback.

I also reviewed NHL06:

Worth playing for: The little details. When the home team gets a
penalty, the organ plays "Three Blind Mice" as the player skates into
the box, jawing words that look an awful lot like "vacuum" at the
referee. The closer you get to the end of the period, the more
chopped-up the ice becomes. Between plays, skaters talk to each other,
and during the replays, fans (dressed in the home team’s jerseys, of
course) jump up and down, clap their hands, and cheer.

Final judgment: EA Sports set the standard for sports games a long time ago. NHL 06
meets that standard, but it doesn’t bring much new and exciting to the
party, which isn’t really their fault. There isn’t much more to add to
an already-fantastic series. If you’re a hockey fan, and you haven’t
played any of the EA Sports NHL titles, where the hell have you been?
You’re going to love this game. But if you’re a longtime fan, you may
want to sit this virtual season out.

I’m working on this week’s GOOL right now, which is shaping up to be kinda funny.

In an unrelated bit of news, I really like the simple, clean look of WWdN In Exile. I was going for a much cleaner look with the WWdN redesign already, and I think it’s going to be more like what you see here: two columns, simple navigation, lightweight graphics.

It’s so frustrating and annoying that I can’t blog at WWdN, especially since now is the most important time to talk about Do You Want Kids With That? as I get closer to its release.

I have a very finite amount of time and energy right now, and I’d rather invest them in creative areas, rather than the tail-chasing technical bullshit I’ve been working on since Friday.

So I’m going to keep this backup blog to write in until I get the main blog at WWdN finished.

Welcome to WWdN in exile!