Yesterday, I had more fun watching Wrestlemania dos equis than I thought possible. I haven’t followed WWE since it was WWF, but thanks to some Cliffs notes from my brother, I was able to pick up right where I left off.
The whole show was surprisingly exciting, with the notable exception of the Goldberg vs. Brock Lesner match, which was quite possibly the most boring match I’ve ever seen in my life. And I used to watch WCW, so that’s saying something.
I still remember watching Wrestlemania uno, while my 90 pound, 11 year-old body quaked with Hulkamania, so there was some nostalgia value wrapped up in yesterday’s event, too.
An incomplete list of highlights for me, in no particular order:

• Return of the Classic Undertaker. That new, “I’m on Harley” Undertaker was the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.
• Three words: Evening. Gown. Match.
• That “Dragon” Cruiserweight guy who kept falling down. That was priceless comedy.
• Bobby The Brain Weasel Heenan an Mean Gene doing something behind the green door with Mona. That was hilarious.
• The Triple-Threat title match — one of the best PPV matches I’ve ever seen. Not quite sure if I’d rank it with the ’98 SS Hell in a Cell, but still pretty damn fun to watch.
• Spending four hours with my brother, totally acting like dorks, and cheering like we believed it was real.

Everyone involved with WWE should be very proud of themselves. The commentators, the writers, Vince McMahon, and especially the performers put on a fantastically entertaining event. Now I’m sort of excited for Backlash.

This morning over breakfast, I said to my wife, “Happy π day!”
“Happy pie day? What the hell are you talking about?”
“No, not ‘pie’,” I said. “‘π’.”
“Not ‘pie,’ but ‘pie.'” She was clearly not amused. “Isn’t it a little early to be drinking?”
“Anne, look at the date on the calendar.”
“Yes it’s march 14th, and you’re going to watch WrestleMania dos equis* with your brother.” She frowned. “Are you trying to tell me that you’re taking a pie to Jeremy’s house? Because if you expect me to make you a pie . . .”
“No, I don’t expect you to make me a pie.” I said, well into that area where you’ve explained the joke so much, it’s never going to be funny.
“Today is March fourteenth. That makes it 3.14 on the calendar. 3.14 is also known as π.”
She blinked a few times.
“Oh. It’s π day.”
“Yes!” I said. “And at 1:59 pm, it will be even more &#960 day. Isn’t that cool!?”
She took a long, thoughtful drink from her coffee mug, carefully set it down and said, “You are such a nerd.”

Que se oiga nuestra condena de esta masacre. Despreciamos a eta, despreciamos toda forma de violencia y de terrorismo. Solo queremos vivir en paz.
Que la paz prevalezca en la tierra.
(image and link via boingboing)

Tonight, I’m giving a talk to the San Gabriel Valley Linux User’s Group about weblogging. I’m focusing my talk on Movable Type (because that’s what I use) and Six Apart’s fantastic hosted service, TypePad.
I’m doing some homework, and I just came across this gallery of really beautiful pictures in someone’s blog.
I thought, “Wow. That’s really cool. I bet WWdN would like that.”
So there you go.

If you just felt a huge disturbance in The Force, that was me checking my e-mail and sending out an Akira-like Neo-Tokyo-destroying mental explosion of joy.
This is really happening!

For Immediate Release
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or an interview with
the author, contact:
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7094 or kathrynb@oreilly.com

Geek + Blogger + Actor = Author Wil Wheaton
O’Reilly Releases “Dancing Barefoot”
Sebastopol, CA–Not all geeks are into sci-fi, and not all sci-fi fans are geeks, but there’s enough of a crossover to explain the appeal of Wil Wheaton — self-proclaimed geek, blogger, and former ensign Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Even non-sci-fi fans have been drawn to the candid, highly personal, and occasionally opinionated account of his life that Wheaton offers on his blog at www.wilwheaton.net. The reason? While it’s true that in the grand scheme of things, the reflections and musings of the typical blogger-geek-actor-turned-book-author are not expected to be momentous, Wheaton writes with an honesty and disarming humanity that resonates with geeks and non-geeks alike.
In his book “Dancing Barefoot” (O’Reilly, US $14.95), Wheaton offers a collection of five short but true stories about life in the so-called space age. Based on pieces first published in his blog, the stories in “Dancing Barefoot” chronicle a teen TV star’s journey to maturity and self-acceptance. Far from the usual celebrity tell-all, the book is a vivid account of one man’s version of that universal story–the search for self. If you’ve ever fallen in love, wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a Star Trek convention, or thought hard about the meaning of life, you’ll find a kindred soul in the pages of “Dancing Barefoot.” In the process of uncovering his true geek self, Wil Wheaton speaks to the inner geek in all of us.
Like many authors, Wheaton hadn’t considered writing a book until the idea was suggested to him, and even then he resisted. As he explains, “I sort of know Dan Perkins, who draws ‘This Modern World.’ I linked to one of his brilliant comics on my web site, and he emailed me about it. We exchanged several notes over a few months, and one day he said, ‘You ought to write a book about your experiences.’
“I never considered myself a writer, and told him that. Dan pointed out that I’d been writing for my weblog almost daily. This fact sat in my brain for a long time, and I did everything I could to ignore it.” In spite of his intentions, many visitors to his site encouraged Wheaton to write a book, and the suggestion became harder to disregard. He finally decided to collect a year’s worth of blog entries from WWdN (Wil Wheaton dot Net) and publish it. “I figured I’d sell ten, maybe even fifteen of them at a Star Trek convention or something,” says Wheaton.
“I cut and pasted the web site for a few days, and then wrote some behind the scenes stuff to tie all the weblog ideas together, narrative-style,” Wheaton recalls. “In my head, I heard some strange voice — it was like Danny Stern’s ‘Wonder Years’ VO meets the ‘Behind the Music’ guy.
“I worked on that for about a week, and I had about 50,000 words. I realized that there was sort of a character arc in there, where ‘Wil’ went on this quest to cast off Wesley Crusher and find out exactly who he was. A few weeks later, I had several hundred thousand words, and it was looking like a freakin’ phone book. My friend Andrew said, ‘Don’t put all your best work in your first book.’ It was very good advice, and I cut out a bunch of stories that I liked, but weren’t central to the story. Those stories became ‘Dancing Barefoot.'”
The five stories in “Dancing Barefoot” are:
Houses in Motion–Memories fill the emptiness left within a childhood
home, and saying goodbye brings them to life.
Ready Or Not Here I Come–A game of hide-n-seek with the kids works as a
time machine, taking Wil on a tour of the hiding and seeking of years gone by.
Inferno–Two fifteen-year-olds pass in the night leaving behind pleasant
memories and a perfumed Car Wars Deluxe Edition Box Set.
We Close Our Eyes–A few beautiful moments spent dancing in the rain.
The Saga of SpongeBob VegasPants–A story of love, hate, laughter, and the
acceptance of all things Trek.
First self-published by Wheaton in May 2003, available only on the Internet and in select independent bookstores, “Dancing Barefoot” quickly sold out of its first run of 3,000. Wheaton’s next, longer work, “Just a Geek” will be released in early summer 2004.
Praise for “Dancing Barefoot”:
“I just put down Dancing Barefoot. Simply put, it was terrific. If you are a fan of Wil’s Weblog, WWdN, then you will love this book. It’s only 117 pages from cover to cover, but it is definitely worth getting…I really want to talk about the stories a lot more, but I think it would be cruel to take away anyone’s chance to read it for themselves. I give the weblog 4 spuds out of 4. Enjoy!”
–Mitch Malone, BananasOnToast.org, December 2003
http://www.bananasontoast.org/archives/000124.html
Further reviews can be found at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/barefoot/reviews.html
Additional Resources:
For more information about the book, including table of contents, index,
author bio, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/barefoot/
For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596006748.jpg
Dancing Barefoot
Wil Wheaton
ISBN 0-596-00674-8, 115 pages, $14.95 US, $21.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com
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