Read more..

take two minutes today to tell the FCC to protect network neutrality.

Without the Internet, I’d be just another failed actor struggling to make ends meet. Because I had the same ability to put together a website and reach an audience as anyone else, I was able to put my words on your screens, and eventually into a book that got into many of your hands. If Comcast or Verizon or AT&T or some other big telecom decided that regular guys like me had to pay some sort of protection money to have the same ability to reach you as Google or MSN does, I never would have been able to get WWdN off the ground, much less found Monolith Press, publish Dancing Barefoot, and start an entirely new career as a writer or have a second act in my acting career. There would be no Tabletop. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty happy that Tabletop is in the world.

We successfully fought to keep the Internet open and free just a few years ago, but it’s under attack again, another disastrous consequence of the Trump administration.

Here’s Consumerist on what is at stake (again) and why we are here (again):

Why is it in trouble?

The FCC that passed the Open Internet Rule was led by chairman Tom Wheeler, during the Obama administration. When the Trump administration took office in Jan. 2017, the FCC changed too.

At the end of January, long-time net neutrality foe Ajit Pai was promoted to the big seat and became the Commission’s chairman.

Pai has been gunning for net neutrality since the day it was adopted, if not sooner. So although in 2016 a federal court upheld the rules, Pai wants them reversed — and now, he has the means.

Because gaining a majority at the FCC is, on many key issues, basically a matter of partisan math, Pai will absolutely succeed if he wants to, regardless of literally tens of millions of people arguing against it.

Today is a day of action. Today, we are asking all Americans to take two minutes and contact the FCC, to make your voice heard, and make sure the FCC knows that you want network neutrality to be protected. Ars has a good collection of essential reading about network neutrality, but if you only have time to read one of them, here’s a concise guide to writing a comment to the FCC.

Two minutes, you guys. That’s all we need from you today. Please, take action.

 

Read more..

5 things I want you to know

Here are five things I want you to know:

  1. My friends, Kumail and Emily, wrote and produced a movie called The Big Sick. It’s about how they met and fell in love, and it’s wonderful. It’s a great date movie. It’s funny, it’s heartwarming without being saccharine, and it’s a true story! It’s a little indie movie, but it’s holding its own against big summer blockbusters, which is awesome. I want everyone to see it because it’s a great film (it should absolutely be considered during the award-o-rama season), but also because the way the studios work, it’ll only stay in theaters if it continues to outperform expectations. So please go see it, and tell your friends about it. (Those of you who are old enough to remember the early MeFi days will know where I got my linking style.)
  2. Yesterday morning, Anne woke me up twenty minutes before my alarm did, because she needed me to hear the noise our air conditioner was making. It couldn’t have waited until I was ready to wake up, when I was starting to come out of my deep sleep cycle, because it was making a noise similar to putting a handful of ball bearings and some broken glass into a blender. It turns out that the motor blew out during the hottest three days of the year so far, because I am a fucking idiot who forgot to change the ten dollar air filter (in my defense, we did the math on the calendar and realized that Anne was in emergency surgery when I should have been changing it, so I may have gotten the reminder from my task list a whole second before I dismissed it forever). It was so hot in our house, things in our pantry were melting. I’m grateful that we had eighteen hundred dollars in a sock just for such an occasion, and by the time the sun had done its worst, it was repaired. So consider this your reminder to go look at your air filter and change it, if necessary.
  3. I played games for the first time in months yesterday. My group was dealt a TPK when the last two members moved away in January, and I haven’t had anyone to play with. At first, I was happy to take the break, because gaming has been my job for the last four years. But as time went by, I became acutely aware of how significant gaming is to my life, my joy, and my reason for being. Tabletop is complicated for me, (and, honestly, Board Game Subreddit: maybe it just isn’t the right snow for you and you don’t need to rage at me about every single episode we do) and while I’m grateful as hell for everything it’s done to promote the hobby, the way Legendary has handled the fourth season and the relentless shitting on it and me by random internet strangers has taken its toll. I’d been so consumed by the things that made the show a bummer this season, and I’d been unable to play games for the sake of playing games for so long, I completely lost sight of how much I love gaming, how proud I am of our show, and the good it has done not just for my life, but for the thousands of other people who have shared their stories with me. So when we played Lords of Waterdeep and Splendor yesterday, it was like coming out of a fog of sadness for the first time in at least half a year.
  4. I’ve been listening to a lot of Bob Marley recently, and just this morning I came across a record I didn’t know about: Dreams of Freedom (Ambient Translation of Bob Marley in Dub). If you enjoyed the ambient tracks or the dub reggae I played on Radio Free Burrito, you have got to check out this record. It’s beautiful.
  5. Speaking of RFB, I had an episode about 3/4 finished two weeks ago, but I really just hated it so I sent it to the land of wind and ghosts. I know that I’m overdue to release a new show, but I didn’t appreciate just how challenging it is to do a weekly podcast that isn’t about current events, or features interviews. I feel like I have to go to this mental box to find stuff to talk about, and recently it’s been empty and sad (HEY JUST LIKE ME HA HA THAT IS A JOKE AND NOT REAL AT ALL EVERYTHING IS FINE I AM FINE HA HA HA). So rather than force something that I think is shitty garbage that sucks, I’ve just been waiting until I have something worthwhile to make.

So that’s five things I want you to know on this lovely Sunday that’s way too fucking hot. What do you want me to know?

EDIT OH SHIT I FORGOT I WANTED YOU TO KNOW THIS ALSO BUT SIX THINGS I WANT YOU TO KNOW IS WEIRD TITLE SO I’M NOT CHANGING IT: I am honored to be a guest on this week’s Lovett or Leave It podcast.

Read more..

Some pictures from today’s big old walk at the beach

“Do you you have to do anything on Monday?” Anne asked me.

I checked my calendar. “No, I turned in the draft of my Star Wars story, and I don’t think I’ll get notes on it until after the Fourth. Why?”

“Well, we’ve been so busy, we haven’t had much time to do anything together. I thought maybe we could go down to the beach, and take a big old walk together.”

“I love that. Let’s do that.”

So we went down to the beach today, and walked almost eight miles, had lunch, and got to spend a whole day together without anyone or anything getting in our way. It was really wonderful, especially considering that a month ago, we were in the emergency room together.

Continue reading… →

Read more..

10 things I want you to know

Things I want you to know about today:

  1. My friend Mikey Neumann’s show Movies With Mikey is being considered for an Emmy. If you are eligible to vote, I hope you’ll vote for him.
  2. There’s a new Tabletop! It’s Mysterium.
  3. I did a new Radio Free Burrito, and I’m quite happy with this one.
  4. I backed this white noise machine on Kickstarter about a year ago, and I’ve had it for about a month. It is the best white noise machine I have ever owned in my life, and I’ve owned a lot of them. If you have trouble sleeping or wake up easily during the night, check out Snooz. (NOTE: This is not an endorsement and I didn’t get anything for mentioning this. I just wanted you to know about it because it’s awesome.)
  5. I traded in my Nexus 6P for a Pixel and holy balls, it’s an incredible smartphone. I think I’m going to trade in my iPad for a Pixel tablet.
  6. I bought about 50 Choose Your Own Adventure books from eBay. Starting with the next Storytime With Wil, we’re going to have a whole bunch of new stories to explore together!
  7. I’m working with my business team to make some Facebook changes, including changing my personal page to a fan page, so we can do more business … uh … stuff. It’s weird. But one of the things we’ll be doing is sharing stories and posts from other sources (I guess this is a thing people do on Facebook now? I’ve been doing it on Tumblr for years, so I guess it’s the same?) and I’m very interested to know what sorts of sites and topics you’re interested in, if you read my dumb Facebook page.
  8. I’m coming to Washington, DC, for Awesome Con this weekend.
  9. My friend Ashly Burch refused to cross a picket line to perform the voice of Chloe — a beloved character she created — for the prequel to Life is Strange. Gamers are, sadly and predictably, being shitty to her about it. I remind everyone that Square Enix could easily bring Ashly back, by signing an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA, and respecting the contributions Ashly has made to the game. I stand with her, and I wrote about why I do several months ago.
  10. John Doe, from the seminal punk band, X, wrote a memoir about punk in the 80s, called Under the Big Black Sun. In addition to his own memories, he asked other people who were there, like Jane Wiedlin, Henry Rollins, and Jack Grisham. The book is an incredible read, on part with Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, or The Kid Stays In The Picture. But the audio version is sensational, because the essayists who contributed to the book read their own work. If you’re a fan of the music and the musicians, I can’t oversell how great it is to own both audio and print versions, because the photos in the print version are magnificent.

Okay, that’s ten things for you to know. Anything you want me to know?