The clouds speed across the sky, white and grey.
Green leaves rustle, vibrant against the greyness of the impending storm.
The Sun stabs through the clouds. Placid blue pools sit atop shafts of light.
A chill wind blows.
The sky weeps.

Anne’s friend and her awesome kids have returned home, we’re back to cooking for four instead of seven (I have no idea how you Mormons do it!) and our house is once again silent, except for the jingle of Ferris’s collar, and the hum of all my computer fans.
We had such a great time while they were here: we went to Disneyland on Thursday, California Adventure on Friday (Huge, huge, huge thank you’s go out to Eric, who signed our friends in both days, and Tom, who signed Ryan and Nolan in on Friday).
The kids hadn’t ever been to Disneyland before. The best part of the experience for me was watching their faces on The Haunted Mansion, or the Pirates of the Caribbean. I recalled how magical those rides were to me when I was a kid, and seeing the excitement and wonder play across their faces took me back to a time when pirates chased wenches, not plates of food.

Check it out.
No, seriously. Check it out.

So that annoying splash screen is going to stick around until the end of the week . . . because I think it looks pretty cool.
Or maybe I’ll take it down right now.
The e-mail consensus is that I look angry . . . which is kind of a drag, because I thought I looked tough.
Grr!! Check me out! I’m tough! Yeah! Tough! Grrr!!
Does anyone buy that?
Didn’t think so.
Today, I shot an interview for this thing that’s going to be on ABC during May Sweeps, called “Our Favorite Stars: Then And Now.”
I guess I’m one of their favorite stars, or something. It’s pretty cool. 🙂 I got to talk about WWdN, recall some memories about Stand By Me and Star Trek, and talk about my books. We shot it at the ACME Comedy Theatre, which is cool, because ACME will get some national TV exposure out of it.
If anyone saw me on TechTV’s The Screen Savers yesterday, LOSING in the Great PC race, here’s what happened: Roger and I planned out how we were going to assemble the machine, and, on a scale of 1 to awesome, everything went totally great . . . except we both forgot that the P4 needed power.
Yeah, it’s been awhile since I put together a machine.
But you know what? It’s really easy. If I can do it, anyone can do it.
Heh. “Do it.” Cool.
Chris DiBona also did a review of Red Hat 9 that you may find useful. I haven’t gone to 9, yet. I’m still 8.0 with about a thousand apt-rpm additions. I’m terrified that upgrading to 9 will break my box . . . so I’ll upgrade the machine Anne and the kids use first. 😉
Anne’s friend Ashley is in town for the rest of the week with her insanely cool kids. We’re going to be doing the Los Angeles tourist thing until Sunday, so blogging will be pretty light, if at all.
Several people have asked what happened to comments. Sadly, they’ve been disabled until I can figure out a way to ensure that people can act like mature adults, and not mouth-breathing idiots. Several readers have chosen to join the Soapbox community, and there’s cool commenting going on in there.

How about a Thought For Today?

“Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws.”

-Sir Richard Francis Burton

How about that annoying splash screen, huh?
Don’t worry, it’s just there for today, to announce the arrival of COOL NEW WWDN SHIRTS!!
Check them out.
No, seriously, check them out!
Update: The response has been incredible! I am really happy. I think this design is just awesome, and apparently so do you guys.
But here’s the coolest thing, ever. When we were watching “24” tonight, Ryan said to me, “Hey, Wil, do you have any extra T-shirts?”
“For who?” I said.
“For me, man! Your shirt is so cool, I want one! And some stickers, too!”
I gave it to him, and he told me he’s going to wear it to school tomorrow.
I tried to act tough, but my grinchy heart grew two sizes today.