Wil Wheaton's Blog, page 156

regarding the matter of video games v. movies

I had the house to myself last night, so I could watch whatever nerdy DVD or DVR'd movie I wanted, as loud as I wanted. I've been talking about re-watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended editions, of course) for a couple of months, but when I finally had a chance to get started, I ended up playing Dragon Age for three hours instead.

I love Lord of the Rings, and even though I've been trying to get Anne to sit down and watch it with me again for months, when I had my chance to watch...

for those of you wondering what time it is...

(Thanks to my friend C., who made this when I needed a bit of cheering up.)

From the Vault: Still Cool

This is excerpted from something that was written eight years ago, almost to the day. In addition to being a story that still makes me smile, it provides context and back story for Friday's post that newer readers may not have.

Even though I'm a much stronger and more confident writer now than I was then, I've resisted the urge to rewrite this, because something would definitely be lost in the translation... 

In the summer of 1988, I turned 16 years old, and, just like the Corey's, I got a a

in which a text is received and a phone call is made

I'm up to my neck in Memories of the Future Volume 2 work, but I wanted to take a minute to share something cool that happened yesterday...

The familiar chirp of an Original Series communicator came out of my Blackberry, announcing the arrival of a text message.

I thumbed it a couple times and read a message from Brent. "Jonathan is trying to get in touch with you. Give him a call when you can." A smile spread across my face as I selected the phone number and clicked the appropriate buttons to...

billy bad breaks

This post has nothing to do with its title, but after staring at this for 20 minutes trying to come up with one, I just grabbed the first song title I could find. Thanks, The Damned. Once again, you come through when I need you.

We've had a drought in Southern California for so long now, even a little rain is cause for our local news to go apeshit with STORMWATCH!!11!!1 coverage. This week, though, we've had serious storms that have produced tornadoes, mudslides, flooding, and all sorts of...

From the Vault: a design flaw in the otherwise perfect basket

Last night, I stood in front of the open refrigerator and thought to myself, "You know what would go good with this vegetarian chili? That Oaked Arrogant Bastard!"

I reached for it, applying my -3 DEX modifier, like you do. A minute later sent the following text message to Anne:

"Hey, we're out of beer. Could you pick up some Oaked AB on the way home? Also, totally unrelated to this, where's the mop?"

While I waited for her reply, I was reminded of this post I wrote three years ago:

We...

moves by just like a paper boat

It's been raining pretty steadily, very heavy at times, since yesterday afternoon. The weather service says we should expect this to continue for at least a week, but it could go on for up to two weeks.

I mention this because it hardly ever happens here, and if people weren't truly in danger from mudslides in the burn areas (including my parents, their entire neighborhood, and a lot of my friends) it would be incredibly amusing to watch the local media go apeshit on STORMWATCH!!1!1, upgrading ...

Helping Shawn Powers

Shawn Powers, who edits Linux Journal and is a friend to geeks everywhere, lost his house to a fire today. Scalzi says:

Shawn Powers, a friend of Whatever and also a frequent commenter here, has had a very bad day: His house has burned up. The good news is Shawn, his wife and children are safe; unfortunately their pets were victims of the fire.

Friends and co-workers have set up a place for other friends and concerned folks to chip in to help Shawn and his family get through this really...

a decidedly unglamorous urban scene

I was going south on Highland, stopped six or so cars behind the light on Hollywood, when I took this picture yesterday afternoon. 

 

You can't see it, because it's just out of the frame on the left, but if you were to face north and go past that bar, you would an empty storefront that still has a crumbling sign and vague paint outline in the window that once identified it as a record store. I don't know what that giant construction project behind it is, but I suspect it'll be a hotel. Cross...

my god, it's full of futuremugs

The Memories of the Futuremug makes an appearance in Stellar Cartography:

Isn't the perspective of the mug and the projector cool?

(Thanks to dotsandlines for taking and sharing this picture at flickr)