Wil Wheaton's Blog, page 161

From the Vault: how deep is the ocean?

All my creative energy is currently spoken for, so let's into The Vault and pull out an old post about that time I auditioned for On The Road. 

When I wrote this, I was waiting to find out if I'd been cast in I, Robot. I'd had a sensational audition that got great feedback from the casting director, only to find out that the director (who I recall was annoyed at my mentioning the audition on my blog) "didn't respond" to my tapes. It was pretty heartbreaking, and without more specific...

in which my brother gets excited and makes things

Whenever I write about and link to my brother's photography, the positive feedback is just overwhelming. It seems that people all over the world love his work just as much as I do, and as a big brother that makes me put my hands on my hips and smile like a goon.

If you haven't seen them before, here are a few of his pictures, from Jer's Flickr thingy (click to embiggen):

On his website, Jeremy says:

I'd have to say that my father was my biggest influence for photography. While I...

CSI: D&D

This is a little bit of gallows humor that I whipped up and sent to Scott Kurtz and my friends at Penny Arcade when we all knew that Aeofel was dead, but couldn't tell anyone else in the world.

It seems pretty stupid and clunky now, but at the time, it was as hilarious as it was cathartic to me.

(Oh, and just to clarify for anyone who doesn't know: This is an image that was meme'd a little while ago. I didn't do the art. I just filled in the word balloons. Hey, it's like I'm a Marvel writer in...

CSI: D&D

This is a little bit of gallows humor that I whipped up and sent to Scott Kurtz and my friends at Penny Arcade when we all knew that Aeofel was dead, but couldn't tell anyone else in the world.

It seems pretty stupid and clunky now, but at the time, it was as hilarious as it was cathartic to me.

(Oh, and just to clarify for anyone who doesn't know: This is an image that was meme'd a little while ago. It was originally from a webcomic called Bigger Cheeses [thanks to reader phuzz for the link...

Hey look! It's the Memories of the Futuremug!

It turns out that all this talk about getting excited and making things, uh, got me excited to make something.

I don't remember the precise moment this hit me, but I'm pretty sure it happened during one of those times I felt stuck on a story or something, and decided to get out of my office and take a walk. These walks are a fundamental part of my creative process, a time when I let my mind wander away, confident that it will come back with something cool.

During this particular walk, I...

ten quick things, including some math, a comic, and a few ideas

I can't believe it's Friday, which means tomorrow is the weekend. Where did this week go, anyway?

A few things I wanted to mention before I get busy:

1. If you'd told me a year ago that I'd be going to bed between 9 and 10 every night, then waking up entirely on my own between 6 and 7 the next morning, I would have called you a name ... but it's what I've been doing the last six weeks, because I'd rather wake up on my own, than be woken up by the fucking construction next door.

2. Scott...

Get Excited and Make Things!

My friend Ariana works with Warren Ellis to make all kinds of really cool things. Lately, they've been experimenting with print on demand technology to take creative risks that simple economics would have rendered impossible as recently as five years ago.

For example, three weeks ago, they started putting out a T-shirt of the Week at CafePress. It's a great idea: they put up a design on Sunday, it's available for a week, and then it goes off to the land of wind and ghosts to make room for...

today only ... you ... can ... get ... SHATNERQUAKE ... forfree!

When I was working on Leverage this summer, I spent quite a bit of quality time in Powell's world of books. On one of my trips into the store, I saw a little book with a fantastic cover that I knew I would be buying before I even laid a hand on it. That book was called ... Shatnerquake.

I sent a picture to Twitter and said "How can I *not* buy a book called Shatnerquake?" It was, of course, a rhetorical question that I couldn't (and can't) summon the appropriate double-not-negatives to...

don't blame the sweet and tender hooligan

Did I mention that I turned in Angel One to my editor last week? That means that this week, I'm working on what was commonly called "one oh one oh one oh one oh one oh one" by my friends on TNG. It's also known as The One With The Bynars, and I recall thinking that it was pretty good. I loved working on it, but until I watch it later today, I don't remember exactly why.

Some people have asked me how I put these things together, but I never know exactly how the memories will shake loose for me ...

"What on earth did nerds do in the 1980s to figure this all out?"

I'm way late to the party on this, but I just started reading Spook Country this week. Unlike most Gibson books I've read, it doesn't ramp up slowly, and instead hits the ground running (that's not a bad thing). I'm only 30 pages in (it's been a busy week without a lot of time to read) but I'm pretty sure I'm going to like it; I can easily connect to the tone, the characters, the setting, and the storytelling style he uses.

When I logged into Goodreads this morning to put it on my...