Wil asked, so I’m answerin’.
My ManCrush, Wil Wheaton, ex-Star Trek actor, "Stand By Me" leech feeder, and excellent blogger, has put together a book of his memories (originally blog entries but updated and edited) called The Happiest Days of Our Lives. Now mind you, I really like the way Wil writes, so you know I really liked this book.
But how will I know you will like it?
That’s easy. If you like my writing, you’ll like his.
First, some context, and then a brief review.
Years and years ago, way back in the early 2000s, I was talking with a friend of mine from high school about life, the web, and stuff. She suddenly blurts out, "Do you read Wil Wheaton’s site?"
"Wil Wheaton?" I reply. "Wesley Crusher? Are you kidding?"
She’s earnest. "You need to read his stuff. His sense of humor is exactly like yours, and the two of you write the same way."
OK, I think. I like Kat a lot, and I trust her. After we hang up, I fire up the browser, and Google up Wil’s site. And then… well, you know what happened then. I start reading his blog, and I really like it (never confuse an actor for his character, or the way the character was treated). I find out Wil reads my blog. He goes public about it. A mancrush ensues.
Then my friend Fraser goes to the Pax con, and gets a copy of Wil’s Happiest Days autographed to me. What does it say?
How hawesome is that?
So of course, after all this, I will give the book a positive review. But I am a skeptic and scientist, and I can divorce my own personal feelings from a book review, right?
So:
This book is really good. Are you a geek? Grew up playing video games? Go to cons? Watch Trek? Have your own set of d10s, d12, and d20s (and if you even know what that means, then yes, you count)? Yeah, you know who you are. You are already one of us, whether you admit it or not. Come. Join us. Be with Wil and Phil and countless others who enjoy — nay, revel — in nerddom.
Wil’s writing makes this way of life less of the fringe it was when I was a kid and more of a real thing, a legitimate lifestyle choice. Sure, you get razzed by others, but this is really how we are. You get a taste of it through Wil’s eyes, through his reminiscing. There’s a nice mix of real-guy-with-a-life-and-family mixed in with fanboy mixed in with being an actual TV and movie actor. Also, I play poker, so his story about a Hollywood poker speakeasy made me laugh.
Obviously, if you’re a nerd gaming con-attending poker-playing Trekker, this book is perfect for you.
Otherwise, it’s just a really, really good book for you.
Seriously, it’s an excellent read. And just to add some leverage, Wil has put this together himself. No publisher, no agent. He is literally shipping the book from his living room.
And one last thing. I mentioned to The Little Astronomer how Wil loves to play Guitar Hero with his sons. TLA is good at Guitar Hero. Really good. Like kick Wil’s butt kinda good. Hear that, Wil?
Not only that, but she picked up Happiest Days today and started reading it. She asked me if Wil ever played NetTrek, the greatest game ever invented ever for the Internet ever, the crack cocaine of the ‘net, the game that delayed my PhD by a solid year, the game I played briefly with TLA before realizing my life would once again spiral down into an endless series of cloaking, ogging, and dooshing and so I deleted the binary. That game. I told her I didn’t know. But a few minutes later, while going through the book, right there on page 54, it says, "I’d [get] in my car and drive down to Guy’s place on the weekend so we could Appletalk our machines together and play NetTrek…"
Wil played NetTrek? Is this the same as Netrek that I played incessantly in grad school? Or is this some weird Apple version, long since gone to wherever dead games go? It it possible I ogged Wil’s base back in the 90s?
Probably not. But it’s connections like that, memories of gaming, cons, and nerddom, that you wonder about when you read his book. You’re there, experiencing what he did. So go read it, and see what it’s like to be Wil.
Turns out, it’s pretty nice.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I saw Wil Wheaton a couple of years back on The Weakest Link, and let me tell you, he acted like a total dick, behaving like a know-it-all and coming on in a really inappropriate way to Roxann Dawson, who was also on the show, in a way that upset her badly because she is married and was humiliated in front of millions of viewers. You can’t always trust impressions you get from a person’s blog; sometimes it pays to see how they actually (mis)behave. It disgusts me that people can be so gullible.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Hmmm, “Snooker. Which means, “to fool someone”.
You had me there for a sec, until I got to your last line.
I’d refer this doesn’t get out of hand here, so I’ll spoil the fun: Wil and Roxanna Dawson were pulling a gag. I thought it was pretty obvious when I saw the show, but a LOT of people took it seriously.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Bah – no international orders! Is it still 1990?
November 1st, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Don’t forget about Wil’s comedic stylings on the show ‘Arena’ from the G4 network. His episodes were by far the best of the run. Not as funny as when he stopped time on TNG though!
November 1st, 2007 at 11:30 pm
I think Wesley Crusher needs to get his own command in Star Trek the 3rd generation.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:11 am
Seconded Barry. I’d love to buy the book, Phil, but you gotta get Master Wheaton to acknowledge the rest of (at least) the Western World here. We’re cool with extra postage costs. We’re used to it. Just sell it to us, huh?
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 am
The one member of my family who watched TNG every week was perhaps the least nerdy. I’m referring to one of my sisters.
Did any ever play Starflight? I would sometimes play that game until the wee hours of the morning on some summer days.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:09 am
Boy, he does not even ship to Canada, not to speak of Europe.
Phil,you should really insert a “US citizens only” mark over this Blog entry.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:38 am
Wil. Wheaton. is. awesome.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:55 am
Troyon 01 Nov 2007 at 11:30 pm wrote:
>>I think Wesley Crusher needs to get his own command in Star Trek >>the 3rd generation.
Didn’t you see the “Journey’s End” episode ST: TNG? Wesley resigned from Star Fleet and is off being a cosmic entity or something for the rest of eternity. Gosh, *everyone* knows that!!
Uh…or maybe just geeks like me.
J. D.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:34 am
this is completely beside the point but you are getting your but kicked in the weblog awards
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:36 am
I have fond memories of watching some friends play NetTrek. Especially when they were in the same room playing against each other. Add in some more people in the same room trying to shush the players (as if they were actually trying to work!) and hilarity ensued!
Occasionally Rob still suffers from withdrawl.
Good times, Good times.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:50 am
Heh. Wil Wheaton is perhaps my favorite sort of person: the kind that stepped back, looked at himself, didn’t like what he saw, and changed it. Anyone with that sort of responsibility gets good grades in my book. Looks like he’s turned out to be a thoroughly decent nerdy guy. More power to ‘im.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Jeeze, Phil, you’re making me blush.
Thanks for the extremely kind words. I’m really happy that you enjoyed my book.
The NetTrek I played was on the Mac, and I think it was different than the ones you guys who had access to real computers — you know, the kind that had more than 4MB of memory — could play.
Snooker: the whole thing was a joke. I figured the best way to take on Anne Robinson (a really sweet woman who was also playing a pretty nasty character) was to be even more nasty than she was. Roxanne and I found something funny to do, and went with it, figuring the audience couldn’t possibly be so easily fooled.
I’ve discovered since then that I gave the audience way too much credit, and when I go to my two or three cons a year, at least one Trekkie furiously accosts me to defend Roxanne’s honor.
Those who are outside the US: Blame PayPal and the US Postal Service for being lame, and making it really difficult for a one-man operation to easily ship outside the US. I’ve added in the outrageously huge shipping fees that are required to prevent me from losing money on books, and I’m updating our ordering page right now.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
“Is this the same as Netrek that I played incessantly in grad school? Or is this some weird Apple version, long since gone to wherever dead games go?”
It’s some weird Apple version, one of the first Mac network games. (You played “Netrek”, the Mac game was “NetTrek”.)
http://www.fatlion.com/randy/nettrek.html
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I used to read his blog.
Yawn.
Sorry.
Hey, who’s going to go see John Glenn and Scott Carpenter tomorrow?
http://www.worldspaceexpo.com/g_appearances.htm
We just spent the afternoon watching, “The Right Stuff,” and my 11-year-old is GIDDY to meet his hero, John Glenn.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Wil Wheaton rocks. I love his writing – funny and so down to earth. Good stuff.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:58 pm
> A mancrush ensues.
…get a room guys…OH! THAT’S NOT RIGHT!!!
November 3rd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Briefly sat in on a few sessions of a ST fan group years ago. The younger male members HATED Wesley. Never understood why.
November 4th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
“Not as funny as when he stopped time on TNG though!”
Stevil,
Can you please tell me in which episode of TNG Wesley stopped time? I only remember Timescape, and Wesley was not in that episode.
As an aside, two sci-fi clubs in Brisbane – Conquest and the Brisbane Doctor Who Fan Club – used to play an annual cricket match for the Wheaton-Waterhouse Trophy, named of course, for Wil Wheaton and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric from Doctor Who). The trophy was so named because the abovementioned actors’ characters were felt to be the most irritating characters in their respective shows. This may be why we never invited Mr Wheaton to be a guest at Conquest.
November 5th, 2007 at 12:27 am
“the game that delayed my PhD by a solid year”
Now that is the best product endorsement I have seen since, maybe ever
November 5th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
JB of Brisbane,
J. D. Mackon 02 Nov 2007 at 8:55 am wrote:
“Didn’t you see the “Journey’s End†episode ST: TNG? Wesley resigned from Star Fleet and is off being a cosmic entity or something for the rest of eternity.”
Indeed it was the “Journey’s End” episode where Wesley discovered his supernatural abilities. Pfffft! Let’s see Mozart do that!
November 12th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Wil’s blog turned me on to ficlets.com.
Anybody can start a story thread but each addition can only have 1024 characters max.
I looked at a story started by Wil, “They Don’t Come Out at Night” (http://ficlets.com/stories/11739).
Veeeery creepy. There were several additions to the story by other people, all of them excellent. I just posted my second addition. I creeped myself out as I wrote them! I love the direction the story is taking. I wonder if it would be in bad taste for me to write a sequel to my own sequel. I’m impatient to find out what happens.
The challenge of sticking to no more than 1024 characters is very good concision training.