The Happiest Days of Our Lives

Reading Wil Wheaton's "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" really conjured up so many childhood memories for me. Several reviews I had read said that Wil's book has a nostalgic feel to it, making you think of your own childhood. They weren't kidding. I finished reading it just now, and I all I can think about are the little moments in life that are etched in my memory. He is definitely a great story teller, and because he's a blogger his writing flows as easily as reading a blog.. which probably explains how I managed to finish the entire book so quickly. I feel a little jipped actually.. wish it was twice as long.

I don't know Wil Wheaton nor do I care about him. I don't care about the things he faced or experienced in school and as a child. The truth is I couldn't care less. But he's such a great story teller and the way that he describes everything makes you think about yourself. About all the little things you did as kid, things that were so important to you but might not matter now as an adult. Rules to live by for a kid. And.. and being able to remember the things you really cared about, and mattered, and things you were so afraid of and things that annoyed you to your core as a child. And how innocent we all were, in our own little worlds.

I don't think I knew many kids who were as geeky as Willow Wheaton was. Sure I dabbled in Dungeons & Dragons during Chinese School, and yea I got picked on at school because I was puny. And yea I sucked at sports, and was constantly distracted by video games. I was also great at dodgeball, not so much because of my agility but because more because no one really paid much attention to me. I too, hated to be embarrassed in front of other kids, often hiding in a corner and crying about it. I too labored and gawked at the toy store, staring up at hundreds of action figures that I wanted but could only afford at most 1 per month, and considered saving up for a few months to get a big one. I too got board games for Christmas when all the other kids my age were playing Nintendo.

How do you play board games when you're an only child? You don't. So you develop an overly active imagination, start playing games left hand against right hand, invent different personalities in your brain so that you could pit one against the other. For 9 years, that's what I had to do. For years Wil played D&D all by himself.

I don't pretend to be the same as Wil. We're far from being the same, I was certainly not a child actor, although maybe a pretender. But reading his book really reminded me of things that I really loved and cherished. It's a great, short read and I look forward to reading more.

Star Trek

I started reading Wil Wheaton's "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" today. For those who recognize the name but can't quite put your finger on it, Wil Wheaton played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, please go away and never come back. You are not welcome here and I do not want to be associated with you.

It seems that reading paper books is rather laborious at least for me. I don't seem to enjoy reading books as much as reading things online, like on a computer. It's a completely different feel. For one thing when reading a book, I'm usually in a fairly comfortable position, and what do I enjoy doing when I'm in a comfortable position? SLEEP.

So it's rather non-conducive for me to be reading a book while sitting comfortably. And even in uncomfortable arrangements, like on the subway for instance, what would I rather be doing? SLEEPING. No one ever believes me when I say this, but I have fallen asleep several times on the subway while standing. Every time I've done this, it was done while standing against the wall next to the doors.. except for this one time when I tried sleeping while standing in the middle with no support but the pole, which I was stretching out to reach and was hanging on by 2 fingers. When I fell asleep that time, and the subway stopped, I nearly ended up falling on top of someone. That time was pretty bad.

So back to Wheaton's book. His writing is actually a lot like blogs, and in fact a lot like my blog, except he has a way better vocabulary. And he seems to have a far more vivid memory than I do. I may have memories of my childhood, but do I remember the struggles I had deciding which kind of gum I wanted, or which toy I should get given my tiny 25cents/month budget? Actually I guess I do.

In the book he claims actually that all the entries were taken from his blog, and likely were not even properly edited beforehand. So it's almost like I paid $15 for something I could have found online! I've already found several typos. I wonder if that's because he was too cheap to get it properly edited, or did he leave them in there to prove that he'd just pulled them directly off his blog.

I used to hate Wesley Crusher. I don't know what it was about him that I hated, maybe because he was this annoy little kid on one of the best shows ever, he seemed more like a nuisance than anything, and then how he behaved, he was like a deer in headlights all the time, not cool like the other characters on the show. Plus he was just the biggest geek, completely awkward and socially inept. He was goofy. A total nerd and overachiever. I guess there was also a jealousy factor.

I still remember a few weeks ago when Pastor Daniel preached about something.. which I don't remember.. but what I do remember is that he mentioned Star Trek, and the line "Shakka.. where the walls fell." I think it was at that moment that Ina realized I was a trekkie, and that incredulous look she gave me when she said "You're a trekkie?".

It would have been so cool to work on that set.. to be part of that tiny pocket of pop culture, the Star Trek cult classic. To have the opportunity to work with so many great actors like Patrick Stewart, and, um.. right. To see all the neato costumes, or even to wear that awesome Federation uniform. To have met Marina Sirtis. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life, and new civilizations. To boldly go where no kid had gone before.. vrrooooomm.. dooo do-do doooo, do-do dooo.. do-do-do-do-do doo doo doo do-do-do-doooo.. staar trek.. staar trek.. do do do do sta-a-ar trek.