Where I’m At
Posted on July 17, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
This is what it looks like.
Another small bit of travel today and then hanging about with old friends, so once more not a lot of time for all y’all. Hey, now, don’t be that way; I spend a lot of time with you guys, you know. But the real world has its charms too. Especially when it’s looking like this.
Before I go, however, I really have to point you in the direction of this fabulous bit of artwork, done by artist “Winneganfake.” You may notice the devil looks a bit familiar. Winneganfake is selling prints of these, and really, I suspect no home will be complete without one.
Dammit Scalzi, I’m waiting patiently for a Harry Potter movie post so I can bust out a joke I formed while driving around San Diego.
Q: What does Lord Voldemort make each morning?
A: Undesirable Number Two
I dunno, Mr. Scalzi…
The devil looks pretty damn familiar, however -as my middle name is Webster- I have to say that it looks nothing like me.
Enjoy your trip on the left coast.
So, wrong coast, but doesn’t anybody keep waiting for the pan to the left showing the destroyed Statue of Liberty and then Scalzi falling to his knees and shouting, “You destroyed it! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!”
Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!
Hah. The photo gave it away. That’s a nice beach, nice town. Unfortunately I don’t know that town well enough to be able to recommend any local hangouts, but it sounds like your friends are (mumblemumble) natives so that’s probably not a problem.
So, is that “On The Beach”, or “In The Village”?
Damn it Scalzi! Are you actually goofing off. We don’t have time for this.
We are your fans and demand that you write everyday until your fingers cramp up in a ball of pain. We know how you eat, you could die on us.
Get back to work! I know where that beach is. I will come down there. Don’t make me go medieval!
Is that the beach down Pacifica ways that features the nicest Taco Bell in the world? Kind of looks like it.
I wondered why the internet seemed so fast yesterday and today, Scalzi’s on vacation. I should have known when Twitter showed a 20% drop in traffic over the last 48 hours. If John and Wil Wheaton ever take a vacation at the same time Twitter will probably implode from lack of use.
Keep going north, John, I’ll meet you in Ketchikan and buy you lunch.
That log is stalking that person. RUN!!
Jim@9 – according to a recent Twitter, Wil Wheaton is taking the weekend off – so the implosion may be coming soon.
Aha. Wil and John off the net at the same time…
…TOGETHER…
I knew that the Velvet Wesley was the beginnings of something so perverse that only a warp bunny could understand it!
Scalzi and Wheaton off the internet at the same time?
That’s it, I’m tying shit down, the shock waves from the net implosion aren’t getting me.
Speaking as a Pacifican, I can assert that that is not a picture of any beach in Pacifica. Sand is too white. Beach is too broad. That point is not one of the points in Pacifica.
OK. I looked at it some more. It looks like the mouth of a river or creek on the left side of the picture. Someone should start flying up the coast on http://www.californiacoastline.org/ and figure out which river that is.
Hank@15 –
Californiacoastline.org’s photos of that area are all from sufficiently different angles that you’ll probably not catch where it is.
If you know where to look and pretty precisely where to put the cursor and view angle/attitude, the Google Earth view lines up. But I suspect anyone who doesn’t know the area already will not know how to focus in on that being the right place to start looking in detail. Going by “beach next to river” gives you too many candidate locations and if you don’t guess exactly where to look at the one (I think / am reasonably sure) he’s at, it looks all wrong.
You also have to know that there’s a seasonal sandbar in play.
Scalzi and Wheaton, sitting by the sea.
Es-chew-ing tech-nol-o-gy.
Scalzi won’t blog.
Wheaton won’t Tweet.
Then come disasters that don’t fit in this met…er.
George @ 16 you do realize that restraining orders have been issued for less, right?
Then again, 50,000 people read this blog every day – they can’t stop all us. Can they?
Jim –
I am not getting in my car and driving up to (mumblemumble), nor naming it here for anyone else who has a lack of net/life boundaries sense. Scalzi and Wheaton deserve their private (mumblemumble) weekend tryst privacy etc etc.
I thought I recognized the location from the photo, confirmed it with a Google Earth surface view (I had guessed right to within about 30 meters of the photo location), and went off to check the coastline website after someone suggested using that to find the place. Hopefully indicating “that won’t be a helpful resource” will avoid much frustration but not usefully help anyone who has the aforementioned lack of net/life boundaries and MUST MUST MUST GO SEE TOUCH ANNOY THE HELL OUT OF FAVORITE AUTHOR.
I can’t help it that he went somewhere that I know (or at least, remembered well enough to guess correctly). Anyone who’s spent much time on the California Coast would have a chance to recognize it, though you’d have to have gotten out of the car and hung out on the beach.
Perhaps mentioning that I figured it out was impolitic, but I figured it was harmless, as long as I don’t aid or abet anyone with aforementioned lack of net/life boundaries from stalkerizing.
Who’s this Wheaton person/character you guys keep going on about? Is he real or fictional? Just wondering . . .
Hey! I know that beach. I built several of the cellular sites around that area. Stayed there about 3 weeks and it was one of the nicer field jobs I had. Hard work, but wonderful downtime. A couple of months later I did Sonoma and Napa Valley areas. Also very nice.
Who’s this Wheaton person/character you guys keep going on about? Is he real or fictional? Just wondering . . .
He’s completely fictional. Scalzi imagined him one day, as sort of a younger, hipper version of himself.
Jim @ 22
… and then by use of a magic felt painting, brought him into existence.
Steve @ 23
…only to discover that he was evil and that they must battle to the death for supremacy of the internet.
There can be only one.
Oh, that’s a beach! On the iPhone the strip of water was so small it just looked like some desolate desert setting….