DenialS's Journal: Reading, and thinking, and not sleeping enough

So I'm lying in bed, having just finished reading Wil Wheaton's Dancing Barefoot this weekend and Just a Geek today, and I've been introspective. Well, that and I added Wil as a "friend" using Slashdot's social networking features that I noticed a few months back but never really took the time to understand.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming to understand it all now, either, and in fact I've probably committed a heinous crime by adding Wil to my friend list instead of listing myself as a fan (drooling or no). But hey, I just read all of his published-in-paper works, which have a common theme of discovering how to be comfortable with himself, and I

1. can totally relate on a number of levels. Okay, maybe not the childhood stardom, but I was always an intellectually mature-beyond-my-years but emotionally confused kid, and I listened to most of the same music (except replace Oingo Boingo and Squeeze with anything of the Throwing Muses / Belly), and I'm just about the same age and married to a beautiful wife and the world seems to have changed so fast while I still sometimes feel like that kid desperate to demonstrate my brilliance to those around me as though that compensates for my inability to just hang out and genuinely enjoy the moment
2. had read almost all of his blog posts before, without realizing that I had been lurking at his Web site almost since its inception -- and I don't feel cheated at all, because what makes the books so great is Wil's commentary about what was going through his mind as he was writing the comments that he was representing as going through his mind. Fascinating, insightful, and painfully honest stuff. I'm sure he learned a lot about himself from writing the books, but I hope he realizes that his experiences capture the human condition (at least of 32-ish year old males of greater than average intellect and less than average confidence with the ladies) uniquely, clearly, and professionally.

So yeah, I guess I'm really a fan, since I don't even have the guts to fire off an e-mail to Wil, but what the hell -- if the system lets me pretend that this guy that I consider a peer is actually my friend, I'll take advantage of the system, because he is the kind of guy that I would want to be my friend.