145 thoughts on “My Dragon*Con Schedule”

1. Hi Wil,
   I am a huge Trek fan (mostly in childhood) and just came across your stuff on aoltv. Really hilarious (though ancient by today’s standard, 2007, geesh!)description of the first half-season of TNG! I was a kid when they first aired in Germany and remember asking myself why those mean people made you guys say all that crap! But hey, maybe I was a really smart 10 year old and was the Wesley Crusher of Sci-Fi writing…. Why did you never finish the first season?
   anyway, huge fan of you on Big Bang Theory as well!!!
   Keep it going and try to get a job on the rumored new Trek-series (script reader springs to mind, might save me many “heads-hits-coffee-table-hard-repeatedly”-moments I had at the beginning of all Trek series!
   Failing that I nominate you for the role of Captain Wesley Crusher on his amazing adventures on the USS Brownsweater! 😉
   Sorry for spamming your site, btw!

2. Froggy strikes again. They’ve been earning a bit of a notorious reputation for screw-ups these past few years.

3. Hey Wil,
   Thanks for making this Dragon*Con great! My wife and I had a bit of a sucky Saturday. We were coordinating with our friend with the Wheatley puppet (you met her in your autograph line) to dress up as Cave Johnson and Carolyn, but hardly anyone recognized us!! We even went mostly unrecognized at the Portal/Valve meetup! So disappointing!
   Going to the Sunday morning Eureka panel was great though, and your panel this morning was just as good, if not better. I’d heard you telling the WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER story in Just a Geek, but the musical accompaniment by Paul and Storm really stepped that up a notch. You should get them to work with you on your next audio book. 🙂
   Anyway, I’m glad you made it to Dragon*Con this year, even if you may not be able to make it in future years. I know your con schedule is kinda busy, with several cons overlapping. I’d met you at GenCon last year (I gave you the 32 year old d20), but I didn’t make it there this year (my wife came down with pneumonia RIGHT BEFORE the con). I felt bad about that until I realized you weren’t going to be there. After that, I thought “Pft.. well, if Wil’s not going to be there, it’s going to suck anyway.” heh. 😉
   Question: I witnessed you sign 3 boobs this year (Colin’s at the Eureka panel, and the two this morning). Which was the best? I’m now picturing Colin giving you the “big eyes” now, though. hehe 🙂

4. I sincerely wish I had read this post BEFORE standing in line at D*C. Thank you for the fist bump and I honestly apologize for putting you on the spot when getting your autograph. It honestly didn’t dawn on me at the time about handshakes (I was very star struck.) I will most definitely remember this in the future. It was amazing to meet you and thank you for being so kind. I hope you enjoy the mini six sided dice and the next time we cross paths, I’ll have even cooler dice. I’m on a mission. 🙂

5. It’s not /your/ fault that you need to take precautions; it’s a shame that not everyone practices good hygiene. I know it’s still not a sure bet, but things aren’t especially close to ideal, either.

6. Hope you had a great time. You were so charming on the Eureka panel. I hadn’t known you could mime.

7. Yeah, not sure why some people don’t get the “no-touchy” thing. I’ll bet you $1000 any one of them would refuse to touch hundreds of strangers in quick succession over the period of a day. It’s just kind of creepy to think about in general.

8. Didn’t you hear about his Nana?

9. Hi Wil,
   I was the girl with the USB arm tattoo and the curly pigtails. I’ve got to say it was absolutely wonderful to meet you. And I felt so much better reading this post after the con. I felt horrendously awkward because i’ve met so many people who want to shake hands, and i got into a habit of anti-bac being my best friend. I felt bad for going for mine after meeting you, but when I turned around it looked like you had gotten out some anti-bac too haha. Made me feel way less awkward. I totally understand the no touching, please take care of yourself around con time. Again thanks again for being such a personable and amazing person.

10. Maybe all the crud avoiders could make stickers to stick on their shirts like a name tag? You know, ‘no handshakes + no hugging = no con crud’, ‘endangered immune system: please don’t touch me & give me con crud’, ‘don’t touch me, I have ebola’ or something much cleverer. Actually if a vendor sold buttons like that at a booth I bet people would buy them. It is hard to know how to signal these things without other people thinking you’re rude, maybe sticking an announcement to yourself is the easiest way. If people still have a problem, well. Haters gonna hate.

11. So, how many times this weekend did you write your name?

12. OMG, why would anyone have an issue with you not being willing to touch them?! It’s not their right to manhandle any of your body parts, even just to shake your hand. Selfish cretins!

13. So happy to have met you this past weekend! I know you met approximately 823,000 people, but perhaps you’ll remember that I was the 40yo roller derby chick (Mrs. Yuk). Thank you for being the earnest, sparkling person that you are. (I feel) You serve as an example of real humanity to all of show biz and people in general.
    PS: Don’t forget to look up that Mr. Yuk ad on YouTube. 😉 Truly mesmerizing and terrifying stuff!

14. Hey Wil! First off, everyone I spoke to totally understood the I DON’T WANT CON CRUD. No worries.
    I was hoping to meet you, get signatures, give you the d-20 necklace, etc., but you were over the top nice and even gave me advice about brewing that I think I retained most of, even though I was beating my brain into submission to listen. It was just going SQUEE!!! and not letting me focus much. My signed Three Wil Moon rode home next to my signed Bernie Wrightson print and signed Larry Elmore prints. I treasure them all and need to go find frames….

15. Can’t blame you for getting some grub Wil, I hope you still enjoyed your time at the con. I’m pretty sure you’re used to folks giving you a hard time here and there by now, but in any case keep your head up. I know a lot of people were just happy that you were there at all.

16. I just wanted to say thank you for your time and for the air hug! I can totally get behind the NO CONCRUD!!! I came down with a bad case of conzombie… where your brains doesnt work and body doesnt respond.. its great!! (that was due to my own crazied schedule for dcon) I hope you made out with a ton of dice and hope you still like you axis of anarchy d20 necklace… It was great making it with you in mind! Thanks for being so epic!

17. I was one of the lucky people to meet you in the Walk of Fame at Dragon*Con Saturday, and I totally didn’t feel dissed for not being able to touch you, especially since I had read your Disclaimer awhile back and knew ahead of time. My boyfriend even offered you cookies, and you politely declined. We didn’t feel like you were being a jerk and completely understood. In retrospect, I guess we should have brought you some gaming die. I thought about it after we met you…so if thoughts count for anything…!
    You’re a really nice and personable guy. I think it’s awesome that you don’t have a celebrity entitlement or personality. You were just a regular guy who happened to have people waiting an hour to meet you. You took time to chat with us and didn’t make us feel rushed.
    Anyway, I hope you had fun at Dragon*Con. I’m certainly glad that you decided to attend. You made the trip worth it for me, for sure.
    http://i55.tinypic.com/20su0ee.jpg
    Frogdiva & Sudrin
    (The black stringy thing attacking us in the picture is the camera strap).

18. Hey, Wil, just a quick explanation of something… I gave you a six-sider that is blank except for one side which features a Karma wheel. In case you’ve spent any brain cycles on trying to figure out what it is from, it is from a game a friend of mine is working on. If it ever comes out, you can go all hipster and say you had one of those dice when the game was still underground.

19. *pushes up hipster glasses*
    Awesome!

20. I was at Dragon*Con for just a couple of hours Friday and had to leave for the airport before getting to meet you. However, a friend of mine did meet you later that day and mentioned to you that I was a fan, but had to leave. So,you were thoughtful enough to write a little note for me on a piece of paper and pose for a picture while holding it. Just wanted to say…thank you so much!!! After meeting another favorite actor of mine from my teen years (not to name names, but it was Sean Astin) at the Con last year and after him acting like a HUGE, arrogant dick, it is nice to know some people can manage to have an acting career and still be a regular guy. Again, thank you so much for your kindness!

21. Aww, man. That makes me really sad. I hate hearing that people I like are dicks to people; it causes me to reconsider my opinion of them. I hope he was just having a bad day, or there was some other extraneous, unknown factor effecting him. I'm sorry.

22. See KGL, he did learn something out of the Sheldon Cooper incident 😉

23. I absolutely agree with the no touching policy. I used to work in a public library, and the mutant crud that I would get at least twice a year was enough to make me want to live in a bubble. The mutant strains of whateverthehellwasgoingaround that year was morphed by six different little kids coughing on me, the books I was taking in and the counter I had to work. Now that I’m working in various police facilities, there is even more alien, mutant crud floating around the ventilation system. Sworn can take work comp time for pneumonia…we civilians have to use our own time to work our way back to health. So stay strong, touch nothing, and have a blast!

24. I think that you’re being very reasonable for not wanting physical contact with fans / strangers… I work in clinical areas in hospitals and private medical practices and folks that don’t wash their hands or are not cognizant of how viruses spread are sick more than they are well.
    You’re in a tough spot… You don’t want to come off like a Howard Huges, germaphobe, douchebag; but who wants to get sick from that well meaning fan (that just sneezed into his hands) who wants to shake hands with greatness? 🙂
    If you find that fandom is giving you too much crap for trying to stay healthy, you could try using a antibacterial hand soap (the kind that doesn’t require you to wash with water) after so many hand shakes, but I find that this stuff really dries out your hands making them itchy. I suppose that would eventually make you appear like Uriah Heep… probably not a career enhancer.
    Good luck with that!
    Stay healthy.
    Allan

25. Oh, there’s certainly no need to apologize! Everyone has douchebag moments, and I am sure autograph signing in a huge, hot room packed with people would make anyone cranky after a while. He was never my favorite Goonie, anyway.;-) Take care and thanks again for the sweet note and picture!

26. I totally understand con crud is the worst. I am always warning the newbies to never touch any railing unless they are wearing gloves with a costume 60,000 other people touched those railings yuck. So glad to see you at Dragon*Con and really hope you come back next year

27. I hope you came away without getting sick. To greet people with politeness without skin-skin contact, why don’t you adopt the Thai greeting – the wai. You may already know about this, but if you don’t…you press your palms together in front of your face, as if in prayer, and bow your head slightly. A low wai, fingers at chin level, for any old us; a middle wai – thumbtips at nose level, for older, more senior, more respected individuals; and a high wai, hands at forehead level, for the King of Thailand or a Buddhist abbot should you ever meet one.
    When I was in Thailand a few years ago, I saw a rough-looking motorcycle gang greet each other with a low wai – a bizarre but telling sight.

28. Thank you so much for coming to Dragon this year. I hope your experience was good enough that you will return in future years; schedule allowing, of course.
    Meeting you made my entire weekend. I walked away from your table hoping I hadn’t “fangirled” too much.
    I hope you got a chance to go by the Chessex booth in the Exhibior’s Hall. My friends and I tried to work a deal with them to get you 10 pounds of dice, but we couldn’t afford it. Oh well. Maybe next time. 😀
    Thanks again for making it to Atlanta. It was an honor to meet you.

29. Wish I’d read this before I attempted to shake your hand. But it still wasn’t awkward. I totally get it. I got Swine Flu at Dragon*Con in 2009 as well. It was in full swing that weekend. One of the last things I did at that con was shake Alan Ruck’s hand (before I realized I was sick). I felt so bad about that the week afterwards…as I was hacking up a lung.
    I work at a hospital. This year, my infection control nurse told me that there is a new bird flu going around. Sure enough, I ended up sick. (But not nearly as sick as in 2009.) I posted on FB that I think I picked up that bird flu and my friend wittily replied that if I got it at Dragon*Con, surely it was the NerdFlu. 🙂

30. Thanks so much for coming out. And doubly thank you for being the first person to recognize my husband’s costume from DMZ! Even when you do a really obscure costume on purpose, it’s sad when nobody gets it.
    Thanks also for the recommendation of Ready Player One. I downloaded it on my Kindle and had to resist the urge to start tearing through it on the drive home from Atlanta. I need to make it last!
    Thirdly and finally, thanks for just being so nice and enthusiastic and genuine. I admit I had started to get burned out on getting autographs – it’s always been more my husband’s thing than mine, and after meeting a lot of total dick celebrities at cons I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I felt like I was being very respectful and friendly and getting nothing but contempt in return, and talking to you was totally the opposite experience.
    So, thank you.

31. *glares at computer screen from a drugged and feverish fog*
    What? No touching? But whyyyyyyyy?
    Oh, right.
    Dammit. It got me, Wil. So help me, con crud got me this year.
    I tried to be good, too. I got con crud after Dragon*Con 2009. It was my first time to do so. It wasn’t terrible, but it was bad enough. So, since then I’ve been, well, careful-ish. I don’t want to be all OCD and a complete germophobe, but I wash my hands a lot and use hand sanitizer and try to touch my face and other people rather minimally. But I’m still going to hug my friends. I only see some of them a few times a year, and well, you know how that goes. Well, it worked in 2010. Got off with nothing.
    This year, not so much. I’m sniffly and have a mild fever and I’m coughing a bit. So, yeah, I get the no touching thing. I may have to go further up the scale myself soon. Or not, because really I’m super excited about all this because I start a brand new job on Friday! Isn’t that wonderful!? It’s overnight work, and I’m just thrilled to be trying to flip my schedule with this crap in my nose making me want to sleep for a million years. Yay! When you add that I moved cross-county DURING Dragon*Con (yes, my stuff moved while I was there – no lie), it’s just the best! \o/
    [/sarcasm]
    You know what, though? Even without the sickness factor, dude. Screw those people who get pissy with you for this. It’s your prerogative, and, well, whatever. Douchebags. Some people aren’t comfortable touching for a lot of reasons. It’s called personal space, folks, and you don’t own it. Gr!
    Oh, sorry. I’m done now. Thanks for being awesome when I met you. Hope you are recovering well, and I’ll see you on the intertubes later.

32. PS: THANKS FOR COMING! I was on the East Coast, so I never thought I’d get to meet you! I’m in *shudder* Texas now, though, so you never know. West Coast (well, okay, Phoenix, because I blog for Kids Need to Read) is a lot closer now! 😉 Also, you killed on the panels I saw and super made my day for a lot of things. I’ll take no touching in exchange for actual conversation. Cheers!

33. I just wanted to thank you again for coming to Dragon*Con, I hope you enjoyed yourself and I really hope you come back again. I’m glad I knew beforehand about the physical contact thing, since my sister’s been reading your blog longer than I have and she told me about it. That would have been awkward..XD
    Thank you also for being so great and friendly sunday when I got to meet you. I was the second person in line, the girl who asked you to be her valentine, and I’ve got to say, I was so nervous. Thank you for being so nice, especially thanks for taking that awesome picture with me and giving me such an unforgettable celebrity encounter. I’ve been going to D*C for six years now and meeting you is one of the best stories I can tell about Dragon*Con.
    Hope to see you next year! I’ll bring you a valentine’s box of dice for our one-day-valentine anniversary, lol. 😀

34. Wish I could be there! But since I can’t, I’ll send you all my wishes for a healthy Con. You don’t need to explain why you’re not engaging in human contact with strangers, and never ever ever apologize for wanting to keep yourself healthy. Those of us who also hate getting the Creeping Crud appreciate the effort to avoid the spread!

35. I don’t think taking precautions helps. I haven’t taken any special precautions in any specific year and I only got sick at D*C the same two years you did. What you described you’re feeling right now is me to a tee. I think today is going to be the last day of it, though. So it’s nowhere near as bad as 2009.

36. Oh, I think it helps, but it’s still just luck of the draw. You touch the right thing at the right time, and there you go. Fomites are huge. It isn’t just person to person contact. But yeah, I really think it’s just a crap shoot no matter what you do. It’s good to hear you are feeling better. Me too! By a lot. I’m still puny, but I’m progressing back to normal, so I’ll take it.
    So maybe this bug isn’t the 2009 superbug that knocked so many of us on our collective asses. Whew! Maybe we’ve dodged that bullet. Here’s hoping, anyway!

37. I met Brent Spiner last year at a con who had adopted a no handshake policy as well for the same reason. He did an ‘elbow bump’ instead, which was pretty amusing, but even if he hadn’t I would have understood. I take public transportation every day, but that doesn’t expose me to the number of people at a con. Sorry some people were uncool about it, but as you know you can’t please everyone.

38. Although I know many other people at D*C have posted about what a marvelous experience it was to meet you, I felt I needed to add mine (and an apology!).
    I don’t do star struck often. I’ve been going to D*C for so long, I just like to meet celebrities but not lose my mind. I’ve met some serious geek cred actors/personalities, and not gone fan girl. Wil, I completely idiotted out with you. I knew I wasn’t supposed to put my hand out, but it was waaaaaaayyy too late when I realized it. You, super gracious, actually did shake my hand. I can’t tell you how much I admire that – that you are such a kind person even when people who are certainly old enough to know better act a fool. 🙂 I wanted to apologise for exposing you to con crud when I should have known better. Both my sister friend and my husband (Scruffy) were so pleased and honored to get pictures of you – meeting you was the highlight of the con for my husband! (who is also a D*C) regular.
    I know you won’t do east coast again any time soon, but I’m just thrilled to have had the opportunity to meet you and get your sig. I can’t thank you enough for making my family so happy with so simple a gesture.

39. I picked up the “con crud” because I blew my usual precautions: lots of Emergen-C (no, I don’t own stock in the company) and an afternoon nap (like Churchill).
    Man, did they have you over-scheduled! It’s a wonder you got to eat!

40. Smart move on the non-touching. You spoke to me from the Walk of Fame via my sister’s cell phone set on speaker, which was super-cool of you, but also brilliant, considering I now have a nasty case of con crud. I may, in fact, be Patient Zero this year, since I started feeling bad Saturday night. *hack cough wheeze*

41. Hey, fancy meeting you here, Todd!
    You were wise, Mister Wheaton, to avoid the touching and such. I’ve come home from past cons with maybe a sore throat or the sniffles, but this year I got pretty well flattened by an ugly, ugly cold — the same one, I think, that felled my buddy Todd here, and a good number of our other friends.
    When I went to get your autograph on Monday morning, I apologized to you for people being shitty. You were really cool about it and said it was just that one guy — but I was also talking about any dickbags who weren’t okay with you wanting your space. I wonder (and by that I mean “hope”) if any of them got as sick as I did!
    Right after that, you proclaimed me the winner of Dragon*Con Idol and you gave me an air five! I have been coming to D*C for a decade now, and that was definitely one of the high points. Like, I didn’t have enough time to get Carrie Fisher’s autograph on my officially licensed Star Wars Slave Leia Adidas (dude, they’re awesome, don’t laugh), but Wil Wheaton Air Five > Carrie Fisher sneakers. No lie. I didn’t even care.
    An old boss once told me, Illegitimi non carborundum: it’s fake-ass Latin for “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” I know it can be hard to remember that, especially doing what you do. But I hope all the positive comments here are evidence enough that you’ve touched a TON of people without ever laying a hand on them.
    And I hope you get your ass back to Dragon*Con next year.
    ETA: I don’t know why it’s listing me with some long-ass FB profile URL, but I have an actual name and it is Charlotte!

42. As a FAN who keeps you employed, you should bow to my every wish!
    KIDDING!! I’ve talked to people like that, though.
    I was at the Chessex booth and we all used tons of hand sanitizer.
    Speaking of dice, I’m still curious about your dice purchase…

43. Ahh, this post explains also the “No food from fans thing.” Perfectly understandable.
    How much swag did you get? I gave you a Munchkin dice that always a 7 or higher and the ST:TNG comic. How large is your Dice collection?
    I got into Munchkin too late to get a “Heart of the Anolamy” card. Still searching for one. Not likely to find one, but can’t hurt to look for it. I hope to find one in time for your next appearance at Dragoncon.
    Dr. Parrish is the perfect guy to dislike. I will miss Eureka. 🙁
    Take care and good luck.

44. Again late to the comment party, because Outlook decides for me what is SPAM and what is not, grrr. Anyways. I’ve been citing you as a role model on how to treat fans to Meaghan Rath, a very talented young actress from my neck of the wood. So of course, as serendipity would have it, she was sitting right beside you at Dragon*Con. Here words were “he is fantatic with his fans”. So thank you for not making me lie 😉
    Oh, and she got sick 🙁

45. I’m aware that this is a rather old post but I just wanted to say kudos to Wil for using the correct “ASL” instead of the more popular but incorrect “sign language”. My fiancée is an ASL Interpretation major so I was corrected on this subject often.

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