The beer I helped design with Drew Curtis and Stone Brewing Company is officially available. It’s called the Farking Wheaton W00tstout, and it’s a massive 13%ABV Imperial Russian Stout made with pecans and quarter-aged in bourbon barrels. I’ve had a taste, and I love it. Best of all? It’s designed to age for a decade or more, so get some, cellar it, and open on every few months to see how it develops.
As I write this, there’s about 25 hours left on the current Humble eBook Bundle. You can pay whatever you want and get a ton of great books. If you pay above the average (which is $10.41 right now) then you also get The Last Unicorn and Just A Geek. Remember that you get to decide where your money goes, to charity, to authors, to the Humble devs, or some combination of the three.
We’re just about 2 days away from w00tstock 5.0! We’re nearly sold out, but there are a few tickets left. I can’t tell you who the surprise guests are, because duh, surprise, but I strongly encourage you to get to the show early so you don’t miss the beginning.
I am still hoping that I can play a ukulele cover of a popular tune the young people will enjoy, but I’m struggling to get to that point where I feel like I can perform in public, so it may have to wait until the Fall Wil Wheaton vs. Paul and Storm tour, coming soon to a city near you if you live in the Northeast or Texas.
A few months ago, Hank Green invited me to join DFTBA Records to sell some cool things like posters and T-shirts. We announced it today with this really awesome poster, among other things:
I wrote this thing on my Tumblr yesterday. I’m putting it here for reasons:
“Don’t let yourself get caught up in popularity contests. When you care about winning a popularity contest, or maintaining some kind of popular status, you make pleasing other people more important than being true to yourself.
One of the keys to happiness is not having a fuck to give about popularity contests or worry about what THEY will think. THEY don’t know a goddamn thing, THEY don’t care about who you are when you wake up terrified in the middle of the night. THEY aren’t worth your time and energy, so don’t put your sense of self worth and control of your happiness into their hands
Be kind. Be honest. Work hard. Speak up. Be honorable. Be silly. Be you.”
Whenever someone tells me they’re not going to [read | follow | subscribe | whatever] because I’m not dancing precisely the way they want me to, as if I should listen to their threat and immediately modulate who I am to please them, I usually think, “oh how adorable that you think I have a fuck to give for someone who thinks being popular is so important to me that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep their (conditional) approval”. So I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, and I thought I’d take a stab at putting those thoughts into something affirmative that I wish someone had said to me when I was younger, and worried all the time about being popular and cool.
I may work on this a little bit, and see where it leads, but this is off the top of my head in about five minutes.
EDIT: By popular demand from educators, here’s a non-swearified version of the above. You have my permission to use it as you see fit, and my thanks for being teachers.
“Don’t let yourself get caught up in popularity contests. When you care
about winning a popularity contest, or maintaining some kind of popular
status, you make pleasing other people more important than being true to
yourself.“One of the keys to happiness is not caring about popularity contests, or
worrying about what THEY will think. THEY don’t know anything about who
you are inside, THEY don’t care about who you are when you wake up
terrified in the middle of the night, or struggle just to get to the end
of the day. THEY aren’t worth your time and energy, so don’t put your
sense of self worth and control of your happiness into their hands.“Be kind. Be honest. Work hard. Speak up. Be honorable. Be silly. Be you.”
Finally, I am struggling with massive anxiety about Comicon, because I have such a huge pile of things to prepare for, and not enough time to prepare them. If you wanted to see me do some of the things, here’s my schedule:
Wednesday – HopCon at Stone’s Liberty Station
Thursday – w00tstock at the Balboa Theatre
Friday – Gaming in Geek & Sundry land (Star Trek Catan tourney, among other things) from about 11am until 3:30pmish.
Moderating the Falling Skies panel at Comicon from 4:30-6:30.
Moderating The Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman Panel with Adam and Jamie from 7:30-8:30pm.
Saturday: I’ll be part of the Geek & Sundry panel at Comicon at 11am.
Sunday: I’ll be back in my house sleeping and decompressing.
I’m not doing any photo or autograph things, but if you see me feel free to give me a Sci-Five or holler “WHEEEEAAATTTOOONNN!!”, because that always makes me giggle.
Oh, one last thing I forgot: I’m in a video with Alan Tudyk that we made for NASA, which explains how gravity holds things in orbit … explained by a brain parasite living inside an astronomer. It’s really cute and clever, and full of delicious SCIENCE!
Breathe. 🙂 You’ll be great, and you will do great. Until you believe that, go run or pick up heavy shit real fast.
So is there no HopCon beer thing in Pasadena now? Or is that happening at some unspecified later date?
If that happens, it will be later in the summer.
Cool. Play a round of Cosplay Bingo for me. I’ll be in Deadlineland and not at Nerd Prom. I am sadface.
Really awesome poster as a really awesome shirt, please, please, pretty please.
Agreed, and to quote from The Last Crusade, “and I even like the color”
Shut up and take our money!
*throws money at Wil* All over this as a t-shirt
New Kickstarter for gaming nerds that I saw on Wired. Made me think of Wil and Anne, advertised as a cross between ‘You Don’t Know Jack’ and ‘Cards Against Humanity’
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1754730583/seriously
P.S. If you do get the shirt going, could you see if they could make them in tall sizes? I can wear an XL, but XLT fits so much better.
Thank you for being you and for reaching out to help the younger generation. The YouTube video of your thoughts on being a geek recently helped my 11 year old daughter with some problems she was having at school, being bullied and such. She was going to abandon everything she loved (manga, anime, drawing, sci-fi) just so everyone would leave her alone but you changed her mind. You are truly amazing and I will never be able to say thank you enough for those words. I will be purchasing that poster for her room!
Mmm, beer. Wait, where was I? Oh yes…
Enjoyed the video, nice to see the good old free-falling elevator analogy. Alan Tudyk has a great voice for that too. Looked like a lot nicer animation than in the science video I’ve done for the Geek & Sundry vlog search, but I try. Would it be too cheeky to link to that here?
Hope you have a great time at Comicon. I’m going to my first big convention this summer and I’m looking forward to it!
Northeast, you say? (ears prick up… other words on screen fade into blurry nothingness)
what, what? (or wot, wot… ie. Jermaine, Flight of the Conchords)
Yes, yes, more details on the northeast possibilities, please!!!
Wil, as a fellow anxiety sufferer, I know this won’t help as much as I want it to, but you got this, man. You have the shoulders to hold this thing called life up. Congrats on the beer, W00tstout and for your general excellence.
OMG, I *SO* want to do all the things you are doing on Friday. Sadly, I am many miles away, and so will have to live vicariously through your reports upon your return.
Have a great time, remember you are among friends, and everything will be fine. Also remember the hand sanitizer. 🙂
I know you can’t tell someone not to be anxious. But everyone who follows your work, or comes out to see you do a thing does so because you get excited and share. You’re wonderfully human. Nothing can get in the way of that.
Found ONE bottle at a Bevmo last weekend, but after work today, I’m goin’ on a road trip 50 miles away to get some more a place had thankfully reserved for me.
This is GREAT stuff, many thanks to all who brewed! **schlurrrp**
This collaboration has convinced me to take the plunge and buy some equipment and learn to brew beer.
I’m so excited to see that Texas is in the plan! Thank you! Any details yet? Good luck at ComicCon!
Would love to print this out and give it to all my student, because this is stuff they need to know (more so, or at least before, quadratic equations), but between the mention of beer and the f-bomb, the powers that be would get their knickers in a twist. So I will just discreetly tweet it and let them find it on their own.
*students
Congrats, Wil. Always nice to see you get paid so you can just keep doing more of what you’re doing. (wait, did that make sense?)
Also, glad for the reminder about the Humble Bundle. I finally got a few cents together so I’m doing my usual $25 humble bundle (I do this for all of them it seems). You can now buy that taco you’ve been waiting to buy with the $2.50 you’ll get from that purchase. 🙂
By the way, is the “tryouts” for the PAX D&D adventure hour an indicator that you aren’t going to make PAX this year or does it just mean you’re going this year “incognito” (read: as a Wil Wheaton the geek and gamer, not Wil Wheaton the celebrity)?
Love the poster, Wil. Just might have to get that for my office! (If I can find the wall space. Oh, who am I kidding? Shut up and take my money!)
As for SDCC, just remember to breathe. You’ll be fine.
Oh, and as for the rest, why do I feel the need to break out the dancing monkey again?
Oh, right. Because we all give so many fucks about what idiots on the internet say. So many fucks that we just really want to change Just For Them because they matter So Much to us and clearly we must be doing something wrong if they’re irritated with us. Right.
Now, dance, monkey, dance! ;P
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn219/jedivet/WilDancingMonkeyJPEG.jpg
Designs own beer, makes videos for NASA with Wash, writes and performs awesomeness for a living…
Not too bad, Mr. Wheaton. Not too bad at all. #billpullmanindependenceday
Hey Wil,
The other night I started your book, Just A Geek, thanks to the Humble Books that you posted about. I can’t thank you enough for promoting that. I finished the book that same night because I couldn’t put it down. I’ve wanted to buy your books for some time now, but single mom, dead-beat other parent, yada yada…I just hadn’t justified buying too many things for myself. But wow. I just absolutely loved your book, seriously. I would say that I’m sorry for all the crappy things you went through…but then you wouldn’t be who you are today. I tell people that about myself all the time. I can’t wish that I had never married my ex…because then I wouldn’t have the three beautiful children that
drive me crazyI love so dearly. 🙂I am grateful that you pursued your passion for writing. I know you hear this a lot, but it’s true…you are changing lives by being you and sharing of yourself. Because of you, I’ve bought more board games to play with my kids…and they love them! (Settlers of Catan has been a great hit…and I never would have heard of it without TableTop! I really need to buy the Star Trek version soon!) I’m sure it had to be hard when you first started to be truly honest about your life and your feelings about what what happening in your life. But I hope the rewards have been worth it. You really are a great guy and Anne is lucky to have you. And though I don’t know her, I’m pretty sure that you are lucky to have her. I can only hope to someday (soon??) to find the person out there that was actually meant for me.
Thanks for being you,
Carol
Really wish I could attend but, well, I can’t.
I acquired Just a Geek through the Humble eBook Bundle and wrapped up reading it yesterday. I was a regular reader, sometimes commentor on some previous iteration of your blog and reading the book really made me miss those days. Keep up all the great things you do and I’ll stick around to check it out.
Also, I now know that your birthday is two days before mine (and three days before my daughter’s — yep, I spent a birthday in the hospital waiting for her to arrive). So, happy impending birthday to us. I’ll raise a beer to you at the party (albeit not a home-brewed bit of awesomeness).
Good afternoon Wil,
Regarding your pre-con ‘performance anxiety’: I assume you go through the same stuff as me (us) with everyday life. You stress the hoolgly-moogly out of yourself beforehand, and pound yourself into the ground afterwards with a mallet made of analytical should-have’s. Once some time has passed, upon reflection, the devestating incident becomes an humourous anecdote and life remains, some in all (not quite all in all), well.
I’m on page 29 of Just a Geek (bought last night in the HumbleBundle), so I think I know you pretty well by now: …{comment redacted for potentially percieved negativity}…nothing in your schedule that you aren’t well-versed in. Shall we check the list?
Wednesday – HopCon at Stone’s Liberty Station…I absolutely know you know your beer. Cakewalk.
Thursday – w00tstock at the Balboa Theatre…as just a schmo. I honestly can’t comment on this, but we believe in you and think you’re funny (I’m sure the applause will pseak for itself)
Friday – Gaming in Geek & Sundry land (Star Trek Catan tourney, among other things) from about 11am until 3:30pmish….um, games? Piestroll.
Moderating the Falling Skies panel at Comicon from 4:30-6:30…moderating sounds easy enough to me. Turnoverjog.
Moderating The Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman Panel with Adam and Jamie from 7:30-8:30pm…see above (do you get to blow stuff up?). Cookiesaunter
Saturday: I’ll be part of the Geek & Sundry panel at Comicon at 11am…surrounded by friends with whom you always look at ease, both on the panel and in the audience…um….Cupcakemeander?…
Sunday: I’ll be back in my house sleeping and decompressing…I think you got this. BURRITORUN!
Other than the dicks that you ignore anyways, the internet believes in you.
Honestly, have a great time.
It ain’t nothing you can’t handle (brush off shoulders).
Your friend,
The world
Have you heard of a comic called ‘The Oatmeal’ I just found it but it is way cool.
check it out and take your mind off of the show!
Especially check out the comic about Tesla- it is wonderful and he was SUCH A GEEK!
here’s the webaddress– http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
Love the sentiments but I couldn’t help but smirk at the irony of the editing for someone’s sensibilities rather than “being yourself” *tongue firmly planted in cheek*
Hi, I just wanted to say thanks. I purchased the Humble Bundle primarily for your book and I just finished it and it was wonderful! I appreciate you letting me/us into your life and thoughts and experiences. FYI, this is the first book that I’ve read in about 20 years, so you should be complemented. I’m a software developer, by the way. No reason to mention that, but I did anyway :).
I was disappointed that I couldn’t get your experiences from later events (after the book was written) including your experience with the crew on Family Guy and Big Bang Theory. I guess I’ll need to catch up by reading your blogs.
Anyway, thanks again.
You made the Today show page:
http://www.today.com/food/stone-farking-wheaton-w00t-stout-geekiest-beer-world-6C10674018
Your post is a great way to deal with those who make threats to stop following you. Just stay true to yourself. If someone likes you hey, great. If they don’t, well what have you really lost? Nothing. It is their loss, not yours. It is not like you have a personal relationship with most of us who follow you anyway.
Personally Wil, I have been following you off and on for years now, sometimes more closely than others (ok, I am not a big fan of poker, so during that phase of your life I was less religious about checking up), but I never stopped following you because I did not agree with something you wrote and there have been times that I have not agreed with your stance on certain issues, other times I have agreed, but it does not matter either way because I enjoy reading your take either way.
Man, I can’t remember if it was fully your idea or someone elses, but I really want a Get Excited and Make Things shirt/poster/mug/towel…. you should put that on DFTBA!
OMFG I’m 8oz. Into my first w00tstout, and oh yes it is an absolute monster! In the very best way. I am stunned and amazed that It was actually here in Albany, NY, 3 days after release, despite no such indication on Stone’s website that this was a distribution location. Boy am I glad I stopped in at our “every beer ever” retailer here, Oliver’s, on the “off chance”. I took all 3 bottles on the shelf, although they said they had something like 5 more cases (in case anyone in Albany area is reading this).
I am not tasting/smelling as much (any) pecan as I would have expected from the description, and I am getting quite an astringent aftertaste from the barreling. Of course the major character is the dark sweet imperial maltiness very well balanced by the alcohol. Wow! Twice as good as the IS a friend and I homebrewed a decade ago. This beer will definitely age well, but I’d give it one year rather than 5 or 10. If there is even any left at that time! (How much of this did you make anyway?)
Time to refill. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Wheaton for the brew and for being a geek (beer and otherwise). The world is a better place because of it (you).
Alright, got to get this out of the way first…
WHEN IT W00TSTOCK COMING BACK TO PORTLAND!?!?!?! (Yeah, I know, you, Paul & Storm, Adam Savage, and all the others have been to Portland since the last one, but I have missed those )
*ahem* Alright, now that I have that out of the way…
WHERE CAN I GET W00TSTOUT IN PORTLAND?!?! (Hint: John’s Marketplace http://johnsmarketplace.com would be a great place, as would Belmont Station http://www.belmont-station.com )
Lastly, I’m almost ashamed to admit this… But I just started reading “Just a Geek” for the first time. Got it in the Humble Bundle, and figured it was time to read it again. Then I started reading it, and realized I hadn’t read it before. Thought for sure that couldn’t be right, I have a copy of it on my bookshelf! But apparently it entered my eternal “stack of books to read,” and somehow cycled onto the bookshelf without ever actually getting read. /me hangs head in shame. Great start so far! And I was astounded to read that your first-ever book signing was the one I attended at Powell’s Technical Books! (I missed out on getting a copy of Dancing Barefoot then, as it had sold out – both the Powell’s copies AND your hand-brought copies! I rectified that soon after, of course. And *THAT* one I have read.) Oh, man, now I have nostalgia missing Powell’s Technical Bookstore…. (Yes, they still have a very large technical section in “Building 2”, but it’s just not the same as the dedicated building, with the store cat, Fup. (May she rest in peace.))
“Be kind. Be honest. Work hard. Speak up. Be honorable. Be silly. Be you.”
You should put this on another poster!
Just saw a reference to Wheaton’s Law in the book Hunted by Kevin Hearne.
So I tried your beer at Bub’s @ The Ballpark during Comic-Con…damn that was good! A friend went to Hop-Con and brought home a bottle, though I’m sure he was secretly glad to not have to open it to share with me.
Farking Wheaton W00tstout was delicious as hell and well worth the $8 a glass. Huzzah!
I love the comments about not trying to win a popularity contest. I’m a Juvenile Corrections officer, and I’m always telling the kids this. In a kids world, their friends usually dictate who they are and dictate what their future is going to be like. I love to see kids who are individuals and do their own thing regardless of the peer pressure from their friends.
Just purchased the Humble Bundle 2 weeks ago and i started Just a Geek last week, finished it half an hour ago. I had a great time reading your book and it brought me here, i also checked the infomercial on YouTube. Thanks, I’ll be sure to check your other books too as well as this site.
Dude… w00tstout is farking awesome! I’m a stout kinda geek to start with, and last night as I was leaving Stone, I spotted this new and interesting bottle in the Stone store fridge. I am now reveling in its dark glory. This beer rocks! I’ve loved Stone since they first started 17 years ago, and they just keep proving again and again why they deserve to be at the top of the totem pole. Fat chance of this happening, but I’d love to share a bottle with you when you are back in SD.
Picked up a few bottles of the W00tstout this weekend and everyone agreed it is magically delicious. And the bottle is real purty, too.