All posts by Wil

Author, actor, producer. On a good day, I am charming as fuck.

Doctor Manhattan and Galactus, together at last.

After months away from home (with occasional 12-24 hour visits), I'm finally in my own house, enjoying something resembling a summer vacation. I'm not too keen on doing anything that isn't goofing off, and I'm really okay with that, because I think I've earned it.

Until I feel recharged enough to write more than 100 words at a time, I present the following, taken by my friend Yuri at the comic book shop yesterday:

 

Doctor Manhattan and Galactus, together at last.

If you can't see the image for some reason, or you would like to emgiggen it to all its magnificent glory, here's a linky-link: http://imgur.com/yXOEOl.jpg

My Dragon*Con Schedule

Here's my schedule for this weekend's Dragon*Con.

Friday

1pm -2pm – The Guild Panel with Robin and Amy in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom

2:30-5:30pm – Autographs in the Walk of Fame

6:00-6:30pm – The Guild Photos in International Hall North at the Marriott.

6:30-7:00pm – Star Trek Photos in International Hall North at the Marriott.

Saturday

10am-1pm, then again from 1:30-3:30pm – Autographs in the Walk of Fame

4-5pm – Star Trek TNG Panel with Brent and Gates in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom

5:00-5:30pm – The Guild Photos in International Hall North at the Marriott.

5:30-6:00pm – Star Trek Photos in International Hall North at the Marriott.

Sunday

11:30am-12:30pm Eureka Panel with Colin, Jordan, Chris, and Kevin in the Hyatt Centennial Ballroom

1:00-2:00pm – Autographs in the Walk of Fame

2:30-3:00pm – The Guild Photos in International Hall North at the Marriott.

3:00-3:30pm – Star Trek Photos in International Hall North at the Marriott.

4:00-7:00pm – Autographs in the Walk of Fame

Monday

10:00-11:00am – A panel that illustrates I was not consulted about what panels I wanted to be on, titled Wesley Crusher, Boy Genius. I tell you what: instead of rehashing something I did when I was 14 that we're all tired of talking about, I've asked Paul and Storm to join me for a dramatic retelling of a turgid tale some of you may know as the WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER story, and then we'll do soem Q&A for the rest of the hour. This will be in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom.

11:30am-12:30pm – Final signing of the con, in the Walk of Fame

Boy, I'm exhausted just looking at this, but everyone keeps telling me that this is a great con, attended by great people, and that I'm going to have a great time, so that's become my "Krusty will come" mantra.

I sold out of all my books at PAX, but I did bring some 3-Wheaton Moon posters and a crapton of 8x10s. I also have a few Compleat Workes of Me Wil Wheaton(e) DVDs left that were not purchased at PAX, if you're interested.

I may extend or reduce the signing hours, depending on how I'm feeling.

Finally, this is important, so I'm reprinting it from my post about GenCon last year:

I got the Swine Flu at PAX Prime in 2009, and it was the worst two weeks of my life. When we went to PAX East, all of us (Jerry, Mike, Kurtz, Straub, Paul and Storm, The Professor and Mary Ann) all agreed that we wouldn't shake hands, give hugs, or engage in human contact with people, to limit the introduction of infection vectors. Most people understood, and we gave each other the old Iron Guard Salute (not the fascist thing, the gaming thing that looks like like "love" in ASL). The result: a few people were cheesed off, but none of us were too upset about that, because none of us got sick. It was the first con I've gone to in my whole life where I didn't get some form of Con Crud, and I'd like to repeat that until we turn out the lights on Planet Earth.

So, tl;dr: I'm not going to touch people at the con. I know it seems weird, but I hope you understand why. I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm trying not to get sick. (Edited to add: in comments, a non-zero number of readers seem to have a real problem with this, and people on the rest of the Internets are already giving me a hard time about it in very unkind terms. This makes me really sad; I hoped for a little more empathy and understanding. Not that it should matter, but I have Epstein-Barr, so my immune system isn't as robust as a normal person's; it is very easy for me to catch viruses and other nasty things. I'm not going to apologize for not wanting to get sick, especially after two weeks of Swine Flu. If you can't understand that, it's your problem, not mine.)

Thanks for understanding. I'll see you at the con!

Eureka: This One Time At Space Camp

In a few hours, I will be picked up and taken to the set for my last day on Eureka. Though I've known this day was coming for a couple of weeks, and I've been trying to prepare myself for it, I'm not ready. I don't want this to be over. I don't want to say goodbye to my friends.

Monday, we had our last day of work in Cafe Diem. At the end of the day, Chris Gauthier and Nial Matter were wrapped for the entire series, along with some other actors who are [SPOILER]. I stood there, next to Neil and Felicia, and applauded for them. Then, without warning, I began to cry. It's real. It's really over. We're really done. In two days, I'll finish my last scene, and the first AD will call out, "That is a series wrap for Wil Wheaton," and I'll cry again.

I'm glad to feel sad, as strange as that may sound. I know I've said this about some other things, but it's true: I'm happy to be sad when something is ending, because if I wasn't, it would mean that nothing good happened that I will miss.

I will miss everything about Eureka. I'm going to be a wreck tonight.

So let's talk a bit about This One Time, At Space Camp, shall we? It's going to be Spoileriffic, so you have been warned (or you've already been spoiled, because you follow me on Twitter. Sorry about that.)

I learned to ride a recumbant bike for this episode. It was challenging, but not as difficult as I expected, and ended up being quite a lot of fun. I also think that "May the best man BLAH BLAH BLAH" is my favorite Parrish line of the series.

Wasn't Aaron Douglas magnificent? I loved seeing him play totally against his usual type, and I loved the way he interacted with the kids.

We talked a lot about how douchey Parrish should be in this episode. I wanted to let him be as supremely arrogant as possible, because he's convinced that all of this is just a formality at this point. I wanted him to lift himself up as high as he possibly could, so the fall at the end of the episode would be that much more brutal for him (and awesome for the audience, who are almost certainly cheering for Holly and Fargo at this point, if we've all done our jobs.) 

I watched the episode with Neil and Chris in Neil's trailer during breaks in filming, and when Fargo makes it but Parrish doesn't, Neil pointed at sad Parrish on the television, and did a Nelson Muntz HA HA right at him and then at me. It was really, really funny.

Can we just take a moment to marvel at how incredible Wallace Shawn was, too? I mean, holy shit was he incredible. We're so lucky he is part of the show, and you guys haven't even seen the best of it, yet.

Weeping for Titan,

#TeamParrish

How was your PAX?

I’m on set for Eureka, tethering to the Internets through a mobile hotspot, using my iPad to post with the Typepad app.

This is, as they say, less than optimal for blogging. However, I wanted to put a post up for PAX stuff, until I can write a proper post in the next few days.

I had a wonderful time, didn’t get sick, played games with friends, and was given some truly epic gifts, including a Cape Of Dicks (pictures forthcoming). There was also a D&D game for the ages.

Please use this as a PAX thread, to share your PAX stories and pictures. I’ll add my own as soon as I can.

3652 days later…

So, while I'm putting together the last few things I need to take to PAX, I realized I forgot to mention something: ten years ago yesterday, I started my blog at WWdN*. Ten years ago today, Metafilter declared that it was "lame,"** and most of the Internet was really shitty to me about the whole thing***. I was so sad and hurt by how cruel people were to me back then, I almost gave up before I'd even started… but for some reason, I was stubborn and just kept going.

I'm glad I made it across what Ira Glass calls The Gap, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be going to PAX (or doing any of the wonderful things I get to do these days) if I hadn't. Thank you to everyone who has shared the journey with me; I hope to continue earning your time and support for the next ten years.

*I'm going back there, eventually. I'm just, uh, kind of busy at the moment and haven't gotten around to it.

**In fairness to MeFi of ten years ago, it was kind of lame … but we all have to start somewhere, and I recall being judged not on the merits of whatever I was doing then, but on what I had been told to do in 1987. It seemed unfair to me. And holy fuck the haters were everywhere. When I was an insecure 29 year-old, struggling to make ends meet, that stuff really got to me.

***Thanks to a reader, who I'll keep anonymous, for reminding me. I'd completely forgotten.