Category: WWdN in Exile
Emerald City Comicon after action report
ECCC has officially joined PAX on the List of Conventions I Don't Ever Want To Miss. It's well-organized, staffed by competent and friendly volunteers, and has what is, in my opinion, the perfect balance of comics and popular geek culture.
This year, I had to leave Saturday afternoon to fly home for a very special ultra-secret surprise party for one of my favorite people in the world, so I only got to spend a day and a half in Seattle, so here is an appropriately-brief recap of some highlights, including pretty pictures:
My awesome hour was especially awesome, even though someone compared Next Generation to Twilight. Seriously. That little bit of unpleasantness was more than offset by the opportunity for Evil Wil Wheaton to make an appearance, though.
I told a couple of stories to a very enthusiastic crowd (that was huge for a Friday), and had a lot of fun while I did it. When I find good video or audio recordings, I'll post them.
Friday night, I had dinner with some friends that included the most amazing beer I think I've ever had, a Full Sail Black Gold Imperial Stout. Normally, Imperials are way too heavy for me, but this was just perfect. It was a bourbon stout that had a chocolate finish. I'm not going to describe it further, because if that isn't enough to make you want to drink it, it's probably not for you in the first place.
Saturday, I joined Amy Okuda and Felicia Day for a panel about The Guild, that got … a little blue. I guess it was my fault for drawing a dick on a notepad and passing it to Felicia, you know, like 12 year-olds do, but then Felicia showed it to everyone, then drew one of her own that I had to draw a robe and wizard hat on. I'm sure you can understand how things sort of got out of hand after that.
We call this one particular picture of Wesley Crusher "Sexytime Wesley," so my friend Joel added some art to my display model:
I didn't have any time to walk the floor or go shopping this year, because I had to leave Saturday afternoon, and I wanted to meet as many people as I could, but I still came home with a couple of cool things, including a crocheted Fawkes:
Yes, it was made for me by an adorable Wonder Woman, who was accompanied by equally-adorable Silk Spectre and Batgirl. She also made a crocheted Codex for Felicia, and a Tink for Amy. Seriously. Awesome.
I met Ken Jennings:
It went something like this:
Ken Jennings: “Hi. I got my ass kicked by a computer on Jeopardy, and —”
Me: Holy shit. You’re Ken Jennings!
Ken Jennings: …yeah.
Me: We are totally taking a picture right now.
Ken wrote about it on his blog, if you'd like to get his side of the meeting. I found him to be a very funny and normal geek, which pleased me greatly.
I also made a Munchkin treasure card for a guy, which is certainly not legal for tournament play:
I got to visit a little bit with Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes, who both asked me why I wasn't doing their panel with them. You know, it wasn't until I started writing this blog that I realized how nice it was to not only see them, but to not feel awkward and nervous, like I'm still a little kid with something to prove to the adults I look up to. I guess that makes sense, with me being 38 and all, but as recently as 5 years ago I would have been overwhelmed by anxiety, and I'm grateful that I don't feel that way any more. Frakes and I decided that we'll continue to pester Rogers to get us working on the same episode of Leverage, which I thought would amuse some of you.
Every single person I met while I was there was friendly and kind, and I know a lot of you who I met read my blog, so let me say once more: thanks for reading and for being so nice to me. It's because of people like you that I look forward to cons like ECCC.
and now, a word from my mother about celiac disease
When we were kids, it seemed like my sister was always sick. By the time we were in high school, my brother and I were convinced that she was the best con artist of all time, regularly convincing our parents that she just couldn't go to school, and could she please have some pudding.
Well, as it turned out, my sister has had Celiac Disease her entire life. It further turns out that our mom has it as well, so my brother and I were both tested a couple of years ago. The results were negative, so my gluten-rich diet of beer and bread was not affected, but my mom and sister — especially my sister, who is so sensitive she can't even use the same knife as I do if my knife has touched anything with wheat in it — have had to significantly change their lifestyle to adapt and survive.
My mom did a ton of research, the way you do when you're a parent and you find out that your child has a chronic disease, and ended up becoming something of an expert on Celiac Disease. She eventually took the knowledge she gained from that research, turned it into advocacy for people who have Celiac Disease, and recently started a campaign to increase awareness of what is called "The #1 Disease You’ve Never Heard Of."
I'm going to turn my blog over to my mom for a little bit, so she can tell you more. Take it away, mom.
Thanks, Wil. You're the best son in the world. Don't tell Jeremy and Amy I said so, but you're my favorite. [Note: The preceeding sentence may have been added by Wil for comedic effect. Everything that follows is entirely true, and written by my mom.]
As you know, since your little sister Amy and I were diagnosed with Celiac Disease 6 years ago, I have become a passionate activist to raise awareness about CD. Today I am taking my crusade to another level with Not Even A Crumb™ (www.notevenacrumb.com) FAQ: Celiac is the #1 genetic autoimmune disease in the world and remains the most misdiagnosed. It is estimated that 3 million Americans are affected and 97% don’t even know it…yet. There is no cure, no pills, no drug therapies. The “cure” is a Gluten-Free diet. The only disease in the world completely controlled by diet is also: “The #1 Disease You’ve Never Heard Of”.
I’m sure we all remember how sick Amy was for years before her diagnosis. By the time she ended up in the ER, she had lost over 20 lbs and couldn’t eat anything but potatoes and rice. Until that day, none of us had ever heard of Celiac Disease, nor was it mentioned by any of the parade of Doctors who had entered her life at that point. Many thought she was into drugs or was anorexic. After her diagnosis, we connected the dots backwards, and realized that we’d both suffered for years from the now well-known symptoms of Celiac. How different those years might have been if we’d only known that the “cure” was a Gluten-Free diet. And after 6 years on a strict Gluten-Free diet, we are both healthy and symptom free.
Two years ago I began volunteering with the Celiac Disease Foundation. I also created Not Even A Crumb™: “Easy to Digest Solutions for Living a Gluten-Free Lifestyle”. Now we have partnered with CDF to produce the 1st nationwide PSA to raise awareness. (we already have a commitment from CBS to air it!)The path to diagnosis didn’t have to be such a convoluted maze for Amy and me. The information was available, if we’d only known where to find it, or if our doctors had known to look for it. A national PSA will help unravel that maze, raise awareness, increase diagnosis and save lives. More information about Celiac and our fundraising campaign is just a click away: www.notevenacrumb.com
So there you go. I told my mom that she had an opportunity to reach a lot of people here, so if you feel inclined to share this post and the information included in it with your friends and family, that would be awesome.
Oh, one more thing: I've seen at least one local news report that misrepresented gluten-free diets as some kind of fad diet, like South Beach or Atkins or something people are trying to lose weight. It infuriated me that this station was so lazy and misleading, and many angry letters were written. Eventually, one of the stations ran a correction on their website (not on air, heaven forbid) that included a letter from my mom. If you hear some local newsmodel presenting GF diets as some kind of silly fad, instead of a medical necessity that saves lives, please point them to my mom's website, or the Celiac Disease Foundation.
My Emerald City Comicon schedule, and an ultra-limited merchandise thingy
Tomorrow, I head up to glorious Seattle for the Emerald City ComiCon. I'm doing the usual storytellings and autograph signings, though I have to leave on Saturday due to an unfortunately-timed family commitment. I'm hosting an Awesome Hour on Friday at 4pm, and I'll be on The Guild panel with Amy Okuda and Felicia Day on Saturday at noon, flattening out the OMG HOTNESS curve.
I've shipped up some copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives (expanded edition), The Day After and Other Stories, Sunken Treasure, and Memories of the Future Volume One. I'll also bring along some 8x10s for people who want that sort of thing.
I always try to make a nifty Chapbook for cons, but the thing is, I've been working as an actor so much, I haven't had much time to be a writer, and there isn't anything new that is polished enough to release in Chapbook (or any other) form. HOWEVER, I've been kicking an idea around for a few months, and I thought I'd go ahead and give it a trial run at ECCC.
A bunch of my friends who are musicians release their entire catalogs on a USB drive (Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton are two who you probably know), which lets people get a whole bunch of stuff on something that's small enough to fit in their pocket, and has the added bonus of being a nifty USB drive that can be used for TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS once the files are copied off of it. I know, right?! Isn't the future amazing?!
I have a bunch of work that's in multiple formats, including text, audio, and video, so I thought I'd collect as much of it as I could and offer my own USB drive thingy at cons, w00tstocks, and maybe as a big old honkin' zipfile at Lulu or something later this year.
I'm not sure anyone wants this sort of thing, though, so I haven't invested in the number of USB drives I'd need to purchase to make it cost-effective. I'm testing the waters at ECCC with an extremely limited number of DVDs containing something I'm calling The Complete Works of Me, Wil Wheaton (being an incomplete collection of the audio, video, and textual works of me, Wil Wheaton).
It's pretty much what it sounds like. Here's the README I created, which will make people who write and rely on actual README files twitch a little bit:
Congratulations, dear sir or madam! You are now in possession of a truly remarkable collection, guaranteed to restore even the most ill-humoured man, woman, or child to gaiety and mirth.
Included in this delightful volume are three separate collections. They are as follows:
Text: For the gentleman or lady who wishes to escape the hum drum modern world, we offer these portals to the past … and the future! These turgid tales of mirth and marauder can be read off an automatic teletype device, or given to a reputable printer for conversion to portable paper format.
Audio: Voices and music appear, as if drawn by magic from the aether itself, or perhaps from a more sinister locale beyond! A warning to the faint of heart or soft of spirit: some of these recordings are of a most uncouth and ribald nature! Let the listener beware!
Video: Pictures that appear to magically move, transporting the viewer to locations mundane and fantastical.
The buyer is cautioned that these files are for personal use, and unless expressly and explicitly noted, are not to be reproduced for commercial or personal gain.
All files are copyright 2010-2011 Wil Wheaton. Some files are released under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike license. For more information, please visit creativecommons.org
There are three different directories, described thusly:
Audio
This directory contains the following:
Audiobooks:
Just A Geek
This is an audio performance of my first book Just A Geek. It is the super-bonus-holy-crap-is-it-really-nine-hours-long version because my friend David and I ended up including a lot of asides and what I called “audio footnotes”. You could think of it as the Director’s Extended Cut That Runs in Parallel With The Regular Cut, if you like.
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
I was so happy with Just A Geek, David and I got together again to do this one. It’s similar to Just A Geek, but David added in some nice interstitial music between each chapter. You know, for kids.
Podcasts:
Memories of the Futurecast Episodes 1-13
In the weeks leading up to the release of Memories of the Future Volume One, I started a promotional podcast. Each week, I read an excerpt from the book, and added some of my own comments. I’m especially proud of this podcast, and if you enjoy it, you’ll certainly enjoy Memories of the Future, which is in the text directory. All the shownotes and links are at http://memoriesofthefuturecast.com
Radio Free Burrito Episodes 0-4 and 9-31.
Let me save you some searching: I never did an episode 2, and for some reason skipped straight to episode 3. I’m not sure exactly why, that’s just how we did things back in those days.
I left out Episodes 5-8 because the really, really suck. If you are determined to hear them, they are online. After Episode 9, though, the show starts to come together as I get comfortable and have more and more fun each time.
In addition to almost all the RFBs, I included Lakeside Shadow as a stand alone track, and Radio Free Burrito’s Mixtape (Volume One).
All files are .mp3, except for RFB episode 9, which is an enhanced podcast that apparently only plays on Apple devices. Sorry about that; I was young and foolish then (I feel old and foolish now). Just for shits and giggles, another short original tune I made, JazzyJazzJazz is also included. Don’t ever say I never gave you something for shits and giggles, kids.
All the shownotes and other neat-o things can be found at: http://radiofreeburrito.com
W00tstock from Los Angeles
This is an audience recording of the third w00tstock we did, at Largo. I think it’s hilarious and awesome, and I hope it inspires you to come see us to w00tstock in person whenever we come to a town near you. More information about w00tstock is at http://www.w00tstock.net
The Criminal Minds Production Diary
In July 2008, I worked on Criminal Minds, in episode 404, titled Paradise. I played serial killer and all around Very Bad Man Floyd Hansen. I keep a diary during production, which was printed in Sunken Treasure. I recorded it as a standalone audio thingy, with my usual asides and additional comments.
Video
Moments With Wil
One day I got it into my head that it would be amusing to make these little 30 second videos where I did something stupid, and then thanked the viewer for “spending this moment with me.” The problem was, they just didn’t work on their own, and I ended up showing the 15 I made to a few friends, before forgetting about them.
When we were putting together w00tstock, and the decision was made to include some short silly films, I knew that Moments With Wil had finally found a home. This is the first time all of them have been collected into one place and viewed by anyone who doesn’t also live in my house.
Stupid Cellphone Videos
While working on Eureka in 2010, I had one of those days where I was called in early, but ended up not working for almost seven hours. Sure, it was nice to earn a paycheck for sitting around and playing Plants Versus Zombies all day on my iPad, but I eventually got bored … and these stupid cellphone videos were born. It’s basically the Moments With Wil concept, without the fancy-smanchy titles and credits. As of this collection, there are 14 of them.
Text (which I wanted to call Text-eo, but didn't, because I'm apparently a chicken)
This directory contains nearly all of my writing, with the notable exception of Just A Geek and Dancing Barefoot, to which I sadly do not own the electronic rights. The Happiest Days of Our Lives is also absent, because a decent electronic version simply does not exist at the moment.
HOWEVER! What is here is pretty swell:
The directory HUNTER contains three different formats of my short tale Hunter (see how that works?), which is a short sci-fi story, set in a dark and desperate world.
I have also included several chapbooks. They are:
Sunken Treasure – Wil Wheaton’s Hot Cocoa Box Sampler.
This is just what it sounds like: a sample collection of all the different types of writing I do. I often suggest this book to people who are unfamiliar with my work, as it gives them a chance to find out if they’re going to like my work, and if they do, where they’d like to go next.
Games Matter
This is a collection of gaming-related essays and stories. It was prepared for GenCon in 2010. I’m really proud of this little book, and I plan to give it a wider release in 2011, with some additional material, including my two keynotes to PAX and PAX East.
Memories of The Future Volume One
Part memoir, part episode guide, part behind-the-scenes, all told from the perspective of a guy who is looking though his high school yearbook, facepalming and declaring “I can’t believe I thought that was cool.”
Volume One covers the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation from Farpoint to Datalore. Volume Two, which goes from Angel One to The Neutral Zone will be released in 2011.
The Day After and Other Stories
A short collection of short fiction, originally released as a chapbook at PAX in 2009. In order to get over my fear of writing and publishing short (and eventually longer) fiction, I released it as a print book in December 2010 for just 10 days, then released it as an eBook in January 2011. It is presented here in PDF and pub formats.
140 – The Stupid Twitter Book
I had this idea to make a short, small book, like the little Tao and Zen books you see in card stores and car washes. It would contain 140 of my stupid little Twitter things that made me laugh. I spent the better part of a day putting it all together, and then realized that Lulu, where I do most of my self-publishing, was going to charge something like $60 per copy, because it was a full color printing process for some strange reason. I didn’t think it was worth $60 (or anything more than $5, really) so I shelved the project. It’s not the same to read it as an eBook, but it’s still funny, and I think it’s kind of cool. For the moment, you’re one of 11 people in the world to see it, which includes the 9 other people who bought this DVD at Emerald City Comic Con (assuming I sell all 10) and my wife.
I did some quick math, and figured out that if these things were to be bought separately, the Moneybags who collected them all would end up spending about $85. In light of this being an ultra-limited edition of just 10 — did I mention that? That's kind of important, so let me say it again: this is a signed, numbered edition of 10, in a spiffy little paper sleeve with a silly picture that I created entirely by myself at bighugelabs.com and sealed with actual sealing wax — I have decided to sell them for $100 each. I'm not sure if anyone will want to buy them (and if I have any left over, I'll sell them online, right here, to the first people who do want them), but I think it's a pretty neat collection that I had a whole lot of fun putting together. Hopefully, it will be successful enough to warrant investing in a hundred or so USB drives to carry around to my various convention and w00tstock gigs this year.
in remembrance of Dwayne McDuffie
Last night, I met my friend Amy Berg (who created Cha0s on Leverage, and brought me into Eureka as Dr. Parrish) down in Hollywood for dinner. Traffic was horrible (surprise) so she'd been waiting almost 20 minutes when I finally walked into the restaurant.
While I scanned the crowd to find her, a familiar voice broke through the cacaphony of diners and 90s rock that filled the room. "They'll let anyone in here, I guess."
I turned toward the voice, and saw my friend Yuri with his wife Tara and one of their friends. As it turned out, Amy had chosen a table that was right next to theirs, and though she knew Yuri via Twitter, didn't realize that she had been sitting next the The Amazing Yuri Lowenthal, Close Personal Friend of Me Wil Wheaton. We all talked for a few minutes, and then sort of retreated to our own tables and conversations, separated as they were by just a few feet.
Shortly after we finished eating, the restaurant kicked us all out to make way for a private karaoke party, so we walked next door to this cantina for a beer.
While we waited for our drinks to arrive, we talked about writers and writing. Just as our drinks were put down, Yuri said, "Speaking of great writers and great writing, I'd like to toast to Dwayne McDuffie."
We held our glasses up and were silent for a moment. "To Dwayne," I said. We clinked glasses, took a sip, and set them down.
"That was a good call, Yuri," I said, and took a couple of deep breaths so I wouldn't dilute my beer with tears.
For those who don't know, Dwayne McDuffie died suddenly this week, from what I understand were complications following emergency heart surgery. Many people who know of Dwayne's work knew him as a truly outstanding comic creator whose legacy is felt throughout the comic industry by creators and readers alike.
I knew Dwayne because I worked with him on Teen Titans around 2003. Recently, I'd worked for Dwayne and Titans creator Glenn Murakami on Ben Ten: Alien Force. I didn't know him as well as I wanted to, because the nature of animation puts a thick pane of soundproof glass between the actors and writers and producers, and the nature of television leaves little time for hanging out once the work is actually done.
What precious little time I did spend with him, though, was awesome. Dwayne was kind, he was supportive, he was incredibly creative, and he genuinely loved what he did. He loved to talk about comics with me, frequently asked me what I was reading, and if I could suggest anything for him to pick up. He always took a moment or two to thank me for coming in to play Aqualad or DarkStar, and whenever I left the studio he told me, "I'll see you next time," because he was always looking for ways to bring me back into his shows.
Dwayne was Good People, and everyone who worked with him loved him. When I found out — via Twitter, no less — that he had died, I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach and submerged in ice water. It's been three days, now, since I heard, and I still have a knot in my stomach that doesn't seem all that interested in going anywhere very soon.
I'm having a hard time fully accepting that I'm not going to see Dwayne next time, so maybe you'll join me in a moment of silence and rememberance for a truly great person, who gave the world many wonderful things.
Here's to you, Dwayne. Thank you for everything.