This was the ultimate highlight of my #PAX 2009, and watching it again just now brought tears to my eyes again.
I'm not worthy of something this awesome. Thank you Jonathan, and Paul, and Storm, and Molly for making me feel cool. I <3 you guys.
Category: WWdN in Exile
coming soon: w00tstock – 3 hours of geeks and music
From Paul and Storm's website:
For decades, geeks were ostracized, picked on, laughed at and punished by the sun’s harmful UV rays. But there is only so long that a people can be kept down before they rise up against their oppressors; and, indeed, the dawn of the 21st century has seen the ascendancy of geeks and geek culture.
We now celebrate that rise to power–and let’s face it, nerds pretty much run everything now–with w00tstock, a special event for geeks of every stripe. Television host/special-effects artist Adam Savage (”MythBusters”), actor/author/blogger Wil Wheaton (”Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Stand By Me”) and music-comedy duo Paul and Storm (hey; that’s us!) present a night of songs, readings, comedy, demonstrations, short films, special guests, and other clever widgets born from and dedicated to the enthusiasms, obsessions, trials and joys of geek pride.
This is the dawning of the Age of Geekdom–and its voices will ring true at w00tstock.
I can't wait to do this. It is going to kick all kinds of ASCII.
(snort)
a happy accident
A few months ago, a casting director needed to get a picture of me with my luxurious beard. Since I haven't had any headshots taken since I grew this magnificent beard, my son and I took my camera out onto the patio so he could take a quick picture that would be good enough for e-mailing on short notice.
While we were getting the shot set up, he was fooling around and took a picture of just my arms, folded across my chest. We laughed a bit, and I didn't think about it again until I'd uploaded the pictures into iPhoto, and they stacked up on top of each other the way you see here.
I didn't plan for it to end up this way, but I think it looks cool and weird, so I thought I'd share.
my 2009 PAX panel schedule and chapbook announcement
Yesterday, PAX 2009 completely sold out, days before the con even begins. I'm so happy for everyone involved, from my friends who make the show happen, to the over 50,000 gamers who are about to participate in the best three days of the year.
My panel schedule looks a lot like this:
Saturday, 4:00pm – 5:00pm, Serpent Theatre
Pitch Your Game Idea
You’ve got 45 seconds to deliver your idea to our panel of experts. The top three pitches will be picked for prizes and swag! (Please note that this is an open forum — there’s nothing keeping anyone, judges and attendees alike, from stealing your ideas! If you’re not comfortable with this, please don’t pitch your idea!)
Panelists Include: Jeff Kalles, Greg Hjertager, Wil Wheaton
Sunday, 2:30pm – 3:30pm, Serpent Theatre
Wil Wheaton presents: THE AWESOME HOUR!!1
Wil Wheaton first came to PAX in 2007, when he gave the keynote address that your parents won't stop making you listen to in the car. In 2008, he returned for a panel that asked and answered the burning question, "Can Wil Wheaton really be a panel all by himself?" This year, Commodore Wil Wheaton welcomes you aboard the USS AWESOME for 60 minutes of story-telling, lingerie-dodging, mirth-making, myth-making, iconoclasting, and the obligatory burning-questioning … ing.
Presented by Wil Wheaton
I'm also tremendously excited to announce that I was able to put together a limited-edition chapbook of mostly-unpublished short fiction that will only be available at PAX. BEHOLD THE INTRODUCTION!
The Day After and Other Stories
Every year, before the summer convention season gets underway, I pull a few excerpts from whatever I plan to release in the fall, take them to my local print shop, and make a deliberately lo-fi, limited edition chapbook to take with me on the obligatory summer convention circuit.
I’ve done previews of Dancing Barefoot, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Memories of the Future, and in 2008, I pulled together a sampler that eventually became Sunken Treasure.
While Memories of the Future is 2009’s “big” fall release, it didn’t make sense to me to release a Memories-based chapbook this summer, because one already exists.
It looked like there wasn’t going to be a 2009 entry in the traditional Wil Wheaton Zine-like Chapbook Extravaganza, until I realized that I have several pieces of unpublished fiction sitting in my office, just waiting to be published.
“Hey,” I said to myself, “people keep asking me to write and release fiction, and I’ve been waiting until I have an actual novel to give them. But these things totally don’t suck, and I bet readers would enjoy them.”
“That is an excellent idea, me,” I said. “And have I mentioned how smart and pretty you are?”
“Oh, stop it. You’re embarrassing me,” I said.
Together, myself and I collected some of my (mostly unpublished) fiction and put it into this chapbook, for safe keeping.
Even though this is limited to just 200 copies, it represents a significant step for me in my life as a writer, because it’s the first time I’ve collected and published stories that I made up. (You know, like a writer does.) I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for your support!
Wil Wheaton
Pasadena
2009
There will be just 200 signed and numbered copies of The Day After and Other Stories at PAX, which I'll have at my table in bandland. Depending on how it sells and the feedback I get from people who read it, I may decide to do a wide release, similar to what I did with Sunken Treasure.