You can tell that this is Wil Wheaton Prime and not Evil Wil Wheaton, because I’m not trying to sit in his spot.

It's laminated and everything, so you know it's serious business.

This afternoon, while we were in between scenes during our run through, I asked Kaley and Jim if they’d take a picture with me for the Internet.

I expected Kaley to say yes (she’s all Internetty like I am), and I expected Jim to politely decline (he’s a very private person). I was very surprised when Jim not only said yes, but thanked me for including him.

I was just going to do the “turn the phone around and mush together” picture, but Kaley pointed out that those always look like you just turned the phone around and mushed together, so she got someone to take this picture for us:

Wil Wheaton, Kaley Cuoco, and Jim Parsons on the set of Big Bang Theory
You can tell that this is Wil Wheaton Prime and not Evil Wil Wheaton, because I’m not trying to sit in his spot.

You can see so much about how each of us is on the set in this picture: Kaley and I are goofing off like crazy, and Jim is just quietly awesome. I really love these guys. I’m so lucky they’re my friends. Spoiler alert: Jim and I have some fucking fantastic scenes together in this episode.

LeVar Burton is also in this episode, and when we were at craft service this morning, I said, “Check us out. 25 years later, we’re hanging out together in the morning at crafty. This is awesome.”

LeVar high-fived me and said, “it sure is, W.W.”

And I know I keep saying it, but I’ll say it again: this is awesome. I get to work with people I love making a show that I’m proud of, that is one of the most popular shows in the English-speaking world.

When you love what you do, the saying goes, it isn’t work … so I guess I wasn’t really at work today. I was at … play?

Whatever you call it, I’m grateful for it.

The 2012 Wiggle Waggle Walk

We got back into Los Angeles late Saturday night (well, early Sunday morning, if you’re going to be all technical, like my parents were when I was in high school and missed my curfew by two goddamn minutes. I FLY THE ENTERPRISE MOM AND DAD I CAN STAY OUT PAST MIDNIGHT GOSH.

Um. Sorry. Yes.

So, we got into our house a little after midnight. It took about an hour to unwind (and snuggle the hell out of our pets, who we missed almost as much as they missed us, if the laps they ran around the house are a unit of missed-you-while-you-were-gone measurement). We woke up at 6, and blearily made our way out of the house around 730. The pets were confused, but Marlowe was excited to GO FOR A RIDE GUYS GO FOR A RIDE GO FOR A RIDE!

We joined a few thousand pet owners and their dogs — almost all of them adopted, and many of them adopted from Pasadena Humane Society — for a walk around the Rose Bowl.

Marlowe had a great time, and with a little help from me, she made a video about it:

I got something in both of my eyes when I made that video — er, I mean, when I helped Marlowe make that video — not just because I stopped to think about how much I miss Ferris and Quincy, or how much joy our rescued pets have brought into our lives, but because thousands of people from all over the world made small and large contributions to our team, helping us raise over $15,000 for pets just like ours.

As of today, all the walkers and teams raised just over $300,000 for the Pasadena Humane Society. More money will come in for the next few days (including another $700 from us for my autographed Stand By Me DVD), and all the money raised will make it possible for countless pets to find forever homes.

So thank you, from everyone here on Team Wheaton, for all your support over the years. You made it possible for me to create some great memories yesterday.

Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, A New Crew Went Boldly, Where No One Had Gone Before.

In place of the post I’d write if I wasn’t on vacation, I offer the following:

Today, Star Trek: The Next Generation turns 25 years-old.

When the show started, I looked like this:

and I couldn’t find a warp core with both hands.

Today, I look like this:

And I got a course you can plot.

Star Trek has been a huge part of my life, and a huge part of who I am, over the last 25 years, and it wasn’t always awesome.

But you know what is awesome? Talking to my friends and family from the cast today, celebrating not only that it’s been twenty-five years since we first Boldly Went When No One Had Gone Before, but that we still love each other, and still care about the time we spent together exploring the galaxy on the best starship to ever carry the name.

I know that Star Trek: The Next Generation has meant a lot to more than one generation since we debuted a quarter century ago today, and it means a lot to me in a lot of ways … but the thing that means the most to me, the thing that I cherish the most, is my family from the Enterprise D.

Happy Birthday, Next Generation. I’m proud and honored to be part of you.

Here’s my flabby, forty year-old, nerdy self, on the beach in Hawaii.

YEAH SEXY WIL WHEATON SHIRTLESS YEAHI’m on vacation in Hawaii (ON VACATION FROM WHAT WIL WHEATON HA HA I KNOW) with Anne.

We’ve had an absolutely amazing trip, relaxing and reading and swimming and having beers and mostly just enjoying that, after a year spent mostly apart due to my work, we finally get ten days together.

Well, today, a shitbag decided to intrude on our private vacation. He set himself up on the beach where we’re staying, pulled out a telephoto lens, and decided to take pictures of us for hours this morning.

I saw this guy around 10 this morning, and I thought to myself, “No, that guy isn’t taking my picture; I’m just being paranoid. Nobody cares about me enough to camp out on a beach and take that kind of paparazzi picture.”

Around 3, Anne and I got up from the beach, and walked back to our condo to make lunch. I saw the same guy, in the same place, with the same camera. I sort of glared at him, and he said something to me that I couldn’t hear.

“What?” I said.

“I said, ‘thank you, Wil.'” He said.

“Dude, I’m on vacation, and taking pictures like that of me and my wife isn’t cool. Would you please delete them?” I said.

“Sorry, brah,” he said, “I gotta make a living.”

“Are you serious?” I said. “I’m just trying to be on vacation with my wife, man.”

“Sorry, brah,” he said.

I absorbed the reality of what this parasite had done, and I said, “Go fuck yourself, you piece of shit.”

“Hey, if you don’t like it, go home, brah,” he said.

I was enraged. I was shaking and sick to my stomach. I walked back to my condo, and ate a sandwich (delicious PB&J with Guava Jam!) while I processed the invasion of my privacy I’d just experienced.

I was furious that this piece of shit would spend hours sitting on a beach, taking I don’t even know how many pictures of us, and then have the audacity to tell me that I should just go home if I didn’t like it. Like I was in the wrong for expecting to enjoy some time on the beach without some fucking creep using a telephoto lens to take pictures of me.

While I ate my sandwich (SO GOOD OMG) and finished my Bikini Blonde Lager, I hatched a scheme: Anne and I would render this subhuman pile of shit’s photos worthless (more worthless than they already are, because who gives a fuck about me in a bathing suit) by taking pictures of ourselves and posting them on Twitter.

So that’s what we did. And now I’m posting them here.

Thanks for giving me an anxiety attack in the middle of my vacation, brah. Good luck selling your fucking pictures, you piece of shit. Maybe go find something worthwhile to do with your life, like use that camera to take pictures of the beauty in Maui, instead of playing at being a paparazzo and making someone feel really uncomfortable when they’re just trying to enjoy some quiet time with their wife.

And now: my flabby, nerdy, 40 year-old self… and my amazingly beautiful wife:

And me, in all of my flabby, 40 year-old nerd glory:

Super sexy Wil Wheaton shirtless on the beach. YEEEAAAHHH!!!
Die in a fire, paparazzo guy. Die in a fire, brah.