50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
I spent a lot of time at Warner Brothers last week.
While I was there, I saw my friend Kaley, and we took a silly picture:
Then I remembered that I'm Evil, so we took another picture:
And if you haven't solved the puzzle by now, this is why I was there:
Check out how I totally play this cool, and don't let on that I'm squeeing like a tween meeting Bieber. Awww yeah.
Beer stuff!
I wanted to make Jaime Paglia an oatmeal stout, because that’s his favorite. When I went to the shop to get supplies, though, Greg (who owns it) told me that you really have to do a partial mash or all-grain to get it just right. I’m not quite ready for that, yet, so I went with my backup plan, and made a Southern English Brown Ale (this is a brown ale style that’s smoother and sweeter than the northern style, and not as hoppy as the American style). It went off without a hitch, and it looked and smelled wonderful when I put it into the bucket to start fermenting. I’m really excited to see how it turns out.
I also have an IPA that’s dry-hopping with an ounce of Cascade in the carboy. I checked the gravity on Friday, and if I did the math right, it’s about 7%, which is exactly what I was going for … and holy balls does it smell and taste great. It’s got exactly the right amount of floral and citrus notes, with some hop bitterness behind it all, and it hasn’t even conditioned in bottles, yet! I’m seriously considering entering it into a competition, so I can get some good feedback on it and find out if it’s as good as I think it is. For those of you wondering, it’s called Critical Hit IPA.
Speaking of beer, the most frequently asked question at DragonCon and PAX was some variation of “How’s the beer you made with Ryan?” Oh, you mean … this beer?
In a word: awesome. It exceeded our wildest expectations, especially considering that I think I made some mistakes in the brewing process. There was an amusing moment last week when I opened a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (the beer it’s based on) and after a few sips I thought, “It’s okay, but it’s no Wheaton’s Own Going To California!” Here’s the label that Joel Watson did for us. It was my idea to base it on the Sierra Nevada label and Ryan’s idea to include something from each of us (a d20 for me, an atom for him). I know we left Yeast off the ingredients list, but we decided that yeast could be awesome in this case.
For those of you scoring at home, Wheaton’s Own was suggested by Grant Imahara. We almost went with his revised name, Wheaton’s Pwn, but I can’t remember why we didn’t. It’s called Goin’ To California Pale Ale because we listened to Zeppelin IV while we brewed it, and it’s a California-style Pale Ale. It’s very low alcohol — I don’t think it’s even 5% — but it looks and tastes great, and that’s most important to me.
We did a 5 gallon batch, and split the bottles, so we each got around 22 for ourselves. As of this morning, I’m down to 8 bottles, so I’m rationing until the IPA is ready.
I’ve officially found a hobby that I love, and will do for the rest of my life. I’m excited to get a kegging system, learn to do all-grain, and start designing my own beers. I’ve even reached into the stars and plucked out a new dream: to own a brewpub someday. When I told Anne that, she said that she thought it would be awesome to do that, but I’d left something out.
“What’s that?” I said.
“You need to combine it with your dream of owning an 80s arcade. Think about that: it’s a brewpub where you make your own beer, serve a little food, and have the 80s arcade games you love for people to play.”
Does my wife know me, or what?
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:
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
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!
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