wil wheaton – News on Shuffle

The Wil Wheaton Post

I’ve already mentioned Tabletop on here recently and how they hit $1M on their Indiegogo campaign for the show, but after watching this video I realized just how many things have been going well for Mr. Wheaton and how exciting it has been watching everything fall into place.

It all started with a few recurring guest starring roles on the occasional tv show. (Well not really but going all the way back to the beginning of his career would take us too long). The most exciting for me was Big Bang Theory, because I used to watch the show religiously. In fact, every time Wil announces he’s making another appearance on the show it makes me wish I still watched it.

Around the same time that he started popping up on more tv shows, I also noticed him popping up on the Internet more (or maybe I was just paying closer attention). His appearances on the web series The Guild were some of the best episodes the show ever had (and I’ve loved that show from first episode to last). The tag team that is Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton seems pretty perfect to me, which is why it made sense that when Felicia started her YouTube channel, naturally Wil would have a part in it. Enter Tabletop, a show I at first avoided because of it’s lengthy videos, but eventually was too intriguing to avoid for long. I’m sorry I didn’t immediately jump on the bandwagon, because combing through the back catalog of episodes was harder than just watching the show when it “aired”. Now I make sure to set aside the time to play more games with Wil Wheaton and friends.

That brings us to today, where Tabletop is so successful it blew away their fundraising goal. Meanwhile, Wil has other projects floating around, most importantly his new show on SyFy Channel. Personally, I have had a long-standing boycott of said channel since it has gone downhill over the years (IMO). There were a few things that angered this young viewer, and I stuck to my guns right up until someone invited me to a viewing party for Sharknado (which I did more for the love of all things Asylum than anything). What can I say? I love a really good bad movie. I digress though…

What this post is really about is to say congratulations to Wil Wheaton for getting past his years as Wesley Crusher and surrounding himself with many wonderful successes. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the few people who didn’t hate that character, but I also was about the same age when I first watched the series). I look forward to Tabletop S3 and the future RPG show. Hell, The Wil Wheaton Project sounds so good, I might just have to stop hating SyFy channel long enough to give your show a chance. In the meantime, while we’re waiting for the many eggs he’s juggling to be ready for consumption, remember to PLAY MORE GAMES and DON’T BE A DICK.

I Love Tabletop (and going on vacation)

It’s been about a week since my last post, very largely due to the fact I went on vacation. Of course stupid forgot her camera, but I will say Boston is a wonderful town to visit when you have friends to give you the grand tour. That’s how you make Boston Common more than just a park and the Cheers bar a place you force your friend to stop so you can be a tourist for 5 seconds and get a picture on your phone.

While I was on vacation, something really awesome to the nerd community happened – Wil Wheaton’s Indiegogo campaign went over the million dollar mark! It is rare I am this excited to see a project be funded so strongly. Now granted, I was on vacation and cut off from the world for a bit, but doing a cursory search on the interwebz shows me that this news has not been published nearly as much as when Amanda Palmer had similar success with her Kickstarter. I know nerds can be loud when they want to be, so it bums me out that people don’t recognize how huge a deal this is. It’s not like Wheaton had the power of Neil Gaiman to help spread the word about this. He just had a community of nerds scrambling together to make their corner of the internet a little better. Don’t get me wrong, I have no ill feelings toward Palmer or Gaiman. On the contrary, Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors and I’ve enjoyed Palmer’s music since The Dresden Dolls were a thing. I’m just a little disappointed this didn’t seem to get the same press…

Thanks for being patient with this filler post. Things go back to normal now that I’m back. I’ll probably have a real post for you in a day or two but undecided if it’s going to be music or tv related as of yet. In the meantime, feel free to comment on anything I had to say here. (Especially if I’m wrong and was just living in a hole for a week). I welcome anyone to tell me to “shut the f— up in the nicest way possible. Until next time, PLAY MORE GAMES.

Happy Birthday, Wil Wheaton

News on Shuffle would like to give a great big birthday shout-out to one of our favorite geeks: Wil Wheaton. Once known as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, he now has a legion of followers on both Twitter and his blog. Both are sources of entertainment for geeks everywhere. Recently, he also co-founded a live show called w00tstock, which is self-described as “3 hours of geeks + music” – although the show has run for well over that amount in the past. Other names involved in the project include Adam Savage (Mythbusters) and the comedy music duo Paul and Storm. I have mentioned w00tstock on Twitter in the past and would very much like it to come to NYC. Anyone who agrees can Demand It and possibly turn this dream into a reality.

View all New York City events on Eventful

They have said they will come to any city that gets 300 requests, so it really will make a difference whether you do this or not.

[Hey Wil, sorry for hijacking your birthday for my own personal campaign. I do it out of love…?]

*Now back to our regularly scheduled program*

Besides all the other cool things already mentioned, Wil has also made guest appearances on a number of shows, including The Big Bang Theory, Eureka, Leverage, and the web series The Guild. I have to admit, I have never watched Eureka or Leverage (although his guest appearances almost changed that). He was able to get me back on The Big Bang Theory though. I had stopped watching when it became too hard to balance tv with college, but hearing he was making a guest appearance was too exciting to miss. Good thing too, or I would have missed moments like this:

I am now catching up on all the episodes I missed in preparation for the next season. I also became interested in The Guild partially thanks to him. He mentioned the series on Twitter frequently (as did the show’s creator Felicia Day) and eventually I broke down and decided to give it a try.

Best. Decision. Ever.

The show is quirky and wonderful and you really should watch it sometime. They are currently in the middle of Season 3, but you can watch all the episodes here. There’s also two music videos, my favorite of which is

Damn, I did it again. OK, we’re going to consider promoting all these things as our birthday present to Mr. Wheaton. That and this birthday nugget – a clip from one of the w00tstock performances. I’ve watched it a dozen times and it still makes me laugh like a hyena.

Eternal Arr from Dan Coulter on Vimeo.

Bonus Birthday Nugget! Find the hidden Wheaton in this video:

we love xkcd from Olga Nunes on Vimeo.

We love xkcd… and Wil Wheaton. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Felicia Day

News on Shuffle would like to wish Felicia Day a very happy birthday. The actress has been involved with a number of our favorite things, many of which were created by this Joss Whedon character you keep hearing about. Besides guest appearance on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse, she has also made an appearance on our new favorite show: Lie to Me. Oh, and she is the star of two of the best thing the internets have given us: Dr. Horrible (another Whedon gem) and The Guild (which she not only created, but also somehow roped Wil Wheaton into being the most awesome character EVER. Geeks everywhere unite, for The Guild is something we can all get behind. If you follow Miss Day on Twitter, you know that S4 of The Guild has finished production and will be available for viewing soon. And if you’ve never seen this little geek-tastic wonder before, well what are you waiting for?! Follow the link down the rabbit hole and enjoy. Each episode is pretty short so even though there are 3 seasons it shouldn’t take too long to get through them all. And as a little birthday present for everyone (b/c 3 seasons of The Guild wasn’t enough) here is my favorite scene from Dr Horrible, starring the birthday girl herself.