The Wil Wheaton Project and making videos

I'm a big fan of several people.  Stephen Fry, my son, and Leroy Jethro Gibbs, to name but a few.

For about a week I went around drinking out of those american travel mugs that kind of look like the coffee pots in NCIS because it made me feel like Gibbs.

One other guy that I am definitely a fan of is Wil Wheaton.  Wil played Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and has done a ton of stuff since then.  Wil is unashamedly a geek, and presents TableTop on the Geek & Sundry network on YouTube.

Anyhow, Wil is involved in a new show appearing on SyFy in the near future called The Wil Wheaton Project, which sounds like an awesome show about science fiction, pop culture, viral videos, all that kind of thing.  I don't know if it's going to be available here in the UK but I really hope so!

And on his blog, he's asked for submissions for an item called First Contact.  I'd suggest that you read his blog entry for full details, but briefly they're looking for short videos from people talking about when they met someone famous.  I had a go at recording a video, and I'm pleased to say that the quality of the video is really good, better than anything I've done before.  I've not shared this video on my YouTube channel because I don't know if the show makers would want it kept private - not that I really think that they're going to actually use the submission because it isn't that good, but I don't want to give them any additional reason for not using it - but I used my video editing software to record the video using the highest quality settings it had, and I also did more mucking about with the audio than I usually would, to chop out hiss and background noise, and I'm really pleased at the quality of the final video.  Although I still really want a proper camera, new webcam, and a decent microphone to improve my videos, it is pleasing to see what can be done with a bit of tinkering and effort.

Happy Don't Be A Dick Day!

Today it is Don't Be A Dick Day aka Wil Wheaton's birthday!

So don't be one! The website above includes a really handy flowchart to work out if you're being a dick or not.

And happy birthday to Wil - a geek that, through his blogs, has been something of a source of inspiration for me.

How is Wil Wheaton 40?!?

Been watching a lot of the Guild this evening, so far I'm into season Three and I just spotted in the credits a certain Mr Wil Wheaton.  Now I've never really noticed Wil in anything since Star Trek; TNG many many years ago (Wednesday nights at 6pm on BBC2 when I was about ten - joy!  We didn't have a video recorder though so bizarrely I used to tape record the show, so I could listen to it and imagine what happened!) but this is more down to my lack of facial recognition capability than Wil's lack of talent.

Visiting his blog (http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/) has brought me up to date on his work - note he's been wearing a beard from time to time, again how am I supposed to recognise people when they change their appearance?  When the Data guy did stuff without painting his skin gold it took me ages to spot him too.

He's forty - oh my god, because I still think of him as Wesley Crusher I imagine him being 15 or so - and actually pretty cool.  One to follow on Twitter, I think.

The other noteworthy thing for today is when I went to the local Sainsburys store to get some bits for dinner, I was searching for cottage cheese (which took ages because I wasn't wearing my glasses) and the shop assistant next to me starting kicking off about liver, and how it looks disgusting.  He then apologised for being random!  Bless the guy, I wish my mind worked quicker (one reason I'm not a stand up comic - if I got heckled it'd be two days later when I thought of a good comeback) because I should have told him that random is good.  Damn, we're on this planet for a short time, and if you feel an urge to be random then be random.  Random's what I love about i-series and I wish I could get some more randomness.

Ciao.