PERSON
Wil Wheaton
- Wil Wheaton (born 1972) is an American actor, blogger, and author. He is widely known for his roles as Wesley Crusher in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, and a fictionalized version of himself on The Big Bang Theory.
Connections and Shared Memories
Meeting on the Geek Cruises PerlWhirl Cruise (2003)
- During the March 2003 PerlWhirl / MacMania cruise to Hawaii (see Meeting Wil Wheaton on PerlWhirl Cruise), I met Wil and discovered that Wil was actively reading Llama book (Learning Perl) to teach himself how to code and automate tasks.
- This initial meeting sparked many subsequent friendly interactions and professional crossovers.
Mention in "Just a Geek"
- Wil mentioned me in the first chapter of his critically-acclaimed 2004 memoir Just a Geek several times, documenting our connection and my influence on his Technology journey.
Powell's Book Signing for "Dancing Barefoot" (2003)
- In August 2003 (during OSCON), I attended Wil's book signing for his self-published book Dancing Barefoot at Powell's Books in Portland (see Wil Wheaton Dancing Barefoot Booksigning).
- When the event sold out, I suggested he keep his laminated tabletop signing card as a significant personal keepsake. Wil quoted this advice in Just a Geek, recounting how that moment—realizing he had successfully sold out a bookstore event as a real author—felt even better than sitting at the helm of the Enterprise.
What links here
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.