Wil Wheaton's Advice For High School Graduates

Surfing the interweb today I came across this image . Apparently, Wil Wheaton was once asked to autograph a recent high school graduate's year book, and rather than just scrawl a John Henry, Wil left these little gems of advice. See for yourself:
Great advice for anyone looking to pursue a post secondary education, and  #4 through #8 are also great general rules for life.
I think it was pretty cool of Wil to drop this kind of wisdom on his young fan, and even cooler of Wil's wife to share this photo with the interweb.

Tsuro - The Game of The Path

Got out last night with a new group of folks who introduced me to a number of new board games, many of which I had never before experienced. The game that resonated most with me was a simple yet stylish offering called Tsuro.

In Tsuro, each character is a wind dragon (not to be confused with the luck dragon from The Neverending Story).

Played on a sqaure board, laid out as a grid, each dragon starts at a separate point along the exterior of the game board, and then each player in turn places a tile down infront of their dragon, which dictates the path that the dragon will follow. Each player receives 3 tiles to begin the game, and draws a new tile from the deck after a tile is laid. The point of the game is to lay down tiles so that your dragon avoids flying off of the board, or colliding with other players dragons. Last player standing wins.

The artwork of the game board and box draw heavily on Asian dragon symbolism, and very clean, simple lines. The game play, while seemingly simple, can become relatively complex once a player starts to manipulate the paths of their opponents. Ofcourse, choices are dictated by the tile cards in a players hand, but how a player chooses to utilize these tiles leaves significant room for varied play styles.

Game play moves very quickly, with a four player game lasting under 10 minutes.   Our game ended in a draw with a spectacular head on collisio between two dragons.  Because we had other games to sample, we didn't play a second round, but the game obviously caught my interest as I found myself contemplating strategy later in the evening. After our play test, our host mentioned that he had first discovered Tsuro through Wil Wheaton's online show: Table Top. I immediately decided that I would need to find the episode, just to see Wil Wheaton's approach to the game. As I expected, the episode of Table Top featuring Tsuro, featured 2 other mini games as well, Zombie Die, and Get Bit.

If you aren't familiar with Table Top, the premise is simple.   Wil and his compatriots play test various board games, for the sheer joy of playing. It was entertaining to watch their game unfold and compare the various play styles of Wil's playtesters to the players that I had played with earlier in the evening.  Wil took the master startegist approach, attempting to gain control of the center of the game board early on.  Unfortunatley, it was all for naught, a he failed to secure the victory.

I love that such a seemingly simple, yet remarkably complex game has still got me thinking about it 24 hours later. This will definitely be a box that I will be adding to my games closet very soon.

Wil Wheaton on Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

As promised, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch the Wil Wheaton episode of Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (Season 1 Episode 10), so here are my thoughts. Wheaton guest stars as fictional super slimy Hollywood talent agent Moshi Schwartz, or Mushy Shorts, who is determined to get Kiko to sign with his agency, despite having never seen the show, because the buzz is huge. Instead Kiko dresses him in a flower hat, and they grow together until it is time for nature to pollinate his face, thanks to Panda who is dressed as a bumble bee, before spinning the wheel of fun only to land on "make a deal". Schwartz thinks this is his big break, only to learn that instead he is the winning contestant in a game show a la "Let's make a deal" and after choosing door number one, he is rewarded with a very hairy male order bride?!? Wheaton's running judemental commentary and on going cell phone calls arethe pretty funny, as are Unicow's on going dancing (humping) antics. Wheaton brings his own sense of comedy to the piece, and it works well with the typically zany antics of the cast. Another solid episode of free TV thanks to Crackle!

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

This is my latest discovery on Crackle and I have to tell you right now that it is awesome! Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show is an American made spoof of a Japanese talk show hosted by an over the top Japanese character named Kiko. The guest stars are actors, none of whom are expecting to be molested by Kiko's costumed pals: Unicow and Panda. In every episode they spin the wheel of fun for random entertainment. I was highly amused by the total randomness of it all. Here are the synopsis's for the first two episodes: S1E1: Lick Poop: Ichi! Ni! San! Shi! Palaentologist Rick Pope (Lick Poop) gets a bright, J-pop, Makeover when it comes to party time with Kiko. Talk to the hot dog! S1E2: Chief Itchy Balls: Unicow and Kilo get together for fun time with Chef Rick Bowles. A marshmellow man begs to be eaten, and Unicow sacrifices himself for fun! This may not be for everyone, but I appreciate their off the beaten track sense of humour, and the party time sings are funny as hell. Wil Wheaton makes a guest appearance in season one episode 10, which I will totally blog about once I have seen it! They have a full two seasons available online, and I will totally be watching all of it as fast as I can!

Wil Wheaton on Talking Dead

Well, I was right about the fact that a little name recognition goes a long way!
Will Wheaton's appearance on the Talking Dead tonight brought in a lot of traffic in here at wwwwd.  1226 hits in the last 3 hours to be precise.  So I would be remiss not to write a short blurb celebrating the appearance.
This week Chris Hardwick welcomed Wil Wheaton, and  Nick Gomez to the couch.  The topic, what else but Season 3 Episode 2.
Gomez, who played Tomas in tonight's episode, had a lot of interesting anecdotes to share regarding the filming of the episode.  It was also interesting that he was the secret cast member guest star tonight, since his character featured so heavily into the plot and action of the episode.  Despite the fact that tonight's episode will be his last appearance on the show, he certainly left an impression.  This is to be expected when you earn a machete to the skull from Rick Grimes!
It is apparent that Wheaton is a huge fan of The Walking Dead, as he seemed giddy to be on camera discussing the episode throughout the broadcast.  He wasn't actually called on to answer questions very often by Hardwick, doing most of his talking later in the episode - specifically to offer a pretty insightful commentary on the potential duality of Rick's current mindset in regards to the events of tonight's episode, ie killing Tomas, and leaving Andrew to die.  I also appreciated the take he had on Carl's actions this week, and I chuckled at the fact that he totally plugged Where's Carl (His own utube film) in his response.
To close out the episode Hardwick asked Wheaton  which Star Trek Captain he would prefer to have by his side in the event of a zombie apocalypse.  Wheaton's response:  James T. Kirk, cause he'd kick more ass. I certainly can't disagree with that logic.But who would win in a fight?  Rick Grimes or James Tiberius Kirk?

Wil Wheaton on The Walking Dead?

It's funny how a little name recognition can go a long way! 
The interweb is apparently abuzz with individuals who are slightly misinformed about Mr. Wheaton's upcoming guest appearance.
A few of these people have wound up here at my blog...thanks Google!
So I figured I would write a quick post to better inform these poor misguided folks, just so that they don't get frustrated and start leaving me hate mail.
This Sunday Wil Wheaton will actually be featured on the AMC show The Talking Dead, an open forum discussion that airs after each new episode of The Walking Dead.  The Talking Dead features cast members, and producers from the show, answering fan questions.  They also occasionally invite celebrities who are fans of the series to come on and share their opinions and insight on the latest Walking Dead episode.  And this seems to be the case in this instance.
I'll be sure to watch this Sunday, and will likely blog about what Wil has to say...
So, sorry to dissapoint anyone who was hoping Wil was going to get the full Robert Kirkman treatment...not this time.
But...in the mean time, here's a fun image I have borrowed from Mr. Wheaton's tumblr page - who doesn't love a good Vegas Pimp Zombie Photo?  Thanks Google!



Also, in honor of The Walking Dead and Wil Wheaton, I have included this link to his short film: Where's Carl. Enjoy.