Saw Gladiator while staying with Carol -- surprisingly good! I think I must have somehow missed all the previews for this, because I had no idea what it was about. And because I'm so ignorant about Roman history, I kept getting Sandman flashbacks, because the only time I've heard parts of this story before was in a Sandman issue. So now I want to know which parts are real and which parts were made up for the movie. I am exceedingly curious, in fact. So someone should write and tell me.
Heard that two stories from SH are on the Nebula jury shortlist: Tim Pratt's Little Gods and Douglas Lain's "Identity is a Construct" (and Other Sentences). Two of my favorite stories from last year, so that's exciting! Fingers crossed that the jury will pick one of them to add to the Nebula nominee list. (Are your fingers crossed too? If not, why not? Cross them!)
I should note that I had a lovely relaxed time staying with Carol. She was happy to chat with me when I wanted to chat, happy to let me study/prep when I needed to do that, and even happy to let me blithely ignore her and play Sims when I needed to shut off my brain, which is really above and beyond the call of hosting. (I believe that it's a guest's duty to entertain the host if possible, as partial payment for taking up some of their space. But sometimes, the guest is just too brain-dead to manage it.) And she fed me, and showed me a good movie, and watched Buffy with me with the appropriate levels of suspense, theorizing during the commercials, and excitement. (Excellent episode this week, btw. And I was right about the surprise twist, hah! So there, Kevin.) Just a fabulous host all around. Yay, Carol.
