Author: Bryant

The 2004 Hugo nominees are out. I have very little opinion. I do find it interesting to compare them to the Nebula nominees, insofar as the Nebula nominees include quite a few stories originally published online.

The rumor is that this is Owen Wilson.

“My life is boring and not worth writing about, except for my knowledge of one thing. So this blog will focus on that thing. It is, for lack of a better word, celebrity. I stumbled onto it by a series of chance events. Suffice it to say, I can tell you what it’s like to see your picture on the magazine rack every now and again when you pay for groceries. And that’ll have to suffice. I’d like this to be the sort of account afforded only by anonymity. And it that happens, if my identity were revealed, I’d quickly be selling grapefruits — instead of paying $14 a pop to eat them — on Sunset Blvd.”

Maybe, although the paranoia of exposure seems a little overwritten. But what do I know about being a celebrity? More to the point, do I really care as long as I can pretend that the gory details of Hollywood life are true?

“Recently, though, a producer I’ve worked with and seven Industry buds of his flew their own private jet from LA to Havana for a day of mojitas, Cohibas and sixteen-year-old whores, and, upon their return, were each fined $25,000, for no other reason than their hubris. For the producer, this is Tooth-Fairy money, and a small price to be hailed as a bad ass. I should note that my cleaning lady, who’s small enough to be turned away from the more perilous amusement park rides, could kick his ass.”

I don’t care if it’s fiction as long as it’s amusing.

Excellent second to last episode of The Apprentice tonight. I’m already looking forward to the next season, when competitors will know the format better. There wasn’t a lot of metagaming in this season, and that’s got to be partially due to the lack of information about the full rules. Next year, contestants will know that they’ll see their fired peers again, and they’ll know that they can keep allies on their team safe even when it gets down to three people per team. More important, they’ll be more confident about the twists.

I also enjoyed the interviews, and wouldn’t have minded watching more of them. There’s no question but that this episode demanded a completely different set of skills than previous contests. In particular, Amy’s lack of substance showed up in a big way. Given what Trump’s looking for, it’s going to be very clear who has no chance next year.

I liked Kwame’s tactic of hiring his old team, since they weren’t as ego-ridden as Versacorp. Most of Bill’s people were pretty clearly unhappy about losing. Of course, Omarosa’s screw-ups may have blown that tactic. Albeit… he picked second, so he was going to wind up with Omarosa no matter what. So the real question is whether giving Omarosa a little egoboo was worth not picking Nick. And I think it was; Nick was showing some serious attitude at Bill. So since Kwame was going to get Omarosa no matter what, he was smart to get Heidi over Nick.

Now, why Bill would choose both Nick and Amy is beyond me.