Random things I’ve been talking about with the HoB:

BabyBoy is so totally gone on The Witcher that I had to give it a try, and I’m liking it a lot more than I was expecting to. (I can slide by on a lot of your basic fantasy tropes, but I’m liking it way more than that. And I’m not a huge Henry Cavill fan—nothing bad against him, he just never pinged anything on my radar, but again, I’m really having fun with him and Geralt.) Of course, given that it’s BB I’m interacting with, and he’s the BFA Acting major, we discuss A LOT of the technical aspects of the show, like the fight choreography and how they’re editing the timelines together, etc, etc, but the one I thought was interesting was ( cutting for spoilers for the Striga episode ) I mean, that’s maybe a little deep for a show that doesn’t seem to be taking itself too seriously, but that’s where we got as we talked it through. It’s always fun picking things apart with him. (I mean, he gets into how the actors stand and how they move and talk and all, so sometimes we’re watching the same scene 5 times… Or, in the case of LOTR, 20…)

Also, he is apparently a rabid Geralt/Yennefer shipper (when I asked how he'd gotten all the books, he gave me the Mom, you know better than to ask your GenZ kid that question look, so we'll just keep that from his former IP attorney father.) But yeah, he doesn't want to hear anything about anybody else with either of those two.

#2Son is my Star Wars kid--OMG, we were giddy at Galaxy’s Edge, even after we’d been in line for nearly 2 hours for the Millennium Falcon ride (it was super-early in the morning and they were routing the line all through GE… we were in line for an hour before we came around a bend in the ‘street’ and lo, there was the Falcon in all her glory) but he’s my go-to for all the expanded universe easter eggs, like ( spoilers for the last episode of The Mandolorian )
And of course, now there’s another season of Clone Wars coming and I sort of half-watched the ones that already exist, so I guess I’m going back to deal with that. My viewing time is so overbooked I can’t even.

Also, while I appreciate how the Clone Wars really makes it clear that Padme and Anakin were never a good idea, I am once again annoyed that we didn’t really get the rush of a really good Bad-Idea-But-We-Can’t-Not romance, because Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless (but is bearded and Very Recognizable) can’t write romance worth sh*t. Like, seriously, give that story to Julie James or any one of a dozen writers who do really excellent competence porn and have them write the seeds of their own destruction!Anakin/Padmen. (or you know, please feel free to point me to your favorite fic that explores this very trope.)

(Oh, and BabyBoy is *also* a die-hard Obi Wan/Satine shipper. DIE HARD. RABID. It's too funny.)

Oldest is in one of his periodic attempts to get me more into the Vorkosigan books, which I agree, I should love, and have enjoyed the ones I’ve read/listened to, but I just haven’t gotten to them yet. I think my (admittedly, small) stumbling block is that while Miles is entertaining and all, I’m really all about Cordelia, but my completist brain can’t quite skip over all the many Miles-centric books to get to the good, later Cordelia-centric ones. Plus, I really, really wish the guy who does the audiobook narration didn’t sound like he was 40 years old, especially in the earlier Miles books when he’s, y’know, a teenager. We’ll continue to work on it now that we’ve gotten through all the Dresden books (though the next one is apparently on the way.)

So, yeah, they still keep me busy, and that's not counting the ~15,000 hours of Critical Role they keep asking if I've seen. (I listen to it while I'm doing mindless cut/paste updates, but good lord, even starting with Campaign #2, I'll never get through it all.)