Author: Kris

Some online comic sites are running an interview with Berkely Breathed (part 1, part 2). You do know who Berkely Breathed is, right? This reminds me of sophomore year of college, when Liz and I correctly identified the comic strip that “Bill the Cat” appeared in and won a gift certificate from the local radio station. (It was “Bloom County.”) Read the interview; it’s pretty good.

Regis Philbin is donating $2.75 million for a studio theater in the new Performing Arts Center his (and my) alma mater is building. Which is really generous and nice and all, but I find this quote from the chair of the department hilarious: “We would welcome this gift for any purpose, but to designate it for a theater that will be the home space for our lab and performance-art productions — a place for experiment and adventure in the arts — is especially appropriate.” What? Since when did Regis Philbin become “experimental” and “adventurous”? It’s not like we’re talking about Lars Von Trier here. That ass-kissing seriously pushes the boundaries of credibility.

The Observer has a good story about Planet Irish, which is apparently a student-run online community for ND students. I was actually really impressed by the site. It looks like something I would’ve made my start page.

I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick yesterday. It was fantastic. I figured I wouldn’t like it, since I hated William Gibson’s Neuromancer so much. Gibson was so deliberately alienating and difficult that I had pretty much given up on hardcore sci-fi for good. PKD was a revelation though. The story itself wasn’t difficult to follow and it completely absorbed me. The parts that stayed with me, though, are the background issues: Mercerism, nuclear fallout, cloning, identity, and empathy. I’m looking forward to finally seeing Blade Runner to see how it stacks up. (Based on some of the reviews I’ve read, I’m not expecting it to be very similar to the book.)

My dad’s a big fan of Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. Apparently Cuban just got suspended for two games for rushing onto the court at the end of a Dallas-Cleveland game. The players got in a fight because the Dallas team was trying to run the score up to 100 so the home crowd would win 99-cent chalupa coupons as part of a Taco Bell promotion. How wacky is that? From the article: “Fans began chanting “Cha-lu-pa! Cha-lu-pa!” in the game’s waning seconds…” The opposing team was not amused. “It’s bigger than chalupas,” Wesley Person said. “Their coach called a play with 10 seconds left in a 20-point game. That’s disrespect.” Fair enough. I just wish I could get a damn chalupa in London.

Ooh, I forgot to mention what Snookums got me for Valentine’s Day: Interactive Yoda! It’s seriously one of the coolest toys I’ve ever had in my life. He’s sorta like a Furby, except you don’t have to feed him or anything. He comes with a lightsaber and he frickin’ teaches you to be a Jedi. Seriously! There are 21 lightsaber moves you learn and he gives you combinations that you have to reproduce. He’s got a sensor that tells whether you do them correctly. Snookums made it through the first level to become an official Jedi, but I’m still stuck back as a Jedi apprentice. (He’s a better fencer than me.)