Slashdot links to a very interesting Boston Globe story about researchers who were able to pinpoint the exact time and location that a Vincent Van Gogh painting was done, mainly by using astronomy. Cool. You can see the original painting online here and the ensuing Slashdot comments are here.

Where I am. Where I’ll be in less than a week. 🙂

I woke up this morning with the following thought fully-formed in my head: “I need to mention my dream on web-goddess. I was out on a date with Jack Nicholson and we were on the Tube in London and we had to hide from Lara Flynn Boyle, who was working on the platform we were approaching.” The weird thing is, though, I’m not sure whether I actually had that dream (since I can’t remember any of it), or whether I simply made it up and then dreamt about posting it. Isn’t that odd?

It’s always fun to quit listening to my work mp3 collection for a couple weeks and then revisit it. I just snorted out loud when Wyclef Jean’s “The Rambler” came on. There’s nothing funnier in the world than hearing Kenny Rogers sing, “You got to know when to hold ’em…” and then hearing Wyclef shout “Ghetto! Ghetto!” in the background.

So I had at least three different dreams last night, but unfortunately I can only remember two. In the first I was at Cedar Point with my sister and brother and Snookums, but before we got to ride anything I got in a big nasty fight with my sis. It was over near the Pirate Ride (which the bastards took out a couple years ago), and she was sitting at a picnic table and we were just screaming at each other. And I remember suddenly looking up and seeing horrible gray crowds just rolling in and filling the sky. And I’m like, “AMY! If you don’t shut the hell up, we’re gonna get stuck out in the storm!” There was a huge crack of thunder, and then I woke up.

In the second dream, I was in a house full of people and had to fight my way out from the basement. Helping me were Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. (Which must mean that I was Cameron Diaz, but I have no idea why, since I haven’t even seen the damn movie.) I had this short sword which kind of split apart, so really I had two short ninja swords that I was twirling and fighting with. We eventually made our way up the stairs to the front door, but when I threw it open there stood Mrs. Diane Heitger, my ex-boyfriend’s mother. So I quickly put my sword away and said hello, hoping to move her away from our exit path. But before I could get out, I woke up.

Poodoo! I was in the lead on Plastic’s Karma Whoring Contest and then somebody had to point out that you’re supposed to be logging on from the United States to be eligible. How much does that suck?! I give up. My karma whoring days are over. I hate you, Plastic.

A student wrote the following line in an editorial at SUNY-Stony Brook: Dear Jesus Christ, King of Kings, all I ask is that you smite George W. Bush. He also asks the Lord to smite Carson Daly. Pretty obvious satire, don’t you think? Apparently the Secret Service didn’t. They interrogated him, subjected him to a psychological exam, coerced him into giving permission for them to examine his medical records, and searched his house. The hell?? Since when are students not protected by the First Amendment? I hope Jesus smites the asshole who authorized this cock-up.

ND has elected its first ever female student body president! Congratulations to Brooke Norton and her vice-president-elect, Brian Moscona.

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.)

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.)