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.

Ironminds argues that Fred Durst should run for President in 2004. Why? Because “the nookie can be lots of things. Like Jerusalem.” Heh.

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.)

Damn. What my sister would’ve given for this domain name: lloyddobler.com. I found it while checking out this “pithy” list of great 80’s movies that I found linked on Lake Effect. Actually I watched one of them, The Breakfast Club, just this past Saturday night. (It was part of BBC2’s “I Love 1984” special.) I’m getting to love British telly, especially since they never bleep any of the curse words.

Big congrats and best wishes to Brigita, whose secret has finally been revealed. (Mouseover the cartoon of her and her boy.) Hey B, how’s about an Amazon wishlist so we can buy you stuff?

Max‘s anecdote last week about students who don’t believe we landed on the moon made me laugh. That is, until I actually read about the ridiculous program Fox aired to support the conspiracy theorists. For those of you trying to debunk such, uh, bunk, Bad Astronomy refutes nearly every argument from the show. In addition, NASA themselves responded on their site saying “Yes, we did!” You know, NASA is about to finish one of the most important missions of the last 10 years, and it’s just sad that people continue to disbelieve the amazing work that they do.

Wow. I can’t believe this. Dale Earnhardt died. I’m not a fan of racing or anything (I think it’s the most boring “sport” I’ve ever seen), but this was one of the guys that even non-fans recognized. He was my uncle’s favorite racer. I hope maybe this forces NASCAR to recognize how dangerous racing is and that they need to implement more safety restrictions.

Sarah Ryan, a current Weasel, responds to that Observer story about excessive parietal punishments.

Yes, I’ve removed the time stamps on my posts. Can you guess why?