And what makes my head go round and round while my heart stands still

Oh, I forgot to talk about seeing the new Blade Runner cut in the theater. It was good. There were fewer changes than I expected, but the visuals were more striking, and they fixed half a dozen of the little errors that resulted from rushing the last one. Anyone who missed seeing it due to being a big jerk with bad priorities may do so on the small screen, though, as I'm getting a copy for my birthday.

Aside from just being a really good movie, it is interesting to me as an example of one of those things I have been really fixated on at some point. As you've probably noticed, this is something I do, where I obsessively devote all my attention to, say, steampunk, or David Bowie, or Star Control, or orchids. Orchids are a funny example because I'm pretty sure it was precipitated by my reading The Orchid Thief, in which Orlean in part attempts to document this very phenomenon. But yeah, a couple years ago, I decided it would be rewarding to read every analysis of every detail of Blade Runner I could find, to learn the differences between each of the releases, and to play the blade runner video game, which, in case you were curious, is an adventure game with some slightly clunky gameplay but a few fun features, like a V-K minigame in which you actually administer the empathy test to people whom you think are replicants, and also it is one of those games where, appropriately enough, there are several different plot outcomes, depending on whether you release or retire certain replicants, and also on random events that are determined at the start of the game, such as whether certain characters actually are replicants.

And right now I'm in an odd situation. Eve just introduced me to this Sindome MOO. (a MOO is a MUD that was written in an object-oriented language. A MUD, in turn, is basically an old-fashioned, text-based precursor to the MMORPG. yeah...yeah, I know.) I can feel, in my bones, that this is a game that will send me into the throes of uncontrollable fascination if I let it. I can't decide whether this is something to look forward to, or avoid. When is an addiction worth pursuing?

I wa-wa-wa-wa-wonder

Friday was my coworker Christine's last day; she's off traveling the world. It's a little intimidating to be the only lab assistant; I've had to learn lots of new administrative procedures, new responsibilities, and nobody to ask for help who doesn't have a Ph.D. I'll manage.

Phaedra and I went wine tasting for her (belated) birthday. Did you know the Whole Foods in Irvine puts on wine tastings? And that it is the hugest Whole Foods in the known (by me) universe?
It was fun.

Also I have been reading a lot of Runaways lately. It starts off a little slow, but I'm really liking it now. It's just like the quintessential comic book, generally fun and lighthearted, with lots of funny superhero quips, a certain amount of self-aware camp, and the requisite surprises, drama and occasional teen angst. Also BKV does a really good job of making the Marvel Universe feel like it plausibly fits in with the real world. Unfortunately he has handed it over to Joss Whedon for six issues, followed by Terry Moore, so I don't really know how that's going to go.

More links, one from Jess, one from Clara, and one from...somewhere, possibly Aether Emporium