This afternoon, despite the coughing and sneezing and nausea, I went out into the cold and snow to do some errands. My misery, I thought, was perfectly personified by a large shaggy black dog, tall up to my waist, perhaps as heavy as me (possibly heavier) waiting at the door. Falling snow speckled his black coat with silver. There was no collar on his neck. A stray? He looked up at me with soulful brown eyes--and at that moment, I wished with all my heart that it would have been possible to take him back home with me.
Recent Reading: Idoru by William Gibson. The central premise, can love be possible between man (a Chinese-Irish rockstar named Rez) and software (the idoru, Rei Toei), was an interesting idea but unfortunately was not developed as it could have been. Instead, the story revolved around two characters who are representatives of larger organizations that want to prevent this union--Chia McKenzie, a 14-year-old girl who was sent by Rez's Seattle chapter fan club to Tokyo to find out the truth of the rumors, and Colin Laney, a data specialist involved in creating media scandals. I found myself more interested in the technology behind Chia's Sandbenders (virtual reality communication) and Laney's special ability to detect "nodal points" which helps him identify potential targets for scandal. Rez and the idoru turned out to be rather peripheral, cardboard characters--Rez, the self-abosrbed music idol with even more outside detachment than the otaku--and Rei Toei, the all knowing AI who acts just as self-absorbed and childish as her human lover.
