"The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean, the idea that such complexity can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And … the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is time well spent as far as I am concerned."¹ Here's the lineup for the next 8.22 × 10^-3 years of your stay in the universe. Spend it well.

Geek Out

Get some space. As long as you're exploring the universe, you might as well, you know, explore the universe. Tonight, The Rose Center for Earth and Space offers "One Step Beyond." The Rose PR people try to dress this up with all sorts of street cred, but the essence is "dance party in the planetarium." That's enticing, but the wallflower in me is more intrigued by the complimentary screenings of Cosmic Collisions. They offer this astronomical smash-em-up show on the dome all the time, but the drinking-age-only event is probably your only chance to see it without any screaming kids around. In other words, you don't have to feel guilty about showing up stoned. One Step Beyond goes from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., so if you want to head up after tonight's Dark Crystal screening at the Rubin Museum of Art, the festivities should be in full swing.

If you prefer to get your astrophysical fix sans thumping subwoofers and Red Bull cocktails, you might enjoy Ben Oppenheimer's "In Search of Extrasolar Planets" lecture at the Explorers Club on Monday. OK, it's technically not during the weekend, but won't you enjoy telling coworkers that you have an engagement that evening at the "Explorers Club"?

Geek In

Light it up. Preferably in lots of pretty colors. The deadline for Instructables' Get the LED Out! Speed Challenge is February 10, so there's plenty of time to to enter this contest, whose only requirements are that you come up with a project that somehow involves LEDs. If you're daunted by the complexity of electronics, don't be. One of the most famous Instructables (and one of the inspirations for this contest) was the LED Throwies how-to, which paired LEDs with a watch battery, a magnet, and some tape. I bet you can handle that.

Govern. The seminal sim game SimCity has gone through many permutations, but the most recent entry in the flagship series, SimCity 4, has proven the most enduring in terms of replay value. SC4, engrossing out of the box, also boasts an open plug-in architecture that has been essential to its longevity. Thanks to its easy extensibility, fan communities like SimTropolis have made SC4 almost perfect, not just by creating the usual building and landmark templates but also by designing patches that fine-tune city growth algorithms. Five years after its release, they continue to make improvements, such that the original game seems crippled in comparison.

Prideful Gothamites will appreciate the years of labor that graphic artist Elliot Hansen has put into New York City in SimCity. Hansen offers dozens of NYC-centric resources for download, and SimCity 4 goes for $10-20 on bargain racks, so why not take the weekend to see what your NYC looks like? It's a lot warmer than the real thing.

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1. According to a guy who wrote some rather entertaining books (but sadly only had a 49-year stay in our universe). ↑