‘Real Genius.’ It’s a movie from the ’80s that I really liked when I first saw it. When you’re born in 1966, you end up participating in popular culture in the ’80s. And if you were a nerd in the ’80s, you saw ‘Real Genius.’ And if you saw it, you liked it, even though it’s utter fluff and nonsense.

Severn Darden is in it. He’s a dean of a university. The only reason his character is in the movie is so that there can be an authority figure who ranks higher than the bad guy, a physics professor who’s moonlighting for the defense department. So Severn shows up twice, all pudgy and cute with a beard and glasses, looking academic.

But anyway. Once upon a time, when my future lay before me, all options blossoming like a rose, when I didn’t really understand myself but knew I was bright, when I couldn’t fit in, when my friends were studying comp sci while I was dropping out of high school because I couldn’t deal… I saw ‘Real Genius.’ Nerdy was in. It was hip to be square, like the man said. There was ‘Real Genius,’ and ‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.’ Nerd heros.

‘Real Genius’ has zip. It moves along at a happy pace. It’s full of quirky characters and funny situations. There’s the happy nerds versus the big evil military-industrial complex. There’s a t-shirt that says ‘I [heart] Toxic Waste.’ Yay. It’s solid, competent Hollywood with good writing and great dialog. It’s like an XTC song: You can forgive its extravagances because it’s so clever.

And Severn Darden is in it.

Republicans want to do something stupid.

Sane people say it’s a bad idea.

Republicans deride them and do it anyway.

Sane people are correct.

Republicans blame sane people.

Repeat.

More computer desktop backgrounds added to this photo set.

I’m going to write about two things:

1) Over on WorldChanging, we learn about the Miss Rockaway Flotilla. It’s a bunch of punks who are going to build a flotilla of rafts from random junk and float from Minneapolis towards the Gulf on the Mississippi, while doing learn-ins along the way.

Together we float down the Mississippi river, as far as we can — all the way to St. Louis — anchoring here and there to perform, give workshops, and create the big huge stinking spectacle we wished would have stopped in our hometowns. And at each place we invite anyone to contribute performances or workshops of their own.

I am completely drawn to this project, and might just have to either participate or follow them along the way or something.

2) Synchronicity. I was talking about this kind of stuff last week, and now there’s a band of Seattlites headed for Minneapolis. I find that ‘coincidences’ like this end up happening more frequently than a rational man could explain.

Sometimes it seems like my subconscious is hiring itself out to do other people’s processing on the side.

‘EULA’ stands for ‘end-user license agreement.’ It’s the thing where you click ‘Accept’ without thinking when you install new software, for instance, thus legally binding you to whatever was written in that little window you thought was irrelevant.

Some EULAs allow for all kinds of things, like, for instance, halting the functioning of the software that runs a giant robotic parking garage when the city of Hoboken disputes the company’s contract.

Hundreds of parked cars were stuck inside.

So go ahead and click [Accept]. Nothing bad could happen.

Check this out. Yes, the area was settled by Germans.

I feel like Ed Norton in ‘Fight Club,’ where he’s growing into the couch, remote control in hand, watching an infomercial for spray-on hair, unable to get to sleep, baggy eyes glassed over, drooling onto the cushion.

Except I’m in bed playing mancala with my laptop.

A Pentax news blog.

There really isn’t that much Pentax news, but the guy covers it.

I ended up there because I tried to use Spotlight to search Pentax .pef photo files. Ain’t happenin’. No results yet on how to make it happen. Why do so few software engineers understand that JPEG is an EXIF format, rather than the other way around? And if you design for EXIF, instead of JPEG, you end up with the ability to read ANY kind of EXIF file, including Pentax .pef?

Grr.

Speaking of imported fruit…

WorldChanging has a bit about the economic impact to your economy if you eat local fruit.

It turns out that if Iowans ate local produce, the state would keep $300 million annually, that it now spends on imported fruit and shipping and other ancillaries. This puts money in the hands of the local ag industry, and saves on fuel useage and pollution. And of course taxes go to the state, and the people know where their food comes from.