Baby, You're a Rich Geek

I slept in this morning and didn't get to the laundromat until past noon. I'm glad I waited so long. By the time I made it there, it was dead. The only people there were one other woman and the manager and Days of Our Lives on NBC. I spent a pleasantly quiet hour reading Simple Abundance.

When I got home, I put the laundry away, then ran The Social Network while having a leek and mushroom omelet for lunch. The Social Network revolves around the creation of Facebook and its developer, Harvard computer nerd Mark Zuckenberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his friend and business partner Eduardo Savarin (Andrew Garfield). Arrogant and shy Zuckenberg finds himself facing two major lawsuits after he's accused of stealing the ideas of a pair of snobbish Harvard twins and their buddy (Armie Hammer as both twins), then of cutting Savarin out of Facebook in favor of the sleazy creator of Napster (Justin Timberlake). Things quickly spiral out of control as Zuckenberg realizes that his arrogance has isolated him and made him a target for people like Carter...and that no amount of money or being cool can buy him someone he can really trust.

This is an excellent movie, but I had a harder time with it than fellow Oscar-nominee The King's Speech. Some of it may be this movie hits awfully close to home for me. I, too, tend to isolate myself and have a hard time trusting people. (Ironically, while I do have a Facebook page, I seldom post on it, though I do read the posts of others.) I knew guys like this at Stockton, who spent more time on the computer, mired in programming that would never harm them, then with people.

On the other hand, something about this just seemed cold. For all the talk about connection, you often can't really connect with the characters, which may be the point. Online social networking has many advantages, but humans need real, one-on-one contact, too.

It's also nice to see a movie deal with a current reality. I know a lot of films prefer to act like things like the Internet don't exist or only appear as a plot point...but for better or for worse, the online revolution is a part of modern life that shouldn't be ignored.

Work wasn't nearly as interesting. It was on-and-off busy all night. I didn't have any problems, though some of the managers had trouble with customers. We're also having some technical difficulties. Three of our 7 frequently used registers are out of order. The credit card/debit machine is down on 3 and 4 and the check machine doesn't work on 1. Thankfully, it was so dead by the time I left, I was able to buy buttermilk and head out quickly.