Lighter Post Needed
The posts on this blog seem to be getting a bit technical. I felt better about the situation when the front page still contained pictures of some unfortunately shaped tomatoes, but alas those days are behind me. Now I’m stuck with a blog featuring fun topics like the internet, web apps, and of course, terrorist attacks. I’m fearful that readers will think all I do all day is sit by a computer and read blogs. This is far from true. A lot of time I turn my chair around and face the television.
Last night was no exception. My housemate Chris and I found ourselves watching Accepted! on HBO. It features some of the same folks in Knocked Up but lacks the gentle touch of Judd Apatow. The movie is about a group of high school screw ups who start their own university after not getting accepted anywhere else. Thanks to their fake school’s awesome website, a lot of other students start showing up. In the end, an awesomely unstructured education is had by all (it’s just like Brown!)
Accepted is not great, but does it has its moments (often involving explosions). It certainly made me want to see Superbad, and more importantly, it gave me a great idea for the sequel. Instead of college, you have the same thing with grad school. A group of ragtag scientists who didn’t get in to grad school start their own science department in… let’s say an old abandon zoo. The students kick it at the zoo for a while learning about biology, physics, and of course computer science. They invite a bunch of crazy professors who didn’t get tenure to give talks. They find out they can prove theorems while doing keg stands. They also create a bunch of really smart animals. I like Animals.
After about a month at the zoo, they stumble on a major flaw in some nearby university’s plan for particle accelerator. They warn the university, but the stubborn dean of the physics department doesn’t want to listen. In fact, after confronting them at the zoo he takes some photos of some of smart monkey’s who happen to be playing with power tools while smoking. Armed with the photos, he tries to get the grad students kicked out of the zoo, and needless to say the whole conflict culminates in a wacky academic showdown. Basically the whole thing is Animal House meets A Beautiful Mind, with some Old School thrown in as well. Once I write the first few pages of the screenplay, I’m totally dropping out of grad school and moving to a zoo.