The regular crowd shuffles in

Tron is a beautiful movie with an empty-headed plot, but it wouldn't linger so in people's minds if it didn't put at least a fwe good ideas out. One of them is the notion that with each transaction, each bit of information about us that gets exchanged between computers, a little bit of us is woven into the electronic world. It's the sort of thing to appeal to the romantic essentialist in all of us.

In December of my 17th year --- a bit after my birthday, I should note --- the digital representation of me got one of its keystones: a New Jersey driver's license. I've kept it up through college (in New Jersey, so, reasonably), then grad school (in New York, but as a student ideas like residency are loose), then Singapore-based expatriate (where would be more logical for my back-home-base?). But it would be absurd to keep a New Jersey driver's license when I've become as permanent a Michigan resident as bunny_hugger figures to be. So we set out one reasonably free afternoon to the Secretary of State, which is Michiganian for DMV (which is actually, in New Jersey, the Motor Vehicle Commission, ever since we were saved from an attempt at privatization), to establish the third big part of my Michigan database existence, after my marriage and credit union account.

And my marriage would be important, since a key part of the license process is proving that I'm a resident. I haven't got many bills going to me here, though, just a couple pay stubs. But my passport would prove identity, and the marriage license prove I was as much a resident as bunny_hugger, and she could find documentation to prove herself to be a resident, so what more would we need? And I went in with stuff to get my car's registration and new plates, too.

Trivia: In 1952 Captain Video had a production budget of $6,500 per five-show week. Howdy Doody had one of $1,500 to $2,500 per episode. Source: The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television, David Weinstein.

Currently Reading: New Jersey Curiosities, Peter Genovese.

PS: Reading the Comics, September 26, 2012, latest in a series of what's probably my most popular Wordpress posts. Also features my free grumblings about a comics syndicate. Plus, guess which century-old comic is still producing new strips?