To Count Or Not To Count

Hmmm, I know that one of the stipulations that I had for the 150 movies over the course of the year is that they were movies that I hadn't seen yet. Whether or not they were at the theater, on dvd, or on satellite didn't seem to matter. However, one thing I hadn't taken into consideration was how they were released. I'm wondering, do I count made for TV movies? I'm curious because this weekend I can either count 4 movies, or 1 depending on how the vote swings. However, the one that definitely counts is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
When I was growing up, it was in a small town with very little in the way of culture. I believe the bowling alley was probably the mecca of civilization. So, I tried to, in essence, "collect" as many different experiences as I could. I tried to venture to Pittsburgh as often as I could to help me out in my quest. This continued right up until college, actually, it hasn't ever really stopped, but my freshman year in college I was exposed to so many different items at different levels it felt like culture shock. One of the things that sticks out vividly in my mind was almost a fluke. My junior year of high school they decided to begin doing musicals. Outside of The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music, I wasn't really acquainted with musicals. So, I sort of dove in headfirst. But, until my freshman year of college all I had exposure to were the "normal" musicals. Then, a dramat (drama major) on my floor gave me tickets to Sweeney Todd. I was hooked. At that point, I realized that just like everything else in the world, musicals could be twisted and outside the norm. I had the soundtrack within a week and to this day it's still one of my favorite musicals. However, given it's graphic nature it doesn't get many runs in the traditional sense. So, when it came to Pittsburgh earlier this year, I was there. So, I've seen two very different stage versions and had every intention of seeing the movie when it came out. Of course, with a three year old, making it to the theater for an R rated movie. So, it passed out of the theaters and I almost missed my chance. Then I noticed that one of the cheap theaters in the area picked it up. So, yesterday, we headed down to the 1:15 show thinking that maybe Gage would nap through most of it. Since the theater was also showing The Bee Movie, Terri opted to take him to see that while I went to see Sweeney Todd. I'm glad I went. Johnny Depp did not diappoint. From the minute the score started pumping through the surround sound, I knew it was going to be a good movie. I'd definitely see it again in the theater given the chance. I will be picking up the soundtrack for the movie, even though they shortened or cut some of the songs. I'll also be picking up the DVD when it comes out.
After taking the assessment of made for tv movies, I'll update the counter on the right.
Oh, and today Gage and I got to see the Pens flatten the Flyers 7-1. Gotta love it. That brings the season series a little closer.

It's Been A While

Well, of course, I blame work. That lovely catch-all. But enough about a crappy subject. So, I hit several milestones on the lists. I got the first season of TV out of the way, I finished my first novel, and hit 10 movies. All in all, slow progress for it being at the beginning of the third month. But I still have 9 months for 14 more novels, 140 more movies, and 4 more seasons of TV. I have started the next novel and the next season. If all goes well with the seasons of television, I will complete two series with the 5 seasons. Two seasons of F-Troop and 3 seasons of Arrested Development. I would like to finish The Baby Whisperer (book 2) and then head into the 7 Dark Tower books, the Mumia Abu Jamal book Tom gave me for Christmas, and then fill in with 5 other books I've been meaning to read. Although that list fluctuates a lot more. I'd also like to pull several more movies out of my collection to finish as well, but I haven't gotten there. I'm guessing I'll have more television/movie watching time once hockey season is over.
Speaking of hockey, interesting trades. We'll have to see how everything works out. Right now, the Penguins are atop the Eastern Conference. If the playoffs started today, we'd be matched up against the Flyers. Ick. Perhaps the Flyers will lose a few more and fall out of contention all together. Anyway, Crosby is back, Fleury is back, all we need to see now is a healthy Hossa and perhaps Gary Roberts. Hopefully they can ride March into a great playoff match-up and we'll see how deep they go. Oh, and if anyone knows any good girl names, we'll certainly take them under consideration. But they have to be better than Snowball and Broomhilda.

Collecting To Excess And Then Rebuilding

First the rebuilding, mostly because I think it's funnier.
Though I'm not a big baseball fan, I would totally buy this shirt. Tom sent me both that, and this article. It's going to be a long season, I think. On the bright side, they haven't lost a meaningful game yet. I think I'd like to get a t-shirt with the Steelers logo, the Pens logo, and the Pirates logo. Beneath the three logos, "Two Outta Three Ain't Bad"
Now, the next two links deal with collecting to excess. I'll freely admit, my mom is a packrat. Thankfully, I did not inherit this gene. I do, however, enjoy watching my own collections grow. Recently with the posting of the pictures of the library and conversations with some people at work, I've been accused of being a packrat and having too much stuff. I don't think I'm overly afflicted with this. Four things that people automatically leap to point out at my house are (in no particular order) legos, books, music, and movies. However, as I'm sure others will back me on, I know
one person that's got me beat in both movies and legos. Hands down. No contest. Yes, I do have a lot of books at my house, but I have a passion for the written word, both to read and to write. I also have an antique typewriter, three electric typewriters, and a word processor. Anyway, I came across the following two items on back to back days and I don't think that I want to hear anything about my collections ever again.
This collection makes me wish I had three million dollars. I'd probably spend the whole first month of ownership just browsing.
This woman needs some sort of intervention/beating/help/therapy or all of the above. This woman puts my mother to shame. The post has a ton of pictures to load, but it's worth it. Reading the descriptions are even funnier.
So, my collections are just average, everyday normal collections. Just like I've always said.

Ah, The Sunrise...Now Where Have I Seen That Before

Ok, yes, I shouldn't be taking a break. I still have more left to do, but with less than 2 hours before I have to be showered and in the car on my way to work in the office, I figured I didn't have time for another movie, so I'd add the ones I'd completed. After breaking the seal with Meet the Robinsons last night, I quickly went through, Pittsburgh with Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley, Jr. With the exception of maybe (and that's a stretch) Jeff Goldblum, there's not one actual real person in this movie who comes off as even remotely normal. I'm not sure how Jeff talked everyone into this, but it wasn't the greatest. After that, I went for one of those movies that everyone assumes I saw, but I never got around to. Road House It was pretty much what I had expected, maybe even a little more violent. Then I put in Nacho Libre. I was most disappointed in this one. It seemed to me like a bad imitation of Napoleon Dynamite. Right down to the dorky mexican-lite sidekick. Then I just finished up Walk the Line. I certainly wasn't expecting anything from this movie. Being a big Johnny Cash fan there isn't really any way to even come close. I did think that Joaquin and Reese did a passable job. It's just very hard to buy anyone as Johnny who doesn't have that completely low voice full of gravel. Having not seen the movie or really paid much attention as to who was in it, I was surprised to see Robert Patrick as Johnny's daddy Ray. Not because it was bad casting, but because this has been playing on satellite recently and he also plays the father role and they are essentially the same character. Anyway, now I'm up to 5.

To The Light At The End Of The Tunnel, Please Don't Be A Train

Work should begin to lighten up at the end of this week so if I haven't been as responsive to emails, ims, etc. now you know why. I did want to make sure that I quickly got this post in to say that I finally (after 16 days) managed to see a new movie from start to finish. While I've been sitting here working on the computer, Gage has been watching Meet The Robinsons. It's a typically Disney animated movie. I did really like the surprise cameo. That made me laugh out loud. I don't have a full rating scale like Tom does, but I'd certainly watch this again if the opportunity presented itself.

"It Was Firm, It Was Adamant, It Was Resolved."

Well, I guess it's fairly fitting that it's a movie quote to start off the post about resolutions since that will play a part in one of them. I guess I'll just list and exposit as I go.

So, looking back at posts from 2007, I never really set forth an actual list, I was just trying to clear up the list from 2006. This year, I do have an actual list, I guess.

1. Get the new house in shape for both family and baby.
2. Drop another 30 or so lbs. and put a little definition back into the old (and getting older) body.
3. The 5/15/150 prospective.
4. Slowly carve out more time for each family memeber and their pursuits.
5. Try and remember that both children will be unique and a little over 4 years in age difference.

Number one is fairly self-explanatory. We just recently moved and in the midst of packing and moving, found out we were expecting. So, the room in the house where we moved all the extraneous things into is slated to be the nursery. It hasn't quite recovered yet and there are still things strewn about the house. It's slowly taking shape, but it will have to happen a lot quicker to accomodate a late June/early July delivery.

Number two should also be self-explanatory. I've been slowly climbing down back toward the number I have in my head and looking back over the past couple years, I've realized that I've gone down about 10 lbs. each the past two years so it's no longer 50 lbs., but 30. And, though I never had a six-pack set of abs, I'd like to be able to distinguish where the muscles are and my legs, which were, at one time, the body part that was most in shape, are now beginning to lose the tone that they used to have.

Number three deals with my healthy obsession with pop culture. The 150 represents the number of "new" movies that I'd like to view this year. I half-heartedly started this last year, but will be pursuing it a little more firmly this year. Movies only count if I haven't seen them before. That can be a first run release such as Sweeney Todd, National Treasure 2, or the Bucket List or it can be a movie that I wanted to catch, but didn't make the theater such as Waitress, Rush Hour 3, and Eastern Promises. The 15 represents the number of novels that I'd like to read this year. I didn't even come close last year and that was with re-reading 1-6 of the Potter series and adding the 7th. I have several books that I'd like to slot in, but this is the year that I'd like to read all 7 of the Dark Tower series. I'm severely lagging behind in that regard. Ten years ago, I'd be reading the book as I was walking out of the bookstore buying it, but time is hard to come by these days. The 5 is just a little qualifier I recently added after talking to Tom. Tom would have made it through the 150 movies if he could have counted television shows on dvd. So, the 5 is added to accomodate series television on dvd. With what I already own, but haven't seen, I can get almost 40% of the way there on the movies and have enough for the next 7 years tv-wise. As for the 15 novels, I'll talk about that further at the end of this post.

Number 4 is kind of an all overall goal that will only be accomplished by all of us kind of working in tandem. In order for Terri to have time to scrapbook or read or for me to watch movies or build puzzles or write or Gage to learn how to skate or learn how to read, we'll have to keep up with everything else going on in our lives. Cleaning and maintaining the household, looking after the new little one, making sure work doesn't intrude at home, and not falling into the rut of excuses will be main contributing factors toward realizing this goal.

Number 5 is my own personal goal to realize that Gage has been, what I consider to be, the model child in many ways. Yes, I'd love for him to not have my sleep habits, but that can't be helped. This new little one, be it boy or girl, may or may not follow the same paths, but regardless, they will be unconditionally loved and I just need not to project either my own visions of progress or measure against Gage's progress during the formative months and years that lay ahead.

So, there's 2008 in a very ambitious nutshell. And, being almost one week into it and not having even slivered off any of it, well...there's 51 more to go.

Now, as for the 15 novels. When we were moving, Susie seemed appalled at the number of books and said I should count them as I was getting them organized and put away. Well, I have that number. And, for the comments section, I'd like to see guesses on how many books the readers of my blog think I might have. I'll reveal the answer after I see how close or far some of the guesses are. Again, I hope your 2008 is happy, healthy, and productive.