Blogkeeping

It's a  new year, so it seems like a good time to do a little bit of housekeeping on the old blog.  You've probably already noticed a pretty significant change in the coloring and layout, and I'm glad to have the ability to adjust the widths and individual elements on the new template.  There's not going to be a lot news on this post, so if it bores you, don't bother reading on, but it might be of interest to people.

For archive's sake, here's the old template, used from the blog's launch in March 2008 until now.  I'm thinking of making a new header that's not quite as tall.  We'll see.

There's something funny about this poll.  It's like it reset itself after it was up for a few months, because I was quite sure there were more voted on there back when I posted it.  Anyway, it's woefully outdated, having been posted in fall 2009.  *sigh*  LOST.

And now is as tradition after the list on the right gets too long, here are the last 100 movies I've seen with their accompanying rating.  Oy.  This list doesn't include movies I had already seen, but at least it spans from fall 2009 until now.

Ghostbusters *** 1/2 / Daria (Season 2) **** 1/2 / The Manchurian Candidate (1962) *** 1/2 / True Grit *** 1/2 / Better Off Ted (Season 1) *** / Daria (Season 1) *** 1/2 / The Sorcerer's Apprentice *** 1/2 / TRON: Legacy ** 1/2 / The Other Guys ** / 17 Again *** / Mrs. Brown *** / The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader **** 1/2 / Lady Jane ** 1/2 / The Twilight Saga: Eclipse * 1/2 / The Other Boleyn Girl (BBC) ** / Tangled **** / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 ***** / RED *** 1/2 / Bright Star ** / The Queen *** 1/2 / The Young Victoria *** 1/2 / Project Runway (Season 8) *** / Hereafter *** 1/2 / Letters to Juliet *** 1/2 / Valentine's Day ** 1/2 / Elizabeth: The Golden Age *** / When in Rome *** / Moonlight Serenade ** / The A-Team *** / The Back-up Plan * 1/2 / Survivor: Micronesia- Fans vs. Favorites **** / Survivor: China *** 1/2 / Survivor: Fiji ** 1/2 / Inception *** 1/2 / Survivor: Cook Islands **** / The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas *** 1/2 / Diary of a Wimpy Kid ** 1/2 / Survivor: Panama-Exile Island *** 1/2 / Children of Men *** / Shutter Island *** / Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure ** 1/2 / The New World ** 1/2 / Toy Story 3 ***** / Gremlins 2: The New Batch ** 1/2 / The Stepfather ** / Big Trouble in Little China *** / Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ** 1/2 / The Fourth Kind *** / Nine ** 1/2 / An Education *** / Robin Hood *** 1/2 / LOST (The Final Season) ***** / 24 (Season 8) *** / Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains (Season 20) *** 1/2 / Poltergeist *** / The Office (Season 6) ** 1/2 / V (Season 1) *** / Iron Man 2 *** 1/2 / Lorna Doone *** 1/2 / Fame ** 1/2 / How to Train Your Dragon **** / Project Runway (Season 7) *** 1/2 / Shear Genius (Season 2) * 1/2 / The 39 Steps *** 1/2 / Scary Movie 3 ** 1/2 / Clash of the Titans **** / Sixteen Candles *** / Sherlock Holmes *** / Launch My Line (Season 1) * 1/2 / TMNT *** / Battlestar Galactica: The Plan *** / The Twilight Saga: New Moon * 1/2 / Lost in Austen *** / Battlestar Galactica (Season 4) ***** / The Lovely Bones *** / Alice in Wonderland *** 1/2 / The Lady Vanishes *** 1/2 / Mirrormask *** / Battlestar Galactica (Season 3) **** / Leap Year ** 1/2 / Northanger Abbey *** 1/2 / Last Holiday *** / 2012 *** 1/2 / Emma (Masterpiece Classic) *** 1/2 / Battlestar Galactica (Season 2) **** / The Pregnancy Pact ** / (500) Days of Summer *** / Little Dorrit **** / A Christmas Carol * 1/2 / Avatar ** 1/2 / Hellboy II: The Golden Army * 1/2 / Battlestar Galactica (Season 1) *** 1/2 / Survivor: Samoa *** 1/2 / Where the Wild Things Are ** / Obsessed *** / The Princess and the Frog ***** / Vacancy *** / The Uninvited *** 1/2 / Surrogates **** / Sunshine Cleaning *** 1/2

Now, here are the last 50 books I've read.  Embarrassingly, this list covers almost 3 years (since I came home from Wisconsin in March 2008), but again, I didn't include books I reread:

The Incredible Journey (Sheila Burnford) *** / The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) *** / The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) *** 1/2 / Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson) *** / Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (Jeff Kinney) *** 1/2 / Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (Jeff Kinney) *** / Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Jeff Kinney) *** / Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney) *** / The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux) *** 1/2 / Miss Potter (Richard Maltby, Jr.) **** / Beauty (Robin McKinley) *** 1/2 / The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Orczy) *** 1/2 / Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan) ** / Fantastic Mr. Fox (Roald Dahl) **** / The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells) *** / The Girl Who Could Fly (Victoria Forester) ** 1/2 / The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) ** 1/2 / Boy (Roald Dahl) *** 1/2 / Coraline (Neil Gaiman) *** 1/2 / My Cousin Rachel (Daphne DeMaurier) **** / A Separate Peace (John Knowles) **** / Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons) **** / The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy) **** 1/2 / The Tales of Beedle the Bard (J.K. Rowling) **** / Under the Greenwood Tree (Thomas Hardy) **** / Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton) *** 1/2 / Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O'Brien) *** 1/2 / The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) ** / Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) *** / The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) *** / Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) *** 1/2 / Regarding the Fountain (Kate Klise) *** 1/2 / 1984 (George Orwell) **** / Setting the Record Straight: Mormons and Homosexuality (Dr. A. Dean Byrd) **** 1/2 / Animal Farm (George Orwell) **** / Lord of the Flies (William Golding) **** 1/2 / Breaking Dawn (Stephenie Meyer) * 1/2 / Chased By an Elephant (Janice Graham) ***** / The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) ** / Mostly Harmless (Douglas Adams) *** 1/2 / So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Douglas Adams) *** / Life, the Universe and Everything (Douglas Adams) ** 1/2 / The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams) *** / The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) **** / Eclipse (Stephenie Meyer) ** 1/2 / New Moon (Stephenie Meyer) *** / Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) ** / Book the Thirteenth - The End (Lemony Snicket) **** / Captain of My Soul (Me) rating declined / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling) *****

Phew! I think as of the start of this year I'll start rating everything I watch and read, instead of just the new things, just because I think it's fun to keep a record.  And now that this is archived I'm set to clean house and blog for real when something worth blogging about comes around.

100 (+) Movie Redux

As you may or may not recall from this post, as well as the running list down the right side of my blog, I like to clean out my list. Posting them here not only cleans up my blog but also serves as somewhat archival information for future reference. What reference, I don't know, but here it is anyway. These 100 films weren't viewed in quite as short a span as the previous post's, but I still recently reached 100, so the time has come. For the record, this list includes only films that I hadn't previously seen, so there are dozens that I watched that I had already seen, and they didn't make the list. I don't even want to think about how many movies total I have seen since last summer.

Top Five:

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  
• Bleak House
  
• Star Trek
  
• Australia
• Cloverfield

Honorable Mention awarded to several other excellent miniseries, such as North and South, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Jane Eyre and Wives & Daughters, as well as TV series like The It Crowd, LOST, Firefly and certain seasons of Prison Break. Other highly-rated films include 9, Serenity, The Spirit, Leatherheds, Baby Mana, Gran Torino, Taken.

Bottom Five:

• Nosferatu (Either version)
  
• G.I. Joe
  
• He's Just Not That Into You
  
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
  
• Twilight
  

The last one up there might qualify as the worst film of all time, not just of this list. Chicken Little and The Day the Earth Stood Still earn Dishonorable Mention for the bottom list.

Georgia Rule * 1/2 / Frankenstein (1931) *** 1/2 / The Box *** 1/2 / The IT Crowd (Season 3) **** / Dracula (1931) *** 1/2 / Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979) * 1/2 / Nosferatu (1922) ** 1/2 / The Time Traveler's Wife ** 1/2 / Ringu ** / Inkheart ** / Eyes Without a Face ** 1/2 / Valkyrie *** 1/2 / G.I. Joe * 1/2 / Prairie Home Companion ** / 9 **** / Melody Time *** 1/2 / Fun and Fancy Free *** 1/2/ Make Mine Music *** 1/2 / The Three Caballeros ** 1/2/ Saludos Amigos ** 1/2 / Wives & Daughters **** / Quantum of Solace ** / Jane Eyre (MT) **** / Night at the Museum: The Battle for the Smithsonian *** 1/2 / Julie & Julia *** 1/2 / New In Town ** 1/2 / Push *** 1/2 / He's Just Not That Into You * 1/2 / Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ***** / The Brothers Bloom *** 1/2 / The Proposal ** 1/2 / The Last of the Mohicans ** 1/2 / Gran Torino **** / Passengers *** 1/2 / Up *** 1/2 / The House Bunny ** / Serenity **** / Firefly **** / Coraline *** 1/2 / American Idol (Season 9) *** 1/2 / Knowing *** 1/2 / 24 (Season 8) *** / Star Trek **** / Survivor Tocantins *** 1/2 / Doubt *** 1/2 / Prison Break (Season 4) ** 1/2 / LOST (Season 5) ***** / X-Men Origins: Wolverine ** 1/2 / Under the Greenwood Tree **** / The Mayor of Casterbridge **** 1/2 / Bedtime Stories ** 1/2 / Chicken Little * 1/2 / Bolt *** 1/2 / The Spirit **** / Slumdog Millionaire *** / Marie Antoinette *** 1/2 / Be Kind Rewind *** 1/2 / Twilight * / North & South **** / Taken **** / Fireproof *** / Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! *** 1/2 / Dracula: Dead and Loving It **** / Bleak House **** 1/2 / The Curious Case of Benjamin Button *** 1/2 / The Day the Earth Stood Still * 1/2 / The Tale of Despereaux ** / The Lake House *** 1/2 / Run Fatboy Run **** / Australia **** 1/2 / Shattered Glass *** 1/2 / Firstborn ** / Get Smart *** 1/2 / Hancock *** 1/2 / Aeon Flux *** / Dear Frankie *** 1/2 / Nim's Island *** 1/2 / Leatherheads **** / The Great Gatsby ** 1/2 / Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day *** 1/2 / Martian Child *** 1/2 / The Happening ** 1/2 / Baby Mama **** / Animal Farm *** 1/2 / The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning **** / 21 *** 1/2 / Prom Night * 1/2 / Cloverfield **** / Goya's Ghosts ** 1/2 / The Flight of the Conchords (Season 1) *** / Penelope **** / Sense and Sensibility (BBC) *** 1/2 / Les Choristes (The Chorus) *** 1/2 / Match Point ** 1/2 / Prison Break (Season 3) *** 1/2 / Next ** 1/2 / Prison Break (Season 2) **** / Prison Break (last half of Season 1) **** 1/2 / Vantage Point *** 1/2 / The Visitor ** 1/2

Summer of 100 (+) Movies

Or, as Matt said, "Summer of Doing Nothing Else but Watching Movies". Ha. Not entirely true.

So yes, I realized my "Recent Movies Watched" list was getting a little out of hand, so I decided to put an archive listing of the summer's films and respective ratings in a blogpost and refresh the list. Even I was surprised at the number of movies I've seen since I came home 5 1/2 months ago, but you know, if you're gone for two years, you have a little leeway to catch up. (Actual count is approximately 106, FYI, not counting the full seasons of TV shows also watched.)

Random statistics:

Top Five:

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Enchanted
• Hairspray
• Shaolin Soccer
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

There are several which came close to making this list (such as Flushed Away, The Prestige, Ironman, to name a few), so they will receive Honorable Mention.

Bottom Five:

• Spider-Man 3
• Return with Honor
• The Singles 2nd Ward
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• Happy Feet
  

The Golden Compass and The Da Vinci Code earn Dishonorable Mention for the bottom list.

Estimated hours spent watching movies: Too many to feel right about posting.

Poll results to the question, "Have I seen too many movies this summer?" were as follows (based on five votes):

• YES! Good heav, do you do ANYTHING else??? - 1 vote (20%)
• No, that seems like a perfectly healthy amount of movie watching. - 3 votes (60%)
• It's all right, I guess, after all, you are catching up from two years of no movies whatsoever. - 1 vote (20%)
• I am absolutely ambivalent either way. - 0 votes (0%).

Number of "page downs" it took to scroll through the list: 4.

So anyway, nothing new listed below, just a condensed version of the list that's been listed on the right since the end of March. This ought to clear up that sidebar quite nicely. Movies go in order from most recent to least recent seen, starting 24 March 2008, ending 25 August 2008.

Kung Fu Panda **** / Charlotte's Web **** / The Last Mimzy ** / A Lot Like Love *** / Bridge to Terabithia **** / Failure to Launch ** / Apocalypto *** 1/2 / Pan's Labyrinth *** 1/2 / Happy Feet ** / Song of the South *** 1/2 / Freedom Writers *** / Rocky Balboa *** 1/2 / Casino Royale *** / August Rush **** / Déjà Vu *** 1/2 / Scoop ** 1/2 / 3:10 to Yuma *** / Poseidon *** / Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog **** / The Dark Knight ** 1/2 / American Dreamz ** 1/2 / Mamma Mia! **** / United 93 **** / The Other Boleyn Girl **** / The Guardian ** 1/2 / The Ultimate Gift ** 1/2 / Wall-E *** 1/2 / The Spiderwick Chronicles *** / Millions **** / Click **** / She's the Man *** 1/2 / Catch and Release ** / Evan Almighty **** / The Diving Bell and the Butterfly *** 1/2 / The Golden Compass ** / The Da Vinci Code ** / Persuasion (BBC) *** 1/2 / The Illusionist *** / Music and Lyrics *** 1/2 / The Nanny Diaries *** 1/2 / The Fox and the Hound 2 *** / Flushed Away **** / High School Musical 2 ** / The Invisible ** 1/2 / Disturbia *** / The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep *** 1/2 / Cinderella III: A Twist in Time *** 1/2 / LOST (Season 4) ***** / Brother Bear 2 ** 1/2 / No Reservations *** / Iron Man **** / Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull *** / P.S. I Love You *** / The Devil Wears Prada *** / Magic in the Water ** / Loch Ness *** / Lars and the Real Girl *** 1/2 / Becoming Jane *** 1/2 / The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ***** / Nancy Drew *** / The Nativity Story **** / One Night with the King *** / I Am Legend *** / 27 Dresses *** 1/2 / Chaplin *** / Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ** / Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ** 1/2 / Mission: Impossible III **** / Ocean's Thirteen **** / Stranger Than Fiction **** / The Prestige **** 1/2 / World Trade Center ** 1/2 / All the King's Men *** / Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street *** 1/2 / Thumbarathon ***** / Nanny McPhee **** / 1408 (Director's Cut) ** 1/2 / Stardust ** 1/2 / Across the Universe *** / Miss Potter **** / Premonition *** 1/2 / Lady in the Water **** / The Holiday *** 1/2 / X-Men 3: The Last Stand **** 1/2 / Dan In Real Life **** / The Singles 2nd Ward * 1/2 / Return With Honor ** / My Boy Jack *** / The Pursuit of Happyness **** / Dreamgirls **** / Transformers *** 1/2 / Night at the Museum **** / Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed **** / Meet the Robinsons **** / Juno **** / Ratatouille ***** / 12 Monkeys *** / Fun with Dick and Jane *** 1/2 / Spider-Man 3 ** 1/2 / The Invasion **** / The Color Purple ** 1/2 / The Office (Season 3) ***** / LOST (Season 3) ***** / Shaolin Soccer ***** / Superman Returns **** / The Simpsons Movie **** / The Office (last half of Season 2) ***** / Hairspray ***** / LOST (last half of Season 2) ***** / Enchanted ***** / Nacho Libre *** / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix *****