The American Film Institute recently released a list of the Top Ten Science Fiction Movies of all time. Along with their list are some quick videos about the films from film stars such as James Earl Jones and Michael J. Fox. Here’s their list:
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE
E.T. - THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
BLADE RUNNER
ALIEN
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
BACK TO THE FUTURE
So, what do you think of their list? What would you have added? Personally, I would have at least had The Matrix in the top five (the sequels never happened..seriously).
Also, the list is a little on the dystopian side, don’t you think. I guess it’s not that hard to imagine a dark future.
I told you all about his a while ago. At the beginning of this year I came across pattern for a cross stitch of “Mario Across the Ages” at the blog Sprite Stitch. As soon as I saw it, I sent an email to my Mom saying “isn’t this cool and do you have a project you’re working on right now, hint hint” knowing she likes to cross stitch and might either make it for me or teach me how to make it.
Well, she said she would make it for my birthday. Well, it took a bit more time and instead she gave it to me for Father’s Day. She even had it framed. The picture above is her finished work. I cropped out the frame so you could see more Mario. Isn’t that awesome! I’m going to hang this in my living room as soon as I get up the nerve to put a nail in the wall (I have a weird thing about putting holes in the wall).
Anyhow, I just wanted to share this with you and also say “Thanks Mom”. Admit it, you’re a bit jealous, aren’t you
Finally, if you’re a fan of old school Nintendo games, head on over and check out Sprite Stitch. It will make you want to send an email to your Mom. I’m going to head on over there now and see if there’s anything else she could make
Not a lot to talk about today. I’m not sure why. I guess I just don’t feel creative. I do have a thought, one I wrote down yesterday after coming across the thousandth “interesting sounding book I must have” while browsing the internet here it is:
The Internet is an elaborate ruse created by my enemies for the purpose of separating me from my money. The rest of the stuff on the Internet is just part of the cover-up.
Seriously, no matter how many books I have in my “to-read” pile, I always seem to stumble upon another book that I MUST HAVE NOW. Even though, there is no possible way I’ll ever read all of them. Books are my addiction I suppose.
I just had my first real, full night of sleep in a month last night, so I thought I’d take this time to go on a minor rant, since I have some energy for once This one starts as a sports thing, but goes farther than that. Don’t be scared of the sports stuff please.
Above is a picture from inside PNC Park in Pittsburgh, home to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates played the Yankees last night in Pittsburgh for the first time since 1960. Amazingly, and convincingly, my Pirates won 12-5. It was a nice night.
Now to the rant. Since they were playing the Yankees, arguably the most known baseball team in the country and maybe the world, tickets to the game were quite in demand. In fact, the ball park was 101% full last night thanks to standing room only tickets. I watched the game on television. That’s when I got mad.
Right behind home plate, in the $160 - 210 per ticket seats, was a kid (high school or college age) texting as the game was going on. Not in between pitches. Not every once in a while. During the game, for like the first four innings. Take a look at the above pictures again. This is similar to the view of the city from this guy’s seats.
I just don’t understand people. I also feel old. There were people standing the entire game, just wanting to watch the game in person, to enjoy a ballgame at the park. Meanwhile, this guy is sitting in the best seats in the house, doing an activity he could’ve done in the port-a-potty in the parking lot. Can’t you put the cell phone down for three hours and just watch the game? I bet you a million dollars this dude did not pay for his own seats. If I’m paying $210 to go to a game, I’m sure as heck going to pay attention.
Here’s an illustration of what should’ve happened to this guy.
Next time, I talk about the people who sit behind home plate and wave while talking on cell phones the whole game (or maybe not).
Did you all see the contest at the official site for Neil Gaiman’s upcoming novel The Graveyard Book? Well, they are having a contest and all you have to do is write the epitaph for your gravestone. The winning entry will receive an advance reading copy of The Graveyard Book.
My wife and I both submitted entries yesterday. Here’s mine:
Here Lies Paul
He Didn’t See It Coming
And Then It Hit Him
…
Blindfolded Bullfighting
Is Never a Good Idea
Meh. It sounded better in my head. I really like my wife’s entry though:
Thanks for the comments on the wordle post from the other day. Isn’t that amazing? I’m going to have to play with that a bit more, because it’s just so cool. I haven’t had a chance to respond to your comments yet because I was in Pittsburgh for a wedding this weekend, but I will today. I’ll also visit all of your blogs.
On Friday, I bought a print of this Neil Gaiman story. They are signed by Neil Gaiman himself and lettered by Todd Klein. There were only 1000 copies available in the initial print run and there are less than that available now, so if you want to get one, you should do that soon.
The wedding was nice, although my daughter was all messed up sleep-wise thanks to all that time in the car. Hopefully we can get back to our old routine now that we’re home. We’ll see. I sure could use a weekend from my weekend right about now.
Wow. Thanks to Julie K. Rose, I found this really amazing website called Wordle in which you can past some text and it maps your words in really neat ways. I pasted all 50,000+ words of my novel and here’s what I came up with.
I could waste so much time here because this is so much fun. Why not give it a try and post what you can come up with. Remember, after you generate your “word cloud” you can dress up the results on the site.
As you can see with mine, character names and the word “said” are used most in my novel. Interesting.
I’m feeling a bit better today. My shoulder and neck feel a bit better today. Thanks to freeandflawed for the advice about the ice. It helped. Also, I slept with two pillows instead of one which seemed to do the trick as well.
With an active verb, the
subject of the sentence is doing something. With a passive verb, something is being done to the
subject of the sentence. The subject is just letting it happen. You should avoid the passive voice.
I’m not the only one who says so; you can find the same advice in The Elements of Style.
That about says it. Also, I read On Writing some time ago, before I was really serious about writing actually. I think I may have to go back and give it a second look.
I wanted to post a picture of the Mario cross-stitch I got for Father’s Day, but I haven’t had a chance to take a picture of it yet.
Also, I had severe pain in my shoulder and neck and it’s making it hard for me to concentrate right now. Do you know how they ask you at the doctor’s office how bad the pain is from 1 to 10? Well, I’m at a 9 right now. The sad thing is, I don’t even know how I injured myself.
Instead, I leave you with a few YouTube clips. There was this post yesterday about the favorite sports movies montages. You know, where they show some clips set to music. Anyhow, two of my favorites of all time were on the list, both from movies from the Golden Era of montages: the 1980s.
The first is from Teen Wolf, one of my favorite movies which I saw hundreds of times in the 80’s but haven’t seen since. I need to pick this one up. I miss Michael J. Fox. Tell me you don’t get chills from that.
Next is the “You’re the Best Around” montage from Karate Kid. I’m pretty sure I wore this part our on the tape I recorded off HBO. I’d put this one, and run around the house kicking things. Apologies to my family dog and kid sister.
