Month: September 2015

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IMDB’s Top 250 Films

Rank & Title Date Seen
1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. The Dark Knight (2008)
5. 12 Angry Men (1957)
6. Schindler’s List (1993)
7. Pulp Fiction (1994)
8. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
10. Fight Club (1999)
11. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring(2001)
12. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back(1980)
13. Forrest Gump (1994)
14. Inception (2010)
15. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
16. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
17. Goodfellas (1990)
18. The Matrix (1999)
19. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
20. Seven Samurai (1954)
21. City of God (2002)
22. Se7en (1995)
23. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
24. The Usual Suspects (1995)
25. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
26. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
27. Léon: The Professional (1994)
28. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
29. Interstellar (2014)
30. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
31. American History X (1998)
32. Spirited Away (2001)
33. Casablanca (1942)
34. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
35. Psycho (1960)
36. City Lights (1931)
37. Rear Window (1954)
38. The Intouchables (2011)
39. Modern Times (1936)
40. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
41. Whiplash (2014)
42. The Green Mile (1999)
43. The Pianist (2002)
44. Memento (2000)
45. The Departed (2006)
46. Gladiator (2000)
47. Apocalypse Now (1979)
48. Back to the Future (1985)
49. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
50. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
51. The Prestige (2006)
52. Alien (1979)
53. The Lion King (1994)
54. The Lives of Others (2006)
55. The Great Dictator (1940)
56. Inside Out (2015)
57. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
58. The Shining (1980)
59. Paths of Glory (1957)
60. Django Unchained (2012)
61. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
62. WALL·E (2008)
63. American Beauty (1999)
64. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
65. Aliens (1986)
66. Citizen Kane (1941)
67. North by Northwest (1959)
68. Princess Mononoke (1997)
69. Oldboy (2003)
70. Vertigo (1958)
71. Das Boot (1981)
72. M (1931)
73. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
74. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
75. Amélie (2001)
76. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
77. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
78. Braveheart (1995)
79. Toy Story 3 (2010)
80. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
81. Taxi Driver (1976)
82. Double Indemnity (1944)
83. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
84. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
85. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
86. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
87. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
88. The Sting (1973)
89. Amadeus (1984)
90. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
91. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
92. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
93. Snatch. (2000)
94. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
95. The Kid (1921)
96. L.A. Confidential (1997)
97. Rashomon (1950)
98. For a Few Dollars More (1965)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
101. The Apartment (1960)
102. All About Eve (1950)
103. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
104. A Separation (2011)
105. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
106. Metropolis (1927)
107. Yojimbo (1961)
108. The Third Man (1949)
109. Scarface (1983)
110. Batman Begins (2005)
111. Some Like It Hot (1959)
112. Unforgiven (1992)
113. 3 Idiots (2009)
114. Up (2009)
115. Raging Bull (1980)
116. Downfall (2004)
117. The Hunt (2012)
118. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
119. Chinatown (1974)
120. The Great Escape (1963)
121. Die Hard (1988)
122. Good Will Hunting (1997)
123. Heat (1995)
124. On the Waterfront (1954)
125. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
126. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
127. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
128. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
129. Ran (1985)
130. The Gold Rush (1925)
131. Ikiru (1952)
132. The Seventh Seal (1957)
133. Blade Runner (1982)
134. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
135. Wild Strawberries (1957)
136. The General (1926)
137. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
138. The Elephant Man (1980)
139. Casino (1995)
140. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
141. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
142. Warrior (2011)
143. Gran Torino (2008)
144. V for Vendetta (2005)
145. The Big Lebowski (1998)
146. Rebecca (1940)
147. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
148. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
149. The Deer Hunter (1978)
150. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
151. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
152. Gone with the Wind (1939)
153. Fargo (1996)
154. Trainspotting (1996)
155. It Happened One Night (1934)
156. Dial M for Murder (1954)
157. Into the Wild (2007)
158. Gone Girl (2014)
159. The Sixth Sense (1999)
160. Rush (2013)
161. Finding Nemo (2003)
162. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
163. Mary and Max (2009)
164. No Country for Old Men (2007)
165. The Thing (1982)
166. Incendies (2010)
167. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
168. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
169. Life of Brian (1979)
170. Platoon (1986)
171. The Wages of Fear (1953)
172. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
173. There Will Be Blood (2007)
174. Network (1976)
175. Touch of Evil (1958)
176. The 400 Blows (1959)
177. Stand by Me (1986)
178. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
179. The Princess Bride (1987)
180. Annie Hall (1977)
181. Persona (1966)
182. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
183. Amores Perros (2000)
184. In the Name of the Father (1993)
185. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
186. Ben-Hur (1959)
187. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
188. Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009)
189. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
190. Shutter Island (2010)
191. Diabolique (1955)
192. Sin City (2005)
193. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
194. Gandhi (1982)
195. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
196. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
197. Stalker (1979)
198. Donnie Darko (2001)
199. Wild Tales (2014)
200. Strangers on a Train (1951)
201. 8½ (1963)
202. Jurassic Park (1993)
203. The Avengers (2012)
204. Before Sunrise (1995)
205. Twelve Monkeys (1995)
206. The Terminator (1984)
207. Infernal Affairs (2002)
208. Jaws (1975)
209. Memories of Murder (2003)
210. Groundhog Day (1993)
211. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
212. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
213. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
214. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
215. Throne of Blood (1957)
216. The Truman Show (1998)
217. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
218. Barry Lyndon (1975)
219. Rocky (1976)
220. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
221. The Imitation Game (2014)
222. Ip Man (2008)
223. The King’s Speech (2010)
224. High Noon (1952)
225. La Haine (1995)
226. A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
227. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
228. Notorious (1946)
229. Castle in the Sky (1986)
230. Prisoners (2013)
231. The Help (2011)
232. Roman Holiday (1953)
233. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
234. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003)
235. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
236. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
237. Papillon (1973)
238. La Strada (1954)
239. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
240. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
241. Before Sunset (2004)
242. The Hustler (1961)
243. The Graduate (1967)
244. Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
245. The Big Sleep (1946)
246. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010)
247. Akira (1988)
248. Departures (2008)
249. Underground (1995)
250. Three Colors: Red (1994)

 

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Twenty Something

Tomorrow, September 17th, I turn 20. I’m a firm believer in not just using the start of a new calendar year for a chance to take up new goals, so I’m incorporating some into my birthday! A whole new decade. And my parents are already gushing on baby photos and, “I remember the day you were born,” stories. I will say that it has been one of those semi-birthday traditions to shower or take a bath on the day before your birthday to “wash away” the previous year of life. And I think that’s one of the cooler aspects of getting older- you can start to make things you thought were “silly” when you were younger into traditions you keep for yourself as you get older.

  1. Read new 20 books for fun (outside of an academic requirement), by authors both living an dead, in both fiction and non-fiction genres
  2. Watch 20 new-to-me films off IMDB’s Top 250 Movies. A post of films I have seen prior to turning 20 is available here.
  3. Take one significant step forward towards my dream career, may or may not be academic related.
  4. As always, travel somewhere new – both instate and out of state.
  5. Go on an adventure that includes seeing the sun set and rise in the same go. Cannot be academic related.
  6. Invest in decent stationary and use it (often) for thank you notes.
  7. See something on a stage other than a concert- the ballet, a play, etc.
  8. Apply and get accepted into Pro-School.
  9. Add at least two new stamps to my National Parks Passport (bonus if I add to my US passport).
  10. Move out- vacate my room at my parentals taking all my stuff with and, with my own money, buy a new piece of furniture for my new living arrangements.
  11. Get certified in something- Motorcycle endorsement or dive certified are very likely contenders.
  12. Pick up a new ‘adult’ skill- knowing my luck, probably car related. Otherwise most likely DIY at home
  13. Visit one of the places significant to my parents. Bonus points if it’s the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Clinton Street Theatre in Portland.
  14. Attend as many sporting events as possible and hit the Big Three at least once- Football, Basketball, and Baseball. Keep the ticket stubs
  15. Attempt to save all full coffee punch cards for use when I’m no longer living in the residence halls and things cost “real” money.
  16. Take up the valiant quest to raise my GPA- 3.41 and a goal of 3.5 of higher.
  17. Sign up for a class has nothing to do with my major and or minor. A 101 probably doesn’t count. I’m looking at you Biology.
  18. Take summer classes and start Fall Term 2016 ahead of where I need to be to graduate on time (Spring 2018).
  19. Register to vote and participate in the necessary preliminaries for the 2016 Presidential election. Because Oregon is weird.
  20. Take care of myself. Life’s hard and it’s a rarity when it’s easy. Life’s too short not to be happy and content with everything. Challenge by choice. Know when to say no, but say yes more often.

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Never is the shortcut actually shorter

Holy smokes what a weekend. Yes, I know it’s 11pm on Tuesday after Labor Day weekend, but it really took a day’s worth of training to actually look at all the stuff that happened.

Friday

An absolutely glorious game against Weber State, in beautiful weather, closed out with a victory and Seth Collins proving his worth as a freshman player. A fellow staffmate got me hooked on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D after the game as we worked on door decorations.

Saturday

I woke up relatively early for me for a Saturday around 9am to the sound of the clock tower a block over. I went to the Farmers Market to get more jalapeños to pickle and ended up losing my drivers license. Spoiler alert: it got turned in to a local shop and I didn’t know about it until Sunday evening. I didn’t get stressed out about losing my ID, despite $40 cash being wrapped around it. I just tried to remain calm as I retraced my steps and waited for it to turn up, all the while mentally preparing myself for the steps I would go through if I did have to go to the DMV to replace it. Some staff and I dropped someone on staff off at the train station, went out for tacos at an amazing taqueria in Albany, and in light of having less than a stellar start to my Saturday we stopped for ice cream on our way back. Those of us who returned from the train station regrouped with the staff and went to Buffalo Wild Wings as more staff bonding. The evening concluded with Super Smash Bros.

Sunday

Sunday was a slow and easy morning of sleeping in and staying in bed longer to read. The staff line up shuffled again and we went out into the Corvallis wilderness to hike, ending up in Peavy Arboretum instead of where we initially thought we would. Plan A included a waterfall, but Oregon had other plans and the weather wasn’t quite up to par for such a hike so we made a new plan and went off on a hike none of us had really done before. About four and a half miles of almost straight uphill, through the area of the forest used for lumberjack games and logging competitions, known as Cronemiller Lake.

After several hours of monotonous (at least for me, I have a very short stride and like a Hobbit, never really walk with much sense of urgency, so the going is always slow and I usually have to budget extra time to walk somewhere around campus if I don’t want to be late), we did take a nice break to rally for what we thought would be the next leg of the hike but instead proved to be the turning point. While the down hill was faster than the up, as are many things in life once you know the way and how far you have left to go, that is not always the case. Sometimes, a “shortcut” actually makes the journey longer- in a very Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took type fashion- that only adds to the journey. In our case, the shortcut took us to the main parking lot of the arboretum and we trekked back along the side road for almost a mile to get back to the highway shoulder / pull off where we had parked in front of the gate for our original way up. Almost eight miles and over three hours later, I think this was the most insightful bonding moment of our staff during the weekend.

We eventually ended back at our residence hall, regrouped with yet another line up of staff and head to the dining hall for dinner. At one point that evening we started Big Hero 6 but most of us fell asleep halfway through so it was an early night for many.

Monday

The end of my long weekend started with coffee with a professor to catch up on summer travels and adventures before a trip to Freddie’s, and meeting up more staff for lunch on the South side of campus. The afternoon included a trip to Target as part of our collection party from the train station, where I acquired the Original Trilogy (Star Wars), which is something I have been hunting for for the better part of a year, and I guess it took the reboot to actually find in the stores. Target, being Target, was offering a $10 coupon if you spent $50 on Star Wars merchandise, and being the person that I am, I thought what better way to bridge the ten dollar difference between the promotional minimum and the cost of the discs than through buying ten dollars worth of Star Wars pasta macaroni and cheese. Why? Because college. The math worked out that I essentially got twelve boxes of mac and cheese as a bonus for buying movies I was likely going to buy off Amazon before the end of the month anyways. Yay coincidence. There was another staff dinner together and after that I holed up in my room watching A New Hope and working on my, “Don’t let the Muggles get you down” motivational bunting for my wall. Yes. I do now have a whole section of my wall dedicated to Harry Potter and I’m very excited. Portlandia coined, “Put on a bird on it,” while I’m drifting towards lightning bolts and courageous lions on e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.

And the spirit of a lovely weekend concluded this morning when I woke up to news from one of my favorite bands that goes on tour just about never, that they have scheduled a fall tour and will be in Portland in November. Good vibes are happening under the watch of the Virgo constellation (something near and dear to my heart) and I have a really good feeling about this (unlike the unofficial tag line of Star Wars, where in the don’t) upcoming year and my staff- which, like Hogwarts, is like my family.

The biggest take away from the weekend was insightfulness of the ‘shortcut’ of the hike. While we may have bypassed the way we knew and instead took the unknown route thinking it would be easier, it instead proved to be more challenging, since unlike our original turning point to go back, we did now know the way. But we survived. And we endured. Like many aspects in life, the most rewarding moments come from the unforeseen adventures. I believe the important part is to not underestimate one’s abilities. I rarely hike and to go from no hike to 7 + miles is a big difference, and I think building up to more miles and BEING PREPARED is worth the investment and the time.

Like losing my drivers license, which I should have back by the end of the day Wednesday- weird overlaps of the store being closed on Monday and me being busy during their hours on Tuesday, and blindly jumping into more of a trek than my body is used to the biggest thing is to stay calm, breathe, and take things in stride. Six months ago when something similar to losing my license happened, I was an emotional wreck and now I can handle surprises like that much better.

 

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Arts, Crafts, And What Happens When I Have This Many Drawers

My little sister turned 18 yesterday. Hard to believe she’s not so little any more. In two weeks I will turn 20 and it seems like the summer just passed by barely taking the time to wave and in part because it did. Lots of my stuff that was in my freshman room never made it out of the boxes I packed it out of with the exception of what went with me on my travels, and much more of it was unpack just to repack so in that regard. Blink and you’d miss it.

Today, Friday, marks the end of week two of staff training. Tonight OSU plays Weber State, and holy moley do I hope for a win and as always Go Beavs. As I settle back into the college life, as the sole occupant of a space, I’m finding immense satisfaction in just how much I can make this space my own. It’s not quite the freedom that comes with apartment life- my current room is such that I don’t have the space for much furniture that didn’t come issued with the room outside a shelving unit, a fridge, and a folding chair that I stash under my bed- but the sky is the limit with decorating. Two Harry Potter, a Shakespeare inspired, and a David Bowie poster later my room is looking less generic and more like ‘home’ and the best part is I still have a few more to put up. I’m particularly fond of staying organized with varying degrees of success and much to my contentment I realized I had the space to micro-organize some of what usually resides in my desk into its own designated drawer and boy howdy did I make a wonderful mistake.

The end result of my efforts is a bulletproof arts and crafts drawer. Pens, pencils, high lighters, and sharpies oh my! Stencils, a paper cutter (a ‘grown up’ purchase I have had on my mind since last summer) varying sizes of note cards and post it notes, little tins for small things like staples and pushpins. A cubbie for Command hooks and other things that ‘stick’. A cubbie for binder clips and other things that bind like zip ties (the fact I have hardware things in my craft drawer is sure to make my mother very proud) and binder clips; a whole wide array of tape, crayons, twine, different types of glue, fishing line. All these things together and I am over the moon now that I have a designated space for all the things.

My goal is that before residents move in a little less than two and a half weeks, I have my space organized enough that I charge head first into my second academic year and actually hit the ground running (one more math class and then I’m done with math forever). If I had known I would find such inner peace just from the extent in which I organized my art supplies, I can’t wait to have the time this three-day weekend to further organize. I moved in last week on Monday and did what I needed to get through the first week of training. Last weekend I moved furniture into a more practical configuration and now I’m in the stage of focusing on other drawers I store things- my whole desk is currently empty!

Classes start twenty days from today- it seems to be the magic number of the month- and I’m feeling really good about things. Even just a week ago I was agitated about wanting things to fall into place on the macro so I could figure everything out and plan, and after tonight’s run in with the craft supplies on the micro scale, the coming crusade of finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place is really helping. I can’t wait for the amazing year that is at my doorstep, but first a weekend and probably a little crafting.

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