Who Wants to go Down the Creepy Tunnel Inside the Tomb First?

"Spoiling yourself" or "soiling yourself," you decide.

Another weekend sputters to a conclusion, barely maintaining enough momentum to cross the finish line. It's probably depressed that its fun is over, and now a new, grueling work week must begin... which is especially torturous, being the middle of a beautiful Summer. Alas, it has no choice but to steel itself and prepare to move ahead. Time and tide wait for no man, that sort of thing...

OK, so we all know that the winner of the Epic and Amazing July Movie Quote Contest was Havah the Great, with well over 300 points. Dangit, I edited the scoreboard before I could save the final score... it's definitely the record, setting the bar high... I don't suppose any of you remember? I have yet to come up with an adequate and appropriate prize... I'm thinking maybe either a new Lamborghini, or a pack of gum with two sticks missing... I can't decide... perhaps if I chew on it some more... (Dave takes another stick...)

By the way, the new contest for August has begun. The quotes from yesterday are up for grabs... get them while you can, otherwise I'mma swipem.

Josh is here! I always told him someday I'd shake his hand, and it has become a reality. Picked him up at the airport, got him checked into his hotel, then I drove him around like an idiot, trying to find a good place to eat. We ate a couple of great burgers. Then I drove around like an idiot again trying to get him back to the hotel. Ladies and gentlemen, I have lived in this city my whole life (practically), so you'd think getting around would be a piece of cake. Nope. I felt like King Imbecile, in the beginning of his 40 year reign. How embarrassing... ah, well, he's a Calvinist, so he'll forgive me...

End of the Week Link Dump:
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#1 Cool Ink Calendar:

This dude invented this "ink calendar", which, as you can see, is pretty flippin' cool. There's a series of linked numbers representing days of the month, and then the end of the paper link is stuck into a bottle of ink at the beginning of the month. As the days progress, ink absorbs into the paper path and slowly darken... he timed the absorption so that it takes exactly 24 hours to darken the numbers for that day. Theoretically, it darkens a number a day, keeping accurate count not only of the day, but you can tell approximately what time it is by now much of the day is darkened. Cool, eh? HERE's THE LINK

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#2 TV Tropes

This site is an extensive catalog (in wiki format) that details the various tricks of the trade for writing fiction. Sounds boring? On the contrary, my friend (and ally), it is endlessly fascinating! For example (one of jillions), under the Main Tropes Index, click the Action-Adventure Tropes, and second on the alphabetical list is "Absurdly Sharp Blade." Here is some of the text that follows:

"An Absurdly Sharp Blade is somehow so sharp that it can literally cut through almost anything, regardless of the fact that the blade's wielder would still need to be strong enough to force the blade through the object to be cut. Most such blades seem to be made out of Unobtainium, because the edges never seem to get dull. Other blades have edges only a single molecule wide, letting them slice through otherwise impenetrable materials, despite the fact that such an edge would otherwise very easily snap shortly after the first swing (or at least be ground down). Blades like this almost always create a Clean Cut."

There's more on that entry, including examples of where the Absurdly Sharp Blade appears Anime, Comic Books, Film, Literature, Television, Games and Myths/Legends. Among the other Action Adventure Tropes: Air Vent Escape, Bad Guy Bar, Bloodless Carnage, Car Cushion, Dead Man Switch and a couple hundred more. That's just one category, among hundreds of others, including Comedy Tropes, Drama Tropes, Universal Tropes, Narrative Tropes and scads more. I warn you - once you start browsing this site, you may never stop, especially if you are a fan of film and/or writing.

HERE's THE LINK.

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#3 Best Film Performances Thread

Speaking of being a film fan, if you happen to belong to either Netflix or the Netflix Community Forum, there is a killer forum thread that a particular member has been updating for months now. He is a true movie-fan, in the extreme, and very knowledgeable, having seen just about any and every movie, domestic and foreign, that you can think of, and many that you can't. Anyway, the thread is about "Greatest Performances of All Time", and it's a terrific read. It would be worth it to join the forum just to read that thread...

HERE's THE LINK to the forum, and HERE's THE LINK to the thread itself.

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#4 Greatest Albums/Songs of All Time

Speaking of "Greatest ____ of All Time" lists, here's another set of links that will chew through hours of your time, if you have the right personality for it. Rolling Stone Magazine's lists of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

I was inspired indirectly by something Logan is doing over on his blog Rememorandum, where he is challenging himself to come up with his own personal list of the greatest albums. He has accumulated a truckload of music on his iPod over the years and is in the process of listening to (literally) every single album, in every genre, and he has a rating system, etc. He'll post the results when finished, but from what I understand, he's been at it a month and he's, what, half-way through Logan? Quite an endeavor, no mistake.

But I Googled "Greatest Albums" just to see if there was a consensus list somewhere, just to see how Logan's compares, and I was surprised to see two such robust and fascinating lists at Rolling Stone's website, each item on the list linked to a page where you can read what they think of the song/album, and in many cases, listen to the music and/or buy it. Very fun.

HERE's THE LINK to the Albums List and HERE's THE LINK to the Songs List

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#5 The Interview Project

Film Director David Lynch isn't exactly a favorite of mine. He is way, way too "out there" for me. Other than Elephant Man and half of Mulholland Drive, I didn't make it too far into any of his other stuff. This is the man that brought us Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Nadja and the TV show Twin Peaks. I like quirky as much as the next guy (such as the Coen Brothers films), but Lynch is just way too far off the edge for me... That being said, he has this project going which is actually very fascinating, especially if you are a people-watcher. He has a team traveling across the country, interviewing random people. I know, it sounds pretty lame, right? It's actually quite cool. He has 21 of them at the moment, but he plans on eventually having hundreds. Here, watch THIS CLIP to get a taste, and if you want, hit the All Episodes tab and watch a few - they aren't long, just a few minutes each. Cool site.

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Well, I think that's it for now. I'll be back tomorrow with more random nonsense, I'm sure. Until tomorrow, remember, the numbers are the key to everything.