List 1- Thing 81

81. Do & win NaNoWriMo 2007, 2008, etc.

I participated in NaNoWriMo 2008 and won! Didn't manage to finish the story in a month and I don't have a , but I did pass 50,000 words.



I also hosted two different write-ins a week, which was fun :-)

List 1- Thing 83

83. Finish 5 more Strokes stories

For a an annual challenge, I wrote another Strokes story. Since the challenge has gone live, I posted the story to my page.
Title: Sledding
http://strokes.kintailscape.com/SeriesComplete.html
Olly takes his niece out sledding and tests his broken gaydar.

Goal progress: 4 out of 5

List 1- Thing 54

54. Watch every nominated movie from the Academy Awards (excluding foreign film) from 2007-2009

Here are the three lists I'm working off:
2009- http://listography.com/action/list?uid=6257205037&lid=2261425485
2008- http://listography.com/action/list?uid=6257205037&lid=8910287576
2007- http://listography.com/action/list?uid=6257205037&lid=8294885561

The Kite Runner- I just watched this a few days ago (I wanted to read it first and I read it a few months ago but the DVD found its way into my hands at the library book drop). I thought it was a great adaptation and a really powerful movie. I didn't *love* the kids, but they were all right. I loved the adults. And even though I knew what would happen, the movie had me watching unblinkingly, terrified and amazed. And the last scene (and last line) made me tear up. Wonderfully done.

The Dark Knight- Loved it. Heath was amazing. There was a LOT I saw coming... but still really enjoyed the ride. It was darkly beautiful and just how I like my Batman- emotional, raw, and playing around with lots of psychological and morality issues. I haven't watched it since I saw it in theaters... I should really rectify that fact since I own it on DVD.

Iron Man- After all the hype, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. But I do love me some Marvel superhero goodness. I liked what they did with the character and the movie, bringing it into the world of today very easily. The special effects were impressive and I certainly hope there is an equally awesome second movie!

The Reader- I saw this in theaters with a bunch of BookCrossers. I was in the middle of reading the book but hadn't finished reading, so it was rather strange knowing half of what would happen and having a lot of understanding of the characters, but still not knowing how it would end. There were things I liked better about the movie and things I liked better about the book. But both gave me the same reaction- I kept BEGGING for the characters to say how they felt to each other. I kept WANTING something different and good to happen. But I knew the whole time it couldn't. The ending was an eventuality but packed with so much emotion and thoughtfulness. And the acting- I loved the actors. The whole thing was done so well. Highly recommended.

Slumdog Millionaire- This is one of the few movies that won best picture that I actually saw in the movie theater! I had a half day off of work and so I met up with a friend and saw this (after it won). Amazing. I knew just a little about the movie going into it. I knew there was a happy ending. But it was SO intense and terrible at times, I started worrying about what "happy" meant. It was amazing, sad, shocking, beautiful, and brilliant. The acting was great. And the Bollywood dance number at the end was a fantastic surprise. I predicted the last question at the very beginning, remembered it for most of the movie, and then forgot about my prediction so that when the last question came up, I laughed with surprise. LOL This absolutely deserved to win best picture, and I'm so glad I got to see it.

Tropic Thunder- My father rented this one. Eh, not really my kind of movie (I don't usually like Ben Stiller or Jack Black movies) but it wasn't bad. The premise was pretty fun. I could have done without some of the violence/graphic stuff that was clearly there to entertain the teenage boy population. But I definitely laughed a few times and I don't consider it a complete waste of 2 hours. Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic.

Wall-E- I loved this! It was enchanting and sweet and I was so worried things wouldn't work out for the characters and I soooooooo wanted things to work out! I love the environmental angle and actually really liked the humans' role in this one as well (I know a few people got a "fat people are awful" message from it and I see where they're coming from, but I don't think that it's really there). I really enjoyed this movie and came out of it feeling so good.

List 1- Thing 76

76. Get a new graphics card for my PC and set up monitors

I was holding off on this one until I had a photo, but I keep forgetting my camera and forgetting to take a picture when I have my camera. But I did get a graphics card for my PC at work. And months ago a coworker helped me set up the arm for the big 30 inch monitor on my desk, which entailed drilling holes in the desk to affix it permanently.

After it was all set up and everything, the PC stopped recognizing the apple monitor which was connected via USB. Despite my many attempts, I finally gave up on it. So I'm down to just one monitor for that computer. Luckily, the graphics card has stopped acting up so often and cutting off the picture. So 99.9999% of the time, it works just fine and I'm all set at work. Knock on wood. *knock knock*

Since there's nothing else to be done, I'm officially declaring this one finished!