Thing 71

71. Do a Ewan movie/TV marathon

The purpose of a Ewan McGregor marathon was to watch a bunch of these movies that I've been buying for years but haven't watched or haven't watched for some time. And it's just plain fun to watch a bunch of movies staring my favorite actor. Over the weekend, I finally got the chance to indulge. melydia joined me on Saturday and helped me choose. We decided that you have to watch at least 3 movies to define it as a marathon. She and I watched 4 and then I watched another 3 on my own.



Saturday:
*Amelia- I saw this twice in theaters, but I'd never opened my DVD copy of it. I always tear up a little at the end, when the navigator realizes the numbers are wrong and they're going to die. And of course it was lovely to see Ewan play a charming man that a lady can't resist *G*

*I Love You Phillip Morris- This was a crazy-making movie. I hadn't seen it before and didn't know what to expect. I knew the basic plotline, but all I knew happened in the first half an hour or so. There were some serious moments, some yummy moments, and some rather good moments. And in any other movie, that would have amounted to a great movie. But in this case, all those moments were tied together with bizarreness. Ewan was believable and fun to watch. But it was a little hard to handle Jim Carey in sex scenes (any sex scene, be it gay or het). It was hard to believe some of the crazy that happened was real. And it definitely tricked me. Weird. I don't know what to say about the movie, apart from it being seriously weird!

*Miss Potter- I bought this movie right after it came out and then, somehow, never watched it. I was saving it for a bad day when I needed a boost. But now I'm glad I didn't. Ewan was amazing and sweet and he SANG (I had no idea he sang in this one! I ADORE when he sings!). The movie was adorable and charming, but it also broke my heart. Both melydia and I were in tears. The movie had all of the character and creativity that the Beatrix Potter books from my childhood had. And now I desperately want to visit the Lake District and her home. I also want to dig up my Beatrix Potter treasuries and read them :-)

* The Island- Another one I'd seen in theater but hadn't seen on DVD, though I bought it years back. It was just as action-packed as ever. And, honestly, ending the evening with a movie containing two Ewans at once (and nothing that made me sob like a baby) was a good move. Both Ewans did an excellent job *G*


Sunday:
*The Ghost Writer- I almost saw this in theaters, but I couldn't squeeze it into my schedule. It was a typical thriller, with some mystery and some action. But mostly it just went right along and you waited for something to happen. Not necessarily in a bad way, because I really enjoyed getting to know all the characters, and characters were actually at the heart of the mystery itself. Ewan did a great job of playing a competent writer who is absolutely confused but somewhat curious about what's going on around him... and someone who really wished he hadn't gotten wrapped up in all the drama lol

*The Men Who Stare at Goats- I didn't see this in theaters either... and I'm kind of glad I didn't. This was also pretty crazy. I certainly love a good story about some Jedi warriors, don't get me wrong. And Ewan's character was a great mix of skeptical and optimistic. But everyone else... also pretty darn bizzare! I laughed a fair bit and enjoyed the movie, though it's not going to be one of my favorite Ewan films.

*Velvet Goldmine- I couldn't NOT watch this one if I were doing a Ewan marathon. It was a great one to end with. I caught myself reciting a lot of lines along with the movie... probably because I've seen this movie dozens of times. And I never fail to get that giddy feeling that Maxwell feels when in walks: Curt. Wild. Ewan in glitter. Ewan singing. Ewan looking adorable. And the greatest screen kiss of all time. I even named my cat Maxwell because of this movie *G* The movie is strange and still doesn't make complete sense at times, but I love it dearly anyway. In fact, I think I love it because of that. And, you know, a movie full of nummy men and amazing actors.

Thing 22

22. December 2011 Project

I did a whole lot of projects in December: TARDIS stationary set, Winnie-the-Pooh ATCs, hosting my very first swap-bot swap, Christmas Crackers stuffed with HP goodies including handmade book strings, golden snitch ornament (with resurrection stone inside), etc.

I think I'll choose these bags I assembled for my official monthly project, though. I bought some water-resistant bags and filled them with some little things: new blankets, new gloves, protein bars, hand warmers, and a Rite Aid gift card. Every time I drive to the Book Thing of Baltimore, MD, I feel bad about not giving anything to the people on the streets, asking for money. I kind of have a thing about giving money to people directly, though, especially since I literally don't carry cash very often. But this time, I had a little something to give. I hope I was able to give them something very simple that would make them smile as well as something they'll find useful. Yay for random acts of kindness.

Thing 48, Thing 50

48. Get to 4,000 snarfs at Markeroni
50. Snarf everything in Fairfax County

*sigh* I really don't have a hope of getting 4,000 markers snarfed by December at Markeroni. However, I'm currently up to 2,384. I've got another 50 or so from Denver and the Fredericksburg battlefield area still to snarf (none of which are in the system, so it takes a while to track them down and DL them properly). I've also got something like 500 from Gettysburg to process and log. So I'll have at least made a great effort.

As for Fairfax County progress, thanks to an amazingly awesome snarfari with melydia yesterday, I've got McLean completely finished! Woot! As of today, I have exactly 59 left to snarf in Fairfax County, and 2 of those are bad data in the system. However, there's also one table marker down the street from where I work that is behind a construction fence. So I've got about 60 left, give or take. 20 of them are at Mount Vernon, and I have a Groupon for that expiring in a few months, so that will be a good excuse to knock those out.

Here's a screen cap of my snarf map (just in case I end up modifying the map itself:


Not too bad. That really isn't so many. Should take just a few trips to get 'em all. And, yes, my snarf maps are all color-coded. Pink means wildcard, purple are county markers, blue are state markers, yellow are national register, and green are table markers. Ones without black dots mean that I probably won't be able to snarf them. Push pins means that there's a huge group of markers in one area.