December, 2016 | otro gringo

First update for my 2016 resolutions since… June 1st.

Let’s take a look at my list and see where things went wrong.

Learn to play the guitar: FAIL
I was off to a good start, and it lasted several months. Ultimately all I have are excuses. The main one was that I liked to practice at night, but certain people would complain about the racket. I still have my guitar, still want to play, and have it right next to my desk, although it’s out of tune.
Write more: FAIL
Didn’t write all year, wrote a decent outline for Nanowrimo. Got off to a good start.. I made it 9 days, and I wrote 14,822 words. But then I just started hating what I was writing. Once you get a little behind of your writing goal, you really lose all motivation for Nanowrimo.
Better communication: Not great
Did Skype, but it is hard coordinating. I found it easiest if I just skyped peoples’ phones, instead of trying to get both of us on Skype at the same time. Grace didn’t do it as much though. Need to do better.
Read at least 2 books a month: Yay
I think I did this, I didn’t do a great job of keeping track of my reading, and in the last month or so, I’ve mostly been watching Mad Men at night instead of reading, but I got a decent amount done.
Watch less movies / TV: So-so
I don’t know if I watched movies / TV, but I tried to be more selective about what I watch, so I watched better movies and tried not to watch garbage TV, and watch good shows (Mad Men and Stranger Things come to mind).
Develop blog about Chile: FAIL
Did nothing but think about this… still got ideas, and nothing to show for it. Lame.
Exercise: Not really
I’ve been more careful with my eating in the last few months, and I definitely do more physical activity playing with Grace, but not actually going out jogging, or anything scheduled. I should do more.
Keep track of my resolutions: FAIL
I only kept track of my resolutions up until May, so yeah, I failed this.

I may just keep my resolutions the same for next year, so that I feel guilty when I don’t do anything.

This is an update to the post I made 7 months ago called The IMDb top movies that I haven’t watched.

I’ve rated 1,577 movies on IMDb as of this post. This is 122 more ratings since my first post exactly 7 months ago. This does not mean that I’ve watched this many. There are many movies that I found where I’d seen the movie but hadn’t rated them.

Before I go through the top 250 lists and check my progress, I want to mention some of the movies that I really enjoyed. Two titles were added to my favorite movies, To Kill a Mockingbird and It’s a Wonderful Life. To Kill a Mockingbird was a great book, and I expected the movie to not be as good, and be a letdown compared to the book, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well done it was. It’s a Wonderful Life, I was going in expecting it to be a cheesy Christmas movie, mostly from the shots that I’ve always seen of James Stewart’s character holding one of his children. Well, I absolutely loved this movie.

Casablanca was better than I expected, Citizen Kane was a little bit less than I expected, even though Orson Welles was great. Seven Samurai was absolutely epic, and although it was very long, I enjoyed it very much. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was a fun western. 12 Angry Men was interesting (and very sweaty).

Now let’s check the lists.

For 1996, I’ve watched 68 out of the top 100, 127 out of 250 titles. Remember that IMDb’s first year had a lot of junk. “Top” movies I haven’t seen are #7 Star Trek: First Contact and #17 Beautiful Thing.

For 1997, I’ve watched 74 out of the top 100, 128 out of 250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #46 The Full Monty and #47 Sling Blade.

For 1998, I’ve watched 77 out of the top 100, 132 out of 250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #42 Glory and #46 The African Queen.

For 1999, I’ve watched 72 out of the top 100, 129 out of 250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #17 Being John Malkovich and #43 All About Eve.

For 2000, I’ve watched 76 out of the top 100, 133 out of 250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #40 Das Boot and #46 All About Eve.

For 2001, I’ve watched 82 out of the top 100, 139 out of 250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #41 Das Boot and #53 All About Eve.

For 2002, I’ve watched 83 out of the top 100, 143 out of 250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #37 Das Boot and #45 Double Indemnity.

For 2003, I’ve watched 84 out of the top 100, 148 out of 250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #43 Das Boot and #44 Double Indemnity.

For 2004, I’ve watched 86/top 100, 142/250 titles. Top movies that I haven’t seen are #45 Double Indemnity and #46 Das Boot.

2005, I’ve watched 88/top 100, 149/250 titles. Top movies unseen are #46 Das Boot and #58 Modern Times.

2006, I’ve watched 86/top 100, 149/250 titles. Top movies unseen are #53 Das Boot and #60 Metropolis.

2007, I’ve watched 86/top 100, 157/250 titles. Top movies unseen are #56 Double Indemnity and #60 Das Boot.

2008, I’ve watched 89/top 100, 157/250 titles. Top unseen #48 Double Indemnity and #61 Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

2009, I’ve watched 91/top 100, 170/250 titles. Top unseen #45 Terminator 2: Judgment Day and #58 Double Indemnity.

2010, I’ve watched 92/top 100, 165/250 titles. Top unseen are #42 Terminator 2: Judgment Day and #53 Double Indemnity.

2011, I’ve watched 92/top 100, 166/250 titles. Top unseen are #39 Terminator 2: Judgment Day and #55 Double Indemnity.

2012, I’ve watched 91/top 100, 169/250 titles. Top unseen are #36 Terminator 2: Judgment Day and #45 Modern Times.

2013, I’ve watched 89/top 100, 162/250 titles. Top unseen are #38 Terminator 2: Judgment Day and #41 Modern Times.

2014, I’ve watched 87/top 100, 163/250 titles. Top unseen are #38 The Intouchables and #39 Modern Times.

2015, I’ve watched 88/top 100, 169/250 titles. Top unseen are #38 The Intouchables and #39 Modern Times.

For 2016, I’ve watched 168/250 titles. Of course, this list is still fluctuating. In my next update, I’ll have a permanent 2016 list to use as a reference.

I’ve completed 2,997 titles out of the 5,000 titles on the the top 250 which is 59%.
I’ve completed 1,681 titles out of the 2,000 top 100, which is 84%.

So my progress is at 59%/84%. I really knocked out of a lot of the top 100 titles, since 7 months ago, these numbers were 55%/46%.

Lots of great titles still to watch. I expect to have the top 100 list to be completely cleared for a few years, the next time that I update. Adding this to my calendar for a reminder in 6 months.

my life. on the internets.

Month: December 2016

2016 Resolutions: Analysis of a failure

The IMDb top movies I haven’t watched: The Sequel