Introduction of Awesome Week

As some of you may know, I was laid off from my job back in September, and have been actively on the hunt ever since. Although I am still unemployed, I have been averaging an interview a week, and have been trying to keep myself busy and motivated as best I can. As a result of this, I have a lot of free time of late that I have been trying to fill with projects and/or reading, but surprisingly not so much on TV or Movies.

With it being the 16th of December, I am not so confident that much will come about job-wise in the next two weeks, or at least I wouldn't count on being hired and starting before the 1st of the new year, so I thought now would be a great time to introduce the concept of Awesome Week.

Awesome Week, strangely enough, isn't really so much awesome as it is watching movies that are awesome, and things related to them that are also awesome. In addition to watching the movies, I'm going to try to do things related to them as well and will post my plans here ahead of time so you can take part too.

Awesome Week will run for at least 5 days and consists of watching movies that are awesome. Every day will be a different series of awesome movies watched (more or less) one after another. The following is currently in the plans for Awesome Week:

Day 1 - The Star Wars Trilogy
Star Wars is awesome. I've had a falling out with it for a while, but in more recent times have come to appreciate it for what it is and have fallen in love with it again. I mean, something that can inspire people to do this:
and this:
and still have everyone think that what they have done would make George Lucas proud has to be good. The original trilogy will be watched only. Nothing against the prequels, I just don't want to watch them.

Day 2 - Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones is bad ass, and watching four films about him back to back sounds like it could be pretty draining, but this is the sacrafice I am willing to make for Awesome Week. I mean, this man has fought Nazis, Communists, and Cultists just to get nab something that would later be made into a keychain replica that you can buy in the gift store of the museum you're visiting with your family.

Day 3 - Back to the Future

1985 is a pivotal year for everyone, as this is the focal point of all things related to time travel. H.G. Wells knew it, JVCD knew it, and even fucking Doc Brown knew it. Its just a fact that all of human history revolves around this date. This is why it is important to include this three part documentary in Awesome Week. Delorians are pretty cool too.

Day 4 - Lord of the Rings
I've always been mixed bag on LotR, but as a movie series it is good, and I have not watched it in a while, so I'm thinking that it may be the dark horse of the bunch for me. I've never not liked it, but aside from all its epicness, its always been just alright. The fact that I only own the extended versions of it leaves me a bit worried, but I'm tough, I can do it. LotR doesn't get a picture because theres nothing that comes to mind as something that I would want to show off. Yet, I posted a picture of a trashbag Yoda costume....strange.

Day 5 - I don't know
I didn't want to limit Awesome week to only 4 days because its all I can think of (thats not true) but I didn't really know how to best fill this day. Time will tell, but if you have suggestions, please share. A couple thoughts would be Jaws, Pirates of the Carribean, or a Firefly/Serenity mix. Maybe Home Alone 1-5?

So there you have it, my shitty attempt at celebrating awesome movies. in total, were looking at 11 movies minimum, each averaging at least 3 hours (BttF may be the exception, I don't remember how long they are). I don't know if I am actually going to be able to watch everything, or if after the first movie if I will want to continue, or how much the holidays will mess with the plan, but there it is. I also only have LotR, so I may need to move pretty quickly to find the rest of the movies in time. I'm sure in the next day or so I will finalize the plans and offer up the schedule so all can participate in the festivities.

Pluto is not a planet anymore.

In the last couple of days, this topic has randomly come up in conversation at no fault of my own. Its been,what, 2 years now since they decided that Pluto was no longer considered a full planet, and was downsized to a dwarf planet. There seems to be mixed feelings on this topic from the scientific minds that I have spoken to, but what really concerns me is when is this going to come back to haunt us?

For now, we have no known way of contacting extraterrestrial life if it exists, and since any attempt by Jodi Foster has been officially written off as a failure, we also have no current projects in the works. But what about radio waves? Its been said that radio transmissions once broadcasted will continue for an indefinite period of time, traveling through space, with the possibility of reaching others in the surrounding galaxies. Pluto was originally named and declared a planet by Earth in the year 1930, though word of its existence began ten years earlier when it was referred simply as "planet X". This means that conversations about this planet could have started as early as the 20s when commercial radio was just starting to become popular. Since radio waves travel at the speed of light, word of the discovery of Pluto by earth would have reached them in about 5-6 hours, depending on its current rotational orbit.

This means that for about 10 years, the average Plutonian would have been carrying on conversations with their fellow Voorg (their word, not mine) about what this mysterious "Planet X" that they have heard so much about is? They would have gagued their own theories and cosmologies based on our findings that they thought we were sharing with them as good neighbors. Then, May 1st, 1930, the Earth gives Planet X a name, and its Pluto.

All the Plutonians suddenly go "Holy shit! they've been talking about us all this time" and get pretty irritated by the whole ordeal. How could they have been talking to us all this time and not think it prudent to include us in on this conversation? I would imagine that on a planetary level, their view of Earth suddenly grew weaker. So, for just over 75 years they learn to live with this galactic snub and have moved on, planning to say "thanks, but no thanks" to any offers that were to come from Earth to them in the years to come.

But then, all of a sudden, in September of 2006, a scientist decided that Pluto wasn't big enough to be called a planet anymore. 5-6 hours later Plutos all "WTF Earth?" and theres blood in the air.

This is my concern - we've pissed them off almost 80 years ago, and now we made it worse. There is a very good chance that they are planning an attack and we don't know it because they are not important enough anymore to be a planet, so real scientists (or at least the ones who want a crack at real research money) just don't care. We should be either be preparing for intergalctic war, or start writing a retraction to be read on air by a prominent individual of respect, not loosing spiders belonging to a 3rd grade classroom in space. I'd like to suggest Oprah as our spokesperson, with George Lucas there as well. Why? Well, everyone here seems to like Oprah, I don't think I know a person who doesn't like her. Lucas is there because he gets this sort of thing, but he can't speak because then he'll fuck it up.