# 16 See IMDB's Top 100 Movies (in progress)

IMDB.com has a voter-determined Top 250 movies list, and it's one of the better lists I've come across in terms of films I'd actually like to see, plus it's a good mix of American and foreign as well as new and old movies. It can change anytime as people vote, so I copied down the list as of a certain date and I'm going by that. I'm still working on this one, so I'll keep progress updated here.

Done: 57

1. The Godfather
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. The Godfather: Part II
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
5. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, II (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly)
6. Casablanca
7. Schindler’s List
8. Pulp Fiction
9. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
10. Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai)
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
12. Star Wars
13. Rear Window
14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
15. 12 Angry Men
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark
17. The Usual Suspects
18. Cidade de Deus (City of God)
19. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
20. Goodfellas
21. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
22. Psycho
23. Citizen Kane
24. C’era una volta il West (Once Upon A Time In the West)
25. North by Northwest
26. Memento
27. The Silence of the Lambs
28. Lawrence of Arabia
29. It’s a Wonderful Life
30. Sunset Blvd.
31. Fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain (Amelie)
32. Fight Club
33. American Beauty
34. The Matrix
35. Vertigo
36. Apocalypse Now
37. Taxi Driver
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
39. Se7en
40. Paths of Glory
41. Leon
42. Chinatown
43. To Kill a Mockingbird
44. American History X
45. The Third Man
46. Der Untergang (Downfall)
47. The Pianist
48. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
49. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
50. M
51. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
52. The Bridge on the River Kwai
53. Alien
54. Das Boot
55. L.A. Confidential
56. A Clockwork Orange
57. The Maltese Falcon
58. Requiem for a Dream
59. Hotel Rwanda
60. The Shining
61. Double Indemnity
62. Metropolis
63. Reservoir Dogs
64. Saving Private Ryan
65. Rashomon
66. Singin’ in the Rain
67. Sin City
68. Raging Bull
69. Modern Times
70. Aliens
71. The Manchurian Candidate
72. Rebecca
73. Some Like It Hot
74. The Great Escape
75. All About Eve
76. 2001: A Space Odyssey
77. Touch of Evil
78. The Departed
79. Amadeus
80. Million Dollar Baby
81. La Vita e bella (Life is Beautiful)
82. Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal)
83. Forrest Gump
84. Jaws
85. The Sting
86. Strangers on a Train
87. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
88. Batman Begins
89. On the Waterfront
90. El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labarynth)
91. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
92. Braveheart
93. The Wizard of Oz
94. Full Metal Jacket
95. The Elephant Man
96. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
97. Blade Runner
98. The Apartment
99. The Incredibles
100. City Lights

#31 Take a Photography Class

Completed January - May, 2007

I've wanted to take a photography class for a while, so I finally signed up for it. You have to provide your own film SLR camera, so that held me back for a while until I could borrow my aunt's. Anyway, I learned how to manually adjust aperture and depth of field and all that, and learned how to develop my own black and white film. I really liked it; unfortunately I won't be able to take the second level for scheduling reasons, so maybe I'll be able to find one at the local county college when I move back in with Mom after college...which is a whole 'nother story.

PS - I got an A-

# 25 Have Another OTC Solo

Completed February 21, 2007

Off the Cuff (OTC) is my college a cappella group. Sophomore year I had the solo for Jimmy Eat World's "Futures" (photo of me singing above), and the one I got to complete this goal was for Del Amitri's "Roll to Me". If you'd like to hear me singing "Futures" you can purchase our first CD, Cartoonishly Irresponsible, for $10- email me at offthecuff@richmond.edu and I'll take care of it. We also have a CD coming out later this year which will have "Roll to Me" on it, so you can pre-order that one, too. Of course, you can always come see us in concert at UR!

# 28 Go to Boston

Completed June, 2007

My original plan was to get up to Boston to visit Jonny, but it turned out he was actually living at school in Maine when I was in Boston, so we missed each other. Anyway, when Dave came to visit from Australia, he thought I lived near Boston (not quite) and said he'd like to see the city. I made plans, put in a few calls, found us a free place to stay (Brandeis frat house), and drove us up. I really liked the city- there's a lot of American history there and it's pretty clean and visitor-friendly. If I only could have gone to a Red Sox game and checked off # 30 as well....next time.

Photo is me in the Boston Commons with the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues- I loved that book when I was a kid!

# 37 Go to Mardi Gras

Completed February 14-18, 2007

When I was growing up, I had a friend in my neighborhood during the summer who lived with his mom in New Orleans during the school year. I've wanted to go to Mardi Gras since he started telling me about it, and conveniently enough, my college roommate is from New Orleans. In lieu of a spring break trip, my mom bought me a plane ticket to 'the Big Easy' for a long weekend right before the actual "Fat Tuesday", but we got to see most of the biggest parades. Jessica (my roommate)'s grandma lived right on the parade route, so we just hung out at her house all day eating and drinking and going out to the front yard to catch beads when parades went by. We stuck mostly with the 'family oriented' part of Carnival, but one of these days I'd like to get back and check out the clubs as well as the parades. Good times!

Me, Bonnie, and Jessica between parades.

# 19 and # 20 Together

Completed January, 2007

I'm putting these together because neither are exciting enough to earn their own post.

# 19 I learned how to drive a manual car to the point where I was comfortable enough to drive from campus to the Fan- about a 10 minute drive (but I took about 20), and I think I only stalled once. I probably need more practice, though.

# 20 I sold a calculus textbook on eBay. I got like $40 for it. Very exciting.

# 18 Own Lonely Planet's Blue List

Completed December 25, 2006

I'm a pretty big fan of travel and of lists, so when I saw Lonely Planet's Blue List book I had to have it. They put out a new one every year, so I'll make sure I keep up with the latest. The Blue List has categories like "Best Tourist Destinations That Are Worth the Crowds" (example: Taj Mahal) and "Best Food and Place Combinations" (a hot dog in New York City). It's pretty interesting and inspiring to flip through- give it a shot.