MadMup.com

Thanks to everyone who entered my Fifth Year Anniversary Contest. I think maybe I'd have gotten more responses had I offered a new car or Wal-Mart gift cards instead of Star Wars DVDs and MadMup.com gear. Something to keep in mind for the next contest, I guess.

The actual numbers are as follows: 675 blog entries and 72 articles written for DEN. I don't know whether to be surprised or disappointed or proud of those numbers, but there they are.

The surprising thing is that the closest guess was only 2 off! My Oregon friend Bonnie guessed 673, and she was so confident of her guess that she didn't even put in a tiebreaker guess. Her gamble paid off! Bonnie, contact me about whether you'd like the Star Wars DVDs or some MadMup.com gear!

In second place was "The Obscure," whose identity is known only by a select few. Once Bonnie lets me know her choice, I'll let him know what his guess of 700 has earned him.

Thanks again for participating, and thanks for reading. You're always welcome back.

Labels: contest

2 comments

It was five years ago today that I started this blog. I wish my first entry was something memorable and different from all the other first entries to blogs, but it isn't. I remember wondering if the thing would even work and if I would ever do anything with it. Here I am, five years later, desperately clinging to some sort of misguided hope that this blog will turn me into some kind of writer.

In Internet years, five is an eternity - All Your Base gives way to Badgers gives way to Dramatic Prairie Dog gives way to who knows what else. It turns out that five years in "real" life is a long time, too. So much has changed in the last five years that it's hard to grasp it, really.

I don't believe any current reader of my blog has read through all five year's worth - and I'm not suggesting anyone take the time to do it now! - but take a look at the posts on the left under the heading "Some Favorite Posts" to see what I've enjoyed writing, if you're so inclined.

To mark (ha!) this grand occasion, I've decided to hold another contest:

How many posts have I written for this blog? This is kind of a trick question, because you won't be able to go back through and count them and get the right answer. I have written some/many/several entries that are not posted, were posted then removed, or have not been posted yet. I am going by the number listed on my Blogger Dashboard, so no one but me has any idea what it is.

Tie-Breaker: How many reviews/articles have I written for DEN? I've been writing for that site for four years now (even though I'm currently extremely behind on an article), and have enjoyed that as well.

So, leave your guesses in the comments. The person who guesses closest to the actual number will win either a set of DVDs of Episodes IV-VI of Star Wars, or something from the MadMup.com store - winner's choice. Second place winner will get whatever the first place winner didn't want. The contest closes at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, 4/24/2008.

EDIT: Since it's been asked a couple of times, let me clarify: it's just "closest," not "closest without going over." I couldn't get Bob Barker or Drew Carey to help out, so that's how we're rolling.

EDIT #2: The Star Wars DVD set is Region 1, so a winner outside of the US or Canada will have to be happy with MadMup.com gear.

Thanks for reading. I recently registered the domain name for another five years. I'm curious to see what they'll hold.

Labels: contest, meta

16 comments

I don't know how much you all enjoyed this little contest, but I got more than enough enjoyment out of it for all of us. It was fun to watch your guesses and see not only how many movies you thought I might have but also what movies you thought might be in my collection.

Here are the guesses for what the first movie in my collection is from an alphabetical point of view:

• 12 Angry Men - Not only do I not own this, I've never actually seen it.
• 12 Monkeys (twice) - I do own this one. Woo, Bruce Willis!
• 13 Going on 30 - I do not own this one, but have been tempted to buy it because of one simple fact: Thriller Dance!
• 2 Fast 2 Furious - This guess cracked me up so much, and I can't even explain why. It's not a movie I'm interested in even a little, but Mary A. gets an Honorable Mention for making me laugh!
• 2001: A Space Odyssey - This movie was boring and pretentious and I didn't like it. Sorry, film buffs!
• Absolute Power - While I do love Clint Eastwood and have several of his movies, this is not one of them.
• Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls - I'm curious why G-Knee picked the second one in the series. I mean, yeah, I own them both, but why not choose the first one?
• Adaptation - Yep. Own it.
• Adventures of Milo & Otis - Used to own it on videotape, but don't have it on DVD. Yet.
• Air Force One - You know, I should get this one. It's been a long time since I saw it and I remember liking it.

The actual first movie in my collection: The 6th Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger's take on cloning. 12 Monkeys is the second one in my collection, so pretty close guessing! (And I'm a stickler for numerical/alphabetical order, so that's why "6" comes before "12" in my list, even if most alphabetizing rules will say the "1" in "12" trumps the "6" and should come first. Disagree all you want, but that's how it is.)

I won't list everyone's guesses as to how many "S" movies I have, but I have 54 of them. Seems like an awful lot! That's 14.516% of my collection! Consider that many of them are Star Trek and Star Wars movies, though, so I guess it makes sense. Peter H. was the closest on this guess with 56.

I did not need to use the tiebreakers, however, as there emerged a very late and very clear winner. Here is the list of guesses on the actual number, ranked from lowest number to highest:

• Brian Arnold: 217
• Jeremiah: 223
• Scott: 260
• the obscure: 270
• Wendles: 301
• Angela: 326
• Danna: 344
• Peter C. Hayward: 412
• Carolyn: 417
• Meags: 549
• G-Knee: 622
• The Bon: 636
• magley: 777
• Gretchen: 857
• Lorelei: 865
• TwoSticks: Eleventeen hundred and one (I'm not even sure how to write that as an actual number.)

This list made me alternately feel like I've been slacking and like I've underachieved. I don't know whether to sell of my collection or start buying more!

Actual number of movies I own on DVD: 372. Yes, I own many TV shows on DVD, but they were not counted.

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce to you the winner of the first ever MadMup.com Contest:

Danna!

Peter H. had it all wrapped up from the get-go until Danna's close-to-last-minute entry, so there's sure to be some bitterness there for a while.

Thanks to all who participated! I hope you had fun and I'm fairly certain there will be more contests in the future, so be on the lookout for them!

(Danna: I'll contact you about getting your mailing info and get your mug out to you as soon as possible.)

Labels: contest

11 comments

The thought struck me the other day: "You know what might be fun? It might be fun to have a contest."

And you know what? It might be! I know it will be for me, and I hope it will be for you.

The contest is simple: guess how many movies on DVD I currently own and leave your answer in the comments.

Couldn't be easier, right? A thing to keep in mind: if I own different versions of the same movie, it counts as multiple movies. For instance (and this is a hint, I guess), I own two copies of Batman, the barebones release and the Deluxe Edition. This counts as two movies, at least for the purpose of this contest. (And recent viewers need not fear - we watched the Deluxe Edition, of course.)

The person who guesses closest to the actual number will win him/herself a fancy new MadMup.com mug. (It stands to reason, then, that the winner will have to give me their address or some way of getting the mug to them, so keep that in mind if you don't like handing your address out to random bloggers on the Internet.)

In the case of a tie, the following two tie-breaking questions will be used to determine the winner:

1. Alphabetically, what is the first movie in my collection? (Rest assured, since it is alphabetically the first, that means it is also positionally the first.)
2. How many movies do I own that start with the letter "S"? (For the purposes of this contest, the articles "a," "an," and "the" do not count as the first words in the title. If I owned a movie entitled The Skunk (I do not), it would count as an "S" movie.)

So! Guess away! The contest will close at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, February 7, 2007. Leave your three answers in the comments section, and thanks for reading!

EDIT: This isn't "The Price Is Right," so it's not "closest without going over," it's just "closest."

EDIT #2: Movies with numbers spelled out (Sixty Cats, for example) get filed according to the word. Movies with numbers as numbers in the title (60 Cats, for example) get filed according to standard alphabetizing rules. Where this leaves the movie Se7en, I really couldn't say.

Labels: contest

37 comments