MadMup.com

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.

Somewhere along the line my car’s antenna has gained a new Batman topper. I first noticed it yesterday afternoon, but there were no clues as to how it happened to get there.

Information leading to the apprehension of those involved will be rewarded.

Last night was a big night: I watched my first movie of the year.

Sure, that might not seem like a big deal to you, but last year I watched 371 movies, an average of 31 a month. I decided to try going a month without watching any movies, you know, just to see. It went fine. I watched a bit more TV and read a bit more and.. other stuff, I guess.

But yesterday was a new month, so I thought I’d watch a movie. Since it was so momentous, it couldn’t be just any movie, it had to be an awesome movie.

It had to be Batman.

It also kind of felt like this was the sort of event that needed to be shared with people. I put forth the idea of having some people over and was encouraged to do so. An announcement was made, plans were put in motion, snacks were purchased, the whole deal. And, wonder of wonders, seven people from the Career Class at church showed up.

I like to think that many of you who read the site here like to do so because my foibles and quirks make you feel better about your own, either by making yours feel less severe in comparison or make you feel less alone in your similar ones. To that end, I feel I should confess the following:

I talk during movies.

Constantly. Non-stop. And the thing is, I hate that I do it! It’s always the stupidest stuff! Here are the gems I subjected them to last night:

• The guy playing Gordon and the guy playing Alfred are the only two actors in all four of the Batman movies.
• She was married to Mick Jagger.
• Hey, Wendy, does his tie go with that shirt?
• How old were you all in 1989? (The most surprising answer: “Five.” Seriously!)
• Best. Batmobile. Ever.
• That right there is when a million boys fell in love with Vicki Vale. (When she showed up onscreen.)
• Here’s what was wrong with the sequel, Batman Returns: 1) Batman TWO should have been about Two-Face! Hello! 2) Too many villians, too much going on. 3) More origins were messed with.
• He had that light installed in the Batmobile just in case someone was going to be sitting in the passenger’s seat and he needed to blind them.
• Watch his utility belt when he looks up at the helicopter – see it move? Why didn’t they reshoot that?
• I hate this part because it messes up the whole origin of Batman! The Joker DID NOT kill Bruce Wayne’s parents!!!
• This movie is just to get you in the mood for Prince in the Super Bowl halftime show.
• Batman wouldn’t have killed The Joker – it’s what he does! He spares villians! He makes it a point not to kill villians!
• Iconic hero shot coming right up! Wait for it… there!

See? See what I mean about it being inane? And this is just a small sampling.

I need some sort of help.

A big thanks to Matt, Marshall, Wendy, Melissa, Lee, Jeannie, and Eric for coming to my inaugural movie night and for not killing me.