More MovieJerking Ideas

So I was thinking about this yesterday, and I think for each Moviejerk session we should go around and everybody rates the movie ... with a letter grade and something odd and very nonsensical. For instance, rate this movie on the following scale:

* Jellybelly flavors
* Comic book heroes
* Crayon colors
* Comic book villains
* Calendar months
* Weekdays
* Meat
* Cheese
* Presidents
* Mammals

Or anything else, but the rating should be as descriptive as possible. For instance, let's say we were MovieJerking Star Wars Episode III and we decided that it was going to be rated on the Jellybelly flavor scale. I would give it a D- and call it the Sour Ear Wax flavor - it's got a rush at first taste but quickly fades, leaving only the waxy buildup that tastes just like regular ear wax. Things like that.

For this nonsensical rating scale we should come up with it beforehand in order to put as much time and thought into them. It's hard to come up with a good rating on such a nonsense scale off the top of the head.

GenCon 2008 w00t!

Allright, so I accept the fact that there probably won't be a trip to California this year, and that truly bums me out. However, that leaves room in my schedule and budget for GenCon 2008. GenCon is August 14-17 in Indianapolis, IN. Let's look at some numbers shall we?

4 day badge: $65 pre-reg, $75 on-site
Lowest of the low hotel room: $50/night, $200 total for four nights (arrive Wed, leave Sun)
Gas: It's roughly 600 miles to Indianapolis. Figure at least another 50 miles puttering around and 600 to get back puts it at 1250 miles. In my truck highway gas mileage is 18 miles/gallon. That's roughly 70 gallons of gas. At (perhaps conservatively) $4.50/gallon cost that's $315 for gas for the trip.
A four hour event at GenCon: $4.00.
Misc. food and merchandise expenses.

So for me to go it would cost $515 for hotel and gas. That sucks. But if someone else went with me, it would be $260 each. Much nicer. And if a third person goes with it drops to about $175 each. Totally do-able. More than three people I think and another hotel would be required. And the hotel and badge registration is done up front, so the only expenditure at the time of departure would be gas and misc. food and merchandise expenses.

So ... who's up for GenCon 2008? Details can be found at http://www.gencon.com/.

Moviejerking ... Or Something

I think we should start being Movie Jerks. Well, we already are, but I think we should start posting stuff. And by stuff I mean videos of our movie discussions. Reviews - kind of, but more than that. Anyone can read or watch or do a review. It's just an opinion. But a discussion about the movie, for people who have already seen it or are thinking about seeing it, I can't think of any precedence. I'm sure it's out there, I just can't think of it.

So what do we need to get this started? Not much. A topic, a video camera, and a place to have this round table discussion. I suggest Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as the first to be "moviejerked". We try to keep it civil but these discussions would probably get emotional. Off the cuff kind of stuff, not much planning just thinking beforehand.

We start with an introduction of the Movie Jerks and then initial reaction. Discussions follow from there. We should shoot for 15 minutes and see where that takes us. Once we're done we can post it up on YouTube or some other media sharing site. I bet we could get Cracked to post it.

Let me know your thoughts.

Vacation Road Trip 2008!

So in 2006 it was Seattle. In 2007 it was Boston. Now, we come to 2008, and I'd like to get a road trip rocking to the west coast. Specifically, to San Francisco. But not just San Francisco! Hitting the bay area and then driving north along California's coast to Portland for a short time. And then returning home from Portland.

Here's some numbers to munch on.

Mound to San Francisco: 1,950 miles, 30 hours.
San Francisco to Portland: 650 miles, 10 hours.
Portland to Mound:1,725 miles, 25 hours.

That's a total of 4,325 miles for just the big legs. Taking a vehicle that gets around 17 miles to the gallon, that's a total of 254 gallons. Estimating gas to be about $4/gallon that comes out to around $1,000 TOTAL in gas. Split that four ways and it's $250 per person.

If there's enough people (and I would want three or four) to get this going, I'd like to go for around 2 weeks if possible and leave sometime in August. September would work as well.

So ... who's up for a road trip to the west coast?