Day 31 - Musings on Bus 40

So before I get into the meat of today's blog... PLEASE SPONSOR MY FASTING!
Even a few quid will make a difference. If you pay it directly to me, I can get Google to match it (doubling your donation!)

I am not sure if I mentioned it in a previous blog but a colleague introduced me to a public radio show called 'This American Life with Ira Glass'. This is a weekly show where Ira Glass will present a collection of stories about ordinary Americans on a particular theme. The show is very well put together and whilst not totally unbiased does try to present the data without putting too much judgement on it (A refreshing change from the news over here). I often find when I am listening to or reading a lot in a particular theme or style, it will color the way I want to write. And This American Life has had this effect on my internal narrative.

Every week I will catch the 40 bus that runs through campus in order to travel over to Palo Alto for lunch with a local group. There are several curious aspects to this journey including the fact that a large number of my fellow travellers are off duty bus drivers, the bus I take back to campus is the same one I take out (with the same driver), but seemingly the most interesting aspect for my fellow commuters is that it runs through the heart of the Googleplex. The driver is the same gentleman every week and he is friendly and talkative and I will normally step into a running conversation with one or more of the passengers (as I said often other bus drivers he clearly knows). I get on from a stop that is not quite the centre of the Googleplex and so it may not be obvious that I am an employee (after all why would a silicon valley tech worker have to take the bus!). As I am on the eastern edge of campus and Palo Alto is to the west, I ride the bus through most of campus each way and as we wind our way through the conversation inevitably turn to a speculative musing of the mysteries of this company. Sometimes it will take the form of a lecture by our driver on the evils of the bikes (and apparently the meeting bikes in particular). Other times it will be regarding Driverless cars replacing honest hard working bus drivers or abstract speculations on what desserts have to do with mobile phone operating systems. During these conversations I will sit quietly and absorb everything that's going on, the tones, the knowledge, the falsehoods and at times I will want to interject with a point or a correction but so far I have resisted this temptation and am glad I have done so. These conversations really highlight the bubble that I live in. We know there is no rhyme or reason to the naming of Android builds, it is just a way to identify them without resorting to abstract numbers, we understand that all the money Google makes is ad revenue, not some dark pact with the devil (I am willing to be proven wrong on this point!). Sure, not everyone I interact with works at Google but the vast majority including you guys reading this know how the internet works, what drives it and why it is awesome. You probably all know what a server is and what it does (at least in an abstract manner) and the few people I interact with who don't know this stuff would never have a conversation to show this lack of knowledge in front of me because I am a judgmental arsehole and you'd feel foolish... and I'd look even more of a prick than usual. 

I feel that there is still a long way to go before the internet can really be 'established' before regulation is consolidated or meaningful, that the moment there is just far too much growth, far too little understanding for us to risk imposing narrow minded restrictions. The only simile I can think to use is inventing the rules for language and enforcing them before we have actually got to the point where can communicate with each other. Organic evolution doesn't work when there are arbitrary restrictions applied... this is multiplied a thousand-fold when those rules are created by people with no understanding of what the rules are being applied to. This is not a robust argument and there are better ways of putting it, this is just some thoughts of mine.

On a different subject, and something that may come as a surprise given my last reference to smoking, I have stopped... I never 'quit' because I always intend to return at some point, but I feel like stopping when I have had enough or start to feel too dependent on the little white sticks of death. My recent bout has been the longest, heaviest period of smoking I have ever undertaken (averaging about 4 fags a day for about 3 months). I stopped about a week ago having run out of rolling tobacco. I still have my pipe and a load of tobacco for it that I can resort to if needed but frankly any form of smoking around this health obsessed area of California makes any kind of smoking uncomfortable as I have to smoke in public while being made to feel like I am doing my damnest to instantly kill everyone around me for daring to exhale carcinogenic fumes... although this same hatred doesn't seem to extend as far as the plethora of vehicles whizzing past... hypocritical cunts. My main remaining qualm at this point is what to do during my walk to and from the office every day or while stood waiting for a bus... I would love to be able to do something with my hands, my mind and without rolling and smoking, what am I to do? Seriously any ideas? And no 'just live with it' is not the kind of idea I am looking for.

Day 30 - Blood Bowl ftw

Feeling like a boss as I run two separate massive SQL queries simultaneously using both my local machine and a SSL connected server. I feel soo cool and programmer-y...

20min later and both queries finally error out... I feel like a total n00b. I would dearly love to know why all these queries are failing.

I am also drinking what I think is basically hot water with artificially vanilla flavored non-dairy creamer mixed in... It seems like the ultimate American drink - completely synthetic.

I had lunch with the local community who are predominantly early era silicon valley hippies - they are now in retirement and in all honesty showing exactly what happens to you if you spend your life smoking pot. Severe hand tremors, lots of difficulty following fairly simple statements (although it is entirely possible that this is my accent and fast talk)... these are people in their 50s and yet their condition is more like 70 or 80 year olds in terms of motor control and mental acuity esp. considering they were programmers and engineers many of them. I did however hear a good joke:

Q.  How many software engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. None, that's a hardware problem.

It amused me anyway.

Managed to Blood Bowl Team Manager to the table this evening with some guys in the office and had a great time. I did a terrible job of explaining it and it took a while to play (we only played two rounds in the end) but everyone left talking about playing it properly next time so hopefully we will get it to the table again soon and maybe get some elements of Sudden Death into the mix.

A random thing I have also noticed... Mountain View seems to have almost as many dogs as people and yet the streets are pretty much entirely free of dog shit... I wonder what is so different about the culture here that makes people more responsible dog owners.

Day 29 - Catching up with YouTube

So the procrastination of last week is coming around to bite me in the ass... big time. Sigh, I really should have prepared better for this project. It turns out that the amount of data I am trawling through makes YouTube ad data, one of the largest single sites in the world, look like a sand bucket next to an olympic sized swimming pool. I am now crashing servers with my query attempts because I am just not refining enough.

I am currently sat waiting for my script to complete so I figured I would write down a few things that I have noticed that Americans just don't understand...

Quarter Past 5 (or another hour)
Half 5 (or another hour) - These are apparently totally alien to Americans not exposed to much English culture...

Trousers these are 'Fancy Pants' in America of course everytime I hear 'Fancy Pants' in an American accent I find it hilarious.

Grub... ok so saying this one I knew it was gonna be unknown... Supper is also not a US term and apparently very fun for Americans listening to an English person say.

Bollocks... I am honestly not sure Americans know what this word is but they deff don't say it.

Lift... both in terms of cadging a lift (I'm pretty sure cadging is another unknown term) and in terms of metal box that goes up and down are apparently English.

In other news - I recently increased my UP's step count target to 12,000 steps/day. For the most part I am still able to make the quota with little difficulty most days but it does throw out my quick calculations based on % of daily goal. Previously it was very easy as 1% was 1,000 steps but now it is a little trickier to work out at a glance. Hopefully this increase will encourage me to walk more and further. According to Notch, my daily average is 15,000 steps so I should be able to meet 12,000 pretty much every day with little trouble. Once I feel that I am meeting this regularly I will try and boost it again.

Day 28 - Email Filtering Complete!

So today has been a really bland day. I have managed to complete my email filtering... who'd have thought that reimplementing a bunch of auto filters would take me three days of not very concerted effort to set up.

One thing that I have found rather alarming is how long food seems to last in this country. I can't be sure it is additives but I am pretty sure that Lettuce, even left in the fridge, should not be able to last a month and still be edible... and yet it was. Milk lasted nearly 3 weeks, Apples last as long as the lettuce. Things left out of the fridge seem to have a more normal shelf life but I was still surprised.

On the health front - I have been eating ok, although some rather rich food. The thing I am finding is that even though I know I am not hungry, I am still thinking about food too much. I think part of it is that every other ad you see, on TV, on signs, on the radio, everywhere is for food or drink. The UP app connectivity is also quite interesting. I have now gotten to a point where I am basically just using MyFitnessPal and Notch. Map My Fitness still makes occasional outings but frankly the synchronization is non existent and a total waste of time. IFTTT is still active and the recording my activity (basically a back up to my Google Drive) is going great. I have still not given if the opportunity to humiliate me on facebook so not experienced that side yet. MyFitnessPal's social side is great but it really needs the friends to be as active as you are... so my mission seems to be - get more people using the Jawbone...

One of the guys I know using the UP already seems to have gotten the Withings integration running so I will have to ask him more about that.

Day 27 - Puck off!

Woke up this morning with some terrible cramps, I think most likely thanks to overly indulgent eating recently. I am gonna have to try and cut back on the rich foods a little for then next few days.

It turns out trying to recreate all the filters I had on my inbox... is a total nightmare.

A series of interesting events this evening. Having spent the day achieving very littler we headed to San Jose for what we expected to be a game of Ice Hockey at the Sharks' home stadium - HP Pavilion... On our way to the bus on El Camino we were headed down Bush St when a guy wanders round the corner and asks if we live around here... we say we do and next thing we know 'Mario' is inviting us to his Barbecue tomorrow at 3...

We got to HP Pavilion to see some form of indoor Football (of the American and not Soccer variety) set up... We were admittedly rather surprised. It turns out that Diego had not been paying complete attention when booking the tickets. I was pretty pleased as this made a lot more sense of the Football scenes in Starship Troopers! Also the game was FANTASTIC! Great atmosphere, great view of the game and the home team won. It was particularly interesting as this 'Arena National Football' (AFL) seems to overcome a lot of the issues people seem to have with NFL. The downtime is next to non-existent, there is a lot of commercialization still but it comes backed with a lot of freebie giveaways.

On the bus ride home it seemed like everyone who got on wanted to chat about the game and the games in the Bay Area in general, the Giants suck, the Earthquakes are having a great season, the Raiders are still not back on their feet. It is very nice, although occasionally a little weird... or at least the people are a little weird!

Day 26 - Not Food this time

This week I haven't really checked out many new cafes so I am gonna skip that blog this week and instead talk about what I have actually done today.

I had my second ever Tai Chi lesson this morning and now my body hates me... It is very interesting to do and a real challenge to try and slow down the motions that you instinctively want to move through rapidly.

My project is no longer being roadblocked by others... it seems to be my own inadequacies that are causing problems now. I am able to get bits of data, but trying to scale what I am doing in a way that won't crash servers AND isn't illegal seems to be a big issue. Everytime I try and think of a solution my brain will just slide right off the topic and off at a tangent. So far today I have managed to walk around half of campus, do my online banking, erased and rebuilt all my labels and filters for my email... all in an attempt to not address this massive roadblock in my project...

I have also smoked my last cigarette as I have now run out of rolling tobacco. I still have a ton of pip tobacco that I can resort to if I get desperate so not all is lost but I am gonna miss having something to do when walking from A to B.

Went to the open air cinema again today, this time with Diego and Megan, an intern from my team. It was at Eagle Park which is a lot closer than the last two and the film was Wreck It Ralph which I really like. We went to a pizza place before hand called Amici's which was really nice, not very traditional toppings but they worked well and the base was fantastic.

Day 25 - Slow to press

I stayed up pretty late last night and am paying the price. I ate too much, drank to much and did hardly any exercise as well so I am really feeling it this morning. I guess that will teach me for indulging. I did finally get to watch Cabin in the Woods which was weird... I am not sure I liked it that much, I think I liked the main characters too much and end up being really saddened by the way things pan out. I also watched Mr Smith Goes To Washington which is very good although possibly a little too simplified a story for this day and age.

I haven't really mentioned the healing of my tattoo in a while if at all... actually I don't think I have mentioned it at all. I got a tattoo the week before I flew out here. I am a slow healer (I suspect impending diabetes is the cause) but the tattoo had pretty well healed within 3 weeks of getting it done the only thing persisting is a bit of skin peeling around the tattoo. I got the tattoo on my finger and it wasn't as painful to have done as the one on my arm but it is still pretty sore when tapped - I suspect this is the result of bone bruising but it comes as a nasty shock if I am too wreckless with waving my arms around and knocking into something!

I got my birthday present from Graham! Blood Bowl Team Manager AND the expansion! I am really excited to get it to the table! (I have even started to read the rules!). We also had a big company meeting today and sitting outside after Larry and Sergei walked right past me... I know I should be more blasé about it but it still excited me. Also Chromecast looks fucking AWESOME.

I have been a bit behind on everything so gonna keep this one short and get it live.

Day 24 - The Greatest Movies

So before I get into the meat of today's blog... PLEASE SPONSOR MY FASTING!
Even a few quid will make a difference. If you pay it directly to me, I can get Google to match it (doubling your donation!)


Way back in 2010 I started working on seeing all of the top 100 movies of all time (based on the then IMDB top 100). I have made slow but steady progress in addressing that list and have decided to move it from the original home on Facebook: Notes to here. Of course that was a long time ago and many of the titles have changed. I figured that today, the anniversary of the 27th year of my birth, would be a good time to refresh! So in addition to working to complete the old list I am adding a new one - the top 250 movies of all time according to IMDB as of July 24th 2013.

Bold those movies you've seen in their entirety.

Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or saw only an excerpt.

Original List: (85/100)

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

2. The Godfather (1972)

3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

5. Inception (2010)

6. Pulp Fiction (1994)

7. Schindler's List (1993)

8. 12 Angry Men (1957)

9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

10. The Dark Knight (2008)

11. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003)

13. Seven Samurai (1954)

14. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

15. Goodfellas (1990)

16. Casablanca (1942)

17. Fight Club (1999)

18. City of God (2002)

19. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring(2001)

20. Rear Window (1954)

21. Toy Story 3 (2010)

22. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

23. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

24. Psycho (1960)

25. The Usual Suspects (1995)

26. The Matrix (1999)

27. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

28. Se7en (1995)

29. Memento (2000)

30. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

31. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

32. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

33. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

34. Leon (1994)

35. Forrest Gump (1994)

36. Citizen Kane (1941)

37. Apocalypse Now (1979)

38. North by Northwest (1959)

39. American Beauty (1999)

40. American History X (1998)

41. Taxi Driver (1976)

42. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

43. Vertigo (1958)

44. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

45. Amelie (2001)

46. Alien (1979)

47. WALL·E (2008)

48. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

49. The Shining (1980)

50. Spirited Away (2001)

51. Paths of Glory (1957)

52. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

53. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

54. The Pianist (2002)

55. Double Indemnity (1944)

56. The Lives of Others (2006) nb Das Leben der Anderen

57. The Departed (2006)

58. M (1931)

59. Aliens (1986)

60. City Lights (1931)

61. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

62. Requiem for a Dream (2000)

63. Das Boot (1981)

64. The Third Man (1949)

65. L.A. Confidential (1997)

66. Chinatown (1974)

67. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

68. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

69. Modern Times (1936)

70. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) 

71. Life Is Beautiful (1997) nb La Vita e bella

72. Back to the Future (1985)

73. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

74. The Prestige (2006)

75. Raging Bull (1980)

76. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

77. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

78. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

79. Some Like It Hot (1959)

80. Rashomon (1950)

81. Amadeus (1984)

82. All About Eve (1950)

83. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

84. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

85. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

86. The Green Mile (1999)

87. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

88. Braveheart (1995)

89. The Great Dictator (1940)

90. The Apartment (1960)

91. Bicycle Thieves (1948)nb Ladri di Biciclette

92. Downfall (2004) nb Der Untergang

93. Up (2009)

94. Gran Torino (2008)

95. Metropolis (1927)

96. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

97. The Sting (1973)

98. Gladiator (2000)

99. The Elephant Man (1980)

100. Sin City (2005)

24th July 2013: (142/250)

1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2 The Godfather (1972)
3 The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4 Pulp Fiction (1994)
5 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
6 The Dark Knight (2008)
7 12 Angry Men (1957)
8 Schindler's List (1993)
9 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003)
10 Fight Club (1999)
11 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back(1980)
12 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring(2001)
13 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
14 Inception (2010)
15 Goodfellas (1990)
16 Star Wars (1977)
17 Seven Samurai (1954)
18 Forrest Gump (1994)
19 The Matrix (1999)
20 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
21 City of God (2002)
22 Se7en (1995)
23 The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
24 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
25 Casablanca (1942)
26 The Usual Suspects (1995)
27 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
28 Rear Window (1954)
29 It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
30 Psycho (1960)
31 Léon: The Professional (1994)
32 Sunset Blvd. (1950)
33 American History X (1998)
34 Apocalypse Now (1979)
35 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
36 Memento (2000)
37 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
38 City Lights (1931)
39 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
40 Alien (1979)
41 Spirited Away (2001)
42 Modern Times (1936)
43 North by Northwest (1959)
44 Back to the Future (1985)
45 Citizen Kane (1941)
46 The Shining (1980)
47 Life Is Beautiful (1997)
48 The Pianist (2002)
49 The Departed (2006)
50 M (1931)
51 Vertigo (1958)
52 Django Unchained (2012)
53 Paths of Glory (1957)
54 The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
55 American Beauty (1999)
56 Taxi Driver (1976)
57 Aliens (1986)
58 Double Indemnity (1944)
59 WALL·E (2008)
60 The Intouchables (2011)
61 Gladiator (2000)
62 The Green Mile (1999)
63 Toy Story 3 (2010)
64 The Lives of Others (2006)
65 The Great Dictator (1940)
66 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
67 The Prestige (2006)
68 Amélie (2001)
69 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
70 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
71 Reservoir Dogs (1992)
72 Das Boot (1981)
73 Cinema Paradiso (1988)
74 The Lion King (1994)
75 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
76 The Third Man (1949)
77 Requiem for a Dream (2000)
78 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
79 Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
80 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
81 Full Metal Jacket (1987)
82 Braveheart (1995)
83 L.A. Confidential (1997)
84 Oldboy (2003)
85 Chinatown (1974)
86 Singin' in the Rain (1952)
87 Bicycle Thieves (1948)
88 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
89 Some Like It Hot (1959)
90 Metropolis (1927)
91 Princess Mononoke (1997)
92 Rashomon (1950)
93 Amadeus (1984)
94 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
95 The Sting (1973)
96 All About Eve (1950)
97 The Apartment (1960)
98 Unforgiven (1992)
99 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
100 Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
101 Raging Bull (1980)
102 Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
103 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
104 Die Hard (1988)
105 Batman Begins (2005)
106 A Separation (2011)
107 Yojimbo (1961)
108 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
109 For a Few Dollars More (1965)
110 Snatch. (2000)
111 The Great Escape (1963)
112 Toy Story (1995)
113 Downfall (2004)
114 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
115 Up (2009)
116 Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
117 On the Waterfront (1954)
118 The General (1926)
119 The Seventh Seal (1957)
120 The Elephant Man (1980)
121 Heat (1995)
122 The Maltese Falcon (1941)
123 The Kid (1921)
124 Blade Runner (1982)
125 Scarface (1983)
126 Rebecca (1940)
127 Wild Strawberries (1957)
128 Gran Torino (2008)
129 Fargo (1996)
130 Ran (1985)
131 Ikiru (1952)
132 The Big Lebowski (1998)
133 Touch of Evil (1958)
134 The Deer Hunter (1978)
135 The Gold Rush (1925)
136 Cool Hand Luke (1967)
137 It Happened One Night (1934)
138 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
139 No Country for Old Men (2007)
140 Casino (1995)
141 Sin City (2005)
142 The Sixth Sense (1999)
143 Strangers on a Train (1951)
144 Platoon (1986)
145 Good Will Hunting (1997)
146 Jaws (1975)
147 The Thing (1982)
148 The Wizard of Oz (1939)
149 Trainspotting (1996)
150 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
151 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
152 Warrior (2011)
153 High Noon (1952)
154 The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
155 Hotel Rwanda (2004)
156 Gone with the Wind (1939)
157 The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
158 The Avengers (2012)
159 Annie Hall (1977)
160 My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
161 Finding Nemo (2003)
162 V for Vendetta (2005)
163 Notorious (1946)
164 Dial M for Murder (1954)
165 Into the Wild (2007)
166 How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
167 Life of Brian (1979)
168 The Night of the Hunter (1955)
169 There Will Be Blood (2007)
170 Network (1976)
171 The Terminator (1984)
172 Ben-Hur (1959)
173 Million Dollar Baby (2004)
174 The King's Speech (2010)
175 The Big Sleep (1946)
176 Stand by Me (1986)
177 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
178 Groundhog Day (1993)
179 The 400 Blows (1959)
180 Twelve Monkeys (1995)
181 Mary and Max (2009)
182 Donnie Darko (2001)
183 Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
184 The Hunt (2012)
185 Amores Perros (2000)
186 Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
187 Persona (1966)
188 The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
189 Gandhi (1982)
190 The Killing (1956)
191 Black Swan (2010)
192 A Beautiful Mind (2001)
193 The Graduate (1967)
194 The Princess Bride (1987)
195 8½ (1963)
196 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
197 Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
198 The Hustler (1961)
199 La Strada (1954)
200 Rocky (1976)
201 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
202 Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
203 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
204 The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
205 Rope (1948)
206 The Exorcist (1973)
207 The Wild Bunch (1969)
208 Barry Lyndon (1975)
209 Life of Pi (2012)
210 Stalag 17 (1953)
211 In the Name of the Father (1993)
212 Monsters, Inc. (2001)
213 Fanny and Alexander (1982)
214 Infernal Affairs (2002)
215 Roman Holiday (1953)
216 Sleuth (1972)
217 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
218 Stalker (1979)
219 The Truman Show (1998)
220 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
221 Memories of Murder (2003)
222 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2(2011)
223 3 Idiots (2009)
224 A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
225 Star Trek (2009)
226 The Artist (2011/I)
227 Jurassic Park (1993)
228 Like Stars on Earth (2007)
229 Ip Man (2008)
230 Incendies (2010)
231 District 9 (2009)
232 Ratatouille (2007)
233 La Haine (1995)
234 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
235 Shutter Island (2010)
236 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
237 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
238 Rain Man (1988)
239 Beauty and the Beast (1991)
240 Rosemary's Baby (1968)
241 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
242 Harvey (1950)
243 Papillon (1973)
244 Mystic River (2003)
245 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)
246 Before Sunrise (1995)
247 In the Mood for Love (2000)
248 The Untouchables (1987)
249 Manhattan (1979)
250 The Celebration (1998)

I was kinda surprised that there are so few movies on the 250 list that I have yet to see. I was expecting the vast majority outside the top 100 to be films I hadn't seen. There are a lot but not as many as I had feared. I will be working hard to get the number I need to see below 100 before I get back and maybe even lower than that.

I guess a lot of people will be wondering why I am spending my birthday blog post on looking at movies rather than talking about all the exciting things I have been upto today... well I haven't done a whole lot that is too exciting tbh. I bought donuts for the office, attended meetings, made a bit of headway with my project. Looked into some of the issues facing my normal team and tried to tackle inbox management.