Week of 2008-03-08 17:00 to 2008-03-15 16:59

Fresh off last year’s successful Star Wars Day movie marathon, it occurred to us that an Alien vs Predator universe marathon would also be awesome. Between the Alien movies, Predator movies, and the crossovers, there are eight films, so it would require either an earlier start, or a multi-day commitment.

The first question is what order to watch them in:

by movie release date…

• Alien (1979)
• Aliens (1986)
• Predator (1987)
• Predator 2 (1990)
• Alien 3 (1992)
• Alien Resurrection (1997)
• Alien vs Predator (2004)
• Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)

or by timeline…

• Predator
• Predator 2
• Alien vs Predator*
• Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
• Alien
• Aliens
• Alien 3
• Alien Resurrection

* Contains flashbacks to early visits by the Predators, but the main story line places it here.

(See also Alien and Predator Timeline.)

My inclination, as it was for the Star Wars marathon, is the latter: by timeline.

The next question is when to hold the marathon. Again, with Star Wars, I declared Star Wars Day as May 25th, which in 2007 was the 30th anniversary of the release of the original film.

Coincidentally, May 25th, 2009, will mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Alien, the first picture in the AvP universe. This gives me enough time to amass all the DVDs. Actually, I think I have the first three Alienses already, so I’m ahead of the game…unless I decide to get the Alien Quadriology set. ;)

So, more to come.

That’s the last cigarette I ever smoked, which happened five years ago today.

I’m happy to say the cravings don’t happen any more, but there is the occasional moment where I’m aware that I would have headed outside back in the day. Also, every once in a while, I find myself reaching toward my pocket for a Zippo lighter that hasn’t been there since 2003. Given that I smoked some 17 years, it probably will take a while longer for that to fade. :)

I don’t miss smoking, something that is proved every day when I don’t wheeze my lungs out going up stairs or on long walks or bicycle rides. Oxygen is good. Carbon monoxide, not so much.

The 600 other ingredients and harmful health effects, not so much either.

More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. (CDC)

Today is the birthday of Douglas Adams, who had this to say in Last Chance to See:

I’ve heard an idea proposed, I’ve no idea how seriously, to account for the sensation of vertigo. It’s an idea that I instinctively like and it goes like this. The dizzy sensation we experience when standing in high places is not simply a fear of falling. It’s often the case that the only thing likely to make us fall is the actual dizziness itself, so it is, at best, an extremely irrational, even self-fulfilling fear. However, in the distant past of our evolutionary journey toward our current state, we lived in trees. We leapt from tree to tree. There are even those who speculate that we may have something birdlike in our ancestral line. In which case, there may be some part of our mind that, when confronted with a void, expects to be able to leap out into it and even urges us to do so. So what you end up with is a conflict between a primitive, atavistic part of your mind which is saying “Jump!” and the more modern, rational part of your mind which is saying, “For Christ’s sake, don’t!” In fact, vertigo is explained by some not as the fear of falling, but as the temptation to jump!