Mini-Regina Piles: The Lamest Journey Begins With A Single Step

Testing...testing...is this thing still on?

*ahem*

Okay. I had an idea the other day, and I figured blogging about it would be an interesting way to go about it and it might might keep me on-task in the bargain. So if there's anyone still here, or if anyone stumbles across this place: thanks. Hopefully I'll make it worth your while.

So, for those of you who don't know me: I am a big fan of popular culture. Movies, comics, television, and books both fiction and non-. I love to watch and read and listen (to music, standup comedy, radio plays, and audiobooks). And because I love these things so much, when I go out shopping, I see a LOT of stuff I want. "Oh man," I'll say to myself, "Quantum Leap DVDs are only $14.99 per season. I think I should get ALL OF THEM." And then I do just that. It's a kind of madness, I think. A madness that has no cure.

Which leads to my home having a higher-than-average amount of shelves, all of them full and overflowing with movies, cds, and (as The Rhino would say) "paper DVDs". I have always wanted to make my way through these chunks of unconsumed pop culture, but every time I feel like I'm making a dent, the madness takes over, and I find myself with three new Discworld books and a bunch of back issues. And so, no progress is made.

Now, one of the podcasts that I listen to - 11 O'Clock Comics - has developed this concept of the "Regina Pile," which is their name for your pile of unread comics that stacks up. I really don't want to get into the reason why it shares its name with the capital city of Saskatchewan, but that's jist of it. And as far as comics go, I have a very, VERY BIG Regina pile. But I never thought about applying it to the other "stuff" that I own. And when I was sitting in the basement last weekend, trying to find the next thing to read, it hit me: I could make Mini-Regina piles that I could work on every month, small enough to be manageable but still a challenge.

The first thing I had to do, though - because I am incredibly anal retentive and love making lists - is compile all my unwatched and unread items together. This was a tougher task than I'd initially thought, so I focused mostly on my DVDs (both film and tv) and my comics trade paperbacks. And while I was both surprised and SHOCKED by the sheer mass of my unconsumed junk, I think I can make dents in it. A number of tiny little dents.

For February, I'm actually tackling two challenges: first of all, my regular Mini-Regina Challenge, and second of all, the "My Wife Will Delete All The Movies Older Than 3 Months Old On My DVR By The End Of February" Challenge. And considering I have about...20 movies that I need to either watch or abandon in 27 days, I'm making my Mini-Regina Pile rather small to start: 4 movies, 0 TV Boxed Sets (because I'm already in the middle of 5), and 4 Comics Trades (plus the 4 that I've already started).

I took a look at my lists and tried to make things as varied as possible. And finally, I ended up with the following for my February pile:

• Kelly's Heroes
• Three The Hard Way
• Angels With Dirty Faces
• The Aviator
• Mad Men, Season 2 *
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1 *
• NewsRadio, Season 5 *
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Season 1 *
• The Dick Van Dyke Show, Season 1 *
• Gon, Volume 3
• Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus
• Superman: Last Son
• Nexus Archives, Volume 1
• Absolute Planetary, Volume 1 *
• Showcase Presents: The Haunted Tank, Volume 1 *
• American Flagg: The Definitive Collection, Volume 1 *
• Scud The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang *

(* - Denotes something I'm already in the middle of.)


And that doesn't count my PVR movies. Something tells me this first month is going to be a spectacular failure, but at least I'm going to try, dang it. I'll try and put at least a little something on this blog whenever I finish something, which should make me more of a presence here and might actually kickstart my Creativity Experiment of 2011 (slogan to be determined). See you soon, internet pop culture fiends. And pray for my sanity, because that is a LOT of stuff to get through.