Once again, the yearly summary of the movies Melanie and I watched in the previous year.  The rating goes from 1 (horribly bad) to 10 (supremely entertaining).

This is the second year in a row where the total count continued to decline - 78 in 2009, then 61 in 2010, down to only 53 this year.  We have an excuse this time, because we watched the entire series of LOST from start to finish from June to October, WHEW.  I love that show beyond words but I'm ready to put it back on the shelf for a while.

1. Jan-1 Hot Tub Time Machine (8)
2. Jan-15 Green Hornet (7.5)
3. Feb-19 Biutiful (8)
4. Feb-26 Cedar Rapids (5)
5. Mar-5 The Adjustment Bureau (6.5)
6. Mar-12 Inception (10)
7. Mar-13 Anchorman (4)
8. Mar-27 Whip It (7)
9. Mar-30 Exit Through the Gift Shop (7)
10. Apr-6 Tron (3)
11. Apr-7 Tron Legacy (6)
12. Apr-8 The Expendibles (1.5)
13. Apr-9 Source Code (7.5)
14. Apr-10 Overnight (8)
15. Apr-12 Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (7)
16. Apr-14 Invictus (8)
17. Apr-17 Bolt (first 3d movie at home) (8)
18. Apr-19 Splinterheads (5)
19. Apr-21 Inside Job (8)
20. Apr-24 Wall-e (8)
21. Apr-30 Limitless (7)
22. Apr-30 She's Out of My League (5)
23. May-2 The King's Speech (9)
24. May-11 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1 (7)
25. May-22 Bridesmaids (7)
26. May-29 Planet Terror (6)
27. May-29 Black Dynamite (9)
28. Jun-03 Beastly (2) (plane)
29. Jun-05 Unknown (7) (plane)
30. Jun-17 Super 8 (8)
31. Jun-19 X-Men First Class (6)
32. Jul-08 the Goonies (9)
33. Jul-09 Horrible Bosses (6)
34. Jul-16 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2 (8)
35. Aug-6 Rise of the Planet of the Apes (8)
36. Aug-15 Scott Pilgrim (7.5)
37. Sep-03 Our Idiot Brother (6)
38. Sep-10 It Might Get Loud (8)
39. Sep-17 Contagion (8)
40. Oct-07 Lawrence of Arabia (6)
41. Oct-16 Bridesmaids (8)
42. Oct-17 Thor (1)
43. Nov-4 Hot Tub Time Machine (7)
44. Nov-10 My Best Fiend (6)
45. Nov-11 Spinal Tap (9)
46. Nov-12 Crazy Stupid (6)
47. Nov-20 Hanna (8)
48. Nov-23 J. Edgar (8)
49. Dec-17-19 LOTR Fellowship of the Ring (10)
50. Dec-21-25 LOTR The Two Towers (10)
51. Dec-25 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (9)
52. Dec-26-28 LOTR Return of the King (10)
53. Dec-29 Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows (8)

For previous years, see 2010 and 2009.

It's time for an update on the story that I originally mentioned back in September 2009 ("My cat is more famous than I will ever be.")

To recap - one day a few years ago, I noticed my cat Scout sitting in a funny pose. She was sitting in her usual place, on a piece of cat furniture in front of our window, but her elbow was hanging over the edge, like a truck driver with the window rolled down on a summer day. I took her picture with my phone and laughed about it with friends for a few weeks.

A while later, I discovered the site fupenguin.com, and submitted the photo on a whim. Much to my surprise, Scout showed up a short while later. I was thrilled, and assumed that would be the end of it. It wasn't.

Every few months, we'd find the picture somewhere unexpected. Someone would use it in a poster for a party or something else small like that.

Then in May 2011, Scout's photo appeared on quickmeme.com. QuickMeme is a site that lets you add captions to photos, and people vote on their favorites. Someone must have thought Scout looked like "The Most Interesting Man in the World" from the Dos Equis commercials, since the captions were all parodies of his catch phrase, "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis."

The QuickMeme page really took off when it was linked from Reddit Pics, and was popular enough to stay on their front-page for over a day. As of November 2011, almost ten thousand people (9601) have given that photo a positive "up" vote.

Even today, months later, Scout's QuickMeme page is still the #1 result on Google if you search for "the most interesting cat in the world".

The latest development came a few days ago (Thursday, November 3, 2011), when George Takei posted the image of Scout on his Facebook page. George "Mr. Sulu" Takei. Holy crap. Scout has no idea. George liked the caption, "I don't usually want to cuddle, but when I do, you're wearing all black and about to leave for work." So far, in just a few days, over 4600 people have clicked the "Like" button for that post, and there are over 300 comments in the thread. Over 2800 other people have now shared that link on their own Facebook feed.

I get so excited when I find Scout's picture in some new and unexpected context, but it is a weird feeling too. There is that extreme familiarity to see a photo that I took of my own cat... but at the same time it feels really odd and disorienting because the picture gets modified and reposted by complete strangers - people who have no idea who I am or who Scout is. I can't wait for the next big surprise...

I just stumbled across this photo from 1946, showing a Seattle street corner. What popped out at me was the logo on "Pac's Restaurant and Delicatessen". The "PAC" font is exactly like the font that would be used 34 years later in the Pac-Man video game: