/dev/zero

Well, I’ll be hitting the road in about 10 minutes. Wish me luck.

I will not leave myself logged in on somebody elses computer. I will not leave myself logged in on somebody elses computer. I will not leave myself logged in on somebody elses computer. I will not leave myself logged in on somebody elses computer. I will not leave myself logged in on somebody elses computer. I will not leave myself logged in on somebody elses computer.

*ROTFL*

Godmoma here, but on Strongbow’s account. Seems he left himself logged in on my machine… Being a sysadmin, he’ll appreciate the irony in that. I hope.
Now, what nefarious schemes can I execute, hm? Leaving obnoxious comments in any and all journals I can find? Changing his userinfo to read “whip me, beat me, make me wear nylons”? Join more communities than you can shake a stick at?

Nah, he’s got enough stress to deal with, I’ll just be the loving friend and quietly log him out.

Before that though: HI EVERYBODY!!

I’ve avoided mentioning it here in my LJ for various reasons, but I’m moving to Texas. This has been a stressfull week getting things done that needed to get done. Anyone who’s been reading my MT journal on my home page knows some of what’s been going on.

I’m not going to get into all the mundane things that make this week stressful. Anyone who’s moved to another state has probably been through much the same. However, today especially has been a very emotional one. You see, I finally got my stuff off to the shipping company and on it’s way to Dallas, my car is mostly packed and I’m leaving some time this morning.

I’ve lived all my life in California.

I was born in California. I’ve never lived anywhere else.

I have two quotes in my email sig files that have been running through my head all day today.
When bad stuff happens, you have to be prepared to abandon your luggage.

Caramia, Uflist.org

and

“You should do something every day which scares you.”

(apparently said by) Erica Jong

Substitute “terrify” for “scare”, and you have me today. It didn’t sink in until Andi, one of my housemates, asked “Are you going to miss California?”, just how terrified I was of this move. Not so much leaving California (that was just the trigger), but the actual trip. I don’t know WHY, but it scares the shit out of me. It’s not like it’s that far. 1,700 miles or so. People make that kind of trip all the time. My car is strong. But I have this dread that SOMETHING is going to go wrong, like a tire blow out (I don’t have a spare. I’m too poor.) I have a couple of cans of Fix-A-Flat if I get a puncture I’m fine, but if it blows out I’m screwed. Or a broken CV joint or control arm or something. And I’ll be passing through Death Valley, and the Mojave desert, Arizona, New Mexico (where they’re having wild fires.)

I realized quickly that it wasn’t really the trip (though I still have this dread about my car giving me trouble in the middle of no-where), but about the change in life circumstances after all. It hit me like a rock in the forehead that I’ve been avoiding so much in life, because I’m TERRIFIED of what could happen. I’ve never had a girlfriend. No particular reason, other than I’m too afraid to risk rejection. I have friends who have done so many interesting, fascinating things with their lives, and I’ve never even finished college. I don’t go out and take risks. I don’t do road trips, even though I LOVE to travel. I don’t talk to the pretty girl. I don’t assert myself. I’m too afraid to leave my comfort zone. It was like Mark Mcguire slamming me upside the head with a bat making this realization.

I sat there holding one of my cats and crying as I thought about how terrified I really was of this move. I almost called my friend Noel, the “Motivation Man”, to talk me through this. It’s exactly the kind of thing he talks about in his seminars.

After I got out of the shower this evening, I walked back to my room and found a letter from another house mate slid under my door, with a flower. It was a very touching letter. It was very difficult to read through the tears. Suffice it to say, when you feel as if you’ve had very little effect on anyone else’s life, that no one else will notice or care when you leave, it’s nice to be proven wrong.

I’ve avoided mentioning it here in my LJ for various reasons, but I’m moving to Texas. This has been a stressfull week getting things done that needed to get done. Anyone who’s been reading my MT journal on my home page knows some of what’s been going on.

I’m not going to get into all the mundane things that make this week stressful. Anyone who’s moved to another state has probably been through much the same. However, today especially has been a very emotional one. You see, I finally got my stuff off to the shipping company and on it’s way to Dallas, my car is mostly packed and I’m leaving some time this morning.

I’ve lived all my life in California.

I was born in California. I’ve never lived anywhere else.

I have two quotes in my email sig files that have been running through my head all day today.
When bad stuff happens, you have to be prepared to abandon your luggage.
Don’t build up angst over property; focus on the important things.
Caramia, Uflist.org

and

“You should do something every day which scares you.”
(apparently said by) Erica Jong

Substitute “terrify” for “scare”, and you have me today. It didn’t sink in until Andi, one of my housemates, asked “Are you going to miss California?”, just how terrified I was of this move. Not so much leaving California (that was just the trigger), but the actual trip. I don’t know WHY, but it scares the shit out of me. It’s not like it’s that far. 1,700 miles or so. People make that kind of trip all the time. My car is strong. But I have this dread that SOMETHING is going to go wrong, like a tire blow out (I don’t have a spare. I’m too poor.) I have a couple of cans of Fix-A-Flat if I get a puncture I’m fine, but if it blows out I’m screwed. Or a broken CV joint or control arm or something. And I’ll be passing through Death Valley, and the Mojave desert, Arizona, New Mexico (where they’re having wild fires.)

I realized quickly that it wasn’t really the trip (though I still have this dread about my car giving me trouble in the middle of no-where), but about the change in life circumstances after all. It hit me like a rock in the forehead that I’ve been avoiding so much in life, because I’m TERRIFIED of what could happen. I’ve never had a girlfriend. No particular reason, other than I’m too afraid to risk rejection. I have friends who have done so many interesting, fascinating things with their lives, and I’ve never even finished college. I don’t go out and take risks. I don’t do road trips, even though I LOVE to travel. I don’t talk to the pretty girl. I don’t assert myself. I’m too afraid to leave my comfort zone. It was like Mark Mcguire slamming me upside the head with a bat making this realization.
I sat there holding one of my cats and crying as I thought about how terrified I really was of this move. I almost called my friend Noel, the “Motivation Man”, to talk me through this. It’s exactly the kind of thing he talks about in his seminars.

After I got out of the shower this evening, I walked back to my room and found a letter from another house mate slid under my door, with a flower. It was a very touching letter. It was very difficult to read through the tears. Suffice it to say, when you feel as if you’ve had very little effect on anyone else’s life, that no one else will notice or care when you leave, it’s nice to be proven wrong.

So anyone who reads my LJ (besides -d) know anything about Movable Type?
Anyone know how to get my LJ to syndicate my MT blog? Or vice versay, so my LJ shows up on MT?
I don’t want to just set up a syndicated feed (like mrsnotnesbitt), I want to have my MT posts show up in my LJ, but still be able to post to my LJ normally as well.

LJ can syndciate RSS feeds.
MT creates RSS feeds but doesn’t seem to have a functionality to read them, but has a very nifty ping/trackback funcitonality that can notify other journals when something has been posted, and include stuff from other journals. It seems like there should be a way to do this.

Technicalities:
The one person I listed as “dated” I didn’t REALLY. We just went out a couple of times and I had romantic interest on my part. Technicalities count!
I have houemates with no modesty.
There are two people on my list that actually show up twice, because they have more than one LJ account / RSS feed. Too bad I haven’t done anything “juicy” with either of them.

strongbow1800’s LiveJournal Slut Stats The below percentages indicate what strongbow1800 has done with the 59 people on his friends list!

met 49.2% hugged 27.1% dated 1.7% seen topless 8.5% seen naked 6.8% made out 1.7% oral sex 1.7% fucked 1.7%

What are your LiveJournal Slut Stats? Sponsored via Adult Friend Finder. Keep this meme and others like it checking it out or getting free account! You may meet the match of your dreams!

I hate it when housemates use the bathroom, rinse their hands, but don’t wipe them dry.
There’s just something about going into the bathroom and grabbing a wet doorknob…

Well, I got the Fix-A-Flat for the car (just in case), got the stuff I needed to wire up the stereo, and mounted the CB.

I don’t think I’ll be able to afford an actual spare wheel for the car. That makes me a little nervous. As long as I just get a puncture in the tread area, the Fix-A-Flat should take care of it, but if I get a blowout or a sidewall puncture, I’ll be screwed.

I went to Kragen to get the wire connectors, but they didn’t have enough of them. They had 1 pack left, and it only had 6 connectors. I needed 8.

I went to Radio Shack, but couldn’t find them. All I could find was one of those big sets of assorted connectors, and I didn’t want to spend $10 for connectos I don’t need, and it too didn’t have enough of the ones I do need. I spoke to the guy at the counter and he showed me where what I wanted was. Heh, Radio Shack has gotten organized. They weren’t on a shelf peg, but in a drawer. I just had to know which drawer to look in. I bought two packs of 5, which gave me just enough extra for any accidental mis-crimps.

I got home, crimped on all the connectos and hooked it up (it was much easier this time, since I was replacing a functioning stereo which uses the same color coding. Last time I had to do this I was replacing the stock BMW stereo which uses it’s own wire color scheme.)

Everything worked perfectly, so I stuck it in the mounting box and thought I was done. Only then, after it had locked in place, did I discover the rear speakers weren’t working. I went down to Lott’s Stereo (the fancy, high-end, custom install shop in Santa Cruz) to ask if I could borrow a couple of release tools to release my deck from the dash. That’s when I found out there should have been some in the box when I got it. I guess I didn’t see them and threw them out by accident. Luckily he was able to guesstimate which ones I needed and gave me a set that worked. Good thing they’re “throw away” tools, he let me keep them.

Got home, popped the stereo out, took me a while to figure out the problem was that the instructions had the wires for the rear speakers mis-labeled. All speaker wires with a black stripe on them were supposed to be the negative terminal, but in the rears, those were the positive. Once I figured that out, it was a simple matter of crimping new connectors on and I was back in business with all 4 speakers. And the CD player works.
Only problem is, this being a cheap stereo, I can hear interference from the CD player’s motor in the speaker system. Not much I can do about it.

So then I mounted the CB bracket to the dash, cut slits in the dash cover (the dash is cracked, so the previous owner had gotten a nice cloth cover) and put the cover back over it. Popped one of the un-used cut-outs from the front of the instrument panel where there’s a switch of some kind in another model of BMW, but my car isn’t equipped with it, and used that hole to run the power wire for the CB into the cluster. Crimped on a couple of splice connectors to splice into the stereo’s power, screwed the CB into the bracket, ran the antenna wire how I wanted it and I know have a nicely mounted CB.

I also got inside the hood and patched in a new T junction into the windshield sprayers and it’s spraying nicely out of both holes of both nozzles. They still need adjusting. The passeneger side is doing a nice job of wetting down the roof of the car.

Cleaned out the car and took her for a little drive to recharge the battery, since I’d had both the stereo and CB going while making hook-ups to test things. Now that I have the nice 4 foot antenea on top, I can actually pick up a little traffic. I drove her up to De La Veaga golf course to get better elevation and I caught somebody up in Humboldt talking to someone in Portland. I couldn’t quite hear the guy in Portland, but the guy in Humboldt was coming in loud and clear. I have some confidence now that I’ll be able to hear trucks and so on out on the road when I hit those flat lands on this trip.

Still To-Do:

1. Get Hulda’s truck so I can get my stuff up to SF for shipping.
2. Get my stuff up to SF for shipping.
3. Get cats to vet.
4. Load up car.
5. Call siblings.
6. Email Pamela in Texas, let her know new itinerary.
7. Call parents, let them know new itinerary.
8. Call a few friends, say goodbye.
9. Hit the road.

Mom called today to check up on things. Apparently I told her I would call the middle of the week with a schedule and forgot. Ooops!

So I still need to call my siblings to see if I’ll be able to stay with them.

I went out today to get my contact lenses that were supposed to be in weeks ago. They didn’t have them in yet. They offered to re-order them, but obviously that won’t work since I’m leaving tomorrow (or maybe Tues.) so I had her refund the cost.
Stopped by Radio Shack and got a bigger antena for the CB. The little 2 foot antena wasn’t picking up a damn thing. So far the bigger one is only doing slightly better, but I’ve been inside the city the whole time, so there’s lots of trees and buildings in the way. We’ll see how it does when I hit the road.
Stopped by Kragen to get supplies. Picked up a couple of quarts of 20W-50 oil, just in case, seat covers, a padded seat thing for the driver’s side (1500 miles? Yeah, I’ll spend the money to get some air under my butt.) and a new stereo. I got the cheapest one they had ($59.99) as all I care about is that it has a working CD player.
Got home, realized I forgot to get the connectors I need to wire up the stereo, as it just has bare wire. Went straight back to Kragen, but it was now 7:05 and they close at 7:00. I’ll have to get them tomorrow.
I did manage to figure out how to take the heat shield off the inside of my hood so I could run the new winshield washer fluid hose and got that in place. The passenger side still doesn’t spray (I think the T junction is blocked on that side) but I can wash the driver’s side now. I’ll get a new T junction tomorrow when I get the radio connectors.
Cleaned out most of the junk in the car and the trunk. Still has crumbs and so on. I’ll take it to be washed down and vacuumed before I leave, so the car will start out clean.
I had forgotten how big the trunk of my car is. I was thinking of taking my stereo components in the car rather than shipping them, but wasn’t sure the boxes would fit. It’ll be no problem. I think I can fit the stereo and DVD boxes, the speakers and possibly the TV or the monitor in the trunk. I’m deffinitly taking the monitor with me, not sure if I’ll have the TV shipped or take it in the car. If I can fit it in the trunk with the stereo, I think I’ll do that and carry the monitor inside the car with my lugage and the cats.

Still To-Do:

1. Get spare tire.
2. Get a couple gallons of water to carry with me.
3. Get connectos for car stereo.
4. Get T junction for wiper fluid.
5. Install stereo, T junction, bolt CB to dash.
6. Get my stuff up to SF to be shipped.
7. Call my siblings.
8. Get cats to vet for vaccinations.
9. Pack car.
10. Go.

But life is good.
It’s good to know I have such good friends here in Santa Cruz.

I took Thomas and Gunilla to the Shadowbrook tonight to thank them for giving me a place to live and a home (there’s a difference) for 2 years.
We had a very yummy meal. For appetizer Gunilla had the lobster bisque, Thomas and I shared a baked brie (very yummy. I think it should be a desert). I had the prime rib (again, petit cut this time), Gunilla had the pork tenderloin, Thomas had the artichoke ratituoi tower. For desert, I had a creme brulle. Thomas had the pine nut baklava and Gunilla had the Jack Daniels mud pie. She and I both had coffee.
After that it was already 11:30, so I dropped them off in front of Book Shop Santa Cruz so they could wait in line with all the other Harry Potter fans in town to get The Order of the Phoenix promptly at 12:01. I parked my car and joined the weekly Vampire game.
By “joined” I mean I wanderd by to say hello and goodbye to everyone. AS it was already 11:30 and game ends at 12:00, there wasn’t much point in getting Raven to go to his car and get my character book so I could play for 10 or 20 minutes, and he was in the middle of a scene anyway. So I yacked with Brandon and Chris and Bob OOC, then Sara came over and joined us. At midnight, Raven called game and handed me my book so I could take it with me to Texas.
After game, I walked with Sara, Chris, Bob and Darren down to Book Shop Santa Cruz, since Sara wanted to get the book to, and there was no point in moving my car until I knew Thomas and Gunilla were through the line. When we got there, the line was already gone. I decided to go ahead and buy the book now, rather than wait until tomorrow.
Dropped Thomas and Gunilla back at the house, then headed for Jefferey’s. Like last week, Jacob and Wolf were the only ones there. I hung out with them for a bit, then headed for Brandon’s. Everyone else was there. I got a warm welcome, was immediatly instructed to go ahead inside and grab a beer. We sat around and BS’ed, mostly about game, for a while. When Sara and Chris decided it was time to go, the rest of us left as well. I got handshakes and hugs from everyone and lots of “Don’t let Texas get you.” and so on. Got a nice warm hug from Christina, which was very pleasant. <sigh> Too bad she’s taken. Too bad I’m moving to Dallas, to.
But it was nice to be treated with such warmth and affection by people that I’ve only known for a month and a half or so, and then only saw on Friday nights. I must be sure to come back and visit.
Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can find a game in Dallas and get Benjamin’s stats up.

Well, I didn’t get my stuff to SFO in time.

I needed to get all my stuff up to SFO by 5PM. The shipping company isn’t open on weekends, so I won’t be able to take it to them until Monday now. Which means my departure is delayed by 3 days. Grrr…

I’ve got about one box of stuff left to pack, not counting my clothes and the computer I’m using.
Now will I be able to get the use of a truck today, to take all my stuff up to SFO for shipping?

Still To-Do:

Get spare tire, jumper cables, other emergency road supplies for car.
Wash car.
Replace car stereo (CD player doesn’t function).
Mount CB.
Buy a bigger CB anteanna.
Replace tubing for windshield sprayers.
Call my sister in Las Vegas to arrange to stay over night.
Call my brother in New Mexica to arrange to stay over night.
Get collars with tags for cats.
Get traveling litter trays for cats.
Get dialup numbers to connect to Internet on the road, make sure the router will work.

Tomorrow:
Pick up copy of 5th Harry Potter book reserved at Walden Books.
Pick up contact lenses at Pearl, across from Walden.
Wash car.
Load car.
Load kitties in car.
Hit the road.

I hate being broke.
I’m moving to Dallas, leaving probably Saturday.
However, while my car has a working stereo, for some reason it stopped playing CDs when I installed it (it’s an old radio, salvaged from my 190D, may she RIP). The CD player worked fine in the 190, but I think I dropped it one too many times while working on it to install it in the 325i.

So I stopped by Circuit City to price out new stereos and so on. I’m going to be driving across vast, flat, empty parts of the country. I don’t count on having much good radio on, and I’ll have to find a new station every 100 miles or so even if there is good stuff out there.
So I noticed they had cheap XM and Sirus radio setups. Except it would cost over $100 just for the equipment, and almost another $100 for the installation, then either $9.995/month (XM) or $12.95/month (Sirus) for the signal. I can just about justify the cost of equipment and subscription, but I just can’t justify that and the install cost.
I could get a CD changer for a little over $100. But there’s a cost to install that to. I could probably do that myself, but not sure.
And a new head unit with a working CD player can be had for about $140 bucks, and I can install that myself.
Or I can get the cheap head unit at Kragen for $59.00. Which means it’s not the greatest head unit, but then, my hearing isn’t the best so I may not be able to tell the difference anyway. All I really need is something that will play CDs. Drawback to the changer units anyway: they only hold 10 CDs. Which is a lot of music, but if my mood changes and I don’t have the kind of music I feel like lisetning to in the changer, I have to pull over somewhere to swap it out. With the single disk player in the head unit, I can just keep all my CDs on the passanger seat and swap whenever I feel like.

I am SO slacking. I should be finishing up packing for my move. Instead I’ve been napping all day.

I intend to file the following statement with the Santa Cruz County Superior Court (Family Division)

6/19/03

Statement of Andrew Edelstein in re: Dispute between Gunilla Leavitt and James P. Williams of custody of their daughters Lynnaea and Lynessa Williams

To Whom it may concern,

My name is Andrew Edelstein. I have have known Gunilla Leavitt since approx. early or mid 1999, or approx. the time this dispute began. I am not a direct party to this case and do not have a direct interest, though I am a material witness. The material contained in this statement is based on my personal, direct observations of Gunilla Williams (Leavitt), Thomas Leavitt, James P. Williams, Lynnaea Williams and Lynessa Williams. From approx. August of 1999 to approx. April of 2000, Gunilla was my guest and roommate at my residence of 1800 Stokes St., San Jose, CA. From approx. August of 2001 to present, I have been the house mate of Gunilla and Thomas at their residence at 1135 N. Branciforte Ave, Santa Cruz, CA. I also performed, along with Lori Blauu, the wedding of Thomas and Gunilla on July 21, 2001. I make this statement of my own free will in the belief that my observations may be beneficial to the court. This statement was not solicited by any other party. I am making this statement at this time as I am shortly to move out of California where I will be somewhat less available to the Santa Cruz Co. Superior Court. I will endeavor to make myself as available as possible should the court or any party to this matter require more information from me.

In the approx. 4 years that I have known Gunilla, I have never observed Gunilla to touch either Lynnaea or Lynessa in an inappropriate way, or to make any suggestive remarks or statements to or about them. I have never heard either child make any statement indicating they have been in any way abused by either parent, or any other party. I have never observed any behavior on the part of either child that would indicate to me, as a lay person, any fear of either parent, or any third party. On the contrary, I have observed both children display what I can only describe as extremely loving behavior toward their mother. The only time I have observed anything less than cordial behavior on the part of either child toward Thomas is in the brief period after Thomas has disciplined them for misbehavior. I would not describe this behavior as indicative of any dis-like for Thomas, but the typical behavior any child displays when an adult figure did not let them have their way. Such behavior is always brief until the child has forgotten whatever it was they wanted and were denied. I have on many occasions observed both children display very loving behavior towards Thomas.

In the late spring or early summer of 2000, shortly after Gunilla had moved out of my residence in San Jose, she visited me, accompanied by both children and a couple of friends. On that day one of the friends and I played a video game on my Playstation game console. Due to the type of connections required by the Playstation, and those available on my TV, the Playstation was connected to the front of my VCR, relaying the signal to the TV. Since our planned activities for the day did not include watching any movies it never crossed my mind that the VCR currently contained a sexually explicit video tape. While playing the game, Lynessa sat down on the couch next to me, sitting on the remote control for the VCR, accidentally pressing the play button. I was naturally quite embarrassed and lunged for the VCR to hit the stop button and remove the tape. In my haste I accidentally hit the fast-forward button, causing the action on the screen to increase in tempo. All of the other adults in the room were quite amused, but the amusement was to my reaction (I’m sure I looked quite hilarious, madly lunging across the room, jabbing at the front of the VCR) and not to the exposure of the children to sexually explicit material. This exposure was entirely accidental. Gunilla did not know, and could not have known, that there was a sexually explicit video tape in the VCR. If there is any blame to be made for this exposure of the childed to sexually explicit material on this occasion, it is mine for not having the fore site to remove the tape from the VCR before my guests arrived. The children saw perhaps 5 seconds of sexually explicit video. Contrary to what Mr. Williams reported in his statements to the court subsequent to this event, the video in question was heterosexual in nature. I am a heterosexual male and do not posses any homoerotic material.

At the time Gunilla was living with me in San Jose, and for a brief period thereafter, I was employed as a contractor at Infonent, Inc. Mr. Williams has reported statements I made on the “Userfriendly Fan mailing list” that I worked for “the largest Internet pornographer” in the world. It should be understood that that statement was made in the context of explaining why I don’t bother attempting to find such material while connected to the Internet at home. “I can get all I want at work, if I wanted such material.” It should also be noted that my employment at Infonent was as a Unix system administrator. At no time during my employment at Infonent was I in any way involved in the production or distribution of pornographic material. I did not even work in the division of the company involved with the company’s pornographic activities. Certainly the availability of such material in my place of employment has no bearing on what material was available in my home or to which the children were exposed.

Mr. Williams has included in his statements to this court pictures obtained from various web sites mentioned by other participants in various mailing lists to which Gunilla and Thomas are subscribers. One such web site was for the “Power Exchange”, a BDSM club in San Francisco. In the 4 years I have known Gunilla and the nearly 3 years I have known Thomas, I have never once heard either of them express any interest in BDSM or BDSM related activities. The only time the subject was even raised in our household was in discussions regarding Mr. William’s statements to this court.

The evening of Thomas’ and Gunilla’s wedding, the wedding party, including myself, the other officiant, Lori Blauu, the photographer and a number of guests, went to Kiva spa. While it is true that all of us, and a number of other guests at the spa, were nude, both children wore bathing suits. At no time were the children out of our site. No one made any inappropriate gestures, statements or advances to either of them. Neither child appeared to be uncomfortable with the situation. Promptly at nightfall, Thomas took them home in accordance with Kiva’s rules, leaving them in the care of Gunilla’s mother, who was visiting from Sweden.

I have, on several occasions, assisted both Lynnaea and Lynessa with their homework. On several occasions our house mate “Rabbit” has also assisted them. On all such occasions Gunilla was either in the room, or in the immediately adjacent room. I have observed Gunilla assisting the children with their homework on a number of occasions. Gunilla tends to help them with any art or craft related assignments (dioramas for science and sociology lessons, etc). I have assisted with math and vocabulary related studies. Rabbit has assisted with math. Gunilla has not “foisted the children on others” when it comes to homework.

I have on quite a number of occasions, read the children their bedtime story. Upon tearing through the Harry Potter books after receiving them as a Christmas gift from my parents, I was eager to share this universe with the children. They were quite enthusiastic about this as well, having just seen the first Harry Potter movie. It should be mentioned that Lynessa had, for several years, been quite a terror about going to bed in the evening, going into screaming fits whenever Gunilla or Thomas indicated it was bed time. She would keep the entire house awake screaming “bloody murder”. This behavior stopped promptly when I began reading to the children at bedtime. It even became a useful tool to elicit good behavior from both children, but especially Lynessa, at bedtime. Any foot-dragging on the part of Lynessa to prepare for bed would be ended promptly by a threat to not read to them that night. Any such threat would be met by a mad dash for pajamas and tooth brushes. I read the first two Harry Potter books, but Mr. Williams politely requested that I refrain from reading them the third book so that he may do so. Though I felt that, in a sense, Harry Potter was “mine” to read to them, as I had started them on the series, I felt an obligation to honor Mr. Williams right, as a father, to read this fine work of literature to them. Upon finishing the second book of the Harry Potter series, I began reading other material to them (fairy tales and such). After several weeks of this, the children then requested that I read them book 3 as they were eager to find out what happens next and their father had failed to begin reading it to them. For several weeks I read them book 3, getting 3/4s of the way through the book, leaving off just before the climax of the story, before Mr. Williams FINALLY got around to reading to them from the book. I was quite disappointed to have been denied the pleasure of reading them the climactic chapter of one of the central plots of the book, after having read the rest of the series to them. I must admit having read them extra chapters that week to finish the book out of spite, to deny Mr. Williams the opportunity to read them any further chapters from “my” book.

The following week, despite my warnings that book 4 dealt with themes that might be beyond their level of comprehension and patience (it is quite a long book, with somewhat more sophisticated level of plot than the previous three), they insisted I proceed with it right away. I was quite impressed that both children were able to follow almost the entire plot, and had the patience to wait through over 800 pages (though I often had to summarize the preceding night’s text for Lynnaea, who always falls asleep before Lynessa). Both children are much brighter than they sometimes let on.

It should be noted that not once, since I began reading them Harry Potter, has Lynessa gone into a screaming fit at bedtime in the Leavitt household. I deeply regret being denied the opportunity to read them book five. I can only hope that Gunilla or Mr. Williams will waste no time in purchasing and reading it to them.

I have been present and heard, and had stated directly to me by Lynnaea, that “Grammy” takes the children aside when Mr. Williams is not present and tells them how awful their mother is to them.

I was present in court the day Mr. Williams’ attorney EMPHATICLY denied that his mother lived with him and the children, that she in fact maintained her own residence. It was only a couple of weeks later that Lynessa described to me how her dog, Diamond, had been caught “going into Grammy’s room”.

Thomas and Gunilla are politically active in the GLBT community. I have never observed any attempt to involve the children in these activities. The children did assist in painting the “Bi-mobile”, and in the making of signs for Santa Cruz Pride festival. The painting of the “Bi-mobile” occurred before the order forbidding involving the children in meetings or discussion of sexual activity or politics. The painting of signs occurred when the children became bored with other activities available to them that day and wished to participate.

Mr. Williams stated in a recent filing with this court that he had been “made aware” that Mr. Leavitt was “an alcoholic” and used “mephanphenamines” (sic). In the two and a half years I have known Thomas Leavitt, and two years I have lived in the same household, I have seen him consume perhaps three glasses of wine and one beer, all on separate occasions. Wine was not even served at the Leavitt’s own wedding. I have never once observed Thomas to consume any controlled substance of any kind, nor has he ever appeared to be under the influence of any controlled substance. It is my observation from his character, and my understanding of his beliefs regarding body modification and consumption of healthful food, that consuming such substances would be completely anathema to him.

In the nearly 4 years I have known Gunilla, I have observed her to consume perhaps five glasses of wine (Usually “Glog”, a traditional Swedish Christmas beverage), and perhaps three beers. Again, never more than one drink on any one occasion. I have never observed her to consume, or display any behavior indicating the consumption of, any controlled substance, other than prescribed pain medication, and then only consistent with the treatment of the pain for which the medication was prescribed.

Thomas has made an active effort to involve himself in the children’s lives, to be a positive example of what it is to be a step-parent. He took a parenting course, along with Gunilla, at Branciforte Elementary. Together they applied the techniques taught in this course to better raise the children. Thomas has engaged the education community. He is active in participating in all available opportunity’s to communicate with the school board, the staff of Branciforte elementary and the children’s teachers.

Mr. Williams attempted to have Thomas charged with assault, in an incident where Thomas placed the open palm of his hand against Mr. Williams’ chest. While I was not present when the incident occurred, it is my observation of Thomas’ character that he is one of the most non-violent people I know. It is my belief that Mr. Williams was aware that Thomas was in no way attempting to “assault” him, but that Mr. Williams was merely trying to portray the incident in as negative a light as possible, in an attempt to soil Thomas’ character in the eyes of this court.

It is my belief that Mr. Williams truly loves his children, and truly believes he is doing the right thing for them. He is allowing his own distaste for his ex-wife to cloud his judgment and reason. He refuses to entertain the possibility of co-operative parenting of his children with their mother and will exploit any means available to poison the relationship between Gunilla and the children, and between the children and Thomas. It is also my belief that his mother is the central driving force behind this behavior.

Should the court or any party to this matter require any clarification of this statement, or other information of me, I will do my best to oblige. I may be contacted as follows:

Email: andrew@pure-chaos.com
	Address:
	Before 21 June, 2003
		(deleted)
	After 21 June, 2003
		(deleted)
	Telephone:
	Cell (subject to change after about 23 June, 2003): (deleted)
	Home (after about 23 June, 2003): (deleted)

I will most likely be unreachable between 21 and 23 June, 2003, as I will be on the road from here to Texas, where cell phone coverage can not be relied upon and I likely will not have Internet access.

I must request that all contact from Mr. Williams be through his attorney.

Regards,

Andrew Edelstein

A bug just flicked across my screen. Immediatly Senar, my male cat, was by my side looking for it.

I looked down at him, he looked at me, and I said “Yeah, I saw it to.”
Flicker out of the corner of my eye, I see the bug on the far wall above my bed, about 3/4s of the way to the ceiling. Senar sees it, jumps up on the bed and leaps at it, nails it in one try.
Master bug killer, he is.

Uhm… ok… I’m supposed to not bid on something because he is, or something?
Heh, guy has terrible grammer, no punctuation, nothing. Hard to follow what he’s saying.

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 23:43:58 -0400
From:
To: “Andrew Edelstein”
Subject: nice sense of humor your cool hey if your
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200

see another laptop like what were were bidding on please let me know this
ebay take up to much time lol thanks for being a good sport

ron

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 23:43:58 -0400
From:
To: “Andrew Edelstein”
Subject: nice sense of humor your cool hey if your

see another laptop like what were were bidding on please let me know this
ebay take up to much time lol thanks for being a good sport

ron

Uhm… ok… I’m supposed to not bid on something because he is, or something?
Heh, guy has terrible grammer, no punctuation, nothing. Hard to follow what he’s saying.

Since “1800″ is just a cludge because “Strongbow” is usually taken on most services, here’s my “real” LJ username meaning:

Sure, I’ll jump on the bandwagon…

I’m about to hit the road for a few days. I don’t currently have a functioning laptop. So I started looking on Ebay. I placed a bid on a Dell laptop, and was soon outbid. I got this via email from the guy who outbid me:

To member: strongbow
From member: rons9xi

——————–

please let get a laptop get bonna make me broke

I replied back asking him to try again, in English.
I then got:

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:18:22 -0400
From:
To: “Andrew Edelstein”
Subject: lol you sank my battle ship
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew Edelstein”
To:
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: Question from eBay Member

> On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 05:52:36PM -0700, ronaldlgrimes@sbcglobal.net wrote:
> > please let get a laptop get bonna make me broke
>
> Let’s try that again, in English this time?
>
> –
> Andrew Edelstein http://andrew.pure-chaos.com
>
> An error? Impossible! My modem is error-correcting

and

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:20:03 -0400
From:
To: “Andrew Edelstein”
Subject: ouch that hurt can i have my finger prints back
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200

you know the one on your new laptop!!!!ouch!!!!

Uh, my new laptop? You outbid me buddy. And then someone outbid you.

I’m about to hit the road for a few days. I don’t currently have a functioning laptop. So I started looking on Ebay. I placed a bid on a Dell laptop, and was soon outbid. I got this via email from the guy who outbid me:

To member: strongbow
>From member: rons9xi

——————–

please let get a laptop get bonna make me broke

I replied back asking him to try again, in English.
I then got:

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:18:22 -0400
From:
To: “Andrew Edelstein”
Subject: lol you sank my battle ship
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew Edelstein”
To:
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: Question from eBay Member

> On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 05:52:36PM -0700, ronaldlgrimes@sbcglobal.net wrote:
> > please let get a laptop get bonna make me broke
>
> Let’s try that again, in English this time?
>
> –
> Andrew Edelstein http://andrew.pure-chaos.com
>
> An error? Impossible! My modem is error-correcting

and

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:20:03 -0400
From:
To: “Andrew Edelstein”
Subject: ouch that hurt can i have my finger prints back
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200

you know the one on your new laptop!!!!ouch!!!!

Uh, my new laptop? You outbid me buddy. And then someone outbid you.

I’m one of the admins of the Userfriendly Fan mailing list.
We’ve got this one user in Australia that just annoys the fuck out of me.

For starters, he’s away from his email for 2 weeks at a time, then he’ll be able to get to it for something like 4 days. During those 4 days he will respond to every email in every thread that went by in the two weeks he was away, re-starting threads that had already come and gone.
He’s an annoying git, ya ask me.
We had another user from Brazil. He can be a bit annoying to, but I attribute most of that to a language barrier. His English is quite good, but I think some of what he says is lost in the translation.
Recently the two started going at it, and the Australian ended up calling the Brazilian a “rude, ignorant fucking jerk”.
The Brazilian decided it was time to leave the list at this point. I won’t spill any tears. I thought he was being a jerk to. But as an admin I’m pretty ticked that the list devolved to that kind of language. I’m not a prude when it comes to swear words. I just don’t like to see them being used when addressing other readers of the list. So I said as much to the person involved. As an admin, it’s my right and responsibility to reign that kind of thing in. Now he’s accusing me of having a double standard, in effect, that I’m every bit as bad as he is, that he’d have “thrown punches at me” had he been in the same room. The guy really needs to work on his temper.

I’m one of the admins of the Userfriendly Fan mailing list.
We’ve got this one user in Australia that just annoys the fuck out of me. For starters, he’s away from his email for 2 weeks at a time, then he’ll be able to get to it for something like 4 days. During those 4 days he will respond to every email in every thread that went by in the two weeks he was away, re-starting threads that had already come and gone.
He’s an annoying git, ya ask me.
We had another user from Brazil. He can be a bit annoying to, but I attribute most of that to a language barrier. His English is quite good, but I think some of what he says is lost in the translation.
Recently the two started going at it, and the Australian ended up calling the Brazilian a “rude, ignorant fucking jerk”.
The Brazilian decided it was time to leave the list at this point. I won’t spill any tears. I thought he was being a jerk to. But as an admin I’m pretty ticked that the list devolved to that kind of language. I’m not a prude when it comes to swear words. I just don’t like to see them being used when addressing other readers of the list. So I said as much to the person involved. As an admin, it’s my right and responsibility to reign that kind of thing in. Now he’s accusing me of having a double standard, in effect, that I’m every bit as bad as he is, that he’d have “thrown punches at me” had he been in the same room. The guy really needs to work on his temper.

Well, as you can see from the previous entry, I have everything working now.
I even got the stylesheet to specify Bitstream Vera instead of Palatino. Palatino sucks.

I never went to bed after game on Friday night. I was going to be up early to help dconnect and his dad move a piano, so when I got hooked on working on something online Friday night, I reazlized I’d never get up in time if I went to bed. So I didn’t.

Sat. I went off to Martin’s to help move the piano. Wierd day for traffic. As I was going down Fairmont and came to the stop sign right before the Highway 1 onramp, this idiot on a motorcycle decides it’s ok for him to pull out of the stop sign and turn at the same time as a car. After they go through, it’s my turn to go, but no, the truck right behind them decides since I didn’t go IMMEDIATLY, that it’s his turn again, forcing me to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting him. He just gave me a funny look when I honked at him.
Then when I got off 1 at 41st in Capitola, I noticed some smoke coming from a van ahead of me in the left turn lane to turn onto Clares. As I’m actually pulling into the lane I realize the smoke isn’t coming from the exhaust, the van is actually on fire. I stopped a ways back and started dialing 911. The phone rang about a dozen times when I noticed a police car waiting for the light to change coming the other direction. Right about then the officer saw the fire and turned on his lights, so I hung up.
More idiocy. At this point, the van has flames SHOOTING from it’s sides, and I’m sitting here about 50′ back from it with my hazard lights on. So some idiot decides he wants to turn left and pulls into the lane around me. Once I saw the cop was responding, I decided it was time to get me and my car out of there (Last thing I need is to be near an exploding VW Vanagon), so I pulled all the way into the right turn lane. Just as I’m getting to the right side of the road some guy comes running out of the Burker King with a fire extinguisher. At this point there’s no way a simple fire extinguisher is going to make a dent in this fire. The cop just tells him to go back, let the fire dept. deal with it. So I make a right turn, cut through the Capitola Mall parking lot back to 41st, turn left, then make a right onto Clares to get to Martin’s and just as I’m pulling up in front of their complex, he calls to see what’s taking me so long.
On the way over 17 to San Jose, we saw an Amtrak bus broken down on the southbound side of the freeway.
We got to the truck rental place in San Jose and they had the reservation down wrong. They had us down for a Sunday rental. The truck Martin had rented was going to be out for a few more hours, so we ended up taking a much bigger truck. One of those big 50′ jobs. It had a liftgate and Roberto was confident he could drive it ok, so we took it.
Got to the home where we were picking up the piano and got it moved onto the truck, even with Roberto trying to “help” us move it around. Pianos are heavy, did you know that? And we didn’t have proper dollies, and we had to get it down the step outside the door of the house, onto furniture moving dollies of differing size. But we got it into the truck and tied down.
Off we go over the hill and surprise, surprise, traffic is slow because of that broken down Amtrak bus.
Eventually we get to Martin’s condo and unload the piano and get it inside. Whew! Done.

Martin and I went and got some soul food at Mike’s, on Water and River streets. We stopped by the PetSmart, then went to Cost Plus just to look around. They had Moxie soda there. Never having tried Moxie, and Martin swearing it was vile, foul stuff, I bought one. Got outside, opened it, tasted it. Not bad actually. I don’t think I’d seek it out, but it was pretty good. Martin, however, was just making all kinds of faces as I drank it. He insisted it was vile. So he had to try it again, just to make sure he was remembering correctly. So I let him have a taste and he practically went into convulsions. I was standing there laughing my ass off as he was going nuts trying to open the bottle of soda he bought (Afri, for the record) so he could rinse the taste out. But it wasn’t a twist off and we didn’t have a bottle opener with us. It was hilarious! Meanwhile I’m calmly drinking this Moxie, and he’s being thoroughly disgusted by it.

Eventually we headed down to Monterey, just for the hell of it. Stopped and got some clam chowder on the Wharf in Montery (god I’m going to miss that when I move to Texas). Ran into some of our fellow gamers getting ready to do the Sat. night Monterey game. Unfortunatly the storyteller wouldn’t let us do walk-on characters. Walked around downtown Monterey for a bit, then headed home.

I got home about 11PM, sat in front of my computer for about 5 min, then hit the sack. I woke up at 4:30. I THOUGHT it was 4:30 AM, but there was too much light coming in my window. Looked outside, yup. It was 4:30 PM. I don’t usually sleep that much.
Got up, took a shower, when I got out of the shower, Martin was in the kitchen saying hello to Fluff. So we went off to his place to take apart his dad’s computer, which got displaced when the piano moved in. Then off to Lulu’s for coffee, Taqueria Viarta for some dinner, then some driving around aimlessly. Found a really pretty spot at the end of 41st Ave. overlooking the ocean. With a full moon, it would have been really romantic, if Martin wasn’t so fuzzy in the wrong places. I swear, one day when I have a wife or girlfriend, we will come back to that spot during another full moon. It was that good.

Now, off to mess with some more MoveableType.

This is a test entry

This is an extended test

I never went to bed after game on Friday night. I was going to be up early to help and his dad move a piano, so when I got hooked on working on something online Friday night, I reazlized I’d never get up in time if I went to bed. So I didn’t.

Then Sat I went off to Martin’s to help move the piano. Wierd day for traffic. As I was going down Fairmont and came to the stop sign right before the Highway 1 onramp, this idiot on a motorcycle decides it’s ok for him to pull out of the stop sign and turn at the same time as a car. After they go through, it’s my turn to go, but no, the truck right behind them decides since I didn’t go IMMEDIATLY, that it’s his turn again, forcing me to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting him. He just gave me a funny look when I honked at him.
Then when I got off 1 at 41st in Capitola, I noticed some smoke coming from a van ahead of me in the left turn lane to turn onto Clares. As I’m actually pulling into the lane I realize the smoke isn’t coming from the exhaust, the van is actually on fire. I stopped a ways back and started dialing 911. The phone rang about a dozen times when I noticed a police car waiting for the light to change coming the other direction. Right about then the officer saw the fire and turned on his lights, so I hung up.
More idiocy. At this point, the van has flames SHOOTING from it’s sides, and I’m sitting here about 50′ back from it with my hazard lights on. So some idiot decides he wants to turn left and pulls into the lane around me. Once I saw the cop was responding, I decided it was time to get me and my car out of there (Last thing I need is to be near an exploding VW Vanagon), so I pulled all the way into the right turn lane. Just as I’m getting to the right side of the road some guy comes running out of the Burker King with a fire extinguisher. At this point there’s no way a simple fire extinguisher is going to make a dent in this fire. The cop just tells him to go back, let the fire dept. deal with it. So I make a right turn, cut through the Capitola Mall parking lot back to 41st, turn left, then make a right onto Clares to get to Martin’s and just as I’m pulling up in front of their complex, he calls to see what’s taking me so long.
On the way over 17 to San Jose, we saw an Amtrak bus broken down on the southbound side of the freeway.
We got to the truck rental place in San Jose and they had the reservation down wrong. They had us down for a Sunday rental. The truck Martin had rented was going to be out for a few more hours, so we ended up taking a much bigger truck. One of those big 50′ jobs. It had a liftgate and Roberto was confident he could drive it ok, so we took it.
Got to the home where we were picking up the piano and got it moved onto the truck, even with Roberto trying to “help” us move it around. Pianos are heavy, did you know that? And we didn’t have proper dollies, and we had to get it down the step outside the door of the house, onto furniture moving dollies of differing size. But we got it into the truck and tied down.
Off we go over the hill and surprise, surprise, traffic is slow because of that broken down Amtrak bus.
Eventually we get to Martin’s condo and unload the piano and get it inside. Whew! Done.

Martin and I went and got some soul food at Mike’s, on Water and River streets. We stopped by the PetSmart, then went to Cost Plus just to look around. They had Moxie soda there. Never having tried Moxie, and Martin swearing it was vile, foul stuff, I bought one. Got outside, opened it, tasted it. Not bad actually. I don’t think I’d seek it out, but it was pretty good. Martin, however, was just making all kinds of faces as I drank it. He insisted it was vile. So he had to try it again, just to make sure he was remembering correctly. So I let him have a taste and he practically went into convulsions. I was standing there laughing my ass off as he was going nuts trying to open the bottle of soda he bought (Afri, for the record) so he could rinse the taste out. But it wasn’t a twist off and we didn’t have a bottle opener with us. It was hilarious! Meanwhile I’m calmly drinking this Moxie, and he’s being thoroughly disgusted by it.
Eventually we headed down to Monterey, just for the hell of it. Stopped and got some clam chowder on the Wharf in Montery (god I’m going to miss that when I move to Texas). Ran into some of our fellow gamers getting ready to do the Sat. night Monterey game. Unfortunatly the storyteller wouldn’t let us do walk-on characters. Walked around downtown Monterey for a bit, then headed home.

I got home about 11PM, sat in front of my computer for about 5 min, then hit the sack. I woke up at 4:30. I THOUGHT it was 4:30 AM, but there was too much light coming in my window. Looked outside, yup. It was 4:30 PM. I don’t usually sleep that much.
Got up, took a shower, when I got out of the shower, Martin was in the kitchen saying hello to Fluff. So we went off to his place to take apart his dad’s computer, which got displaced when the piano moved in. Then off to Lulu’s for coffee, Taqueria Viarta for some dinner, then some driving around aimlessly. Found a really pretty spot at the end of 41st Ave. overlooking the ocean. With a full moon, it would have been really romantic, if Martin wasn’t so fuzzy in the wrong places. I swear, one day when I have a wife or girlfriend, we will come back to that spot during another full moon. It was that good.

Now, off to mess with some more MoveableType.

So, which ones have you seen?
I’ve marked the ones I’ve seen.

Rank Title
1 Godfather, The (1972) 9.0/10 (73578 votes)
2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) 8.9/10 (93332 votes)
3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) 8.8/10 (41660 votes)
• 4 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) 8.7/10 (95230 votes)

5 Schindler’s List (1993) 8.7/10 (65156 votes)

• 6 Casablanca (1942) 8.7/10 (43746 votes)

7 Citizen Kane (1941) 8.7/10 (41211 votes)
8 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 8.7/10 (17489 votes)

• 9 Star Wars (1977) 8.7/10 (95079 votes)
• 10 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 8.6/10 (41463 votes)
• 11 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) 8.6/10 (45542 votes)
• 12 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) 8.6/10 (46314 votes)

13 Memento (2000) 8.6/10 (52998 votes)

• 14 Rear Window (1954) 8.6/10 (26581 votes)
• 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 8.6/10 (73164 votes)
• 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 8.6/10 (62862 votes)

17 Usual Suspects, The (1995) 8.6/10 (69750 votes)

• 18 Pulp Fiction (1994) 8.5/10 (83637 votes)

19 Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) 8.5/10 (32398 votes)
20 North by Northwest (1959) 8.5/10 (23773 votes)
21 Psycho (1960) 8.5/10 (36299 votes)
22 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 8.5/10 (20380 votes)
23 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) 8.5/10 (62565 votes)
24 12 Angry Men (1957) 8.5/10 (17782 votes)
25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 8.5/10 (15325 votes)

• 26 It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 8.5/10 (27959 votes)

27 Goodfellas (1990) 8.4/10 (42745 votes)
28 American Beauty (1999) 8.4/10 (74411 votes)
29 Pianist, The (2002) 8.4/10 (9162 votes)
30 Vertigo (1958) 8.4/10 (22775 votes)
31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 8.4/10 (9583 votes)
32 Apocalypse Now (1979) 8.4/10 (41692 votes)

• 33 Matrix, The (1999) 8.4/10 (93022 votes)
• 34 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 8.4/10 (19194 votes)

35 Some Like It Hot (1959) 8.4/10 (15987 votes)
36 Taxi Driver (1976) 8.3/10 (30215 votes)
37 Third Man, The (1949) 8.3/10 (11959 votes)
38 Paths of Glory (1957) 8.3/10 (8779 votes)
39 Fight Club (1999) 8.3/10 (66102 votes)

• 40 Boot, Das (1981) 8.3/10 (18764 votes)
• 41 L.A. Confidential (1997) 8.3/10 (48076 votes)

42 Double Indemnity (1944) 8.3/10 (7451 votes)
43 Chinatown (1974) 8.3/10 (16592 votes)
44 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 8.3/10 (23923 votes)
45 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) 8.3/10 (13453 votes)
46 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) 8.3/10 (7471 votes)
47 Singin’ in the Rain (1952) 8.3/10 (13483 votes)

• 48 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) 8.3/10 (14964 votes)

49 All About Eve (1950) 8.3/10 (8475 votes)
50 M (1931) 8.3/10 (7330 votes)
51 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 8.3/10 (67704 votes)
52 C’era una volta il West (1968) 8.2/10 (7498 votes)
53 Raging Bull (1980) 8.2/10 (16741 votes)

• 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) 8.2/10 (39413 votes)

55 Se7en (1995) 8.2/10 (55489 votes)
56 Wo hu cang long (2000) 8.2/10 (36572 votes)

• 57 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) 8.2/10 (25801 votes)
• 58 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 8.2/10 (45607 votes)

59 Vita è bella, La (1997) 8.2/10 (26051 votes)
60 American History X (1998) 8.2/10 (34279 votes)

• 61 Sting, The (1973) 8.2/10 (15815 votes)

62 Touch of Evil (1958) 8.2/10 (7872 votes)
63 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 8.2/10 (8760 votes)

• 64 Alien (1979) 8.2/10 (41094 votes)

65 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 8.2/10 (7588 votes)
66 Rashômon (1950) 8.2/10 (7024 votes)
67 Léon (1994) 8.2/10 (31563 votes)
68 Annie Hall (1977) 8.2/10 (13747 votes)
69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 8.2/10 (6828 votes)
70 Great Escape, The (1963) 8.2/10 (12369 votes)

• 71 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) 8.2/10 (42743 votes)

72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) 8.1/10 (41832 votes)
73 Jaws (1975) 8.1/10 (31024 votes)
74 Sixth Sense, The (1999) 8.1/10 (63317 votes)

• 75 Amadeus (1984) 8.1/10 (25177 votes)

76 Ran (1985) 8.1/10 (7399 votes)
77 On the Waterfront (1954) 8.1/10 (7778 votes)
78 High Noon (1952) 8.1/10 (7971 votes)

• 79 Braveheart (1995) 8.1/10 (62302 votes)
• 80 Blade Runner (1982) 8.1/10 (53326 votes)
• 81 Fargo (1996) 8.1/10 (45152 votes)

82 Apartment, The (1960) 8.1/10 (7065 votes)
83 Aliens (1986) 8.1/10 (43816 votes)
84 Toy Story 2 (1999) 8.1/10 (25763 votes)
85 Shining, The (1980) 8.1/10 (31854 votes)
86 Strangers on a Train (1951) 8.1/10 (6507 votes)
87 Modern Times (1936) 8.1/10 (6137 votes)
88 Donnie Darko (2001) 8.1/10 (16794 votes)
89 Duck Soup (1933) 8.1/10 (6564 votes)

• 90 Princess Bride, The (1987) 8.1/10 (37620 votes)

91 Lola rennt (1998) 8.1/10 (20707 votes)
92 City Lights (1931) 8.0/10 (4886 votes)
93 Metropolis (1927) 8.0/10 (7228 votes)
94 General, The (1927) 8.0/10 (4346 votes)
95 Searchers, The (1956) 8.0/10 (6556 votes)
96 Notorious (1946) 8.0/10 (6503 votes)
97 Full Metal Jacket (1987) 8.0/10 (30220 votes)
98 Manhattan (1979) 8.0/10 (8227 votes)

• 99 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 8.0/10 (13330 votes)

100 Graduate, The (1967) 8.0/10 (18278 votes)

Top 101 - 250
Rank Title
101 Big Sleep, The (1946) 8.0/10 (6548 votes)
102 Rebecca (1940) 8.0/10 (7176 votes)
103 Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) 8.0/10 (5543 votes)
104 Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946) 8.0/10 (3994 votes)
105 Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988) 8.0/10 (9347 votes)
106 Deer Hunter, The (1978) 8.0/10 (17928 votes)
107 Glory (1989) 8.0/10 (15035 votes)
108 Great Dictator, The (1940) 8.0/10 (5815 votes)
109 Ladri di biciclette (1948) 8.0/10 (4618 votes)
110 Cidade de Deus (2002) 8.0/10 (3772 votes)
111 Patton (1970) 8.0/10 (9254 votes)

• 112 African Queen, The (1951) 8.0/10 (9710 votes)
• 113 Shrek (2001) 8.0/10 (36272 votes)

114 Green Mile, The (1999) 8.0/10 (35694 votes)
115 Ben-Hur (1959) 8.0/10 (13976 votes)
116 Philadelphia Story, The (1940) 8.0/10 (6972 votes)

• 117 Mononoke-hime (1997) 8.0/10 (10943 votes)

118 It Happened One Night (1934) 8.0/10 (4929 votes)
119 Bringing Up Baby (1938) 8.0/10 (5852 votes)
120 Cool Hand Luke (1967) 8.0/10 (9244 votes)
121 Straight Story, The (1999) 8.0/10 (8817 votes)

• 122 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 7.9/10 (50370 votes)
• 123 Grapes of Wrath, The (1940) 7.9/10 (5034 votes)

124 Forrest Gump (1994) 7.9/10 (58177 votes)
125 Yojimbo (1961) 7.9/10 (4939 votes)

• 126 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) 7.9/10 (56780 votes)

127 Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) 7.9/10 (7482 votes)
128 Unforgiven (1992) 7.9/10 (19844 votes)
129 Wild Bunch, The (1969) 7.9/10 (7167 votes)
130 Hable con ella (2002) 7.9/10 (5274 votes)
131 Young Frankenstein (1974) 7.9/10 (14476 votes)
132 Gone with the Wind (1939) 7.9/10 (19529 votes)

• 133 Christmas Story, A (1983) 7.9/10 (12786 votes)

134 Stalag 17 (1953) 7.9/10 (4351 votes)
135 Night of the Hunter, The (1955) 7.9/10 (4608 votes)
136 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 7.9/10 (4232 votes)
137 Almost Famous (2000) 7.9/10 (24006 votes)
138 Hustler, The (1961) 7.9/10 (5278 votes)

• 139 Monsters, Inc. (2001) 7.9/10 (21170 votes)

140 Elephant Man, The (1980) 7.9/10 (10221 votes)
141 Conversation, The (1974) 7.9/10 (6344 votes)
142 Festen (1998) 7.9/10 (7965 votes)
143 Once Upon a Time in America (1984) 7.9/10 (10102 votes)
144 Platoon (1986) 7.9/10 (22223 votes)
145 Being John Malkovich (1999) 7.9/10 (34711 votes)
146 Mulholland Dr. (2001) 7.9/10 (18564 votes)
147 Insider, The (1999) 7.9/10 (18534 votes)

• 148 Die Hard (1988) 7.9/10 (39650 votes)

149 His Girl Friday (1940) 7.9/10 (4182 votes)

• 150 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) 7.9/10 (40539 votes)

151 Grande illusion, La (1937) 7.9/10 (3258 votes)
152 Spartacus (1960) 7.9/10 (10849 votes)

• 153 Back to the Future (1985) 7.9/10 (45499 votes)
• 154 Gladiator (2000) 7.9/10 (60580 votes)

155 Magnolia (1999) 7.9/10 (28386 votes)
156 Sling Blade (1996) 7.9/10 (14491 votes)
157 Gold Rush, The (1925) 7.9/10 (3916 votes)
158 Charade (1963) 7.8/10 (5466 votes)

• 159 Toy Story (1995) 7.8/10 (31077 votes)

160 Brazil (1985) 7.8/10 (21062 votes)
161 Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925) 7.8/10 (3493 votes)
162 Life of Brian (1979) 7.8/10 (21599 votes)
163 Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938) 7.8/10 (4323 votes)
164 Amores perros (2000) 7.8/10 (7064 votes)
165 Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951) 7.8/10 (6005 votes)
166 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962) 7.8/10 (4470 votes)
167 Exorcist, The (1973) 7.8/10 (21130 votes)

• 168 Minority Report (2002) 7.8/10 (28015 votes)

169 Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 7.8/10 (3148 votes)
170 All the President’s Men (1976) 7.8/10 (8496 votes)
171 Night at the Opera, A (1935) 7.8/10 (3862 votes)
172 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) 7.8/10 (4684 votes)

• 173 Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951) 7.8/10 (6568 votes)

174 Others, The (2001) 7.8/10 (21159 votes)
175 Roman Holiday (1953) 7.8/10 (5819 votes)
176 Killing, The (1956) 7.8/10 (4042 votes)

• 177 Right Stuff, The (1983) 7.8/10 (9060 votes)

178 Dog Day Afternoon (1975) 7.8/10 (8860 votes)

• 179 Stand by Me (1986) 7.8/10 (20417 votes)
• 180 Twelve Monkeys (1995) 7.8/10 (42390 votes)

181 Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994) 7.8/10 (6977 votes)
182 Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 7.8/10 (3298 votes)
183 Smultronstället (1957) 7.8/10 (2838 votes)
184 Midnight Cowboy (1969) 7.8/10 (8460 votes)
185 Traffic (2000) 7.8/10 (28019 votes)
186 Ed Wood (1994) 7.8/10 (13213 votes)

• 187 Terminator, The (1984) 7.8/10 (38215 votes)

188 To Be or Not to Be (1942) 7.8/10 (2120 votes)
189 Harvey (1950) 7.8/10 (5052 votes)
190 Quatre cents coups, Les (1959) 7.8/10 (3765 votes)

• 191 This Is Spinal Tap (1984) 7.8/10 (12525 votes)

192 Trainspotting (1996) 7.8/10 (34484 votes)

• 193 Gandhi (1982) 7.8/10 (10414 votes)
• 194 Finding Nemo (2003) 7.8/10 (3121 votes)
• 195 Lion in Winter, The (1968) 7.8/10 (3719 votes)

196 Bonnie and Clyde (1967) 7.8/10 (7957 votes)
197 Network (1976) 7.8/10 (5982 votes)

• 198 Rain Man (1988) 7.8/10 (28817 votes)

199 Miller’s Crossing (1990) 7.8/10 (8480 votes)
200 Todo sobre mi madre (1999) 7.8/10 (8378 votes)
201 Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) 7.8/10 (4843 votes)
202 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) 7.8/10 (20402 votes)
203 Henry V (1989) 7.7/10 (6209 votes)
204 Snatch. (2000) 7.7/10 (24861 votes)
205 Stagecoach (1939) 7.7/10 (3567 votes)

• 206 Groundhog Day (1993) 7.7/10 (28056 votes)

207 39 Steps, The (1935) 7.7/10 (4812 votes)
208 Laura (1944) 7.7/10 (3039 votes)
209 8 1/2 (1963) 7.7/10 (4881 votes)

• 210 King Kong (1933) 7.7/10 (6358 votes)

211 Strada, La (1954) 7.7/10 (2977 votes)
212 Beautiful Mind, A (2001) 7.7/10 (25132 votes)
213 Untouchables, The (1987) 7.7/10 (19994 votes)
214 Die xue shuang xiong (1989) 7.7/10 (5832 votes)
215 Road to Perdition (2002) 7.7/10 (16160 votes)

• 217 MASH (1970) 7.7/10 (10593 votes)

218 Rio Bravo (1959) 7.7/10 (4593 votes)

• 219 Good Will Hunting (1997) 7.7/10 (42442 votes)

220 Being There (1979) 7.7/10 (6951 vote