It’s easy if you want to join the fun.  If you have a way to stream Netflix, simply add these movies to your cue.  At the selected time, start them up and watch them with the rest of us. I’ll be on Twitter (@The_Dean) adding commentary and seeing what you have to say (use #DUFF to join the conversation). Join for some or all of the films.

Here is the list of films and their start times:
**UPDATE** Pushing the Friday films back a half hour so more people can attend.
Friday:
5:00 5:30pm -  Like Killing Flies
6:30 7:00pm -  Cashback
8:15 8:45ish –  **Choose your own adventure here, I have plans**
10:30 11pm – Buy a Ticket, Take the Ride

Saturday:
Noon – In the Realms of the Unreal
2:00pm – Alice
6:30pm – Primer
8:15pm – Duck Season
10:00pm – Beer Wars
11:40pm – Lo

Update: Times changed to accommodate the US Hockey gold medal game.
Sunday:
Noon - Into the Great Silence King of Corn
3:30pm – King Corn
6:00pm – The Puffy Chair
7:45pm – Big Fan

Those were my thoughts last night when I noticed a film I wanted to see – Beer Wars – was available on Netflix streaming service.  While chatting with a friend who is attending the True/False film festival this weekend, I decided that since I was unemployed I would have my own film festival from the comfort of my couch.  I could get a two-week free membership from Netflix and stream some films I wanted to see. Thus the Dean Underground Film Festival was born.

It wasn’t until today I recognized I didn’t need to be the only participant.

While asking for suggestions, I realized I know a bunch of people who can stream Netflix movies who might enjoy what I’m watching.  While not all of them might want to come hang out, I’m sure some wouldn’t mind watching simultaneously from their couch.  We could discuss the films in real-time online on twitter or another medium (depending how many people plan to participate). This could be fun.

So if you are free this weekend, join me for the 1st annual DUFF (I do promise if there is a 2nd annual I will consider a less self-promoting name).  Listed below are a couple movies I’ve chosen so far.  Let me know any you would like to watch and when works best for you.  I plan to start Thursday night and go through the weekend – watching about 4-5 during the weekend.  I’ll draw up a soft schedule once I see who is interested in what (should be available here Friday morning).  I plan to livetweet the movies (The_Dean) with the hash tag #DUFF.

If you don’t have Netflix, you can acquire a free two-week membership from their site and attend DUFF at no cost on your computer or gaming system.  Details about how to watch movies on your Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 are on the Netflix website.  So join me if you like.

If not, well at least I still get to watch a lot of cool movies.

“In” movies

Big Fan
Beer Wars
Lo
Primer

Possible flicks (most likely in):

Duck Season
Into Great Silence
Rashomon
The Girlfriend Experience
In Realms of Unreal
I Like Killing Flies
King of Corn
The puffy chair
Alice

I am off to a good start so far.  It’s the midway point of January, and I have already completed three books.  My goal is to read 24 – or two per month.  I plan to post every book I read on the list below.

If you would like to read one book at the same time as me and discuss (like an actual book club), let me know.  I’ll try and post the next couple of books I plan to read as well.

1. Here is New York – E.B. White
2. Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion – Gary Vaynerchuk
3. When You Are Engulfed in Flames – David Sedaris
4. (Starting Next) Spook Country – William Gibson

Rather than focus on one of these challenges, I figured why not combine a bit of them all?  Therein lies my challenge for the new year.

Each day I will engage in at least one creative act – either in design, writing or photography.  I hope to do the Project365 most days at bare minimum.  Some months will have themes, while others (like January) will be more random.  Now that I have additional time on my hands, the early months should be easy running.

I will occasionally post some aspects of the Year of Creativity (YoC) on this page, although if you want to follow my progress, here are some better resources to do so.

Flickr photostream for my Project365 images

My twitter account

My Facebook fan page

Planning any creative projects for the New Year?  Post them in the comments below.

By late afternoon I was part of the statistic.

Working in new media I assumed my job was safer than most.  With the changing nomenclature of the industry, journalists with a technological background are in high demand.  When the company decided to eliminate the entire multimedia team yesterday, I was a bit stunned.  Still, I worked for one of the few remaining newspapers that treats technology and the web as a  nuisance rather than embracing the potential.

That is why today I begin my life as an unemployed journalist.  

Still, I am not worried about my fate.  I plan to work on some multimedia projects I had little time for in the past.  I also plan to freelance and get my side business started.   Look for lots of changes in the coming weeks.

I decided last week that 2010 would be “The year of The Dean.”  I am even more passionate about that goal now then I was then.  This has the potential to be the start of something big.

Within the first two weeks, the puppy had stumbled upon some lose within reach.  I came in to see him swallow the shiny objects from off the end table.  When I informed my parents, they informed me I would need to make sure the change came back out from my dog.

To say this would be a shitty chore would be both an understatement and a really bad pun.

Over the next few days, I found myself perusing the bowl movements of my dog, trying to find any silver or copper in the pile of feces that he produced.  Eventually all the coins were accounted for, and eventually my puppy ran away.

So how does the story of a boy and his dog tie-in with Novel writing month?  While talking to a number of people that planed to join me in this endeavor, I heard the same phrase used numerous times.

“I can shit out a novel in a month.”

The phrase kept reappearing from various people.  All I could imagine was the doggy turds of my youth.  Would I shit out a novel in Nov?  If so, a month later when I went to edit would I have to search and search through piles of shit for one little piece of silver?

As NaNoWriMo approached I began to have second thoughts.  When I completed the competition a few years back, I had already written the novel completely in my mind.  I knew every aspect of it, all the characters by name, and every sequence that would take place.  Coming into NaNoWriMo the past few years, there was only a general idea.  The same was true this year.

November arrived, and while I still had some hesitation and not nearly enough background for my own good, I decided to give it a start.  Within minutes I had fallen in love with the characters and knew there was no way I would let my novel become crap.  I am as excited to see where the story is going as anyone who may someday accidentally read it.

I’m sure the others that made the comments felt the same way about their novels – it was just a phrase.  To me NaNoWriMo is about scheduling the time to actually work on something – even if it does not get completed.  With all the other responsibilities we all have, sometimes just making the time to concentrate on something you enjoy is all that is needed.

That being said, I plan to write and complete one hellula novel this month.  No shit.

Word count entering Wednesday, Nov. 4 – 1,022.  A long way to go.

GeekKon

While the event was growing up, those attending were getting younger.

I last attended GeekKon its first year.  Maybe it was because it was held on campus, but a large section of the crowd was at least college age.  This year the demographic skewed younger.  When I entered the hotel, most of the faces that greeted me looked barely old enough to drive a car.  Parents hung out and occasionally joined their children in costume.

I chatted with a mother whose 15-year old daughter was dressed as an anime character.  The mother held the camera, snapping pictures of other exquisite costume parading through the lobby.  I asked her what she thought of her daughter’s fascination with Japanese cartoons and video games.

“There are a lot worse things she could be into,” she responded.  “I’d rather have her spend her time and money making a costume than getting into trouble.”

It is hard to argue with logic.

Some other random thoughts from GeekKon:

• Costumes were INCREDIBLE, and there were plenty of them.  Team Fortress 2 characters were popular, as were anime and classic video game avatars. Some pictures are below, and I missed many of the better ones.

• Panels were entertaining and informative.  From practical sessions explaining how to get your work published to ‘scientific’ debate on how time travel would work if it were possible, the hosts were entertaining and informative.

• I had an opportunity to see two youngsters playing Borderlands in the video game room.  After watching roughly 30 seconds of the game, I realized it must be mine.  Anyone else with a 360 should join me.  It looks like HD version of Golden Eye with collaborative play – what’s not to love?

• To those attending next year – if you feel tired, please take your nap someplace other than in a speaker session.  On two separate occasions, the snoring of someone in the audience was enough to interrupt the speakers.  In one the panel got their revenge, snapping pictures and video of the offender.

While in college I quickly realized the cost of games when they are first released, as my parents no longer subsidized my obsession.  Sure, I enjoyed being the first person to beat Streets of Rage, but I learned that if I waited six months, the price would drop in half.  Being a poor college kid, that was like an extra two months of ramen noodles and a case of Schlitz.

Today I still love video games, and still hate paying release-day prices for them.  A new release for my Xbox 360 costs roughly $60, with pc games running marginally less.  Still, if I wait six months to a year, the same game can be found for $20 on Xbox and occasionally under $10 for PC.  So what’s the rush?

I write this article as a precursor to my impending video game reviews on this site.  As you see titles from 2-3 years ago pop up and start to think, “does he mean the sequel to that game,” you now know why.  These delayed reviews are also due partially to that little thing called graduate school I attended for two years (unlike my early undergrad years, I realize more time spent on video games than studying is NOT a good idea).

The benefit for you is these games are now dirt cheap – probably less than a case of the new Schlitz.  Also, for those unlike me who beat these games eons ago, it is a chance to go down a digital memory lane.  Remember how you defeated that boss in Final Fantasy 12.  Ah yes, it was good.  In the reviews of these games, I will also post how much I paid for the game, if it was worth it, and if it is worth the price when it first came out.

I know there are other cheap bastards out there like me.

The Taste of Home cooking school arrived in Beloit on Tuesday for a show, and I had the opportunity to play photographer for a day. It didn’t take me long to realize it has been years since I handled a digital (or even regular) SLR camera. I decided to use the strategy ‘if you can’t shoot good photos, shoot lots of photos.’ I was actually quite pleased with how most of the images turned out, and received my first print photo credit in BDN yesterday.

Here is a Soundslide gallery of the better shots.

Don’t forget to check out the corresponding BDN article.

Summerfest organizers want your thoughts on their annual festival, and they are willing to provide you with a free pair of tickets in 2010 in exchange.  Simply fill out the survey on their site and you can check out the state’s biggest festival next summer.