Can You Believe It? It's Been A Year!

About one year ago, I was browsing the IMDb homepage when I saw the daily poll about some guy known as Fletch from Blog Cabins who wrote an article on why old movies were basically overrated (at least according to him). So I checked out the article, then browsed the rest of the blog, as well. You see, I wasn't a big blog reader or anything (in fact, I never really did it at all). But I just wanted to check out what else this movie lover thought.

Then I found his weekly posts on what was then the current season of Survivor. They were absolutely hilarious and spot-on. Now, I don't know what went through my mind at that point, but something whispered in my ear (perhaps the voices... who knows) that I could start my very own movie blog! I knew nothing of blogging and never read blogs (outside MySpace)... but it seemed to be a fun idea.

On December 2, 2007, Boomstick Reviews was born. It was very basic, and my first post was a Top 10 that I had written before and posted on my MySpace. Five days later, I posted my very first movie review on Boomstick Reviews: The Golden Compass. From there, I began posting different movie reviews and articles and Top 10 lists, etc.


On December 9, 2007, Fletch inducted the blog into the Large Association of Movie Blogs (also known as the LAMB). I was just member number 17 back then, and now the LAMB has over 200 members. I'm glad to say I got in on the ground level and have been able to help out with it as much as I have.





Then, on January 15, 2008, I was really bored and made a post entitled "Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob" (also known as R2D2... no relation), because I had a bunch of different things I wanted to talk about that wouldn't fit under a specific topic. I, along with Fletch over at that 'Blog Cabins' place, mentioned how we really loved that title. In fact, I liked it so much, I began pondering with the idea of changing Boomstick Reviews to this better-sounding title.

So on February 1, 2008, I figured I'd give the place a bit of a makeover. With some counsel from Fletch, I changed up the ratings system, the title, the color scheme, and basically everything else. The ratings system put in place was similar to the one used over at Blog Cabins, with pictures and movie quotes to symbolize the particular rating.

The next big event to occur was on my birthday, February 20, 2008, when R2D2 hit the IMDb Hit List with my quite popular yet controversial article "10 Years, 10 Great Screenplays" (mostly controversial because I can't count, and it was actually 11 Years/Screenplays... and also because I hadn't actually seen all of one of the films I chose). Regardless, this event shot up my readership from basically nothing to around 14-20 (after the IMDb linkage went away, that is).

Over the next few months, I would introduce different article/review styles, some of which stuck, some of which didn't. The more popular of which included Little Known Movies You Need To See (LKMYNTS), DVDs Or Death!, Thoughts On..., Short Review, A Week Of... Blog-A-Thons, 2 In 1 reviews, and Pre-Emptive Strike Thursdays (AKA P.E.S.T.).

But on June 12, 2008, my readers decided that they wouldn't mind if I included book reviews on the blog, as well. Also, around that same time, I joined Unheralded Reviews, as well, posting what was essentially the reviews I posted here over there. But anyway, on June 19, 2008, I posted my first book review, a review of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I continued posting book reviews every now and then, and I also added in a special article type about Page-To-Film adaptation reviews. The Twilight book reviews brought up my readership a little bit more.

Then, unfortunately for my enraptured readers, I began student teaching in August, which took away a lot of time for movie watching and reviewing. But to keep everybody updated as to how things were going with me, I began posting The Student Teacher Chronicles. The months continued tiringly, but I kept at it as best I could. And now, finally, it is once again December 2, but now a year later. My student teaching ends tomorrow, as well, so you will be getting the final Student Teacher Chronicles then.

So now this blog (for all intents and purposes, as everything from Boomstick Reviews is still here) is one year old! Over the past year, I have reviewed and scored numerous films (130, I believe). 99 of them have been given above-average scores, 13 have been given average scores, 15 have been given below-average scores, and 3 couldn't be given scores due to particular peculiarities (Those three being Sunshine, George Washington, and North). Needless to say, I apparently enjoy more movies than I dislike (either that, or I just watch films that I'm nearly positive I'll enjoy).

In conclusion, I would like to thank all of my readers who have stuck around this long or who are brand new and are just beginning to get use to the randomness. And I want to specifically thank Fletch over at Blog Cabins for helping me out so much in the beginning stages of my blogging adventure, for getting me into the LAMB and letting me do everything I have for the LAMB, and for just being a friend.

And now that the sappiness is overwith, let's eat some cake!... What? There's no cake? What the hell kind of party is this? Oh well. Anywho, happy one-year to the blog and a big thanks to everybody who constantly keeps up my readership count to around 30. Now let's try to at least double that for this next year!

(By the way, you might notice a couple new things on the sidebar... primarily, scroll-boxes that include all of the reviews I've done for both books and films in alphabetical order... they were a pain to put together, so you better enjoy them!).

R2D2... The One With More Blog News.

Alright... it's time for more random blog news!

-I decided to just go ahead and end the poll, because it's only had 3 people vote on it (one of which was me) since I put it up. The scores show that people like my R2D2 (much like this one) and DVDs Or Death! posts the most, each with 3 votes. All tied at second place with one vote each were Thoughts On..., LKMYNTS, Regular Reviews, and P.E.S.T. (which I missed this Thursday, sorry). Thanks to the two of you that voted.

-I would like to give another shout-out to the LAMB. I know there's a few new viewers to my blog, and I know at least one of you isn't a LAMB member yet, but you do have a movie blog. I really recommend joining up! It's pretty cool and fun being a LAMB member.

-I also wanted to give a shout out for fellow-LAMB Piper over at Lazy Eye Theater, who is about to start his Bizarro Blog-A-Thon on Monday. It should be fun.

-I've already gotten some good feedback for my first book review posted, so thanks guys and gals for the support!

-Speaking of books, now that I've decided to do book reviews here, I turned my The Missing Page blog from a book review blog into a blog about my own personal writing. If that interests you, you can check it out there. Also, I've added links on my sidebar to the left here that will take you to specific pages on that blog that will either give more information on specific novels, or will give a sample chapter for a specific novel. If anybody wanted to check any of that out, that's cool.

-I am now officially (and have been for a few days) a contributing member of Unheralded reviews. Though there's nothing over there of mine that you wouldn't find here, they also have plenty of other movies that they've reviewed with either different opinions than mine or movies that I have yet to cover. Check us out!

I think that's about it for now. Sorry I missed this week for P.E.S.T. but I had a huge teaching certification test this morning (Content English 8-12), and my mind has been elsewhere this week. So thanks to everybody who reads!

R2D2... The One With Site News.

Alright, so I have just a few random tidbits of news and such to give:

-Voting is officially over for the poll. The results? People want book reviews. So I'll give them book reviews! But how about this? I'll try to connect them to movies somehow. That'll make it interesting, huh?

-There's a new poll up now! Now that we have new types of reviews, I'd like to take an introspective look on the site as is. I have quite a few types of articles and review methods for this blog. Which ones are your favorite? Or do you not even care? Feel free to leave me comments of explanation if you feel the need! I do like comments! I won't bite, I swear! And it's up for multiple choices, in case you can't decide. Or if you have a clear-cut winner, feel free just to choose one.

-After this weekend, whenever it gets all set up, I'll also officially be a contributing member to the review site, Unheralded. But don't fret! All of my reviews there will still continue to be put here, as well. And some of them might even have minor differences, as my 2 In 1 themed reviews sometimes correlate with and expand on each other. And, generally, my Thoughts On segments aren't the typical format for Unheralded, so those will be specialized for here, as well.

-Speaking of other blogs, everybody should go check out the LAMB! I've been a member for quite a few months now (I was member number 17. We now have over 100 members). It's a super secret society (or not) of movie bloggers of varying degrees. We're a really friendly bunch (or are we?). So if you have a movie blog, and aren't already a member, head on over to the LAMB and join up! And if you don't have a movie blog, there's a bunch of good movie blogs there to choose from. Just don't leave me for them... please?

So I think that's about it! Thanks to all of my regular readers (and don't be shy! I love them comments!). So... yeah!