Thing 73 - Complete!

73. Complete 1 experiment in Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel

Date Completed: 5 August 2012

My sister gave me a copy of The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel a few years ago and I decided to finally try a couple of the experiments yesterday, though in modified form.

I started with Chance Travel, which is described thusly: "Insert the name of your home town into the index of a world atlas (if it's not there already). Throw the dice, then count that number of lines down from the name of your town. The line your finger lands on is your destination."

First off, I didn't go for the world atlas, but rather opted for the List of unincorporated communities in Virginia as shown on Wikipedia. I chose this because (1) I didn't have time to go gallivanting all over the globe and (2) my hometown is an unincorporated community so it meant it was already in the list to start with. My first roll of the dice brought me to Criglersville, which turned out to be barely a bend in the road, as it were.


Caution: booming metropolis ahead.

I also attempted Confluence Seeking, wherein I traveled to 39 degrees north by 78 degrees west and that ended up in the middle of a corn field next to a golf course. I couldn't stop because there was a pick-up truck attempting to insert its front bumper into my trunk and no shoulder to pull over onto.


Not exactly the Center of All Things

But you know what? I also toured Washington, Madison, and Louisa, and found them to be cute little Virginia towns. And I found a few snarfs and quelled my wanderlust for a little while longer, so I believe I managed to travel at least in the spirit in which the book intended.

Thing 101: Demon City Shinjuku and Evil Dead II

101. Watch the DVDs I own but have not seen.

Current Progress: 25/43

Demon City Shinjuku: The title screen and DVD case says this movie is called Demon City Shinjuku, while the dialogue refers only to Monster City, and IMdb calls it Hell City. Then again, IMdb also says that the characters called Rebby Rah and Master Rai in the dialogue are actually Levih Rah and Master Lai. Anyway, I suppose none of that's important. Shinjuku was leveled ten years ago by demons, leaving the rest of Tokyo untouched. Kyoya and Sayaka go there to defeat Levih Rah because reasons, and have to face a bunch of disturbing monsters along the way. As with most anime from this era, I spent most of the time thinking, "What am I watching?"

Evil Dead II: I know I was lacking serious geek cred having never seen this (though I have seen both the original Evil Dead and Army of Darkness multiple times). And it certainly is better than its predecessor, though the entire trilogy is unceasingly silly. Bruce Campbell certainly lives up to the "camp" in his name. Good times.