Nodegel Weekly #2
Two Sides to Every Schwartz
Week of Mar 5 - Mar 11

The rules to the St Patrick's Jedi Mind-Whammy drinking game are these: Set everyone up with a pint of Guinness, a glass of Irish cream, and a shot of whiskey. Pile onto the couch. Watch the Star Wars trilogy (the good version, preferably). Whenever someone says the word "Force", take a drink of the stout. Whenever someone uses the light side of the Force: swig the Bailey's. The dark side? Whiskey. Whenever something on-screen explodes in spectacular fashion-- which, in Star Wars, happensh rather more often than you might exspect-- assemble all three into a Thermal Detonator and drink.

I tell you all this both to establish nerd cred and to explain why I am posting this today, instead of Saturday as I'd intended. Also, to run home the implied message that I routinely make poor life choices.

In other words: It's Nodegel Weekly time, n0dzors. There were 75 nodes added to the 'gel last week-- which considering the lateness of this roundup is now *last* last week. (March 5 - 11; bear with me.)

Here are the best ones, as decided by the hive mind:

The Happy Folk
Top 5 writeups from last week (Mar 5-11, 2012)
by noders above 1000 XP
  1. Everything2 Decaversary Interviews: Walter (person) by Decaversal Studios +44 9C!s
  2. March 9, 2012 (log) by borgo +29 2C!s
  3. The Impossible Project (thing) by decoy hunches +28 1C!
  4. Tangram refrigerator magnets (thing) by tanktop +27 1C!
  5. (tied) Delphinoidea (thing) by Tem42 +25 3C!s
  6. (tied) Lemon green beans (recipe) by NanceMuse +25 3C!s

The Decaversary Interviews are a neat tradition that I'm glad is continuing. (I have been putting off writing one myself, mostly because I imagine I'd have a hard time being anywhere as incisive and insightful as Jeff is here. I'll get to it sometime, though.)

And since this month's quest is March of the Critics, perhaps you'd like to go back (as I did) and re-read some of his killer film reviews from the 2001-2004 era.

Walter reviews generally come in two styles: 1.) a brief, pith-packed overview about a film's construction, casting, themes, and tone-- using a film as a lens to discuss film-making-- or 2.) a giant, nerdtacular scene-by-scene synoposis, reliving and relating the direct experience of watching a big, nerdtacular blockbuster.

When they were first posted, I remember enjoying the latter kind of review the most. As I look back and read some, though, I now enjoy the first type better. Here are a few nice ones: Sin City (at +99 and 15C!s), The Machinist (+54), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (+48), Batman (+113), and Donnie Darko (sitting at a rather unbelievable +276; I've gotta imagine that it's among the gel's highest-rated film reviews.)

The Strange Folk
Top 5 w/us by noders under 1000 XP (Mar 5-11, 2012)
  1. The Arte of Reason, rightly termed Witcraft (thing) by Mathlete +31 6C!s
  2. Counter-clock World (review) by QuantumBeep +15
  3. March 10, 2012 (log) by Browncoat +12 1C!
  4. cutie (fiction) by Mouq +9
  5. Psalm 23 (thing) by RossBondReturns +7
Witcraft is an enjoyable w/u and applause to Mathlete for it, but-- sliding into the Simon Cowell chair for a second-- I'll say that 6C!s seems a bit overkill. Mouq's cutie, on the other hand, is my favorite of that list and under-appreciated at +9. It's a nifty little bit of fiction; I'd love to see it turned into a series. And since, as mentioned, this month's quest is March of the Critics, here's a special sidebar on the week's best reviews.
March of the Critics 2012
Top 5 review w/us from last week (Mar 5-11, 2012)
  1. Kick-Ass (review) by Uberbanana +17 1C!
  2. Night Watch (thing) by Morgon77 +17 1C!
  3. The Fires of Pompeii (review) by Glowing Fish +17
  4. Kafka's Soup (review) by decoy hunches +16
  5. Counter-clock World (review) by QuantumBeep +15

Shout-outs also to BranRainey's review of Harry Potter (the entire film series) and to Croakery for Vowels as Clear as Church Bells, which is an inventive review of the indie band Haiku Salut in poem form. I quite enjoyed both of those.

Other highlights this week?

Holy smokes, a new writeup by Tlachtga? Her first in almost a year? Outstanding. I'll also point out that Night Watch was Morgon77's first w/u since 2008. Great to see another familiar name.

And speaking of familiars, sam512 posted a fourth chapter in his science-fantasy series Ra. To be honest, that's still on my read-later list but I'm looking forward to it.

At least twice a week without fail, E2 receives a writeup of the type that My Angst Ate My Suffering is parodying (ps: my soul is chaos!). However, I want to mention that this poem by winston_farsoul is a rare entry in that genre that I think is actually well-phrased, has good meter, and says something meaningful. "She asked me to stop dreaming of death / I haven't slept since" is just a killer pair of lines. Give it a second read, please.

Tongue in Cheek Secret Admirer Letters (poetry) by bustamove also doesn't deserve its -4 Reputation. C'mon, you guys.

Lastly, I just want to say thanks to Glowing Fish for his series of w/us covering the 2012 U.S. Republican Presidential Primary. To paraphrase LaggedyAnne (on Twitter recently), I fall into that lefty camp that just wants to say "CAN'T WE JUST RE-ELECT OBAMA ALREADY GODDAMMIT." But I am reading all of these, Fish, and finding most of 'em interesting. Here are a representative few: 2012 Ohio Republican Primary (event), 2012 Northern Mariana Islands Republican Caucus (event), and March 10, 2012 (log).

Administravia

Not much to report. No new Editor logs, root logs, or additions to the Page of Cool. (Editors, please use your buttons more.) I did notice some shuffling in the pantheon this week, though: dann and GrouchyOldMan have returned to e2gods, and vandewal has left the Content Editors. I'm curious what's going on there.

Update: alex says "re March 19, 2012: dann and GOM did not return to e2gods. We've just got some funky code issue that makes usergroup changes fail so they were not removed when they should have been."

Let's wrap this up with a look at this week's standings, eh?

E2 Leaderboard
Top 20 noders who have posted a w/u in the last 4 weeks
(Feb 13 - Mar 11)
Sorted by xp
  1. Jet-Poop (124,203)*
  2. The Custodian (120,582)
  3. dannye (90,063)
  4. Tem42 (74,213)
  5. iceowl (71,064)
  6. Glowing Fish (60,524)
  7. mauler (57,998)
  8. wertperch (54,319)
  9. riverrun (49,236)
  10. etouffee (48,659)
  11. borgo (39,593)
  12. JD (34,895)
  13. sam512 (33,012)
  14. alex (31,083)
  15. shaogo (30,462)
  16. doyle (30,006)
  17. artman2003 (28,052)
  18. Transitional Man (27,732)
  19. allseeingeye (26,312)
  20. IWhoSawTheFace (25,063)

(* = Posted a node 3 weeks ago, and is thus on the brink. Must post a new node by March 18 or get bumped off of next week's list.)

Starting next week, and until JP posts a new node, The Custodian will reign triumphant from the top of Node Mountain. riverrun returns to the list which, along with shaogo's brief reappearance, is enough to bump Oolong and Aerobe back below the fold. Also, congrats to doyle for surpassing 30,000 XP!

I'll begin working on issue #3 right away and will strive to get it posted by week's end-- barring any run-ins with Dark Lords bearing Bushmills.

See you next this week, noders.

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