In which I attempt to be more cultured and actually end up enjoying myself

One of my goals this year was to watch all the nominees from the Best Picture category at the Oscars. Generally that wouldn't be something that I'd even consider doing, but since my movie watching had become heavily skewed toward action flicks and the nominees this year actually looked interesting, it seemed like as good a time as any to try to be a bit more cultured. There were only nine nominees, and I'd actually seen two of them before the Oscar nominations were announced, but it still took me a while to get through the other seven since I tended to get distracted by movies that were more fun to watch. In the end, I found eight of the nine Best Picture nominees to be excellent movies, and I'm glad I set myself this goal because I'm certain some of these films will stick with me in a way that Jumanji will not.

And now, a listing of the nominees, ordered by how much I liked them.

#9. Fences
This was the only nominee that I didn't think deserved its nomination. While Viola Davis turned in a stunning performance, the majority of this film fell flat, due to an inability to embrace the change in medium from stage to screen. However, I don't think I would have liked it any better in its original stage format. The main character was terrible to his family, and yet the ending seemed to want you to remember him fondly, without ever having shown you a good reason why you should.

#8. Hidden Figures
I enjoyed this story of the women behind the US space launches in the 1960s, although I would have liked it more if the screenplay hadn't Hollywood-ized history to make things more dramatic. I especially liked the story of Mary Jackson, and her efforts to break into the predominantly white- and male-dominated profession of engineering. The only reason this is towards the bottom of my list is because there were so many good movies in this year's nominations.

#7. Hacksaw Ridge
I like war movies quite a bit, and we saw this one in theaters on opening weekend. The battle scenes in this were difficult to watch (though not quite as hard as the opening of Saving Private Ryan), but I think it's occasionally necessary to remember what has been sacrificed in service of our nation, and movies like this help with that. The treatment of religion was also well handled, and Andrew Garfield was perfect in his role.

#6. Moonlight
I know this movie won Best Picture, and artistically, it was very well done (although I'm not quite sure about the ending, or lack thereof). The acting was also excellent, and the cinematography was beautiful. I also liked the way the story was structured, and I can see why it won, even if I didn't enjoy it quite as much as some of the other nominees.

#5. Hell or High Water
This was very much a modern-day Western, and watching it made me miss the open landscape and big sky of Oklahoma and Texas. It has a shorter run time, but that works well, because things move at just the right pace. The characters and their various interactions are fascinating, the action is interspersed nicely throughout the movie, and every scene feels necessary to the narrative.

#4. Manchester by the Sea
If I were going to give a Best Picture award based solely on the quality of the movie and not on my enjoyment of it, this would be the nominee that I would vote for. Casey Affleck completely deserved his Best Actor win, and this movie haunted me for weeks after I watched it. It made me think a lot about hope, and the lack thereof, and the source of true hope, and I actually ended up being encouraged by what was honestly a fairly depressing movie.

#3. Lion
As someone with an adopted brother from another country, this movie hit home in ways that I didn't expect. It was also based on an incredible true story, and I always get emotional over stories about family to begin with. I managed to stay fairly emotionally stable right up until the very end, and then lost it at a couple of the details revealed in the text onscreen.

#2. Arrival
An alien first contact movie that isn't really about the aliens at all, this was a beautiful movie. I sadly missed out on seeing it in theaters, but even on the small screen the cinematography was lovely, and the story itself was wonderful. I've read a few articles about how the language you speak affects the way you think about things, and the way this movie integrates that idea makes for a powerful ending.

#1. La La Land
I love this movie. The cinematography is gorgeous, there's a wonderful balance between the suspension of reality and the recognition of it, and the nods to old Hollywood are everywhere. It's simultaneously a celebration and critique of the classic films that inspired it, and Mia and Sebastian are as close as we're going to get nowadays to an iconic film couple, even if their story isn't quite the Hollywood fairy tale you might expect.

Pixelate and motivate

One of my favorite shirt designs.

Here's something that won't come as a surprise to most of you who know me: I'm not the most motivated person in the world. In fact, I can be downright lazy. I'm also a master procrastinator, and I don't like doing things that don't have immediate results.

These are not helpful traits when you're trying to get in shape, or finish a thesis, or do anything else that takes perseverance. Unfortunately, these are also not easy traits to get rid of, especially when they've become ingrained in your way of living. And while I have yet to find the ideal solution to this issue - that is, one with immediate results (yes, this is a problem) - I've managed to figure out at least a temporary solution: if I'm more motivated when I see an immediate reward for my work, I'll give myself that reward.

As it turns out, I'm very much not alone in struggling with motivation and procrastination, and thanks to a comment from Owen on this blog back in August, I ended up joining Habitica. (It was a very fortuitously timed comment, which just goes to show that you never know what little thing you say could make a big impact.) Anyway, Habitica is a website where you gamify your life, with every good habit and completed task earning you gold and XP, and every bad habit and missed task losing you HP. You get to fight bosses, collect pets, and deck your avatar out in sweet gear, all by doing daily tasks, checking things off your to-do list, and building good habits. And every task, habit, and goal is something you set yourself, so it's infinitely customizable.

Look at my adorable little gryphon!

I know, this is starting to sound like an advertising pitch (albeit a really nerdy one). But I can honestly say that Habitica is primarily responsible for me finishing my thesis this year without having a mental breakdown, and I'm also exercising more and eating a healthier diet. I get to see immediate results while continuing to work toward long-term goals, and it's great.

I'm still working on perseverance without outside motivation, but this is definitely progress. Plus, good habits are easier to maintain than to build in the first place, and my hope is that habits built this way will be ones I can learn to maintain on my own with time. And even if this experiment fails in the end, I'll still have one giant success - my thesis is finally out of the way!