Those that know me know that I'm a little bit of a film nut. In fact, I originally got into web design because I wanted to know how to create a web site where I could post film reviews. That site turned into my first domain purchase - filmstosee.com. If you've ever contacted me by mail, you've almost certainly gotten a response back from my email at that domain. (I'm proud to say that I've had the same email address now for almost 14 years - far longer than anyone else I know.)

While filmstosee.com has had many ups and downs over the years - it's currently in one of its down stages - one thing has remained constant on it, which is my annual Oscar pool. I started this over a decade ago with a small group of friends. Through the years, it's grown into a slightly larger group of friends, but it's still a fairly small thing. Which is fine by me. But I wanted to take this opportunity to send it out there to my now-larger audience of blog readers.

So here's the deal. Simply go to the Oscar pool page. Fill out the form on the right to sign up. This will take you to a page that lists all of this year's nominees. Select one nominee from each category - the film or person whom you believe will win. Then, tune into the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 22. Enjoy the show (that is, assuming that Hugh Jackman doesn't bore everyone to death as host.)

The next morning, check your email. You'll have a message there from me (well, technically, from my server) telling you how many guesses you got right. Then, you can go back to the web site and see how you did against everyone else who signed up. You can either congratulate yourself on a job well done or make a resolution to see more movies this year.

What do you win? Well, nothing, other than pride. This has always been about just having fun. I don't have any sort of budget with this to give away prizes, and trying to collect some sort of entry fee to create a "pot" that I could give to the winner creates a ton of extra work (and I'm fairly sure might violate laws in some places.) So really, just have fun.

The pool is open to absolutely everyone. If you have other friends/family/Facebook contacts/Twitter followers/etc. who you think might like to join, send them the link. (http://www.filmstosee.com/oscars)

Thanks, and enjoy.

Oh, and before anyone asks: yes, I am most definitely going to get the film review side of filmstosee.com back up and running before the end of this year. In fact, I've already created what I think will be a great design for the site. Right now, I'm waiting until I finish my current book to free up some time and until Adobe gets around to making a Windows version of Flash Catalyst available before I can actually rebuild it, but I will definitely let everyone here know when that happens.

This is so cool. What was already shaping up to be one of the best movie years in a long time, with a new Indiana Jones, another Bond (albeit one with a really stupid title), and several bound-to-be-good films like Ironman, now there's the news today that August will see a return to the theaters of Star Wars: but this time, it'll be the animated Clone Wars series! You can read more details on the Monsters and Critics website.

Paramount has posted the teaser trailer for the new Star Trek movie online, and it's in HD. It's amazing how much better it looks than the normal videos you see online.