Finishing 2017 before reaching 5,000

One of the reasons I haven't been that worried about setting a personal ranking record this year is my own sanity. It's a badge of honor, of sorts, not to push yourself and sacrifice sleep for an arbitrary personal milestone that continuing to try to break is unsustainable.

Another reason is that I've got another personal milestone to worry about.

With four full days remaining before I post my rankings for 2017, I have reached a lifetime total of 4,992 movies watched. I could have pushed myself and tried to break my record of 151 movies ranked last year, and I had an outside chance of doing it. But that would have meant that some random flotsam and jetsam from 2017 would have been my 5,000th movie ever watched, and that just won't do.

As it is, I figure to end up at either 4,996 or at worst 4,997 after completing my 2017 viewing, which gives me just enough wiggle room to position my 5,000th movie ... and just enough time to try to find something suitable to fill that honor.

I think I might have an 11th hour idea for that ... but I'll keep it under lock and key for the time being. I'll just say that sourcing the movie won't be a problem because I already own it. Which may seem mysterious ... but if this is what I choose, I'll explain it in detail at that point.

In the meantime, assuming you have forgotten this post, I'm asking for your input to see if you can think up something better for me for 5,000. I know it's a bit abstract as you don't know what I've seen and what I haven't. But even if you can think of something that involves the theme of 5,000 -- 5,000 somethings doing something, that kind of thing -- then that would help me out.

Most likely I'll just go with the thing I'm thinking of, but it's a pretty big milestone so I'd like to consider all options.

If you look at the date of that post I've linked to above, it was September 23rd, so I've been thinking about if for four months and haven't come up with anything that seemed like the clear-cut winner. Sometimes, a milestone is just another movie watched. (I even considered that as a way to do 5,000, just watching whatever struck my fancy on that particular night. And though I suppose that's still a possibility, I'm thinking I'm rejecting that idea.)

The one problem with the movie I'm most seriously considering is that I can't watch it in a vacuum -- I may have to watch two other movies before I can watch it. Plus I've still got to watch two movies this month for my new monthly viewing series, Audient Auteurs.

I'll figure it out. Wish I had a little more wiggle room, but them's the breaks.

So after I finish watching my 2017 movies, and after I finish watching my Audient Auteurs movies, and after I finish watching #5,000, then I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and just watch whatever I feel like again.

Strict viewing priorities can be a bitch sometimes.