Sunday Review #6.5: Doomsday

I blame Adam. Entirely. It was awful. He says it wasn't. It was bad, though. Very, very bad.

The special features for Doomsday indicate that it was trying to make a more modern post-apocalyptic film than Mad Max and the like. Except that rather a lot of those have been made lately, and rather better than this one. Off the top of my head, I'd point to 28 Days Later, which may or may not be one of the better ones. I like it though. But I digress.

The worst part about this movie is the two major names in it: Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell. I love Bob Hoskins, and he was great in this, but wow...I hope they got paid well. Less so Malcolm McDowell...he's weird and does weird films so he may have liked the concept.

Actually, I take that all back. The true worst bit about Doomsday isn't the great actors with a horrid, mishmashed plot, it's the horrid mishmashed settings. You go from post-apocalyptic urban to suddenly looking as though the cast and crew stumbled onto the set from "Robin Hood" and decided to film there--complete with the "Robin Hood" costuming--for a bit. Oy.

Sunday Review #6: Jericho

Right, this week's review is of the now cancelled TV show Jericho. I hadn't seen it before, but I'd heard bits and pieces about it; primarily, that it was so popular, that when it got cancelled (because we all know that popularity means nothing to network execs) there was such an outcry from fans that it was brought back to wrap up the basic storyline.

I'm not yet done with the show yet: it's 29 episodes (about 1.5 US TV seasons), and we've seen 16 episodes. I like it, overall. I find it predictable, which isn't totally a bad things. It's predictable because the characters are stock characters and they do what their respective stock characters do. I like some variance to my character arcs, but that said, at least they wrote and used the stock characters well.

If you don't know what Jericho is about, think Alas, Babylon. If you haven't read Alas, Babylon, go pick up the book from you local library. Or a bookstore. If it's still in print. Both are about the "end of the world." Nuclear holocaust. Death, destruction, rebuilding, etc. I think Alas, Babylon is better, but then it's also much more original at this point. Jericho is good, and perhaps topical, though not as much so as Alas, Babylon was when it came out in 1959.

Reading a quick synopsis of the novel (hey, it's been a few years, though I'll read it when I get back to Eugene in a few weeks) makes me believe that the show's creators were HEAVILY influenced by Alas, Babylon. Without getting into details, they solve problems in a similar manner, face some of the same deus ex machina situations (Jericho has a salt mine, Alas, Babylon has an island down the river that's covered in salt), and have the same vaguely angsty protagonists who find purpose when it's thrust upon them/there's no one else to lead.

It's a good show, and one I would recommend, but it's not exceptional. Part of what keeps it interesting for me is the obligatory "mystery" about some of the characters. If you watch Lost, you know what I mean. Trying to figure out the motives of some characters is interesting, but even so, I think this show could have been successful without that element. Simply focusing on survival and rebuilding after the nuclear holocaust could, if it were done well, be enough for the plot.

But then, my guess is that's part of why the show got cancelled.*

*Remember, I haven't finished it yet, but I get the feeling that a lot of the mysteries will be solved by the end of the first season. If not, well...I was wrong. I've been told that that can happen, from time to time.

Like losing a part of my mind

I got Geoff back yesterday.

Even though I knew I would be getting my computer back sans all personal data--so fresh and clean, in fact, that I had to reinstall the OS--I'm not sure anything can really prepare you for the loss of EVERYTHING. I knew that my personal files wouldn't be there, and I knew that all the software I have acquired over the years (legal, thank you very much) would have to be reinstalled, but I forgot all the little things that would be different. My Dashboard has to be reconfigured. I managed to get old versions of my address book and my Safari (web browser) bookmarks, but it's not the same. Geoff's a stranger now, not an extension of myself.

I've lost so much. All my music, all my photos are gone (I do have much of both backed up, and much not). In some ways, what hit the hardest was the complete and total destruction of my email. I keep nearly every email I get, and I had folders for everyone. That's all gone. I'll start again, but it's painful to open up my email and not see the long list of folders of friends past and present.

I also had to reset up my Dead Gentlemen email. That was a right pain (but thanks to Evan for a prompt response), mostly because DG now uses Google to host, and I also have a Gmail address. Wires were getting crossed, but--hopefully--it seems to work now. The good news is that I had all my communications with Matt in the webmail, so I still have his script and my notes on it, as well as our communications. And oddly enough, there some photos of my dear Faith in there as well. Though not the one I had been using as my desktop photo (Mom and Dad should have that one).

I still haven't decided if I want to try and salvage the data off the old harddrive. Part of me desperately wants it back, and part of me just says "fuck it, I'll start again." I've been keeping my novels backed up on 3 different stick drives, and I had--at some point--backed up my resumé/CV/cover letter folder, so I have some of those (thankfully, as I paid for a service to redo them. Didn't really help).

In some ways this is good. It forces me to take stock of what I really need/want, and what I don't. It forces me to do a proper clean-up of my computer, something I've needed and (kinda) wanted to do for years. But it's a pain, so I haven't. Now, with a fresh new system, I can fix some of that. But I didn't want to fix it at the expense of everything.

My old laptop, Jeffrey, was fully copied onto Geoff (hence the naming) when I got Geoff last September. So I'm backed up until about then. In Eugene. My external HD is backed up from 2006...yeah....When I get back to Eugene, I'll make a decision about data recovery. It should be a bit cheaper there (rates for repair are about $100/hr in the States, and £100/hr in the UK).

In the meantime, this forces me to properly set up my address book, something I haven't done since...possibly ever. So, if you read my blog, please email me the following information (if you don't have an email address for me, post on the blog), and feel free to pass my request onto others. I will also send out an email in the next few days, so you may get asked for this twice.

Full Name (include maiden if appropriate)

Partner's full name (ditto above)

preferred email address(es) (partner too, if you're/he/she is willing)

Full mailing address

cell phone number

home phone number

Birthday (day and month, year would be nice, but as we get older, I understand the desire to hide that)

Anniversary (if appropriate)

any online blogs, photo albums, etc

anything else you want to send me: employer info, etc.

I know that's a lot of info, and some of it strange, but I want to have the ability to contact people in a variety of fashions. I also want to be able to wish people happy birthday--please don't assume I know/remember your birthday. I really suck at that. Or your anniversary.

Right, I need to go exercise. I shall try to blog again tomorrow, and tell you all about the joyous day I had in Manchester picking up Geoff. Highlights include bra shopping, a broken-down train, and 10-year-old wannabe hooligans. Amongst other joys.

Additionally, I'll try to get back onto my Sunday reviews this weekend.

Crapstick

Thank you Matt, for that brilliant word. It sums it all up perfectly for me.

Geoff is still dead. I got the install/software discs from Mom and Dad today, but they can't repair the problem. So...the next step is me off to Manchester, where there is not one, but two Apple Stores. The actual Apple Store, authorized and such by Cupertino (ie where Apple is based). They have a "Genius Desk" where staff can try and solve problems for free, and if they can't, will recommend service as needed. I should still be under warranty, but Cheesus only knows if I'll actually be covered (seems like they don't cover some things that they should). If they can recover my files, yay! If not, I'll be posting here and sending out a lot of email asking for addresses and phone numbers and the like.

And possibly photos--I believe that I will have lost all photos of Kristan's wedding, let alone anything else since mid-March 2007. Though that said, Jeffrey (Geoff's predecessor) will have everything (I hope) through August of 2008. Assuming I uploaded the photos prior to getting Geoff.

I hate this. I have a plan, for when I have lots of money. It involves a laptop and a desktop being synced nightly, and weekly backups to what I would like to be a 500 terrabyte drive. Never let it be said that I don't look to the future of hard-drive glutting programs and operating systems. The only reason I haven't fully backed up Geoff is because it takes SO much time. And because I don't have an external drive that's big enough, or enough space on my iDisk to back up EVERYTHING. Though I should have enough space to get the important bits regularly. I just hate how long it takes. Guess I'll be sucking it up more regularly though.

Dead Computer

Geoff just suffered an unexplained death. I don't know why or how but he can't find the boot disk. I'm sincerely hoping the loss hasn't wiped the drive or corrupted anything other than the boot disk, but until I find out what and how much I've lost I won't be blogging or emailing. It does not help matters much that Adam's wireless currently isn't working. Typing on an iPod touch isn't much fun.

I'm going to contemplate suicide now.