Just watched Doom, the movie adaptation of the computer game (yes, I know it's been out for ages, but I don't get much time to go to the flicks these days). Being a big fan of this game going back years (and many sleepless nights on multi-player games while at Uni) , I was concerned this would just be a cash-driven tie-in, and while it is that to some extent, the movie itself isn't as bad as I expected. Sure, "The Rock " is no Larry Olivier, but this movie suits him, all action, playing the big tough marine-type.
Plus, there's the cracking "in-game" sequence towards the end, which is a great touch, and the special effects (as you may expect from modern film-makers) are great too. Okay, it's not as
atmospheric as films like Aliens, which pretty much cover the same ground, but it does work.
Yeah, all in all, well worth the rental money.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Friday, August 18, 2006
The vampire mythos (are we being groomed?)
Having just watched UltraViolet again, and it's only after the second or third viewing that you realise just how good this series is, it brought to mind a theory I had about 3 years ago when I was watching a re-run of Angel on syndication here in the UK.
The Vampire. An interesting concept. The legend tells of entities who become immortal after death, sustaining themselves on human blood. We all know this. We probably also know that the "modern" concept of the vampire grew up in eastern europe , places like Romania, Hungary and Slavic countries, all had the concept of the undead, in some form or another, although entities with some of the characteristics of vampires can be found in much older texts, the Romanian Strigoi (vampire) has it's origins in Roman legends of the strix, a bird inhabiting the underworld who devoured human flesh and blood, even old sanskrit texts reference the Vetalas, ghostly beings who inhabit corpses.
Mostly fuelled by ignorance and paranoia, coupled with
influences of so-called "Vampire" bats (although, the bat was named after the vampire, not vice versa as many people believe), the legend compounded and expanded. In our modern society, we now understand a lot about things which previous societies knew very little, pathology being the most obvious. We now understand that the human body can survive in the right conditions
pretty much unchanged (to the human eye, at least) for many months. We know that piercing the human body after death (the "stake through the heart") can cause muscular contractions and gaseous emissions that can be misconstrued as pain and screams of agony. No wonder then that the legend persisted, and persists even to this day.
So, what's the theory? Well, I reasoned that there is a social bias in the media to portray the vampire as being "cool". Previously, the vampire was definitely depicted in the media as an evil monster, think Nosferatu and Dracula, to name but two. Now look at the current state of the media, vampire's have come out of the monster-closet and are now successful business people, coordinating efforts rather than ripping some young virgin's throat out (although, this can still be an option). Think Underworld, Angel, Blade, UltraViolet, The Lost Boys, Interview with the vampire, the list goes on and on. All these shows / films are pretty much about one thing, vampires being cool.
I also reasoned that maybe there's a controlling influence behind all this. Maybe, we're being
prepared by entities to accept vampires as cool entities, as opposed to blood-sucking monsters.
In the same way that there are conspiracy theories floating around about the existence of shape-shifting lizards controlling our destinies, again which we are being prepared to accept with shows like V, maybe vampires are an alternative and opposing force. Behind the scenes, who knows, maybe there is a battle between vampires and other forces for our attention and respect.
Maybe.
The Vampire. An interesting concept. The legend tells of entities who become immortal after death, sustaining themselves on human blood. We all know this. We probably also know that the "modern" concept of the vampire grew up in eastern europe , places like Romania, Hungary and Slavic countries, all had the concept of the undead, in some form or another, although entities with some of the characteristics of vampires can be found in much older texts, the Romanian Strigoi (vampire) has it's origins in Roman legends of the strix, a bird inhabiting the underworld who devoured human flesh and blood, even old sanskrit texts reference the Vetalas, ghostly beings who inhabit corpses.
Mostly fuelled by ignorance and paranoia, coupled with
influences of so-called "Vampire" bats (although, the bat was named after the vampire, not vice versa as many people believe), the legend compounded and expanded. In our modern society, we now understand a lot about things which previous societies knew very little, pathology being the most obvious. We now understand that the human body can survive in the right conditions
pretty much unchanged (to the human eye, at least) for many months. We know that piercing the human body after death (the "stake through the heart") can cause muscular contractions and gaseous emissions that can be misconstrued as pain and screams of agony. No wonder then that the legend persisted, and persists even to this day.
So, what's the theory? Well, I reasoned that there is a social bias in the media to portray the vampire as being "cool". Previously, the vampire was definitely depicted in the media as an evil monster, think Nosferatu and Dracula, to name but two. Now look at the current state of the media, vampire's have come out of the monster-closet and are now successful business people, coordinating efforts rather than ripping some young virgin's throat out (although, this can still be an option). Think Underworld, Angel, Blade, UltraViolet, The Lost Boys, Interview with the vampire, the list goes on and on. All these shows / films are pretty much about one thing, vampires being cool.
I also reasoned that maybe there's a controlling influence behind all this. Maybe, we're being
prepared by entities to accept vampires as cool entities, as opposed to blood-sucking monsters.
In the same way that there are conspiracy theories floating around about the existence of shape-shifting lizards controlling our destinies, again which we are being prepared to accept with shows like V, maybe vampires are an alternative and opposing force. Behind the scenes, who knows, maybe there is a battle between vampires and other forces for our attention and respect.
Maybe.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
The quality of education....
It's that time of year again. Many extremely intelligent students get their A-Level result(s). Personally, it's been a long time since I did my A-Levels, 1992 in fact (14 years????), but one thing never changes.... the ability of other people to criticise. How many times do you hear it on the news? "A-Level's are getting easier", "They were harder in my day". The fact is that every year, thousands of students say to the world, "Yes! I've shown what I can do".
In my mind, the people who criticise the exams are the kind of people, usually much older, who will one day say "Oooh.... the youth of today!", or "They don't know they're born!". It's almost like some people are so insecure of their own intelligence, and defensive about the quality of their own education, that they seek to cast dispersions about the current batch of students. It's a real shame.
I honestly can't see why certain people can't understand that younger generations may actually (shock, horror!) be getting more intelligent. I consider myself intelligent, but that doesn't mean
I don't think that my two kids will easily surpass me in years to come. On the contrary, I expect them to significantly eclipse their old man. Teaching improvements and resource improvements (where was the Internet / Google Earth etc. when I was at school?) all contribute to a major improvement in society. Average IQs increase year on year, every other metric increases.
Okay, so there may be an element of 'knowing how to pass the exam', but why is that a problem? Most exam / learning situations in life are about getting an advantage, I didn't pass my Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) without looking at the scope of the exam (such as the Oracle curriculum), nor did I pass my driving test without reading the highway code).
One of the best quotes I heard was on the BBC website, stating "So, exams are getting easier because more people are passing them? More people are reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, it doesn't mean that it's getting smaller". Perfectly said.
In my mind, the people who criticise the exams are the kind of people, usually much older, who will one day say "Oooh.... the youth of today!", or "They don't know they're born!". It's almost like some people are so insecure of their own intelligence, and defensive about the quality of their own education, that they seek to cast dispersions about the current batch of students. It's a real shame.
I honestly can't see why certain people can't understand that younger generations may actually (shock, horror!) be getting more intelligent. I consider myself intelligent, but that doesn't mean
I don't think that my two kids will easily surpass me in years to come. On the contrary, I expect them to significantly eclipse their old man. Teaching improvements and resource improvements (where was the Internet / Google Earth etc. when I was at school?) all contribute to a major improvement in society. Average IQs increase year on year, every other metric increases.
Okay, so there may be an element of 'knowing how to pass the exam', but why is that a problem? Most exam / learning situations in life are about getting an advantage, I didn't pass my Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) without looking at the scope of the exam (such as the Oracle curriculum), nor did I pass my driving test without reading the highway code).
One of the best quotes I heard was on the BBC website, stating "So, exams are getting easier because more people are passing them? More people are reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, it doesn't mean that it's getting smaller". Perfectly said.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The difficult first post....
Well, it's the first post time! Almost as difficult as The Office's "difficult 3rd season", almost. I started this blog to allow me to go in a different direction than what I blog about on my Oracle technical site (http://www.oratechinfo.co.uk). While I find it easy to blog on there about things not necessarily about Oracle, such as my passion for cult / retro tv, it really doesn't belong there. Also,
as a "static" site, it's not possible to post comments / follow-ups, which is the real reason why you blog anyway, otherwise, it's more of a noticeboard, rather than a true weblog. Hence, this.
In general, this will be my review point of cult TV / Films which I've watched recently, or indeed anything pertaining to this general subject area.
For those of interest, the kind of cult telly I'm pertaining to are classic programmes such as Robin of Sherwood, Ultraviolet (no, not the recent film, the classic vampire six episode series from 1998, starring Susannah Harker et al.), Quantum Leap, Red Dwarf etc. Yes, there'll be a sci-fi / fantasy basis, but it won't necessarily stop there.
All my opinions are, of course, mine and mine alone. If you agree or disagree, or indeed just want to voice your opinions on whatever subject, you're more than welcome to do so.
as a "static" site, it's not possible to post comments / follow-ups, which is the real reason why you blog anyway, otherwise, it's more of a noticeboard, rather than a true weblog. Hence, this.
In general, this will be my review point of cult TV / Films which I've watched recently, or indeed anything pertaining to this general subject area.
For those of interest, the kind of cult telly I'm pertaining to are classic programmes such as Robin of Sherwood, Ultraviolet (no, not the recent film, the classic vampire six episode series from 1998, starring Susannah Harker et al.), Quantum Leap, Red Dwarf etc. Yes, there'll be a sci-fi / fantasy basis, but it won't necessarily stop there.
All my opinions are, of course, mine and mine alone. If you agree or disagree, or indeed just want to voice your opinions on whatever subject, you're more than welcome to do so.
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