When it comes to games, I’m not much of a puzzle guy. But since I got LIMBO a few months ago and enjoyed it quite a lot, I decided to give Machinarium a try when it was on sale on Steam a while back.

Machinarium is a point-and-click adventure game with heavy use of puzzles and brain teasers. It’s created by Amanita Design, a small, independent game developing studio based in the Czech Republic. The game was released in 2009, but that something is “old” doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad. “Old” in this case means that us patient gamers can get it on sale. “Old” in this case also means that the game is written in Flash, but we’ll come back to that later. Machinarium tells the story about Josef, a little robot who finds himself dumped on a scrapheap. After re-assembling himself he sets off towards the city to look for a friend. The story, which is told without the use of text or dialogue, unfolds as you play, and even though it’s not the most intriguing and creative story I’ve seen – you’ll probably feel it’s very familiar – it’s very well told.

The story’s backdrop is beautiful, hand-drawn scenes accompanied to a lovely soundtrack by Floex, Amanita Design’s own in-house “sound maker”, as he is entitled on their website. The soundtrack is available here if you want to listen to it. If I’d have to label it, I’d call it “industrial chill”, which is perfect for Machinarium – except for some plants and a bit of water, everything in the game is mechanized and industrial, including the local wild life. The game design is extraordinary well thought-through and the attention to detail is impressive.

The puzzles you stumble across in Machinarium are mostly about pattern recognition. How to interact with the environment is also often part of the puzzles, which are very well balanced and just challenging enough for Average Joe. I got stuck once, but even if that happens, there is hope. Josef will have a small clue for you most of the time and if you find yourself feeling like a moron for not being able to solve a puzzle even with his help, you can play a little mini-game that will reveal the solution, or at least give you some very good clues on how to solve it.

But Machinarium, like all games, has its flaws. The game is written in Flash, and clicking the right mouse button brings up the Flash menu with its “About Flash” and whatnot. Since clicking the right mouse button is usually some kind of action in other point-and-click adventure games – for instance that you automatically put whatever you are holding back in to your inventory – the Flash menu got a bit annoying after a while. It’s mostly my own fault though, for not being able to memorize that I could not use the right mouse button to return whatever the little robot was holding in his hand back to the inventory. Instead the inventory had to be opened before the item could be returned. Point-and-click adventure games often involves a lot of pointing and clicking – hence the genre’s name – with items from the inventory, a process that got rather tedious.

The game lagged considerably on my computer when played in fullscreen. It have to be said that my hardware isn’t what you would call state of the art, but it should be able to handle a game from 2009. Hardware acceleration was turned on in the Flash settings, but that didn’t help at all. I ended up playing the game in windowed mode, which worked a lot better and was fine since fullscreen didn’t really add anything to the game: The resolution used in both fullscreen and window mode is the same. The immense detail of the background images also proved to be a challenge: In one of the scenes, it was virtually impossible to see that the main character could interact with an object on the screen, and it was only by accident I clicked on it.

But in spite of these minor issues, Machinarium is a great game. If you like puzzle games and brain teasers, you should go right ahead and buy it. It won’t entertain you that long, it took me only 6 hours to complete the game and I really suck at puzzles, but at the asking price of USD 10 it’s certainly worth it. You can buy the game straight from the creators.

I tested the Machinarium on Windows, but it’s also available on Mac OS X, Linux (probably through Wine), PlayStation 3 (PSN), iPad 2, BlackBerry PlayBook, and soon, Android. So pick your poison.

Movies based on books make me skeptical. Peter Jackson did an amazing job with the Lord of the Rings movies, but many others have failed miserably when moving a story from paper to the silver screen. The only projects that tend to crash and burn more spectacularly are movies based on video games.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo isn’t director David Fincher first attempt at making a movie based on a book. His massive success Fight Club was based on a novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk, and this time he has taken on the first book in the Millennium series by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. In this novel-to-movie-adaption I have an ace up my sleeve: I never read the book. Neither did I see the Swedish movie adaption. So I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from the unbiased viewpoint of someone who has managed to stay clear of some of the most popular Scandinavian books this century.

Many directors would have made the movie as American as possible. Just look at what they are doing to the live action adaption of Akira: Everything will be moved from Neo-Tokyo to New Manhattan and the cast will be mostly white. What gives? Fincher, on the other hand has stayed true to the novel: The movie is filmed in Sweden and the actors have been instructed to speak with awkward Swedish accents. Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) sounds rather Finnish to me, though.

There is a lot of product placement in this movie, with Apple as usual being the dominant one. Anniken’s informed that Salander uses Apple products extensively in the books, but please – I’m pretty sure I saw Apple USB cables in the opening credits. EPSON has also paid the production company for some nice close ups of their printers and logo. Even more hilarious was the NIN t-shirt worn by one of Salander’s computer savvy friends. Didn’t you get paid for making the original soundtrack, Trent?¹⁾ It might have been Trent’s idea of a cameo, what do I know. I’m not saying product placement makes this a bad movie, but sometimes it just gets too obvious.

Fincher has a good attention to details. While doing some research, Salander digs through what I assume is her notes by typing SQL queries into the MySQL console. Humorous for me and probably a lot of other nerds since we often find ourselves using the same piece of software. A document-oriented database would probably have been a better choice of database for storing those semi-structured notes though. Yeah, I’m nitpicking, but if you’re going to try you might as well do it right.

But what about the movie, then? In my humble opinion it takes too long to get started and when it gets started it drags out. Forever. I actually thought the movie was about to end three times before it actually did. Anniken told me that the reason it dragged out was that it introduced some of the elements important for the next movie. I can appreciate that, but it still felt like it took forever – you’re not supposed to think “finally” when the end credits start to roll.

All that said, go see the movie. Be warned, though, the movie is not for the faint hearted. It’s rated R in the US and there’s a reason for that. Actually, I can think of several reasons. It might be that there’s an edited version for the US audience, because some of the scenes is certainly not approved by Concerned Women for America. Also, if you have, like me, not read the book nor seen the Swedish movie adaption, you should not go to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with someone who has. They’ll cringe in their seats when something is about to happen and unfortunately spoil some of the tension.

1) Trent Reznor, who composed the original sound track for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is the founding member of NIN, Nine Inch Nails.

Since it happened to me, it might be that it happened to you as well: You never did see The Chronicles of Riddick. If that is the case, you’ve missed out on a hidden sci-fi-action-adventure-gem.

The Chronicles of Riddick is the story about Richard B. Riddick, who is trying to elude capture by mercenaries and eventually Necromongers, a race of conquerors traveling across space toward the so-called Underverse, a dark mirror of the normal universe where death has no meaning. Their leader, the Lord Marshal, commands his troops to overrun worlds and convert their inhabitants into Necromongers; those who oppose conversion are killed. Yes, that’s a pretty nice backdrop for what could potentially be a killer sci-fi-action-adventure right there.

I absolutely love the visual design in The Chronicles of Riddick. The attack on Helion Prime is spectacular, both visually and aurally, and every aspect of the Necromonger race is designed in great detail. Vin Diesel does an excellent job portraying Riddick, not through acting, but through being a huge pile of muscle who beats up everyone along the way. Even though Vin Diesel is without doubt the star of this movie, you’ll find a cast of familiar and not-so-familar actors and actresses who do all contribute to making The Chronicles of Riddick a movie you should see if you generally enjoy movies of the genre. The prequel, Pitch Black, might also be of interest, and there are rumors going around of the possibility of a third movie about Riddick.

There’s a vast universe being outlined in The Chronicles of Riddick. The movie, together with Pitch Black, spun off a book, a few computer games and an animated short film, but I can’t help but feel that we’ve only seen very little of the potential for creating an absolutely huge and very exciting universe based on not Riddick himself, but everything else in Chronicles. Let’s lock the guys who designed the Necromongers in a room for a few weeks and see what they can come up with!

That we got away with only fourteen thousand dead was a combination of skill and luck. At some point a flu will come that will have a much greater impact on us that the swine flu back in 2009. It has happened before and it will happen again. In Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” it happens again.

We follow the pandemic through all its phases, from first contact on Day 1 to a vaccine is eventually developed and distributed. We do this through the eyes of many different people, all who are affected by the pandemic in one way or another. This is nothing new, but Soderbergh’s twist is that very few of the stories are interwoven on any other level than that they are related to the pandemic: Someone doesn’t meet someone else who change their life forever. Some of the people we meet actually go ahead and die instead, which is also very un-Hollywood and certainly very un-American.

The cast of Contagion is great, with a lot of familiar faces who all do an excellent job. Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet all come together to make the movie believable fiction. The film only lasts for about an hour and forty minutes and while it’s good to watch a movie that doesn’t drag things out for ever, I can’t help but feel that the movie should have dived even deeper down into the science of the virus itself, the massive challenge it is to find a vaccine and the immense task it can be to keep a desperate population at bay.

I don’t think the solution would have been to extend the movie. My impression is that we simply follow too many people and that the stories thus get too short. A little more depth had been great, shaving off a story or two might have accomplished that.

But apart from this, Contagion is a great movie that blends together everything that a great movie should have. Excellent photography, a killer soundtrack, a (somewhat) original script and a top-notch cast. Whoever said Kate Winslet can’t act has to see this movie.

I’m trying something new in this entry. Spoilers that won’t actually spoil anything if you haven’t seen the movie! Some parts of the movie naturally influenced my impression of it, but I can’t tell you about because it could potentially spoil the experience for you. But you might have seen Contagion already, not running that risk. To read the spoiler, simply hover over the black area below.

Spoiler: One logical flaw really bugs me. I’m surprised that they didn’t ask for Beth Emhoff’s (Gwyneth Paltrow) belonging and check her camera. Revealing that she shook hands with the chef in the Macau casino probably would have saved them a lot of time in finding the source and developing the vaccine.

1. Don’t bring my own lunch to work, but instead buy lunch in the canteen.
2. Have an energy drink some time after dinner.

As you can imagine, my Fridays are pretty damn wild. Buy lunch!? I’m crazy. But at least I’ve got bragging rights for sampling quite a lot of different energy drinks. And since Anniken is visiting her parents on this particular Friday – probably to have someone to drink wine with – I’m home alone and free to go wild: I’m having three energy drinks this evening!

I’ve bought three cans of SoBe Pure Rush, one can of each of the available flavor: Lime Starfruit, Pink Grapefruit and Berry Apple. Each can contains 250 ml and comes with natural ingredients like caffeine, guarana, sea-buckthorn, açaí and ginseng. In order of appearance, they have the following effects on the human body:

• Caffeine acts as a central nervous system stimulant, temporarily warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness.
• Guarana increases memory, alertness and mood. It’s also rich on caffeine.
• Sea-buckthorn berries contains loads and loads of C-vitamins, about 15 times more than oranges, in addition to dense contents of vitamin E
• Açaí has no scientifically proven health effects but products made from the açaí palm has been marketed as products for reversal of diabetes and other chronic illnesses, as well as expanding size of the penis and increasing men’s sexual virility and sexual attractiveness to women.
• Ginseng, on the other hand, contains ginsenosides, which actually can facilitate penile erection. It’s also possible to overdose on ginseng, with possible side effects being fever, seizures, convulsions, and delirium. Stuff like that.

In addition there are of course ingredients that are used to color and flavor each individual version. It seems to me like mixing caffeine, guarana (both increasing alertness) and ginseng (delirium) is a sub-par idea, but the people who came up with the Pure Rush recipe probably knew what they were doing. The only warning label on the can covers the caffeine level, which is 320 mg per liter, or 80 mg per can. According to the interwebs, a cup of coffee contains about 100 mg of caffeine. With a warning label that states that “kids below the age of 14, pregnant women and people who are sensitive to caffeine” should stay away from the drink, I was expecting more of the good stuff.

I know that you love gadgets and since caffeine can cause increased heart rate, I’ll be doing my drinking tonight with a heart rate monitor strapped to my chest. Even though I might not feel more alert, maybe technology can prove that pouring down three cans of Pure Rush actually have some effect on my body. To make sure nothing else than the pure Pure Rush can affect my heart rate, I’ve turned down the lights and I’m listening to Hammock. Right now my heart rate is about 57 beats per minute.

The first can is SoBe Pure Rush Lime Starfruit. It has a nice, fresh and green color, not a big surprise since the word “lime” is used in the name. I love lime, so how can this possible fail? The drink tastes a bit like lime, but with a bitter aftertaste. To be honest, I was expecting more, and the bitter is an unpleasant surprise. Around half way through the can I’m beginning to feel that the can should have been maybe half the size.

The SoBe Pure Rush Pink Grapefruit also has a nice color, a dark red – not so different from grapefruit juice. No real surprises there either, in other words. Both the smell and the taste is sweater than Lime Starfruit, and I have to admit I like the taste better. But it could use some lime, crushed ice, rum and a little umbrella. Unlike the Lime Starfruit I didn’t get tired of the taste half way through the can.

SoBe Pure Rush Berry Apple is an interesting little thing. First of all, I wonder what “berry” they have been using. There’s a chance these “berries” are the same as the “meat” in sausages – the stuff that’s left when all the edible parts of the animal have been used. The drink smells extremely synthetic and not natural at all, but the taste is surprisingly good, considering the smell.

After finishing the third and last can I’m starting to get a nice layer of sugar in my mouth, probably because the three cans cover 102% of the recommended daily sugar consumption. My heart rate is stable at 60 beats per minute, and I don’t feel particularly upbeat. It’s well beyond my usual work-week bed time, though, so it could be that the drinks are indeed making me more alert. Or it could be because it’s Friday and I’m in love.

As a drink to clench your thirst, the SoBe Pure Rush series is all right, but nothing more. You should empty the can in one go, though, because it’s easy to get bored with the taste. As an energy drink, I’m not sure if it actually works, because I just talked to Anniken on the phone and her yawning immediately spread to me as well. But if I find myself still being wide awake at three in the morning, I’ll let you know.

LIMBO is the brainchild of Arnt Jensen, who conceived the game around 2004. It was not released until July 21, 2010, however, then as an exclusive title on Xbox Live Marketplace. It only recently made its way to the PS3 and PC platforms. In the game you play a nameless boy who has entered Limbo in search for his missing sister. You start the game in a forest, and as you solve the various puzzles, you move into a creepy urban setting where the puzzles get tougher, but not impossible. I’m really not that good at puzzle games, but only found myself stuck once.

The game features a simple, yet beautiful black and white scenery and ambient sounds and music that blends perfectly together with the graphics. The atmosphere of the game is masterly created and even though its not a horror game per se, I found myself getting goosebumps every so often. The boy is a breeze to control, but this does not stop him from being killed in the most imaginative ways and you’ll feel sorry for him when he does.

This is a great game for the casual gamer who enjoys brain teasers that are not too hard and timed jumping that you won’t fail so many times you’d rather rip out every hair on your body with a set of tweezers than try one more time. You’re only in for 3 to 5 hours of entertainment, though, and be prepared to feel a little bit cheated when you finish the game, because LIMBO just makes you want more.

Buy the game on Steam.

When I started to look for a camera application, I focused on support for large screens (I’m using a Samsung Galaxy Tab), support for the Toy Camera and Polaroid effects (everything else is just a bonus, really), a way to turn off the horrible shutter sound and a no-fuzz interface. I looked both at free and paid apps, but all the testing is based on free versions of the paid apps: I don’t mind paying for an app that I use frequently, but I’m not going to throw money at you to properly test drive your software.

In case you’re a bit confused about the weird square art to the right of each logo: These are QR codes. If you download a QR code reader from the Android Market, for instance Barcode Scanner, you will be able to use the camera on your phone to read the QR codes straight off the screen and go directly to the applications in Android Market.

FxCamera

I’ve used FxCamera on all my Android phones. It’s a nice, free (ad supported), little app, with support for both the Toy Camera and Polaroid effects. It worked great on both my HTC Hero and HTC Desire, but does not use all the screen on my Galaxy Tab. And what’s the use of having a large screen if the application only uses parts of it?

The app also supports Fisheye, SymmetriCam, AndyWarholzier and plain shooting with no effects. All the effects have their own, easy-to-use settings and there is also a limited set of common settings, like flash control and auto rotate. FxCamera used to have a terribly annoying shutter sound, but as far as I can tell, that is gone now. It might have been removed in a previous version, or perhaps it might surface again without notice.

Pros: Free (ad supported), simple interface, no shutter sound, fast, home screen shortcuts for direct access to available effects.
Cons: Does not support the Galaxy Tab screen size, few effects, low picture resolution: 960 x 640 is max, and the Galaxy Tab supports up to 2048 x 1536. Bummer. No geotagging support.

Retro Camera

Retro Camera has another approach to the effects thing. By simulating classic cameras, like the Bärbl and the Orange Box together with what I can only assume are make-believe cameras, like the FudgeCan, you get a lot of cool effects by taking the picture with the actual camera. Sort of.

The app has a fine selection of settings, for instance the option to turn off all camera sounds, macro photography (not tested) and geotagging. There is no way to tell what resolutions Retro Camera supports, however, the only option is to turn on and off “high resolution”.

Like FxCamera, Retro Camera does not support the full size of the Galaxy Tab screen, and together with the fact that only 1/8 of the screen is used to preview what you will actually capture in your photo, makes this application very hard to use. The application also uses a lot of graphics for its interface, and this makes it unbearably slow at times. Chose a camera, wait 10 seconds and you can finally take a picture. With it’s toy-like interface, Retro Camera is probably best suited for kids.

Pros: Free (ad supported, paid version available), useful common settings.
Cons: Slow, clumsy interface, few effects, does not support the Galaxy Tab screen size, unclear maximum picture resolution, very small image preview.

Pudding Camera

Pudding Camera is a free app with a high quality interface that manages to use all of the screen estate available on the Galaxy Tab – at least for the image preview, the image buttons are somewhat misaligned with the rest of the screen. There is no menu associated with Pudding Camera, if you hit the usual Menu button on your Android phone, nothing will happen. Instead, you have to use the setting button provided by the application.

The application let’s you choose from a six cameras with various modes, like Panorama, Motion 2×2 (4 shots in one picture) and Fisheye. In this camera you can install eight different films, for instance Vintage Blue, Mono and Vivid. This gives you a wide verity of combinations, and each combination has a small preview picture that will give you an idea of how you final photo will look. None of the combinations, however, will enable you to create the Toy Camera or Polaroid effects.

Pudding Camera is the only application I’ve tested that support the Galaxy Tab’s front-facing camera, which is great for self shots. I take a lot of self shots in the bathroom mirror, so this is a feature that will come in handy for me. Especially right after I’ve done my bi-weekly spray tan.

The application has one great flaw, though, but it’s still one that can be addressed quite easily by the developer: Pudding Camera only supports what I suspect is Korean, so navigating the menus can be a little bit tricky.

Pros: Free, very nice looking interface, supports both primary and secondary camera, decent collection of effects.
Cons: Only available in Korean, does not support the Toy Camera and Polaroid effects, interface can be somewhat slow at times.

Vignette

Vignette comes in both free and paid versions. The free version has all the features of the paid version, with one major limitation: The maximum quality of the free version is 0.3 megapixels – very, very limited. The maximum quality in the paid version, however, is 3.1 megapixels.

The application is very easy to use and the interface is straight forward and gives you all the information you need on screen as you take the picture: Zoom, shooting mode, flash, focus, quality and effects currently turned on. Vignette has a very wide range of different options, from time lapse shooting to macro photography, It’s also possible to turn off the shutter sound and use the front facing camera on my Galaxy Tab. Vignette also use all of the screen estate, which is very convenient. The menus can be a little confusing to navigate, though, it’s not that obvious that you have to enter the focus options to turn off the shutter sound.

In terms of effect, Vignette separates them into two categories; effects and frames. These can be combined as you like and saved into favorites. It’s also possible to create shortcuts on your home screen for easy access to predefined effect and frame combinations. Shooting and processing is very quick compared to some of the other applications, and it’s possible to change the effect and frame after the picture is taken. There’s also an option to save copy, and then change the effect and frame to create another version of the same picture. On top of this you can configure Vignette to save a clean version of the original image so you can apply effects later – the application allows you to import pictures from your gallery and add effects and frames to these as well.

It’s like the developer thought of everything and then some.

Pros: Free and paid versions, extensive help available on every option screen, tons of shooting modes, supports both primary and secondary camera, possible to turn off shutter sound, geotagging support, option to save original image, images can be imported and edited, almost unlimited number of effect and frame combinations.
Cons: Very limited quality on the free version.

Camera360

Camera360 also comes in two flavors, free and paid. The free version comes with a splash screen, which can be very inconvenient if you’re trying to get a picture taken quickly. Leaving the first splash screen takes you to yet another menu, but this one can thankfully be turned off. The main focus when you use a camera app is to take a picture, but it doesn’t look like this was the main focus of the developers.

Camera360 does not support the big Galaxy Tab screen and using the back button when using the camera actually quits the application, it does not take you back to the menu like you would expect. The number of effects available in the application is somewhat limited; there is a Toy Camera option, but no way to simulate a Polaroid camera. On the plus side, though Camera360 supports tilt-shift photography and the result is absolutely stunning. HDR is also available, but I’ve not had the opportunity to test this mode myself.

The application also have other unique features, like the options to add scenery to your photo. You can for instance place your picture inside the advertisement frame of a bus stop. Great entertainment for some, I’m sure, but not my cup of tea. The quality settings of Camera360 are the best of the bunch, with the option to select sizes of up to 2048 x 1536 on my Galaxy Tab. Great stuff.

Pros: Paid and free versions, tilt-shift mode, HDR mode, great advanced quality settings, geotagging, option to turn off shutter sound, can save the original image.
Cons: Polaroid effect is missing, does not use all of the available Galaxy tab screen estate, not possible to create home screen shortcut on the home screen in free version, inconsistent use of the back-button, some weird English translations.

Conclusion

Before we move on to the verdict, I should point out that the reviews are based on fifteen to twenty minutes of playing around with each application. With prolonged usage, some of the cons might turn into pros and vice versa. Hidden features and bugs can suddenly surface and turn a perfectly good application into crap or perhaps turn crap into gold.

But based on my experience so far, I would probably spend a little money and get the paid version of Vignette. With all the features and the extremely versatile effect and frame combination system, you can play around with this application for ever and probably never get tired of it. If you feel Vignette’s vast number of features is a bit overwhelming, however, consider FxCamera instead. It’s a great application that I’ve used a lot myself and I’m very pleased with it. The only drawback is the low picture resolution.

I came across Max Brook’s “The Zombie Survival Guide” book while surfing reddit where I read that Bras Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment had secured the rights to another of Brooks’ books; “World War Z”. Actually, this happened all the way back in 2007, but sometimes news travels slow – at least it often takes a while before I notice things. I like Brad Pitt, at least as an actor, I have to admit that I don’t know him personally. But he is probably a likable fellow. I also enjoy zombies, but not the fast moving ones you find in Left 4 Dead, I prefer the slow ghouls you can see in movies like the excellent Shaun of the Dead*. Why? Because it’s possible to outrun, or maybe even outwalk them quit easily. The fast ones tend to kill you.

Max Brooks’ zombies are like that: Outwalkable. And when I imagined Brad Pitt in an action movie with outwalkable ghouls, I decided that I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie for once. Even though there is no actual movie being made right now, and there might very well never be, the book could to our to be entertaining. Brooks wrote “The Zombie Survival Guide” before “World War Z”, and even though the books are not directly linked with each other, the guide contains very detailed information about the zombies in “World War Z”. Because of that, I decided to read the guide first.

“The Zombie Survival Guide” is written as just that, a zombie survival guide. What to do and not to do when the living dead starts roaming the Earth. It’s entertaining at first, with a lot of detailed descriptions about the ghouls, how to behave during various classes of zombie outbreaks, what weaponry is the most efficient, and probably the most important thing to know of them all: How to kill a zombie.

I’ll save you the cost of buying the book: You can only kill a zombie by destroying the brain. Decapitation will not be sufficient as the head will continue to function without the body. So destroying the brain is the way to go. Apart from that, use commons sense and you boyscout knowledge. After about 100 pages, I got tired of reading – the book had turned into just a guide and nothing more, the entertainment value was minimal. So I skipped to the last one fourth of the book, which describes recorded zombie attacks. This part of “The Zombie Survival Guide” serves as a good warm up to “World War Z”.

My recommendation is that if you want to be prepared for the inevitable zombie war and need a great book about protection from the living dead, then you should buy “The Zombie Survival Guide” and learn it by heart. If you on the other hand want an entertaining book about zombies, you should look elsewhere and just skip ahead directly to “World War Z”.

But do you dare to be unprepared when the living dead walk the Earth?

*What, you haven’t seen this movie yet? Then do yourself an favor and rent it right now. What the hell, go ahead and rent every Simon Pegg movie you find.

After I finished “Song of Susannah”, I moved from fictions to facts for a while. Diversity is good for you. I read through the second edition of “Effective Java” and right now I’m half way through “The Pragmatic Programmer”, a book that should be mandatory reading for everyone involved in software development. The Pragmatic Programmer was written 10 years ago, but most of what the book covers still apply today.

To spice things up a little, Hallvard recommended that I read “The Road”. You’ve probably heard of or even seen the big screen adaption featuring Viggo Mortensen. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where we follow two unnamed characters, the Man and the Boy. An unexplained catastrophe has destroyed civilization and killed off almost all life on Earth. The days are gray as the sky is covered with ashes while the nights are pitch black. The two move south on The Road, with a vague hope of finding warmth and other people.

The Man and the Boy, father and son, spend their days walking The Road, engaging in short conversations with each other. They roam through abandoned houses they come across, looking for whatever might help them survive and reach the coast. Every now and then they encounter other people on The Road, but these encounters normally just last for a page or two and then the Man and the Boy move on south.

In the beginning of the book, we get small flashbacks to the days before the unexplained cataclysm and the years following it. One paragraph early on in the book describes the moment when the catastrophe happened, but does not follow up and I find myself wanting to know more and wishing that the book had taken another path at that point. I want to know more about what caused everything, and the rest of the book becomes a hunt for hints about the past. Unfortunately, few are found.

Following the Man and the Boy becomes a bit repetitive after a while. They walk the road, run out of food, look for food, find some food and then repeats the process. All this is of course a very good description of what life at the road would have been; a constant fight for survival where your only focus would be to move on south and to find enough food to be able to do it. There is, however, a good reason why the book is only 300 pages that you will read through in an afternoon: More pages and the whole thing would have become unbelievably boring in the end.

The Road will entertain you for a while, but when you put the book you probably won’t feel you’d missed out on anything if you went for a walk that afternoon instead. The book has received rave reviews across the board, and I have to be honest and say that I am a little disappointed after finishing it. It once more goes to show that you should not read reviews before you read a book, watch a movie or listen to music – make up your own mind about things without first hearing other people’s opinions as they often color your own opinions a lot. At least I think that’s what works for me.

In other words, if the same is the case for you, reading this review was a really bad idea.

* I wouldn’t be too surprised if I’m sitting in front of a computer the day I finally buy the farm.

But something even better than reading a Stephen King book is to watch Neill Blomkamp’s movie District 9. I’m pretty sure this is the best movie I’ve seen so far this year, and I won’t be surprised if no one will make a better before the year ends. Unless that movie 9 or maybe even Up can match it, that is. They’re very different movies, though.

Anyway, let’s get back to District 9. It all started with a short movie called “Alive in Joburg”, directed by South Africans Blomkamp and his friend Sharlto Copley. Because of Alive in Joburg, together with other work by Blomkamp, he was offered to work with the movie adaption of the Halo video game together with Peter Jackson. Unfortunately, the Halo movie was put on hold because of lack of funding. But this got Jackson and Blomkamp talking about other projects and result of that discussion is District 9. Here’s Alive in Joburg from YouTube:

If watching Alive in Joburg doesn’t make you want to run to the nearest cinema and watch District 9, I’ve taken the liberty to copy/paste an excerpt from the plot summary on Wikipedia:

In 1982, a large alien spaceship stops above Johannesburg, South Africa. Reports suggest that the ship became stranded after a command module separated from the ship and dropped to Earth, nowhere to be found. After cutting their way inside, an exploratory team discovers a large group of unhealthy and leaderless arthropod-like species. These alien creatures, derogatorily referred to as prawns, are taken from the ship and housed in a government camp inside Johannesburg called District 9, which soon turns into a slum. In the first decade of the 21st century, Multinational United (MNU), a private military contractor, is placed in charge of policing and relocating the now 1.8 million aliens to District 10, a new camp 240 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg.

Brilliant stuff. When you didn’t think it was possible to come up with a new idea for a movie, it just suddenly happens. At least I’ve not heard of any movie plots like this one.

District 9 starts out as a documentary, but after a while it changes genre into a full blown action movie. Writing more about the plot could spoil some of the movie for you, so I’ll shut up now so you can actually go see it. So, in the end, this is not much of a review, but the main message I’d like to get through here is that you should really, really see this movie.

By the way, if you suddenly get a strange crave for cat food after you’ve seen District 9, fear not – it happened to me as well.