17 DAYS TO GO

CROATIA
Pula is looking interesting as they have one of the Roman arenas there. It seems that this country has a lot of interesting stuff in it. This seems to be a little unexplored jewel - going to have to hit it.



ROMANIA


Note on all of these maps that have cities crossed out: I would like to remind everyone that the crossed out stuff just indicates that either a) I couldn't find any information on the city easily or b) the information that I did find didn't make it look like a jewel I must visit. I fully realize that some little village not on the maps I have might give me my 'memorable' or 'authentic' or 'best in the country' experience. I'm marking up the maps so that I can make my way between the famous to see stuff and hopefully get to see a lot of interesting stuff along the way. I'm not sure how the travel will be - by train, bus, hitchhiking, whatever. Also, if a town is discussed as being pretty much just an industrial complex - meh. Been there, seen that before. One pretty much looks like another.



MOVIE REVIEW - UNSTOPPABLE (2010)

They went through the build up, trying to make the characters, build the suspense, all of that. After 20 minutes of that shit, I'd had enough. 3/10 stars.



BULGARIA


Looks like there is some good stuff here as well.



MOVIE REVIEW - UNDERCOVER BLUES

Chris had mentioned this movie and I thought I should watch it again. I'm giving this one a solid 9/10 - especially if the fans are gamers. This is truly a PC (player character) movie. It gets underway with the action quick and builds characters (and interesting minor characters) while that's going on. More movies like this would be nice. I'm not sure why it's not rated higher on IMDB. Made in 1993 - the same year Czechoslovakia separated into two different countries. They did mention Czechoslovakia several times in the movie. It must have been frustrating for the makers to have the country split and become two different countries the very year the movie came out.



MOVIE REVIEW - GREEN HORNET

3/10. I've discovered I dislike Seth Rogen's acting. I felt that Jay Chou's was very bland - and he only had one good line. They spent three times as much on this piece of crap as was spent on Serenity and I really have no clue where the money went. Now, to be fair, the movie (Green Hornet) did make $92 million but that means it lost about $28 million on the calculation hence I'm guessing they won't make another of those. They spent way too much on this. [Disclaimer: I realize some people will say 'oh, that was just money the movie grossed - it will still make more in DVD sales and such'. To which I respond "Find me half a dozen movies that cost more in 'budget' than they did on 'gross' that a sequel was ever made on. Ever. There might be one or two but they are rare. The formula (using only IMDB) seems to be 'if gross > budget, possible sequel. If gross much > budget, probable sequel. It's a simple formula that seems to work.] Also, the fact that the Green Hornet made $92 million show I am really in the minority in thinking it was a piece of shit I could only stomach half of before turning it off.



MOVIE REVIEW - THE TOURIST

Well, I got through this one. It was OK but not a huge favorite of mine. I think three things kept me watching it - Venice, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. I did also like how the American tourist kept attempting to speak Spanish to people in Venice - that was a nice touch and very typically American. That's about it. I'd give it a 5/10 rating. IMDB gave it 5.9 - mine is pretty close. The plot hinged on a fucking huge coincidence and a couple smaller ones. Not a huge fan of that. Also, if someone didn't see the plot twist coming from a mile away, well, they aren't very good at spotting those sorts of things. Overall, I'd call it something to munch through some time with, that's about it.



MOVIE REVIEW - ERASING DAVID

This is a show that was recommended to me by Jamas. It's another 'hey, my privacy is gone' show and some ways to try not to let your personal information fall into the wrong hands.

Note that I am not extremely paranoid about someone getting my information (I have nothing worth getting) but I do know how to shake it and lose myself if it needs to be done.

Thoughts as I go:
Christ his wife is whiny. Oh, you can't leave for a month - our child will change so much! You didn't ask my permission to disappear for a month. I would have said "Um - I'm making a film - it is my profession and what keeps a roof over your head you silly person."
This guy is keeping his mobile phone on him? What an idiot.
You need to wear dark sunglasses - facial recognition (a good part of it) is distance between the eyes. Wear mirror sunglasses.
Facebook is run by the CIA? No, that's silly. It would be the NSA's job to hack into it and get the information.
Going through garbage - good first step in any investigation. People do throw out a lot of stuff they shouldn't. Make a home shredder. Throw documents in everyone (other than yours) garbage can. If you have a shredder, great, but hand shredding also works.
If I was concerned about it, I wouldn't have facebook, e-mail, etc as that stuff a) gives away information and b) can be used to track.

We do live in a surveillance state (I agree with this) that the government says "Well, if you're being good, you have nothing to fear..." The lies of the oppressor...

This very much reminds me of another show I saw just like this. I'm mentally thinking of them as 'scared rabbit' shows. A normal person realizes just how much information everyone collects on you and makes a documentary. They consult with a few experts and get information that is both good and bad (IMO).

Unfortunately, what people don't realize is that to actually disappear is that (these days) you need a big bag of money and some knowledge. As long as you need to earn money, you're going to be on the grid. You can limit your exposure but you will always be on the grid.

Overall, dull 3/10 - turned it off because seeing stupid people doing stupid things is annoying. [I do enough stupid things to keep myself amused and up to quota on stupid shit.]



TV SHOW REVIEW - JEREMY CLARKSON MEETS THE NEIGHBORS

Jamas referred me to it. Jeremy Clarkson - no, I've never heard of him before; apparently he does a few documentaries. Anyway, this British guy wanders around poking fun at different countries and working on finding out some stuff about them. 5/10 - for me, as I'm going to be traveling, don't know why anyone else would watch it. Maybe it has 'English humor' in it that I haven't correctly discovered. For anyone else (not English), it's probably a skip.