My Buffalo is dead...


Well, this is bad. When I came back home, and after helping to cook dinner, I was ready for my daily photo archive to my trusty Buffalo NAS only to discover, it cannot be connected. After some tests with the software and all, I had to look at the unit physically.

Yep, there was no power to the unit and after checking everything, I was puzzled. Then when I picked it up, I saw the melted power jack....



Man, this is so distressing. The Buffalo Linkstation had served me well for years and even when it was hidden in a hot corner, it did not fail. Until now. Its not possible to extract the data directly as Buffalo had done something to it, which you can only see the drive as an unformatted blank.

So, I have to search for an exact model, which I know is obsolete, and transfer the 1TB driver over, in the hopes that all the photos of the girls are still intact. Only problem is, where to get one?

Damn it.

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar




Interstellar. Wow.

Just, Wow.

Would you leave your loved ones behind and risk everything for the future of mankind on a mission where there is only death and failure?

The story is very engaging and for me, its more like a roller-coaster of pacing, the flow and some quick conclusions. But for me, how everything ties to each scene leading to the final conclsion sounded more like, "Heck, we're out of time, let's just go with this gravity idea, wrap things up and go home." But what I loved was the concept of limited resources and the reality of time flows in relativity when near black holes. The sadness that comes with each person having to wait for your in years and even decades, that psychological effects of feeling that you could have been abandoned to die and the possibility of not able to see your loved ones and so on, while to you, everything happened in minutes or mere hours. Slipping into a Cryo will only help you escape the feeling and possibly the depression but in reality, its almost suicidal to the fact that you just want to leave and go back to Earth. (I really can't tell you more as this would really spoil the moments for you)

I could call this the new 2001:A Space Oddyssey movie due to its almost real set designs or Batman in Space due to the actors but Interstellar can hold it on its own. In a sense, it is a single movie where everything wraps-up nicely and thus (hopefully) negating the idea of sequels. The Politically Correctnes of the schools and the designs of the ships such as the Rangers and the Endurance connects to you as a very possible reality thet might present itself in just a decade away. The controls, the spacesuits, the ISS-like interiors and even the voice recognition of the robots (TARS & CASE). Oh, do see their wild stunt in space at 68RPM. Plus, I just love the scenery of all the planets they visited.

This is admitedly, my second IMAX movie at TGV 1Utama and I just love the way the floors vibrates and shakes during those 'exciting' scenes, really makes you feel as if you're right there with them. However, me being just me, once I noticed the projected image was not focused, it actually distracted me from the Movie. And yes, the music, at critical moments, it was just so loud to the point of being a distracting noise. I hate that.

Oh, and as for the Popcorn, do go for their 'Cheesy Corn' which is now available for a limited time. The funny thing was, when we shared it round, all I could taste was the MSG-like flavourings and no cheese. But that did not stop me from whacking them by the fistfuls until I realised I had to perform the social obligation of passing the Popcorn around.

But all in all, I did really enjoy Interstellar and only later did I realise this was a Christopher Nolan movie. Hey, call me a Movie Hermit or anything but I have learnt that shutting out all the Trailers, Hypes and what-nots actually made the movie more enjoyable (or not). I used to have the need to watching all the trailers, reading the Hypes and all those leaked information with the excuse that its my favourite movie and so on. Then I realised, I did not really enjoy those movies because in the Cinema, I kept looking for 'those stuff' as seen on trailers, etc. rather than actually sitting down and absorbing everything in. Not only that, with the Hype, I would have known what's going to happen in the Movie and would also formed my own opinion far ahead that it might suck. So, with Interstellar, I actually paid attention and also, more or less, actually understood the movie. And it does not matter if there is no 3D or that the movie was 169minutes long, Interstellar is the only Nolan movie that I actually paid atention to and wished the movie did not end so early. Either that or because it connected to me where Matthew McConaughey portrays an Engineer who did not get get to do what he wanted (before the Wormhole event) only to continue his life as a Farmer in a dying World.