TV Returns

So glad to see many returns to TV.

In Supernatural s07e17 the born-again identity, castiel is finally back!

Well kinda, or atleast briefly, which I was at first excited about and then not

For Fringe s04e15 a short story about love, more on the observers and peter/olivia

We get to see the return of the drill/egg from the beginning of the show (s01e04 beacon)

I actually enjoyed the nina and olivia connection, it was touching

And we get the answer to the universe/timeline debate, which is pretty much how I thought it would be resolved (somehow it would change back to our original characters)

And of course this means new Fringe podcasts as well!

And finally the long awaited return of Game of Thrones with s02e01 the north remembers

Didn't feel too thrilling but setting up the story with things to come and a brutal ending

Deploy Woes Continued, Bad Data

As I've mentioned earlier, issues happen with deployments.
And also post-deploy, both big and small.

Code assumptions
Assuming the data is in a good state. But there is always bad data.
Especially when using a bad UI framework, an old database model, and legacy code written under old assumptions.
And in trying to slowly cleanup a database for example, scripts can run fine testing in the Dev or QA environments. But if these aren't synced up with Production, it can and will fail there.
Suddenly a value is NULL unexpectedly, error error. Oops. Fail.

Code management
Ambiguity for who owns the code and who is responsible is killer.
And on that same note, who understands deployment steps.
Having a lone wolf coder on fundamental code doesn't help.
It's far to easy to be heads down on your own work and ignore it, until it bites you.
More code reviews, more shared knowledge.
So you don't deploy to production and find it isn't working because it's only half deployed. Opps. Fail again.

Abe Hates Vampires

I stumbled upon a trailer for the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter film coming out later this year. And this made me want to read the book first in preparation.

But I found an even better solution, the audiobook, which works well since I enjoy podcasts and I can listen during my commute and at night.

So far I've flown through it and really enjoyed it. I like the mix of fact and fiction, giving it a realistic spin (as a retelling of Abe's journals). I like the premise that slavery and the civil war were primarily because of vampires. I was hesitant of the reader during the intro (and Edgar Allen Poe tie in), but otherwise it was good.

John Carter (Virginia) of Jasoom

Went to see the John Carter film in the theater.

I enjoyed it more than expected, but then again I enjoy most scifi movies.

I liked the mix of different times/places or atleast civilizations with different technology, aliens of mars and civil war veteran. A little bit of the cowboys and aliens feel mixed with conan.

I enjoyed the mysterious bald men in robes influencing events, reminding me of fringe (bald,suits,fedora), adjustment bureau (suits,fedora), etc.

I didn't necessarily like all the CG and especially didn't like seeing it in 3D (gah hate it).

One thing that I enjoyed the most was the concept of traveling to/from Mars.

Specifically the notion of being copied and your body being in some sort of stasis.

How long can your body last in this state? How does it survive?

What happens to the copy when you return? Does it just disappear?

What about if your copy dies? Like what happened to the Thern who was shot on Earth, did he return to Mars?

The history of having a film created based on the books is interesting.

Seems that the film is different enough to not ruin the books, if I ever get around to reading them.

Fringe break

Time for a Fringe break and I have finally caught up on the show and podcast.

The last episode before this break was huge, s04e14 end of all things.

Finally some explanations, about the observer september and nina, explaining what happened to peter, more about jones and olivia's powers.

There was so much packed in this episode, as it seems this season has been.

Feels like it is finally pulling things together (even after the whole universe vs timeline confusion), tying back to the first season even.

I really appreciate it, especially with the rumors of it being cancelled.

I'm sure it's bound to happen soon enough, same with Supernatural, and I can only hope good shows appear at some point to replace them. Those are definitely my top running scifi shows.

I can look forward to rewatching it all at some point too.

But for now I am hoping for a 5th season, even if shortened to give it a proper ending.