My wife enjoyed the film. Me. I detested it. From the ridiculous opening scene with the embryonic Kirk performing a death defying feat that the best stunt driver ever could not have pulled off (let alone a young boy) to the fight action on the drill platform (Kirk is hanging by his finger tips from the edge of the platform, certain to die if he lets go, and a Romulan guard is, typically incompetently, trying to stamp on his fingers. Oh, I am absolutely bloody gripped. But wait, haven't I witnessed such a scene before... hundeds of times. Oh, yes, that's it, it's only the most hackneyed fight sequence in cinematic history again) to the ludicrous plot stuffed full of inconsequential action, the film is complete nonsense.
Certainly, it has none of the gravitas of the suprisingly good Next Generation series and is utterly bereft of the charm that made the original series forgiveable, in spite of its many flaws.
I watched Star Trek Nemesis (which came out a few years ago) on TV last night. It was crap (like all the Star Trek films). But it looks like a Shakespearian masterpiece of story telling and character development compared with JJ Abram's shallow, cliched creation. You would have thought, given all the talk of time inversions, singularities and multidimensionality, that the film's director would at least have imbued the protaganists with a couple of dimensions. No such luck. I kept hoping that a race of Cardboard Cutouts would emerge from subspace interference in a ship stuck together by Blue Peter presenters, and blast the Enterprise to smithereens with plasticene guns.
But, then, the film was probably not aimed at me. I have a brain (two, actually). No, I really did not like this film. And I haven't even got on to its worst bit yet: the cast of annoying spoilt little brats who take charge of the Enterprise in what can only be described as a coup (a coup, that is, by a franchise shamelessly targeting the next generation by, rather than comiing up with any original ideas, simply replacing all the characters with young, attractive ersatzs of the original). A bunch of more annoying spoilt brats you would be hard pressed to find, even in local government. Even the usually agreeable Simon Pegg, playing the obligatory quirky Brit (don't you know, we invented the industrial revolution and concentration camps. We are not cute, funny little people whose sole purpose is to fill novelty roles in risible Hollywood blockbusters) is thoroughly uncharming as the cliched Scottie. Beam me up Scottie. No way. I'd rather die a horrible death in space, than spend any time with your crew.
In the closing scenes of the film, there is a tug of war between the brat-run USS Enterprise and a Black Hole. I was rooting for the mindless, hideously destructive ball of super dense matter. Alas, the Enterprise got away. Now my only hope is with the Romulans. Come on, you cold hearted logical peoples you, wipe out this tired old franchise once and for all.
Developing a big web project can be a bit like running a marathon badly. You put on a giant chicken outfit. Run around trying to trip over celebrities for the cameras. And nearly die of a heart attack. Okay, maybe that's just me. No, seriously, let me start again. Developing a big... bit like... running a marathon. You are full of energy at the start and set off at a frantic pace. Before you know it, you have the concept design and prototype done. Then you begin to start on the database hierarchy, the sign up forms. This is tiring work and soon your pace begins to slow. But you are still excited by the project so you push on.
There comes a point however on most large projects - usually around two-thirds to completion - when your enthusiasm begins to wane. You look into the distance and cannot see the end in sight. There is so much work to do and this work is the boring detailed stuff rather than fun conceptual work. You begin to wonder if the project is any good. You begin to get distracted by Facebook, Hacker News, flash backs of the mangled dying Action Man you threw out of the window with only a paper bag as a parachute when you were a kid (Okay, that's just me again). In short, you are flagging and unless you pick yourself up soon you will be retiring from this race.
This is usually when a good manager will step in and give his team of developers a good motivational talk (or a kick up the butt). But when you are working on your own projects as part of a startup, when you ARE your own manager, inviting yourself into your own office for a motivational talk does not usually do much good and could easily get you taken away by men in white coats (for me, writing this from Bradlington Mental Asylum, this is no longer a problem). It is easy to give up at this stage. So how do you motivate yourself in such a situation? How do you pick yourself up from the road, and crawl, if necessary, crawl, crawl, until bloodied and weeping, you inch over the finishing line on your stomach, a slimey trail of your inards in your wake (sorry, more flashbacks. My teddy this time. Tug of war with sis. Big Ted never was the same again). Yes, how do you do this...
Stop looking at me. Like, I have the slightest clue. What, you were expecting - because you had invested the time to read this far - that I magically would have the answer to one of the most intractable questions in software development - nay, in human psychology: how to motivate yourself and others. Or maybe, if you hadn't quite got the gist of this article, you were wondering how I could help you finish a marathon when, two thirds of the way through, your legs are buckling like a soldier who has taken one direct to the head. To the latter, I've heard that energy drinks are pretty good. Else, take a bus - nobody will probably notice and the money is only going to charity anyway. Later, you might want to invest in some smart drugs...
As for the former, get out of here - there's only one way you are going to finish your project, and that is by doing it. So stop reading frivilous blogs like this, and get down to some serious coding.