Guess who's back

Hey hey,

So I am alive, checking the blog a little less frequently than uh, I should. School is going pretty well, I've gotten through 3 months of internal medicine, 6 weeks of psychiatry, and I'm currently starting my 6 week family medicine rotation. Psychiatry was actually a blast, I was told by one of my delirious patients that I was one of the "bad boys" of the hospital. I've also been called Doogie a few times, offered to be adopted by a nice old couple, and just yesterday a patient asked if I was 18 and called me "scooter" through the interview. No one appreciates boyish good looks these days.

Speaking of that, life on the lady front is currently nonexistent. Uh, so no update there.

Not quite sure that I want to be a neurosurgeon anymore, it seems like the closer I get to being done with med school the more I want to have a real job and not 7 years more of residency. I've also been told by basically everyone that I'd make a good internal medicine doctor. We'll see though, I have my surgery rotation next and I'll give it a fair shot.

Joseph, are they doing a VATS? Seems like that might give some resolution, sucks to have to go through that though. I have a good primary spontaneous pneumothorax summary article if you want.

Our 2nd REUNION is long overdue ~ So our 3rd year rotations are all set, but 4th year we get electives and time off. Plus I have spring break March 26 to April 3 (I think) if we're planning ahead

Okay, that's all for now; it is the weekend after all, I've got to go pick up my wages

Dan

Fuckin A'

Hi...remember me?

First...where's my drunk dial, Robin? Its 10 pm EST...what the fuck?

Second, my life is a crazy mess of crazy. I did a (fake) rape trial this morning for a grade...and have been blowing off the extensive (read: paper due weds.) amount of work I have to do. there is rum in my glass...Jessie is asleep on the couch behind me, and I'm doing shitless, thankless work that I don't want to be doing right now because it means that I can drink while I do it and listen to the Inception soundtrack.

(COMPLETE sidenote...in hindsight, Inception was fucking awesome. Robin, I know we saw it together. I know that you had issues with it (because you're you) but a few months out--that was a fucking awesome movie. That's the kind of movie that I could grab a SoCo black and limeade to and watch on a projector wall after playing beirut...if you know what I mean).

Anyways...I have interviews with DA offices this week, so I'll be in NYC on Sunday-Monday and Chicago on Friday-Saturday, all in the hopes of protecting your safety for lower-than-deserved pay.

Oh...and next weekend, I'm probably going to get inappropriately drunk. Or watch as my immune system implodes. Haven't decided which yet.

I love you guys.

Cee-Lo

You should all find some way to listen to "The Lady Killer" by Cee-Lo Green (except Nick who I am sure already has). This album just dropped last week. It is awesome. http://www.myspace.com/ceelogreen

That is all.

Joseph is Coming to Boston This Weekend. . .

The rest of you should expect to be drunk dialed gratuitously.

That is all.

I do love ranting. . .

You know, in case you guys forgot.

Anyway, MIT has really been pissing me off recently, which we'll call excuse #1 why I haven't been posting on the blog. I was supposed to take the last part of my qualifying exam this semester, so I've spent most of the semester wasting time and telling myself I should start studying. They were supposed to assign me a testing committee with whom I would schedule my exam. Well it's been two months or so and I still don't have a committee, which means I still don't have an exam day. It's damn near impossible to schedule anything in December, and professors are so busy they can't be scheduled less than a month in advance, let alone three of them for the same time. All this together adds up to about half a semester wasted waiting for a committee assignment and no exam until next semester. BLAH. Also I apparently had a class I need for graduation listed as P/F instead of a grade for credit. After 6 months of hounding various administrative offices here I finally got them to switch it but god damn it was a lot of work. OK I'm done ranting for now.
The silver lining in this exam being pushed back is I have more time to do actual research, which is actually going pretty well. I'm working on a paper right now that I'm hoping to get submitted some time this year. I still have a bunch of analysis to do, but it's some cool stuff. I'll be presenting some measurements on a new material we just reported earlier this year, as well as using those measurements to shed light on an interesting material that is as of yet not well understood. I'll have more on this as it progresses.
The other thing that's been absorbing my time is that I'm TAing this semester for MIT's freshman physics class. It's a lot of work, and grading is a bitch, but overall I'm enjoying it. I get to interact with students in class because the class is taught in this quasi-lecture quasi-group activity format. It's pretty cool. Also, the guy I work for has told me he wants me to give a lecture later in the semester, which I think will be some good experience, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm also running a seminar for a small group of freshmen, most of whom are in my physics class. Most weeks I just line up professors to talk about their research (it's all cool futuristic engineering stuff), but some weeks I get to give little talks and do fun physics/chemistry demos. For example, a few weeks ago we did Mentos+Diet Coke, and I'm also going to show them how to light up a pickle, and why toast is more likely to fall butter side down. They're mostly pretty bright kids, so they're a lot of fun to work with.

Other than that, I still find some time for mountain biking on the weekends and some ultimate frisbee here and there. Add a smattering of TV and video games and some beer and that's my life. Kinda boring I guess.

Here's my TV breakdown:
Digging:
Dexter- This season has way less of Captain Dick Solomon's ass, which I think is a good call. Also machete-beheading plus Stockholm syndrome ftw.
The Event- This show is incredibly predictable, but it's still a good time and I like the whole aliens/future humans with magic powers thing.
Hell's Kitchen- Who doesn't love Gordon Ramsay screaming at people?
Modern Family- Hilarious every week.

Mildly Entertaining:
House, Chuck- Not as good as they used to be, but I'm still watching.
Oultaw- I'm a sucker for criminal procedure dramas, and I love me some Jimmy Smits, but honestly I'm surprised it hasn't been canceled already.
HIMYM, The Office, Community, and The Big Bang Theory- I think these are all on the way out, but they're still good for a few laughs.
Glee- Really I hate the ridiculous high school drama crap, but they have some interesting covers. I especially enjoyed "Losing my Religion"

Tumbs down:
Agreed on Outsourced and 30 Rock, although I did enjoy the 30 Rock live episode.


No Californication until January? BOOOOO!
I haven't watched any of the new South Park or Futurama, but I don't have comedy central and they're kind of bastards about putting stuff on the internets so whatever.
I've heard good things about Mad Men, but I haven't watched any of it yet.
I'm also interested in Treme, since The Wire was so good. Nick and Alan have you guys still not watched it?

So that's NUT(my life)SHELL. Hope you're all doing well.

P.S. Joseph get your lazy (or more accurately: overworked) butt up to Boston.

Excuses

Joe makes a good point. This blog has been quiet for far too long. I am as guilty as everyone else. It only took me ... two weeks to respond to this post! Maybe we should all take 5 minutes and share a little mini-rant about why we have been blog-less for so long. Basically what is going on in everyone's life right now?

I am finally finding time to relax, which is strangely stressful in its own way. After spending my summer in San Francisco working for an intellectual property law firm I had a few weeks of vacation and traveling before jumping back in to the glory that is law school. Somehow I decided it was a good idea to take two of my four classes in a concentrated format (which means they only meet for 7 or 8 weeks, instead of 15). As a result, I had a very busy first month of school. On top of the busy schedule I found out during that month that my previous employer was not interested in hiring me for a full time position afte school, so I had to start my job search. This job search included applying for judicial clerkships, which Nick can attest to as a huge pain in the ass waste of time. Two weeks ago I started studying for the final exams in my concentrated classes, and last week I finished. Now I have one class a day, four days a week, and a resaerch project to work on, so yay free time!

In response to Joe's TV breakdown, I am behind the curve and slowly catching up, but:

Digging:
Modern Family -- this show is just great, period.
Chuck -- I am a sucker for Yvonne Strahovski and the show is generally witty and fun
Venture Bros -- This show is random as always, but it has its charms

Mildly Entertaining:
HIMYM -- The gimmicks are old, but the cast is still great; how can you say not to Barney?
Family Guy -- The first episode this season was pretty great, even though the show in general is hit-or-miss
South Park -- I anticipate great things as always, but from what I saw of the first episode I wasn't blown away (I was really hoping for a Ground-Zero Mosque episode)
Glee -- Nicolle likes it...and so do many others I have talked to. I've only seen a few minutes of it, but it seems alright.
Entourage -- This show is on a downswing, but I still get a kick out of it.

Thumbs Down:
Gossip Girl -- Nicolle's roommate watchese this, and I don't understand. I really really don't.

Eagerly Awaiting (haven't watched yet) --
Dexter
Californication
Weeds ? -- I heard that this season is really strange, but Mary Louis Parker...so hot

Thoughts?

ECHO ... ECHo ... ECho ... Echo ... echo ...

Hey, I miss you guys. The blog has been quiet for too long. I thought I’d share what shows I’m watching and liking these days because I’m curious about your list:

Digging:
Community – Last season had some good episodes so anticipation has me excited for if they can do it again this year.
Modern Family – It does have some pretty funny moment.
Pawn Stars – I’m kinda addicted to this show. It’s like antique road show but awesome.

Mildly entertaining:
Castle – This show is not that great but I miss Firefly.
The office – It’s good that this show is in its final season. Less funny moments these days.
House – The first episode was not great but they use to have good ones so I’ll watch a few more.
HIMYM – This show is on the way out for me.
Burn Notice - I have a soft spot in my heart for this show even though the plot is pretty similar one episode to the next.

On the way out:
Raising hope – This show is bad but a few rare moments have tickled me. I’m sure this will move to the bad list soon.

Thumbs down:
The Event – I watched the first episode because I saw Robin saying he was going to. It was pretty damn bad.
30 rock – I was never a big fan of this show but I am really indifferent to it now
Outsourced – The movie this is based off of a movie that was pretty good but I watched part of the first episode and it was bad
Cougar town – Yeah this show was never good
Glee – Andrea likes it.
Running wilde – I never quiet understood why people like arrested development. This show is even worst.

I imagine Dexter is good but I don’t have showtime. I am renting last season soon.

Anybody seen mad men? I heard some people at work saying they like it but the people I work with tend to watch stuff I like less.

That's a Negative, Ghostrider, the pattern is full.

Yay Joe!
SO...when Marine One flies in, it always has a decoy. Today, when I was running on the Arlington Bridge, the decoy peeled off as they entered DC airspace.

It's 4th of July weekend...I think they let the guys go a little bit...because this guy BUZZED the fucking bridge. It was fucking sweet. I felt like he was going to knock me over.

I later learned there was an Admiral's daughter stuck in traffic. I hear he now, apparently, wants some butts.

Happy Holiday, ladies and gents.

'Merica...fuck yeah.

A rolling stone gathers no moss

FYI I'm moving into a new apartment with Andrea (Robin it's the place where we went to the Christmas party). She got a job with a private school here as a college councilor. She is driving down right now and will be here Saturday.

I said goodbye to my brother yesterday. He is leaving mid-July for American Samoa where he is going to live for a year and teach math.

Work, school and everything else is about the same. Hope everyone is enjoying there summer.

Gangstagrass

For those of you who thought rap and bluegrass couldn't go together, check these guys out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy09F1cUIrA

also, watch Justified.

Stuff

Hey,

This is Lost related and is funny if you haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di3w1yV4Ehg

This is a good cover that grows on you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0z1Mo7O6dE

And this was kind of a bad-ass Mythbusters I saw last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAKS3VkPfD4

Enjoy

**SPOILER ALERT** -- LOST: An Epilogue

Rather than reject the current Lost ending outright I will attempt to write my own 'Epilogue' describing events that happen after plane leaves the island but before the "eternal journey" begins.

To briefly recap: Ben, Hurley, Jack, Desmond, Rose, Bernard and Vincent are still on the island; Kate, Claire, Sawyer, Miles, Lapidus, and Richard Alpert are on Ajeira flying to somewhere. Boone, Shannon, Libby, Charlie, Sayid, Sun and Jin are dead on the island (along with some others, but we don't care so much about them). We also have some Lost diaspora unaccounted for: Walt is somewhere around Manhattan, Aaron is either in Los Angeles or Australia with his grandmother, Ji Yeon is in Seol Korea with her grandmother, Clementine (Sawyer’s daughter) is somewhere, and Penny and Charlie Hume are somewhere. There are some major questions that have been left unanswered at this point (some of which are likely unanswerable): (1) what is the island? (2) What happened when Juliette activated the nuclear bomb at the end of season 5 in 1977? (3) Does the island require some sort of balance between benevolent and malevolent forces in order to exist? (4) What ever happened to the Dharma Initiative? (5) Who were the others and where did they come from? (6) Why are the numbers significant?

Hurley has now taken Jack's place as protector of the island with Ben as his "number 2." However, it is unclear what Hurley’s role should be and the ending is ambiguous as to when Jack dies. Let’s say the island heals jack’s knife wound and he wakes up in the bamboo field, now what? I say Hurley’s first move is to get Desmond off of the island so that he can return to his wife and child. Desmond gets on his old boat and Hurley sends him on his way (discovering his new-found Jacob powers in the process). After parting ways with Desmond, Hurley has to do something to pass the time on the island, so he begins to investigate the numbers again. He talks to dead people some more (except Jacob, who is gone for good) and he sets up shop with Ben in the old Dharma town. One day Jack wanders into town and finds Ben and Hugo; they exchange excited hugs but there is an unmistakable tension between them. Hurley realizes that he has the power to send Jack back to the real world where he can be happy and live a complete life; he tells Jack about this idea, but Jack has made his choice and insists on staying on the island. Jack walks away and Hurley calls after him “you have to go back!” What ensues is a constant game of cat-and-mouse between Hurley and Jack on the island, with Hurley trying to get him to leave and Jack stubbornly insisting that he stays (inverting the Jacob—Esau tension).

In the meantime, the plane passengers manage to find their way back to civilization without making a huge scene, and Kate is forced to take on a central leadership role as Claire’s life-counselor and Sawyer’s therapist. She reunites Sawyer with his long-lost daughter and brings Aaron and Claire back together. At some point she manages to resolve most of what was unsettled, and she finds herself longing to find Jack. She turns to Richard, who has sought out either a life of seclusion or a fast-paced city life to complete his temporal journey, in hopes that he can guide her back to the island. But Richard has severed ties and is just living out the end of his life, so she eventually finds Desmond who has inherited Widmore’s fortune and connections to the island and the Dharma initiative. Clearly there is a lot of time and drama here, but the real question is do Kate and Jack ever find each other? My answer  not until they meet in “purgatory” aka sideways timeline.

Answers to other questions … The Island is exactly what Jacob said…the cork in a bottle full of good and evil. Juliette never activated the nuclear bomb in 1977, instead the island “flashed” them back to the present right when she tried to trigger it. The island always has good and evil aspects represented, so there will always be tension and a struggle for balance. The Dharma Initiative faded years ago, but what remains of it is probably owned by Charles Widmore or Ben’s contacts in the real world. The others were another group of stranded travelers that Jacob brought or allowed to come to the island in search of a replacement, he allowed them to live on the island and communicated with them through Richard, and eventually they were well established as a Jacob-worshipping cult on the island. The numbers are a representation of the essence of the island and thus have strange powers and effects just like the mystical electro-magnetic properties; Hurley’s unfortunate fate is that his life will be guided by the numbers until the day he dies. But before Hurley can die, he must find a replacement! My nomination  Walt! Hurley needs someone to keep him company on the island (and play white-and-black metaphorical board games with him), so why not bring back his long time mind companion Walt (he probably hates it in NYC anyway).

Also I would like to note that Ben is the only one of the “main” characters (not including children) who is not present in the church at the end of Lost  Thus he is going to hell (and he knows it!).

That is all…

Dan this is a LOST plot spoiler

Before I start, I have a way of sounding like I hate everything because I analyze things very critically so let me state that I enjoyed the finale of Lost and it was a lot of fun having everyone (except Dan) together for it. Having said that:

So after I went to bed last night I was considering that last episode and I came to a conclusion I'd like your opinion on. It seems to me that that last episode indicates that the writers hadn't planned from the start how they would end the show. My reason for thinking this is that in the season 2-3 time frame lots of viewers started supporting the "current reality is purgatory" theory. In the final episode they turn the flash sideways world into limbo. The flash sideways reality didn't exist back when the purgatory theory started and there was no indication that the show would have to end with limbo being a theme. So it seems to me that the writers changed course at the end and came up with an ending that didn't really call on the story line from the rest of the show in terms of the fundamental plot (the plot associated with the island history not the character personalities). I don't read the Lost websites out there so maybe this is already common knowledge. What do you think?

The ending was kind of weird considering the kind of show it was in the past. The final season built up this island mythology storyline that really seemed to be going somewhere and then turned out to be completely irrelevant like it was a storytelling inconvenience to be ignored as gracefully as possible. If there was any warning signs of this coming it was that for the last few seasons the show had been getting less deep in terms of having less layers. Gone were the subtle Easter eggs like seeing the numbers, the dharma marked shark, the oceanic symbol etc. I just really feel like that element was really toned down at the end. I also feel like plot developments were really shoved in your face like "do you get it? Bla and bla was the one who did it!” All of this leads me to believe the show was dumbed down for a larger audience. The fairytale ending that was entirely character driven was just the continuation of the giving-the-average-Joe-what-he-wants as opposed to exercising anybody’s brains.

I was thinking about how I would have ended it and my first ideas were:

Jack = Jacob, Ben = Smokey (If you wanted smokey to be bad) This time have it be that for some reason for the safety of the island they need to keep Ben off the island instead of keeping him on.

Jack = Jacob, Desmond = Smokey: If smokey doesn't need to be bad.

But I have to admit we would have seen those coming so to be true to the original spirit of the show where we were really surprised by plot twists I tried to come up with something really out there:

It turns out Widmore has brought along Aaron and Sun’s baby as leverage on Jack, Kate, Sun, Jin and anybody else with a soul (we'd have to rewrite a couple episodes). Widmore gets wacked by Smokey, Claire finds a way to steal the kids after Smokey does his thing meanwhile the rest of the Lostees finds Widmore and the rest of his posse and think the kids are dead. Most people leave the Island, maybe the plane goes down as its leaving, Claire takes out some people (at the very least kills Kate) ... Anyway, it ends with Claire and the two babies being the only two on the island (Rose and Bernard can stay). Flash forwards: The kids are 11-12 and Aaron is staring out to sea (maybe Aaron starts having visions of Kate who tells him there is a world outside the island, that she raised Aaron and that Claire killed her. This makes Aaron the new Esau and give credence/explanation to the fortune teller’s insistence that Claire raise the baby) and Sun’s girl is helping "mom" like a momma’s girl. Aaron, Claire’s favorite of the two ends up being the bad one and Sun’s girl is the future Jacob. That ending has the advantage of being a snake eating its tail ending but I feel like someone could come up with something better that uses ever more of the island mythology (black vs white, Egypt, super electromagnets etc) to really tie up a nice satisfying interconnected type of ending.

So my challenge to you guys is to come up with your own ending that would have been better than the real one but it has to be a nobody-would-have-seen-it-coming ending. And then share please.

Alan the eye closing call was badass.

MIA

Hey kids,

Once again, my bad for not picking up the phone/watching Lost with you guys. My only excuse is I'm studying basically 6 to 8 everyday (that's 14, not 2 hours) and then go to bed... I catch my TV in study breaks and meals, so I'll be caught up hopefully soon. I miss you guys/having a life; maybe we can all swing a winter break get-together? I'm gone all summer studying/in Japan, but we need another reunion!

I'm not so good with picking up the phone, so start posting on the blog with what the heck is going on in your lives! Alan/Nick, you guys figured out what kind of law you're going into? Rissa, what're you doing with your last summer off ever? Robin, how was Europe? Joseph, do you have free time yet or are you still wall to wall work/school?

Okay, still feel guilty about ditching you guys, but i think that's all this Catholic influence at Loyola.

Cheers,
Dan

*tear*

For all the fabricated, cookie cutter moments that Lost has generated over 6 seasons, they still have the ability to generate truly awe inspiring moments. This episode contained at least one such moment (Sun and Jin going down with the ship Titanic style). There are moments when I am staring at the screen and wondering why the hell Claire here and who even cares? My current theory is that they signed Emilie de Ravin to some long-term multi-year contract a few seasons ago and they've been kicking themselves ever since because they have NOTHING for her character to do, so they gave her a bad hairdo and made her play with a fake doll-baby in hopes that she would quit.

Thoughts?

ZOMG

Oh. No. They. Didn't.

Also...I'm going to see Iron Man next week hung-over as soon as I get done with finals. Remember when we all saw the first one together? And Joseph liked it enough to not complain about the science?

Good times.

Resurrecting the blog!

Sorry about my Lost absences; my only excuse is that I hate you guys. But really, I have no clue how this will all pan out, but it seems like the show is leaning towards Jack becoming the next Jacob. I imagine he'll have to end up staying so that everyone else can get off the island, like when he cut Ben so Sawyer and Kate could escape. Still don't know how they're going to merge the two timelines... another nuke would seem a little anti-climactic.

Also, when you all have 5 minutes to spare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I&feature=player_embedded

Awesome.

LOST

ZOMG! just watched it! I'm gonna say generally awesome, but I am getting tired of Lost being like "THEY'RE ALL DEAD THE ISLAND IS PURGATORY/HELL! . . . . wait, no they're not/it's not."

It's been too long since we had a flashback episode and I enjoyed that. Also I think they delved a little more deeply into the mythology, which to be honest is what I care most about at this point. I liked the end scene and I hope not-locke tries a new way off the island akin to smashing the bottle rather than going after the cork.

Also it took me waay too long to figure out who Hurley was talking to, but even so I got it before the reveal.

Med People: Read

Dear Future Doctor Friends,

What stethoscope do you and all your future doctor friends use? The internet tells me that the Littman Cardio III is good. But also the II SE. Thoughts? Opinions? Westlaw v. Lexis-based biases?

That is all.

Worst Decision Ever

So I don't know who decided my exam week should be the week of March Madness, but I do not appreciate it. We were giving presentations (on our unknown hormone projects) in class today and half the class had out their laptops streaming games off of espn.com. My side of the class was watching the Murray State-Vandy game, and there was an audible gasp from us when Murray State literally won at the last second. Also, Tennessee about gave me a heart attack tonight when they almost losing to San Diego State. I just can't handle that extra stress right now. Although honestly, Tennessee will probably make it to the 3rd round tops, and then I won't have to worry anymore...

Part-A

Hey, I'm throwing a party in April for some friends who are moving and I wanted to see if anybody has a suggestion for mixed drinks?

AHHHH!!! EXCITED!!!!

So...Jessie and I saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D tonight b/c I had an AMC gift card and she didn't want to see Green Zone. As a movie, I give it a big, giant....meh.

BUT WAIT...it had 3d trailers, one of which was

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFHMf_nswMM

TRON 2

IN 3D

EPIC WIN

Something Ridiculous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE792g55GUw

Lost

Hey kids,

Thought I'd pop in, I haven't been reading the ol' blog because I haven't even started this season of Lost (been pretty busy around here), but we've got spring break coming up so I promise to catch up! Just thought I'd poke my head in though and let y'all know I'm still alive.

Dan

PS Rissa, thanks for being my awkward buddy, you're a lifesaver

Struggle, mysteries, and power

I think one of the underlying themes of lost involves the cycle between various struggles with mystery and power. When the plane first crashes on the island the castaways are confrunted with numerous mysteries: noises in the jungle, dissapearing passangers, and the strange nature of their surroundings. During the second season they struggle with the mysterious hatch and the responsibility of the numbers and their power manifested in the hatch computer. During the third season the mysterious "others" begin to be revealed, and the power struggle begins between the crash survivors and their native enemies. During season four we learn that the mysterious others are in fact quite normal, except for their even more mysterious leader Benjamin who seems to hold a special power and connection to the island that no one quite understands. In season five Ben's facade begins to melt away and we learn that he is in fact part of a larger struggle between the island, Charles Widmore, and the mysterious power of Jacob. Finally in this last season we begin to see that Ben and Charles are mere pawns in a larger power struggle between Jacob and Esau, who seem to be manifestations of good and evil.

I would venture to guess that by the end of the series we will leave with a sense that even Jacob and Esau are merely playing their part in the larger struggle of existence. Clearly they are both subject to rules (not crossing the dust, not being immortal) that they cannot control. In the latest episode we see the way Esau struggles with his confinement on the island, and we begin to question Jacob's omnipotence (if he knows all then why did he have to cross out so many names to find the "right" ones?). I feel like some of the final revalations of Lost will involve a release from the ideal notion of absolute control and power. Instead we will be left with a concept of concentric circles of power or control that stretch into eternity, never reaching the pneultimate level. This would make for a very different universal concept than some sort of clean 'purgatory' resolution that would be uncharacteristically definite in a narrative of uncertainty.

The darkness

So after the last two episodes of Lost I have been trying to reconcile things we are seeing now with things we have seen in the past. One matter of confusion for me is the matter of Locke meeting "Jacob" when Ben took him to the shack in the jungle. That 'sitting in the dark' kind of scary figure just doesn't jibe with the Jacob we know now. On top of that "Jacob" says something to Locke when he's shaking the shack up (like "Help me"?). Was it actually Esau? It doesn't seem likely it was Jacob. On top of that the shack was protected by the ash from the smoke monster. Jacob doesn't need protection from the smoke monster and it couldn't be Esau because of the ash (unless the ash only stops Esau when he's in smoke monster form).

I think that there is a third force at play we haven't been explicitly introduced to ... the darkness. The darkness that got Rousseau's team, the darkness that has Sayeed, the darkness that has Claire and daddy Shepard(?). I think this is really what Jacob brought the new people to protect the island from. If so I think the height of the last season conflict will be the fight against the darkness.

We still don't know why Richard was in chains, why Esau is stuck on the island, who the new people from the plane are who seem to know certain things about the island.

CD Recs

Passion Pit- Manners. Download. Drink. Smile.

LOST

So I thought that was a great episode- apart from Juliet dying. I just can't get behind that; probably because I hate Kate, but whatevs.

Joe mentioned the parallel realities intersecting in his earlier post, and I thought I'd share a thought one of my friends from school had. He thinks that the flash-sideways is actually a flashback to the past that ultimately didn't change anything. While there have been differences in the sideways timeline, they generally tend to be small (Jack being the nervous flier-not Rose, getting one bottle of vodka- not 2, etc.), and there seems to be a lot of course correcting going on. The details may be different, but many of the overarching plot points are the same. Charlie almost dies and Jack saves him. Boone tells Locke that he would follow him anywhere. The Marshal is injured (he'll probably die later), and Kate escapes. I would be willing to bet that Locke will walk again at some point (thought with Jack's help as opposed to the island's), Kate and Sawyer will have sex, and Kate will end up with Aaron. Anyway, he thinks that many (if not basically all) of the major events from the past five seasons will still happen; it will just be off the island. At some point, the convergence of the timelines will come when they eventually end up back at the island. After all, the Lost mythology generally states that you can't avoid fate. Charlie tried, with Desmond's help, and failed, and Desmond himself got a similar lesson from Eloise Hawking in an earlier season.

Having said all that, one of the major flaws in this theory is that we saw the island underwater at the beginning of the episode. So I don't know. On the other hand, that could have only been a part of the island, or only one of the islands, and really, I wouldn't put it past them to somehow "resurrect" the island. Most things aren't too far outside of the realm of possibility in Lost anyway.

Lost is back!

I wrote this at work so some of it repeats what others have pointed out already:

So one of the interesting things that came up in that last episode is Esau's desire to go home (I believe we saw that in the past also although I'm not sure). One question has to be where is home? I am guessing Egypt or close by. The Island is covered with Egyptian Hieroglyphs and recall that Jacob was making an Egyptian tapestry in the statue foot. This is also consistent with the Biblical reference as Jacob moved his family to Egypt after a famine in Canaan and the descendants of Esau end up in Egypt. If I recall correctly the tunnel that Ben takes off of the Island brings him to a desert in Tunisia (not Egypt but the correct part of the world at least).

The Esau's line to Richard “It’s good to see you out of those chains” was very interesting. I guess Esau chained up Richard because Jacob seems OK with him. Richard doesn't exactly seem like the kind of person you need to chain up for being evil.

The whole parallel realities begs the question of where we are going with all of this. In the past, multiple realities always intersect at some point. Are these two realities going to intersect or what does the new reality add to the storyline? Could it be as simple as demonstrating that the plane not crashing doesn't work out for anyone? Or does it maybe allow the writers to kill off lots of characters without pissing off the audience because they are still alive in the good reality? I think because its Lost we have to get something big plotwise from this reality so those examples are probably not enough.

How did Juliet know that the bomb worked? Right at her dying moment? Seems to support the purgatory theory a little.

God I'm bad at being productive.

So I just wrote my little "Team Juliet" post...but I feel I must qualify.

While Juliet was much better for Sawyer than Little Ms. Underworld-Rise-of-the-Lycans, she only remaining thing that she could do for the plot of the show is to provide Sawyer with motivation. The best way to do that? Dying. But what the hell do I know...I thought it was Claire under all that.

In other news:

-Resurrected Sayid=Resurrected Jacob?
-While I think you could do a lot with not resolving the two timelines...I think its clear that they're going to have to merge at some point. I just hope it doesn't involve ANOTHER plane crash. Get creative, everyone. We can do this.
-I kinda want Ben to Stay evil.
-I think the show has forgotten about Charles Widmore.

-Andddd....reading.

First Impressions

Since the time difference prevents me from joining the live Lost dork fest with the rest of you...I figured I would post my initial reaction to this final season intro extravaganza. As always with the beginning of a season we get more questions than answers, but there is certainly one question looming in my head. How are they going to finish this final season and NOT convince me that the island=purgatory? I get the feeling that someone called them out during season 2 and they immediately backpedaled -- "Haha of course the island isn't purgatory...that would be super lame *gulp*"

Seriously though...we are getting some sort of flash-sideways? Are there two simultaneous realities? How is this not purgatory?

Also, I like the fact that there are two 'new' things happening on the plane: the presence of Desmond (could have any number of interesting explainations) and the non-presence of Shannon (only explained by the fact that she was "too busy" to film this season).

I wish I had Lost in HD because it is so much less entertaining in SD grainy glory.

I think John Locke transformation over the series arch will be one of Lost's greatest accomplishments (along with finally killing Juliet off). Seriously who could go from mystery man to outsider to leader to pariah to supervillan but John Locke?

Anyways those are my initial thoughts...

Press in dire situations

Ok, so my roommate introduced me to this and I thought you all might enjoy:
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

Also totally psyched for lost tomorrow.

I'm not gonna lie...

I totally watched those first 4 minutes. Are any of you really surprised? I'm guessing the answer is no. I have stayed away from any spoilers online though, so I think I should get a congrats for that. Also, the first 4 minutes is really more like the first minute and a half. Most of it is just a repeat of the last bit of last season's finale. Anyway, I totally don't have time to watch it these next few weeks, but I'm so gonna do it anyway. And I told some of my friends that I would watch it with them, but only if I could bring my laptop to the party. Does this make me a loser? I don't think so. I think it means I have my priorities straight (cough, DAN, cough).

Also, this: Today, while at a party, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" started playing. For being the only one who didn't know the lyrics, I had beer thrown on me, my shirt stolen, and I was locked outside for half an hour. It's below freezing. FML. That dude totally deserved it.

I only got 4 Minutes...

SO...

Apparently the first 4 minutes of the Lost premiere are online. I will not be watching it (And I'm the guy who couldn't wait until the Book of Eli came out so I could look online to what the inevitable (and...actually satisfying) twist at the end was) and I should hope that you all don't either so that we can have are awesome time together in this space quite soon.

Who has two thumbs and is excited? This guy.

BTW...Alan, you might want to alert the people at Blogger...methinks our activity is going to spike a bit.

Epic...

Joe

1. Points just for including "Another Night". I havn't heard that song in 3 years, and I forgot how fucking awesome it is.

2. Do you have a particular track listing, or should I just turn on shuffle and surprise myself?

Tomorrow night is law school prom (Barrister's Ball) I'll be getting far too drunk in the chase and possibly making bad decisions. Don't be surprised if your phones ring.

FISTPUMP!

You've got mail

You should get an email from transferbigfiles.com
The folder is ~316mb
It is double zipped. The first zip is password protected. The password is "offthehook".

Hope you guys enjoy

DC

Nick, do you have general dates of when you would like to have a place in DC?

Sweet Music

My new years resolution was to start posting to the blog again.

Nick congrats on the job. I am asking about apartments for you so I hope you were serious.

I made a '85-'95 mix for a party last year. I sent an email to you guys asking for songs. Well I was thinking I'd send the songs I collected out to anyone who wanted them. I will upload them to a site where you can download them from. Anyone who wants them let me know and give me the email address you'd like the link sent to. There is some pretty quality stuff in there which I think Robin can attest to.

Happy Days are Here Again

Hello All...

First, I want everyone to know that the other night, before the federal government decided to give me all my money for the next 6 months, I was a little low in the cash department and still wanted beer...so what did I get? Thats right--Keystone tall boys at Schnucks for 3.98 a six pack. Life was good.

Second, I got a job! Yay! I'll be in DC all summer putting sex offenders in jail for the Department of Justice. If anyone knows anyone that I might be able to stay with, I'd be much obliged.

Third, my new thing is roasting large pieces of poultry. I made a turkey over break and I just bought a whole chicken I'm going to stuff w/ shit and make all tastily.

Hoorah for holiday weekend drinking!!!

So True. . .

So I saw this on texts from last night and I thought you all would enjoy:

(203):

it will be a sad day when drinking racks of keystone isnt socially acceptable anymore

So true. Good thing we haven't reached that day yet.