Random thoughts-- Lost, music, barking

To explain the inconsistent references to time in this entry-- I wrote this on Friday, but held off posting it. (I thought I had more to say.)

I felt a bit confused by some aspects of last night's episode of Lost. Well, that's not so strange, perhaps ;o) -- but I mean more confused than usual. Like I'd missed an episode. Which it turns out I had. But thanks to the online episodes, I'm all caught up now.

Um, if you follow the show (or plan to) and aren't up to date on it, beware of the next bit.
It will contain. . .
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So Alexis died last week, and I didn't even know it! I guess "they" think that as long as they continue to introduce new characters into the story, we viewers won't mind if they kill them off right and left. Personally, I'm getting tired of it. They've already killed some of the characters I liked best. Yes, it's a powerful plot device to take someone out just when we least expect it, but I think they run the risk of overusing that little trick.

I got the impression that we were supposed to be really touched, or something, that Kate and Jack were finally together, living a happy, normal life. But I didn't particularly care. I don't know what it is about those two, but I'm not especially rooting for them to "get together". In fact, I wouldn't mind if they went their separate ways. I think I'm actually more interested in the "bad guy" (Ben) than I am in Jack.

And remember the sinister warnings about Aaron before he was born? There seemed to be an insinuation that he was somehow evil or was possibly destined for some evil fate. I wonder when that will come back into play. . . Looked it up. People say that the psychic insisted that Claire must raise the baby herself to prevent danger. So maybe now that Kate has Aaron, bad things will begin to happen. (Well, like they haven't been happening all along. (g))

On a similar note, Walt demonstrated some strange psychic (?) abilities, but it's been a long time since there was any mention of that-- possibly because he's been off the island for a while. (Though I guess his occasional ghostly "appearances" could count as more recent bizarre phenomena, come to think of it. (g)) And now there's the new guy from the boat who is obviously psychic. . . not to mention the whole Jacob thing and the appearance of "ghosts" to Flashforward Hurley and Flashforward Jack. . .

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While listening briefly to "regular radio" (i.e. not talk radio, which is almost the only thing I listen to on the radio, these days), "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie (?) came on. I've heard bits of it before, but not until today have I heard enough to realize that it is the most annoying song in the universe (for today, at least). The stupid lyrics-- the whiny tones of her voice-- just every little thing about it is ir-ri-tat-ing!

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Why must Molly bark and bark and bark? After putting in a long night's work of barking, you'd think she'd be all barked out-- but no. She's become really bad about barking at night.

(I finally gave in and let her come in one night, when we were expecting bad weather. Needless to say, we're now back in the habit of letting her in every evening. At least it keeps her quiet at night. . .)

Feeling a bit lost. . .

I almost didn't notice there's going to be a new episode of Lost*, tonight. I was looking at the old time slot, and they've moved (temporarily? permanently?) to 9 p.m., Central.

I guess that means it's on at 10 p.m., Eastern? Nine is late enough. I do often watch a little TV at ten, but most of the time, by 10:30 I'm getting pretty sleepy. I'm certainly not in the mood to watch something like Lost until eleven o'clock.

Why do TPTB insist on scheduling so many of the best shows for Thursday night? It just doesn't make sense to me to compete that way rather than space them out through the week. Who decided that Thursday is the only night that people want to watch television? I guess it matters less these days, since so many people have TiVos (or some equivalent). But what about us people who are TiVo-less and too lazy to set up the VCR? ;o) Fortunately, most programs can easily be found online.

Still on the subject of Lost, have you seen this?



I never realized how much they use that word! I suppose it makes sense, considering how many "shocking revelations" and generally odd situations there are. ;o)

*Incidentally, I wonder if the title of the show is supposed to be written in "all caps". The intro shows it that way-- LOST-- but it just feels weird writing it that way all the time. . .

Widgets!

I've never really gotten into the widget thing before. Oh, sure, I've dabbled. I have a couple of weather widgets-- my Flickr "badge"-- and a couple other things. But it wasn't until tonight that my eyes were truly opened to the vast and wonderful world of widgets. ;o)

LOST fans, check this out: There's a widget that simulates being the person stuck in the hatch, charged with the all-important job of typing in "those" numbers every 108 minutes.


It only accepts the numbers within four minutes of the "deadline"-- and if you miss it, there's supposedly a rather startling "Mission Failure" sound clip. (g) The only problem is that people are reporting problems with entering the numbers. Plus it must be really annoying, having to keep tabs on when you need to be back at the keyboard. Kind of like those little digital toys that were supposed to be "pets". You had to "feed" them or something, didn't you? I never understood the appeal of that-- maybe because they were popular with my youngest sister's age group and probably not aimed at teens. ;o) (Ah, they were called Tamagotchi, I guess.)

Anyway, I imagine you have to be a die-hard fan to willingly subject yourself to this type of thing.

. . . So, how many of you are gonna download it? ;o)

Just chatting. . .

Random snippets:

It's a Swedish tradition to make "semlor" (that's the plural, singular is "semla") for Fat Tuesday (or as they call it, "Fettisdagen"). Donald decided to make them this year. He got his recipe from his mother, but here's one online (in English) if you're interested.

I think he's only made them once before since moving to the US, and I don't remember much about them, so I'm a bit curious. I guess we'll probably make them over the weekend, which will be a longer one than usual for us, since he's taking Monday off. :o)

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I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic for the 90s today. Just thought I'd let you know. (g)

Seriously, though-- at the time, I never thought "Yeah, boy, these are the years!" Just like there probably aren't many people walking around today thinking "Early 2008 is the greatest time of my life! If only this year could last forever!" And yet in ten or fifteen years, some of us will probably look back fondly and think how simple life was for us "back then".

I'm not saying that I'd like to relive the 90s-- no more middle and high school, thanks; I've had my fill-- but we're all allowed a little nostalgia. ;o) This particular bout was brought on by a familiar song I heard while grocery shopping yesterday. With a little creative googling, I identified it as "Hazard" by Richard Marx and even found the music video on YouTube. (I keep telling you, this Internet thing is downright nifty!) It's not a warm, fuzzy song at all, but it still brought back a lot of pleasant memories. Funny how even an ominous song about a murder can be nostalgic, huh? Or maybe that's only true for the dark and grungy 1990s. . . ;o)

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LOST finally returned with a new episode last night. Which I'm sure you already knew, if you care at all.

Still, just to be on the safe side-- If you haven't seen the newest episode, there are spoilers coming up now.

Big, bad LOST spoilers!!

Right now! After just another line or two of warnings!

. . . So stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled! ! ! (This also applies if you haven't seen the show and don't give a hoot about it.)



--So, what did you think? As far as season premiers go, this one probably wasn't the most spectacular the series has ever offered. (Remember the disoriented feeling when we realized that the first few moments of that one premier wasn't a "flashback", but was following the normal routine of someone in the bunker, just moments before John blasted off the door?) Still, it wasn't bad. It did feel pretty hopeless, though. . . I mean, the ones (six, I guess, since Hurley referred to "The Oceanic Six", right?) who made it off the island seem to be in trouble. I'm a bit confused and lots curious, but that just comes with the territory for this show. ;o)

Here are some things I was thinking about while I watched. Feel free to comment/discuss in the comments section, if you like. Or not. (g)

• They need to stop "killing off" so many characters. I'm getting tired of it. Yes, every now and then it's a powerful plot twist, but it's also possible to overdo it. I like some of the secondary characters better than their precious Jack and Kate, but given the rate at which they keep flicking these characters into oblivion, I don't want to get too invested in them!
  
• So, since Hurley is going to hide and Jack and Kate aren't-- and based on the preview for the next ep.-- I guess we can assume that they aren't immediately rescued (since we know all three of them are rescued). I wonder who the other three rescued castaways are. . .
• I'm sure the folks on the message boards have been playing around with theories since the season finale, but who do you think was in the coffin? Someone related to the island, almost certainly, but it must not be someone they liked. (Not friend or family, Jack said, and Kate wondered why he thought she'd come to the viewing.)
  
• Is Jack's dad still really alive? Jack was drugged up and somewhat out of it when he referred to his father, so it's possible that he just slipped up, but the other doctor (albeit maybe a new kid on the block) didn't look startled, so it seems likely that he is still around. Very, very weird.
  
• Something FutureHurley said gave me the impression that some of the people are still on the island. But that doesn't make sense, unless they were hiding. Otherwise, you'd think they'd be "rescued" even if they said they wanted to stay.
  
• What does GhostCharlie want FutureHurley to do?
  
• And based on what FutureJack said, we get the impression that they're not supposed to give away the truth about the island-- or something like that. (At least, Jack seems worried that Hurley will say too much.) What's the big secret? Did they have to agree to secrecy in exchange for rescue? Are they protecting whoever/whatever's still on the island?
  
• Incidentally, I'm not sure if the "future" scenes are really supposed to be set in "our" future. I'm not such an obsessed fan that I recall when the plane crashed, how long they've been on the island so far, etc. Maybe the "future" in the show is actually our present? Anyway, for ease of use ;o) I'm referring to "on the island" as "present" and "back in the real world" as "future".
  
• Speaking of present vs. future-- Do you think this episode and the season finale set the tone for the whole season? Instead of flashing back to character's lives before the crash, will we continue to flash forward to their lives after rescue? (Or at this point, since the season finale may have started in the "future"-- I can't recall-- maybe they're still flashbacks, but they're flashing back to the island and the new status quo is the "future", off the island. . .)
• When FutureKate and FutureJack meet (in the season finale), she says she has to go because "he" will be wondering where she is-- or something like that. I wonder who "he" might be. . . It could be Sawyer-- maybe he wouldn't be too happy about Kate going to meet Jack-- but that just doesn't feel "right". It must be someone else. . .
  
• Weird how people's lives are so intertwined in this show, isn't it? (g) Of all the detectives for FutureHurley to talk to, it just happens to be one who knew Ana Lucia. What was the point of that, do you think? Just to forcefully remind Hurley of the horrors he experienced on the island-- and bring on the hallucination and panic attack-- or was it setting the stage for something more with that detective?
  
• That "haunted house" thing is creepy! (g) Who do you think they eye peeking out at Hurley was supposed to belong to? I mean, we saw a shadowy figure (Jacob, I assume) in his spooky rocking chair. . . Then up pops this eye! If it's someone else, then who? John Locke, who conveniently turns up a moment later? Could John have gone back to the shack in search of Jacob? You wouldn't think so, considering how he turned tail and ran away the first time he heard the disembodied voice, but John's a strange character, so who knows.
• The whole "Jacob" thing is just so weird that I don't even know where to begin with it. What is Jacob? A ghost? The black cloud of smoke? (No, probably not.) I hope they'll at least show us soon how Ben came to find Jacob.
  
• Oh, and while they're at it, can they please explain to me why that one guy (the one who looks like he's wearing eyeliner) looks exactly the same age "now" as he did when he first met Ben as a kid, even though Ben looks 30 years older? (g) Maybe the guy just has good genes and a great nutrition/exercise plan-- or a skillful plastic surgeon-- but I'm skeptical.
  

There are more questions, of course, but the biggest one of them all is-- Will any of this ever be explained? ;o) I'm not too concerned. As long as I'm interested, I'll watch.

Is it a "Lost" cause?

The writers' strike didn't really seem worth mentioning. I mean, I do watch TV, and I won't really like it if the programs I like to watch are re-runs when they're supposed to be new episodes, but I didn't think it was worth getting worked up over.

Until now. ;o)

When this TV season geared up, I wondered why I wasn't seeing trailers for the new season of "Lost". A quick google soon revealed the reason for this: new episodes of "Lost" weren't going to air until February 2008!! Kind of annoying for those of us who've been waiting months for the show to pick up again.

Well, now at least one TV gossip columnist is suggesting that if this strike lasts too long, the new episodes might not come until Fall 2008-- or worst case scenario, February 2009! I'm thinking they're going to lose some people if they keep us waiting a whole extra year. Personally, I've probably already half-forgotten some of the plot lines! (g) By February 2009 (if things don't go much better than I'm pessimistically expecting), I might not have the heart to watch silly TV programs. I'll be trying to recover from a serious case of politics-induced depression and preparing for the downfall of Western Civilization (whatever of it is still standing by then)... Or perhaps I exaggerate.

Come on, you crazy Hollywood people. Don't tell me you can't find someone else to take those writing jobs, if the strikers persist. Honestly, based on what I see on the ol' tube, these days, I'd say some of them should've been let go quite some time ago. . . ;o)