When In Philly…

I’m psyched to be working out of my company’s office in Philly this week after having been gone from this city where I resided for 12 years since I moved back to Maine in July of last year. Since moving back, I’ve been telecommuting and loving it.

I arrived yesterday and immediately went to Sedgley Woods disc golf course and hung out with some of the grooviest people on the planet for about 5 hours, playing disc golf while chugging beeahs…I mean, beers (I have to remember I’m back in civilization again and my reacquired Maine dialect could prove indecipherable to the locals, so it’s back to pronouncing my ahs….er, r’s). After that I checked in at the hotel, and then met up with other friends at Fergie’s Pub, which is only two blocks away in another direction. Awesome grub. Oh, and more beers.

I’m staying in the Lowe’s Hotel right in Center City. And, conveniently, two blocks from the office. My hotel room faces west, providing me with a great view of city hall and its clock tower. Behind it is the new Comcast Tower building, which was under construction when I left but has since been completed. It towers, literally, above every other building in the city now. It’s pretty ginormous.

I really have nothing else to say. Sometimes that happens. Besides, I have to get ready to grab a coffee and head into the office. With all of the friends I’ll be seeing while I’m here (including The Codes) for this week, I keep forgetting that I actually have to go into the office and work all week.

**rolls eyes**

Products That Won’t Be on My Shelves

As I made way down to Philadelphia last Friday, I stopped in Rhode Island to visit friends in Barrington. While there, they gave me something that they thought would make me laugh. It did.

I sometimes wonder what marketing executives are thinking when they come up with some of the names of product-names we see each day.

Previously I wrote on this subject in reference to Snapple’s disgustingly named tea bags, Mangoooooo.

This time around, I present you with Heinze’s Spotted Dick Sponge Pudding. This tasty treat is described as a traditional English steamed suet (beef) pudding containing raisins. **ack**


I really can’t foresee an occasion where I’ll suddenly find myself getting a craving for spotted dick. Ever.

But maybe it’s good with Mangoo….

In this Case, Size Does Matter

Check this out:

Philadelphia, PA covers 135 square miles. In 2006, the population of Philadelphia was 1.52 million people. That’s quite a few bodies crammed into not a whole lot of space.

The great State of Maine covers 83,215 square miles. The 2006 population of the entire Pine Tree State in 2006 was 1.32 million.


I’m not too good at math, but looking at these numbers shows that there are…let’s see…. **doing math…carry the one….subtract the square root of the multiplier…add pi…and comes up with** ….there are over 200,000 more people living in the 135 square miles of Philadelphia than live in the 83,000+ square miles of Maine. Or something like that. Damn! That’s a huge difference!!

So, do I miss Philadelphia? Of course I do. But Philadelphia was too small. Maine is much bigger and spacious.

And bigger is better.

Trippin’ To Philly

I’m getting ready for my drive to Philly tomorrow. Well, leaving tomorrow with Philadelphia as my final destination.

I’ll be working out of my company’s Philadelphia office next week…the office I left to move back to Maine and work as a telecommuter. The opportunity has come up for me to head down to Philly and my company is covering my travel costs including hotel. I have a new manager, so I’m going down to meet her and will work out of the office for the week. I can’t wait!!!! While I’ll be working each day, the lunches and nights will be spent with many of the friends I made during the 12+ years I lived in the city.

My stopping point tomorrow (Friday) will be in Barrington, RI to visit bestest friends that I originally met in Philly some years ago. They moved to New England four months before I did last year. That stop should (hopefully) include a round of disc golf at Borderlands State Park in Massachusetts on Saturday, weather permitting. It’ll also give me a chance to say to their neighbor…the Sci-Fi Fanatic.

My arrival in Philly on Sunday will find me going straight to Sedgley Woods. Some of my best moments in Philly occurred here...because it was spent with my disc golf family. **aw shucks* Can’t wait to see them!!

Anyway, I’m coming back to the US’s North-Eastern-most state on Sunday, April 6.

See you soon RI’ers and Philly Phriends and Sedgley-ites.

Here’s an interesting note: according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the murder rate has dropped 28% since this point last year, a decline that began in the fall of last year. Hmmm….I moved out of Philadelpia last summer. And the murder rate has dropped since that time. Coincidence?? mwahahahahahahahaha! **creepy music playing**

Wednesday's Word

formerly known as the "What're Words For..."

Word: Never been known to (Adj phrase)
Definition: new occurrence

Try to become familiar with this common expression and its contrast, been known to.

Usage:
"I don't know what ails that Tony's head. He's never been known to get his wood in before Christmas."

or:

"Would you take a drink?"
"Well, I've been known to." (Translation: You bet! A drink refused is lost forever.)

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

The answer to last week's tester: the letter T would be next because there are no curves in it

This week challenge:
Your sock drawer contains ten pairs of white socks and ten pairs of black socks. If you're only allowed to take one sock from the drawer at a time and you can't see what color sock you're taking until you've taken it, how many socks do you have to take before you're guaranteed to have at least one matching pair?

Feel free to post answers in the comments section, or return next Tuesday to find out what the answer is.

Your time...starts...NOW!

Opening Day!

The breakfast was good, the company was great! WZON's hosted "Opening Day Breakfast" was a hit. Lots of Red Sox fans showed up at the 6am opening of the event. WZON personalities Dale Duff, Jeff Solari, Sales Goddess Kerri (with a "runner on base"), as well as show regulars Ira Doughty from Moosehollow, ME and comedian Midnight Freddie Stone to name just a couple. Freddie even joined us at our table for about 15 mintues and tried out some new jokes on us. We laughed. A lot. He's a cool dude and very funny.

A photographer from the Bangor Daily News was there and took lots of picutres of our table and got our names, so we may have a pic in the BDN tomorrow.

The problem with the restaurant that this event was held at? They had no TVs, and the radio broadcast of the game was barely audible over the Governor's restaurant sound system. So after a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausage, we went to a sports bar, Bleachers, that was also open at this early hour and most importantly, HAD TELEVISIONS! From blueberry pancakes to Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat Beers. The changeover went smoothly.

The best news? The Red Sox beat the Oakland A's by a score of 6-5 in 10 innings. Red Sox rookie Brandon Moss, in for JD Drew, hit a 9th inning home run (his first Major League home run) to tie it up at 4. It was a come from behind win with Hideki Okajima getting the win for the Sawx. Sweet! At this pace, the Sox are on target to go 162-0!!

Go Sox!

Opening Day…A Bit Early

Tomorrow morning marks opening day of Baseball 2008. With the World Champion Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics starting this season playing two games in Japan, the start time is 6am for those of us on the East Coast. That’s awfully early to be getting up for a baseball game. But I’m doin’ it. I am, after all, a member of the House of The Fenway Faithful.

Local sports radio station WZON (AM 620) normally has an Opening Day Cookout at their station parking lot, with the Maine-standard red hot dogs, some soda and chips. A fun time, I’ve heard, as I was not living in the area when they started this tradition so I have never had the chance to go to it. This year, however, with the season starting in Japan, it means a very early start time due to the time difference, so they’ve had to mix it up a little bit. Instead of an Opening Day Cookout, they’re hosting the Opening Day Breakfast Buffet.

A local restaurant in Bangor, Governor’s, is opening early and having a special breakfast buffet from 6am until 9am. With WZON giving away Red Sox tickets, t-shirts, hats, etc, it will be fun time, and probably the only time that I’ll be up that early on an opening day waiting for the first pitch of a Sox game with a pile of pancakes on the end of my fork.

So, TFKoP readers, I’ll be up at 5:30am tomorrow morning awaiting my ride to the buffet. Tuesday is not only Opening Day for Major League Baseball, it’s also “Pancakes with the Red Sox” day!

mmmmmmmm…..blueberry pancakes…….

Go Red Sox!!

Lost, Season 4, Episode 8 "Meet Kevin Johnson"

We learn of Michael’s continuing story in the Lost chain of events. We further learn what Ben will do to prevent the freighter from reaching the island.

--Michael: After leaving the island with Walt (on heading 325 as Ben instructed), Michael took him and returned to NY. At some point he tells Walt that he killed Ana Lucia and Libby while releasing Ben from the Swan hatch. Walt apparently holds this against Micheal and goes to live with his grandmother. Off island, Michael told his mother not to tell anybody that they were back and had survived the crash of Oceanic 815. The guilt of killing Ana Lucia and Libby is weighing heavily on him, but he is unable to kill himself because the island won’t let him, according to Tom. Upon getting recruited by Tom, Michael reports to the freighter (in a Fiji port) as a spy for Ben under the name of Kevin Johnson. Bummer that he pawned the watch he got/took from Jin to buy the gun. Michael agress to be the spy on the freighter, but does so more in the hopes of improving his relationship with Walt, which has been fractured since returning, than to help Ben.

--Sayid: Confronts Micheal to get his story of why he’s on the boat and working as a spy. Once Michael finishes, Sayid turns him over to Gault as a traitor, and reveals his true name. What’s up with that?

--Locke: “No more secrets”, he tells his tribe. His gernade-in-the-mouth trick worked and Miles tells them that they came on the freighter to capture Ben.

---Ben: Lets them know that the after the Freighter-folk capture Ben, their orders are to kill everyone on the island. He also lets Locke’s tribe know that Michael is the spy on the freighter. In flashback, calls Michael on the freighter shortly after the fake-bomb to tell him that he would never kill innocent people. Michael agrees to wreck the communications and engines to disable the ship in the hopes of keeping it from reaching the island, and Ben tells him that this act makes Michael one of the ‘good guys”.

--Tom: He tells Michael that a “man named Widmore” is behind the faked wreckage of Oceanic 815. Tom tells Michael that he needs to go onto the freighter and sabotage it so that they never find the island. And in no big surprise, Tom’s gay! (But, we all knew that from Season Three when Tom told Kate “You’re not my type” as she was changing into the dress Ben gave her.) The question is, at what point of the Lost timeline does Michael’s flashback occur because Tom is still alive at this point of the story. He was killed on the beach by Sawyer, so he was off island prior to that, apparently to recruit Michael to be the freighter spy. Is it possible that this was around the time that Anthony Cooper was kidnapped and brought to the island? Maybe Tom had two things to do on the mainland: kidnap Cooper and get Michael for the freighter.

--Captain Gault: Beats anybody who tries to leave the ship. He knows that something is strange near the island and wants to get out of the area once the engines are fixed. He looked pretty indifferent when Sayid told him Michael was the saboteur.

--The Island: Able to influence Michael’s situation in NY. Is the island, ultimately, the universe’s way of making the course-corrections that the female psychic told Desmond about? And if so, what course corrections are happening and why?

--Walt: We get a glimpse of ‘taller-Walt’ in the window of his Grandmother Dawson’s house. Walt has not been the same since returning from the island, obviously from the emotional trauma associated with that whole event from crash to kidnapping by the Others. Also affected by Michael telling him that he killed Ana Lucia and Libby when he freed Ben from the hatch.

Funny lines:
Hurley: “Oh, we kinda like knew that forever ago”, to Miles when he tells them that they came on the freighter in search of Ben.

Miles: “Considering you had a gun to his head last week and tonight he’s eating poundcake, I’d say he’s a man who gets what he wants”, to Sawyer in reference to Ben being part of the Locke-tribe.

Interesting:
--According to the preview, the Oceanic 6 are: Jake, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Aaron.
--How uncomfortable was the living room with Ben, Hurley, Claire, Aaron, Sawyer et al? The silence was deafening.
--Mama Cass song “It’s Getting Better” playing on Michael’s car radio before he crashes it. When Season Two opened, we heard Desmond listening to Mama Cass in the hatch.
--Two Libby sightings! Is it guilt that caused Michael to see Libby, or was it the SMonster?
--Miles knew Michael’s name was not Kevin Johnson when he walked onto the freighter.
--Frank Lapidus just offering up to Kevin/Michael the information about Oceanic 815 crash wreckage being staged. So now Michael has been told conflicting stories about who staged the wreckage of Oceanic 815: Tom told him it was staged by Widmore, but Lapidus tells him that Widmore is looking for the plane and someone else staged the wreckage.
--Another EXECUTE button that needed to be pressed: this time the one on the fake-bomb.
--Alex giving herself up to the mystery shooters by yelling out “I’m Ben’s daughter!”


Final questions:
1. Is Danielle really dead? I don’t think so. We have not ever had a flash-back about her, and I can’t believe that one wouldn’t be done for her.
2. Who are the people who shot Karl and Danielle? My thoughts are this: remember on the freighter that Frank Lapidus was said to have “had to run an errand” when Sayid asked where the chopper was? I wonder if he brought sharp-shooters to begin taking down Ben’s forces?
3. Who was in the bed next to Michael in the hospital after he crashed the car? Is it me, or did it look a bit like Alvar Hanso?



Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots: http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Tune in April 24, 2008 at 10pm for “The Shape of Things to Come”.

Until then, be sure to follow heading 325.

Wednesday's Word

formerly known as the "What're Words For..."

Word: Faht (N)
Definition: Prissy person, meticulous, "nahsty-neat"; applies to both genders. Usually prefaced by "awful old."

Usage:"He's an awful old faht. Never been known to go anywhere without his necktie on."

or

"You ain't going to your Aunt Polly's for supper?."
"Not if I can help it. She's an awful old faht; wants to wash your plate before you've et!"

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

The answer to last week's tester: $1.19 (3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies)

This week challenge:
Which letter would logically replace the question mark?

A, E, F, H, I, K, L, M, N, ?

Feel free to post answers in the comments section, or return next Tuesday to find out what the answer is.

Your time...starts...NOW!

Lost, Season 4, Episode 7 "Ji Yeon"

A flash-forward for Sun shows her off-island and giving birth to the baby her and Jin conceived on the island. Flash-backs for Jin, however, have him back in the employment for Sun’s father, Mr Paik,whom I still think is going to pop back up in this Lost mythology as someone of importance. We also learn more of the freighter’s mission.

--Sun: On the island, Sun decides to leave the Jack-tribe and go to the Locke-tribe after Kate tells her that Charlotte had jumped her and knocked her out. Sun begins to doubt the reason that the freighter is there, and confirms this after approaching Daniel about the reason for the freighter being there. Sun takes Jin to leave to go to Locke’s camp, but is stopped by Juliet who claims to be trying to help her. Sun doesn’t believe her.

--Jin: Stands by Sun’s side, even after learning that Sun is actually a cheating, lying manipulater. It was funny in his flash-back when his cab got taken by someone else and took his stuffed Panda that was in the cab! PANDA NAPPER!!!! Haha! By the way, the shop keeper recommended that since the last panda was sold, maybe Jin would want to buy a stuffed dragon to represent “Year of the Dragon” (in the Chinese New Year). The most recent year of the dragon was 2000, so Jin’s flash-back was most likely during the year 2000. If Sun has the baby when she gets back, I assume that it’s going to be 2005 when the baby is born, and 2005 was the Year of the Rooster.

--Captain Gault: There was a bad guy named Gault in a Stephen King book (Needful Things), and we know that the Lost writers love Stephen King (Remember Carrie was a book they were reading in Juliet’s book club). Capt Gault tells Des & Sayid about Charles Widmore owning the ship, and Gault is aware that Desmond knows him. His desire to tell them so much so soon is suspicious.

--Juliet: Not wanting her to go to Locke’s camp claiming that Sun must get off the island to save the baby, she tells Jin of Sun’s off-island whoring ways and that she’s a liar. A dirty play on Juliet’s part, but effective. I believe Juliet when she tells Sun of what will happen to her in three weeks if she does not get off the island, death being the final part of those symptoms experienced by all of the pregnant women on the island that Juliet took care of in the Others camp previously.

--Sayid: As he finds out more and more, he’s learning that the freighter really isn’t there to help the survivors of 815. Gault mentions moving the freighter away from the island, but Sayid suggests rescuing everyone first, Gault confirms that those weren’t his orders.

--Kevin Johnson, aka Michael: Shocker, not. Michael on the boat is Ben’s spy. Now, maybe there’s two Michael’s? Red herring, perhaps? No, I know…it had to be Michael who opened up the infirmary door on the freighter for Des and Sayid, and he would’ve slipped the note under the door. So, is he working for Ben in order to save Walt?

Funny lines:
Sayid to Desmond: “I hope they resolve their kitchen issues” after Frank gives them cans of lima beans to eat, and says the kitchen had an issue.

Interesting:
--the freighter’s crew are sick, and they didn’t seem too shocked when one of them, Regina, kills herself by jumping over the side. This sickness, caused by their proximity to the island, is what took down George Minkowski, too. (And remember that Leonard, the guy in the nuthouse that Hurley got the numbers from, also went crazy after being stationed near the island in the military.) Remember, the high doses of radiation or EM exposure cause this, so outside of the island is not safe either. Gault calls the affliction a “heightened case of cabin fever”. But why aren’t the Losties sick?
--When Oceanic 815 was set to leave Sydney, another pilot was put on board in place of Frank Lapidus to fly the plane. Is it a coincidence that Sun’s doctor was replaced by another one, Dr Bae, to deliver her baby?
--(fake) Black Box from Oceanic 815: Widmore procured this box when the wreckage was found of the plane with all of the bodies on board. The wreckage was staged, and Gault says it was Ben who staged it. The 324 dead bodies on the plane could well have been from the grave where Ben shot Locke into…the bodies of the original Dharma people killed in the takeover by Ben and the Others, perhaps? Lends credence to the idea that Ben staged the whole plane crash to begin with, probably by jumping through time to set it up.
--the book Regina had upside down was Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne, a story about the survivors a shipwreck set in the 1800s.
--The Tempest was the station that they made poison gasses. Widmore needed this out of the way to prevent Ben and his cronies from using the gas against what may be an upcoming attack of some sort by Widmore and his associates.
--Hurley’s visit to Sun in the hospital: his visit must be happening before he loses it and ends back up in the nuthouse. Odd that he was happy none of the other Oceanic 6 were coming to see her. “Good”, he says.

Final questions:
1. Is Jin really dead? I have two thoughts on this: a) the headstone that Sun and Hurley were at was Jin’s, and it showed the date of his death as Sept 22, 2004, which is of course the crash of Oceanic 815. So the headstone was an marker to honor him, and it was the one place Sun could feel close to him to share the joy of Ji Yeon’s birth. Jin, however, could still be alive on the island with the remaining survivors. OR, b) Jin may end up dying while leaving the island, and as part of the cover-up that the Oceanic 6 are using to keep the other survivor’s fate a secret, they may have included Jin as one of the eight that survived the crash, but was one of the two who later died before rescue (as Jack said in court defending Kate: “There were 8 survivors, but two died”.) If option b) is the case, it’ll be interesting to see how he meets his fate.
2. Where has Matthew Abaddon been? He’s involved, but has been noticeably absent the last couple of episodes. Does he work for Widmore? Hanso? Dharma?
3. Frank Lapidus took the helicopter on an “errand” according to Dr Ray. Where did he go?? Back to the island? I guess he’d have to in order to bring more people back to the freighter. Or maybe he’s brining info to Charles Widmore somewhere nearby.
4. Who are the Oceanic 6? We know of Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, and Sun...that’s 5. Aaron can’t be one because he was not on the original manifest (being in Clarie’s belly and all). Ben was not on the manifest for that flight, so he wouldn’t be one of them. Maybe it was Jin and he dies on the way back? I don’t think so…there’s still someone else.

Free Thinking:
1. At the end of season 3 when Jack meets up with Kate at the funeral home, she says she can’t stay long “he’ll know she’s gone”. At first, it was hard to figure out who “he” was, it seems now that she was referring to Aaron.
2. Once this show begins to wrap-up, I think we’ll find that Ben is the good guy, just as he says, and that he’s trying to save the world. However, I think Ben dies in the “future” (flash-forward) somehow and it’s his casket that Jack goes to see. At that point, Jack knows that he must get them back to the island to continue Ben’s work, which, I think we’ll see involves saving the world from destruction. You know Jack...he always has to fix things.

Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots: http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Here are two theories of LOST that are worth checking out (I'm buying into both of them):

http://community.livejournal.com/lost_tv/1631599.html?thread=35257199

http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2007/05/great-gedanken-experiment-tale-of-time.html

(Click on the 'read theory' box)

For those who missed it a couple of summers ago (2006), here is the complete video of the clips that were part of the Lost Experience between Season 2 and 3. This video is important! Take note of the discussion of the Valenzetti Equation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PPCCcXarkc

Here's another video, this one of the Orchid Station Training video. Notice at the 1:23 mark something falls from the ceiling, and all hell breaks loose when they realize they have two #15s. Cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bTvAUVPyLI

(Note: I tried to upload the videos to this post so you wouldn't have to jump around to a shitload of links. Blogger, however, was taking 25 minutes....25 MINUTES!!!!....to load the first video. I'm having none of that, but I suggest checking out the links if you're really into this show.)

Here's a website that appears to be set-up by the Lost people and is in reference to Enzo Valenzetti. Interesting stuff and links here (not all of the links work, but they take you to Lost related items at Amazon.com). http://www.valenzettifoundation.org/

While poking around that site I was led to this one...an Asian company (oh, and wouldn't you know it...Sun's dad is Asian! I'm just sayin'....) http://www.tagruato.jp/index2.php

Tune in next week for “Meet Kevin Johnson”. After this episode, the 8th one of the year (Oh, 8 is one of the numbers...), there will be a four week break as they recover from the writers strike and are filming more episodes. Word is that there will be 5 more episodes this season beginning April 24.

Until then, remember that God Loves You as He Loved Jacob.

Upcoming Album...er, CD...Releases

Coming very soon from two of my all-time favorite bands!!

---REM's Accelerate hits stores Tuesday, April 1. The 11-song collection clocks in at under 34 minutes, so expect some short songs. The first single, Supernatureal Superserious, is really good and rockin'. Early reports are that this is REM's best album of new material in years.

--April 7th in the UK is the release Hey Ma, the first new batch of music from the re-formed band James. After taking a 5 year break the band got back together a year ago and did some shows in their native England. One thing led to another and pretty soon they were back in the studio recording. Their first UK single, Whiteboy, can be heard here on their MySpace page. Unfortunately, James does not have a US label supporting them, and haven't for many years, so the only way to get the new CD is to order it as an import. I have mine on order and can't wait for it to arrive.



So come on over for a CD listening party! I'll let you know the date.

UPDATE: 4/14/2008

Read my reviews here for REM, and here for JAMES!!

Skill Testing Question

Many of you in the world have heard of Dunkin' Donuts. A smaller portion of the world's residents have heard of the Canadian franchise, Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons is a coffee and donut place that also dishes out bagel and egg sandwiches as well as soups and sandwiches for lunch-time fare. For me, Tim Hortons were a new thing because Pennsylvania is one of many states in the US that do not have this Canandian business. It's too bad...the coffee is better than Dunkin Donuts. And right after moving back to Orono, one went up less than 3 miles from my house. I'm in there at least 4 days a week for coffee.

Tim Hortons is currently having a contest where you roll-up the edge of the game cup to see if you've won any of the many prizes being offered from free coffee to gift cards to GPS units to a boat to a new car.


So far I've won a free cup of coffee.

But here's the funny thing about the cup game. I actually read the fine print at the bottom of the cup and saw the expected 'no purchase required' mumbo-jumbo, but what caught my eye was this phrase: "Skill testing question required for Canadian residents."

What the fuck is that?? You have to pass a test to get your prize if you're a Canadian? That had to be some kind of joke, I figured. I'm sitting here laughing because I'm thinking, "Those damn Canandians have such a great sense of humor! That's why I love my neighbors to the North." Well, that and the fact that I'm a Canadian American. Not born in Canada, but over 90% of my heritage is Canadian blood (there's 10% Irish in me too) and I live in America, so I get to designate myself Canadian American, right?

It is not, however, a joke. See, Canadian laws prohibit for-profit games or betting but will allow prizes to be given out for games of skill. And wouldn't you know it, a Skill Testing Question meets that requirement. Winners are required to complete a mathematical puzzle or a trivia question. The winner becomes compliant with Canandian laws by correctly answering whatever this question and can then claim their prize.

Still seems weird to me. I mean, whatta ya think? Can you imagine having to answer a question just to get the prize that you already won by getting the right cup?

"Well, first you have to answer this: What color is a red light?"
"Ahhhh, I'll guess red....?"
"CORRECT! Here's your coffee."

Financial Advisor and His Ties to Widmore

I have a financial advisor. Since I'm stoopid when it comes to stocks and investing, I leave it up to him to put my invested money into the places where it's going to give me a good return. He's been my advisor for two years, and so far things are looking good in the choices he's made in regards to my investments.

Those of you who've been stopping by this blog regularly know that I am a huge Lost fan. The show has me hooked, and I'm totally into the mythology of the story and look forward to where the writers of this show are taking us.

Going back to my financial advisor, I rely on him to put my money into funds that he has investigated and has confidence in. Any time that he puts my money into a new fund, that fund sends me a prospectus of their stock portfolio. Now, the prospectus contains....well, hell, I don't know...it's got all kinds of Wall-Street-speak stuff about how the fund performs, blah blah blah. Again, I pay the advisor to read all of that stuff for me so I don't usually pay attention to the mailed materials.

You're wondering, "where the hell is he going with this?" Well, here you go: I think LOST is not just a story but is really happening. Why, you ask? Take a look at the prospectus that arrived in the mail to me this week. Look closely at the name of the fund.

That's right LOST fans, it has to be more than a coincidence that my financial advisor coincidentally got me invested in the BlackRock Pacific Fund. Black Rock? Yeah, there's one of those in LOST. Pacific? Yeah, the Black Rock is on an island in the Pacific...the same island that Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on. Coincidence??

C'mon...as we've learned from LOST, there are no coincidences.

I think my financial advisor works for Charles Widmore. Or maybe Dharma.

I just hope he doesn't go all Ben on me.

Wednesday's Word

formerly known as the "What're Words For..."

Word: Daow (Adj.)
Definition: Negative
Downeasters frequently use this expression instead of "No."

Pronunciation Note: it rhymes with the name of the late Chairman of the People's Republic of China.

Usage:
"Did you get your deer yet?"
"Daow, I can't even see one. I'll give her a try this Saturday, and if it don't get no better, I'm going to hang up my rifle. Out-of-staters getting 'em all anyway."


(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

The answer to last week's tester: Mark, Bill, Kathy, Mike, Barbara, Carolyn

This week challenge:
What's the largest amount of money you can have in change and still not have change for a dollar?

Feel free to post answers in the comments section, or return next Tuesday to find out what the answer is.

Your time...starts...NOW!

While Taking a Walk, an Ultimate Tourney Broke Out

Yesterday, Sunday, was a cold one here in Eastern Maine. Sidewalks covered in ice made for dangerous walking conditions, so I opted instead to head over to the University of Maine at Orono's (UMO) fieldhouse to get my 2 mile walk in for the day.

It was around 8:30am when I started the calorie-burning walk around the fieldhouse when I noticed a few people tossing a Frisbee around at the other end. "Cool," I'm thinking, "Frisbee people. I'm Frisbee people too!" I stop and talk to them and find out they drove down from Nova Scotia to take part in an ultimate tournament going on Sunday. I was pretty happy to hear that, and after getting my two miles walked, I headed home to shower and grab a coffee, and right back to the fieldhouse to watch some of the tourney.

See, in March, this is what it looks like outside. That's the football field at UMO yesterday, the same day as this ultimate tournament. Yeah, a bit icy. Some snow. Not great conditions to play ultimate.

So they play inside. And the fieldhouse is enormous, so it's easy to play in there.

The lighting was a kind of low, so the pics are a bit dark, but you get the idea. Best I could figure is that there were 5 teams in the tourney. UMO's Frozen Fury, their ultimate team, hosted the event I'm guessing. I saw a team from Colby, and at least one team from the Canada, the aforementioned Nova Scotians.

I stayed for a couple of hours, but not long enough to know who ended up winning. Congrats to all the teams that traveled to and played in this event. And to the black-haired girl on Colby's team ...#10 I think (maybe #14)...you're cute!

When I lived in Philadelphia, I was a disc golfer, as you all know. Occassionally I attened one of the tournaments (aka 'parties') held by the Philadelhpia Area Disc Alliance (PADA) ultimate teams, and boy I gotta tell you, while I enjoyed the tourney at UMO yesterday, it's hard to beat one of the PADA tournament and subsequent parties.

It's nice to see UMO supporting, to some degree anyway (fieldhouse usage), disc sports. Maybe there's hope that someday they'll add disc golf.

Guess I've got some doors to go knocking on, eh?

Lost, Season 4, Episode 6 "The Other Woman"

--Juliet: Her backstory fills in more about Ben’s obsession with her after her arrival on the island than anything else. Juliet’s relationship with Goodwin sets off Ben’s jealousy. How cruel that he brings her to see his dead body and implies the reason he sent Goodwin to find the Tailies was so that this would be his end, because, as he tells her “You’re mine.” And I’d like to point out: Juliet in the black bikini….va-va-voom!

--Ben: Still able to manipulate Locke with the greatest of ease, he offers information about who owns the freighter, thus introducing Locke to Charles Widmore. I’m not convinced that revealing this information leaves Ben without any more bargaining chips, however. I have to think Ben knows how the SMonster works, and knows what the island’s secrets, or at least some of them, are. Ben knows about Charles Widmore, knew about all of the Losties (remember, he had their files)…does this mean he also knows that Penny is looking for the island too? Is Ben able to send his conscious off the island at will, as though his time on the island has given him this gift/ability? He knows so much and it seems he’s the one who’s been putting all of the Losties in place…like chess pieces…for what is to come.

--Locke: Though I sort of slam Locke above about Ben being able to manipulate him so easily, I do believe Locke scored a serious blow to Ben’s psyche. After Ben tells Locke that his people are going to be angry when they realize he doesn’t have a plan, Locke says “I assume you have a plan”. Ben replies “I always have a plan.” Locke then says, and this is where Ben gets stumped: “Does it involve the raising of $3.2 million?” Nice. But I gotta tell yah….it seems like Ben and Locke will be working together soon. I just feel it.

--Charles Widmore: So it’s confirmed he’s looking for the island and more than likely is looking for it to study and harness it’s powers/abilities…he is a business man after all and this island would provide a wealth beyond imagination. But, he’s evil evil evil. And it’s still to be seen what his direct ties to Hanso and or Dharma are. Imagine a man like this gaining the ability to glimpse the future. A scary thought.

--Harper Stanhope: Goodwin’s wife is also the island’s therapist. They do seem to be separated or least in a marriage that is failing. Harper warns Juliet that her relationship with Goodwin will put his life at risk because of Ben’s crush on her. It happens just like she said when Goodwin is killed by Ana Lucia after Locke sends him there to infiltrate the survivors.

Kate: Reveals to Jack that the people on the freighter know who she is, that she’s a fugitive and wanted for murder.

Claire/Sun/Jin: Nice to see them again as they haven’t really been too prominent yet in this new season. I did like Claire challenging Locke and asking to talk to Miles. And it seems that the cat is out of the bag with Jin’s observation that Jack told them that Daniel and CS Lewis were friendly and there to rescue them. The natives are getting restless, folks.

--SMonster: In my opinion, one shared with all of you I imagine, it was the SMonster that appeared in Harper’s form to Juliet in the woods. The voices preceeded her appearance, and she was able to vanish in an instant at the end of the meeting. A meeting designed to obviously get Juliet to remember her allegiences with Ben, a way to manipulate her into joining him again, perhaps? Maybe Ben can control the SMonster?

--Daniel Faraday: He feels that what he’s doing is right, it seems, but he definitely doesn’t like the way he’s being directed to do it. He and CS Lewis are sent to the Temptest station, where the island’s power is generated, to make inert a gas. Likely the gas that Ben and the Others used to take over the Dharma group way back when Ben was a gangly teen. By making this gas inert it ensures that Ben can’t use it again. This seems to be a preemptive move by the Widmore folks implying that they’ll be coming to the island in force, and with force.

CS Lewis: Loved when she tells Juliet “Look me in the eye and tell me you are certain that Benjamin Linus wouldn’t use this gas to kill everyone on this island. We know he’s used this before.” She’s got a point. I still don’t trust her.

Funny lines:
Ben: “This didn’t have a number on it, did it?” in reference to the rabbit Locke feeds him.

Ben: “I taped over the game” in reference to the Red Sox World Series tape he had in the safe.

Jack: "You people had therapists?"
Juliette: "It's very stressful being an Other, Jack."

Ben: “See you guys at dinner” to Sawyer and Hurley after Locke lets him go.

Interesting:
--When we saw the Flight 815 breaking up over the island and then Ben starts to send people out, we see him talking to Goodwin telling him to go to the tailsection. But when Ben tells Ethan to go to the nose section, we never actually see Ethan. Wonder why the kept him off screen?
--Kate knew that Daniel and CS Lewis were up to no good, but she still turns her back on CS Lewis to look in the bag, giving her the perfect opportunity whack Kate in the back of the head. How can Kate be smart and resourceful one episode and such a lunkhead the next?
--Does Locke have a bit of the flash-forward ability but doesn’t know it? He has, in the past, said “It’s not supposed to happen like this!” as though he knows something.
--CAT FIGHT!!!!! Juliet and CS Lewis.
--Daniel believes he’s doing good. Ben belives he’s doing good. Jack believes he’s doing good. So, who in the end is doing the goodest???

Final questions:
1. Is Vincent one of the Oceanic 6? Haha. Or more likely Sun?
2. Do we finally find out Michael’s on the freighter? Or do we get a curveball and see Walt instead? Whoever it is, it’ll be the final of the Oceanic 6, I assume (although we still don’t know whose body is in the casket….SAWYER..cough cough….cough)
3. Who does Juliet look like? (Harper said “you look like her”…who? Ben’s mom? Ben’s friend from the island, Annie, when he was younger?)
4. Where are Zack and Emma and the rest of The Others?
5. Richard Alpert: will he back soon?
6. Will Ben go after Jack now that he’s digging Juliet? “Ben will win, Jack. And he knows how I feel about you.” Hmmmm…stayed tuned, kiddies.

Feel free to comment. Discussion is good.

Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots: http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Tune in next week for “Ji Yeon”.

Until then, thank you for flying Oceanic Air, please fasten your seatbelts.

Wednesday's Word

Phrase: I'll be. (V. phrase)

Definition: state of perplexity, bewilderment

This phrase is used when one is confounded; viz.,

"Well, I'll be."

"What?"

"The Green Front (bar) is closed. Election Day."

"Well, if we was desperate, we could get into that home brew you made last week. But closed, huh? I'll be."

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

The answer to last week's tester: Akron/Dayton/Cleveland (all in Ohio)

This week challenge:
In a spelling bee, Barbara beat Carolyn. Mark beat Bill. Kathy scored lower than Bill. Mike scored lower than Kathy, but better than Barbara. What was the order, from first to last?

Feel free to post answers in the comments section, or return next Tuesday to find out what the answer is.

Your time...starts...NOW!

Lost, Season 4, Episode 5 "The Constant"

It should come as no surprise to Lost viewers that Desmond is playing a pivotal role in the Lost mythology since he’s clearly been the most important character to the story since his introduction in Season 2’s “Man of Science, Man of Faith”. This episode finds Desmond “unstuck in time” and fighting against time AND through time in order to find Penelope.

--Desmond: On the trip back to the freighter, Desmond becomes unstuck in time while passing through the thunderhead-gateway. Apparently caused because of his exposure to extreme electromagnetic (EM) forces (“Live Together, Die Alone”) when he imploded the Swan Hatch, which also began his flash-forward abilities. As his consciousness travels back and forth between now, 2004, and then, 1996, we learn more about the mysteries involving the island. (Wicked great job of acting by Henry David Cusick.) It was cool that his memory returned once he made contact with Penny from the freighter.

--Daniel Faraday: Rapidly becoming an important character, Daniel’s experiments with the transporting of one’s consciousness begin to explain part of the island’s mysteries. The time paradox (“so uninspired”, says Daniel) that he explains to 1996-Desmond says that one’s consciousness can travel through time, not one’s body. The experiment he performed on Eloise the rat showed this by sending Eloise’s consciousness forward in time by one hour the rat was able to complete the maze the first time through it because her conscious had already learned the maze. Get it? Eloise dies because her consciousness is now going back and forth through time and does not have a ‘constant’ to anchor herself to within her body’s real time. Without that anchor her conscious does not have the ability to lock itself back, and thus, without a stable consciousness, the body dies. This is pivotal because it will require all affected by this paradox to establish a constant. Desmond finds Penny in 2004 as his constant (thanks to Daniel’s directions in the current time to give to Desmond back in 1996) and gets out of the paradox’s loop. Daniel, however, has a note in his notebook that was written in the past: If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume is my constant. (My guess is that he’s getting prepared in case something happens to him on the way back off the island). He must’ve written this note after getting the visit from Desmond. (I know I know…time paradoxes get wicked confusing, but I think my years as a Star Trek fan have helped me to understand this one. Sort of.) Important to remember that he has calculated an exact route to get off the island (40 miles N @ 305”, 7 K East) and if that exact route isn’t followed, there could be side effects, especially to those who’ve been exposed to high levels of radiation or EM. And as we learn, Daniel has been exposed to high levels of radiation from the experiments he did in 1996 with Eloise.

--Charles Widmore: I’ve been telling you guys this for a while now: this guy is heavily involved in what’s going on. It become obvious in this episode that he intentionally hoodwinked Desmond into going into that Around The World boat race to get him on the island and away from his daughter, Penelope. And his connections to the Hanso Foundation are beginning to come into focus. Truly an evil, and powerful, man.

--The Black Rock Journal: The navigator of the Black Rock kept a journal that was found amidst pirate artifacts in Madigascar seven years after the ship left Portsmouth, England on March 22, 1845 on a trading mission to Siam. The journal was put up for auction in 1996 by the family of Tovar Hanso. (And where have we seen that last name, I ask you????) The ship, as we know, was somehow side-tracked to the island, where it now sits in the forest. The journal is purchased by Charles Widmore, which begins to tie-in the connection between Hanso and Widmore. It's safe to assume the journal had information about the island.

--Freighter Folks: The guys on the freighter are just hired hands. Not sure they really know what’s going on, say, the way that Charlotte, Daniel and Frank do. But the doctor, Ray, could become a factor. The name of the freighter is Kahana.

--Charlotte Staples Lewis: I don’t trust her. She’s much more guarded about why they are there.

--Penelope: When Desmond talks to her, she says “I know about the island. I’ve been researching it.” So, Penny knows about the island and has been searching for Desmond since he disappeared on the boat race in 2001. (We've known she has been searching since "Live Together, Die Alone".) And, her father is also aware of the island, but would not allow any of the people on his freighter to answer her calls to it. Why the family infighting? I can’t wait to find out. Also, the phone call scene between Desmond and Penny when he was on the freighter was so sweet, almost tear-inducing.

The Constant: Daniel’s calculations dictate that in order for one’s conscious to stop jumping back and forth through time, the person must have a constant in both the past and present. Without that constant, the person will not be able to anchor their conscious and will die. (And proven through the deaths of Eloise the rat, and George Minkowski.) For Desmond, Penny became his constant. For Daniel, he is going to have Desmond as his constant should it become a necessity. So, I gotta ask you, Losties: does this explain the numbers now? Are 4-8-14-15-23-42 a constant????

Funny lines:
Juliette (sarcastically answering Charlotte’s claim that the Jack-tribe wouldn’t understand): “Okay Daniel, maybe if you say it real slow.”

Daniel (to Desmond): “A time paradox, so uninspired.”

Interesting:
--Sayid (to Frank): “Maybe you could share how we took off at dusk and landed in the middle of the day.” Quite a time difference. As pointed out by Daniel to Jack, the perception of how long his friends have been gone is not necessarily how long they've actually been gone.
--Daniel tells Desmond on the phone: “When you find me at Queen’s College, I need you to tell me to set the device to 2.342 and it must be oscillating at 11 Hz.” Notice that 2.342 contains two of the numbers: 23 and 42.
--Desmond (to 1994-Daniel after he puts on a radiation apron to test Eloise and says he does this 20 times a day): “What do you put on your head?”
--Once Desmond became rooted back in 2004, he remembered Sayid and where he was, memories that had been lost after his trip on the helicopter.
--This episode takes place on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2004. The Losties have been on the island for 93 days.

Final questions:
1. Is Jacob somehow stuck between timelines? Maybe the cabin is somehow stuck in time shifts. But how can the entire cabin move?
2. Again, who is Ben’s spy on the freighter? This spy obviously destroyed the communications equipment and also opened up the sick bay door so Sayid, Desmond and George Minkowski could escape. I’m telling you, Losties, it’s Michael.
3. Thinking back to last week’s episode when Charlotte was testing Daniel’s memory with the cards, I’ve been thinking that they’re checking to see if his radiation-damaged brain is healing on the island. Just a thought.
4. Did Daniel’s experiments affect his memory? If so, he could’ve forgotten having met Desmond in the past, despite the message in his own journal to use Desmond as his constant.

Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots: http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Tune in next week for “The Other Woman”.

Until then, if you get unstuck in time, don’t let me know what happens in next week’s episode. ;-)