Last night I watched the season three finale on TV. Yes, I have the season three DVD box set (and seasons one and two) but i still watched it on TV. Why? Because they added show notes to the bottom of the screen and I was curious to see if they would reveal anything new.
I will admit right now that I was not happy when ABS decided to stretch the last 48 episodes of the show over three 16 episode seasons. I was even more upset after the writer's strike hit and I heard that this may end up being an eight episode season! If that does come to pass don't expect me to pay the price of a full season when this one hits DVD. I'll pay one third the price for an eight episode short season or two thirds for a 16 episode short season but not full price.
So, back to the subject at hand...
As I was watching Lost last night (that was a long wait) some of the old questions began to surface in my mind. A few possible answers also entered my mind and I'm going to share those thoughts now.
Who is Naomi?
After thinking this over for a few months and reading through the lines of Ben's dialogue I have come to the conclusion that Naomi is a member of the DHARMA Initiative. I think Ben is scared because he has been keeping DHARMA off the island since he caused the purge all those years ago. He thinks that when DHARMA comes back to the island they will round up and kill the Others as revenge for killing off the DHARMA members.
What is the Black Smoke Monster?
I think the Black Smoke Monster is the incorporeal form taken by the spirit of the island (Jacob) before it scans a person and generates a proper form to take.
Why was DHARMA still dropping supplies on the island for the Swan Hatch?
This one comes into partial conflict with the the Naomi question above. Why would DHARMA continue to make those supply runs if the island had been fully taken over by the Others? If DHARMA was still able to make supply drops why could they not send in more people to take back the island? I don't have an answer for this one just yet.
I am looking forward to watching this new season. I expect it to consist of the DHARMA folks off shore coming ashore and Locke becoming the new leader of the others. Ben will be captured right away (he's tied to a tree at the potential landing site) and Locke will make his way back to the Other's camp.
I just finished watching this one (Thank you Netflix) and I have to say I liked it... a lot!
The movie stars Nicolas Cage as Las Vegas magician Frank Cadillac (real name Chris Johnson) who just happens to be the real thing hiding out in plain sight. Julianne Moore plays a very obsessive FBI agent named Callie Ferris. Rounding out the main characters is Chris's love interest Liz Cooper (played by a very mature looking Jessica Biel). The supporting cast is good and there is a special appearance by Peter Falk.
The movie is based on the Philip K. Dick story The Golden Man in which a golden skinned mutant has the power to see every possible outcome of every possible action he does. Think of it as the computer Deep Blue living inside a person. The movie is not an adaptation of that story but a new story based on the ideas of the original story. Once you understand that you will better be able to enjoy the film.
The basic plot for the film is that agent Ferris is working on a case that involves a nuclear bomb being smuggled into the USA via a certain California port city. She has also been watching Johnson for a while and she thinks he has the power to see into the future. She surmises that if she had him around he could tell them where the bomb is. Though she does say some heavy handed things about the good of the many outweighing the freedom of the one she tends to be more talk than action on those thoughts.
The movie begins with Johnson doing one of his shows and then going to a nearby casino to earn some extra money using his special "two minute into the future" sight. While in the casino we are treated to the casino security forces talking about him and wondering how he is cheating. Johnson's voice narrates as he explains that he always keeps his winnings low in an attempt to avoid detection. Clearly this idea is not working as the casino security team is about ready to take him in for questioning when his spider senses warn him.
While trying to cash out his chips he catches a glimpse of a crime that is about to result in two casino workers getting shot. He intervenes and the chase is on. The next few minutes, as he evades capture in the casino, is a great indicator of just how useful being able to see two minutes into the future can be. I do not want to spoil how he gets out but it is just amazing to watch.
Johnson has a few run-ins with Ferris but he always does it during his future sights. By doing so he is able to learn what she wants without having to actually meet her. It is just prior to one such encounter, while he is playing pool with Peter Falk's character that we learn that he has gotten a vision of a girl he is supposed to meet at a diner. He knows the time of day but not if it is AM or PM so he goes there, twice a day, everyday, in an attempt to meet her.
When she eventually does show up he pulls a bit that reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day where he keeps trying different approaches until he hits on what that works. They hit it off and head to Flagstaff together. No, they never make it that far.
It is about this time that the movie turns into an action flick as the people who have the nuke also want Johnson as they see him as a potential threat to their plan. I do not want to spoil the rest of the movie so all I will say is WOW!
Nicolas Cage is a great action star because he does it in such a nonchalant way. He does it in that, "what, you mean this is not normal?" way he did the National Treasure movies. Couple this with Jessica Biel (I did not realize it was her until much later) who pulled off a great job acting like a young woman with a real head on her shoulders, and you have some great chemistry between the two.
The movie is short, clocking in at a mere 96 minutes, but it is also very good. If you like "low key" action movies i suggest you check this one out.
Funny thing is that I used to look at Nicolas Cage movies as if they were crap but now I am finding that there is a certain something about the movies he makes that makes them very enjoyable.
I got a canned email from MyBlogLog telling me that I only have a few days left on my service and that I have to renew if I want to keep my historical data and tracking going forward. This got me to thinking...
I have never really liked MyblogLog all that much. The tracking data it provides is so-so and easily replaced by so many FREE tracking solutions that I also use.
The one thing that got me interested in paying for their service is the fact that they track AdSense clicks. I used this data in the past to try to audit Google's reporting. After seeing a large discrepancy I dropped AdSense for a few months. I added them back in and everything seems to be working fine again.
Right now they are saying I need to pay up or lose access to my historical data and this I have a problem with. The way I see it I have already paid for this historical data when i paid for my one year of tracking service last year. Just because I choose not to re-up with them should not mean that I lose access to data that I have already paid for. I can understand them cutting me back to the limited account format that my other blogs use (do you think I would pay $20 per blog for their service?) but why should I lose access to historical data?
I'm not even sure what the original intent of the MyBloglog service was. Was it meant to drive traffic? Generate new readers? What was it supposed to do?
I no longer know and I no longer care. Once I get a free minute I will be removing their tracking code from my various sites and be done with them.
Earlier this evening my daughter asked me to go into her closet and get a game for all of us to play. I normally avoid going into her room at all costs, especially her closet. However, after my wife agreed to play with us I gave in and dug out the game she wanted us to play... Fraidy Cats!
While I was getting the board ready (some assembly required) my daughter asked my wife which cat she wanted to be (the orange one) and then asked me which one I wanted to be (the yellow one). After taking possession of the yellow cat my daughter suddenly decided that she had to be the yellow cat.
I held off on giving it to her until my wife gave me one of those looks. So, I gave it to her after giving her one of those, "you can't get your way all the time in life" speeches. At the the end I threw in one of those, "I will show you no mercy" remarks.
We were playing the game and the dog was running all over the board. Each of us got sent back to the starting area once but my wife pulled in an early victory. My daughter and I were both gunning for second place and wouldn't you know it? I came in second and the dog sent her crying back to start! Yeah, we put that one away and now it was my turn to pick a game.
While putting the Fraidy Cats game back in her closet she made a comment, "no Ticket to Ride Daddy!" I was not planning on pulling that one out, I was aiming for Tiki Mountain!
I got this game a few months ago and have only managed to play it a few times. Every time I played it I had a blast but, for some reason my daughter would not let us play it. She wanted to restrict us to games that are in her closet and her closet only. After I commented that I would just rather not play anymore games this evening my wife got her to agree to allow me to bring in three games from my game room and then we would vote on which games to play.
With sadness in my eyes I took Tiki Mountain back to the game room and came back with three games; Pirate's Cove, Apple to Apples and Aggravation.
I knew we would not be playing Pirate's Cove so I was not at all surprised when that game was nixed. After my daughter tried to nix all the games, "I can't play Apples to Apples because it says 9 and up and I'm only 8," we managed to convince her that she could play the Apples to Apples game with us.
That game went very well except for the fact that it was only three players and my daughter has a way of making it known which card she played. she does not come right out and say which one she played but, after playing our cards she will look at the one I played (the one she did not play) and say something like, "Hamburgers, who played that card?" Yeah... 'nuff said?
In the end my daughter won that game but it was all right as she was not being as cranky as she was earlier while playing Fraidy Cats. In fact, she was in such a good humor that we pulled out Aggravation and gave it a shot.
Yes, that is the version we have. The ancient Deluxe version of the game. This thing is so old all of the dice have little stress fractures on them!
At any rate we set down to playing it. I explained the basic rules of the game and we started. For those who are unfamiliar with the game think of Sorry mixed with Parchisi. You need to get your marbles around the board and into your safe zone. There are some shortcut spaces on the board and the super shortcut space is in the middle. If you land (by exact count) on another player's marble you send it back to their home. Any guesses on how this one turned out?
After about turn five or six I had already sent one of my wife's marbles back to home and one belonging to my daughter. My wife just gave the "I'll get you back for that look" while my daughter (very tired at this point) erupted in tears and yelling. Once again I was the bad guy for playing the game as written.
A few turns later my wife got me back but my daughter was becoming very disruptive. She was making up some strange house rules (that we ignored) such as no one can use the shortcuts and ignoring the rule on landing by exact count on a home space. Several turns later I won and those two duked it out for second.
Not long after putting the games away my daughter was conked out on the couch. It was a long tiring day for her and I guess she just could not take it anymore. I don't know why she was so tired, I was the one who spent most of the day painting the living room walls and trim. All she had to do was go shopping with my wife and be a kid.
For months now I have been looking forward to the monster movie Cloverfield. I've seen the trailers, read the press reports and been generally upbeat about seeing it. No more.
The sad thing is that Cloverfield is a movie that I want to see. It is right up my alley. I love monster movies that follow the path set by Godzilla and his ilk.
I remember, back when I was a kid, sitting in front of the TV on Saturdays for the "Creature Double Feature". My brother even had the Godzilla with the flicking tongue and the fists that would fly through the air. Yeah, that Godzilla is still around even though he became a double-amputee years ago.
So, why am I not going to see Cloverfield? Shaky-cam.
Yes, Cloverfield is filmed in the horrible Blair Witch style of a guy running around with a camcorder. I have enough problems with FPS video games do you think I can spend 90 minutes in a theatre watching the horizon go all willy nilly as if some four year old was making a movie? Why I'd be puking my guts out inside of ten minutes!
I understand the "feel" the director was going for in using this technique but, you know what? Sometimes you lose audience when you use weird camera tricks in your movie making.
When I watch a movie I want to watch from the perspective of a fly on the wall. Or even an outsider looking in through a window. I do not want to watch a movie as if I were a fly on a wall looking through a window while a 90 minute earthquake takes place!
So, if you decide to go and see the movie by all means, enjoy it. I'll be home, yelling at my Wii as the camera angles change in the middle of a jump while playing Super Mario Galaxy.
If you answered yes to those questions than you might want to check out the information on the upcoming Devil May Cry 4 game in the little media player below.
This post is written by my friend Josh L. He is currently a student in High School so feel free to critique his work.
The topic of who or what was primarily responsible for the United States civil war is one that is continually being debated. There are those that point to such persons as then president Abraham Lincoln, or confederate president Jefferson Davis himself, or perhaps even lesser known fringe players, such as the raging abolitionist John Brown. How these arguments are flawed is that the stage for the Civil War had already been set decades before those persons previously mentioned had any influence whatsoever on the overall climate of the U.S. Indeed, the establishment of the Confederate States of America and in turn the cause of the civil war itself, may be traced back to the Jackson presidency of the 1830s. Jackson's quarrels with then Vice President John C. Calhoun regarding the prospect of South Carolina seceding from the union sparked a polarization of North and South. This would grow exponentially over the decades leading up to the civil war until finally reaching critical mass in the early 1860s.
It all began thanks to a recurring theme throughout U.S. history: Resentment of taxation. More specifically, South Carolina's resentment of the Tariff of 1828, considered by many at the time to be the “Tariff of Abominations”. The tariff placed “...a heavy tax on imports designed to discourage foreign imports and encourage American manufacturing.” (Cayton 251). The North, being highly industrialized, benefited greatly. The South, however, which was rural and highly agricultural, was badly hurt, and thought that the tariff was unfair. This prompted South Carolina, Calhoun's home state,
to act upon his belief that the States had the right to voice their dissent against the Federal Government, and furthermore to act as they saw fit, a belief first outlined in Calhoun's doctrine of nullification. “A single state, Calhoun argued in his South Carolina Exposition of 1828, might suspend a federal law which it regarded unconstitutional (that is to say, as injurious to its own interests), until three quarters of the states had justified the law through the amending power.” (Schlesinger 34). In 1832, yet another tariff was passed by congress, advancing South Carolina's malice. It was Jackson's refusal to pander to South Carolina's wishes that was a crucial component of the engine that drove America to Civil War.
South Carolina was threatening to secede the Union if its demand for the full nullification of the tariff was not met. Instead of negotiating with South Carolina and making some sort of compromise, Jackson had a much different approach to the dilemma. Jackson was not a man who made compromises. Jackson dealt not in words, but in lead, as his dueling record would attest to. “At his urging, in 1833 Congress passed the Force Bill, which required South Carolina to collect the tariff. Jackson threatened to send 50,000 federal troops to enforce the law.” (Cayton 252). The day was saved when Henry Clay finally made a compromise with South Carolina which reduced some of the import duties. “South Carolina canceled its nullification act. Yet in an act of continued defiance it nullified the Force Bill at the same time.” (Cayton 252). For a brief period of time, decades before the< U.S. broke out into all-out civil war, the nation stood on the brink of conflict. Though we had subverted disaster for the time being, Henry Clay's remedy was no more effective in the long run than putting a band-aid on a cancer patient and calling it a job well done. Andrew Jackson's aggression would not be forgotten. The 1833 dilemma set a precedent that would be observed by future generations, disillusioned by the privileged North and intent on severing all ties to the Union.
Calhoun's assertions that the States had power over the Federal Government instigated secessionists to carry out their plan to break away from the United States and form the Confederate States of America, a new country devoted to those issues that were held in high importance by the southernmost states. One prominent secessionist was a man named William Lowndes Yancey, who was an influential journalist and a famous orator at the time. “There was no secret about what Yancey wanted. More than a decade earlier he had denounced 'the foul spell of a party which binds and divides and distracts the South,'”. (Catton 2). According to Yancey, there was “'...only one hope of righting ourselves and doing justice to ourselves and the Union'” (Catton 2). Yancey would soon discover that “...nothing but secession would do.” (Catton 2). Already a fervent supporter of the southern cause, “He moved south,” and “fell under the spell of John C. Calhoun”. Yancey was not the only influential secessionist to channel the spirit of Calhoun in his effort to advance the Confederate cause, as many others followed suit. Indeed, the seeds that Calhoun had sown had finally reached fruition. The threat of secession which had been evaded 30 years earlier was now back on the table. “On the day after the speaker election, Senator Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, arose in the Senate to present a series of resolutions on the slavery question. These began by reasserting the state-sovereignty doctrines of John C. Calhoun, declared that it was the Senate's duty 'to resist all attempts to discriminate either in relation to person or property' in the territories, and then flatly stated that there was no power anywhere to limit slavery in the territories.” (Catton 18). Calhoun had risen to the status of an idol amongst secessionists. “The news from Charleston brought crowds into the streets at New Orleans; there were parades, bands again played the 'Marseillaise,” a bust of John C. Calhoun was crowned with a blue cockade, and the press noted 'a general demonstration of joy.'” (Catton 138).
Annoyed with excessive tariffs, South Carolina declared their opposition citing John C. Calhoun's writings on the power of the States over the Federal Government. A stubborn Jackson failed to respond in the appropriate fashion, and instead dug a deeper hole. Tensions between the North and the South escalated for decades until the breaking point when the U.S. was suddenly embroiled in all-out civil war. The fuse had been set, and it was only a matter of time before the spark inevitably met the cannon.
Works Cited
Catton, Bruce. The Coming Fury. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1961.
Cayton, Andrew, Elisabeth I. Perry, Linda Reed, and Allan M. Winkler. America: Pathways to the
We are currently running a number of eBay auctions to benefit my daughter's gril scout troop. If any of these things tickle your fancy feel free to bid and win!
