What’s On Your Desktop?

Since gun news is slow, there’s a meme going around the gun blogosphere, here, here, here and here, of what’s been on your iPod the last month. I don’t have much to say there. My iPod looks more like Mitt Romney’s than Paul Ryan’s. I haven’t been listening to music much these past few months. I will recommend this album, which I recently got off iTunes, if you want some easy listening, and like the movie music of John Williams. I feel like changing up the meme a bit though, and suggest people reveal, “What’s your desktop?”

Desktop Background Hawaii Scenes

I have a dual-head display, so I get two pictures, depending on what monitor I look at. Both of these I took myself when we were out in Hawaii a few years ago. The main display is of Rabbit Island, just off Oahu’s eastern shore. The other display is the beach of Oahu’s North Shore, and isn’t far from where the Lost beach scenes were filmed. In fact, the “Others” village was walking distance behind me in this picture.

UPDATE: Not boring, fantastic.

UPDATE: This Desktop has gone to the dogs.

So, Lost

Sebastian is in the disappointed camp. I’m in a camp where I thought they needed to do more in earlier episodes to answer basic questions people have had since season one. But overall, I liked it. Vincent definitely made it a tearjerker.

UPDATE [By Sebastian]: I’m less disappointed now than I was last night. Really, the show “Lost” about the characters wrapped up cleanly. The big remaining questions are about the Island, namely what the hell is it and how did it get there? What’s it’s history? How does the giant wheel manipulate space and time? And how did Hugo and Ben run the Island after they took over from Jacob who took over from Jack?

But maybe in the end the Island doesn’t really matter all that much. Presumably the people on the plane got off, and lead full lives thereafter, and Hugo and Ben spent a long time protecting the Island. The sort of “flash-sideways” seems to have been a sort of parallel dimension where they were all dead but didn’t realize it, but had to realize it in order to move on.

Last Night’s Lost

We were absolutely exhausted by the time we returned home last night after the lobbying all day at the Capitol. But I was so happy to find out that we were back in time for Lost. Until I turned it on and found out it was a repeat. Now I know that I should have watched the entire thing because it was really so much more than that. Les Jones explains:

It was just like an earlier episode. Freaky.

It’s sort of like the audience is now time-traveling. We time-traveled back to a previous “Lost” episode. That episode had died in an alternate timeline (the Smoke Monster probably killed it), but in the new timeline it was brought back to life after bathing in the spring at the temple.

Rather than having to wait week after week and season after season, I watched all 6 seasons in fairly rapid succession given that we started from the beginning right around Christmas with our subscription to Netflix. This waiting thing, especially when they pull a repeat stunt, is for the birds. I’ll be so damn glad when this show is over.

So, who read the spoiler call sheet? (We didn’t. I just read about it.)

Lost

The new episode is on the DVR. There will be no spoilers allowed. Thanks to Sebastian’s new crazy work schedule, our speedy viewing sessions have dropped dramatically. We’re waiting to catch a couple of hours in a row to watch the finale of Season 3. Obviously, that still leaves us with 2 more seasons.

We’re getting to an interesting point in this little viewing exercise. I find the show to be quite predictable by now, and I find myself hoping that more characters die. In fact, I say we just give up and nuke the whole damn island/island chain/whatever. This doesn’t give me much hope for the remaining three seasons. Perhaps those of you who watched last night can give a spoiler-free clue as to whether it is worth it, or I’ll be screaming at the computer to just nuke the whole damn world in order to be free of these characters.

Netflix + Wii = Goodbye Comcast

So now that it’s finally official, I think Comcast can expect our cancellation shortly after this goes live. Or sooner. Mix it in with a bundle that Verizon is willing to offer so that we get discounts on the phone & basic tv service, and there’s absolutely no justification for Comcast’s high prices.

Since my last Netflix-related post was unexpectedly popular, here are more topics for discussion:

  • The Warner Bros. Compromise: Good or Bad?
  • Wii Streaming: Will you use it if you don’t already stream through another method?
  • Lost: Ana Lucia’s Finally Dead to Me! Yay!

My own answers will start the comments.

The Perfect Lost Accessory

Sebastian had been watching Lost since the series started. Note the past tense. What happened? Well, me.

I didn’t watch Lost. I didn’t ban him from watching Lost, he just opted not to watch without me. So he DVR’d it while I’d leave the room since he didn’t want me to see “current” (i.e. Season 4) episodes without knowing the back story.  He did have all of Season 5 on DVR until we needed the space for something else.  So I deleted without him ever getting to watch.

But we got Netflix last month just so I could catch up. We’ve been watching and will receive the last two discs for Season 2 tomorrow. That means I should be starting Season 3 by the end of the weekend.

No, we won’t quite be done before the final season begins, but we’ll be close enough that we just have to record a few episodes.  With that said, I have found the absolute perfect accessory for the ultimate Lost final season viewing party. A polar bear television. I mean, it’s a polar bear.  How perfect can you get?  I guess options like wild boar and black stallion would also make fine Lost accessories, but they wouldn’t be nearly as cuddly as a polar bear television.

All of that said, here are my thoughts on Lost through the first 40 episodes: Continue reading “The Perfect Lost Accessory”

ABC’s Lost

I knew Tom Friendly was gay!  So it would seem that Ben’s people can move back and forth between The Island and the real world.  I think the writers are thinking at this point we should be pondering that maybe Ben really is the good guy.  He had Sayid Jarrah working for him, after all, I’m guessing talked into it by Michael, who isn’t one of the Oceanic Six, but just ended up back in the real world.  I think Ben is still the bad guy.  What’s the role of Alvar Hanso in all this?  All we hear about now is Charles Widmore. All I can say is they better start answering questions soon instead of raising more and more of them :)

Also, that show that comes on after Lost, “Eli Stone”, is bloody awful.  Seriously.  Get some actual attorneys on your staff so the show can come up with realistic legal situations.  Also, fire all the commies on the writing staff because their dirty hippy is showing, which means guys like me won’t watch it.

Lost Finale

Most unexpected twist ever.  All along you’re wondering when they are flashing back to, and they are flashing forward, or is it sideways maybe?   The odd thing is, Jack’s dad is still alive in this parallel Lost universe.  I’m also wondering who died?  No one showed up at his funeral.  For some reason, I’m guessing it’s Ben.

6 More Hours!

Only six more hours before the season finale of Lost!  I really hope they don’t let us down.   Based on the previews, it looks like The Others had the whole plan figured out.   Did Juliet betray them?  Will John Locke make it?   I think Locke has to live, because if you look at the series, Locke I think is really the central character that the show is mostly about.  To me, the main characters are Locke, the Island, and Ben.

It’s sure to be an exciting two hours of a television.

Light Posting Because of Lost

Sorry for the light posting.  I had the gun club meeting last night, and then, of course, Lost, so not much of a chance to queue some filler.  Last night’s lost episode was excellent, and as Brad pointed out in the comments, it turns out that Ben’s father is Lazlo from the movie Real Genius.

Ben killed his father because he spent all his time making repeated entries into the island’s sweepstakes.  He had calculated that he’d win 32.6% of the prizes.  Or maybe because he drank too much.  I’m getting my plots confused.