Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Forty Two

Appetizer - Name something you would not want to own.

I would not want to own a really fast, expensive car, because a) status doesn't excite me, b) insurance rates would be murder, c) I have no real need for speed, d) I have to transport kids, e) most really fast, expensive cars are ugly, and f) the money could be better utilized elsewhere. Like in a boat ;)


Soup - Describe your hair (texture, color, length, etc.).

*sigh*

It's brown, with a high forehead and thinning in the back. If I didn't wash it every day, it's stick up in all directions.


Salad - Finish this sentence: I’ll never forget ___________.

I'll never forget the 1982 World's Fair! (I know, you're getting tired of me talking about it)


Main Course - Which famous person would you like to be for one day? Why?

I'd like to be the president for a day, on the one condition I don't have to make any decisions regarding nukes. I wouldn't spend the day tackling the big issues, I'd spend a max of 15 minutes on small problems that the president could decide on to make America better. That's 96 nationally important problems solved or addressed in one day - pretty good track record.


Dessert - Write one sentence about yourself that includes one thing that is true and another thing that is not.

I just turned 40 and I'm happy about it.

Another Cell Phone Etiquette Question

You leave your cell phone lying on the table, and come back and see someone has called but not left a voice mail. Do you call them back anyway and see what they wanted (assuming it tells you who called)?

Lost in Coincidence

One followup to my previous "Lost" post (I can tell you're all sick of me talking about this week's episode, judging by the voluminous comments /:) )....

Let's assume the Others knew nothing about the Losties before their plane crashed. Mikhail worked with unknown outside sources to gather files on all the passengers and crew (?) only after the plane hit their airspace. Presumably these outside sources have a lot of influence to find out such things as Sawyer killed in the man in Sydney.

I hypothesised that since the fake plane wreckage had to be placed in the trench very soon after the real Flight 815 was reported missing, those who placed it probably had to have either had a hand in their crash or at least known beforehand that it was going to happen. Does that mean they influenced the inclusion of or actually chose the people who were going to be passengers on that flight?

If not, then how to explain the coincidence of so many cross-connections between the passengers, especially the ones featured on the actual show? Locke's father is the original Sawyer. Jack had to choose between his future wife and Boone and Shannon's father to save in the emergency room. Hurley and Libby were in the asylum at the same time. Desmond ran into Charlie once when he was a street musician. Sayid's American soldier handler was Kate's stepfather. And the list goes on and on: Anna Lucia was hired as a bodyguard to Jack's father. The mother of Sawyer's child once helped out Kate when she was on the run. Locke once inspected a house for Sayid's former lover. Libby met up with Desmond and gave him his sailboat. Mr. Eko visited Claire's psychic. And of course, Claire and Jack are actually step-siblings.

So how to explain so many coincidences? Were they all manufactered? Implanted memories? Part of some greater purpose to guide each of them both to Australia and to that particular flight back to L.A.?

Somewhere, somehow this questions has to be answered for any of the overarching series to make sense. The flashbacks have been so integral to the show as to almost define it stylisticly that to ultimately chalk up the coincidences to just that, coincidence, would be to hugely undermine the credibility of all the writers have produced...

Lost in Thought -- at Sea

More "Lost" in Thoughts...

Ok, so it's established by Naomi and Cooper that some plane was found four miles deep in the ocean off of Bali. The world now believes it was Oceanic Flight 815, and that all the passengers and crew are dead.

Ok, disregarding Cooper's assertion that they're all in hell (including him - well, he probably actually is, now) let's figure out the mostly likely explanation what happened.

1) We can reasonably surmise that the "Others" were not expecting the plane to appear in the sky over their island, but were prepared for the eventuality.

2) Desmond's failure to enter the numbers in time in the Hatch caused the electromagnetic pulse that caught 815 and crashed it.

2a) Did the pulse also pull it off course in the first place? According to the pilot (the crewman and the Episode title), "Six hours in, our radio went out; no one could see us. We turned back to land in Fiji. By the time we hit turbulence, we were a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place." Which did the pulse cause - the radio to go out, or the turbulance? Or the actual break-up of the plane? In other words, did the pulse cause all three things to happen in sequence, or was it one of several forces at work to divert the plane?

3) Regardless of the how, Flight 815 crashes on Lostopia Island. The tail section breaks off and lands mostly in the water off the northern coast. The nose section breaks off and lands some distance inland in the trees. The middle section, plus some of the wing and engine sections that are still attached, land on the beach and some parts are eventually swept back out to sea.

4) Therefore, ignoring the possibility of such sci-fi concepts as twinning (dual Will Rikers or John Crichtons) and alternate universes, someone placed a replica of Flight 815 at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Bali. It had to have been done fairly quickly, since once rescue efforts got started in earnest the possibility of doing so unnoticed grows vanishingly small. Therefore someone or group of someones had to have access to another, unused Boeing 777 that would not be missed, transport it toward Bali and sink it in a 4-mile trench before any search & rescue teams could get to that area and search it before they got there. Did whoever placed the fake plane and people know beforehand that the real 815 was destined to crash on the island? Did they have a hand in bringing that about? How could they have planned for that exact eventuality when Desmond's failing to push the button happened to occur at that exact moment? This would explain a lot about how the Losties' pasts are so connected to each other. More on that in a later post.

5) Allowing that the plane was somehow transported there, how to account for the bodies? According to parachutist Naomi, "Submersible robots explored the wreckage with cameras, which showed that all of the bodies were there." Whether they actually were able to capture video of 324 bodies inside at outside the fuselage is unknown, but if that's so the people who placed this replica would have had to actually kill 324 more people of relative size, shape, gender and race of the Losties. That fact is actually debatable, since the depth of the plane would make rescue efforts almost impossible so positive identification of any of the bodies would be unlikely. Still. 324 people.

6) So who did it? Ben, after witnessing the crash, takes Juliet to visit Mikhail at The Flame Station. Mikhail is monitoring global news coverage of the disappearance of the flight, and Ben tells him to find out everything he can about the passengers.

Did Ben, and Mikhail, also have a hand in or knowledge of the plan to create a decoy Flight 815? Juliet's recruiter Richard (the GQ guy that gave Sawyer's file to Locke) was at that time in the outside world keeping an eye on Juliet's sister, Rachel so they did have some human contacts off the island at that time. Were they at that time in contact with an outside agency, all working together to further whatever plan the Others have going?

I think there are two main possibilities at this point (some I've postulated about before have been eliminated). Sun's father and Paik Industries, and Desmond's girl Penelope's father and Widmore Corporation. If either are involved, do they work together? Separate? At all? Were either in touch with the Others, before the second pulse that Locke caused that cut off outside communication? Or is it the ever-evasive Hanso Foundation, the force behind the Dharma Initiative? Are Hanso and Dharma still actively interested in what happens on the island, and completely informed? Somebody out there is the mysterious "Jacob" Ben and other Others (heh) keep mentioning. "Jacob" is the brains behind everything, a "great man" and to me he's either Charles Widmore, Alvar Hanso, Mr. Paik, or Christian Shephard (Jack's supposedly dead father). Anthony Cooper has obviously been eliminated.

7) So to sum up: The real Flight 815 crashed on the island. Some agency set up a fake crash site just inaccessible enough to satisfy searchers but unable to be disproven. Said agency has some connection to the goings on on the island, and may or may not have been in collusion with the Others.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

I have another idea on a related subject I'll get to later today...

Cell Phone Voice Mail

Does anyone actually check the voice mail on their cell phones?

I've left business messages on two peoples' cell phones in the last two days, specifically explaining my requests and asking them to call me back. I was fairly explicit in the importance of my call.

So far, I've heard back from neither of them. I'm reasonably sure at least one of them is in town, but it's possible they aren't.

Incidentally, both of them are women if that makes a difference.

Do you return cell phone voice mails promptly, especially those that aren't strictly personal? Do you give it a few days to stew? Do you ignore them? Or do you even check voice mail?

Jasper 1, Knoxville 0

In the first Sawyer flashback on "Lost" way back in Season 1, it's established that after seeing his father kill his mother and then take his own life, young Sawyer wrote the con man Sawyer a letter. In it, the eight-yr-old wrote that he knew what the con man had done, and that someday he would find him. Young Sawyer never delivered the letter, and he'd kept it with him in an unmailed envelope when he crashed on the island.

The stamp on the envelope read "Knoxville, TN", which revealed to an excited Knoxville community that Sawyer was from here. He was born in 1969 and was 8 when the con/killings happened so that would have put it at about 1977.

Last night, our Sawyer finally caught up with con man Sawyer - who also turned out to be Locke's father - and had gave him the long-awaited letter. I waited in anticipation, knowing that Knoxville or Tennessee would have to be mentioned in some capacity since in the process of dialogue some connection to Sawyer's past had to be made.

Jasper, Alabama???

Our Sawyer asks con Sawyer (aka Anthony Cooper) if he'd ever been to Jasper, AL, and conned a woman there named "Mary". Cooper said he had, and Sawyer eventually kills him for the evil deed.

Rats. Alabama beats us out on something again. Even though I'm pretty sure it was established Sawyer is a native Tennessean, he and his family were apparently living in Jasper at the time and after the deaths he must've been brought to live in Knoxville. That's where he wrote the letter. Well, you can't have it all.




Meanwhile, in the most pointless cameo of the season - hello, Rousseau. Um, bye Rousseau. Would you like fries with that dynamite? You know she's planning to blow something up good with the stuff which will become apparent in a later episode but the exchange between she and Locke, especially after she just vanished after seeing Alex, was extremely odd. Hope she doesn't blowed herself up good like Arnst did... *poof*

Enhancing the User Experience

In order to keep up with emergent technologies, we would like to announce a breakthrough by our staff of Information Technology gully dwarves:

Inn of the Last Home will now be broadcast using Cisco Telepresence© technology.




If it's good enough for the Russian-American relations, it's good enough for me.

I'm Getting Too Old For This

Last night at softball, I:

• Went 3-4
  
• Scooped up a hot grounder at first, which bounced and hit me in the abdomen. I trapped it and tossed it to the pitcher covering first, but it wasn't in time. I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me, and today I have a softball-sized red spot just below my ribs.
  
• Was standing on 2nd with another runner on 1st when the next batter hit a blooper to left-center. The left- and leftcenter-fielder (in softball there are 4 outfielders) both converged, so I went about half-way. The ball hit the left-center's glove and popped out. I started running for 3rd and noticed him catch the ball in the air with his other hand, barehanded. You could hear the cartoon *scr-ee-ee-ee-ee-ch* as I skidded to a stop and ran back to 2nd. Left-center threw to 2nd to try to pick me off, but I slid under the throw, landed hard, and - once again - bruised my rear end in the same spot as the last time. The throw was dropped and rolled away so I scrambled up and ran on to 3rd. I scored a couple batters later.
  
• In the process of sliding (which is being charitable - it was more like "stumbling with style") I also bruised the inside of my left wrist. There is now a greenish area that looks like I'm about to become a zombie.
  

Some people seem to find this amusing...

Tomorrow, minus 25 years, the World Came to Knoxville

Read about all the festivities planned. (ahem)

Wrong

This is wrong on so many levels it just reeks wrongness with its wrongly wrong wrongitude.

Local church uses wrestling as witnessing tool

Did I mention it's just wrong???



(Sorry, BS Tommy)

Reaching the Point

This was an exhausting weekend. I spent approximately 5-1/2 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday working auditions for and casting "Suessical" - my next big production I'm Music Directing. I'll be keeping tabs of that show as time goes on until we open at the end of June. I hope local folks will be make plans to come see it, it's a great show for kids and all fans of Dr. Suess.

In addition to that, The Atomic Horns played Saturday night at a cruise ship-themed fundraiser for Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge and its Foundation. We started playing around 7pm and I finally left about midnight. Again I didn't sleep well that night, with the usual post-gig "wiredness" keeping me awake.

On top of all that, my dad's doing much better. He should be heading home from the hospital today.

At one point yesterday afternoon in the middle of auditions, I almost reached that point of exhaustion. Combine with additional drama at home afterwards as the director and I tried to solve other casting problems over the phone, plus a partial meltdown by Brainyboy....

I slept well last night.

What pleased me about the aftermath of Brainyboy's meltdown is that he came back out and contritely apologized, admitted he had messed up and told us he didn't know how to keep from losing his temper. It was a nice step for him. I had taken away some TV privileges but restored them since I think I saw some growth at that point. What do you think, should I have hung tough and kept the punishment or restored the privileges based on his apology?

Stent

My dad is having a coronary artery stent put in Friday afternoon about noon. Everything should be fine.

Please remember him, my mom and my family in your prayers.

UPDATE: Everything went fine, no problems in the procedure. There was a possibility he might've had to had two stents because another artery nearby could've been blocked when the first one was opened up, but it turned out to not be necessary.

He should go home Sunday - thank you for all your kind words :)

And in the, "Expressions That Came Out of Nowhere and I Wish Would Really Just Go Away" Department...

"Oh, snap!"

And Then You See It, Ominously Floating Over the Hilltop, and All You Hear is the Breathing...

This is probably the greatest thing ever.



Can you imagine seeing that thing flying over your head?

Interviewed By a Kat

I've been interviewed by Tish. She asked me five questions and I'm answering her here.

If you'd like me to ask you five questions, leave me a reply in the comments. You will then post the questions and your answers on your site.

1. What were you like in high school?

I spent a lot of time in the arts (band, chorus, drama) and hung out with all the people I knew in those areas. I was also in the honors English program, so I knew that set of people. Our class at Knoxville Central High School was fairly small that year, actually the smallest class that had come through in many years, so I knew a lot of people that most arts students wouldn't typically know. I never dated anyone in high school, but it wasn't from lack of trying - which was a source of great frustration for me. Schoolwork was fairly easy, and I never really had any desire to stay out late and party. Going to Mr Gatti's on Clinton Hwy (RIP) after football games was quite enough for me. My high school experience was overall very positive and I didn't develop any of the angst and disillusionment so many teens seemed to feel back then and on into today.


2. If you could have three wishes, what would they be?

a) I wish people would take time to see the other side of their arguments and who they're arguing with.
b) I wish there were 36 hours in a day.
c) I wish I could fly.


3. How and when did you know that Laura was the woman you wanted to marry?

When she suggested we go look at rings at the jewelry store and I heard myself agreeing. For a number of months she'd been hinting about it, and I'd always resisted (in a joking way) until one day I just agreed.


4. If you could have any job, other than the one you currently have, what would it be and why?

I'd work with John Lassater as a Disney Imagineer to develop new Disney attractions, or to develop theme park worlds and other immersive experiences like MagiQuest or Wannnado City


5. If you could go back in time to any period in history, where would you go?

Here are a few: I'd like to go back to the mid-Cretaceous or mid-Jurassic to observe real dinosaurs in the wild. I'd like to see an actual performance of Oedipus Rex in a Greek theatre, as well as see a medieval melodrama circus, see Macbeth at the Globe Theatre, attend a performance of Wagner's Ring Cycle or watch the opening night of "Oklahoma!". I'd like to see and hear Beethoven conduct his 9th Symphony. I'd like to attend the taping of an episode of "I Love Lucy" or "The Dick Van Dyke Show". I'd like to see the faces of Generals Lee and Grant as they signed the surrender documents at Appomattox Courthouse. I'd like to be at one of the legendary UT/Bama games when the other General and the Bear prowled the sidelines. And I'd like to visit the 1982 World's Fair one more time.

Hang on a second, let me check outside....

.

.

.

Rats, still no Delorean in the parking lot. Maybe someday...

Watermelon, Watermelon, Watermelon

Ever have one of those Tom Sawyer kind of days?

Where the weather's nice, not too hot, sunny... the kids are outside playing, you're in the house reading a book. Yeah, me neither.

No wait, that happened to me yesterday. And wherein there lies an adventure. Of sorts. Of the gastronomical variety. But bear with me.

Brainyboy asks me to come outside and shoot some hoops, so I slap my tennies on and go outside. He's demonstrating his complete mastery of the standing-backward-to-the-goal-flipping-the-ball-over-his-head bank shot which doesn't do much more than fly straight up in the air and hit me on the head, when we hear a sound...

A sweet, sweet sound. Musical almost. The sound that to me brings back hot summer days roasting in the St. Thomas sun, fingers idly lapping at the surf... Oh wait, that wasn't me. Anyway I recalled the hot Tennessee summers of my youth as the melodious tones of a wandering Ice Cream Truck reached our ears.

BB looked at me, eyes gleaming, tongue lolling.

I said sure, and to go ask his mom if she wanted one, and to bring me my wallet.

So to make a short story impossibly longer, the ice cream truck finally rolls down the street (anti-grav engines still some years away from ice cream truck installation). We make our purchases. A strawberry Crunch thing for BB, an ice cream sandwich for mom, and Tink and I decide on something called a Watermelon Bomb Pop. I remember eating plenty of those red, white and blue bomb pops when I was a kid (and those were available too) but you can't beat the taste of artificially flavored watermelon gelatin-based frozen ice treat.

So we dug in.

The kids wandered off again, BB inside the house and Tink to talk to the kids next door and gloat at her new treat. Laura and I sat around the front door steps and chatted, downing our treats.

Mmmmmmm.

Mine was quite good - the red part was watermelon flavored (whoda thought?) and the green I believe was lime. Since I'm a greedy ice cream eater, I chomped down almost to the bottom...

And bit into something harder than regular ice.

I reached a finger into my mouth and pulled out a sliver of something....black. My immediate thought was an old filling, but I couldn't imagine ice cream doing something like that and it wasn't hard enough for a filling.

The second thought was...bug. A fly. About the right shape and consistency... Ok, gross. G-R-O-S-S. I glanced down at the pop and saw a small cavity where the strange nasty black mass had lived only moments before I bit it out.

I tossed the stuff to the ground and showed the pop to Laura. She was puzzled but suggested I see if the other side had anything in it. Sure, hey, anything for science.

I bit into the other side, and found another black mass. I spit out the (then) offending green, red and black mass on the ground.

Are you seeing where this is going?

Fearing both our watermelon pops had been contaminated, I called Tink over and asked to see her pop. Thus far, no offending black mass on hers. I asked her if she'd noticed any strange dark objects in her Watermelon Pop.

Notice, strange dark objects. The light had still not yet begun to dawn on me.

"What?" Tink said. "No, daddy, those are seeds."

*blink*

"Oh," I said. And I looked at the wrapper description:

Cool down with the taste of refreshingly sweet watermelon - complete with sweet candy seeds and a lime rind!

Ok, return to your homes, citizens. Nothing to see here.

I finished my yummy Watermelon Bomb Pop, candy black seeds and all.

Now this time it wasn't the magical sound of the ice cream truck I heard, but my dear wife and daughter laughing at me.

But I'll get them back, oh, I will....

Take a Deep Breath

That clean smell you smell is the yard mowed, mulch laid, house vacuumed and dusted, all that spring cleaning type stuff one does in well, the spring. Which is now, finally that the thermometer has decided to come out of hiding. The temp was in the 80's this weekend and the skies were sunny so the annual shaking out of the cobwebs to ensue.

Gonzales

GOP senator calls for Gonzales to resign

The best way to put this behind us is your resignation," Sen. Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record) of Oklahoma bluntly told Gonzales, one conservative to another. Gonzales disagreed, rejecting the idea that his departure would put the controversy to rest.

Ok, so this is like the biggest non-story in the past year or so. I've followed this peripherally, and correct me if I'm wrong, but nobody is alleging Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez did anything illegal in being involved in firing the federal judges, correct?

There are no Democrats accusing him of doing something that was outside the rights and duties of his job, or outside the laws of the United States, right? Am I correct in that assumption?

And am I further correct in assuming that the sole reason they feel the Attorney General of the United States is incompetent and incapable of doing his job....is because he did something political, and that they didn't like? I mean, that's all there is isn't it?

That's it???

Are they really that stupid to waste time on that???

And, by not calling them on it, are we?

Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Forty

Appetizer - What is your favorite kind of bread?

I love all kinds of bread - hard to pick a favorite. I like sourdough when it's not hard and crusty. My favorite is a good butter and garlic-covered french bread or italian.


Soup - When was the last time you bought a new pillow?

People buy new pillows? You're asking a guy this?


Salad - Approximately how many hours per week do you spend surfing the ‘net?

Way more than I should. Since the web is my job and I'm constantly online during the work day I have to say 40 hours a week, plus another 10 at home in the evening or over the weekend. So 50 hours a week or so.


Main Course - What’s the highest you remember your temperature being?

735 Kelvin. Or that may just have been the fever talking...


Dessert - Fill in the blanks: When I ____________, I _____________.

When I feel wronged, I brood.

Why Do I Blog?

I have been tagged by Tish for the "Why Do You Blog?" meme that is currently circulating around the blogosphere. I am supposed to name five reasons that I blog.

1. I don't make the time to do any other kind of creative writing, and this is a good way to express myself that doesn't take a lot of time.

2. I enjoy being part of an online local community.

3. I like floating thoughts, theories, etc about TV shows that I watch. Ok, that one's kind of lame :)

4. It's important to me to have someplace I can float ideas about current events, things I'm thinking about, and get opinions and ideas from people I trust.

5. The voices in my head tell me to.



I'm not going to tag five more people, anyone can do this one.

Thinking Blog Award

I can't imagine many bloggers who don't think more than me. It's not difficult to make the first cut. My thoughts are random, incoherent and more likely to stray into random TV show musings than deep philosophy or logical reasonings. Anyway, here's the rules:

1. If you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the “Thinking Blogger Award” with a link to the post that you wrote.

And Inn of the Last Home's 2007 Thinking Blog Awards go to:

1. The Beast's Lair for helping me think about spiritual matters, and how important it is to reach youth with the love of God.

2. Tennessee Kings because she's my kids' school librarian, a great mom, a new friend and a fun new blog to read. Julie cares a lot about kids and how they grow up by reading.

3. Bedazzled because she shows me often how important family is.

4. Logtar helps me think about how to live in relation to others that might not be quite like myself.

5. And finally, of course, Uncle Mikey makes me think about good times, laughs, discussions, trips, enjoying kids, watching TV, and just enjoying the company - even far away - of a good friend.

Post Coming

Tish has tagged me for the "Why Do I Blog" meme.

Jay has thoughtfully given me one of his "Thinking Blog" Awards.

I will get to these memes soon, I promise.... Thanks, guys!

"Ismael" is another spelling for "Is Lame"

Can we just end all the speculation right there?

Wait...if you add in "Ax" you could get "Lame Axis". Maybe he was an anti-Nazi?





Ok, that's what I get for watching too much Lost...

More Lost-guistics

Moriah Vineyards

Don't Feel Too Bad...

News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy issues a "mea culpa" of sorts on his site in regards to the headline in this morning's paper:

Blood on their hands: Did Va. Tech officials do enough?

McElroy explains a bit the thinking behind the headline:

The newspaper's story, we knew, could not and should not simply recite what occurred as if we were delivering fresh news. Instead, we knew we would have to examine new angles. Likewise, a straight headline reporting the massacre would seem quite dated, and the suggestion was made to look for a quote that might serve as a headline, advancing the story and reflecting its emotional impact.

Jack shouldn't feel too badly, since the Sentinel was trying to think ahead and project out what would be of interest the next morning. However NBC News Nightline last night presented an hour's worth of "coverage" that was little more than thinly-veiled accusations, innuendo, and "I wonder if..." masquerading as same-evening coverage of the massacre. Throughout the broadcast (at least the first half, after which I couldn't watch any more through my disgust) the NBC News staff floated all kinds of questions like, "Did administration officials do enough" without real evidence at that point to back any kinds of questions up.

We hear it all the time these days...no questions may exist in a particular controversy until a reporter floats out a speculative question or two - then through repetition the questions become accusations and reputations are ruined.

I'm not saying they're at all untrue - the Va. Tech officials may have a lot to answer for in the days and weeks ahead - but at that point in the story it was too soon for the media to begin pointing fingers, winking and nudging the hand of blame away from the shooter and toward the school.

But it's all in the name of ratings, of course. Sensationalism is the norm, and just reporting the facts is boring.

News Sentinel, at least you tried to think ahead. You deal with an impossible 24-hour news story turnaround in an instant access news world. But NBC has no such excuse.

In the "Things You Didn't Really Need to Know" Department..

After sliding into third base last night at my softball game, I now have a huge bruise on my butt.



Yep, like the title said...



Anyway, I've played CoEd church league softball for about 7-8 years now and enjoyed every minute of it. Well, except for the final game of the season two years ago when my family came to see me play and the coach never even put me in the game. But other than that...

I played baseball when I was younger and have always loved playing first base - there's something about the potential to be involved in every single play from the plate that's always appealed to me. With my long frame I'm good at grabbing those errant throws that most other, smaller guys can't reach. My arm's improved somewhat over the years, as has my hitting.

This season I'm 4-5 with four singles, a fly out and a fielder's choice (FC doesn't count as an official At-Bat, right dad?). I've got that mid-range to either hit the ball on the ground through the gap between 2nd and 3rd or drop it into short field.

Well, last night after my 2nd at-bat I found myself on 2nd base. The batter hit a slow grounder between the 3rd-base(woman) and 3rd, and she bobbled it picking it up in her glove. Racing to put the tag on me at the base, I slid and knocked the ball away from her glove. When I felt the impact on my foot, I really thought I'd slid into her jaw and broken it. There's a such a terrifying feeling when you think you might've actually hurt someone - it shook me up for a little while and I wasn't able to ascertain exactly what had happened until later in the game. She was fine.

But I have the bruise to remind me...



I've never been in a real fight. Even in school as a kid, the worst tumble I ever got into was a wrestling match with this skinny kid my freshman year. I've never punched anyone, or had any kind of actual physical altercation. With my size, I think I could probably hurt someone if necessary, to protect myself or others. I obviously hope it never comes to that, but I also wonder how much of my heart would ever go into it (assuming my emotions didn't totally take over) because I always care too much about the other person and would be extremely concerned if they were hurt or injured. I guess that's a good thing.

Knoxville Google Map "Huh?"

I've lived in Knoxville my whole life, but since when did Kingston Pike also carry the moniker "Broadway of America?"




Apparently this starts west of Pellissippi Parkway/I-140. Maybe it's a Farragut thing...I blame rezoning.

We already have one Broadway in Knoxville. Don't need another....

BrainyBoy and Friends Rock

Catch the whole story on Brainyboy's team excursion to Nashville this weekend for the state Destination Imagination competition.

(He's the one in the Buzz Lightyear costume)

Come One Come All

Tonight the Atomic Horns play their first more-or-less open-to-the-public concert...

Atomic Horns
Eagles Lodge
Oak Ridge
(turn left at the Illinois Ave./OR Turnpike intersection, it's just ahead on the right. There's apparently a "FOR SALE" sign in the yard)

I have no idea what cover is (I assume its minimal) but kids under 18 are not allowed.

The Atomic Horns play all styles of music, from funk to rock to soul to polka (ok, no polka - but we'd sure like to). Elvis, Jimmy Buffet, Motown, oldies, Blues Brothers, all over the map. There's something for everyone, and we try to make sure everyone has a good time....

Last night we played for the Oak Ridge Playhouse fundraiser. The event was at the new Flatwater Grill/Inspiration Point in Oak Ridge and the facility/restaurant there is amazing, go have dinner there some night. We were under a tent behind the meeting rooms, and it was cold and drizzly. I have a sore throat this morning, but it isn't affecting my voice thank goodness.

Come on down tonight!

Quote of the Day

"I have too much to lose by getting on this ride, my hair, my eyelashes, my fingernails. Lord knows what else will spill out," Dolly Parton said.

-- Dolly Parton, regarding riding "Mystery Mine", the new roller coaster at Dollywood

Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Thirty Nine

Appetizer - When you were a child, which crayon color was your favorite?

Any of the natural greens: kelly green, forest green....it's something that's carried over throughout my life as organic greens are very calming and yet vibrant to me.


Soup - On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how likely would you be to change jobs if it required you to move?

I'd say a 3 - It would be very difficult to actaully leave Knoxville, as I have lived here all my life. My wife would have to find a new, comparable job in the new location (unless my new salary would be enough so she didn't have to work. Both our sets of parents live here, our church is here, all my extended family... I can't ever imagine leaving Knoxville or the mountains of East Tennessee for anoth---

*RING RING*

hello?

"Yes, please hold for Mr. John Lassater..."

(I'll get back to you guys...I need to take a call)


Salad - Take all the numbers in your birthday and your phone number and add them up, one by one. What’s the total?

9488

Main Course - Have you ever “re-gifted” anything? If so, what was it and who did you pass it on to?

We've occasionally received white elephant gifts at Christmas parties that we've given again the following year at other parties, but they're such small gifts and fairly impersonally given, it's no big deal if you don't want it.


Dessert - Name something you need from the store.

I want a keyboard carrying case from the Guitar Store.

UPDATE (04/13/07): Got it!!


UPDATE (04/14/07): Here's how I arrived at my number. 12+30+1966 (my birthday) + 865+xxx+xxxx (my phone number) adds up to a big ol' number (the subtotal is 2873. Subtract that from the total of 9488 and see if you can guess my phone number. Good luck.

Lost-guistics

1) Herarat Airways - the new airlines on "Lost".


her-a-rat - adj, Hirsute, full of hair.


What does this mean? I have no idea. Only that Juliet has long hair. Other than that, I'm stumped.

Well, it could also be a play on "Here a rat".


2) Sabine, the "Other" woman who died on the table in Juliet's flashback.

The Sabines were an ancient race of people who lived in Italy near Rome. Legends hold that the Sabine women were abducted by the Romans to help populate Rome, and later threw themselves and their children in between their own men and the Romans to stop war.

The "Other" women were trying to survive pregnancy, and presumably populate the Island. Juliet herself was "kidnapped" to assist that process, so in a manner of speaking she is a Sabine woman. She of the herarat blond locks.

Perhaps she will eventually throw herself and her (Claire's?) child between the Losties and the Others to prevent open conflict....

Coding Help

If anyone out there who can point me in the right direction where I can find the differences in Javascript support between Internet Explorer and Firefox, I'd gratefully appreciate it. Or someone I can just ask a question about it to.

I have a Javascript function that works great in IE6, but totally crashes out in FF2 - I need it to be able to work in both, or it's back to the drawing board.

And back to the drawing board would make me very cranky. And I don't need cranky right now.

This Just In....

Tennessee's oldest resident dies in Maryville

Marion Stout -- thought to be the oldest person in Tennessee -- has died at a Maryville nursing home. She was 111.

Our crack staff of gully dwarf newshounds have set out to interview the newest oldest resident of Tennessee, but have been unable to track him/her down. Reports vary but most seem to say the person is in hiding, shaking in their boots as they know they are surely the next to go.

Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.




(I know, old SNL Weekend Update joke. But it's still funny)

One Liners

• Imus Apologizes For Controversial Comments About Rutgers Players
  
  The only thing more pathetic than a Howard Stern is somebody trying to imitate a Howard Stern.
  
  
• Bleakest climate report approved
  
  It's so important to make global a political issue with both sides, it's going to slip up and turn into a disaster.
  
  

UPDATE (04/09/07): I wanted to pull this out of comments and put it out here to explain a little more what I meant...

Buck said:

I love Don Imus. I have listened to him for years and years.

I figure he did not call the team anything that their coach has not already called them at times when they were behind at the half or what they called each other when their play was not up to standards.

Don has apologized. His apology this morning was difficult to watch for those of us who know what he is and what he does.

All that is left now is to write a check to Rutgers. I think that is what is called "reaching out". He should go ahead and do that and put this all behind him.

I replied:

There are comments that come out of people's mouths that demonstrate the kind of people they are, inside.

When you say something like Imus said, it freezes your persona for that moment in time. We get a glimpse of a person's soul. No amount of contrition, apologies, personal appearances, offers to meet with players/families/etc in the days following the event can remove the fact that the opinion exists and will continue to exist. We may forgive, and Rutgers may forgive but it does not expunge his permanent record, unless some clear pattern of behavioral change becomes apparent.

We all have terrible thoughts in our head. I daresay anyone reading this has a very good chance of having denigrating thoughts about blacks, whites, women, men, gays, Arabs, Jews, Yankees, southerners, Florida fans, Trekkies, NASCAR fans, fantasy league players, whatever. In our private, most secret thoughts we may get a flashing impulse across our brain: "That (person) is a real ****". But just as quickly, that thought passes by and reason, good taste and morality prevails. Sometimes we might even feel guilty for having such a judgmental thought.

But others allow those thoughts to find residence, and worse to come out their mouths and become public. When you make that step, the thought has already become a belief and you can't just apologize it away. You have to be willing to understand what was wrong about it, and take steps to correct it.

Rush Limbaugh has made similar comments about Michael J Fox. Comedian Michael Richards got in trouble for letting his latent bigotry come out when he was angered. Some of us remember Jimmy the Greek's comments many years ago.

We are commanded to forgive. Most of us do so freely, not because of the command but because we know it's the right thing to do. But we cannot simply shrug and say, "Yeah, we know you didn't mean it." because they did, and that fact will be around for a long, long time.

Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Thirty Eight

Appetizer - When you travel, which mode of transportation do you prefer?

I love flying, and enjoy taking a plane to a far-off place. I don't mind riding in a car for a long distance as long as I have decent legroom, but I don't enjoy driving for extended periods of time... I rarely ever ride a bus - I can't remember the last time I was one on. I enjoy riding bikes, but I don't have one right now since there's really no where around my neighborhood to ride one. I like boating, but most especially I love sailing on a cruise ship. That's probably my favorite form of travel.


Soup - Have you ever met a blogging friend in person?

I've been to a couple of Blogger Bashes here in Knoxville, most recently a couple of months ago...


Salad - When was the last time you were really, really tired?

Probably after my last workout. Whenever that was...


Main Course - If you could have dinner with any one fictional character from a book or movie, who would it be?

I'd have a drink with Hawkeye Pierce, dinner with President Jed Bartlett and "dessert" with Jamie Buchman.


Dessert - Fill in the blank: One day, I hope to see _______________.

One day, I hope to see The Loch Ness Monster.

Just Calm Down, Everyone...

Yes, I know we've hit Dogwood Winter here in the East Tennessee and the South in general.

Yes, I know that it's supposed to dip below freezing tonight and outside flowering plants and small crops could be affected if not protected.

Yes, it's nippy out.

But c'mon - the low will be in the mid-to-upper-20's. It was colder than that a month or so ago.

Really, people, we're not going to die. Put on a sweater and live with it for a couple of days...

This is Just Wrong....

I'm sorry Michael but if you agree with this we've got to have a long talk examining our friendship...

Serenity named top sci-fi movie

Space thriller Serenity has beaten Star Wars to the title of best sci-fi movie in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans.

I would wager there was a massive ballot-stuffing initiative by Serenity fans, because that just doesn't make sense the general public - even the general sci-fi public - would choose it over Star Wars.

But interestingly, the poll now shows Star Wars (36%) in front of Serenity (28%).

Sometimes reason prevails...

AND ONE MORE MAKES.....

7!!!

One Month

Yesterday was April 1, 2007.

In one month it will be May 1, the 25th Anniversary of the grand opening of the 1982 World’s Fair here in Knoxville, TN.

What is Knoxville planning to commemorate this silver anniversary of arguably the biggest, most important event to happen to this city?

As far as I can tell, nothing.

If anyone has heard of anything - anything at all - being planned to honor or remember this date and occasion, please let me know and I’ll publicize it here.

Otherwise I guess we’ll all just have to celebrate quietly at home with friends….


(Crossposted with 25th Anniversary of 1982 World's Fair blog.)

The Big Announcement

I have a big announcement to make, and this is not going to be easy.

I've spent several weeks debating whether to share this with the blog audience but I think everybody has a right to know.

One's physical appearance has a lot to do with one's self-confidence and how they interact with the world. If one is convinced they are "ugly" or somehow not presentable in modern society it can affect how you deal with coworkers, clients, even the girl at the grocery store. It can cause one to shun human contact and eventually become a recluse.

I think I have the strength of will to overcome that. My self image, while not spectacular, may survive this big thing that's happened to me.

It's embarrassing to bring up, but I'm confident my friends in the blogging community will be supportive and help me cope.

You see, I have a banana in my ear.

I just woke up one morning and it was there. Small, green, a couple inches long. Growing out of my left ear. I hoped to ignore it at first but it was too obvious to pretend it didn't exist. I tried floppy hats, wool hats, even a took. By last week it was simply too big to hide anymore, so I've decided not to worry about it anymore.

There have moments I've been tempted to, well, peel it and eat it. But I'm afraid it will hurt so I haven't yet. But it smells so good, and appears to have the potential of making a good banana pudding. I must resist.

I will be venturing out in public with this banana in my ear and I will wear it proudly. I won't be ashamed, and I won't be afraid of the reactions I'll get.

I have confirmation that I am, ahem, appealing in my own right.

I've even decided to start my own support group, "Really Ugly Banana Ears", with which I'll share my story and help others combat this social stigma.

I hope you will join the bunch in supporting people with bananas in their ears, and help everyone recognize our rightful place in this world.

Separated at Birth?

If you watched 24 the other night, you were treated to see Jack Bauer be a nice big brother to autistic Brady:


As I watched, something kept gnawing at me regarding the character of Brady. No, not that he talked exactly like Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man", but that he reminded me of somebody.

Then a couple days later it hit me....(see below)












It's Knoxville's Sports Talk host and local sports writer Jimmy Hyams!

Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Thirty Seven

Appetizer - What are you proud of?

I'm proud of my kids when they accomplish something above and beyond their experience.


Soup - What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize?

I think I won a folding chair at Bingo one time. I'm still waiting on my big prize...


Salad - Name something you do that is a waste of time.

Currently I have about 20 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager cued up in my DVR waiting to watch. I'm making my way through them, slowly. Oh, so slowly...


Main Course - In what year of your life did you change the most?

I changed a lot the year our first child, BrainyBoy was born, 1996.


Dessert - Where is a place you consider to be very tranquil?

I mentioned in a past feast that I love laying on the couch, reading a book, no noise and nobody around with the windows open and a slight breeze coming through when it's sunny outside. It's also very tranquil when I'm skin diving in the Caribbean :)

We're An American Band

The Atomic Horns, in their last gig for the 50th Anniversary of the UT Department of Nuclear Science at the Knoxville Convention Center last month.


From left to right: Me on keyboards, Greg on guitar, Mark on bass, Carey on drums, Bill on trumpet, Paul on trumpet and Jack on sax. Bill's wife Tracy also plays horn but wasn't in that picture for some reason.


Me, Mark and Carey. Mark's really professional and smart, Carey's a wild man. Me, I look like the guy that got up out of the audience to come play with the band but ends up looking like a goof :)

LOST in Thoughts ("Expose'")

For those of you wondering if they're really dead, remember what Locke said:


"Things don't stay buried on this island for long."


If that's not a clue/foreshadowing, I don't know what is...

Scenes from the Mountains

Falling Trees in the Forest

I just looked at my site and I haven't posted since last Tuesday. That's rare that I go so long without something (and I haven't posted on anything substantial besides TV show thoughts and amusing-to-me-only tidbits) for several weeks.

Several things, rather big things in the grand scheme, happened with my life last week. I've pondered whether the blog about them and wondered if anyone really cared one way or another about what goes on in my life. I don't mean I consider you heartless or unsympathetic, dear reader, only that I find it more and more difficult to believe what I have to say is any more interesting or noteworthy than, say, the guy down the street. Or the girl in the car beside you at the red light. Or the checker at the supermarket - you know what I mean?

There are two kinds of bloggers. Those who blog because they have to blog - they have to put their thoughts and observations on paper (the computer) because it's an outlet for their own personal creativity, inspiration and philosophy. SayUncle's motto, right on the top left corner of his site, is, "Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you." He blogs because he finds it a rewarding outlet for putting his inner thoughts into words.

The other kind of blogger is the one who puts words on the computer to entertain, enlighten or educate others. That's me - I don't need to put thoughts in writing necessarily in order to ruminate on them. The subjects I blog about are created to garner feedback, commentary, discussion, rumination from the community. I look for other people's opinions and observations. I like to share a laugh by posting something funny I've read, or generate speculation on TV shows I like. Sometimes I just don't understand something, so I post about it and invite explanation.

I can't be a day-in-the-life blogger. I've tried, but I just can't. I also can't be a one-amazingly-insightful-post-a-day blogger. I've tried that too but there's nothing there.

I believe I've actually blogged about this dilemma before, which is rather pathetic when you think about it :) I'm sure some eager beaver will find the post. What would make it sadder is if it was last month some time and I just forgot about it.

If I were a here's-the-latest-in-my-life blogger, this post would look something like this:

• Last Tuesday my uncle passed away. We had the burial Thursday afternoon and I took that day and Friday off to be with family and friends. My brother flew back into town for the funeral, and it was an opportune time for him to reconnect with BrainyBoy and Tink, who he hasn't seen for about a year and a half.
  
  
• Friday we went to the mountains and spent the days with Laura's parents, her cousin and the cousin's family. Went picnicking at Metcalf Bottoms and hiked up to the schoolhouse and back. The kids had a great time playing "school" in the old schoolhouse, then splashed about in the creek for an hour.
  
  
• Saturday we visited the UT Vet School open house and saw a number of exhibits and animals shows - dogs, cats, birds, horses, farm animals, everything to make a couple kids and a couple kids-at-heart happy.
  
  
• Lazy afternoon yesterday for the most part. Our church has started a monthly contemporary service on Sunday evenings that so far hasn't failed to put a nice cap on the week.
  
  
• Our AC is out, on the first truly hot week of the year. It's not summer-hot, but hot enough to be uncomfortable in the house during the afternoon. The service guy won't be able to look at it until Wednesday, so we'll have to live with open windows and constantly running fans.
  
  
• We now have a third cat in the house. My uncle's cat needed a new home, so we took him in. His name is Fizban, to go with Tas and Skie. You do the Googling :) I'll have pictures soon.
  
  
• What the FRAK is going on with Battlestar Galactica?? "All Along the Watchtower?"??? They must be picking up transmissions from Earth, but not knowing the song or what it means, they don't recognize it. But we do. Frakkin' brilliant!
  
  But this "no new episodes until 2008" is ridiculous, I don't care if we do get some kind of 2-hour TV movie in December.
  

So that's my week. You tell me, and don't be afraid, was that of actual interest to anyone? Does it make a difference if you know me and know my life and situations? I can't imagine that's of much interest to anyone beyond my immediate circle and the bloggers I've known for a good while.

I'm struggling to define my blogging existence, and this will help.

Don't Cross the Streams

In the instruction manual for my new Motorola cell phone:

Use and Care
3) Microwaves - Don't dry your phone in a microwave oven.


Ok, important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.


There's also this:

6) The ground - Don't drop your phone.

Because heaven help you if you drop your phone in, say, a pool of molten lava.

Friday's Feast

Friday, March 16, 2007 - Feast One Hundred & Thirty Five


Appetizer - Name two things that made you smile this week.

1) Brainyboy coming back from a fairly disappointing (to himself) first soccer game on Tuesday to a much better second one on Wednesday. He's the only goalie for his school's JV team and is very much a Field General - directing his teammates where to be and showing a good knowledge of strategy. Watching him take command and do well defending the goal brings a smile to my face.

2) Watching Tink's ever-increasing sense of humor, wit and acting ability take shape. She's starting to mimic voices, do characters, adopt personas - all still very whimsical and very much a 7-yr-old. Her intelligence makes me smile.

Did I mention we have a convenience store in our house? They're 7-11.


Soup - Fill in the blank: Don't you hate it when ________?

Don't you hate it when a nice, serious thoughtful Friday's Feast suddenly takes a strange turn?


Salad - When you can't go to sleep, what is your personal remedy to help yourself drift into Lullabyland?

I keep a big oversized mallet by the side of the bed.


Main Course - What is something about which you've always wondered but have not yet found a good answer?

Who put the bop in the bop-she-bop? However, I have discovered who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong. After exhaustive reseach and effort, I have determined it was, indeed, Fred Rogers. Strange, but true.


Dessert - What is your favorite pasta dish?

Fettucini Alfredo, although it's difficult to find an Italian restaurant that really makes a good dish. I love lasagna, too.

However, my real favorite Italian dish might be Monica Bellucci. Wait, did I say that out loud?

Some Quick Thoughts

• Pete Rose admitted to betting on baseball yesterday. After all these years of denial he finally admitted to betting on the Reds every evening when he was manager.
  
  I know betting on sports is basically wrong and illegal in most states. I know betting on sports when you're an active participant is pretty reprehensible. But should Rose be condemned as much for betting for his team as he might have been had he bet against his team? I know there's point spread implications but, maybe I'm missing something, I don't think point spread matters a whole lot in Major League Baseball. If he'd bet against the Reds and actively worked to throw the game then he should be in jail. But if he bet for the Reds and, as a good manager should, tried to win the game and the # of runs didn't matter...well, I'm not going to be on his case too terribly much. After all both operations had the same goals... Oh well.
  
  
• Yesterday Tennessee Senator Mike Williams dropped out of the Republican Party and officially became an independent. I say good job, and what took you so long, Mike? And that has nothing really to do with the fact he was a Republican or Democrat, just that he is the latest in a not-long-enough list to finally shed official Party designation and realize there are two sides to every argument, and that you don't have to follow a "platform" to be a successful lawmaker or person. I think someone's political integrity goes up in my estimation when they do something like this. Here's hoping Joe Lieberman eventually takes that next step in the US Senate, but admittedly the pressure is much greater there. Although the Democratic Party has certainly done him no favors.
  
  I don't know much about Williams, but he has voted with the Democrats in a number of issues in the past - I just hope he doesn't become an IINO - "Independant in Name Only."
  

SpecuLOSTions

Spoilers for "Par Avion" below....

• Who is the "magnificent man" that Mikhail mentioned? He is somebody above Ben, and may be part of Dharma/Hanso and may not. There's someone named Jacob that was mentioned as being the one the "lists" were for, so maybe he has a name. Ben also mentions a "great man" who would kill him if he gave up information but Ben could've been lying while in captivity.
  
  Since the castaways are all known rather well by the Others, I'm forced to conclude that the "magnificent man"/Jacob is somebody known to the Losties. And I'm also forced to conclude he has to be one of these people:
  
  a) Sun's father, Mr. Paik, the Korean businessman/crimelord
  b) Locke's father, Anthony Cooper, the recent kidney recipient who faked his own death
  c) Kate's stepfather, Sergeant Major Sam Austen of the US Army
  d) Jack's father, Christian Shephard, supposedly dead and in a coffin on the plane but the body was not there.
  e) Desmond's former girlfriend Penelope's father, Charles Widmore, businessman.
  
  Both Mr. Paik and Charles Widmore have possible connections to Dharma Initiative. Sam Austen could be heading up a military or quasi-military operation. Anthony Cooper presumably disappeared but was shown to be rich and powerful.
  
  I think the most likely answer is Christian Shephard, mainly due to a) he's Claie and Jack's (the main character on the show) father, and b) he's appeared in three other characters' flashbacks so far (Anna-Lucia, Sawyer and Claire). The main drawback to Shephard being "the magnificent man"/Jacob is that he's a doctor and not a businessman or man of real power and influence. I think dramatically it makes sense.
  
  Perhaps...and this is real wishful thinking....perhaps one or more of these men are working together. Paik and Widmore (and Cooper) have the capital and power, Austen has the military and Shephard has Medical. I don't know. Sounds a little like the old Batman movie to me. Hey, they did have a submarine!
  
  Am I missing any more possibilities? Alvar Hanso, the actual founder of the Hanso Foundation, may end up being the main guy but that seems almost too easy.
  
  
  
• One never-before-seen character that's been a huge influence on one of the Losties' lives is the original con man Sawyer, the one James Ford too his name from. He swindled James' parents (in Knoxville) and indirectly caused James' father to shoot his mother and himself. James came to Australia looking to kill the original Sawyer but never found him. Who wants to bet the original Sawyer is involved as well?
  
  
• Folks are speculating that Rousseau is not who she claims to be, that she's actually an Other who's pretending to help Kate, Sawyer and Locke. Evidence put forth so far includes her disinterest and disappearance while the trio investigate the Flame Station, and how she stopped Mikhail just before he revealed he knew Locke had once been paralyzed. Plus general creepiness on her part. I think personally it's just coincidence. I believe she has her own agenda - get her daughter back - and won't be terribly interested in helping the Losties vs. the Others, but I don't think she's secretly working against them.
  
  
• Did anyone think the fact the quartet were able to climb over the perimeter fence so easily was a bit far-fetched? I mean, I could've thought of that. I don't think the Others' did it on purpose, I just think it was designed poorly. Well, let me rephrase it. I think it was designed to either keep something nonhuman out or in - something that wouldn't have the ability to cut down a tree and climb over. The Smoke Monster, perhaps? The escaped polar bears? I did half expect to see a T-Rex or Spinosaurus lurking about...
  
  
• Jack is fated to lead the Others, I think it's obvious. His tattoo translated to "he walks amongst us, but he is not one of us." I think he feels he can change better from within and will willingly take a leadership role - either over Ben or next to Ben, but whether it's with Ben's blessing is unknown. It will come down to Jack leading the Others vs Kate/Locke/Sayid/Sawyer and the other Losties. See Stockholm Syndrome.
  

UPDATE (03/30/07): Ok, scratch "b)" off that list above, assuming it's really Cooper the Others are holding all tied up in the basement. Apparently, according to Locke's flashback, he's not quite so rich and powerful as I thought. Or maybe he became more rich after he killed his mark's son and pushed Locke out the window, but apparently not powerful enough to keep from being captured.

I also mentioned how the real Sawyer would probably turn up eventually - I think (as do other folks) that Cooper is the real Sawyer. If our Sawyer ever lays his eyes on Cooper, we'll find out.

Happy Pi Day!

The Men and Women....and Children of CTU

Ladies and gentlemen, your new Field Ops Director at CTU:


Little Ricky Schroder from "Silver Spoons" and "The Champ" (pictured)!

But this is just the latest in a series of former child actors on "24" - consider:


Sean "Goonies" Astin was CTU OverLord that took one too many breaths last season and:


Sara "Darlene Conner" Gilbert was a CTU tech that got blowed up good in Season 2...not to mention:


Lukas Haas, the kid from "Witness" as another witness who gets wacked early in Season 4, and another innocent bystander:


C. Thomas "Ponyboy" Howell was Kim Bauer's unlucky boyfriend/shrink named, interestingly, Barry that almost took a whiff of Sentax nerve gas last season. Then there's this obscure former child actor who play a minor role on "24":


He played Ace Merrill in "Stand by Me" and,


A bloodsucker in "Lost Boys". Too bad nothing more came of his career...


Anyway, look for Corey Feldman, Kirk Cameron and Tina Yothers to make appearances in upcoming seasons...

This Just In....

"Subversive elements" have taken over Michael Silence's blog, attempting to balance out Michael's All-Fred-Thompson-All-The-Time fervor with a hefty dose of Al-Gore-He's-Our-Man-If-He-Can't-Do-It-Nobody-Can linkagery.

Two thoughts:

1) Knoxville bloggers (at least those I know) give both efforts a big collective yawn, and

2) This is why I dislike group blogs, especially group blogs with too many divergent points of view. When both of them get over their political eruptions, maybe Michael can go back to blogging about important stuff, like, you know, paint peeling. Or County Commission. Whichever makes more sense this week...

Nothing Wrong

Some of you may remember my adventures with the crash cart some weeks back.

I got the results from the gall bladder test - nothing wrong. Which is a good thing, except it doesn't answer my question as to why there's a pain in my side. Back to the drawing board, and more tests I suppose. Yippy.

In Which Our Protagonist Enters the 21st Century

I am blogging this on my new work laptop, at lunch, at a hotspot at Atlanta Bread Company. This is the first time I've ever used a wireless internet connection.

Yes, me. Professional web designer me. Taunt all you want, George Jetsons, I shall languish in darkness no more.

The entire internet is open to me - the world is my blogspot. What shall I do first?

Um...

Hm.

This sandwich looks good....web can wait.

Friday's Feast

Friday, March 09, 2007 - Feast One Hundred and Thirty Four

Appetizer - What is your usual bedtime? Do you like that, or would you rather it be different?

Typically between 12:30 and 1:30 am. I'd like to be able to go to bed earlier because, you know, sleep good. But there's so much I like to do like watch DVD's or mess around on the computer, it's hard to stop.


Soup - When it comes to advice, do you give more or receive more?

I probably give more advice than I receive because I'm not good at taking advice. Plus since I'm a dad, advice goes out on a daily basis...


Salad - Describe a memorable meal you've had.

We were discussing today my favorite pizza places of all time - #3) Little Caesars that was on Kingston Pike near what's today Kingston Alley. My wife and I got takeout there every week when we lived in that area just after we first got married. #2) Stephano's on the Strip. The best crust, hands down. #1) Godfather's Pizza that used to be in Fountain City near where Cici's Pizza is today. Before it was Godfather's it was a great place called Happy Joe's (mmm. just remembering gives me good feelings...) Godfather's was the best pizza I ever ate, hands down, and was a place we hung out at after football games in high school before it closed. Great, great meals were had in all those places.


Main Course - Name a work of fiction that affected the way you think about something.

I'm currently reading Norman Mailer's "The Gospel According to the Son" which is what a fictional Gospel actually written by Jesus might be like. I don't expect any great spiritual truth or, ahem, revelation to come out of it, but I'm hoping it will give some insight or raise some questions I can search for.


Dessert - What is your favorite type of fruit juice?

I fluxuate between apple juice and orange juice, though I should probably drink more of both.

My Life Thus Far

I'm typing this from my new work HP Laptop, delivered today, viewed on the new 19" flat-screen monitor. Mighty sweet. Laptop has wireless access and CD/DVD burner. Double sweet.


Brainyboy's team made the State Finals in his Destination Imagination competition this past Saturday. The State is in mid-April in Nashville. The Nationals/Globals, should they make it that far, are Memorial Day weekend back here in Knoxville. Ironically enough, that's the weekend of my brother's wedding in Austin, TX. Do well, BrainyBoy, just not too well....


24 and Battlestar Galactica are dead to me.


Good thing I still have Lost, The Office and 30 Rock. If Studio 60 comes back I'll be a happy camper. I haven't seen a single episode of Heroes - those of you in the know, has it progressed thus far as a good enough show to rent the season 1 DVD when it inevitably comes out in the fall?


One of my best friends is having surgery as we speak for a herniated disk in the back which will lay him up for several weeks. Please remember him and his young family in your prayers. This could be the best thing in the world for him, as he's a major workaholic and needs to take a break.


My directing job fell through. Nothing more till music directing Suessical in late April.


Atomic Horns gig on Saturday was a pretty big hit, unfortunately nothing more with them until mid-April.


What's everyone else up to?

Radio Drama Podcasts

Does anyone know if anyone on the web is doing original, new radio drama podcasts?

I know there are plenty of places to hear old-time radio dramas like Suspense or The Shadow or even Amos and Andy, but what I'd like to know is if anyone is producing their own vintage-style radio dramas and podcasting them for the enjoyment of their listening audience?

I've got a hankerin' to give it a try myself but don't want to recreate the wheel is someone is already doing it. I've got tons of old play scripts that could be turned into radio dramas, plus a lot of the original show scripts are available in various volumes as well.

Would anyone have an interest in, say, monthly originally produced radio drama podcasts?

Friday's Feast

Friday, March 02, 2007 - Feast One Hundred & Thirty Three

Appetizer - What does the color pink make you think of?

Barbie, unfortunately. Having a daughter, it's inescapable. However her love of Barbie had never reached obsession stage, so there's a minimal amount lying about the house. What gets me is the times I'm at a Target or Walmart and walk past the Barbie aisle, the neon pulsating pink glow emanating from all the boxes can be nauseating.


Soup - Name something you thought you had lost, but later found.

I thought our cat had run away a few years ago, but after a couple hours combing the neighborhood, he turned up. Tas is an indoor cat all the way and doesn't know beans about surviving outside. I was very glad he came back.


Salad - In 3 words, describe this past week.

"Sneezy Volunteer Broken" - no, it doesn't make sense together but take a look at the past several posts and you'll understand...


Main Course - What are you obsessed with?

Currently I'm obsessed with geneology and my family history. I received a book from my parents the other day that traces the ancestry of my dad's father's family. I've traced my family name back to 1711 Maryland, and am now determined to discover the lineage back to Scotland or Ireland, if it truly exists in such a direct path.


Dessert - What kind of perfume or cologne do you like to wear?

I don't wear cologne - ick. Deodorant is sufficient, thanks. Women, do you prefer men to wear cologne, or does is actually matter?

I Always Thought the Fish was Too Bossy

Jay at Triple Venti has a great poetic tribute to The Cat in the Hat's 50th birthday.