Requiem for a Smoke Monster

The last episode of Lost, ever, airs Sunday, May 23rd, which at this point - almost Mayday - is like, 3 weeks away.  They've got a lot of questions to answer, certainly - like, exactly what is the Smoke Monster? Why are there chain sounds when it moves? Etc - but there's not much time left to answer much of anything, really. 2 hour episodes, than a 2 hour finale. At this point, however, I'm not looking for answers so much as I am the mindfuck - the brutal twist that shocks the narrative and thereby, the viewer. Great example of this of course was the Season 1 finale - WAAALT! 


So, keep the mysteries coming, Lost. Every great artist knows the secret, which I here reveal: Always leave 'em wanting more.

Hulkamania's gonna getya

A dastardly villain's turn! 
How could you, Hulk?   :(

Patriots All

I don't have to know what it means, I just know it's Patriotic. 
Patriotic = Good, ergo, Good. 

A possible guide: When we do it = Good.
When they do it = Bad

"They" can be a surprisingly diverse and elastic group.

All for this moment

It was worth it!

Red in Tooth (w/ Claw)

Did you know eagles have been known to attack, kill, and then eat deer? Well, now you do - look at this guy book: He knows what's goin' down.

AMERICA!!!!

The Starling is thinking: "Hey, at least I know I'm free*".



*Offer not good in AZ.

Tatooine Immigration Services

Your papers, please.

It's a Small World

In hot pursuit.

Down a side alley

These ARE the nuts I was looking for!

Pawns in Another's Game

Stormtrooperdog

Ewokdog


Ewokdog would win, of course, based on the Hollywood rule that in a conflict between an advanced civilization and a primitive one, AND the movie is aimed at least in part at children, the primitive side wins everytime. Latest example, Avatar.


And with that, we're off!

Objects of our Projections

Superdog

Batdog

   
Not gonna do a "who would win" post, cuz it's too obvious: Superdog.

There should be a Gummint Study  looking into the subject of people who dress up their dogs. I bet they're all unbalanced in a similar way. Harmless, though, I'm sure.

TMNT Dog and Master

Who says all dogs go to heaven?

FTP

FTP = File Transfer Protocol, and old computer communication protocol still widely used, but less and less so every year due to its unsecure nature.

Clearly, the Kiwi teens who spraypainted this goat were not big fans of this protocol; me? I like it, but wouldn't transfer the Cryptonomicon via FTP.

Speaking of which, damn! Goats are evil looking - look into his eyes! And that beard!

After The Fall

I don't know about you - how could I? - but it seems baked into my head that the future = progress. That we as a species, as a people, and/or as a country are always moving upwards and onwards. And that was probably true for some time.

But no longer, at least in large parts of the world (Asia excepted). For instance, in New England, whenever you see a stone wall in the middle of the forest or some other strange place, what you are actually seeing is the rollback of society - the wall represented the border of a farmer's field. The farmer is long gone, and his fields have returned to the Woods.

Same with all the factory towns in New England/Midwest - they're hollowed out, dead, husks of their former glories. Look at the roads and trains and schools and libraries all across America and you will see the story of decay - we hit our peak in the US sometime in 1963, I calculate, and we've been spiraling down since. Co-incidentally this is the same timeline as the rise of the modern Repuglican Party, which is killing the country.

But it's not just America - the picture above is from Kabul, Afghanistan, which once was a fairly modern, cosmopolitan (in context) city, but after decades of war, is now mostly rubble. Same for much of Africa - large portions of African cities were fairly modern in the 1960's, and have since regressed.

Such that we are, in many areas, already living a psuedo-apocalyptic life: The Fall has already happened, it's just a slow unwinding from that point.

But fret not! Our good friends the Repuglicans will ensure this destruction picks up. For all of us, praise Jesus.

Kabul XXXX

Should just get this one out of the way while I can. These two know each other, by the way, so don't go judging. It's damn boring in Kabul.

Sex n' Violence

Poor Donkey. :( And poor me -  I'll search the internets for interspecies animal sex so you don't have to - and trust me, you don't want to.

But, to the point: Sex and violence - all animal behaviors (including humans) fits into the two categories of sex or violence, and in fact violence is but a subset of the only true category: Sex. Quite simply, we are here to reproduce our genes, and anything else is inconsequential to the genes. The acts leading up to reproduction will be filled with violence or simulated violence, as the genetic testing ground dictates. Think of rams slamming each other in the head, all for the ladies.

But we are not our genes, right? And we, as humans, have the ability to break out of these biological/genetic categories. Right?

I actually don't think so - we only fool ourselves. For instance, and but one example of an infinite amount of examples, I could state that the entire history of the Monte Carlo Super Sport is about sex, and subsequently, violence. Prove me wrong!

Awwww bait

One serving of Awww, comin' up!


Ironically, Dad here probably just got done munching down on a bunch of other cute lion cubs - that's just how male lions roll.

It is interesting to me, in a dark way I suppose, the prevalence of violence in our world, and specifically genetic based violence. When the male lion comes in and kills 3 babies just because they were fathered by another male, he's not necessarily helping his tribe or the population at all - what he's doing, or more specifically, what his genes are getting him to do, is wipe out the competition. That's it, and that's pretty central: 

Gene v. gene, and we're just the vehicles and/or the weapons.

Preying

Evolution wants ever better killers, apparently. To what end, one wonders?

Cloaked

A real live invisibility cloak, developed by a Professor in Tokyo. It's straightforward enough - cameras on the front and back of the suit display the image on the opposite side, such that it appears you are seeing through the cloak/person directly. And I suppose you are, via the cameras. But this cloaking suit wouldn't fool anyone, not yet.

Theoretically, invisibility would require only one of the following thee tricks: Allow photons to pass through the object to be invisible (difficult, what this cloak attempts), OR, you don't allow photons to bounce back in a certain direction (this is the basis of stealth radar technology), though this would never be fully "invisible". Or, you absorb all photons and don't let any go by, but then the object in question would be black - very black. And unless it was night, hardly "invisible".

Mirror, mirror, more mirrors

Because I am a huge nerd, I woke up this morning thinking "once you consider something, nothing is what it seems", and specifically thinking about sight, and light. Think about it!

Sight is possible only because of your eyes, an evolutionary development spanning billions of years. Your eyes operate as cameras for your brain, and are directly attached to your brain. While we're here, you are essentially your brain and spinal nerves encased in a flesh machine that moves you around for the sole purpose of reproduction. But anyways, your eyes absorb photons out there in the world, translating these photons into different colors then transferring this information to your brain which "sees" whatever is out there.

Photons come from, are, light. Light comes from all sorts of things - including heat, since light is but a small part of the full electromagnetic spectrum, such that light and microwaves are close cousins. Anyways, light comes to us as photons, mostly from the sun. Photons from the sun take 8 minutes to get here once they leave the surface of the sun, but can be trapped within the sun for millions of years, so yes - the light hitting you right now from the sun is millions of years old. This light is created as a by-product of the fusion going on in the center of the sun, and I could go on and on about fusion but let's save that for another day.

Everything you see, every color and texture, is the result of photons striking that object, and based on the materials of that object, it reflects some photons back. In the case of a sunflower, for example, a lot of these reflected photons are yellow. These reflected photons strike your eyes which translate and transfer to your brain, and you "see".

Makes sense, right? But then - and here's my conclusion! - this is but the start of the realization, for the next understanding will make this tale of reflected photons questionable: Light acts as a wave, not particular photons, and can be understood as a small part of a much larger "field", the electromagnetic field. But that's a story for yet another day. Manana, maybe.

So, you see, nothing, and I mean nothing, is what you actually think it is. The question that results from this understanding: Yeah, OK? So what?

Good question!

Invisible

Invisibility might be the ideal state for a redshirt, considering the hazards of the role. Or even if you subscribe to number 62 from the "Rules for Living a Long Life": Keep your head down and stay out of the way.

However, invisibility is pretty boring. There's only so many times sneaking up on people in the woods is amusing - quite a few, I'm sure, but not enough to make it worthwhile overall. I assume.

Something to consider if the situation ever comes up.

Faih

Fryeburg Fair, Maine, 2007

Oldest Tree in the World

Here it is. I wonder if it has a name? It's a bristelcone pine, and is located at approximately 10,500 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It may not look it, but it is still alive, and has been doing that old "living thing" for about 5000 years. Thus, this fellow was sprouting out of the ground when the Sumerians were putting the first stylus to stone, and inventing writing. Pretty darn old.

Up and down the world, in the area of life, there's a fairly universal element to longevity: Go slow. All the slow moving lifeforms of this world - and others, I will assume - tend to live longer, and in some cases much longer, than the fast moving ones.

As it's said, live fast, die young. Make a note of this, young people!

Boone Hill

I encourage all you hardcore Losties - or if you are feeling as if you could be a hardcore Lostie (and there has to be a better name than that [don't ask me though, I'm terrible with names]) - to rewatch Season 1 now, or very soon, or at least commit to finishing it before 5/23. For firsts, it's awesome, but so different than the last 3-5 seasons; seconds, you'll see how this season is closely paralleling the first season, except of course our characters have been dramatically changed.

The fractured and jumpy nature of time on the show has a strange effect on the viewer - if you watch along in real time, the show has gone on for years and in sooth, the last three seasons have taken up only a month or so in real time. Consider, it was but a few weeks ago from Jack's perspective that he was standing on a bridge, all pilled up, ready to end it all. That's gotta weigh on a character, yet for we, the viewers, it's been years, and Crazy Beard wearing Jack is long in the past.

But if you were to watch Lost in marathon fashion, as many people do, the show would have a quite different effect as you finished one season after another in a matter of days/couple weeks. The impact is closer to the characters actual experience of the passing of time.

But then, there'd be no time for off the wall theories or "general mystery pondering" which, one might argue, is the main enjoyment of a mystery story - speculation, guessing, getting the viewer/reader to play along.

So let us enjoy this mystery while we can, for soon it will be gone, never, ever to return.

Blow'd up

Oh noes! Jack got blow'd up real good. I'm a bit concerned, honestly, that he has indeed somehow been infected now. There has been an internet theory all season regarding Claire - that in the Commando attack on New Otherton back in Season 4, that she did indeed die when her house blew up, and then Smokey resurrected her, ala Sayid, but slightly different (no pool). So, if that theory is correct, then last night we saw something very similar, with the added bonus of Flocke telling Jack "You're with me now". 

It's clear Smokey has some powers over the dead, or at least access to their forms and memories once they die; he might also be able to infect dead bodies and make them come back to life - again, ala Sayid. If that's what really happened to Sayid - I have some hope for him, as I don't think he killed Desmond last night, and he seems to have somewhat snapped out of his zombie funk, since he appeared to be lying to Flocke.

But, if Jack's not dead, then it seems pretty clear he's the new Jacob - he doesn't want to leave the island. And frankly, I don't blame him. I'd never leave either. 

Check out Flocke in the background of this pic - as you see, the rockets don't seem to have much effect on him. 

And Smokey as Christian? Sure, he claimed it, and even revealed a bit of inside info. And we've not seen Christian this year. But I still am not 100% convinced - clearly, Smokey lies when it suits his purposes; clearly there are things going on on the island he has no control over (the kid, for example), so I'm still holding out some small hope that Christian is not Smokey. We'll see.

And this is almost it, kids, in fact, I think all the rest of the episodes can be considered the final chapter of the story. There's no new Lost next week (!!!), and then we're in May and the show's almost done. I will have to re-evaluate my entire life at that time. But that's for then.

For now? End Game is on. Brilliant plan by Sawyer, except maybe for the needling of Jack to get off his boat. Seemed a tad excessive.

And is there any saving Claire? I hope so - I've been unexpectedly drawn to Kate in her attempts to save Claire. Go Kate!

Sacrifice demanded

The Carlysle's - Boone and Shannon - did not fare well on Ye Olde Island; in fact, each of them did seem to be nothing more than sacrifices, or object lessons for other characters. Boone's death was for Locke; Shannon's death was for Sayid - each orchestrated by Smokey to get his favored Candidates in place. Just speculation, but it fits the general unwinding of each character from their social moorings - but in this case, each character has been "claimed" by Smokey, as opposed to Jacob.


We'll see! The scene with Boone above has the only redshirt reference in Lost, I believe, and a very sly meta Trek reference - can you catch it?

Boone: Red shirt.
Locke: Huh?
Boone: Red shirt. Did you ever watch Star Trek?
Locke: Eh, not really.
Boone: The crew guys that would go down to the planet with the main guys: the captain and the guy with the pointy ears. They always wore red shirts. And they always got killed.
Locke: Yeah? Sounds like a piss-poor captain.

Synergy (inside the box)

And with this bit of synergy, I'm concluding this run of "Stormtroopers Gone Wild". Tune in next week for the exciting continuation.

Too much (mac?)

No offense really intended (well....), but this is clearly the picture of a boy who has not grown up. He's clearly a man to some degree, however, since the price tag of all the items we are looking at in this picture is steep - over 10K? And I am confident in guessing this picture shows but the tip of the waste.

And what a waste! I know people like this  - but only via the internets. Collectors of all manner of items - in this case, the dreaded Manga and associated merchandise. The nerdiest of the nerdlies. There are sports fans who are just as insane, but for some reason it's more acceptable to spend 1K on a signed Joe Montana jersey than it is on a limited edition Manga doll. Go figure!

But then, who am I to judge how this guy spends his, or his Mom's, money? Oh yeah - smart enough not to waste thousands of dollars on toys. Money better spent on drink and smoke - amirite? Hypocrites, represent!

Also, clearly a Mac disciple. Ug.

Upon reflection

But where is the blame? Should the trooper blame himself? He was cloned to be weak minded and easily pliable - why shouldn't he fall prey to insidious Jedi Mind Tricks?

However, once you go down this logic path, you will quickly see that no one is to blame, ever, for anything - because there's always a precedent. 

That's not a viable way to move in this world, however, so the opposite has become true: You're responsible for everything, regardless of circumstance.

Hence, bad trooper!

Stormtrooper's Lament

I'm thinking I picked the wrong horse with this "redshirt" meme -- too late to change to Stormtroopers?

Also, theme!

Stormtrooper Party!

Everyone needs to release some steam from time to time! H/T Skramly

But maybe this is too much steam:

 They're legion. 
H/T L.E.S.T.E.R

A New Hope (cont.)

There's about 16 ways I could go with this pic - it's rich. Ten space-internet credits to the person who can can guess what's coming next, based on this picture.


While you play that game, distracted (distraction is a mighty weapon), I will say Obama IS our only hope. If he can't pull us through this insanity, then we might very well be doomed - we might become the truly crazy religious dictatorship armed to the teeth, also with more nukes than anyone. How would you feel if Sarah Palin had the Button? 


Crazy periods come and go - they tend to burn out one way or another - so it is but a matter of time before some semblance of sanity is regained. The only question is, how much will we lose before we get there?


Tune in to find out. And maybe root for Barry to pull it through, for all of us, yeah?

Dialectic

I have gotten somewhat discouraged from time to time with recent events - specifically, the unrelenting opposition to Obama from segments of the American population. But that's natural, and I'm betting on Obama to come out on top - and thus America, and thus the world. Those are the stakes.

But I had forgotten a simple step to get over this occasional discouragement: Bush/Cheney are gone. Thank FSM!

I never really had anything personal against Bush - he's a frat boy Prince, and if he hadn't succeeded upwards to the highest level despite himself, would have been just another member of America's royalty that does just about nothing - I've known many of these people and while I'm not a fan, they're mostly harmless too.

But it really wasn't Bush who was the main problem. It was Cheney, and I think we've seen clear proof of that based on the behaviors of each since 1/20/09. Regardless, they're gone, and now we have one of the greatest Presidents of all time in the office, instead of this:

That's our Bush!

IOKIYAR in pictures

This is OK. It's Repuglicans.

Not OK - not a Republican. Here, from Suhail Khan, Bush appointee in the Dept. of Transportation:

Many preceding presidents wouldn't go as far as to even enter the Oval Office without a suit and tie, much less use this very important and public office in an informal or casual manner. And yet, while conferring with his senior aides in the Oval Office, President Obama obviously feels it appropriate enough to prop-up his feet on the historically significant nineteenth-century Resolute Desk. Perhaps its the age in which we live, or a new time of informality, but I'm sure I'm not alone in being just a bit uneasy with such a disregard for the highest American office, however small or insignificant the gesture may be. In the grand scheme of things, putting one's feet up on White House furniture isn't akin to the high crimes and misdemeanors of say Watergate or even President Clinton's antics with interns and the like, but President Obama's callous gesture demonstrates a significant lapse of respect for our highest office.

 This is but one example out of countless examples of the raging hypocrisy of the Repuglicans  and their supporters. To wit: There is no amount of hypocrisy or cognitive dissonance they can not or will not engage in. They could say one thing in the morning and reverse themselves in the afternoon and it will be accepted.

We're living in a political climate in large part made up of pure lies and BS - all coming from one side, and amplified by a compliant media. 


You would think reasonable people could look at these two pictures and understand it's no big deal. But Repuglicans are not reasonable people - they're the villains in the American tale. And as such, there's no amount of lying and deception they will not engage in for the pursuit of power and money.

Racist Bait

Hey, lookee here Teatards and various other racist Repuglicans - it's Jay Z, Beyonce, and members of their posse in the all powerful "White" House Situation Room. Look at the disrespect! HAHAHA.

Awesome pic. 

Pass the Honey, Please

No more stealing picnic baskets for Gentle George.

Cool Dog Brings Bears and People Together

Fret not, y'all: Cool Dog's gonna get this all sorted out.

Frozen in Plastic

Know what the LT Figurine thinks of this figurine?

No class!

Welcome to the AFC East, LT. You're gonna love playing in Foxboro. Also, my boy Leon Washington is going to steal all your carries.

But go ahead, Fantasy Neophytes: Draft LT early on name recognition alone. I'm counting on it.

Memories for after the Fall

Pondering this... toy?.. for some time, it occurred to me how spectacularly luxurious it is  - and thusly, many, most of the things we have.

Imagine, if you will, that you've been in jail for the past thirty years. An item like this would be.... beyond conception? How would you even relate to it? It speaks to a level of luxury far, far beyond the baseline of survival, or even comfort. What do you do with this... toy?

Imagine, again, that it's sometime in the future, and you are living in some post-apocalyptic Zombie wasteland; thinking back to a time, to an age, that allowed such items to be built and people worked to pay for them... incredible!

That said, it's somewhat cool in an abstract sense - the detail and attention, etc. Not a recommendation though!

Oh yeah, Lost: Desmond is back on the Island, in the ground. Once again, this show is simply incredible for the amount of attention paid to the storyline, and working that into new stories. It seems fair to say that what we'll see as Season 6 ends are riffs on previous seasons. With some big twists too, of course.

Contrasts in perspectives

The Alternative Universe unwinds apace, with Desmond now an active agent - whoa, last scene!

Desmond was blissed out, which seems incongruous with the setting, as noted by the mostly always polite Smoke Monster. Knowledge of the future? Of the rules? The Island kid was back - did he look older? Different? Desmond is the key.


Wrong about the numbers. And we had the perfect chance - Connect 4!

I think a lot of upper tier Redshirts are going to be culled - watch your back, Lapidus.

POP TERROR

Another in the series of artist commissioned Lost posters. Not the best though, but suits my purposes. 

A bet for tonight's show - just speculation: We find out the Numbers are different in the Alt-Reality. Here's hoping!

Also, if you're going to ever play the lottery, you probably should not play 4-8-15-16-23-42 as the odds are extremely high there will be many other's using the same numbers, and you'll be forced to split the jackpot, and wouldn't that be ironic? Don't you think?

The Good Guys

This is literally NAZI propaganda - 1944, Leest Storm y'all - and so I just done gone and Goodwined myself, for shame. However, being so upfront about it should give me some points. That out of the way...

Fascinating to see how they, Evil NAZI's, tried using American symbols and themes in a perverted way, to show I assume German citizens that these Americans we're not all movie cowboys and jazz musicians. But to the average European, especially 5 years into the horrendous war, the myth of America and the coming LIBERATORS (another version of this same poster, with some added color) must have been tempting.

Americans, of course, are rigorously trained to understand that we, collectively AMERICA, are the Good Guys, always have been, always will be, and we can do little wrong. Anyone who says otherwise is a no good dirty traitor and should move to Canada, pronto.

But I guess Bad Guys everywhere and through all of time mostly talked themselves and maybe the people around them into believing they were the Good Guys, too. I mean, it's hard not to, no matter what you're actually up to - who wants to think of themselves as the Villain? No one, not even stinking NAZI's for FSM's sake. Everyone else is the villain; me? I've got noble intentions. And so it goes.

Not saying America is the Bad Guy, well, at least not always. Hard to argue against that these days, or at least it was prior to 2009. But any State that pursues Empire will eventually have to resort to coercion and force to maintain that Empire and once you've started down the path of coercion and force to maintain Empire, well, there you are: An Imperial. And good luck arguing how the Empire brought schools and electricity to poor, backwards worlds. You'll always end up justifying the destruction of Alderaan.

A Dramatic Reconstruction of the Fantasy Civil War

We've established our premise - note the influence of the Golden Days of 2002/2003!

 Making progress.

 Yes! More of this! Do it for America! I mean the Confederacy!

 What's this?! Counterattack?!?!?! With a katana?

Ha! How do you like this?! I have taken your breeches! Long Live the South! Long live the... Wait!

Oh Noes! It's the 20th of Maine with their unstoppable and highly educated leader Joshua Chamberlain! We're doomed! How shall we recover from this total defeat?

 I got it! New marketing campaign! Yee-haw! The South shall rise again!!!