UConn James

Sorry this has taken awhile to get back to. Have a few things here.... merij, I'm just falling on the side that says Hurley wasn't crazy / mentally ill. Hurley always had the "gift" to see ghosts (similar to Miles' ability since childhood to read the final thoughts of the dead), only it manifested later and when it did --- coupled with the grief of feeling responsible for the deck collapse, etc. --- Hurley doubted his own sanity. I'm going to stick to my guns on this. I don't think Dave was MIB. MIB was not every ghost we saw, as you say. I can dig that the ghosts Hurley saw as an O6 period were from the Sideways. Which gives a little more ammo to the Dave contention. Why could all the others speak to Hurley from the Sideways, yet Dave couldn't be from the Sideways? Yeah. That last paragraph has something interesting, too. As much as these people took their pasts with them to the island, their island experiences affected their past. For many of the castaways, I think there was some "bleeding over" of their consciousness (likely through dreams) b/w pre- and post-crash. The most telling of these was that incident of Richard's visit and tests of Young John Locke. It reminds me of Walt and how Tom said the Others' tests showed he was "special." And it's got me really looking forward to those 12-14 minutes of epilogues (by the by, these will be included in both the collector's set and the single-season 6 sets). My prediction, whether it's shown in those or not, is that Walt will take over as Protector after Hurley. Also, Widmore was on Team Jacob, as he explained in the secret coat-room that shortly after the freighter exploded, Jacob came to him. And so, with Ben landing in 2005 after he turned the FDW, he (a little) misguidedly set out doing MIB's work, through Sayid. The other groups are all very loosely connected, if they're connected at all. Mostly, I think it was just Jacob positioning some pieces on the board, independent of one another, yet all linked to him.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread... but prior to working as chairman of ABC, Mr. Braun was Seinfeld co-creator/writer Larry David's attorney and that character was named after him. It's detailed in his lostpedia entry.

Kelly, it wasn't a movie, so it's a slightly different animal.... but the only reason LOST got on the air initially (with an astronomical $12M pilot episode) was b/c Lloyd Braun wanted to stick it to ABC b/c he knew he was about to be fired. Otherwise, I've been inside a movie theatre three times in the past 15 years, and even for those, I was goaded into it by somebody saying, "I want to see a movie tonight." Movies are 95 percent sh-- these days. Best thing to do is get Netflix and relive better days of the industry.

Could you provide a link to the Big East joining the ACC? All I see is this article on Google News. At this point, it's just speculation. And for most of the Big East teams, there's not even much speculation at this point. Kinda waiting for the big dominoes to fall, and then we'll see what happens to the smaller dominoes. Wouldn't be surprised or disappointed for this to happen, tho. It has seemed inevitable since Miami, BC and VT left. Per the link above, they're speculating that the BE could be split among the former Big-10 (PSU/OSU/Mic et al.), and the ACC. Big-10 wants access to the NYC market in the worst way, so they'll try to court Syracuse and Rutgers, and also go after Pitt and WV. Would be interesting to see UConn in an ACC-North. And for Basketball, that would make for a hell of a conference. Re-alignment is tough, what with possibly losing some long-standing rivalries, but something had to happen. If done right, it could be great for all parties to form some bigger, more cohesive conferences (with encouragement to have 16 members) that can propel the system (especially the football post-season) to where it should go. Whatever comes out of this, tho, they need to not use numbers in naming the new conference make-ups: Big 12 ==> Great Plains Conf. Pac-10 ==> Pacific Conf. Big-10 ==> Mid-West Conf. et cetera, et cetera.

I've been on the search for a foam/whatever DHARMA BEER cozy for awhile (something like this) but have come up empty.

He once was LOST, but now he's found. HB, dude!

Gee, I wonder why the Soviets didn't tell anyone about these? Couldn't be that they wanted to become imperialist pigs themselves, could it? No, I don't believe that. Can only hope that this could provide an income and badly needed jobs for the people there, esp. as an alternative to growing/producing opium. A close relative who is serving there currently and will likely be promoted to Master Sergeant after this deployment (as high up as you can get as a non-comm) wrote last week, "It's like Vietnam all over again here." A good majority will. Yep. The duality is that they hate us, but ~70 percent of the citizens say that they still need us right now for security. Lots of tension that rides along with that duality, tho. Literally, 700 years from now, they will still be bemoaning the cats who died in an airstrike that took out the Al Queda #3. These people 'forgive and forget' nothing.

'Enough to fund every Americans' health care for the next 12 years' Uhh... not quite!

Nike had better get on that!

Well, that's what happens when you let them off the leash....

Link Let's see if I get this right. It's OK for Mexican cops to indiscriminately kill Americans who cross their border, but it's not OK for American officers to shoot a Mexican border-crosser when it became a matter of self-defense. Nice logic. Or perhaps it's perfect logic, just depends from which vantage you see it. Innocent Americans need to allow themselves to be maimed/killed, and Mexicans' mellows can't be harshed for any reason. There was a time when these people would be dead for this act. No questions asked, no investigation needed, no apologies given. In the Ford era, we went into one country... I forget where, I just remember the circumstances... where Americans had been taken captive by a private group --- and we bombed the sh-- out of the city on the way in, rescued the people (there was intel on exactly where they were), and bombed on the way out just for good measure. Now, we apologize for living.

Too much exposure to bright light can trigger migraines for me. So, I'm sorry if I talk to you through shades, but I'm not going to pay the piper just so you can see my baby blue-greens.

Not if the mothers don't give a sh--. Which is why my stance on abortion is what it is. If a mother doesn't care enough, I'd rather that a child not have a sh-- life like that and become something that society has to pay for.

Here's a pretty cool screensaver that mimics the Swan hatch computer... Link.

Always the argument from people who just can't accept that the bullet needs to be bitten at some point. Waiting, putting it off all the time, grasping at straws from others teams' jetsam, then forever comparing young QBs to your previous HOFer, and you get the situation we've had post-Jim Kelly. Next year's class includes Ryan Mallet and Jake Locker. If the past is any indication of the future, the top prospects will fade a bit in measurables, have injury concerns, or something that will cause second-guessing. Also, some guys not on the radar now will light it up, and the second-guessing about them will be whether they're one-year wonders. And then, the talk will be all about some junior who decided to go back for his senior year or a soph who will enter the draft as a junior next year, and the process repeats again. It's always something. A GM has to identify a guy that has reasonable or close-enough fundamentals required for their type of offense and then put in the resources required to get that guy. Basing anything on what may be the case next year and the "paralysis of analysis" is a very good recipe for failure.

We haven't had sat or cable for the last 12 years now, and are over-the-air (OTA) only... but we're right in the middle of 3 DMA markets. I've written before on the consumer forums about antenna and digital transition stuff. Since we got an HDTV (we've saved so much w/o subscriptions, this is our one-off entertainment budget, and a very decent 1080 set at Sam's for $900) and I got a new laptop recently, it's a little mind-boggling to me that people actually pay for TV anymore. Networks are available by OTA and you can supplement with Hulu, etc. Things seem to be converging toward an internet-based delivery system that might actually provide the holy grail of "a la carte" programming --- meaning, rather than being forced to pay for a package of 30 channels you never watch, just to get the 3 channels you really want... you pay for only the channels you watch. Internet broadcasting might be what finally forces cable's hand on this. If enough people just tell TW, Comcast, Charter, etc. to pound sand with their $80+/month crap, things might actually change for the better. For the past couple of seasons, it's been a matter of finding an Internet broadcast link wherever I can find one. The NFL cracks down every so often, so it's a matter of people having to stay one step ahead. I've also been interested in Slingbox products. This is a box --- with no monthly service charges, just buy the box --- that relays an input signal (sat, cable, or OTA antenna for CBS and FOX channels) to a remote location via broadband Internet. They now have an HD box, as well. I believe you'd need a go-between to display it on your TV, say an HDMI-out from your computer to your TV. So, it appears that if you have friends/family in WNY with a broadband connection who is willing to accommodate this (it goes without with saying that kicking such a person a bit of cash or a 30-pack for their trouble would tide things over a bit), it might be a nice solution for providing free broadcast feeds for watching the games (tho blackouts would still apply). Anyone know more about this or have experience with the Slingbox?

Surprised that no one has taken comment on my observation of Hurley's vision of "Dave" in the same-titled episode. That was another one of those so-called "loose ends" that now seems very tied up, once you think about it. My contention was... Dave, which was an entity that only Hurley saw in the real-world and on the island... was rooted in the Sideways world, and had figured out/knew that the Sideways existence was fake. How or why doesn't really seem important... it was an anomaly / unpredictable nature of the Island as it related to space-time. Dave was a much more comedic/carefree take on it, as opposed to Charlie's mopeyness or Jack's workaholic-ism. Also wanted to say that I totally missed the Light cascading over Jack et al. in the final close-up image inside the church, after Christian opened the door. I guess I was concentrated on Jack dying on-island. So, it seems that they weren't very long inside the church before their next destination. This destination, if you put any stock into what Mother said, would seem to be "rebirth"? But what kind of rebirth is meant? Back to earth, or a rebirth into heaven/nirvana/paradise/whatever you want to call it? I dunno, it looked very much like a time-flash from S5, but then again, I guess the Light probably doesn't have special color settings or anything.... Oh. .... Dude! That sucks. RIP Nunu. Yeah, I'm not sure what anyone wrote to you, and I'm going to be careful to respect his and others' privacy here wrt details of postings past, but it's the real deal. And yes, he was a great representative for BR all the while. To me, it showed something that a person who worked on that stuff all day would come home and read/write about it on their own time. As I've written, I truly hope that tgreg didn't get into any hot water that necessitated taking that post down.

Why not put it in a flatscreen TV fund? A modest one.

This is a thing that's struck me for a while now... that so many people look at it as a science versus faith/God argument. As if it's some kind of ultimate ontological combat that can and will only have one winner. I don't view it that way at all. Much the way I'm a Compatibilist in the debate b/w Free Will and Hard Determinism, I stake a middle ground here as well. Why is it that people assume that God/Allah/Jehovah/Flying Spaghetti Monster is separate from science and the things man figures out of the workings of the natural world? We discovered the building blocks of the chemical elements, DNA, etc. Cannot a higher power have brought on what we call "evolution"? Tho there are people who will steadfastly argue to the death (sometimes, quite literally ;-( ) that every word of the early Bible is God's direct word, those words were written by human minds and hands. Perhaps God intended us to slowly transition to a higher state of being/consciousness. Perhaps it's making the point that discoveries of science lead back to the spiritual. Science and faith aren't in opposition, never were. They're just using different methods of discerning Truth.

Well, to speak metaphorically, they are like the numerous people who continue "living" in the Sideways world. Totally oblivious, untouched, not able to let go of "unanswered questions" (whose answers 1. Don't really matter all that much, or 2. Will "just lead to more questions.") and not able to move on. And, as Locke tells Jack... "I hope someone does for [them] what [the show] did for me." That moment with Jack dying in the banyan trees and Vincent cuddling up to him got me again. It always will.

A lot of people hated "Waterworld." I thought it was great.

Just as a reminder that ABC is replaying the finale tonight (Saturday). Since, in the run-up, I missed providing the TV listing, here it goes for the last time.... Thanks for the thoughts, merij, and I'll offer my welcome to a latecomer. That sucks re: everyone abandoning the LOST discussion, but I suppose it has to happen sometime. Eventually, you've stayed in the pews for long enough and it's time to step into the light. That said, this series isn't quite over yet. That ~14 minutes of Hurley-reign epilogue has me pretty giddy, all over again. I don't have the time... but did tgreg go back and delete all of his posts in this thread, or just the one that received all the interest? I, too, hope he didn't get into any hot water over it. He always walked the line perfectly; really a credit to Bad Robot. And after all, the series is over --- the toothpaste that was in the tube was expired. And in view of Cuse and Lindelof going all Jacob on us, it was/is nice to have tgreg's Richard there to at least point in the right direction. So many of the people who are confused about what the Sideways world was, just DIDN'T LISTEN to ANYTHING Christian said in the coffin room.

Several years ago, my mum's computer went all kafarfle after she downloaded a knitting pattern. Ultimately, found out it was a derivative of CWS (Cool Web Search). Used several anti-malware programs before I even got a whiff of what was wrong. Then one of them IDed it as CWS... but didn't fix the whole problem... and I discovered the CWS Shredder from fileHippo. A few months ago, I opened a .pdf that, once clicked unmasked as an .exe and there was no way to stop it --- tried Esc button as it was, then forced shut down by the button, but it was on there and bricked everything. Had to use safe mode and system restore, which was a lot easier. (This was on the same ancient rig, that by then had no antivirus, etc. b/c updates bogged down the resources, making it unusable anyway.) Got a new laptop last month and Windows 7 has been great so far. To a very high degree, yes, the bolded section is correct. Visiting the seedier side of the Web, downloading from untrusted sources, torrents and P2P, etc. are all very good ways to expose your computer to bad things. But there are a lot of ways things can happen.

That's what I took it as at the time, a little playful joshing. Do people who take this 100 percent seriously ever heard JK, or have the faintest idea of his personality? How it translates to pure 12-point Times New Roman is very different from the tenor of the spoken words and absent body language. JK's personal/quasi-professional opinion near the end of last season, as many others shared, was that TE had his chance, had regressed, and that it might be time to hand the reigns to a different QB. If TE wants to use this as motivation, fine; I'll cheer him on as long as he wears the Bills' laundry. That old saying applies here, tho. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, whine about same." TE's only reply to questions like these should be, "Everyone is entitled to their viewpoint. I've done what I've done in this league and I still have a lot to prove." And then shut up until you have proven it.

I, too, was half expecting for a scene early this season/in the premiere to show Jacob touching her after she ran out of the house. Wasn't meant to be. I think the point they were making in that S5 finale was that Juliet hadn't been touched. And so, she did not have that special kind of protection that the candidates had. But, they did give her the coffee / go Dutch lines right at the end that foreshadowed the Sideways. It was also interesting that she had the Sideways parallel of un-plugging the machine to get the Apollo bar, that unexpectedly turned off the lights in the whole corridor. An obvious allusion to unplugging the Source which shut down the island. ----- While driving today, I got to thinking about Isaac (the faith healer that Bernard took Rose to in OZ). From what he said (and from what Mother said), we took it as meaning that locale had the same or similar works as the Island, and that there were others located throughout the world. Just like the Island Source had spots around the periphery, there were access points in whatever kind of pattern (I would imagine, kind of like a wheel hub shape, judging from the map of the Dharma stations). Isaac seemed to have commercialized his spot, as he was charging $10K to see Rose. As I wrote before, tho, the Island may be special even among these b/c it is where the "cork" on Hell is... unless these other spots have similar accesses as well.