Beaver Dam with Jack

Sunday afternoon we took Jack for a walk at Beaver Dam. It was a wonderful day, weather-wise. Cool but not cold, overcast but not dark. The sun peeked through the clouds occasionally. Jack enjoyed himself very much. All sorts of new sniffs to experience.

I went a little crazy with my cell phone camera. Here are some shots of the park. The leaves are just beginning to turn. In another week should be gorgeous.

Besides the nice scenery, the summer flowers are just barely hanging on. Here is some goldenrod,

daisy fleabane,

and a low leafy plant who's leaves have turned bright red.

Some tiny pink flowers growing up amid the ground clutter,

onelonely pink clover,

The summer's last chicory flower,

and LOTS of fungus.

This interesting box-like growth on the side of a tree :)

and a tiny red-spotted fungus(?)

Most dramatically, Mom spotted a huge hanging wasp nest off in the woods. Of course I had to get close enough to take some pictures. There were wasps going in and out of the round black hole on the side.

The thing is about twice as big as my head, and hanging from a branch by a thin vine.

It really was quite beautiful, intricately made with soft swirls and patterns of bumps.




That's it for now. I have lots more pictures if anybody is interested.

Multi-verses

Thanks to the article Mom sent us all (which, interestingly, mentioned both Anathem [favorably] and Lost [jeeringly]) I started thinking about the multi-verse. The obvious question for us Losties is: Did Juliet manage to detonate the bomb, thus negating everything that happened in seasons 1-5 ("If I never meet you, I never have to lose you.")? Or did she not? The obvious answer is: Both! I'm wondering if we now will start on a two-track plot in which our heroes in one universe continue their struggles in 2007/1977 on/off the island, at the same time they live their lives in the other universe, having safely arrived at LAX blithely unaware of each other. In the latter universe, I bet they begin to form relationships, and somehow become aware of the goings-on in the other universe. Just a thought.

The Incident

Well, I’m finally done with Season 5. Now you don’t have to worry about spoilers, Dan, at least not for me. I appreciate your keeping quiet. It must have been hard to watch me flounder with weird theories.

The first ten minutes of The Incident were awesome. The music, the visuals, the shocking dialogue, the understated emotions played superbly by two fine actors, answers to lingering mysteries, new mysteries revealed: all made for classic television – LOST in a nutshell.

The last ten minutes of The Incident were likewise amazing. So much action and raw emotion, several major twists, all setting up the ultimate cliffhanger with questions we’re dying to have answered.

The rest of the episode was good, but not up to the opening or closing. The bulk of the episode dealt with four ideas. (1) Who will support Jack in his quest to nuke the island, who will support Kate in her quest to stop him, and who just wants to get outta there? Loyalties and emotions shift. I must say Juliet’s waffling was irritating, but her line “If I never meet you, I never have to lose you.” was heartstabbing. Eventually, everybody gets on board with Jack’s plan, even Kate. And it was nice to see Miles and Chang united. (2) Jacob fiddling in the lives of the Losties at various times was intriguing at first, but once we got the idea, we got the idea. A couple of fascinating questions did arise: Did Jacob resurrect Locke after his fall? If so, given later developments, why?? Was Jacob responsible for Nadia’s accident? (3) The survivors of Ajira flight 316 are Jacob’s allies. Jacob recruited Alana, who already seemed to know him when he contacted her in the hospital [Did she have plastic surgery? If so who was she really? My guess is Ana Lucia, or possibly Libby.] They need to be able to identify Jacob once they arrive, thus the question about the shadow of the statue, and the possibility that Frank might be him. Alana’s sidekick asked Miles the same question when they kidnapped him in Some Like it Hoth. [So did they think Miles might be Jacob???] (4) Locke v.2 is not really Locke. I had already suspected as much (see my last post).

So here’s my theory: Jacob’s companion on the beach (aka Locke2 aka Christian2) is a deity, the Island incarnate. Jacob is an evil entity who has somehow gotten control of the island and uses it for his own fun and games. The Island deity can’t kill him, and can’t get rid of him, but a mortal can. Thus Ben becomes a pawn in the grand game.

We shall see.

Follow the Leader: A Classic LOST Episode

I’ve suffered recently from a terrible case of blog fade, I admit it. What with school starting and all…. Ah, but I’ve managed to watch most of LOST Season 5. My report:

This season is different than the others. It starts off with a bang, and just keeps going at breakneck speed. The first several episodes seem like one long episode, and the time jumps, both literal, and flashback, are confusing but exhilarating. Even though the off-island parts following the Six left me a little cold, each episode gives us plenty to chew over. The relationship development is slowed, although the Sawyer/Juliet relationship blew me away at first. I still don’t quite buy it.

My main purpose here is to sing the praises of two of the later episodes, and in particular the last one I watched: Follow the Leader.

First, I loved Some Like it Hoth. Of course, I’m partial to Hurley, and I have developed an appreciation for his relationship with Miles. This episode gives that relationship a full airing (which the van needed at one point [yuck yuck]). I loved the scene where Miles, Hurley and Chang were in the van, and Hurley kept needling Miles to tell Chang he’s his son. [Realistically, how could Chang have not suspected? I mean, how many Chinese guys are named Miles?] But I was totally impressed by the scene after they got back to the barracks and Chang had left them, when Hurley was trying to persuade Miles to approach Chang. He used his own experiences and those of Luke Skywalker as examples. That scene was both laugh-out-loud funny, and tear-jerkingly touching AT THE SAME TIME. Quite a feat.

Now to Follow the Leader. This episode, left me gasping. It features humor, raw emotion, shocking moments, major questions answered, and gaping holey questions. We can see the season finale taking shape. At the same time we’re left wanting to know how it’s all going to come together.

Humor: (1) Hurley (of course) tries to convince Chang that they AREN’T from the future, fails miserably, gives up. “OK, Dude, we’re from the future.” (2) Sawyer sees Juliet safely into the sub, then turns around and views the panorama of the island. The audience naturally believes he will bolt and head back to the island for any number of reasons. Instead he murmurs “Good riddance” and ducks inside.

Raw emotion: (1) Kate and Jack talk about Daniel’s plan to blow up the island. Jack’s all for it, to wipe out the death and misery so many have experienced over the last three years, to bring back Charlie and Shannon and Boone and…. On his face, we can see the misery he has experienced himself, what he has felt at losing friend after friend, and yes, the sadness of knowing the implications for him and Kate. Kate’s miserable because she realizes it would mean she never meets Jack or Sawyer (not to speak of all the people who will die in the explosion). Both actors (neither particularly impressing me in the past) wring the most out of that brief scene. That scene is immediately followed by (2) Ellie talking to them, the realization coming over her that she has killed her son, then that Daniel has given her a way to wipe out that sin. This actress is awesome. (3) Miles watching Chang roughly dismissing his mother and his baby-self, finally understanding his whole life story in that one bit of a scene. (4) Kate joins Sawyer and Juliet in the sub. No words are spoken, but the emotions playing on all three faces speak volumes about their past relationships.

Shocking moments: (1) Alpert tells Sun he watched Jack, Kate, and Hurley all die 30 years ago. (2) Locke tells Sun if there’s a way for Sun and Jin to be together, “to save OUR people”, he’ll find it. (So he still considers Jin et al to be his people. Or is he lying…?) (3) Locke reveals his purpose for bringing the Others to Jacob: “I’m gonna kill him.” (4) It was LOCKE who directed Richard to go to Locke and pull the bullet out, and also relay the message from Locke, that Locke would have to die. My head spins. (5) Sun: Will this man Jacob be able to bring Jin and the rest of our friends back here? Locke: Absolutely. Richard aside to Ben: I’m beginning to think John Locke is going to be trouble. Ben: Why do you think I tried to kill him?

Questions: Did Eloise send the Six (and Locke and Ben) back (even though she knows she kills Daniel) so, ironically, they would blow up the island and thus she never shoots Daniel? Did Widmore fund Daniel’s research and recruit him for the freighter so he would go back and explode the bomb? Did Widmore recruit Miles so he could talk to the dead Daniel? Did Widmore know Miles was Chang’s kid? Tangentially, why was Charlotte recruited? And why Frank both times? Purely coincidence? We know Christian (or his manifestation) was resurrected on the island. Is that the same thing that happened to Locke? Is he real, or a manifestation? When did the Locke/Alpert/Locke bullet extracting scene happen? Obviously in 2007, but we first saw it immediately after the wheel-turning in 2004, during the mad time shifts. Does that mean that at least one of the shifts led them to the future? And how did Locke know the exact moment to set the scene in motion? “The island told me.” Again, is he the real Locke?

And the big question: Can the human variable really change the time-line as Daniel suggests, or are they destined to repeat the same history (What Happened, Happened). My guess is the latter. Evidence: Daniel knew he talked to the little-girl Charlotte and scared her by warning her about leaving the island. He was determined not to repeat that, but in the end, he had to to save her.

All in all, a wonderful episode.

What I’m Reading Now, Part 4

I just finished a short Heinlein novel called Time for the Stars. Not being a huge Heinlein fan, I wasn’t expecting much, but it was actually pretty good.
I had to forgive one small scientific error that Heinlein, surprisingly, promulgated. He said communication with spaceships going away from Earth at velocities close to the speed of light would be difficult, not only because they would be so far away from Earth, but also because the light waves emitted from the spaceship toward Earth would be moving so slowly. Of course light waves move at the same speed, no matter the velocity of the emitter.
I also had to swallow the idea that certain people (mostly certain pairs of twins) can communicate by telepathy if properly trained. There is absolutely no evidence for that. Furthermore, the basis of the story is that such communication is instantaneous and strong, no matter how far the communicators are from one another. To his credit, he wrote that the scientists in his story were incredulous that such could be true.
The main plot device of the story involves a pair of twins used to communicate between a ship exploring the stars and Earth. One brother is on the ship, one is left behind. The problem is, of course, that time passes at different rates in an accelerating frame of reference and a stationary (or technically constant-velocity) frame of reference. Thus what was a few years for the twin on the ship was decades for the other twin. Of course the twins have a reunion after the voyage, one now in his twenties, the other in his eighties, very poignant. Meetings between people when the difference between their ages has changed dramatically? Sounds familiar…..

After Time for the Stars, I started reading Philip K. Dick’s anthology Paycheck. (Jeff gave me the book which he had finished reading in Japan – thanks, Jeff!) The very first story, “Stability”, involved - you guessed it – time travel! Is the island controlling what I read??? The story is brilliant. A man is directed to a patent office he has never visited where he is presented with a device he has never seen and told that it is an invention he himself submitted to the office. The patent is denied, so he takes it home and tries it. It sends him back in time, for it is indeed a time machine. In the past he picks up a mysterious container that talks to him. He then uses the time machine to return to the present, except he arrives a few days before he picked up the device. At the direction of the container, he proceeds to the patent office where he submits the device for a patent. (In case you haven’t read Dick, his stories are brilliant but very strange.)

Romulan Pops

Thought you all might like this:

http://www.trekyourself.com/?mId=31366679.3

For more fun, mouse over: 1. The Enterprise on the right 2. The phrase “Cheez-it. The Big Cheese.” 3. The “Trek Yourself” logo. Watch my eyes.

Lost: The Worst and Best

After a blogging break, I'm back with more Lost musings. I'm part way through season 4 now, and haven't commented for a while, so I will do so briefly now. Season 1 "The Losties" was magical and got me thoroughly hooked. Season 2 "The Tailies" was really a continuation of season 2 with a few interesting new characters added. I particularly liked Eko and Libby, but they were eventually killed off. In fact the only tail section survivor left is poor old Bernard, not a particularly likeable, nor important character. Season 3 "The Others" started off with a bang. The season opener showing Otherville on the day of the crash took my breath away. But after that, the season semed to be less Lost-like than I was used to. I found it cruel, irritating and confusing at first, but as we learned more about Ben and Juliet, the answers and new mysteries came fast and furious, and I again found myself mesmerized. Season 4 "The Freighter People" introduced a whole bunch of new characters, some endearing (Daniel), some infuriating (Miles). Again, I found the early episodes to be less enjoyable than earlier seasons, and I concluded that I find it difficult to warm to characters I don't know, particularly when the writers seem to take great delight in obscuring the motivations of the new characters. Furthermore, season 4 introduced the new technique of featuring "flash-forwards" in some episodes instead of the familiar "flashbacks", with no warning. Again, I found that irritating at first, but eventually became fascinated with seeing glimpses of the future, and puzzling out how the plot arc could possibly lead to what we were seeing.

Now I comment on three consecutive episodes in particular, illustrating the good and the bad. The Sun- and Jin-centric episode 7 "Ji Yeon" was mostly uninformative: it didn't really answer any questions, nor raise any new questions. The only question seemed to be: Will Jin arrive at the hospital in time, and why is he so worried about a stupid panda? Imagine my irritation when it turned out Sun's off-island experience was a flash-forward, while Jin's was a flashBACK. Not fair. It seems that this episode was designed for no other reason that to elicit the "HUH???" response. And the episode ending twist was actually a double-twist: Jin is dead in the flash-forward (even though Sun non-sensically keeps asking when he'll arrive at the hospital), and the spy on the boat is....MICHAEL! Hurley's appearance to support Sun was a nice touch.

The 8th episode was also disappointing. "Meet Kevin Johnson" was almost exclusively a flashback showing how Ben recruits Michael. Nothing terribly surprising or interesting there. The parts that I would be interested to see weren't shown: How did Michael get back to New York and settle Walt at his mother's and start living his life without revealing that he had been on Oceanic 815? Then the "twist" at the end (Rousseau and Carl's end) seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of the episode. Very disconcerting.

But episode 9 "The Shape of Things to Come" was superb. It was absolutely packed with interesting and surprising occurances, one shocking twist after another, an emotional ride for the viewer and the characters.
On the island the boat's doctor is found dead in the surf, but the boat says he's there and fine! (more time-discontinuity). Daniel lies about it, Bernard catches him out (good job Bernard!), he is forced to admit they aren't there to rescue the Losties. (Surprised?). Jack has a mysterious ailment. The ambush at Otherville is dramatic, and gut-wrenching. Sawyer and Hurley defy Ben's commands to rescue Claire. Stirring. Ben's face-off with the mercenary ends shockingly. Even though Ben is (so far) basically evil, you can't help but feel for him. Ben summons the smoke-monster! Wow! So a mystery posed in the very first ever episode is semi-explained. Yeah, smoke monster, way to go! And the dramatic show-down between Locke and Sawyer has been brewing for some time. I loved their parting comments. Sawyer: “If you as much as harm one lock on his curley head, I’ll kill you” Locke “Fair enough.” Wow, Sawyer is getting soft. Risking his life to save Claire, then standing up to Locke to protect Hurley!

But all that is only half of the story. The flashforward was equally packed with fascinating stuff. It featured Ben AND Sayid, and told the story of how Sayid ended up working for Ben as an assassin. We learn that Sayid eventually finds and marries Nadia, only to have Widmore (or somebody) kill her. Why did Ben wake up in the middle of the Sahara??? We see Ben-as-James Bond. Interesting. The conversation between Ben and Sayid shows the humanity of both men.

BEN: We're finished here, Sayid. Turn around and walk away. Mourn your loss. Get on with your life.
SAYID: I have no life. They took it from me.
BEN: Go home, Sayid. Once you let your grief become anger, it will never go away. I speak from experience. This is my war. It's not yours.
SAYID: I spent the last eight years of my life searching for the woman I love. I finally found her and I married her. And I buried her yesterday. So don't tell me this is not my war. Benjamin... Who's next? BEN: I'll be in touch. (Ben smiles secretly.)

It leaves the lingering question: Could Ben have set up the whole thing in order to recruit Sayid?

And finally the scene in Widmore's bedroom was thick with meaning. Some exerpts: Widmore: I know who you are, boy. What you are. I know that everything you have you took from me. Again Widmore: That island's mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again.
Ben: But you'll never find it. Widmore: Then I suppose the hunt is on for both of us. Ben: I suppose it is. Sleep tight, Charles.

Delicious episode.