Wow, great episode like some predicted. Did not expect to see any island this week but it sure was good.

• I expect this is the last we will see of Walt. I would totally write him off if he hadnt made that dream comment.
• Tunisia is always the place you end up when you turn the FDW.
• It looks like we have seen the end of Matthew Abbadon. I was expecting more of this character. Maybe it had something to do with Fringe.
• I definitely want to think that Ben is definitely the bad person but I am still not sure. Maybe Ben and Charles are both bad. I did not see that one coming with Ben killing Locke.
• How long ago was Whitmore exiled from the island?
• Is the war between Ben and Flight 815 or Flight 815 vs 316.
• I was pretty positive that 316 would crash on the island. I am just not sure what date it is. I thought it was present but not sure due to the previews. I unfortunately will not get to watch Lost for 3 weeks so its going to be a while till I find out.
• Who else went off in the canoe with Frank? Why did he care about the flight list. Is he really an other?
• What hatch were they in? Was that the other small island where they held Jack for a while?

This weekend was pretty uneventful. I had my “tycoon” simulation for school so I spent all night Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday in a small room with my 6 group members. Overall, we sucked. We did not stick with our strategy and we made a couple gambles in the beginnings that did not pay off and put us at a disadvantage for the rest of the simulation.

I did miss Mardi Gras for the first time since I moved back to St Louis. I was able to catch up with the group on Saturday night and had a very late night at the Casino. The 2 hours of sleep that night really hurt.

I am not even going to talk about my diet because it went down the drain this weekend. Big props for MU making the top 10 in the polls. A #2 seed is in their sights.

One word describes this episode, “predictable.” except for the last 3 minutes. I was pretty positive that the 316 was the Ajeria airline flight they would have to fly. I even went to their website today to try to confirm the flight number on any flights leaving LA. They all said they were booked. It also can be linked to the Bible verse which relates totally with John coming back to the island. The other obvious thing was that they pretty much confirmed that Locke is going to take over as “Jacob” from Jack’s dad. Frank being the pilot was not surprising at all either. He was destined to be the pilot since he was supposed to be the original pilot on flight 815 and I saw he was going to be in this episode so I figured it was coming.

Some of the things that surprised me were:

• the opening scene of the episode
• that everyone was so easily on board to leave the island
• that Desmond did not go; what was the point of Desmond going to talk to Faraday’s mom?
• How they got on the island? I was expecting the plane to crash. Did they just get caught in a flash?
• They have to be back in the 70s since the bus is still active. I read a theory about how the Lostees would be the new Others since time might have quit skipping. Obviously Jin is posing or is one. Are they stuck in time and that is why people like Richard do not seem to age?
• The previews to next weeks episode. It looks like a Locke episode. Was Ben there when Locke hung himself? What a liar!

Things that I am wondering about:

• Why is Sayid locked up? Is he taking Kate’s place?
• What happened to Aaron?
• Did Whitmore beat up on Ben? He obviously tried to kill Penny. I hope Desmond beat up on him. Everyone has predicting that she would die soon since they have already had their happy ending scene.
• Who is the Arab fellow that was behind Jack in line at the counter at the airport? They focused on him too much.
• Did all of them go back?
• What did Ben do when he got up?

• It took me only 8 minutes from my house to get to the Schnucks on Loughborough even though there are 9 Schnucks that are closer miles wise to me. This store is 10 times better than Richmond Center location I have been going to prior to 40 closing. This location had a better variety plus no wait on a Sunday afternoon in the checkout line.
• I am still questioning this Low Carb diet. I had some stuffing on Monday and fruit on Sunday and I was 5 pounds more than earlier in the week.
• Can you please get A-Rod off the TV? Didn’t he put all this pressure on him? No one told him to cheat on his wife with Madonna then continue to see Madonna after he and his wife got a divorce. And now he is saying he only did ephedrine? That’s not a steroid.
• I am thinking about what colors I want to paint my place. I want light vibrant colors but not sure if it would go with my couches.
• I had a rather interesting drive through East St Louis and Centerville yesterday. That whole area is super run down. I thought my normal drive to work down Jefferson and Natural Bridge was bad but this did not even compare. It looked like a flood zone.
• There is some satisfaction that it is going to be super cold this week. I was expecting it to be warm since I was missing the festivities.
• I have mixed feelings about my simulation this weekend. I am sort of looking forward to it but I also want to get it over so that I am done with the class and start my stetch run of my final two classes in term B.
• I can’t wait for Jamaica. It has been the only thing on my mind lately.
• I am possibly going to Vegas the last weekend in August if anyone is interested. It is my brother’s girlfriend’s 21st birthday so she wants to do it up Vegas style.
• I have no interest in the mobile phone conference in Europe. I am really happy with my phone except for the dropped call issue. Technology wise, it does everything I need it to. I had my razor for over 3 years so I imagine I will keep my Bold for a while.
• New episode of Lost on tonight. It seems like we are on the verge of sending some or all of the Oceanic 5 back to the island. I have been watching a lot of season 1 reruns on Sci-Fi in HD. They are always on and something good to watch when nothing else is on.

I have been thinking a lot about goals lately. I think it is because I have pretty reached the goals that I established in college. Those were (1) get a good job that paid good and I enjoyed (2) get my MBA.

My new job has made me feel a lot more like an adult since I have so many responsibilities plus so many people count on me. It is a lot of pressure but it is worth it. One of my main goals of getting a Wash U MBA was that it would allow me to go anywhere in the country and still be highly recognized.

Below is my “bucket list” of thing I would like to do in the next 5/10 years and what I am shaping my goals around. Some of them are big picture while some of them are small. A lot of them deal with travel of some form.

Travel (in order of priority)

1. Go to Peru and see Machu Picchu. I have been a history buff in hiding for the past 4 or 5 years and would really like to see this ancient ruin. I have talked about it for the last couple years.
2. Australia – I want to get my scuba diving license and dive the Great Barrier Reef.
3. Helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. I have been talking about this one for a while.
4. Travel the Amazon Rainforest. I could see where Ludacris (the fish) came from.
5. Visit the Colosseum in Rome. I am drawn to it as an engineer. I was supposed to go to Rome for a weekend for work but the entire European trip got canceled the week before we were supposed to go.
6. Africa. Not sure where but a safari would be cool plus I would like to say I have been on every continent.
7. A trip to Antartica. Kayaking in the frigid water along with general exploring sounds awesome. These are very expensive trips so I doubt I will do this in the next 10 years but I am keeping my eye out.

Life in General (not in order)

1. Live somewhere internationally for a year. Not sure where but I feel like I would be missing out on an experience since so many of my non-engineer friends did this in undergrad. It gives you perspective of another culture while also seeing the US from the outside.
2. Live on a beach. This has been my goal for a long time. I thought San Diego was in my future but I am not sure. My trip to Indonesia at the end of 2007 put all kind of crazy ideas in my head. I could knock out #1 and #2 and the same time.
3. Get my scuba diving license. It is expensive but I can also see this as one of my major hobbies once I graduate. As you may or may not know, I have always been fascinated by underwater ecosystems thus why I have owned multiple fish tanks throughout my life.
4. Get married. People might not think I would be serious about this but I would like to get married in the next 5 years. I feel like my life is settling down now so it is a perfect time to start dating again.
5. Kids. I do want kids but this is probably at least 4 to 5 years away (hopefully).
6. Go to the Home Run Derby in Saint Louis. I am ready to pay a premium for these tickets. The hype of the competition has gotten to me.
7. Get a dog. I loved having a dog but definitely don’t have the time to keep a dog. A girlfriend or wife would have to come into play before I could get a dog (or if I got really rich). Keep in mind, I said “come into play”. This does not mean that I want to get a dog with my girlfriend. What I mean by this is that a girlfriend could watch the dog if I was traveling or could not make it home in time.
8. Buy a superbike. I have wanted a motorcycle ever since undergrad when I would see all the motorcyles lined up outside the Engineering building. The perks of having a bike in college were that you could park basically anywhere plus they are super fast. As I have gotten older, I keep working with people who are riders so my infatuation has not died. The two things that are holding me back are that they are dangerous (actually this doesnt both me as much as it should) and the possibiity that I would not like it after I bought one.
9. Buy a boat. I got into boating last summer on the river. I always wanted a waverunner growing up. Goes back to the love of water. I doubt I will ever buy a boat unless I move somewhere coastal or somewhere very close to a big lake. I am afraid of running into things in a boat. We always used to go to Lake of the Ozarks at least twice a year when I was growing up. We would always rent a pontoon boat and I was always nervous to drive it.
10. Get into better shape. I have really let myself go in the past two and half years while I was in school.
11. Start playing ice hockey again. I  want to get back into a mens league to work on my “skillz.” This will help goal #10.

Nightlife

Due to my workout plan and the need to catch up on sleep, I took it pretty easy. On Friday, I watched some of the boys play Tanks on Wii. According to Matt Smith, it is the “best game ever.” I realized that I am not good at using a Wii remote but maybe it was the remote. I could not race cows, shoot birds, and I barely played Mario Kart. I enjoyed Mario Kart; probably the most out of any version. I would probably get a Wii just for it.

On Saturday, Mike and I hung out on Wash Ave. We decided to give Sugar another try. It was a “singled out” party and was packed. You wore a green lei if you were single and a red if you were in a relationship. We left around 1:30 to try Lucas Park. It was also packed and we stayed about 30 minutes. I did break down and had 3 drinks. We concluded the night with a little Rock Band.

Workout and Diet

This was a great week of working out. My “no cardio” diet seemed to work wonders. I read in college how you didn’t need to do cardio if you had a good workout but it never worked for me in losing weight. I think it was because my diet. I lost  between 10 and 15 pounds in the past week. I  basically worked a different muscle group each day, ate a good diet, and tried new supplements.

Below is my normal day of eating.

Breakfast – Wake up to a hard boiled egg and one scoop of a protein shake.

Lunch – Either roast beef and over roasted chicken with super sharp cheese rollups or left over chicken breasts.

Preworkout – One scoop of preworkout mix.

Post-workout – One scoop of a protein shake.

Dinner – I normally mix up my dinner between 3 or 4 different meals. They were (1) 3 egg omelet with diced green, yellow, and red peppers with cheese and lean ground beef (2) baked chicken with broccoli (3) baked cod with green beans and a little red potatoes.

Snack – Either celery with peanut butter or cream cheese.

I had a goal of losing 10 pounds but my stretch goal was 15 pounds. It seems like I hit this. The workout has become a little addictive so I am improving my goals to shoot for 200 pounds with a stretch of 195. I also am trying to get a six pack. I never thought I good get a “six pack” but maybe that was due to poor eating. I am going to give it a try in trying to look good for pool season. I am been doing kneeling cable crunches which seem to work wonders.

Taxes

I did my taxes this weekend. I am a little disappointed in a couple things. (1) I am still not sure about deducting the full amount I paid for grad school on my taxes. (2) I did not qualify for Lifetime Learning credit or Hope credit. (3) I could not deduct any of my student loan interest since it said I made too much money. (4) I missed a first time home buyers credit by less than a month.

I did get more money than I was expecting though. Paying $900 in interest payments a month for my place really adds up deductions.

Various

• I cleaned my place.
• Bought an automatic fish feeder so my fish do not die on my 12 day trip to Jamaica.
• Played absolutely zero Gears of War 2
• Completed my forecasting excel sheet for my Tycoon simulation next week.
• Finally got my PC to recognize my external hard drive that I was using with my Moxi box.

Sports

I meant to do this earlier and since Dan Bockhold called me out, I need to mention the amazing MU game vs Kansas. It was one of the most exciting games I have seen. It would of been awesome to be the there. I would rank it up there with some of the KU wins and the OT game vs Iowa St that I witnessed in college. I really think MU is going to go far into the Tournament. They could get a really good seed if they beat either Oklahoma or KU (again) in the regular season. They also should do really good in the Big 12 Tournament if they get a bye. The team they play in the 2nd round will be somewhat tired since they played the day earlier which gives MU an excellent advantage because of their depth and their ability to wear down a team. The MU win against Nebraska was solid win too. Unfortunately, I will be on a flight to Jamaica during the OK game so I will not be able to watch it.

I do not believe a word A-Rod said nor do I believe his “cop out” that “I was under a lot of pressure.” For one, we all have pressure. That doesn’t mean we cheat. Secondly, that is the price you pay for an insane contract that was way too high.

The NBA All Star weekend was very entertaining. Owens had several dunks in the celebrity game and the slam dunk contest was pretty entertaining. I did not watch the entire All Star game but I did notice that Shaq can really dance. His intro in the beginning was entertaining.

This was a pretty good episode. Unlike past seasons, I really doubt there will be “bad” episodes since time is running out and there is a lot to explain.

• It is pretty much confirmed that Elloise Hawkings is Farady’s mother.
• We figured out that Charlotte was on the island but we do not know who her mother is and what she did. Plus why she was told never to  come back by Faraday. My assumption is Faraday told Charlotte not to come back when he was time traveling but I guess he does not realize his own string analogy where no one can change the future, except for Desmond apparently.
• I assume we will see a Charlotte flashback through the eyes of Faraday. They just can’t kill off her character like that but she did reveal alot of info so maybe not.
• I also think that Faraday and Charlotte are siblings. The pieces fit. Faraday said he loved her but really never made a move. That is because it was love for a sister.
• The people still on the island seem to be suffering when the time shifts. They kept grabbing their heads. I don’t remember seeing this in the past episodes.
• The reason for the shifts was that the FDW was “off its axis”
• Locke was supposed to  move the island; not Ben. So basically it is Locke’s fault that everything is going to hell.
• Is Locke going to be dead the rest of the show? I am starting to think so. Like I read in another blog, I think it is going to turn out that Locke is Jacob. I don’t think Jack’s dad is Jacob even though Locke called for Jacob and Christian appeared.
• Is CFL crazy because of skipping Jin? I at first thought that maybe CFL was the crazy one while her crew just knew the truth so she killed them; which still might be the truth. I
• Not sure what that hole is where the smoke monster went into. Obviously CFL’s crew made it out alive from there but not sure how. Is this the Temple? If so, this is where Ben told the Other’s to go because it was safe. I guess it is if there is monster out there to get them. That version of the smoke monster seemed to be more machinery like.
• I saw the name of next weeks episode and it was a 3 digit number which makes me think it is the flight number of the Ajira airline flight that is going to take the group back to the island.
• Did anyone think that Sun was going to steal Aaron when she make that creepy remark to her kid that she found a new friend for her?
• What did Charlotte say right before she died?
• Why did she speak Korean? Is her father Dr Chang?
• Of the skipping stops, doesn’t that leave the survivors back in time or are they in present time now. We really don’t know but the well did disappear. For all we know, they are back in the present and everything is okay. Maybe Locke and Ben are wrong and the Survivors don’t need to go back. Maybe all that needed to be done was for Locke to be the leader (make the sacrifice) and turn the FDW to restore order.

This week went by super fast. I also learned a couple things:

1. Drinking does not negatively effect my sleep or productivity. I did not drink either or the nights and still slept only 7 hours and only got a couple things done.
2. School does effect my sleep and productivity. All I can say is that will all change in two months.

The Rengler made a rare appearance on Friday night. Even more surprising is that we ended up at Lucas Park; knowing that is one of Rengel’s least favorite places. The place was surprisingly empty based on how warm it was outside. The bar part was okay but hanging out at my place until 12:30 was much funner.

I did some shopping on Saturday for Jamaica. None of the department stores were carrying shorts except for Hollister so I am going to wait a couple weeks. Pac Sun also did not have any swimsuits yet. I did get some deals; all for $14 each. They were a long sleeve button down white shirt with a little design on it from Macy’s and then two graphic tees from Target. I also tried to sell my COD4 mistake but Gamestop would only buy it for $10 so I am going to try Craigslist or Amazon.

I went to Harry’s (again; it is weird going two weeks in a row during the winter) with the group to see Dr Z. The place was pretty empty except for a huge bachelorette party. It was a fun time and it was very hard not to drink. I did succeed in making it a drink free weekend but I broke down and went to Maurizos with the group at the end of the night.

I spent the entire Sunday doing my tycoon pre-simulation with my Wash U group. I was expecting it to take a couple hours; not 7. Because of that, I didn’t work out, get my haircut, watch the Lakers game, or do my taxes. It was fun though. My group is pretty entertaining.

My diet for the week was okay. I was pretty good except for the late night binging on Thursday (free Wash U buffet) and Saturday (pizza). I got all my supplements today so I am excited to use them later today.

Two exciting countdowns. My tickets (along with the rest of the groups) for our first Cards game is exactly two months away. Jamaica is only 30 days away.

Thought this episode was very predictable and sort of boring.

• Jin is alive. I hope everyone knew this all along. He was on the edge of the boat when it blew up so he could have easily been blown off without dying. I did not expect him to be on Lost time though. I am guessing the boat was close enough to the island to get him in range to shift time. I immediately thought we would see Jin whenever they found the wreckage from CFL’s boat. I then saw the guy floating and it looked like Sayid so I was a little confused.
• The episode guest list pretty much told you that young CFL (Rosseau) was going to be in this episode. I imagine time will skip again before we can find out why or if CFL killed her crew.
• Ben was behind the blood check of Kate to see if she was Arron’s mother. I thought this all along since it was a good method to get Kate scared into coming to the island.
• Ben’s lawyer also represents Oceanic. This is not just a coincidence.
• Ajira Airlines made its first reference in Lost. This fictional company was used in Season 5 promotions.
• It looks like they have almost all the Oceanic 6 rounded up. Is it possible that they could be back on the island midseason?
• Miles definitely was on the island before. Everyone is assuming he was the baby born in the season premiere.
• I assume Locke told Ben that Jin is alive. Not sure how he is going to prove it unless Locke is not really dead. It goes back to the spider theory back in either season 1 or 2 when the person was buried alive but was really in a coma from the spider bite.
• Is Locke really going to get off the island by turning the FDW at the Orchid station? I do not think so.
• Who were the people that had the canoes that were shooting at the Lostees? This was the biggest mystery of the episode.

I think I had a pretty good weekend overall. I did not do any homework nor did I put in the gym time that I should have but that was because I was out raising the town.

We decided to go to Harry’s on Friday. I do not normally go to there during the winter but they were having some movie premiere theme party (or something like that) so we went. We were really surprised. The place was packed. They even had the restaurant portion filled. It was probably the most packed that I have ever seen it. They also had all you can drink for $20. But the kicker was that it was actually some SLU function because we were the oldest people there (hard to believe for that establishment).

We continued to branch out on Saturday and went to Sugar lounge.  It was basically the same as KYO so I doubt I will go back. The weird thing that night was they put up a runway in the middle of the night and started a fashion show. We tried to get pizza that night but Maurizos must have changed their hours because they were not open after 3.

Sunday was all football for me. We played football in the snow and mud during the day and watched the Superbowl at night. I had a pretty good day in real life football. I was also pretty entertained with the Superbowl. These things really stood out to me (1) the TD at the end of the 2nd half by a huge man that basically won the game (2) the crazy catch by Fitzgerald in the second half (3) why the last interception thrown by Warner was not reviewed. His arm was in motion. The Steelers got a 15 yard penalty after the play so the Cards would have been on the 35 if the play was over turned.

I also watched Big Love and US of Tara. Big Love was really good. I am looking forward to Chuck this Monday night.