• I have not played video games since I came back from Chile almost two months ago. Pretty odd considering I was addicted before I left.
• I can not get on top of my DVR situation.  I have my DVR 75% full which is about 900 GB. I have complete seasons of Chuck, Dollhouse, Tudors, Flash Forward, V, and probably others. I have over 5 episodes each of Simpsons, Parks and Recreations, The Middle, American Dad, America – The Story of Us, and many others.
• I do not know what to think about this shift from the Big 12. I thought it was a money issue but I read last week that MU has gotten around $22 million a year in the Big 12 revenue sharing program where the Big 10 programs get 20 million. Doesn’t make sense. It sounds like the whole league could fold if MU and Nebraska leave which is eerie. I read a stupid article yesterday that said KU and K State would be out to dry. Both are major sports programs so I am sure they will have no problem finding their way into a strong conference.
• I love that I somehow got new HD channels with Charter. I believe 6 in total. Comedy Central is huge and the Disney channel is not bad. Bravo is also a big one even though I do not watch any shows from there. My girl friend can now watch Drop Dead Diva in HD on Lifetime now too.
• I had a brief stroll down Wash Ave last night and saw a lot of development started back up again. The market that was started before Culinaria opened looked to be going again and almost finished. There is also a convenient store next to Lucas Park being built. Copia looks to open any day and the Vodka bar next door to Copia is open.
• The Lakers Celtics series is pretty good but I think the referees are deterring from the game. There has been a lot of missed calls in terms of fouls….more than normal on both sides. It seems life refs automatically call a foul if the player falls down but don’t call one when players get whacked in arm. The 2  minute replay review needs to be looked at because the Odom-Rondo reversal was ridiculous. Rondo fouled Odom (and it was easy to see) on a rebound that made Odom knock the ball out of bounds. The refs originally called it Lakers ball and reversed. Obviously he would not have knocked it out of bounds if Rondo would not have knocked is right hand off the ball.
• Looking forward to Vegas. More and more people keep signing up plus I can’t wait to hang out with friends I have partied with in a while.

Its hard to believe that there will be no more Lost in my life. I did read one article on CNN that said the DVD for season 6 will have 20 extended minutes of the season finale but I haven’t seen that mentioned anywhere else. I actually did not have great expectations going into the finale based on how this season has progressed. I was pleasantly surprised by this finale and not for the reasons I thought I would like the finale. There were no real mysteries about the show solved like time travel, special people, why the island has magical power but they did answer what the flash sideways are which blew my mind (after I realized what happened).

I was really amazed by the first two hours. I had constant chills throughout the first hours because I never expected to see a lot of the old characters and then also see them reunite in their special way. The writers handled this beautifully and helped cement it as the best show ever. I was confused with the last minutes as I couldn’t figure out why they were all going to the Church (and how they knew to go there). I then realized that was the same Church as the Lookout where Mrs Hawking was. I thought they were going to do some weird time travel again to the island. Alas, I was totally wrong. It wasn’t till the show was over and I had a friend explain it to me to understand what went down. In the end the island was not purgatory (like people had speculated since season 1) but instead the flash sideways were. What through me through a loop was the flash sideways timeline but it was arbitrary since people in that timeline died and lived different lives outside the island but then all came back to the flash sideways in the end.

Alot of what happened even was a little expected like:

1. Hurley being the next #1 after Jack. I thought this all along (or at least the last several episodes) since his character did not make much sense for how much they focused on him. I at least thought he would be the new Richard.
2. That Juliet was Jack’s ex-wife in the flash sideways. There was a reason why they waited till the last episode to show her identity.
3. That Juliet was going to be the doctor that helped Sun after she was shot. I was expecting this because I was expecting something worse since she was shot in the stomach. Who better to help than the baby expert.
4. That the final scene would have Jack laying in the same patch of bamboo as the opening scene of the series. It just seemed sensible knowing that the bright light was so close.

What I did not forsee:

1. The meaning of the flash sideways — everyone dies but they don’t have to die together.
2. That everything that happened actually happened (i.e. time travel and alternate timelines, the incident (which I assume the nuclear bomb blowing up was the incident), and so on.
3. Ben being the new #2. I was expecting Ben to be the new MIB especially when he was helping to lower down Jack. There was a lot of similarities to the scene with Jack and MIB lowering down Desmond.
4. That all the characters like Rose, Bernard, Vincent, Shannon, Boone, and others would be in this episode.
5. I knew Jack was going to be laying in the bamboo patch at the end but I did not know how or why. I was just hoping that the episode was not going to end the same way as it started ….ie a time loop where it is all played out again.
6. The high Christian context. Jack was basically Jesus. Someone even made the point that he was stabbed in the same place Jesus was as he was carrying the cross.

What really confused me:

1. The last scene of the plane crash on the ocean. I believe this was to show us that they still always crashed but what threw me through a loop was that we never saw the plane parts in any of the island scenes the rest of the previous episodes after the pilot. It made me think that the Ajira flight crashed too.
2. Jack’s son—Both his mom and dad did not belong in this timeline so how did he even exist? Or more importantly why did he need to exist? Did it make Jack a better person and have more meaning so it didn’t make him the druggie alcoholic he was in the flash forwards?
3. The Aaron and Walt storyline in the early seasons. The only thing I can think of is that it somewhat relates to how Jacob and MIB were chosen as candidates at a young age so maybe Jacob thought he also needed a young kid as a replacement. With that said, I do not think this is the case and it really came down to a storyline where the writers went in a different direction and just hoped we forgot about it.

In the end, Lost was about two things: redemption and emotional connection. The writers used all kinds of crazy story lines and mythologies to get to the end point which confused people (including me) but it made a fantastic story and emotionally ended the show on a hight point for me.

It was a pretty jammed pack weekend for me that was a lot of fun. Friday was the first Cards game I went to with the “boys.” I say that in quotation marks since only one guy was there. It amazing how much changed in two years thinking how we had 5 seats in the Bank of America club which was a blast. Needless to say the game was very fun and the Cards won so it was a plus. I met some other friends at Paddyo’s and did a little dancing. It was a good night.

I went to the Mt Pleasant and Sugar Creek wineries on Saturday. I will have a more detailed post about this later in the week but Mt Pleasant was a big disappointment while Sugar Creek was awesome. The wine was great, the weather was perfect, and we had a lot of fun. Plus, I did not get sun burnt or even red.

I put on my domesticated hat on Sunday and did some grass cutting and yard work in the blazing sun and heat (supposedly it tied the record for St Louis heatwise). I got some errands done and then settled down to watch the best TV shows ever….Lost! I am amazed about the show the more and more I think about it (which is a lot). I will have a separate post about it later in the week too. I missed the Lakers game and they lost (is that the theme of this paragraph?).

Here are my thoughts on Lost and my experience as we hit the stretch run for the final episode.

I first started watching Lost right before the second season started. My friend Matt kept telling me that I needed to watch this show. Especially since I was depressed that HBO’s Carnivale was not picked up for a 2^nd season. Carnivale was the first show I really got extremely into and read a lot online about theories and what not. So I downloaded (I know but this was before they were online) the first season of Lost and watched all the episodes straight in 3 days while I was on a business trip. I was addicted and could not wait till the second season.

The first two seasons of Lost were the best for me. It took two seasons to get a full understanding of the main characters back stories and see how everything was related. All the other seasons are just filler now that I see how the series is ending. The reason I say this is because it seems like the writers kept throwing out more and more questions which seem like they will never be answered. I know I hate to think this but the show would have been perfect in 3 seasons. Going into this last season, I was expecting it to be jammed pack with action and finally understanding what was going on with this island. Instead, the writer chose to continue with a lot of fluff and give half answers. I may seem upset and I am but I have come to the reality like many other Lost followers that it is not the intention of the writers to provide answers. Instead they want to focus on the theme of redemption. It a great storyline but it makes it seem like a lot of the episodes and what we thought we major occurrences and plotlines were worthless. This is why I think the show would have been better in 3 years. The Lost blogs keep referencing the idea that the 1^st season was written so the show could have ended hitting the writer’s storyline if it wasn’t picked up for a second season. I agree that it is possible after looking at some of the facts.

Even though I am complaining about the ending, I am going to be so disappointed to never have Lost again in my life. I know that sounds creepy and weird but I have never been into a show this much. It is the one show that I have to see as soon as it is on. It is also a show I spent countless hours reading about online and discussing with my friends. This is why it is the best show ever! The downfall of the show is that you basically can’t start in the middle thus why viewer ratings went down every year (even though I did convince two coworkers to watch all the episodes in a couple months before the start of this season…and they loved it). It is also another reason why the show should have only been 3 seasons.

And one theory that I can’t wait to find the answer to about the show is why the island was sunk in the beginning of this season. Everyone has speculated because the people found a way to kill Flock, MIB, or whatever you want to call him. The last episode gave a new possibility that the MIB can use Desmond to destroy the island. Is it possible that Lost could end with a sad ending?…I hope not but Carnivale did which made we crave it even more.

I can’t wait till Sunday and dreading it all at the same time!

Overall a pretty quiet and relaxing weekend as planned. I stayed in the night Friday with the girlfriend to relax, drink some Chilean wine, and catch up on the DVR. We also watched the Hurt Locker. It was okay but I have no clue how it beat out Avatar for best picture.

I went to Becki’s graduation at the Muny for her Webster MBA. It was an interesting ceremony since it was an overall Webster ceremony then the B school ceremony. Needless to say it was a long day in the cold breeze. Plus I got sun burn. But it was worth it and I am proud of her. I made a brief appearance at Milo’s Tavern on the Hill for a friends 30th bday party. We played some Bocce ball and ate some pizza but made it an early night and passed out as soon as I got home.

Sunday was another lazy day. We watched some TV, went and visited my mom’s grave site, and then went to my grandmother’s for an awesome turkey dinner.

BTW, I see no end in sight for my DVR. It is about 70% full with shows I have never watched which estimates to probably about 50 hours. I just keep finding programs to watch. I just started watching Fringe but have not started anything this season from V, Tudors, Flash Forward, Southland, Dollhouse, and probably others. I also just starting watching America – The Story of Us which is pretty good. I haven’t played COD in over a month too. Pretty odd since I was extremely addicted before I went to Chile.

Wow! My head is spinning from that amazing episode. Now that is a Lost episode we know and love. We had not seen that in the first 3 hours of this season but they did need to build the stage. This episode did not answer a lot of question but at the same time led us down the path to them.

• Who was that young boy? I didn’t have a clue the first time but he did look like he had blood on his hand. The second time I saw him and he started talking about rules and I immediately thought it was a younger Jacob. What really blew my mind is thinking that is Aaron or maybe Jacob and Aaron are the same people.
• Aaron and Jacob being the same person hit even closer to home when the new Locke said to Sawyer that “Of Mice and Men” was before his time. It came out in 1937. Isn’t that after his time if he was on the island at the time of the Black Rock? This made me think of weird time loops.
• The Numbers and the list was party explained which I did not expect. What I missed was that each character they named from Oceanic crash had one of the numbers: 4-8-15-16-23-42. That is quite interesting. Interesting omission was Kate.
• I loved Locke being a substitute teacher in the “present” day. It really rounded out his story. He went from being a guy feeling sorry for himself for not being able to fix his situation to actually genuinely helping others by teacher the youth of America.
• Looks like Alpert has been a pawn all along which was sorta verified earlier. He is more of an executive assistant for the leader.
• Looks like Ilana knows a lot more than everyone else. Could the fake Locke been the cause of her hospital flashback with Jacob? He knew she would be a problem so he tried to change things? If Jacob can leave the island, why cant fake Locke?
• I have no clue who is good and bad but it almost seems like it doesn’t matter. I don’t think there will be a straight answer and it will be up to the viewer to make their own decision based on the outcome.
• I do not think that Sawyer does want to leave the island (or at least not in this way). I think he is doing what he does best …. playing a con on Flocke (fake Locke). There is no way they could make Sawyer a bad guy again after his character progression in the last 10 or so episodes.
• I loved seeing through the “eyes” of Smokey
• I wonder why Flocke is stuck in Locke’s body according to Ilana. Is it because he broke a rule or does the “island” need to reset for him to change back or take another form?

Have anything other theories that I may have missed or comments on my thoughts? As always, I would love to hear them.

Update 1: I totally forgot to mention another huge point. Why Locke is in a wheelchair in the flash-sideways if his fiance mentioned his dad in a “favorable” tone  when talking about eloping to Vegas. How did Locke become paralyzed? Obviously, he was not pushed out of a building by his dad this time.

I was pretty disappointed with this episode. It seemed like a lot of filler to me. Something I definitely do not want to see with less than 15 hours of Lost left. The reason I call this filler is because we have no idea why the Lost writers are spending so much time focusing on the “present.” Hopefully there will be a major twist and the “present” that we think is really the past. Otherwise, what is the point of focusing so much time on it….All we care about is the island. With that said, they need to reveal that pretty quick otherwise a lot of Lost fans are going to be disappointed.

There were only two revelations this episode and neither were very big. The first being that Sayid has the sickness and the Others somewhat explained the sickness. I already had a pretty good grasp on the sickness so this did not seem like a revelation at all to me. The question I have about this is if Ben has the sickness since he also used the fountain to hell him? Is that why he couldn’t ever see Jacob? I don’t think Ben was dead though but I don’t think Roseau’s crew was either do the sequence of events do not add up.

The other revelation is that CFL (otherwise known as Roseau) probably had the sickness and so does Claire. The only question is how did Claire get it. She didn’t seem to be entirely crazy because she only killed the Others; not Jin. Maybe she escaped from them like Sawyer did. What if we find the MIB is actually the good guy while Jacob is the bad guy. There are clues to see if from both angles.

Fun

I had a pretty entertaining weekend. I went to Double D’s to celebrate a friend’s engagement. Another group of people that I knew were also there. It was a fun time. I still am surprised of the crowd and the atmosphere of the new location.

On Saturday, I got some shopping in. I bought a couple fake trees for my place. The coolest one is a 7ft bamboo tree that I put in my bedroom. It was expensive but it fits the room perfectly. The base even matches my bedroom furniture. I hung out at a friend’s that night for his 30^th b-day party. It was a great night and was the first time in a long time that we all hung out. We fit in a little dancing at Big Daddy’s and then made a quick run to Pops to round out the night.

Sports

Pretty big weekend for sports. The biggest event on my mind was the MU – K State game. It turned out to be a great game and helped to ease a lot of the anxiety of the team after some tough road losses to some bad teams. MU now has a 30 game home winning steak which is extremely impressive. It was a good start to Big 12 play and hopefully it continues. I watched bits and pieces of all the playoff games. Thought I would watch more of the Dallas – Philly game but did not. The Blues won their first game under the new head coach too.

TV

Sunday night premiered two of my favorite shows. The first being Chuck which almost did not record because it lost a DVR matchup with Big Love and the Simpson’s 400^th episode special. I moved Big Love to 10:15 and it was all resolved. Chuck showed two new episodes back to back. There is another one tonight. I still do not know why more people do love Chuck. Here is a good synopsis from my favorite Lost writer on the show. All I can say is that it has drama, comedy, romance mixed with hot girls, fighting, and tons of trendy electronic callouts and references. As for the new season, it did seem that they were cutting cost since the show was basically cancelled and brought back to life by their strong fan base. It seemed like some of the CGI explosions looked a little cheesy to me. Overall, the two episodes were good and Chuck 2.0 seems like he will have some new moves. The Accord commercials with the characters were sort of weird. I didn’t know if I was watching the show or a commercial at first. I guess that’s good Marketing.

More importantly was the premier of Big Love. It has been so long that I forgot some of the major plotlines. I totally forgot that Joey killed Roman. It also looks like for now that he will get away with it. It was a very entertaining first episode and through out some very interesting twist to setup the season.

All I can about Jersey Shore is Gym, Tan, and Laundry. Everyone has to have a little GTL in their life.

Going to hit some quick highlights from my weekend.

• Had a good lunch with some family members Friday at J Bucks Downtown along with them seeing my place for the first time.
• Went to Electric Cowboy in St Chuck. It was interesting. I like the concept but not that they just played slow dancing country songs during the country music portion. The hip hip was all the classic club songs.
• Had a good dinner at Bar Louie on Saturday. Love the dipping sauces for the pretzels.
• Couldn’t fit ice skating in due to the torrential down pours but will try to reschedule soon.
• Watched 3 hours of Jersey Shores. That show is ridiculous. I will keep watching it even though I think I become more stupid after watching it…lol. It just so intriguing.
• Watched Funny People. Expected it to actually be funny since it had so many popular comedians in it but it was not. It really dragged on too.
• Watched half of the new Harry Potter and was bored.
• Had an amazing fantasy football performance. None of my guys did amazing but all except a last minute sub put up 25 points. Got to love the consistency. I put up top points for the week and still have the top D pointer getter in the league along with another guy on D.
• Did not fix my Xbox 360. More to come on that.
• Did get my car back but not happy with the outcome.
• Did get my third patent approved. The extra bonus money couldn’t have come at a better time. Two more to go which are solely in my name so an added bonus if they get approved.

I saw a recent article in the Post and thought I would post my own opinion. Keep in mind that I love premium cable shows.

1. Lost
2. Carnivale
3. Six Feet Under
4. Sponge Bob SquarePants
5. Deadwood
6. Family Guy
7. Sopranos
8. Weeds
9. OC (I had to throw in a teen drama)
10. How I Met Your Mother

Wild Card

1. Playmakers – I loved this show but it was too much controversy for ESPN to carry.

Honorable Mention:

1. Dexter
2. Futurama
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm (probably should be high on the list because I love it but just started watching it)
4. Rome
5. Big Love
6. Californication

My first two selections were easy since both are by far my favorite two shows. The rest could be in any order.

I am probably missing something that I love on network tv but I just love the plots and mass details of the HBO and Showtime shows. What is your list?