Lost Reviews and News

I've never been first!!! This is so sweet! I can't even think of anything to say. Wow! This is satisfaction to the highest!!

And cut...

Roses love Bernards,
Dead polar bears stink,
Random topics rock,
But take sanity to the brink...

ilovebenjaminlinusxx TERCERO!!!!

(though I'm technically numero uno... because I'm the first ilovebenjaminlinusxx... I think).

Nobody challeneged me in a break dancing battle yet!!!

Red neck man--since your first does that make you Meg Neck Man?

@105 Alaïs_Longthought surveyed:

>@ you all everybody:

>What word do you use when asking for a carbonated soft drink? ; )

1. "Gimme a coke."

"Sorry the only coke we have is pepsi."

(The Coca-Cola company just hates that.)

2. "Gimme a soda."

3. "Gimme a soft drink." (which would be pronounced more like "draink".

OK, you what do you-uns say when you order a drink made of ice cream and milk mized together, possibly with fruit or other additives?

Here it's: "I'll have a cherry cobbler cheese cake milk shake."

sorry ya'll...I just had to pick myself up off the floor after seeing a post by ye ole' Crispy Seaplanes. Wow! Good one too....

→ 5. Posted by: Cecil: What do you call...

I would call it a milkshake...although I never heard of adding fruit. Is that a NC thing?

A soft drink, where I grew up, is soda. Pop is what you do when you hit someone on the chin. ; > The first time I heard the term "pop" for soda was at Penn State, where 40+% of the students are from western PA ("pop") & 40+% are from eastern PA ("soda"), & freshmen argue incessantly over the "correct" term (as well as over the Eagles/Steelers"Stillers", Flyers/Penguins, Phillies/Pirates, etc. etc. etc.).

@7 Alaïs_Longthought responded:

>I would call it a milkshake...although I never heard of adding fruit. Is that a NC thing?

I think it started with people offering milkshakes in vanillam choclate, or strawberry, just liek the three most common ice cream flavors.

Then somebody tried, peaches, which lead to blackberries, blueberries, cherries, etc, and not from the ice cream, just added to the shake ingredients.

The best shakes in town are made at a small chain location that offers over 30 varieties of ingredients, including watermelon (in the summer) and sgg-nog (around Christmas).

I have heard of Yankee locations where such comestibles are know as "frappes" and not pronounced in the French manner as if I could do those fancy punctuation marks, but rhyming with "flaps".

OK, that would be "eggnog". If I could type.

And i have heard old timers say:

"Gimme a soda-pop."

Thus fusing east and west Pennsylvania.

Of course they pronounced it more like "sodee pop".

re: beverage.

"dee-pee" (DP) Doctor Pepper

"dee-cee" (DC) Diet Coke

"pee-arr" (PR) Pepsi Regular, unless you are South of the Border, where Pepsi Regular doubles as
(P)aint (R)emover!

(South of the Border = Mexico... Not the tourist trap in South Carolina just south of North Carolina.)

→ 8. Posted by: Cecil at June 10, 2008 2:00 PM
We do call them frappes in Boston BUT in Rhode Island they call them "cabinets".

I have know idea where the term comes from.

i think soda is strictly an american term. here in canada we either ask for pop or a beverage.

since we are on the topic of consumables and regional differences...why do you call back bacon "canadian bacon"????? i had a heck of a time trying to order breakfast the last time i was stateside.

MAY I PLEASE HAVE SOME SODA PUHLEASEEEEEEEEEEE

Red Neck Man-
Yeah, where have I been? Can't believe I ended up not getting on here through the whole end of the season!
I've just been crazy busy and couldn't stop to read anything.
Th show's been great though. I should be around more often again now. Should have plenty of time to talk up Lost before it comes back on the air.

Did the South Park protrait of all of us ever show up?

I think bcre8ve's still at work on it.
Great to see your electrons again, Crispy.

Ya Crispy...I've been busy too. Just saw the first complaint last week eloquently noting that I haven't put up a single LOST Question of the Week this season. I think I will.....if only to stop hearing all of this horrid pop/soda talk....bye the way, I grew up in Atlanta...and it's COKE!!!!

Southern Indiana says "Coke". But then we eat brain sandwiches, so what do we know.

I grew up in Milwaukee, where "soda" is the only accepted term, and growing up, always thought "pop" was just an anachronism from the "Leave it to Beaver" days ... at least until college, when I realized it was strictly local vernacular, with "pop" and "coke" just as prevalent nationwide.

Which came first though? This site has a pretty good synopsis ... "soda" first, "pop" second, and "coke" a bit later:

tinyurl.com/j75dj

I especially like this included map showing usage by region of the US:

tinyurl.com/2s8mbv

I'd like to see a world-wide usage map though (as much as it would make sense) ... from the US map, I'd guess there's a soda/pop divide in Canada as well, with "soda" used from Quebec eastward, unless there's also a French term in play (?).

19. Posted by: ealgumby ... soda/pop divide in Canada as well, with "soda" used from Quebec eastward, unless there's also a French term in play?

actually quebec is where you are most likely to hear beverage. as for the rest of the country, chances are if you ask for soda anywhere you are most likely to get just that...a plain glass of carbonated water (and a somewhat perplexed look from the waitress!)

Re "Tastykakes" from the previous Random Topics thread ...

Yet another of the oddities introduced to me by the Philly contingent from my last job ... could there be a less creative brand name, short of "Juicy Juice" perhaps? Aside from the neverending Pat's/Geno's debate (personally, I like Geno's product better, but found Pat's Soup-Nazi-like city-of-brotherly-love [ha ha] experience truer to the city's nature), I tired of hearing how superior the Herr's product line of snacks was relative to the rest of the world! I like Utz better (IMO, especially the crab and salt/vinegar chips).

As an aside, Bobby's Beltsville Eatery near DC in suburban Maryland makes a cheesesteak comparable to the best of Philly (according to the natives ... I wouldn't dare to presume). All the Philly crew had their own favorite places back home, but agreed to a man that Bobby's was far and away the best down here. So, if there are any Philly natives stuck in DC and looking for a taste of home, you might want to check it out (note it's in an industrial park though, and only open for breakfast/lunch weekdays).

Speaking of Soda .....and Philly......

The best soda was Frank's, and Cherry Wishniak the best of the best.

Ever been to Willy's roast beef sandwich in South Philly? or Villa Da Roma for spaghetti and muscles in marinara sauce? or Walt's for Fried oysters?

We really miss a good Eyetalian roll up here.

My brother and I have just discovered Google Earth's street view and have been looking up our old neighborhood - most of which seems to have been torn down. But it is a really neat experience.

And Pat's is better cheese (I think) Even If I do have to ask for it in English.

Haven't been down there for several years. I am getting hungry!

-----------------------------------

Here is a blurb from the ABC site's next episode block:
NEXT EPISODE
AIRS IN: TBD
Returns Next Season!
TBD
The band of friends, family, enemies and strangers must continue to work together against the cruel weather and harsh terrain if they want to stay alive. But as they have discovered during their 90-plus days on the island, danger and mystery loom behind every corner, and those they thought could be trusted may turn against them. Even heroes have secrets.

Ordering a soft drink:
A beer will be fine, Thanks

Ordering a hard drink:
JD black and water, Please

@mtncbn/23
Ordering a soft drink (in a good way):
Corazón Añejo, thanks, I want to chill

Ordering a hard drink (in a bad way):
Cuervo Gold, please, I need to forget my day, and yesterday, and the day before ... and tomorrow ...

My Older Relatives From Boston Call Soda Tonic.

Around these parts (Rochester NY)it's pop. Anywhere I've ventured beyond this frozen little jewel hamlet, it's soda.
Its always been so normal calling it pop, that it was a real shock to discover that first time that no one else seems to call it that.

I never know what anyone means when they ask me why I don't have a "New Jersey accent". Am I supposed to have one? Nobody else I know has one... I think.

Anyway... I'm pretty sure we call soda, soda.

When I order it at a resturant or something, I say what kind of soda I want. So like... "May I please have a Sprite" or "May I please have a Coke?" Something like that.

This is boring conversation.

The most exciting thing I did in the last few weeks was take a piece of pumpernickel bread (which I am not a big fan of), then cut it in half, and put guacamole (which I am also not a big fan of) on it, and then I broke up pieces of chips and put it on the guacamole on the pumpernickel bread and put the other half of the piece of bread on top of the first piece of bread with the guacamole and chips on top of it and made a sandwich. YAYYY!!!

As you can tell... I was very bored.

It tasted pretty good. My mom was surprised I was actually eating that. All my weird combonations end up tasting good.

Oh, and yesterday, I realized the real way to spell "narly" is "Gnarly".

... I'm so slow.

→ 18. DW: Brain sandwiches:

Okay, I just have to ask...what is this?

→ 19. ealgumby: Soda v. pop v. every other term:

Thanks for the info...*loved* the map, too! Several of my geography professors had similar but not so detailed maps of various regional terms.

→ 22. berkyo: The best soda:

My Philly grandparents always had birch beer rather than root beer in the fridge. Still far prefer birch beer.

→ 26. Crispy Seaplanes: Here in Rochester:

Hiya, neighbor! It hasn't been a frozen jewel around here recently... ; >

→ 27. ilovebenjaminlinusxx: Creative sandwich:

I forget where it is that putting chips on the sandwich is pretty standard. In Pittsburgh there's a restaurant called Primanti's where the french fries go right on the sandwich (Smithsonian magazine had an article on it a year or so ago).

Not having grown up in Rochester, I'm not as familiar w/the area's food specialties, but the three things that stand out to me are a "garbage plate" (basically everything one eats at a picnic piled on top of each other), something "French" (chicken or veal breaded & fried), & Abbott's custard (local ice cream). Maybe CS could add more. Mr. Naysayer could talk about beef on weck (Buffalo sandwich).

The one unique food specialty from where I grew up (Binghamton, NY) is the spiedie—marinated cubes of meat, grilled on a skewer, & served on a slice of Italian bread. If you go farther from Binghamton than 50 miles (& perhaps not even that far), no one's heard of it, but in Binghamton, families have their own secret marinade sauces & there's a big festival every summer w/competitions in various categories. I think I hear Lupo's Char-Pit calling my name... ; )

--Alaïs_Longthought

There's probably still some ice around here somewhere!

Soda was shortened from the term sodium bicarbonate, the ingredient in making fountain drinks. Most soft drinks (meaning non-alcoholic) were first dispensed at pharmacy counters as patent medicines. Many of these drinks contained drugs, including cocaine as in Coca-Cola. Others were sold as stomach medicines (Pepsi) or formulas for regularity (Dr. Pepper).
Because of the high fizz content in mixing at the drug counters, some people called the drinks soda pops.
Over time, the term "soda pop" has been further shortened into regional slang.

my goodness, this is a lot of soda pop beverage talk. hope y'all don't hate me for changing the subject, but have you guys seen the trailers for J.J. Abrams new show? "FRINGE"

if not, take a look-see... (you'll find a good trailer at ign.com)

if so, what do you think?

Yes, and dang them for peeling away Lance Riddick.

Guess we won't be seeing too much of Matthew Abaddon next season unless "Fringe" takes a really quiok nose-dive.

Speaking of Rhode Island up there...imagine being a Long Islander in Rhode Island where they never heard of calling a pizza a "pie"...I almost fell on the floor!

33. Posted by: Vikki ... hey, try being canadian (or a brit) and asking for fish and chips with vinegar! what i meant was fish, french fries and white vinegar...what i got was fish, a bag of lays potatoe chips and dark vinegar.

and on a somewhat similar theme...what the heck is a chigger? i was camping last weekend and a fellow from north carolina told me that he likes camping up here because it is cooler and there are no chiggers. didn't want to appear dumb, so i just nodded and opened another beer.

Breakfast in Heaven goes something like this... Four large, fresh, hot buttermilk biscuits, split in half and buried in a half pound of spicy sausage gravy... AND a large, iced Dr. Pepper.

The tidal wave of sweat starts at the back of the scalp about two minutes in and last until well after lunch. I have not lived in the 'deep' South for 19 years, but still dream of said B-fast. I can still taste it, every once in awhile, scoozie.

@34/surefoot

A chigger is a insect that's barely visual to the naked eye. It will find a warm, usually private spot to burough into the skin. Causes a small bump and itches ALOT.

Google chigger for pictures and an in depth explaination.

#34 surefoot asked:

>...what the heck is a chigger? I was camping last weekend and a fellow from north carolina told me that he likes camping up here because it is cooler and there are no chiggers. didn't want to appear dumb, so i just nodded and opened another beer.

Roll around in the grass in my front lawn, and the itching feeling you'll feel for the next couple of days is chiggers. Teeny tiny little insects that you probably won't be able to see. The don't do any permanent damage, but they sure do make you itch.

Now roll around in the tall grass over there in the woods and that thing crawling on you is a tick. Looks like a teeny flat big-bodied small legged beetle. But if you let him stay on you long enough to sink his head into you and start sucking blood, he'll look like a swollen grey to blackish grape with teeny legs at the corners. Used to be just an irritant until Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme's disease came along, now everybody is deathly afraid of them. When I was a Scout we used to pair up in the mornings to peer all over each other's bodies to check for ticks.

@35 DocH reminisced:

>Breakfast in Heaven goes something like this... Four large, fresh, hot buttermilk biscuits, split in half and buried in a half pound of spicy sausage gravy... AND a large, iced Dr. Pepper.

You left out the slice of country ham and I'd prefer Coke, myself, but OK.

Oh, and maybe som just picked, fresk sliced 'maters.

@37 Cecil
That reminds me all to much of the moose that dropped dead from ticks. The game dept. guy said it's not unusual.

Any how, talk around here was of ticks for a while, and found that they'll make country music about anything!
http://tinyurl.com/69hzbn
Cecil's camp routine in adult environment!

That's great song! I mentioned our old camping routine to my wife the first time we heard it on the radio.

For those who haven't heard (and you chould go to the link and give a listen) the singer is telling a girl he's met in bar how he'd like to take her out to see the sights in the countryside, and in the refrain:

"Cause I'd like to see you out in the moonlight,

I'd like to kiss you way back in the sticks,

I'd like to walk you through a field of wildflowers,

And I'd like to check you for ticks."

I 'specially like the verse:

"Oooh you never know where one might be,

And oooh there's lots of places that are hard to reach"

(Better when heard than read...)

I like Utz just fine, but I won't be having the crab chips again! I do like Herr's dill potato chips, bit otherwise I found the line to be unremarkable.

Rollerball...

So I'm thumbing through the old digital TV Guide that comes with my cable the other day, and I come across “Rollerball”. I’m thinking “Outstanding”, great movie, great score, originally in Cinemascope (wraparound movie for you kiddies), great opening scene with great organ score of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in B-Flat Minor (worth the price of the album – do they even MAKE movie album’s any more? – for that piece alone), great cast (James Caan, John Houseman, John Beck, Maude Adams, Moses Gunn...), serious theme, SF future elements handled well, I’m about to settle down for some good entertainment, when I notice the copyright date – 2002. 2002?! (that’s an interabang, folks).

Looking a little closer, I see Naveen Andrews in the cast list. Now Naveen Andrews wasn’t only six tears old when the REAL Roller ball came out. So why in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks did they feel the need to remake a movie that was near perfect the first time it was made? Read on, kiddies, and I’ll tell you. I took it on myself to watch this ridiculous mish-mash so you wouldn’t have to.

Warning: * * * Some SPOILERS for both the 1975 and 2002 versions of this movie. * * *

If you haven’t seen the original, go rent it. As for the remake, you won’t miss much by being spoiled.

They’ve kept the very loose outline of the original plot about this much: There’s a game played on roller skates and it’s really violent. Nothing really about why the people love the game (either the players or the fans), or nor is anyone manipulating the game from behind the scenes for any reason more sinister than greed and money.

So into this game insert reluctant hero Jonathan (they kept the name but not much else from the earlier movie) played by Chris Klein (who?). Jonathan isn’t motivated by sincere love of the game, he’s just looking of make a few bucks until the NHL draft takes him (he hopes). In the meantime he’s risking his life for no good reason doing skateboard slalom on busy city streets of San Francisco (at least the real life skateboard rebels in SouCal use the much steeper – but much less crowded – Angeles Crest Highway.

Jonathan lets himself be recruited into the Rollerball game which is played, not in all the world centers of power, but in backwater Central Asian former Soviet republics. Jonathan apparently rises to the top of the crowd’s esteem in, not a long career of achievement but apparently just a few months. The game itself still involves a steel ball, roller skates, and motorcycles, but just about no – an no possibility of – strategy, given the gimmicky way the track is laid out. Jumps, and figure eights, fireworks, and really nice uniforms, and fanatical devotion to the Pope – whoops, wrong show. It’s all flash and no substance just like the movie. The “action” sequences are cut for the MTV Generation X, with the camera never languishing more that about five seconds on any one scene, so that the “action” such as it is, is impossible to follow. And for it to have made any sense, there would have to have been some discernable strategy, which the writers never seemed to have tried to insert, going for swift-cuts and WWE style in-your-face grandstanding.

Like the original, the powers that be eventually decide Jonathan has to go. But why? In the original, the whole game was manipulated by the shadowy giant corporations that had the real political power and were using the games like Roman circuses to keep the proletariat quiet satisfied, and just like the old Soviets, didn’t want a ‘cult of the individual’ arising to chance the individual worker seeking to rise above his station, but rather to keep toiling as an efficient cog in an anonymous machine, for the greater glory of the corporation.

In this version, there is no greater purpose behind the game, the managers (of whom our Sayid is one) just want to make money. Could they achieve a momentary ratings spike by killing off their star? I guess, but it couldn’t possibly make them as much money as keeping him playing year after year.

In the original, Jonathan (James Caan) achieve a kind of victory for the individual by winning the game, and thwarting the evil corporation’s plans for the moment, but it’s a symbolic, rather than real, victory, the bog corporations can survive this, or any other slight, and continue running the little people’s lives.

In this new Rollerball, Jonathan rebels not by winning the game (although he does that) but by turning the game into a slaughter of the bigwigs in attendance (yes, including Sayid) and apparently inspiring the crown of proles to revolt against... what exactly – high ticket prices? The storytelling is too uninspired to even consider the questions Why? and What Next?

Save your time. Go rent the original.

---

Naveen Andrews. Competently acts his part. About the same accent as on "Lost" - which is not his natural accent, if you've listened to him in interviews. P;ay's an Indian, apparently, from his character's name of "Sanjay". Not a nice guy,a nd gets his just deserts in the end. Plenty of eye candy for the female fans.

@Cecil Rose/43

While I completely share your enthusiasm for the original, I think you miss the basic points of "genius" behind the remake ... all the things you revile are exactly why it makes sense today ... don't get me wrong, not defending it ... it's a piece of crap, but ...

"nor is anyone manipulating the game from behind the scenes for any reason more sinister than greed and money."

As much as the luxury-never-to-touch-mud-SUV-driving, McMansion-owning "masses" out there might publicly deny it, at heart, they believe in the tag-line from "Wallstreet" ... "greed, for lack of a better word, is good". Hence the turn of our economy from production-based to paper-based wealth as baby-boomers wreak their havoc upon society ... why "work" for money, when you can "transact" your way to happiness? Work is for chumps! Buy low, sell high ... no one suffers, right? Money for nothing ... be it dot-com stock sales, or real-estate-flippers producing nothing for their "efforts" ... bubble-whoring ... and when things go sour, all you have to do is bitch loud enough, and the (otherwise evil) government should come running to your aid, right? When Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers for striking, it was because it was inconceivable for public servants to abandon their roles as such ... society at large depended upon them, right? But when oil/commodity prices are being driven up into another "bubble" by financial speculators (and it WILL crash, but only after billions have been made, and millions of people destroyed, trust me), driven by GREED, and jeopardizing "society at large," well that's just free-market capitalism at work, right? When labor unions might "threaten" American society, the government simply MUST step in, but when big-oil/corporate interests do the same, more directly (when's the last time an air traffic controller took money out of your pocket? Oh, and by the way, airline deregulation has ended up working SO well for the avergae traveler, hasn't it?) well that's just the laissez-faire market at work, don't you know! And what are these over-burdened-with-wealth energy companies doing with their windfalls, in the supposed wake of supply? Perhaps investing in the next-generation of power supplies? No ... giving generous dividends to share-holders, of course! Invest in the future? Are you nuts? And terminate this momentary effing of "common" America inside-out? Wake up! Greed, my friend, GREED! There is nothing more sinister at work in today's world than mere "greed and money."

"Jonathan apparently rises to the top of the crowd’s esteem in, not a long career of achievement but apparently just a few months."

Hello ... YouTube?

"The game itself still involves a steel ball, roller skates, and motorcycles, but just about no – an no possibility of – strategy, given the gimmicky way the track is laid out. Jumps, and figure eights, fireworks, and really nice uniforms, and fanatical devotion to the Pope – whoops, wrong show. It’s all flash and no substance just like the movie. The 'action' sequences are cut for the MTV Generation X, with the camera never languishing more that about five seconds on any one scene, so that the 'action' such as it is, is impossible to follow. And for it to have made any sense, there would have to have been some discernable strategy, which the writers never seemed to have tried to insert, going for swift-cuts and WWE style in-your-face grandstanding."

Uh, what's your point? Grand Theft Auto, my friend! Welcome to the attention-span-of-a-gnat digital age! If people don't have time to think, they don't have time to realize how much their lives suck!

"Like the original, the powers that be eventually decide Jonathan has to go. But why? In the original, the whole game was manipulated by the shadowy giant corporations that had the real political power and were using the games like Roman circuses to keep the proletariat quiet satisfied, and just like the old Soviets, didn’t want a ‘cult of the individual’ arising to chance the individual worker seeking to rise above his station, but rather to keep toiling as an efficient cog in an anonymous machine, for the greater glory of the corporation."

See above ... but this is FAR more efficient! We don't need no stinking bread and circuses ... all we need is (literally) mindless entertainment with characters coming and going in the blink of an eye ... there IS no cult of the individual, because video characters don't last that long, and they will be replaced with the next version of the game system anyway. The viewing public is already slaved to the next release, and they will beat each other senseless when Wal-Mart opens the doors at midnight to get it ... WE already live for the glory of the corporation, be that Apple, MS, Sony, Nintendo, Bad Robot, or otherwise.

"In this version, there is no greater purpose behind the game, the managers (of whom our Sayid is one) just want to make money."

Welcome to the 21st century ... and what is rhodium going for these days per troy ounce compared to two years ago? Yeah, but that's all because of market pressure from increased demand in Asia ... right ...

Jeez - reading this makes me reminisce about everything. (xcuse all the forhtcoming and past typos)

I am a chamelian...a girl of all parts of the US. I am a woman with no home, but is home to all. I miss the SOUTH and that breakfast DocH spoke of. I miss saying "wooder" instead of water and not being laughed at. arghhh... reading this is painful to me!!

If there is one thing I have learned in my Peace Corps years it is this: accept whatever the locals do. don't fight it, don't say, "where I came from we did...???" don't do it the way you did it. Give it up, forget it, lose it. conform.

well, reading these posts has made me a bit sad because I miss what I have been forced to give up of myself. I have lived everywhere, and I am everything, but there are some things I hold on to and some that I won't forget.... :) thanks for reminding me of that!!

@meg/45
"If there is one thing I have learned in my Peace Corps years it is this: accept whatever the locals do. ... conform."

When in Rome ...

But when at home ...

question authority ... they're usually wrong ...

A little grammatical humor to lighten the mood:

Little Mary put on her skates
Upon the ice to frisk
Wasn't she a silly girl
Her little * ?

Now who says grammarians are dried-up sticks w/no sense of humor... ; >

For those who don't get my #44 post ... check out these charts of historical rhodium prices versus oil prices (BTW, rhodium is now at about $9400/ounce):

tinyurl.com/5nco3h

For those who don't know, rhodium is a rare element related to platinum, and often used in the catalytic converter(s ... for SUVs) under your car. It's price has historically followed general commodity (i.e., FOOD, gas, AC) prices, often closely following oil price rises/crashes ... I (personally) attribute this to general price rises across the board associated with oil price rises ... higher oil/gas prices result in higher food prices, because it's more expensive to farm/ship the food, and that drives up the commodity market in general. Plastics are dependent upon petroleum products, so when oil prices go up, the prices of everything go up (because everything is wrapped in plastic now) ... hence the prices of everything, along with food, go up. This general price rise in basic commodities tends to drive up prices for things that have nothing to do with oil (e.g., rhodium), because speculators (i.e., leeches/parasites upon society), jump on the bandwagon, and figure they should get in on the action too. Soon you are having your vehicle vandalized for the rhodium content of your catalytic converter(s)!

These price rises are nothing more than speculative bubble (see Tulip Craze if you are unfamiliar with the concept, or if the dot-com and RE bubbles have not yet sunk in), and destined to CRASH, just as they did in the early 80's (see the charts!). Those with vested INTEREST in keeping prices high now (i.e., the financial market SOBs) are the ones everyone is asking about where the market is going ... STUPID! Duh, they're going to say things like "Asian market demand from places like China and India are going to keep prices high ... they will never go back down." WTF do you EXPECT them to say? It's all BS!!!!

Commodity prices WILL crash again ... the only question is how many people will be ruined along the way. Rest assured the corporate "PTB" will not ... this "bubble" is yet another attempt for high-end "losers" in the previous bubble(s) to recoup their losses, at your (?) expense.

Remember the basic rule ... rich people never lose. Why might that be? Because they sucker working-class people to fund their otherwise crashes ...

I have no problem whatsoever with the rich that actually have earned their money ... those that have actually produced something of value along the way. As for those who deceive their way through "transactional" wealth, without "doing" anything in the process ... well, I think you know how I feel about you ...

we exterminate parasites, don't we?

@47 Alaïs_Longthought assayed:

>Now who says grammarians are dried-up sticks w/no sense of humor... ; >

Reading, I didn't get it. Then I pronounced the words (and symbols) in my mind and burst out laughing.

You guys ever see the documentary, The Corporation? Very eye opening.You can get it at Net flix or see it on FSTV. They run it frequently.

Is there someplace else people are chatting??

Does anyone else get the "Dumb Test" popup evertime they log on?

SUNDAY MORNING . . .

Happy Father's Day Mac . . .and all other blessed fathers on the blog!

and yes, meg, I also get the dumb test. I just figured the machine was sensing my current state of writer's block . . .

@davidrh: Thanks! And Happy Father's Day to all other dads/Lost fans!

(BTW -- Don't bother taking that "Dumb" test. It just goes on and on and on)

I saw Richard Alpert in Cold Case last night. He was the brother of detective Valens. He had eyeliner on there too! makes me think it has been tatooed on, or maybe he has naturally dark eyes.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

I told my dad that I will NEVER get him a gift EVER again because two years ago for father's day, I got him something, and he RETURNED IT. (at least he gave me back the $350 I spent on it). That's when I told him that I'd never get him anything ever again... and then for his birthday this year, I decided to be nice and get him something... so I got him the Planet Earth DVD because he likes all that stuff... but he never opened it and watched it. So yeah... gifts are over with him.

ADVICE TO FATHERS: Never return a gift that your child gets you... they'll never forget it.

I'm just getting better and better at Monopoly. I realized that it's a lot like poker...

→ 55. Posted by: ilovebenjaminlinusxx
I decided to be nice and get him something... so I got him the Planet Earth DVD because he likes all that stuff... but he never opened it and watched it. So yeah... gifts are over with him. ADVICE TO FATHERS: Never return a gift that your child gets you... they'll never forget it.
- - - -
You are off the mark a bit. Did he already see "Planet Earth"? Maybe he just wanted to wait and watch it once you left the house for college... to remind him of you. My dad was a minimalist. Less was best, nothing was perfect. We (kids) were always told that trying our best, improving ourselves everyday and being considerate of others was the best gift... everyday was Father's Day when we gave that gift.

The best gift you can give your folks are the gifts you give yourself. Give yourself the gift of integrity... duty... compassion... honor & honesty. No one else can give you these things... You must give them to yourself. Once they see that you possess these traits... you will have given them the greatest gift of all - the gift of a young adult - a mature fellow human being that is no longer a child in need.

So, being the resident "House" blogger, I was watching a rerun of an older episode (before I began blogging), "Cane and Able".

House is studying a video made by a thin-fiber camera pushed into a patient's heart artery, and he notices something that seems odd to him, but he can't quite put his finger on it, and wants a bigger picture. He moves the team to the high-def video display in the doctor's lounge. He still think's he needs a larger picture, so what does he tell his team?
.
.
.
.
.
Wait for it....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.... WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT!!!
.
.
.
Wonder if any "House' writers read our "Lost" blog?

mexico lucas pharmacy pharmacy of mexico

Aha...I knew it.

The mexico lucas pharmacy pharmacy of mexico is twice as good as the mexico lucas pharmacy pharmacy of Guatemala.

Good meds cheap. If you don't question their legality or effectiveness.

And they throw in an anti-fungal...that's a woman who doesn't let you have a good time...

58. Posted by: pharmacy overnight mexico at June 17, 2008 2:30 AM

well, i guess you can`t get much more random than that!

pharmacies free online mexican best mexican pharmacies online

This is from today's NYTimes Website...an interesting article on the Web that could have been.

http://tinyurl.com/3pvsd8

In Glasgow Scotland soft drinks are called ginger and the best one of all is Irn Bru (Iron Brew) - its made from girders you ken!!!
It is the BEST hangover cure known to all man(and woman) kind

Bummer about Stan Winston...
Wonder what he would've come up with for an island monster if he'd had the chance...Bet it would have been way cooler than a column of smoke

My youngest (the only one with musical skills) was in her room the other night watching the Tony Awards (I was watching golf - I swear!)... she joined me later, knowing my LOST orientation, and asked... "what are they going to do after LOST goes off the air... make a musical?"

My response was "pffhhh... noooo!!!" Then thinking this week about how mundane it will feel two years from now after the finale, I started wondering... how could they? would they? how?

Trying to imagine such an abomination, I only came up with:

~ Locke singing (from Wizard of Oz)... "If I only had a brain"...

~ Juliet (ala South Pacific) after her date with Ben, singing... "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair"...

~ Ben, waxing nostalgic about his inability to "connect" with Jacob, singing... "I don't know how to love him" (Jesus Christ - Superstar).

~ From "Paint Your Wagon"...
Hurley singing - "Hand Me Down That Can Of Beans". Claire & Danielle duet "I Talk To The Trees". The Island singing - "I Was Born Under A Wandering Star".

~ Charlie singing/acting the "Oompa-Loompa Song" from the "Chocolate Factory"

~ Sawyer doing his John Denver best with "Take Me Home Country Road" and "Thank God I'm A Country Boy".

~ Richard Alpert, leading his band of merry men, doing his Monty Python best with - "We're Knights Of The Round Table."

~ Desmond on the bagpipes with "Amazing Grace", at a makeshift Charlie memorial, and later an a'cappella version of "Last Rose Of Summer" for Claire.

(hey - random haitus t-of-thoughts - What's in your wallet? - lets' hear some more 'LOST-The Musical' inputs.)

------
oh and...

~ Tom (watching OA815 crash over the island in the S3 premiere) singing... "It's raining men"...

- the others (men only) - jacob and sons from joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat

A Lost musical with no West Side Story references? Surely you jest...

Sharks and Jets (Losties and Others)

Officer Krupke (Kate's Theme)

And especially...

I Want To Live In America...

You lovely island...
Island of tropical breezes.
Always the pineapples growing,
Always the coffee blossoms blowing...

You ugly island...
Island of tropic diseases.
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing...
And the money owing,
And the babies crying,
And the bullets flying.

"And don't call me Shirley..."

Here is a truly random discussion ... what defines a planet? You may or may not have noticed when in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) demoted Pluto from "planet" status to "dwarf planet," in an effort to avoid controversy regarding newly discovered "objects" that might otherwise be considered planets. Of course (admittedly within a rather niche group), just the opposite resulted ... many people, especially among the general public, objected to Pluto's "removal" from the solar system of "planets."

Well, within the past week, the IAU screwed up again ... they declared Pluto a "plutoid", defined as:

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit."

In short: small round things beyond Neptune that orbit the sun and have lots of rocky neighbors.

From SPACE.com: "The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, the IAU stated. The organization expects more plutoids will be found."

For those of you who don't know, Eris is an "object" out there further from the sun than Pluto, discovered in 2003, with a size greater than Pluto's ... and it has at least one moon! Quickly nicknamed "Xena," in reference to a theoretical "Planet-X" (i.e, ostensibly the tenth planet), the IAU about soiled themselves when faced with the dilemma of whether or not to call this a planet (and later "officially" followed the pattern of mythological names with "Eris," the goddess of dischord ... quite appropriate, considering the problems this hunk of ice has caused them).

The logic behind the "plutoid" idea, is that there are probably a lot more such objects out there, and the IAU frowns upon adding "planets" to the solar system willy-nilly.

I cannot but help to ask, why not? I remember as a child, being assured that Jupiter and Saturn each had but a handful of moons, to be counted on fingers. Yet by latest count, Jupiter has 63 moons and Saturn has 60 ... with surely more to be "discovered." If we are so cavalier about defining moons of planets, why is there such a stigma about defining planets about our star?

I find the whole "clearing the neighborhood" idea a bunch of crap (which is theoretically what is preventing Pluto from being defined as a "true" planet) ... Pluto is in a very elliptical orbit, and even if much more massive, it could not "sweep" its neighborhood clean, and the IAU knows this ... such a cop out! What if there happened to be a Jupiter-sized "object" way out there, complete with dozens of moons, but perhaps captured by the sun in a highly elliptical orbit? It would not have "cleaned its neighborhood" either, and as such would be considered a "plutoid." Uh, wouldn't one call such an object a planet?

In fact, such an object might lurk out there, perhaps not Jupiter-sized, but much more massive than Pluto, and perhaps equal or greater to inner "planets" such as Mercury and Mars:

tinyurl.com/5zcxlk

I think a more common sense definition of what determines a planet is in order:

(1) A celestial body in orbit around the sun that has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape.

(2) Any such body that has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

(3) Any such body that has at least one satellite (moon).

(4) Any such body that lacks at least one recognized satellite (moon), but has a mass of at least 10^21 kg (roughly one tenth the mass of Pluto).

I submit this definition to the IAU for their consideration ...

If we have more discovered "planets" in the solar system as a result, so be it ... it has happened before (Uranus, Neptune, ... Pluto) ... are you IAU people afraid you're going to piss off the astrology community or something? If we can add moons to the outer planets at the drop of a hat, I see no problem with adding planets to the solar system ... the IAU peeps are beginning to sound like the freakin' inquisition ... there is nothing "holy" about how many planets orbit the sun!

The IAU's not so sure about what constitutesa "moon" either. Are each of the gazillion particles of Saturn's rings "moons"? If not then what's the minumun size of a "moon". Is it relative to the size of its primary? (Do Jupiter's moons have to be bigger that what would be a moon of Mercury, if it had any?

Is that strange planetoid that has an orbit locked to the earth but wanders almost as far as Venus and Mars's orbits a "moon" of earth. Waht about any material that might be trapped in any of the LaGrange points of the earth-mppn system?

Like the "real men don't eat quiche" saying, the IAU seems to feel that "real planets don't cross the orbits of other real planets". Sayonara, Pluto. So that hypothetical way-out-there bigger-than-Jupiter object could be a planet - just not anything that crosses it's path.

@Cecil/69

Oh come on now, LaGrangian points? Are there any such objects in the solar system around any planets that we know of? And BTW, a La Grange point depends upon an orbiting satellite (moon) in the first place, which by default defines the primary gravitational source as a planet by my definition ... hence even if there are any, they are but satellites (and I know, what defines a moon, yadda yadda yadda ... I guess a "moon" would have to be in a gravitionally-centric orbit, of natural creation, and of a mass greater than ? kg ... are ya happy, I put a "?" in there! ;)).

Oooo ... you are such an instigator though, aren't you! Good for you! Also good point re what is a moon ... any object under the primary gravitational pull of a planet is a moon ... given that it is big enough (again, a kg limit must be called for, else the ISS, or TEMPSAT 1, be called a moon).

@Cecil/69
"Like the "real men don't eat quiche" saying, the IAU seems to feel that "real planets don't cross the orbits of other real planets"."

So all of the other "planets" that have been discovered around other stars obey the same rules as our solar system? I think not! If we are willing to call them planets, even if in elliptical or irregular orbits about their stars, how does that meld with what we define as planets here?

Ha! ;)

OK, how about an object at the earth-sun L1? We had a satellite there for a while before we brought it back - and dropped it. If there were a natural object captured there, would it be planet? -oid? -essimal? Or would it be a moon?

→ 68. ealgumby: What defines a planet?

Funny that you'd bring up this topic...the following URL is from yesterday's NYTimes Website:

http://tinyurl.com/5m6vok

As far as irritating the astrological community, going back to my youthful fascination w/Linda Goodman's astrological books resurrects the trivia that astrologers (or at least her) fully expected more planets to be found so that each zodiacal sign had its own planet. At the moment, Taurus & Libra are sharing Venus, but Taurus is supposed to acquire a planet named Apollo, & Gemini & Virgo are sharing Mercury, & Virgo is supposed to acquire a planet named Vulcan. No mention of an Eris, though... : )

For those interested in the space program:

I have a hobby-project reading biographies of the astronauts and other major figures of the space program, in as close to flight-order as I can get it (and as texts are available). In reading a bio of Alan Shepard, I came across a reference to a book about an astronaut who resigned from the group of scientist-astronauts that was selected just as the Apollo program was cranking up.

"The Making of an Ex-Astronaut" by Brian O'Leary is an intersting view of the space program in it's early days from the point of view of an iconoclast astronomer who was fortunate enought to be selected, but unfortunate enough to arrive just as the flight-prospects of the scientist side of the astronaut corps were becoming dim.

O'Leary had several reservations about NASA's commitment to science in space - requiring all astronauts to become pilots, the difficulty of maintaining scientific credentials while undergoing astronaut training, and the scientific isolation of the Houston location of astronaut headquarters. He overcame those doubts to accept the appointment as an astronaut despite angering astronaut chief Alan Shepard when, upon being invited to join after a hightly competitive selection process, he said that he was '98 percent sure he would accept'.

O'Leary chronicles the six-month arc of his astronaut career, the high point being watching a Saturn test launch, and the low point being his and his wife's reaction to the climate both meterological and intellectual of flat, humid southeast Texas.

→ 74. Cecil: "The Making of an Ex-Astronaut":

Thanks for mentioning that, Cecil. My dad worked on the space program back in the '60s & now I have his next birthday gift all picked out! And he hated the climate around Houston too (apologies to any Houstonites here)...

Good luck finding it and thank goodness for Interlibrary Loan - They found it at Mt Olive Junior College.

And he hated the climate around Houston too (apologies to any Houstonites here)
→ 75. Posted by: Alaïs_Longthought

I lived in Houston for a mere 3 years and abhorred the weather, too: 95 degrees and 95% humidity too much of the time. So I traded that for Phoenix, where we currently have daily "extreme heat warnings" and temps in the teens (as in 113+). But as we Zonies like to say: it's a dry heat.

Has anyone ever "mapped out" the location of the regular posters on this site? I've made mental notes of where some of y'all are from based on what you have revealed (intentionally or incidentally). The majority seem to be from out East.

...gift...two years ago for father's day...$350 I spent on it.
→ 55. Posted by: ilovebenjaminlinusxx

I'm still trying to imagine a 16-year-old having $350 to spend on a Father's Day Gift! Quite a different world from my babysitting days back in the 60's, earning $.50/hour. ;-)

Ok, my final thought for the day to:
-68,69,70,71,72,73

Why are asteroids called asteroids and hemorhoids called hemorhoids? Shouldn't it be the other way around? But then you'd be an astronaut instead of a proctologist.

I've always loved that little joke.

So "Octagon Global Recruiting" has left the following message in my mailbox:

===============================
Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of the Dharma Initiative, would like to thank you for registering your expression of interest in our latest volunteer recruitment drive.

We will be launching in San Diego on July 24th at Comic-Con International offering select registrants the opportunity to take an exciting aptitude test that will give applicants the chance to demonstrate their unique talents.

The Dharma Initiative hopes you will be able to join us to find out more about their ground-breaking new research project. We will contact you closer to the date with more information.

For those not able to join us in San Diego, Dharma's full recruitment program will be made available online to registered recruits after July 27th.

In the meantime, the Dharma Initiative urges you to spread the word. Invite your colleagues to join the team at www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com and take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

If you can't view the images in this email please click here

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION OF THE DHARMA INITIATIVE:
This message and its attachments are confidential and may contain information which is protected by copyright. It is intended solely for the named addressee. If you are not the authorised recipient (or responsible for delivery of the message to the authorised recipient), you must not use, disclose, print, copy or deliver this message or its attachments to anyone. If you receive this email in error, please contact the sender immediately and permanently delete this message and its attachments from your system. Any content of this message and its attachments that does not relate to the official business of the Dharma Initiative or its subsidiaries must be taken not to have been sent or endorsed by any of them. No representation is made that this email or its attachments are without defect or that the contents express views other than those of the sender.
==========================

Really wish I could make it to ComicCon. You west coasties let us know if you can.

77. Posted by: lovelost
Has anyone ever "mapped out" the location of the regular posters on this site?

this is something that has crossed my mind as well. like, am i the only canadian here (and yes, i know there should be a question mark there...but i have somehow done something the my keyboard and this is the result - É...any suggestions for the technologically impaired would be greatly appreciated)

→ 77. lovelost: Location, location, location:

You can put a virtual pin on Rochester, NY, for me. And I'll be in Phoenix in November (doing the 3-Day Breast Cancer Fundraising Walk)! The friend I'm walking w/assures me that mid-November weather in Phoenix is just about perfect...

@Cecil/72
"OK, how about an object at the earth-sun L1? We had a satellite there for a while before we brought it back - and dropped it. If there were a natural object captured there, would it be planet? -oid? -essimal? Or would it be a moon?"

L4-L5 would make better sense, but I'll tackle this generically ...

(1) As the primary gravitational source in any sun-planet Lagrange scenario, is the sun, it cannot be a moon (which by definition orbits a planet as the primary gravitational source).

(2) As there must be vast disparity (many orders of magnitude) between either of the two primary masses and the third captured object in any stable Lagrangian point scenario, the captured object would inherently be too small to qualify as a planet.

(3) Therefore, any such captured object would have to be classified as solar orbiting, but too small to be a planet ... thus a hemorrhoid ... I mean asteroid!

A couple of other points to be made, some of which I just learned:

(1) The colinear L-points (L1, L2, L3) are inherently unstable, and no natural object would stay there very long in geological time. Satellites sent to L1 (several) have all been either equipped with station-keeping thrusters, or put into quasi-stable "halo" orbits (in a circle about the sun-earth line at L1 distance, orbiting in a plane perpendicular to the sun-earth line), where they would remain only for mission duration. Any object left at one of the colinear L-points for any amount of time would fall into either a solar or terrestrial orbit eventually, and drift away from the Lagrangian point.

(2) Natural objects can persist at the L4 and L5 points, in the classic "kidney-bean orbit" about the Langrange point. I was not aware of the Trojan asteroids (and lovelost, et al, I beg you not consider that term too carefully ... it could get ugly ;)), at the sun-Jupiter L4 and L5 points.

Perhaps in another younger solar system, there may be objects large enough to be considered planets at star-planet L4/L5 points, not yet having fallen out due to orbit destabilization (but they will). I would contend these should be referred to as planets, as their primary gravitational source would be the star, not the planet.

@Alaïs_Longthought/73
"http://tinyurl.com/5m6vok"

Thanks for the link ... bears somewhat on what I was just saying. Due to limitations in the planet-detection process, most of the (now very many) planets discovered around other stars bear little/no resemblance to the orderly nature of planets in our solar system.

Yet I assume we would like to have a definition of what a planet is, when considering solar systems with vastly different dynamics from our own. If humanity should ever get to the point (?) where travel to other systems is possible, it would be nice to have an astonomically-generic definition in place to describe those things zipping around other stars. That's why I shy from an overly xenophobic view of these things (from the perspective of our solar system), which I think the IAU has fallen into the trap of with the Pluto situation.

If most solar systems look little like ours, then defining rules for planets based upon such things as distance from the star and whether or not orbits cross paths (which may work conveniently here) will fall apart the more we reach out beyond home.

I know, far beyond beating a dead horse ... but this IS the random topic thread!

My map pin goes about ten miles south and west of Raleigh, NC.

Columbia, MD ... between DC and Baltimore.

Everyone knows me... New Jersey.

Anyway... @ lovelost about the $350.

I get a lot of money from people. My grandpa gave me and my sister a chunk of money since we turned 13. On our 13th birthday, we got $500, on our 14th, we got $600... etc. My mom gets mad at him, and we try to give it back to him, but then he uses guilt. He makes it seem like we don't love him if we don't take it... so we pretty much have no choice. But that all goes in my bank account -- and I have a bunch more stashed up. BUT, before that... I don't know how I have so much money actually. Birthdays and stuff I guess. But now I have a debit card and everything. I'm not allowed to spend my own money though... just for birthday presents and stuff, like mom, dad, or sister. Even then, most of the time my parents don't take the money from me, but they still give me the credit. That $350 was actually mine though.

I found a $100 bill on my desk when I was cleaning it the other day... I actually found a lot of money in my room.

Now you all probably thing I'm spoiled... but I'm not really. It seems like it, because I can't watch TV unless it's in HD, I spend money like it's nothing... BUT, I'm actually very frugal. I do a lot of research on a product before I buy it. I make sure I get the best price. That was another reason I was so mad at my dad. I put so much time and thought into giving him that gift and he returned it. It wasn't the money, it wasn't anything else... it was the "love" I put into it.

ALSO something I forgot to mention. It didn't work when he was hooking it up... and then he decided to return it. The thing that bothered me was the he didn't even TRY to figure it out. He's a tech wiz so he could have, and if he had to, he could have even called tech support or something, but no. He just decided to return it.

I even wrapped it up all pretty and stuff...

Now I'm just getting more mad about it... I'll stop.

But anyway -- If I babysat, I'd make sure I got AT LEAST $8.00/hr. Only $0.50 more than minimum wage. I actually would take $7.50. It all adds up at the end.

Me and my friend used to babysit for a friend's kid. She wanted to pay us $10.00/hr... so she did. We told her we'd take $5.00, but she insisted. We wanted money because we wanted that to go "towards something". Usually I feel bad taking money from people I know.

SamFin -- Thanks!

I feel really young right now. There's NOBODY here around my age? How about someone in their 20's or something?

Now I feel "out of the loop". Ha...ha.

Tomorrow's the last day of school/finals... then on Saturday I'm going somewhere out-of-state with my friend for two weeks.

I've literally have had no time since the Saturday after the Season Finale, and I won't have time until July 28... Maybe just 5 minutes here and there, like now. But... AH.

I just realized the SamFin and age stuff was on the Key Points page.

MY BAD. Sorry.

My map pin

Sandpoint, ID Corner of 20th and plum. 20 miles out and plum up in the boonies(mountains).

stick my map pin right where lake huron meets the bluewater river...directly across from port huron michigan in sarnia ontario canada :)

→ 83. ealgumby: Solar systems unlike ours:

A bit of a mental leap here, but this reminds me of the classic Star Trek episode w/the Horta ("The Devil in the Dark"), a life form whose basis is silicon & whose shape is entirely different from ours. If/when we humans encounter intelligent life forms that are not humanoid in form & don't share the same chemical basis, will we consider them life forms if they don't meet our definitions of intelligent life forms?

→ 84. Cecil Rose: You must practically be next door to my brother & his family...Apex.

I Never Post But I Am Addicted To Reading All Your Posts. Ealgumby, Cecil (love That You Use Your Real Name), Alai's And My Favorite Iluvbenjaminlinusxx ( Spl?) And Hey I'm In My 20's Too. My Map Pinpoint Is Boston. . . GO CELTICS! I Am A Female Physics Major And Am Always Amazed At Your Different Areas Of Expertise. This Post Is So Random But I Wanted Ilbenlxx To Know She's Not Alone As A Young Lost Fan. How Sad Is It That I'm Working The Overnite Shift And Reading This To Pass My Time. Im Obsessed With Lost Because It Blends My Two Favorite Things Science And Good Writing. I'm Going To Go Crazy Without Lost But I Will Keep Visiting This Site And Maybe I'll Even Continue Posting.

@90 Alaïs_Longthought commented:

>→ 84. Cecil Rose: You must practically be next door to my brother & his family...Apex.

Pretty close. Our mailing address is Apex, but we're actually in an unincorporated area about 4 miles east of downown Apex. Give it ten years and I think we'll be in Cary - not because we moved but because Cary is extending pseudopods in our direction - help, it's the Blob!

Did your brother have to evacuate in the big chemical fire last year? We were fortunately, upwind and far enough away we didn't have to.

@91 lor unveiled:

...Im Obsessed With Lost Because It Blends My Two Favorite Things Science And Good Writing. I'm Going To Go Crazy Without Lost But I Will Keep Visiting This Site And Maybe I'll Even Continue Posting.

Well, welcome, and do come back. The more the merrier.

I think mac once estimated there were maybe 100 to 1000 readers for every poster, so we know there are lots of folks out there who just lurk, but posting adds an extra dimentsion to the fun. Lots of virtual friends. Come on in, the ambience is fine.

→ 92. Cecil Rose: Chemical fire:

Yes, they did...fortunately my sister-in-law's sister & her husband live only about 20 minutes away (not sure of the town, though), so they had a place to go.

I think we'll be in Apex this fall—I have a nephew on the way...

@ lor - 91
Hey cool! I'm someone's favorite!!! Thanks!

Oh, and excellent. -- Someone "closer" to my age. Do you go to BU by any chance? You probably don't want to say, but just wondering.

Occassional poster, long time lurker here. Put my pin in Bossier City, LA

GEAUX TIGERS
ELLLLLLESSSSUUUUU!!!!

#96 iheartsawyer bleated:

>GEAUX TIGERS
>ELLLLLLESSSSUUUUU!!!!

Oh (Roll TIde!) great (Roll TIde!), one (Roll TIde!) of (Roll TIde!) those (Roll TIde!).

Oh well, welcome anyway. Bunnylover is a Tennessee fan. That only leaves 9 more teams to cover and we can set up an SEC forum.

Oh, and Go Hokies, too!

@94 Alaïs_Longthought disclosed:

>I think we'll be in Apex this fall—I have a nephew on the way...

Great, we'll have to get together for lunch somewhere. Maybe Bunnylover will come to town, too.

mid-November weather in Phoenix is just about perfect
→ 82. Posted by: Alaïs_Longthought

Your friend is correct. And if you have the time and interest in meeting a fellow LOSTIE, let me know and we'll find a way to exchange contact info.

→ 86. Posted by: ilovebenjaminlinusxx

ILBLXX, I didn't mean to pry...was just pointing out the differences between then and now. But I enjoyed reading your little slice of life. Thanks for sharing. You add a different (and welcome)perspective to this site.

WOW its been a while since I’ve been able to read/post… got a couple of weeks on my ass now thnx to a bruised and swollen heel… What’s up all?
Ealgumby I love ur postings (is this a word? Anyway…) mate, u always have something interesting to say.

On all the planet & Moon naming talk; I don’t really understand why they had to change Plutos classification from planet to dwarf planet (and now plutoid(!), whatever that is).. What’s wrong with: celestial body orbiting the sun, formed from the original dust-disk, possibly with some geological activity or a magnetic field. From what I understand though, scientist aren’t sure anymore if this was how planets formed, as it would have taken too long for Uranus and Neptune to form to this size once the Sun ignited and blew the gas and some of the lighter dust away. I have a feeling Pluto and anything found further will be further reclassified as comets (tht would be the day)…

On a more epistemological note, the problem with definitions and labels is that; while we need them, when we try to get very specific with them it ends up becoming more of a problem than it is actually worth. As humans, or generally in society, we always get unnecessarily specific with our labeling. Do I really need to define what my ethnic origin is: White, White-Caucasian, White-other, Black, African-American, Asian(!?) or ‘other’… Despite them asking me already about my nationality, I still have to put ethnic background.. I always put ‘other’ anyway since Arab is never on the list…yet… (and I just realized the pun in ‘other’), but I digress.

I would like to pose a question to you and anyone who reads this; how would you define yourself? Furthermore, how would you define yourself in a way which could be applied to anyone? What characteristics of yourself would you use to define yourself, would you even use your own ‘unique’ traits, or define yourself based on how the community you live in, or grew up in, is defined? The world will be better off with fewer labels… It would be interesting to see how a few people would define you, might give you a better perspective of who you are, at least to others. I’m sure Pluto wont care what we call it… Its revolving around the Sun with a bunch of other bodies as far as its concerned. Its like the duality of light; wave or a particle? Doesn’t matter our definition is flawed, since it can’t be both. But light doesn’t abide by our ‘definitions’ and apparently IS BOTH. Crazy world.

Shout out to:
Surefoot, I live in Toronto. I know there is at least one other poster from Toronto, can’t remember who though
ILBLXX, I’m 23…soon at least…
Lor, congrats on Celtics’ victory.

Anyone reading anything good? I’m just about to start The Gormenghast Trilogy, its comes highly recommended by a friend.

Bloody Friday nights...

→ 101. Apollo: Existential questions & random thoughts thereon:

I'm sorry to hear about your heel...maybe you should change your posting name to Achilles for the time being? ; )

You posed some very interesting & thought-provoking questions/ideas. How DO we define ourselves? Others (not LOST-type Others ; >)? Is defining the same as describing? Naturally, I pulled out a dictionary to see the definitions of the two words. Not the same at all, according to Webster's: Define: to determine or identify the essential qualities or meaning of. Describe: to represent or give an account of in words.

One of the simplest & most inclusive ways to define oneself is to say "I am a human being." In the Western world, at least, one of the most common ways to define oneself is by one's profession or what one does: "I am an editor," for example. This brings to mind the old saw "Are you a human being or a human doing?," illustrating the idea that what one does is irrelevant to what one actually is. (And grammatically speaking, the verb "is" is a form of "be," not "do.")

Another way to define oneself would be in terms of relationships w/others: "I am a mother, a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a friend..." or, as Apollo mentioned, as part of a community: "I am an American, a Vermonter..." or using one's own characteristics: "I am a bookaholic, a travel junkie, a tree hugger, an ocean girl..." In my opinion, most of the ways I've mentioned are descriptive, not defining; using one's characteristics seems to get closest to the meaning of "define"...but are one's characteristics the essentials, the meaning of a person?

Somewhat different thought...the use of the word "HOW" brought to mind the questions that a journalist is supposed to answer when writing a story: who, what, where, when, why, & how. Seeing as how we're talking about people, "who" seems to be the word that would be most likely to be used. After all, the question is usually "Who are you?" or "Who am I?" I looked in the dictionary to see what the definition of "who" is: "Which or what sort of person or persons." This seemed to be more descriptive rather than defining.

So...a painting that has intrigued me for years, primarily because of its title, is Paul Gauguin's "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" (En français it's "D'où Venons Nous/Que Sommes Nous/Où Allons Nous.") It's intrigued me specifically because Gauguin chose to use the word "What" rather than "Who," even though he was referring to people. And Webster's defines "what" as: Used as an interrogative expressing inquiry about the nature, identity, or value of an object or matter," which, leaving aside "an object or matter," seems more closely related to the idea of "define" than does "who."

I don't really have a point here (except, as my high school friends would say, the one on top of my head ; >); these are just some very late night thoughts expressed somewhat haphazardly. And ironically, one of the images in the Gauguin painting is, to use Gauguin's own words, "...a strange white bird...represent[ing] the futility of words."

Happy first day of summer to everyone in the Northern Hemisphere...

Thanks Cecil And Apollo! And ILBLXX I Don't Got To BU, But I Did Apply When I Was In High School. I Do Go To School In The Area Though. . . . I Might Be Switching To An English Major Soon But We'll See, Then I'll Be Able To Articulate Like You Guys.

I just thought of this randomly but at least i'm in the right place. I read this book on the theory of relativity I don't remember the name but it explained the theoretical possibility of time/space travel using this example. As humans, we understand that sound has different levels like if there is a radio playing and you walk away from it. To an ant the idea that sound levels change is preposterous because it would take the ant forever to notice the difference. It said that time is not a set thing and we set up increments like seconds minutes etc. because at the high speed when time changes we do not exist. Does that make sense?

It's been a while since I have posted, but I do check this every coupla days. Put my virtual pin in Ft. Myers, Florida.

Miss you all!!! and Lost

@Apollo/101
“I would like to pose a question to you and anyone who reads this; how would you define yourself? Furthermore, how would you define yourself in a way which could be applied to anyone?”

@Alaïs_Longthought/102
“Is defining the same as describing? Naturally, I pulled out a dictionary to see the definitions of the two words. Not the same at all, according to Webster's: Define: to determine or identify the essential qualities or meaning of. Describe: to represent or give an account of in words. … using one's characteristics seems to get closest to the meaning of "define"...but are one's characteristics the essentials, the meaning of a person?”

Apollo, by asking “how would you define yourself?” do you mean: (1) ”what mechanism or process could you employ to identify the essential nature of your being?”, or (2) “what personal characteristics (physical, psychological, etc.) uniquely identify you?” The questions are similar, but subtly, and importantly different. Based upon your next question regarding a generic definition, it seems you’re leaning the first way, correct? If I read your intent correctly, the question is almost rhetorical, as you seem to view the issue as inherently insolvable, or close to it. Hence, your conclusion “the world will be better off with fewer labels.”

“Is defining the same as describing?” Alaïs gives us the quick answer … no. Not trying to ignore the intent of the original question by changing the semantics of it, but this distinction is important. Most “descriptive” words we take as “definitive” are not. Try to “objectively” describe something like the sun, in terms of everyday experience, and you’ll see what I mean …

Well, the sun is yellow. But what is yellow? How would you “describe” the color yellow to a profoundly blind person? Or to a color-blind person? The fact is, one’s ability to identify the color yellow, does not imply his or her perception of the “color” is even the same as yours. The brain has more to do with “color perception” than most people appreciate, and remember that the basic physical “sensors” providing the brain with input data are only sensitive to red, blue, and green wavelengths. Truly “yellow” light has a specific range of frequency, yet there are no “yellow detectors” in the eye; instead the red and green sensitive cones in the retina will send data to the brain, and the brain “makes sense” of this data, as each individual’s own “perception” of the color yellow. We may *think* we are seeing yellow things, and know what yellow “IS,” but we actually are not … If I could somehow “record my perceptions” and “play them back” directly into your brain, there’s a good chance what I “see” as yellow would be “defined” by you as some other color. Also, we “see” white light as the mixing of all frequencies of “visible” light … there is no “white” frequency in the visible spectrum. Not to mention that visible light itself occupies only a very tiny portion of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum (consistent with frequency maxima emitted from the sun), and trying to objectively describe “color,” to an alien from a star system with a different frequency profile, for example, would most likely be completely be pointless.

Wow, all that discussion, yet the only thing I said was “the sun is yellow” … not doing very well with my description, am I? Okay, I’ll add “the sun is warm.” That’s better, right? Blind and color-blind people sense warmth. True, but not everyone can (very rare, but some people cannot sense pain, let alone those, of course, who may be paralyzed). And marching down the same path as we did with “yellow,” what is warmth, and why is the sun warm? Infrared radiation … maybe just another “color” to an alien! But this one we can “see” with our skin, yet another sensory organ.

And so it goes with any “description” based upon physical characteristics. The words we use to describe things are all a function of our specifically human sensory organs, and even most specifically, our own unique sensory processing. There are no good objective “descriptions” of sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell. Our use of descriptive words for each of these are inherently subjective, based upon the audience’s collective experience with the senses in general, and unique individual perspectives of experiences with each.

This more or less goes to confirm Apollo’s original contention that generic/objective definitions (i.e., “in a way which could be applied to anyone”) are impossible, except based on the description/definition info Alaïs provided, I’d say that Apollo’s conjecture applies to descriptions, not definitions. Unlike personally subjective descriptions, definitions can be used objectively. Yellow light can be defined by wavelength. Infrared warming can be defined by wavelength. The luminous intensity of the sun can be defined by solar power flux profiles, its visible size in the sky can be defined by its subtended angle from the earth to its radial edges, and its periods of “rising and setting” can be defined the earth’s solar-orbiting ephemerides, ecliptic tilt angle, and rotational rate, knowing the dimensions of the earth, and the observer’s location.

Do you see my point? The terms one would commonly use to “describe” the sun are subjective, both to humans in general, as well as tailored to individual perceptions. However, there are objective “definitions” which can be used to “identify the essential qualities” of the sun. Physically …

And with that, I come full circle, to what both Apollo and Alaïs were after (I think?), but from different angles … what describes a person are inherently subjective terms, and we must not assign too much weight to “labels,” which are inherently descriptive.

IMO, people are not “defined” by their descriptions, nor by any scientific definitions of physical composition …

People are defined by their actions.

HAHA, Achilles! Brilliant…
Re: Alaïs_Longthought and Ealgumby;
Agreed, there are differences in both ‘descriptions’ and ‘definitions’ as you’ve pointed out Alaïs, for which I’ll try to clarify my viewpoint.
I was indeed, leaning more to the first, and your analysis is also correct. I think it’s pointless, and impossible, to 'define' ourselves in a 'descriptive' way since descriptions are based on perceptions. For example, people might describe me as an energetic and funny person to people they might introduce me to, but no one can ALWAYS be something they’re described as being, thus character traits as definitions are flawed. So unless it’s done using something that is known 'a priori', or as an ‘analytic truth’ (something that is true at all times or independent of time), descriptions will be pointless as definitions. But then this becomes something else, it becomes a real or ‘universal definition’. Depending on the nature of your philosophy what you believe you know 'a priori' can be different from my own. Personally, I believe the only such truth is mathematics. And I’ll leave defining humanity in terms of maths to someone else…

Your actions are a good way of describing who you are, but it is flawed because again you can never act in a consistent way since circumstances and conditions affecting your actions change. Presumably however, you might always act in a broadly general way that’s not too specific. Some might define you as the ‘sum of your parts’ (ie actions) but since, as a living being, you constantly engage in situations and act accordingly; the ‘sum of your parts’ as a definition is arguably only valid when you’re dead. Quite cruel really…

So, since descriptions are based on secondary attributes; due to the way we perceive and interpret them, they are unreliable. Unless they’re not too specific. Instead the only real way to define something, and a group of things, is to use analytic truths (ie mathematics such as the wavelengths you used to define colour).

Bottom line here I think is that: while most of us use descriptions as definitions, taking for granted the meaning of the terms, the reason we use them is because definitions in their real, mathematical, sense are meaningless to the majority of us. So we employ descriptions to make sense of them, but as we all interpret our senses differently we will always dispute the ‘definitions’ of things. And just to complete the circle; we add MORE descriptions to our definitions thinking if we specify the object appropriately we can arrive at a correct definition different from the ‘universal definition’.

I think I went around full circle, just to, pretty much repeat what you’ve said in my own terms… Just to continue this point if you or anyone is interested: what else would you consider an ‘analytic truth’, if you even consider math to be one?

Been out of pocket for a few weeks it seems . . .

My map pin goes in CLEVELAND, TN.

Raised in Missouri, Schooled in Kansas, raised my children in Texas and the wife and I teach at Lee University.

Next stop, Heaven.

Hey, Bcre8ve - the picture?

DRH

@Apollo/107
"Your actions are a good way of describing who you are, but it is flawed because again you can never act in a consistent way since circumstances and conditions affecting your actions change."

My point in suggesting "people are defined by their actions" was to dissociate "who we are" from "what we are" ... you earlier objected to being labeled by physical characteristics, but this approach nullifies the need for that "unnecessarily specific" labeling.

My size, shape, color, gender, or other physical attributes have no bearing upon "who I am," defined by my actions. By "my actions" I mean everything associated with my existence. This could be taken as the base definition of my being "alive," due to exhibiting metabolism, to what I think and communicate via language or other means, let alone what I might physically "do" in terms of manipulating my physical environment. All of these things, taken together, "define" who I am.

This has nothing to do with physically defining "what I am" (as you suggest when discussing death, and by inference the basic lump of organic and inorganic materials that comprise my body).

The "problem" with "univeral definitions," as you seek them, is that they do not exist. Not even mathematics, as you suggest.

Even in math, there are different perspectives to the same "definitions" ... which are "a priori" correct? I can "define" a triangle on a sphere in both Euclidean and spherical geometries ... one may be more convenient than the other, but which is "truth?" Can you "define" the exact geometry of a Koch snowflake or Mandelbrot set, down to the individual point? What is the last digit of pi? I can prove that "1.999..." is exactly equal to 2 ... is it? (proof: x = 1.999..., 10x = 19.999..., 10x - x = 9x = 19.999... - 1.999... = 18, x = 2).

We can approximate "what we are" and "what things are" via current scientific knowledge, but NEVER have EXACT "a priori" knowledge of "truth." Truth in science/math is a somewhat wandering concept (hate to beat a dead horse yet again, but read "The Structure of Scientic Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn). There is NO absolute ...

So while we may never be able to define "what we are," we can define "who we are" ... by our actions.

When you read "We Seven", the story of the original seven astronauts as told by themselves, they talk about all the tests, physical and psychological they had to take in applying to be an astronaut.

One of these tests was a sheet of paper with 100 sentences to fill in, each starting with "I am...". Some of the astronauts thought it was rather silly and jusy filled out "I am a pilot", "I am a father", etc until they had it filled out. Others said that by the time they got to number 100, they really had to search their souls to think of exactly who and what they were.

I guess defining yourself is easy for some, difficult for others.

I'm me. More than that you will have to deduce from what I write.

@Cecil/110
"One of these tests was a sheet of paper with 100 sentences to fill in, each starting with 'I am...'."

And Descartes would've stopped after one entry ...

Any less wrong? I think not ... (poof)

→ 107. Apollo & 109. ealgumby: a priori/Truth v. truth:

Okay, so out came the dictionaries again...right now they're being used to lift up my laptop. ; )

a priori: Deductive; relating to or derived by reasoning from self-evident propositions; presupposed by experience.

The term "a priori" immediately takes me back to a class on the philosophy of political thought, where we spent the first three weeks discussing Immanuel Kant & a priori everything (I dropped the class shortly thereafter & the only other thing I remember is the wag who said that Plato bench-pressed olives to stay in shape). So if something a priori is derived from reasoning from self-evident propositions, could it be analogous to a theorem in geometry, which is derived from self-evident postulates?

While in geometry this may work as it's been agreed to accept postulates as self-evident & needing no proving, I think it breaks down when it comes to humans. What's self-evident to me is more than likely totally not self-evident to 99.99999% of the population, & thus we're back in the field of subjectivity again.

As far as Truth (as an absolute, objective fact) vs. truth (relative to one's point of view), this got argued repeatedly in a rhetoric class I took. Again, I think the argument that there is a "Truth" founders on the shoals of subjectivity. For example, it's "Truth" in my mother-in-law's mind that Jesus lived, walked on the earth, was crucified for our sins, was resurrected, & went to heaven. Yet that would not be the case for a large population of the world. Are they misguided? Or is my mother-in-law wrong in saying that's the "Truth"?

Or take the idea that the sun rises in the east. Seems like an objective fact, no? Yet it only rises in the east because those of us in the English-speaking language have a collective compact that that particular combination of sounds that we pronounce "east" refers to that direction. Language is a social construct, not "Truth."

Personally, I don't think there's a or any "Truth(s)"...but lots of truth.

Sometimes I'm amazed that we manage to communicate at all...

"When they print the years of someone's birth and death, can you resist figuring out how old they were?" - George Carlin

ealgumby et all

And I can prove that 2 = 1

Take as given:

a = b

Multiply both sides by a

a**2 = ab

Subtract b**2 from both sides

a**2 - b**2 = ab - b**2

factor both sides

(a + b) (a - b) = b (a - b)

divide both sides by (a - b)

(a + b) = b

Since we originally posited a = b, substitute b for a

(b + b) = b

Simplify

2b = b

Divide each side of the equation by b

2 = 1

QED...

#113 - When they print the years of someone's birth and death, can you resist figuring out how old they were?" - George Carlin

RIP George.

Hi all. Didn't realize there was a whole 'nother party going on in here. I've got 115 posts to wade thru, so I'll just post my overdue reply from the finale:

@Alaïs_Longthought/471, ealgumby/484,@berkyo/491, FenwayBen/508, et al - There is absolutely nothing odd or incorrect with the way I pronounce "water." Contrary to popular myth, we do not say, "wooder." We say "wawder." It is true that we commonly use a "d" for the "t" sound. However, as any speaker of English knows, the letter "a" has almost infinite variety.
Drawer is drawer, AFAIK. I've heard New Yawkers say "draw," but no Fdelfya variations. I say "crayon," not "crown." I think that's by neighborhood. My mom's from K&A (Kensington & Allegheny). She says "crown," "crick," and roots for the "Iggles." How can Eagles/Iggles be confusing since "iggles" is not otherwise a word???

@Cecil Rose/114
"Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin'
If you wanna be [dividin'] with me" - Billy Preston

Cheesesteaks: My husband's team at work has recently been having weekly field trips. They have unanimously voted Pat's over Geno's, both for size & taste. I, alas, have been allergic to food for 17 yrs and can't participate. The key to all the sandwiches, however, is the Amoroso's roll. No other will do.
I grew up on Tastycakes, ealgumby, don't be dissin' my brand. At least you know what you're buying - not like Drake's, Little Debbie's, Stroehmann's & Entenmann's.
Rah rah to Frank's Black Cherry Wishniak! And that's a soda. My Indianapolis friends say pop.

I discovered in England that if you order water (no matter how you pronounce it), they bring carbonated. So I had to learn to ask for tap water. Now in the USA, I have to ask for tap water if I don't want a $3 bottle.

Does anywhere else in the country have water ice?

I was more of a pretzel fan than potato chips. Do you all know pretzels were introduced to this country by the Amish in PA? And you know the official, original ingredients? Flour, water, salt, yeast. So imagine my surprise when I visited Ann Arbor last year and found a deli that claimed to have the best, original, authentic pretzels in the world - with LARD!!! BLECCCCCHHHHH!!!!

Ah, Cecil, such an old puzzle! For anyone who didn't get ealgumby's reply:
(a + b) (a - b) = b (a - b)
divide both sides by (a - b) - here's the error

(a-b) = 0 and you can't divide by 0; the result is undefined.
x/y=z if and only if z*y=x. Since 0 times anything = 0, your equation can't work.
RIP, Mr. Stremlau.

@118 hurling discoured:

>a-b) = 0 and you can't divide by 0; the result is undefined.
x/y=z if and only if z*y=x. Since 0 times anything = 0, your equation can't work.
RIP, Mr. Stremlau.

I hope no one seriously believed I'd proved 2 = 1.

Of course, as we used to say in calculus:

2 + 2 = 5

(for sufficiently large values of 2).

Hey folks!

I bopped over to Frappr and created a map where you can, hopefully, post your actual location along with a few other things.

The URL is:

http://www.frappr.com/?a=constellation_map&mapid=137440596670

As the map creator, I can’t really test their ease of use, but I hope you will easily be able to post your location. They ask for a name, but it can be your screen name (and we probably wouldn’t recognize your real name, anyway).

They ask for email address, but it won’t be revealed to others.

Be discreet about your location – they allow you to specify down to the street level, but just town would probably be better.

You can specify the your favorite Lost character by the shape and color of pin you pick.

You can upload a photo (or perhaps avatar, like we created for bcr8ve), but it’s not required, and it will be visible whenever someone mouses over your location.

The map is global – just drag to anywhere on the planet (Alaïs_Longthought, En Provance).

They offered three options, Map, Satellite, and Hybrid. Unfortunately, Map only works at small scales – about city size or so - so I opted for hybrid. Hope you can locate yourself at least approximately on a satellite photo. When you get close, roads and streets will appear.

I have no idea how well this works – please post back and report.

I'm seeing some more pins added to the map, but on another machine I can't even see the map, just a square with "Image Unavailable" in it.

Are you guys seeing the map?

It also looks like, on initial entry, you just enter a location - in text. But if you go back and double click the pin you're prompted for name, type pin, and upload photo, if desired.

This is a little frustrating but we'll get though it, I suppose.

Congratulations Clementine, first one up with a name and Avatar. Cementine's a Desmond fan.

In addition to Clementine I'm seeing Morristown, NC and Rochester, NY. You guys know who you are. Double click your pin and you can add info / select a fave.

→ 120. Cecil Rose: Frappr map:

Thanks, Cecil! It seems to work just fine...looking forward to seeing "us" as pins get added.

Alaïs_Longthought - I hought you said you were in Toronto?

That picture doesn't look like Rochester or Toronto. ;-)

Further info:

Once you get the basic pin in place, (sorry, you all default to Jack fans), click on the pin, then click on the "Add me" that pops up, then you can fill in the additional information. You can do this more than once if you want to change something.

ILBLXX -

I'm guessing that's you in Morristown. You need to go back and double click on the pin then click on "add me" and change your pin to round and yellow. Or else you're a fan of a mouth breather.

120. Posted by: Cecil Rose made us a beautiful map. in the words of my daughter Cecil...YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!

I was also wrong about the thumbnail only pics. When you click on the thumbnail, ou get to see the full sized pic.

→ 124. Cecil Rose: Location, location, location...

Nope, not a Torontonian (is that the correct term for a citizen of that city?)...lived in Rochester for 7-1/2 years now. The photo was taken in New Zealand in February 2006...for those of you who didn't know already that I'm a Lord of the Rings geek, I'm standing on "Edoras" (aka Mt. Sunday, on the Canterbury Plains on the South Island). Can't y'all just see the Riders of Rohan galloping across the plains? ; )

Is anyone else having trouble posting? I had to try three times over three hours to get #129 to show up...I keep getting the message that the server is busy.

I was having trouble earlier tonight. Thought about emailing mac to see if there was a problem with the fodder servers. Let's see how this one does,

By bad, Alaïs, I looked back and it was Apollo that said he? was from Toronto. All you capital A's look alike.

I did not recognize Middle Earth, by gum. I was thinking Rockies.

The Count so far...

2 Desmond Fans
2 Hurley Fans
1 Sawyer Fan
3 Not Yet Stated

Cecil,

I think I managed to get my name and location on the map but I'm having a terrible time trying to get a jpeg to actually attach to the map.

Any suggestions?

HEY MAC: Why don't we move this map think to a separate category so it's easier for everyone to find?

DRH

@Cecil -- Awesome idea with the map! I just joined up.

@davidrh -- I'm going to hold off on moving it to a second category for now. If it turns into something people really enjoy, I can definitely bubble it up.

I finally found an old JPG I could upload. It's a very rare picture of me in coat and tie, from when I first began working at my present job. I'm a little greyer now, but pretty much the same, sans tie.

davidrh:

Don't know what the problem is. Just click on your pin, then click "edit this pin", then choose a pin shape and color (I see you have already). The next step is under number 3, click "Browse" and point at your image file. Could the problem be size? (mine was 23K).

mac:

Frapper gives you the html to add to your web page, if desired, just sing out.

hurling:

Is that Zion National Park in your photo by any chance?

@ ealgumby: We lost a good one.

Frisbeetarianism : by George Carlin
He defined it as the belief that when a person dies "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there", and cannot be retrieved.

He’s welcome on my roof anytime.

→ 135. Posted by: Cecil Rose
No, that's Sedona. Haven't made it to Zion yet.

@ ealgumby, et al: My 19 yo son started listening to Carlin about 2 yrs ago. He couldn't tell the diff between material that was 30 yrs old & the newer stuff - it's all still relevant. Many tears shed at our house.
I've been wondering if Carlin managed to go out the way he thought we should. (Re: Aging is backwards)