Hawaii > Atlanta

So I get back from Hawaii and Atlanta slaps me in the face with 20 degree weather, what's up with that?

The trip was great, I think I've officially done everything worth doing on the isle of Oahu. If I ever make it over there again I guess I'll have to spread out to other islands.

Behold - Otherville!


Kouloa Ranch


Pali Lookout

Leaving, On a Jet Plane

Adios Continential United States - I'm headed to the Lost island of Oahu for the week. I'll attempt to keep you, my loyal reading audience (Jase/Trey) updated but I might run into Terry O'Quinn and go on some spiritual journey that takes all week.

Do You Like Free Money?

Sure, we all do so why not go here FOR FREE MONEY and get the government to send you some cash?

In case you didn't know - the government has mandated that by Feb 17th, 2009 all broadcasts be in digital, thus abandoning the old analog signals. Because this would cause some older analog TVs to become useless the government started a program to fund the buying a converter to covert the digital signal to analog thus making the TVs usable again. Now I'm not sure how much they send to you or if the money is restricted to purchasing a converter but I figured what the hell and applied anyway. These days I'll take all the free money I can!

Happy VBR Day!

It's official Blu Ray has won the HD format war. Happy Victory for Blu Ray Day!

Toshiba Gives Up

Lost Forum III - Crouching Polar Bear, Hidden Sayid

Another week, another great episode of Lost. Some new information was gather and, of course, more questions were introduced. Lets jump right to it:

- Another one of the Oceanic Six was revealed, none other than every one's favorite Iraqi Sayid Ja'hara. Post-Island Sayid seems to be some sort of contract assassin/Iraqi version of James Bond with less martinis and more golfing. That makes four we know of now: Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid. Who will be the other two? I'm still thinking one has to be Claire otherwise Desmond's flash wouldn't come true.

- Speaking of Desmond's flashes, what happened to them? Now that Charlie died has he lost all his magic future abilities? I hope he and Sayid start some shenanigans once they get on the freighter.

- On the topic of the freighter, why did Frank not want Dan talking to George but it was ok for him to talk to Regina? And then in the previous episode Miles didn't want to talk to Regina he wanted to talk to George? Is there some freightie friction? Frank obviously doesn't care for Miles.

- Dan's experiment! The payload landed on the island and it's timer was like 20 minutes behind the timer on the Island. It is becoming obvious that time flows slower on the Island than it does in the regular world. I'm not much of a physicist but from what I think I know about time travel there are two things that could make time pass differently in one place when compared to another. One is when you approch the speed of light, which I'm pretty sure the Island isn't doing, and the other is when you're near something with massive gravitational pull such as a black hole. Now the Island isn't a black hole but it does have a history of gravitational anomalies which could be causing the time flux...

- I think this mysterious "R.C" who was in scripted on the bracelet that Naomi had is the head of the Frieghies and the arch enemy of Ben. Astute eyes would have noticed that not only did Naomi have a bracelet but as did Sayid's German harlot Elsa. Note to self - when I become some sort of evil mastermind remember to give out stylish bracelets to all my female employees. Second note to self - never trust a german girl named Elsa. This Elsa betrayed Sayid (although he betrayed her back) and the Elsa in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade betrayed Indiana and his father. Elsas are bad news!

- And the big twist at the end Ben is off Island and orchestrating a systematic elimination of whoever was controlling the freighies. I thought for sure the vet would turn out to be Jack's dad so I was totally thrown for a loop when it turned out to be Ben. But I like it because so far this season Ben's been my favorite character. The absolute smarm he radiates even while a prisoner of the Losties is awesome. Best line of the night goes to him when Locke brought tea for Sayid and he said he wanted tea. Hurley's line of "oh great, they sent another Sawyer" when Miles called him chunky was a close second.

It Begins!

The inevitable has begun: the Wii is losing traction and the PS3 is surpassing the 360. Soon the natural order of things will be as it should be: the PS3 sitting atop the console world on a gleaming throne, the Wii sitting on shelves collecting dust as people wonder why they bought it in the first place, and the 360 being used as low grade fertilizer for developing countries.

Gaze Upon The Stats!

Crazy Assed Lost Dream

So last night I had this crazy dream about Lost, I guess my mind was focused on the new episode tonight as I was going to bed. Anyways heres how it went:

There was some sort of tree line that the Losties were forbidden to cross and so of course Jack was like "Fuck that, I'm crossing this bitch" and brought a few Losties with him all the while Locke was saying "Don't do it! Don't tick off the Island!". So they cross the tree line and all sorts of wild animals come out of the woodworks and start eating people left and right. Not just those wacky boars or polar bears there were lots of tigers, a couple elephants, and some very ill tempered beavers. So Jack calls for a retreat and those that didn't get mauled to death or flat out eaten return across the tree line.

Meanwhile one of the before mentioned beavers has found Locke and can, suprisingly, talk. This doesn't freak out Locke (nothing does!) and he and the beaver talk. The beaver tells him that all the cool stuff on the Island can only be reached by boat and he, the beaver, just so happens to have a school bus that can float. So all the Losties load up on the top of the bus, which was covered in matresses, and set sail.

Eventually they come to a sort of secret facility built into the rocky coast. It kind of looked like an oil drilling platform surrounded by rock. All the Losties unload and are immediately put into slavery working in the facility. This ticks off Jack and Locke and Locke grabs the beaver and realizes it is just a beaver costume and unzips it. Under it he finds...another beaver! He unzips this one and yet another beaver is revealed. Finally after the fourth beaver costume he gets to the real operator a little imp. And in Lockes words "An evil imp. The worst kind of imp".

I never found out if they get out of the slave facility. I'd like to say my dream ended with a "BOOM!" and a floating Lost logo but no it ended with me sitting up in my bed saying to myself "Goddamn that was a weird dream".

Who Says Our Economy Sucks?

To quote Wayland Smithers from the Simpsons, "Can't a guy walk down the street without somebody offering him a job!?"

So I go on one interview and a day later they offer me a job. Nice benefits and a nice raise from what I was getting at Liquid. Maybe this getting laid off thing isn't so bad!

I do have a couple more interviews scheduled through friends so I feel I need to go on those before making any sort of full time decision. I'm also trying to schedule I trip out to Hawaii before rejoining the world of the employed so if any of you know of cheap airfare let me know!

First Interview - Debrief

Nailed it.

Next up - Studiocom. Thursday, 3pm. I definitly like interviewing better now that I have 5 years experience as opposed to when I got out of college. That was painful.

1st Interview Today - 1pm

Got my first interview today at 1pm with BKV. Wish me luck.

Lost Form II - Brought to You By Taller Ghost Walt

Another week, another breakdown of the lastest episode of Lost. I think everybody on this email wanted to get the Lost Forum but if you don't just let me know and I'll take you off. Since I don't have everyone's email addresses now that I don't have my work Outlook I pretty much just cut and pasted all the email addresses from Meredith's Lost email last week.

This week we get new insite into the Freighties and, as usually, that leads to more questions. Unlike last season's new characters Nikki & Paulo I have no desire to strangle any of the new Freighties when they're on screen, which is good.

My thoughts in no particular order:

- A short breakdown of the Frieghties we know of:
- Dan - Physciasist
- Miles - Psychic/Paranormal
- Charlotte - Anthropologist
- Frank - Pilot, should have been flying Oceanic 815 the day it crashed
- Naomi - Dead. Some sort of mercenary?
- Regina - On the boat, answered Miles' phone call at the end
- George - On the boat, apparent guy in charge of the people on the Friegher
- Mysterious Black Guy - We first saw him last week visiting Hurley in the crazy house and freaking him out. This week we see him giving Naomi her mission. He seems to be the Frieghtie version of Ben.

- Two interesting things about Dan. In his flashback he starts to cry for no reason upon hearing about Oceanic 815. What's up with that? Some sort of psychic connection? Seems more like Miles turf. Once on Island Dan mentions that the light is weird on the Island. It doesn't scatter right. I'm no physcasist but maybe it has to do with the whole magnetic anomoly that was where the hatch used to be?

- Hurley could be in for trouble know that Ben and Locke suspect that he too can see Jacob's Magic Shack (TM). Maybe this is why he eventually regrets going with Locke?

- Why did the Frieghties have gas masks on the chopper? Were they going to gas everyone Ben-style?

- So is Taller Ghost Walt really giving instructions to Locke or is Jacob either a) controlling Walt or b) creating an illusionary Walt?

- Everything happens for a reason. Thanks to Locke's crappy Dad stealing his kidney he lives when Ben shoots him in his kidney hole.

- Sayid/Juliet's little trick with the Frieghties was pretty similar to the Other's trick on Jack back in season two when Tom had everyone light up their torches to prove to Jack that he was surrounded. Will the Losties find themselves becoming more and more like the Others?

- What's up with Charlotte finding a polar bear with a collar from the Hydra Station in Tunisia? Is the Island in some sort of weird different dimension/place in space time?

- With Frank saying that the pilot in the Oceanic wreckage is not the right guy I think we've got proof that the plane on the bottom of the ocean was a plant. The question is who or what has the means to plant plane wreckage 3 miles under the ocean complete with 200+ dead bodies?

- So the Frieghties have come for Ben and they're sporting a nifty photo of him from what looks like the 70s. Are they with the remanents of Dharma after him for pretty much killing everyone on the Dharma Island team? And if they're there for Ben then why did Naomi have a picture of Desmond? Could she be a double agent working for Dharma but secretly working for Penny to find Desmond?

- Ben's man on the Frieghter. I'm going out on a limb right now and saying that Ben's man on the inside is none other than Michael "WAAAAAAAALLLLLT!" Dawson.

Well that's what I got, discuss!

Employment Update #2

I just realized that this blog was turning more pro-PS3 than it was pro-Mike Being Unemployed so here's a quick update:

- Have a telephone interview with BKV today at 2pm. They have a senior interactive planner position as well as a SEM position open. I am highly qualified for both so the interview should go well.

- Worked my first day at Media Solutions in 7 months yesterday. They have asked me to do some freelance SEM stuff but I think they really want to hire me back full time. Now I'm flattered that they'd want me back but I already put in 4 years there and while it was fun, I'm not eager to go back. Maybe if I'm still unemployed two months from now...

- Could have a promising lead at Fitz+Co. My sister used to work there and I used to play on their softball team. We'll see if that social networking thing actually works.

Even Jesus to Buy PS3 in 2008

More join the PS3 camp!

PS3 Roxorz!

Suck it Trey. Suck it hard.

EA Predicts PS3 Will Outsell 360 in 2008

Take that Trey!

Power to the PS3!

Just ignore the part about the Wii outselling both consoles...

EA sees the PlayStation 3 selling between 9.5 million and 11.5 million units, compared to the Xbox 360's 6 to 8 million units. Sony's system would take the lead in Europe (a view shared by SCEE chief David Reeves), where it's expected to sell between 5 million and 6 million, well over the Xbox 360's 1.5 million to 2.5 million. Towering above both would be Nintendo's Wii, with estimates placing its sales between 12 million and 14 million units.

Lost Forum I (Spoilers Ahoy!)

I usually send an email out to all my friends detailing my thoughts on the most recent episode of Lost and now that I have the ear of the entire internet audience I figured I might as well post it up here as well. So Internet I'd like you to meet the Lost Forum. Lost Form, this is the internet.

Hola Lost Aficionados!

Season Four began last night with an explosion of.......more questions! We really didn't get any answers to anything that happened last year and they heaped a bunch of new problems onto us. Hopefully they'll be quickly answered cause we've only got 8 total new episodes until they hit when the writers went on strike. Anyway, as usual, here are my thoughts in no particular order:

- The Oceanic Six - We know that Jack, Kate, and Hurley are 3 of them. I think Claire and Aaron will be part as well due to Desmond's flash of them getting on a helicopter. Whether they count as one or two remains to be seen. For last of the Oceanic Six my best guess is Sun and Jin. Sun knows that she'll die if she stays on the island due to the whole pregnancy thing so she'd leave even if the boat guys are bad. So if that's true what about Juliet? She desperately wants to get off the island - what would stop her?

- So Hurley's flash forward takes place before Jack's flash forward of the season finale last year. At this point in time Jack seems pretty ok with being off the island and more concerned that Hurley might tell whatever mysterious secret they are all hiding. But as we know Jack is eventually NOT going to be ok with it and he'll start flying on planes hoping they'll crash onto the Island. Another interesting point in Hurley's flash forward is that he says he regrets going with Locke. What happens to Locke's side? Something horrible and I think that Hurley might be a catalyst for whatever happens to them, thus his regret. So his regret is no so much that he got off the Island - it's what happened to everyone who didn't. Also in the flash forward, why did Hurley not mention that he knew Ana Lucia? Is it because he knew the guy that shot and killed her? Is it because her death was linked to his beloved Libby and the memory was too painful? Or is it for some mysterious reason we don't know yet. Knowing Lost it's probably the later.

- When Hurley is running around the jungle and runs into the Magic Jacob Shack (TM) he sees two distinct people. One we find out is Locke. The other must be Jacob. That means that we have 3 people at least who can see Jacob: Hurley, Locke, and Ben. We know about Locke and Ben's connection to the Island but what about Hurley? All I got is that in season two some bird said "Hurley" at him.

- Ok so if the Charlie Hurley saw is some sort of imaginary friend then how the random inmate #7 notice Charlie was staring at Hurley? The only thing I know of in the series that can make people see dead people is the Island. Can it project off Island? Also Hurley had drawn a picture of an igloo and a guy with some fish. Does it mean anything?!

- Whats up with the mysterious black guy who claimed to be an attorney for Oceanic who showed up at Hurley's asylum? He asked Hurley "Are they still alive". Who does he mean? I think he means whoever was left on the Island. Does he work for Dharma? Widmore Industries? Satan?

- Naomi has a sister and she wanted her to know that she loved her and then she died. Her sister is probably on the boat, will she try and get revenge on Locke? She shouldn't mess with him, he's a Grade A badass, has plenty more knives, and knows her family's weakness (knives).

- For those keeping track:
Team Locke: Locke, Hurley, Claire, Danielle, Ben, Alex, Karl, Sawyer, at least 4 random survivors, and Vincent. If I was on the Island I'd totally be on Team Locke.
Team Jack: Jack, Kate, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Desmond (Desmond, no!!!!!!), Juliet, Rose, Bernard, and the rest of the survivors.

- Ben was this episode's strongest character. He had all the best lines. "With your permission Jack, I'd like to go with Locke."

- I can't shake the suspicion that Jack's dad, Christian Sheppard, is still alive. It goes back to last season's flash forward where Jack was talking about his Dad in the hospital. I first thought it was to throw us off from the fact that it was a flash forward instead of a flash back but now I'm thinking he might be alive and seriously involved with the whole string of events.