Super Girl Quote About Pirates

On Saturday, Super Girl asked one of her excellent questions.

 

"Why did God make pirates?  They kidnap people."

 

Yaarrr!  What was the answer?  I tried to go into a three year old explanation of free will and how some people choose to be pirates.  I'm not sure she "got" it- I'm not sure that I "get" it.  It seemed to make some difference to her that the actually WAS an explanation. 

 

She is on a field trip to the grocery store this morning, for the second Monday in a row.  Today their task is to pick out and buy vegetables for the rest of the daycare.  Her favorite part is the ride on the city bus.  She can name which of the busses (by number) on which they traveled.

 

B.

 

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Lost: "Greatest Hits" May 16-07

Over three seasons, I've found it difficult to decide how I feel about Charlie's character. In the first season, there was a sense that he was the hapless junkie, whose job description included (with Hurley) the show's only levity. The way his character developed over the second and first half of the third season his dark turn has lead to me to see him as a real and true villain. The staged attack on Sun and his use of the Locke-Echo conflict for his own purpose have made him truly unlikable. Even his sudden execution of Ethan had a "staged for show" quality to it. Its true that the second half of this season has seen a kinder, warmer Charlie and he and Claire had been growing closer, but he still remained far from my favorite.

Last week he earned my respect and became a moral giant- accepting his fate and his responsibility for those he cares about , "knowing that it most likely meant his death. You could argue - its easy to accept when you know the outcome. Instead, I'd argue the opposite. True courage sometimes knows what it faces.

Anyway, Rose and Bernard are back! Yippee. And, Bernard is a pretty decent shot. Lets see- a relatively minor recurring character is back and has a key role in the combat plan for this week. There may be scheduling difficulties with the actor who plays Bernard and Rose's character could conceivably go on with out him, grieving. I wonder where they're going with Bernard? Is he wearing a red shirt? Bye, Bernard...

Tonight's finale should be top-notch. The show has a lot riding on it. Even though they've been renewed for TWO more (16 episode instead of 22) seasons, the first half of this season was a low point. We're probably safe to expect a really tight, well-written episode.

I can't wait!

B.

Lost: :Man Behind the Curtian - Part II- May 9, 2007

I actually don't know what tonight's episode is called but wanted to send out a message to finish my thoughts on how scared I was by the whole Jacob thing last week.  When I wrote last week about Jacob I hadn't actually re-watched the episode.  On Friday night with G & M's help we re-watched the episode and saw the brief view of Jacob that is shown in a flash in the cabin.  I'm attaching a screen capture.  (It may be a few hours before I can upload it to my blog.)

 

Its been suggested on the Internet that he kind of looks like an older Locke with hair.  There was also a flash of his eye.

 

Creepy!  Can't wait for tonight's episode.

 

 

B.

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Lost: "The Man Behind the Curtain" May 9-07

What the....?   What the heck was that?  My head is spinning....  My brain is confused.

 

Part "Deliverance" part "Poltergeist"...  I really couldn't see this one coming.  No one did.  I enjoyed the Ben back story.  I guess that a combination of forgotten birthdays and blaming your only child for killing his mother can actually lead to "parenticide."

 

Is Ben deranged?  Yes.  How deranged is Ben?  I have no idea.  I guess he was the Benedict Arnold of the Dharma-Others War of 1982?  (Does that time frame work?)  Did the other's cooperate backing in the "real" world take over Dharma Inc. as well?  How do you explain the way that Dharma still makes supplies for the island and can still air drop them to the Island.  Also, they have the resources to have a Dharma-branded line that ranges from Oatmeal to whiskey.

 

Almost every major mystery that's revealed in Lost leads to two things.  1)  Some viewers are happy with the explanation and others are very unhappy.  2)  It ALWAYS leads to further questions.

 

Is Jacob a spirit?  Is "he" a scam?  For anyone who watched Season One of HBO's "Carnivale" the parallels between "management" on Carnivale and Jacob on Lost are strong.  In Carnivale, we're given reason to think that management doesn't exist and is a figment of Sampson's imagination, used to keep the carnival folk (I'm trying hard not to write "carnies") in line.  In the end he does exist and then dies.  Does that sound familiar?

 

More to follow...

 

B.

 

 

 

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Lost: "The Brig" May 2, 2007

Okay...  So I've been trying to figure out WHY it is that it bothered me so much that Sawyer killed Locke's father/Cooper/the "real" Sawyer last week.  I liked the episode but really wished he hadn't killed him.  It will be one of the defining moments of the whole show and is one of the few times (this season?) that we've seen any season one mysteries solved. 

 

Not to get all "social-worky" here but its a "fact" that Sawyer's redemption and growth had been the most dramatic or at least he had come from the lowest point. 

 

Incidentally, the title of Jay and Jacks's Monday podcast this week is "Don't Rip Sawyer's Letter."  Sage advice for all of us...

 

Questions I'd like to see answered about Lost before the end of the season:

 

1)  What is this ancient place where the others are moving?  I want details!

 

2)  Again, who is Jacob??

 

3)  Is medical experimentation (with the Island's properties) the main reason for the others?  Or are they there to guard the Island?

 

4)  Will Mike H. learn the difference between "Reply to Sender" and "Reply All?"  (An in-joke for C&FS folks).

 

5)  Will Lost's ratings increase?

 

6)  Is the submarine just a sham or is it really how people get to the Island?

 

Sorry this is so short- more after tomorrow's episode.

 

B.

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Bikin' and Trikin' Away April 2007

DSC01517 edited
Originally uploaded by Binky

Action Girl is actually wearing a polyester jacket that I had when I was her age. Its going to be a wonderful summer.

B.

Star Wars 30th Anniversary Celebrations!

Action Girl's Millenium Faclon 2
Originally uploaded by Binky

Both of our girls celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the release of Star Wars (A New Hope) on Sunday. Action Girl (age 6) hung in through the whole thing and enjoyed it. Super Girl (age 3) watched more than half. They had been looking forward to seeing it for days. It was really special and brought back of lot of memories. Here are some thoughts:

1) The movie stands up as a bit of bold movie-making.
2) The dialogue for the first half of the movie is really "hokey" - matches the acting.
3) The toughest character in the whole thing is Leia. Every time they are in a fight with her and she has a blaster, she shoots a storm trooper with her first shot EVERY TIME. Han, Luke, and Co. blast away and seldom hit anything.

I have a memory of the summer of 1977. My best friend Michael has just seen Star Wars with his family and tells me some of the plot while we're on my swing set.

We had a great time! Happy birthday, old friend...

B.

Its hard to be a Spammer

I have had several jobs that I have found to be quite challenging, my
present job included. I think its important to be challenged as a way
to ensure that you're growing and changing.

HOWEVER, I am very, very glad I don't (yet?) face the challenges
inherent in being a spammer. I received the following spam e-mail
today:
__________________________
>>> "Constance Auker" <***********.hu> 4/28/2007 5:38 PM >>>
Hello my friend!

I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog, if medicine prices here (<A
href=") are bad.
Look, the site and call me 1-800 if its wrong..
My dog and I are still alive :)
__________________________

Can you imagine what kind of pressure "Constance" from Hungary must be
under if she is:
1) calling random strangers her friend,
2) prepared to kill herself if she isn't offering the cheapest
knock-off drugs of questionable manufacture on the Internet,
3) prepared to eat her dog if she isn't offering the cheapest
knock-off drugs of questionable manufacture on the Internet, and
4) willing to somehow accomplish 1) and 2) in that order.

Impressive.

B.

 Well, that does it- I now have a plan “B”, somewhere to go, a back-up if you will-

Earth-like planet discovered outside solar system

ANNE MCILROY

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

April 24, 2007 at 5:53 PM EDT

A team of European astronomers has found a planet outside our solar system that is the most Earth-like ever discovered. Those who spotted it say it could be covered in water, a necessary ingredient for life.

The planet, detected using a telescope in Chile, has a mass about five times that of the Earth. It is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the sun. But that star — Gliese 581 — is what is known as a red dwarf, and is smaller, colder and 50 times fainter than our sun.

This means the planet appears to lie in what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone — not too hot, not too cold for life that depends on water, rather than ice…

Read more here

G’night folks.  Now that we all have somewhere else to go when we’re done destroying this planet, the last one leaving can shut off the lights.

B.

Lost: "D.O.C." April 25-07 ["Date of Conception"]

The first thing I did this morning was e-mail some fellow lost fans with this simple question: Does Sun know that Jae is dead?
If she does, then the flavor of that whole debate might have changed. In all likelihood, I don't think she does know. I really, really liked the two scenes with Jin's father and Sun. Very touching and balanced/nuanced...

Juliette: So this is how Juliette will redeem herself. She may still die, but her redemption will lie in helping the baby Kwon be born. Every main character of that whole show is making up for their wrongs- as Juliette is becoming a "fusie" she too now needs to make amends. Mikhail is alive? Dude, he had blood coming out his ears... Hmmm...

So, the parachute woman dropped the bigger bombshell that Jin being the father. If you haven't seen it yet, STOP READING. I taped last night and will lend it to you...

 

 

"No survivors" from Flight 815?" Uh oh....

Here comes the renewal of the "they're in purgatory" theories. So, either the plane crashed and killed them all or there was some kind of cover-up. I want to clearly side with the cover-up. It's huge and very expensive, but still a cover-up. By the way, apparently her name is "Naomi." In the Old Testament, Naomi was trying to convince people to return (from exile) to the land of Judah. Hmmm....
Q.: Should Hurley, and co. tell the other survivors what she said about everyone dying in the crash?

B.

 

Lost: "Catch 22" April 18-07

Not much time for an update this week as I'm on an abbreviated lunch here at work, but here goes:

 

1)  "Catch 22" was fantastic in my opinion.  The whole moral dilemma faced by Desmond of sacrificing Charlie to try to rescue the person who he though would be Penny was great.

 

2)  Good Desmond back story, but there's still so much missing...  Like, why did he join the army?  What is he court-martialled?  Does he meet Sayid in Iraq?  (I would imagine that would too tempting a possibility for the writers to pass on...)

 

3)  Charlie is going to die soon.

 

4)  The Kate/Jack/Sawyer fault lines are building for the season finale.  The writers have put so much into that triangle that they can't afford to totally back off on it.

 

5)  Jin is capable of killing Charlie and possibly Sawyer but I don't think he will.  Eventually, he will find out about Charlie's staged attack on Sun, but he wouldn't kill Sawyer.  Might make life difficult for him, but not kill him...

 

6)  Tonight's episode sound's great.  Its called "D.O.C." ("Date of Conception" and promises to answer the question of paternity for Sun's baby.  I'm going to predict that the baby is Jae's (the guy that suicided) but that she never tells Jin.  After tonight, there are 3 more episodes, followed by the two-hour season finale.  The finale is supposed be "Jack-centric."

 

Happy watching!

 

B.

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Hey! Get Back in Here!!

Image016.jpg
Originally uploaded by Binky

She did eventually come back in, but not before she was ready. Last night she was quite interested in listening to the coyotes howl, but didn't get out to go "play" with them.

We explained that they were "bad puppies" but I'm honestly not sure if we got through to her.

B.

It Must Be Spring If...

Image008.jpg
Originally uploaded by Binky

Oh no...
B.

Snow Drift Against Our Back Door, Easter Sunday 2007

Snow Drift Against Our Back Door, Easter Sunday 2007
Originally uploaded by Binky

Mitsu, helping hunt for Easter Eggs

Mitsu, helping hunt for Easter Eggs
Originally uploaded by Binky

Rock Climbing Wall - March Break 2007

Rock Climbing Wall - March Break 2007
Originally uploaded by Binky

One may be ahead, but they're definitely climbing together.

B.

Internet, Sminternet...

Our family has been granted a wonderful and prestigious honor.  Although the selection process for this great blessing remains a mystery to us, we are steadfast in our knowledge that we have in fact been selected.  Some things you're that picked for involve a letter or phone call, maybe a visit.  Other, deeper, truly profound and elemental selections are such that you can just feel them in the marrow of your bones.  This is truly one of the later.

 

WE HAVE BEEN PICKED AS ONE OF THE LAST FAMILIES ON THE PLANET TO ONLY HAVE ACCESS TO DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS.  I am not pleased, impressed, or happy. 

 

I bought a wireless modem for Rogers Portable Internet last night and have been unable to get a signal worth using.  This was basically our last hope.  And, I might add, if it worked in our home probably a pretty decent service.  Neither local telephone or cable companies will admit to any plans to bring service to our area and I had another wireless company out to our house last year- they also could get no signal.  Action Girl (age 6) now regularly asks when we will have high speed internet.  She cannot play with her Webkinz at home (that ought to tug on a few hear strings).

 

Th only available options are very expensive services with hundreds of dollars of installation fees and multi-year commitments at rates we can't afford for sub-standard service.

 

The fact that we are now able to get electricity, cable TV, and postal delivery may have been misleading...

 

B.

 

 

/HTML>

Lost: "One of Us" April 11, 2007

First a plug for my main source of Lost thought and reflection:  Its Jay and Jack's Lost Podcast.  You can find it at

http://jayandjack.com or subscribe through iTunes.  If you have bandwidth restrictions like me, iTunes is a better option because you can download it a little at a time and even subscribe to the "Classic MP3" format which is a smaller file than the standard "AAC" format in iTunes (which does, admittedly, include cool extras like weblinks and pictures which will play on a colour iPod).

 

What a fun episode.  I actually was beginning to think that Juliette was maybe not a liar...  almost.  Now we know better than to trust an "other."  Here's what else I'm thinking:

 

1)  The tension over Juliette's presence in the "Fusies" camp will likely be sustained for the rest of the season.

 

2)  I'm going to agree with Podcast Jack (see above) that Jack will end up killing Juliette.  I was thinking about it before I heard him say it in his podcast, but its nice to know that I'm not alone.  There is another possibility that in the end she will betray and redeem herself to the Fusies just as they are finding out she remains an other.

 

3)  The basic purpose of the others and probably the Dharma Initiative before them has to do with the unique properties of the island.  Is the Dharma Initiative really "dead"?  Mikhail sort of implied that, but lets remember that before the hatch imploded, they were able to trigger the parachute drop of food.  That pretty clearly shows that in the outside world, Dharma is still active and has resources.  One direction to go with this is the idea that the others, lets call them the "Un-Seattle Sub People" took over the imitative either willingly or not.  Ben is in his early 40s- so the others have been there that long...?  Or are his roots in Dharma?

 

4)  Whatever the island is able to do, its reasonable to think that some people have known about the island and its mysterious properties for some time.  Presumably, there was at some point a huge statue attached to the four-toed foot.  If its hundreds (or more) years old, that implies an ancient settlement of great power.  Atlantis anyone?

 

5)  Sun and Jin's baby:  going to be a big part of the plot, probably for the rest of the series!

 

B.

 

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This message (including attachments) may contain confidential or privileged information intended for a specific individual or organization. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately. If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorized to use, disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on this email, and should promptly delete this email from your entire computer system.

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Le présent message (y compris les annexes) peut contenir des renseignements confidentiels ayant pour objet une personne ou un organisme particulier. Si vous avez reçu la présente communication par erreur, veuillez en informer l'expéditeur immédiatement. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire prévu, vous n'avez pas le droit d'utiliser, divulguer, distribuer, copier ou imprimer ce courriel ou encore de vous en servir, et vous devriez l'effacer complètement de votre système informatique.

She's Not Heavy, She's Super Girl.

DSC01428 edited
Originally uploaded by Binky

(Easter Monday) Action Girl (6) pulling Super Girl (3). Hey, what else are you going to do with all that snow?

B.

Playin' with Super Girl (Easter Sunday)

DSC01399
Originally uploaded by Binky

Technically, we were playing with the Barbies at the time... I simply thought that Skinny the Lion and Little Smedley the Giraffe could also drive the Barbie Jeep. Apparently, I was right!

This was after we took every My Little Pony and other horse toy in the house and made a 20 horse-long parade in the living room. Guess you had to be there...

How did you spend your Easter Sunday?

B.