Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

these weekly updates are long

Maybe I should go back to doing semi-daily updates, instead of piling up an entire week's worth into one post. So... lazy...

Last time we spoke (yes I know we're not actually having a conversation right now), I was telling you about how busy my upcoming week was going to be. Well, all that has passed now, and I have some updates for you! Let's get started, shall we?

Wednesday
Wednesday, or better known as kickball day, was a good day. First, my iPhone 4 came in, and a whole day early, too! It's very pretty, and the new high resolution screen is pretty intense. If you aren't used to looking at an older iPhone screen, you might not notice the difference, but it's pretty incredible honestly. The text is very sharp and smooth.

The other good part of the day was our kickball game. What is going on with my eyes in this picture? Click for a larger version:

Despite the picture, I was not the only one possessed by kickball demons that night, as we won 17-4. It was pretty much domination. So much, in fact, that we started to feel bad and really gave up on the last inning, but they still couldn't get many runs. In their defense, not only was it their first day playing kickball as a team, but they had a double-header that night and we were their second game. Oh well, I still felt good about our game, even if it was against a weak opponent. 17 is hard to get, even against a crappier team.

Thursday
Thursday was not as good, at least when it came to softball. The good part was that it was the end of the work week for me, so I hit my weekend at the end of the day. The bad news is that we lost our softball game pretty bad, 15-2. Now we know what it feels like to be on the other side of the coin.

We weren't very good that day, but I think more importantly, the other team was very good. Our offense and defense were about on par with what I would call "beginner" level, and I felt like we played about how a super-social (aka "beginner" league) team should. Note the italics. I say "should" because unfortunately there's really no rhyme or reason to how good or bad teams are in these leagues. The teams that are overly competitive and/or know they're really good generally go into the social leagues, designed for non-beginners. Everyone else goes into super-social, because they don't know how good they are or because they don't want to go up against really good teams every week. That's not really to blame those teams, but rather I think the system kind of sucks; it's not very favorable to true, honest-to-goodness beginner teams. For example, take our kickball team last night, when we won 17-4. I don't think we're the best team at all, and in fact we lost last week 10-4 to a team that I thought was much better. The variance in skill can be huge. In my opinion, what would happen in an ideal league is that the teams have some sort of "tryout" or "scrimmage" at the beginning, and the league places them into their worthy skill level league. Another alternative would be to split the tiers from two into three, so they can have one true "beginner" league, an "intermediate" league, and then their "competitive" league. That way, the teams (like us in kickball) that know they're good but don't want to go up against the best-of-the-best every week can go into the intermediate league, without punishing the beginner teams out there.

I went off on a huge tangent there, but the reason was that I thought the other team was really good. Almost every guy who went up to bat was able to hit it deep into the outfield. To contrast, we had maybe a handful of hits that went into the outfield for us. Their hitting was VERY good, and our fielding was pretty bad. All those deep outfield hits got past our outfielders, so most of the time we were scrambling for the ball while they got the easy run (or runs). We are definitely new to the softball world, and need some work. In the next two weeks, Justin will be MIA so I will have to step up as pitcher. It should be interesting.

Friday
Friday was mostly a relaxation day for me. I played video games, and beyond that I don't even remember anymore. Friday night was initially going to be date night for me and Taylor, but we pushed that to Saturday. I went out with some of the interns from work, instead, because the lone intern from Fort Worth was in town to visit family. We went to Peter Pan's minigolf, which was fun as you'd expect (and the place is BYOB). Afterwards, we took a short walk to P. Terry's for some delicious-as-always burgers. The night ended at about midnight for me, when I got back home and it was dark and quiet (people were either out or asleep).

Saturday
Saturday was world cup soccer day, which didn't end well. It's okay, I got a pretty good buzz out of the beers I was drinking. Of course it would have been a better buzz had we come out with a victory. Too many missed opportunities, so I can't say we deserved to win. The teams that deserve to win are the ones who capitalize on their opportunities, and don't make dumb mistakes.

Saturday night, I took Taylor out to Perry's Steakhouse, which was good, but not great. Everything was great, except our steaks were both overcooked (my medium rare ended up more medium, but Taylor's ended up medium well). Considering the steaks were the main part of the meal, I had to drop the rating from "great" to "good." Everything else was really good, and we ended the night with crème brûlée, which is quickly turning into my favorite dessert. We went back to her apartment and played Just Dance so she could try it out (no comment). Early night again, because she had to get up at 5:30 to get ready for work.

Sunday
Sunday was another fun relaxation day. Since we went to bed early, I somehow managed to wake up on my own at 7:45. That gave me time to eat breakfast, sit around, and catch the Germany-England game at 9am. England got robbed on that second goal, but it doesn't excuse the rest of their piss-poor playing. More video games, then Toy Story 3 that afternoon with my mom and Taylor. I liked it a lot. Pixar movies are always a treat.

The rest of the night I hung out with Taylor. That included listening to music, playing catch, giving her some first lessons on a motorcycle (lesson 1 - learning manual transmissions and starting from first gear), and BSG.  Sleep.

Monday
That's today, and I'm tired of writing so that's all. I need to start sharing news articles and other links again, b/c I enjoy doing that. However, I think more people who read are more interested in my recaps, which is why I've trailed off with those recently.

Monday, June 21, 2010

kickball/softball/weekend/week

oh hey what's up guys

How was everyone's weekend? Good, I hope.  Let's do a recap, shall we?

Urine Trouble (kickball)
[no picture available]

We faced our first match of our newly formed team (which combined half the people from last season, and half new people), and of course we faced one of the best teams. They were strong on both offense and defense, so we lost 4-10. Our base hitting is pretty weak, which will probably be common amongst both sports all season.

We Got The Runs (softball)


All of us (I believe) are first-timers in softball in the Austin SSC leagues, and it showed. We definitely had some growing pains trying to figure out where everyone was. We clicked on defense after the second inning, but our base hitting was even worse than in kickball. We only got people on base maybe 5 times during the whole game. We really need to work on that.

Weekend
As for my weekend, it was fairly decent although Taylor was busy with her sister for the entirety of it. I used that opportunity to get some more Final Fantasy 13 out of my system, so that she doesn't have to bare through me playing it while she's here.

On Friday, I was feeling pretty lame, and carried out my lame agenda of staying in and relaxing by myself. Andy invited me to the lake house (mostly jokingly, though, given the certain individual who was there), and Justin invited me to the Hideout with some work buddies. I declined both offers and instead stayed in and played FF13, as mentioned earlier.  Even more lamely, I got ready for bed at around 11:30pm and went to bed early.

Next morning, I woke up nice and refreshed at around 9-9:15am, and then had breakfast. More lounging around today, but I was determined to be a little more active at night. Justin and I started jamming at around maybe 7:30 or 8, and it carried through for a few hours. Andy joined us about halfway through, and we literally just started making shit up, and rotating through the different instruments. Believe it or not, I found it easiest to jam and make stuff up on the drums, which is not my native instrument (I play bass and everyone who reads this should know that). I'm decent at bass, but I still have not taken the time to get to know my fretboard and learn the individual notes so that I have them memorized. Instead I have to just start playing stuff, and listen and catch the wrong notes I'm playing and correct in the future. With drums, all you have to do is hit the drums - no worrying about wrong notes. I believe we got almost every combination of me, Andy, and Justin playing drums, bass, and guitar. It was a lot of fun. We ended the night at Whataburger because we were all hungry.

Sunday already? Damn. Sunday was both Father's Day and my mom's birthday. I woke up and relaxed for a bit, then showered and got ready to go to my mom's. It was another opportunity to ride my bike, so I took it. Enjoyed some family time with my mom, grandma, and my aunt, and some yummy persian food. I left earlier than usual, though, because I had more stuff I needed to take care of that day. I came back and attempted to mow both yards, but only made it through the front yard before giving up (mow and edge). Despite keeping myself hydrated, I really thought I was going to suffer from heat exhaustion if I kept going and did the backyard. So that is indefinitely postponed, probably until the next weekend because I'm unusually busy this coming week. After that, I showered yet again, and cleaned up my room a little bit. I took off to get a haircut, and got two more shampoos while I was there (once before, and again after). That has got to be a personal record: four shampoos in one day? Came back and later than night discussed some important house things.

Week
...and so the new week begins. Monday is my "relax" day. Tuesday is a Tool concert, Wednesday is kickball, and Thursday is softball. Friday is date night with Taylor. Oh, I get my iPhone on Thursday, I think. Hopefully the week goes by fast, but it seems like it should be a good week. You know what would top this off as a great week? If I finally hear back about my promotion, which has been lingering in some level of upper management for I believe about 3 months now.

Miscellanea
I'm listening to more various artists lately, mostly to get myself prepared for ACL. I'm going to periodically suggested an artist/song/album (not necessarily an ACL artist, though), and today I'm going to start off with Miike Snow.  Here are two songs that I like:

"Animal"

"Silvia"

Interested in seeing what the Gulf looks like 62 days later? Check out the Big Picture for today.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Interesting article on the iPad and boredom

http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/06/why-i-returned-my-ipad.html

I agree with some of the points on there, and I'm guilty, too.  I've mentioned to people before that I think kids are overstimulated these days.  There is not much of a concept of boredom anymore, is there?  They have constant access to tons of things, and most of them that aren't even that beneficial to you (not educational, not active, etc).  TV, internet, twitter, video games, etc.  Boredom sucks, but it also makes us search for something else, sometimes something that we wouldn't normally do.

this week

Let's recap, shall we?

Last weekend was a three day weekend, and I finally took my motorcycle in to get it inspected.  In other motorcycle news, Taylor got a helmet and jacket, so now we can go riding together [safely]!  We needed to go down to Doc's on South Congress to pickup our shirts for kickball and softball (more on that in a minute), so we took advantage of her new gear and rode my motorcycle down there.  I'm way more comfortable on my bike than a month ago, since I hadn't ridden in a few months before that.  I really need to go out and practice my u-turns.

Saturday was our company picnic at Reunion Ranch.  I'd give it a 6/10.  We got there at 10am, and shortly afterwards, Andy and I teamed up for a washers tournament.  For those who are not in the loop, washers is the game where you stand about 20 feet back, and try to throw a washer into a small hole, or at least get close to it. It's kind of like horseshoes.  We actually did really well, surprisingly, and got all the way to the final game.  Unfortunately, we lost 19-21 (SO CLOSE!), and missed out on a $100 prize.  Damn!  I also played sand volleyball, which was more fun but we were bad.  Who would have thought that there'd be some serious volleyball players there?  We had barbecue which was good, and we wrapped up the day exploring the kiddie playground, maze, and ziplines.  That place seems dangerous to me by today's standards.  They had a 15 foot rock wall at the playground for kids to climb, but if you fell, you just fell 15 feet down into packed sand.  I mean, that place would be totally fun if I were a kid.  But I saw like 18 different places where you could easily fall 10 feet and break your arm.  Nice.

Saturday night was Justin's show, followed by people hanging out at the house.  Stayed up til 3AM, and figured that was late enough for me.  Others stayed up way later.

Sunday I guess I just hung out at the house, because I can't think of what I did.

On Monday, I went to work, then left a tad bit early to take my car to the body shop to get repaired.  I had two choices for my rental: a PT Cruiser or a Chevy HHR.  In case you didn't know, those are two out of the list of maybe 10 most hideous cars.

Crappy HHR

PT Crapper

Luckily, it wasn't a hard choice because you always say no to a PT Cruiser.  B&B told me it would be about 5-7 business days, but they didn't actually do an estimate so that might change.  I might call them today if I don't hear anything by this afternoon, because I think they were supposed to keep me informed.

Tuesday, we had softball practice.  Taylor, Travis, Andy, Molly, and I met out in a field and threw the ball around, pitched, and batted.  It was fun, and I'm looking forward to our game this Thursday.

...which brings me to summer sports.  I'm playing both kickball and softball, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.  Only time will tell if that was a good idea or not.  It's going to be a hot summer, and the fields for both are way the hell south.  Our Wednesday kickball team was given the name "Urine Trouble" (get it??), and yellow shirts.  Thanks, Austin SSC.  We got to name our softball team (We Got The Runs), but they gave us pink shirts.  Man, we can't catch a break.  Our first games are this week (today is kickball in fact), so hopefully we get off to a good start.  I don't have high hopes for softball, but I just like playing.

In other, more exciting news, I preordered the iPhone 4 yesterday.  AT&T's servers were apparently not ready for the onslaught, because it took me 5 hours to be able to progress far enough into the checkout process to actually complete the order.  It was pretty ridiculous.  Who wants an iPhone 3G?

In other, less exciting news, Texas is staying in the Big 12.  Colorado left for the Pac-10, Nebraska went to the Big-10, and everyone expected us and several others to go to the Pac-10.  Instead we get an even crappier Big 12 (with only 10 teams) that has no good team in the north now that Nebraska left.  Also, because the rules state that you need at least 12 teams to do a conference championship, we will not have a conference championship game anymore.  That is both good and bad I suppose.  Now we'll probably play all 9 other teams every year, round-robin style, which might cause less problems between us and OU fighting it out to go to the bowl games.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Friday, June 11, 2010

well that was quite the thursday

My day was mostly centered around work. For various reasons, I decided to work a longer day than usual, so I got to work at 6:30am. The day went by mostly quickly, so that was good. I make it a habit to not really talk about work on here, so that's where I'll leave that. I wanted to stay until 6pm, but I could only stay until about 5:30 before I was burnt out.

During the day, we got this spicy piece of news: Colorado accepted an offer into the PAC-10. In case you aren't keeping up or haven't heard, the Big 12 conference is falling apart. The Big 10 wants Nebraska and maybe Missouri. The Pac 10 is trying to make a move on 6 other Big 12 teams: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Poor teams like Kansas, Baylor, Kansas State, and Iowa State are going to get left out in the cold, and will probably have to join a minor conference such as the Mountain West or something. We might hear news as soon as today about other teams accepting the bid into the Pac 10 conference. That would mean that we would be in the same conference as USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, among other teams. Some good academics there, and some good football programs there, too. Speaking of USC, do you remember that whole Reggie Bush scandal from 4 years ago? Well the NCAA finally punished USC, and did they ever. USC cannot partake in postseason games for 2 years. That's right, folks. For the next two years, USC is forbidden from going to any bowl game. Serves them right for running a corrupt athletics program. Sucks for the current recruits, but they should have thought about that possibility before making a decision on a university.

I got home and messed around a little bit with FF7 and my bass. When Andy got home, I taught him some motorcycle basics for an hour. The first part is always the most stressful for a new rider, because you are trying to get used to using a manual on a motorcycle, and you're afraid of doing something that will cause you to fly or fall off. Once he got the hang of the friction zone and getting up to speed, we practiced getting your feet up on the pegs, second gear, third gear, braking, and turning. He picked it up pretty quick, but it's actually not as hard as you'd think. If you know how to ride a bicycle, you'll know how to ride a motorcycle. The only "hard" part of a motorcycle is learning the muscle memory of shifting with the left side of your body, and braking with the right side. I think he had a good time.

Lookin' good, sir!

Once done with our little training session, I got in my car and went to Taylor's. "But wait!" I thought. "I'm hungry, I should get some Wendy's!" What a mistake that turned out to be. I was in a left turn lane (no light at this intersection), waiting to turn left because of oncoming traffic. Some guy trying to turn left onto Braker apparently didn't see me, and just drove STRAIGHT INTO ME. That's right, someone drove straight into a car that wasn't moving. Apparently if your car isn't moving, it is invisible to some people. Here is a little diagram to better explain what happened. Red is me and what I wanted to do, blue is them and what they did (click for a slightly larger version).


Obviously those cars in the satellite photo are irrelevant. So I am the red box, politely waiting to make a left into Wendy's. I was debating between a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, a Grilled Chicken Sandwich, and their Bacon 'n' Blue, which was pretty good last time I had it. Before I knew it, Mr. Blue Box was pulling out of that driveway. When I first saw him, I thought he was being a dick and was just going to cut across me, even though he didn't have the right of way. Then I noticed he was cutting too close to me, instead of out in front of me. Then I noticed he was literally driving right into me. I honked, and he hit me. It was pretty marvelous.

I wasn't upset at all when it first happened, I thought it was both stupid and funny, and in fact I was laughing when I got out of my car. The other guy was throwing a really awkward temper tantrum in the middle of the road, obviously really upset at the fact that he's a complete moron. I calmed him down a bit, and we went back into the parking lot where he originated. We exchanged insurance information, and then it occurred to me that this guy could lie his ass off to the insurance company, and without witnesses, it would just be my word against his. I thought about how ridiculous it would be if the insurance companies couldn't find blame, without witnesses. How shitty would that be? I'm sitting there, waiting to make a left, and some dude drives straight into me out of no where. Then, because he could have lied to the insurance company about his story, it would be a push and my rates would go up. That would be some bullshit right there. So I decided that we needed to call the cops. I had Taylor head over and call them over on her way, because this guy was clearly a bit unstable. He was a pretty big guy, probably 6'3", maybe around 250 pounds, but big as in fat. Now that I think about it, he might have only been like 17 or 18, hence how immature and retarded he was acting. Anyways, I decided that he would go apeshit if I called the cops in front of him, so I had Taylor do it, and while she was heading over, I told him that I was going to get the cops involved so they could assess the situation and get an official police report. That's when things got a bit more tense. He clearly didn't like that idea because he was worried about getting a ticket, and probably realizing that he was gonna get screwed by his insurance when they find out how terrible he is at driving. So he started going on about how it was my fault for being "in the middle of the road" and how he was going to tell them that it wasn't his fault. Yeah, good luck with that one, man.

The police came, I told my story to one of them and he told his story to the partner. It didn't take long for me, and they were still discussing something over with Mr. Douche Nozzle, so we just started chit chatting with the officer. He was actually one of the coolest cops I've dealt with. He was crackin' some funny jokes, telling us some stories, and we even took the time to ask a few unrelated questions that he offered to answer. After about a half hour, they told me that they cited him for "failing to yield right of way from private driveway." Hallelujah! I'm not out of the woods yet, but I think that strongly solidifies my case with the insurance companies. I'm pretty sure there won't be any question about who is at fault because he was cited for a violation. I just called his insurance, and now I'm awaiting the rest to unfold.  As always, click to enlarge:



My poor, innocent bumper

Moron's car

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Monday, June 7, 2010

The new iPhone is here!

Details can be found here

Basically, here are the major selling points:
  • New, more powerful A4 processor
  • Crazy-high resolution screen
  • New form-factor (stainless steel edges used as an antenna to improve signal)
  • Support for wireless N
  • iPhone 4 OS, which includes a type of multitasking, among other things
I expected I'd get this phone, but I didn't expect that I'd get it around its release date, June 24.  Why?  I am only one year into my two year contract.  However, Apple and AT&T are offering "early" upgrades for anyone eligible for an upgrade in 2010, which I am (in September).  I'm not a big fan of Apple or AT&T, but the truth is that there isn't a smartphone out there as good as the iPhone... yet.  I'm hoping the Android phones catch up, and they seem to be, but it probably won't be for another couple years until they are strong competition.

Why do I want this phone?  Well, that's a silly question; it's a nice-ass phone!  Do I need this phone?  No, I don't need it.  However, if there is one thing I use all the time (that isn't my computer), it's my iPhone.  My iPhone is the 3G model, which is now two generations old (the new one is the iPhone 4, and last year's was the iPhone 3GS). It is running an older processor which already bogs down sometimes when doing different things.  Also, it won't get all the features that are being rolled out by the new iPhone 4 OS update.  Since I'm not really paying extra for an "early" upgrade (well, technically $18), I figure I might as well just do it now, instead of September.  I use my phone a lot, and enough in my opinion to justify $199 for a much improved version (speed and otherwise).  I'm not thrilled about being locked to AT&T for another two years, but if I end up hating them that bad in the next year or so, I will just pay the early termination fee and leave.

What does that mean to you?  Nothing, unless you want an old iPhone 3G!  If you already have an AT&T plan, it might only cost you an extra $15 a month for their cheap data plan to switch to an iPhone.  I don't think you'd have to make any other changes, but I'm not an AT&T rep so I don't know for sure.  If you're interested in my old iPhone, let me know, since there isn't much else I can do with it.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

New way of sharing links

As you know, I like to share links to all sorts of things: news articles, youtube videos, funny pictures, etc. Well in light of that, I have added a little box to the right that will have my shared links from Google Reader.

I use Google Reader to aggregate all the sites I check regularly (food, news, tech, culture) into one easy-to-check view. In fact right now I have 44 sites that I'm subscribed to, and that's how I'm able to keep up with all the happenings in the world (or more correctly, just the things I care about). If you're interested in more info about Google Reader, leave a comment and I'll help you set it up. Right now I scan through literally 500-1000 headlines per day, expand the headlines that spark my interest into full articles, and then obviously read those. It's actually really nice, and will broaden your internet-horizons.

As an added bonus, Google Reader can follow your favorite blogs, like mine!

Cliff notes: don't forget to look at my shared links to the right

Here is a little screenshot of mine, in case you want to know what a fully-stocked Reader looks like (click for full-size):

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

let's get our blog on!

So what's up, Habibi? Man I don't know, I don't feel like so much happened the past week. Most if it consisted of a long Memorial Day weekend (4 days!), and I can't say I accomplished much.

I started riding my bike more seriously, that's one thing of note. Timewise, I might have actually ridden my motorcycle more than I drove my car last weekend. Unfortunately, the inspection sticker is expired and I haven't taken care of that, yet. I also played a whole helluva lot of Final Fantasy 7, the best game of all time (maybe), for the original Playstation. Man, what a good game, even if it's 10 years old and has crappy graphics.

Saturday night, Justin, Andy, and I went to meet up with a few of Justin's friends for a short while. I played some pool against Andy, and I think I came out 2-1. But really, it should have been 1-2 but Andy scratched on the 8 ball in one of those games. Suckaaaa! We went back to the house and had some people over for shananigans.

On Sunday, all I really remember is that we grilled some food. I had chicken, Justin had hotdogs, and Travis, Taylor, and Andy had steak. I grilled some asparagus which was partially fail (some parts were undercooked), but overall it was yummy. Chicken tenders are so much easier to cook than steak. With all the variables of our charcoal grill (heat from the charcoal, type of steaks, covered or uncovered), I can never get a steak exactly how I want it. I learned this method for cooking steak in an oven w/ a cast iron skillet, and that has actually worked pretty well for me because it removes a lot of the variables. My cast iron skillet rusted, though, so I should invest in a new one.

Monday... what happened Monday?  I think maybe some laundry.

So you know how I play kickball on Wednesdays? Well maybe not, but I do. We ended the season 4-3, and unfortunately didn't make the playoffs. No matter though, we have now signed up for the summer season of both kickball AND softball! Softball will be on Thursdays, starting next week, and kickball will be on Wednesdays, starting the following week. Here's to a good tan this summer.

In other news, Maverick is still scratching himself, but I have a dilemma: I'm not sure if maybe he's scratching a normal amount but now I'm just way more observant of it (so it seems like it's worse than it is), or if he's actually scratching himself an excessive amount. I took him to the vet to have them take a look, and that exam costed $50. All she did was prescribe benadryl for dogs, but at least I found out that he doesn't have any signs of fleas or worms. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like the benadryl is helping, but maybe I haven't been consistent enough with it. I think I'm going to try to be consistent with the remainder of the benadryl to see if I notice any difference, and if not I guess I'll take him to the vet again for another look. It's gotta be rather frustrating to scratch yourself as often as he does. Not to mention that 2 days after I vacuum my room, there are tufts of his hair everywhere already from all the scratching. Yuck!

But I'm just so damn cute!

I was actually going to write a post yesterday bitching about stuff, namely people on the road. But who really wants to hear me bitch? I bitch enough as it is. Plus everyone knows people suck on the road. Yesterday was a bad day though.

One last note: I miss LOST! I rewatched the finale again this past weekend (oh, there's something I forgot about until now!), and I was re-saddened. I actually enjoyed the finale even more the second time through, because I could appreciate the "flash-sideways" for what it actually was. The "flashes" that our characters were experiencing were not just some strange link to another universe, but rather the characters realizing they were dead and remembering their lives, which is a very emotional experience (and conveyed very well by the characters). Taylor started rewatching it from the beginning recently, and I want to partake, too, but I'm stalling. I know in the end I'll be sad yet again. I think I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: I feel bad for the people who get into Lost, but can no longer watch it live to get the same experience that we, or I, got.  I have watched Lost live since the 4th episode, so it's been quite the ride. Someone else put it into better words:
As I’ve spent the last few days pondering the finale another thing has crossed my mind. The idea that ‘Nobody does it alone’ applies not just to our characters but also to the ‘Lost community’. We have all been enthralled with the events and characters of this epic saga and now we are in our own ‘Flash Upwards’ world – needing to process what has been, needing to find others, needing to remember, needing to let go. By writing and reading and commenting on this very article we are all engaging in our own awakenings and epiphanies. I’ve watched virtually every episode of this show alone with my wife. It has been a precious thing for us. There are others in my life, friends and family, particularly my sister, who I have spent six years debating and discussing every detail of the show with. And increasingly online I have engaged with many of you and many other recappers and bloggers and theorists. We all would have enjoyed this show alone, but it is has been infinitely better and special doing it together. Everyone else who engages with this story in the future will not have the privilege that we have had of working it out together. The final scenes will be on Youtube, the plot summary will be on Wikipedia and the key story parts will infiltrate popular culture so that no-one will be able to approach LOST with fresh eyes again.
I'll leave you with some links to junk to make up for my lack of recent updates: