Desipio Message Board

Quote from: PenPho on May 14, 2010, 03:36:12 PM
This is all Weebs' fault, right?

For not understanding the reason midichlorians suck?

Yes.

Quote from: Kermit IV on May 14, 2010, 03:32:01 PM
Ah, who cares?  Fuck George Lucas.

That.

Let's not do this.

Quote from: Kermit IV on May 14, 2010, 02:34:06 PM
Also, Raylon's ex gets hotter with each episode.

I've only seen the last two episodes of this show but was curious to know if it's wrong that I like his ex more than his hillbilly slam piece so far.

Quote from: Weebs on May 14, 2010, 02:51:16 PM
Not to mention, bringing in some magic light that causes all of these phenomenon changes the genre from Sci-Fi to Fantasy.

Explain.

We've already seen: people who live forever, people who can't be killed or kill themselves until the island decides it's "through with" them, people whose cancer and paralysis are cured by an island, people who see and converse with the dead, smoke that can turn into people, a lighthouse with mirrors that allow someone to see a house thousands of miles away.

But they explain this stuff with a glowing light and all of a sudden Weebs' genres are in disarray?

Quote from: Weebs on May 14, 2010, 02:51:16 PM
I would rather see them bullshit through some theory of quantum physics than see a tunnel of light that somehow is overloaded with electromagnetism and causes an island to travel through time when a wooden wheel (I guess) intersects with it.

You see, that would be taking the midichlorian route: making up science-y bullshit to explain a mysterious force in boring, uninspiring detail.

So Jacob, though he took up Mother's mantle as protector of the island, doesn't seem to agree with her view of man as essentially "bad."

Of the two brothers, Smokey is more his (foster) mother's son when it comes to that cynicism.

My question is this: given their differing views on man, is Jacob's agenda different than his mother's was before him?

She did whatever she felt necessary to prevent men from finding the Light, up to and including going Stormtroopers-on-Tatooine on the village. (Somehow... Could she turn into smoke, too?)

"They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. And it always ends the same." She believs that being bad is just "what people do."

Jacob, though, has continued to deliberately bring people he's selected to the island, apparently because he continues believe otherwise.

Yeah, sometimes it still ends the same (e.g., The Purge). And yet Jacob still believes. Jacob's belief in men having the capacity to choose good continued to be borne out, up to his death at Ben's hands when he said "You have a choice."

Quote
MILES: Right up until the second the knife went through his heart, he was hoping he was wrong about you. I guess he wasn't.

More than that, he still has an end game in view. And end that we're progressing to, an end that would prove Smokey wrong.

We've been led to believe that the Candidate is destined to become the new Jacob, taking on his old role in the same way that we just saw him take on his mother's, and that things are to carry on as before. But what if that's not really the case? What if Jacob is finally approaching his finishing move in their 2000-year board game?

"It only ends once." Maybe sometime in the next 3.5 hours.

...

Now, if only I had some idea why Mother said "thank you" when Smokey dispatched her... Was it just because she wanted to finally die?

And why Smokey was/is "special"/her favorite... Is he the real story here?

Hmpf. Maybe I need to rethink everything.

Quote from: R-V on May 12, 2010, 10:18:16 AM
-   Jacob's first goal is to protect The Light/Pandora's Box/Ark of the Covenant/whatever you want to call it, because it is the source of all the good stuff in life. It can't be destroyed because then none of us would be able to take naps or eat bacon. It can't be found or exploited by Man, because then we'd become corrupt jagoffs obsessed with naps and bacon, and would eventually melt like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Jacob achieves this goal by killing off anyone who gets too close to discovering the light.
-   Jacob's second goal is to find someone to succeed him in his role of protector. Because like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, he's getting too old for this sh*t. Jacob attempts to achieve this goal by bringing Candidates to the Island, in the hopes of one day finding a Candidate who is righteous enough to protect The Light without being tempted to take a dip in it.
-   Jacob's motivation is to please his dead Mom, because he was always second fiddle to the smarter, specialer Brother. Jacob is kind of a weenie.

Mostly, but I'm not totally sure it's as clear cut as Mother handing off the torch to Jacob, who's now handing off the torch to someone else, ad infinitum.

Because here's the thing that interests me the most the more I think about it...

I'm sure everyone immediately recognized these words spoken by Mother:

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Across_the_Sea_transcript

Quote
BOY IN BLACK: Why didn't you tell us about them?

MOTHER: Because they're dangerous and I didn't want to frighten you.

JACOB: What makes them dangerous?

MOTHER: The same thing that makes all men dangerous. They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt... and it always ends the same.

BOY IN BLACK: They come? Come from where?

MOTHER: Another part of the island. And you're never to go looking for them. If they found you, they would hurt you.

JACOB: Why would they hurt us?

MOTHER: Because they're people, Jacob, and that's what people do.

What didn't really strike me, for whatever reason, until I actually went through the transcripts was how odd this was. Because it's the rebelious son that toes the family line on the nature of man.

Even as he works to undermine her commands, Smokey still agrees with Mother.

Meanwhile, it's the son who stood by her, her heir as the island's protector, who seems to reject this view:

Quote
MAN IN BLACK: ...Why do you watch us, Jacob?

JACOB [mutters]: I watch because I wanna know if Mother's right.

MAN IN BLACK: Right about what?

JACOB: About them

MAN IN BLACK: Oh, you mean my people. You wanna know if they're bad. That woman may be insane, but she's most definitely right about that.

JACOB: I don't know. They don't seem so bad to me.

MAN IN BLACK: That's easy for you to say. Looking down on us from above. Trust me, I've lived among them for 30 years. They're greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish.

JACOB: Then why are you with them?

MAN IN BLACK: They're a means to an end.

Flash forward some 1800-odd years and we find that Jacob's doubts are even stronger, as Smokey continues to quote the words of the mother he rebelled against and murdered...

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Incident,_Parts_1_%26_2_transcript

Quote
JACOB: I take it you're here 'cause of the ship.

MAN IN BLACK: I am. How did they find the Island?

JACOB: You'll have to ask 'em when they get here.

MAN IN BLACK: I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?

JACOB: You are wrong.

MAN IN BLACK: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.

JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.

(To be continued...)

Quote from: Kermit IV on May 13, 2010, 10:16:56 AM
All of THIS.  For the first time in the series, I declare that Tuesday's episode sucked.

You must have repressed your memory of the Nikki and Paulo episode.

Beyond that...

Yeah, this episode was cheesy. And it was pretty short on action. And i thought Allison Janney and those kids were fucking awful.

It was far from my favorite episode. But I feel like it was necessary.

That's why I think this is kind of dumb:

QuoteIs it really, really important that you end the series knowing who Adam and Eve were? Where the black and white stones came from? Who built the frozen wheel and how it got underground? Where Jacob and the Man in Black came from and why they are rivals?  Why the Others speak Latin? If so, then "Across the Sea" let you check a whole lot of items off your list.

This episode was not about checking off boxes on a Gittles Laundry List.

It was about the story behind the conflict between Jacob and Smokey. It was showing us Smokey's reason for wanting to leave—showing us who he lost that he had loved.

And it was about the Light—the central fucking mystery of the island: the mysterious "something" behind all the healing, all the time travel, all the moving of the island and all the crazy phenomena Dharma was investigating.

Sure... The Light seems to lie somewhere between being a big, glowing MacGuffin that we don't actually care about and a vague, all-encompassing magical thing like The Force.

And the exact nature of it is probably completely unimportant (which, I'd note, would make it the exact opposite of "midichlorians," Weebs).

But it was still necessary that it was addressed in some fashion.

I mean, it's the very thing that's driven the whole shebang. The thing that set off the chain of events that brought Flight 815 to the island in the first place. The whole reason for everything else.

Yes, what ultimately matters most as far as the show goes is that they "complete the emotional and story arc of the characters whom [we've] been invested in for six years." But I suspect that's exactly why the writers didn't save all this cheesy bullshit for the final hour.

They pulled us out of the narrative flow for an hour to show us what it's all about, tying off what may be the the final historical loose ends. Now we have 3.5 more hours left for them to continue tying the rest of the drama together.

Joe Posnanski likes his iPad

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2010/05/13/here-on-gilligans-isle/

QuoteMy extensive iPad review is still coming, but for now I do think it's worth answering one question that I have received from several brilliant readers: "What's the big deal about the iPad?"

OK, so we all know the iPad is smaller than a Sports Illustrated magazine and thinner than the Swimsuit Issue. And here are some of the things I did with it yesterday:

1. Watch innings of several baseball games on television.
2. Listen to innings of several baseball games on radio.
3. Watch NBA playoff highlights.
4. Read a section of Bill James' Historical Abstract and part of Nelson Mandela's autobiography.
5. Listen to the latest weather reports as wind howled outside.
6. Scan the Internet for news about Stephen Strasburg.
7. Play pinball.
8. Sample the new Keane album.
9. Update and check my calendar.
10. Respond to several emails.
11. Put together a couple of outline charts for upcoming stories.
12. Write sections of upcoming stories.
13. Shop at Amazon.
14. Play a Justin Bieber video for daughters.
15. Read an interactive Toy Story book to youngest daughter.
16. Play this addictive diner game.
17. Score the first couple of innings of the Royals-Indians game.
18. Watch snippets of a couple of ABC shows.
19. Instant message a friend who was gone.
20. Look up Tina Louise on the amazing IMDB app.
21. Scan the New York Times and Kansas City Star.
22. Instantly look up words I wasn't entirely sure about.
23. Make a list of story ideas I'd like to do in the next couple of months.
24. Do some soccer study for the upcoming World Cup.
25. Check to see if there were any new fun apps. Download this silly app that allows me to make Zen Gardens out of sand and stone.
26. Make several Zen Gardens out of sand and stone.
27. Check out Entertainment Weekly's Ten Things to Watch.

That's a pretty typical day, honestly. I did these things in a restaurant, in a coffee shop, in bed, while sitting in my recliner and watching television. Some days I do more work on it. Some days I watch a movie. Now, we have become conditioned to technology, many of us, and so the list might not impress you. You can do most, maybe even all, these things on the iPhone or on your mobile device. Certainly on your computer. Most of the iPad reviews I read talk a lot about what the iPad does not do — play Flash, have a camera, run multiple apps at once and so on. All true.

But I'm not a technology writer. I'm just a guy who grew up in the 1970s. And I like to look at it another way — we're living in the Jetsons. I can WATCH ANY BASEBALL GAME on this little folder-sized television that I carry around with me? And read books on it (and it's a much better reading experience than the computer — night and day better). And listen to music on it? And watch movies? And send letters to people that reaches them instantly? And get letters back from the in return? And do my work on it? And shop on it? And play games on it? And so on and so on and so on and every single day it gets better because someone invents some new app that pushes its limits. This all happens later in the same life when "Merlin"** was the cutting edge of technology.

**Where's Merlin now?/He's not there/He's out with Billy/playing Magic Square.

I'm not saying you want an iPad or need one (or any of the upcoming tablets) — I don't get commission. I'm just saying, what's the big deal? It's a computer and television and radio and newspaper and book and magazine and game console and Internet the size of a piece of paper and the width of a Mitch Albom book. It's freaking amazing, that's the big deal.

Quote from: Fork on May 14, 2010, 01:01:35 PM

Quote from: Yeti on May 14, 2010, 12:56:30 PM

Quote from: MAD on May 14, 2010, 12:16:35 PM
Granted it's an incredibly small hair to split--common conversational Englsih tends to disregard it nowadays anyway--but seeing as how Yeti was calling someone else dumb, I coudn't resist being a pedantdick.

I talk Inglish so well that you're mom has I recite me lessons when I pound she in the ass.

Yeti's Jamaican?

Intrepid Reader: Irish Yeti

I and I been in Babylon too long, mon.

Quote from: R-V on May 14, 2010, 12:16:21 PM

Quote from: Dr. Nguyen Van Falk on May 14, 2010, 12:11:29 PM

Quote from: R-V on May 14, 2010, 12:04:06 PM

Quote from: Slaky on May 14, 2010, 10:48:04 AM
This isn't a new place by any means but I just realized it's probably cheaper than Jewel. They don't have the brand name shit but most of the stuff is pretty good.

These verde chicken burritos are fucking awesome.

What are some of the specialty foods that I need to try? There are too many to choose from and every time I'm there I only ending up choosing one pretty awesome looking thing.

Yes, it is cheaper than Jewel. I am having a hard time thinking of anything we've gotten from here that ISN'T good.

Their peanut butter?

People eat brands of peanut butter other than Jif?

Idiots, RV. Only idiots.

Quote from: R-V on May 14, 2010, 12:04:06 PM

Quote from: Slaky on May 14, 2010, 10:48:04 AM
This isn't a new place by any means but I just realized it's probably cheaper than Jewel. They don't have the brand name shit but most of the stuff is pretty good.

These verde chicken burritos are fucking awesome.

What are some of the specialty foods that I need to try? There are too many to choose from and every time I'm there I only ending up choosing one pretty awesome looking thing.

Yes, it is cheaper than Jewel. I am having a hard time thinking of anything we've gotten from here that ISN'T good.

Their peanut butter?

I loved Andy's fist pump when he got called up to play bin Laden.

Quote from: MAD on May 14, 2010, 11:51:36 AM

Quote from: Yeti on May 14, 2010, 11:44:11 AM

Quote from: PenPho on May 14, 2010, 11:04:55 AM
Posting a link to Fro Dog's website bump.

Just reassuring you that you aren't the dumbest guy out there. There's are at least 5 or 6 dumber.

Where does someone who doesn't comprehend subject-verb-agreement stand on that list?'d

The only thing better than the subject are the verbs.

Quote from: PenPho on May 14, 2010, 11:04:55 AM
Posting a link to Fro Dog's website bump.

http://firedustybaker2.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/ideas-on-how-to-fix-pro-wrestling-the-wwe-part/

QuoteRing attire: This is a topic that might not bother some people, but it bothers me. When a wrestler comes out to do a promo, it would be nice if they actually had some clothes on. For the most part when Chris Jericho does a promo, he usually is in a suit. Everyone else just has their damn tights on. It bothers me when Batista, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre and a few others just come out to the ring without even wrestling in their damn tights. This is why the mainstream media doesn't take pro wrestling seriously. And how are they suppose to when wrestlers are cutting promos in their tights? I cannot stand this. Is there some type of dress code that says they only can wear tights? For crying out loud: PUT SOME DAMN PANTS ON!!! It's disturbing.

Quote from: R-V on May 14, 2010, 09:43:28 AM
Dennis the Beeper King needs his own show. What a great character.

"What's your deal?....Lesbian"

As soon as my beeper went off I knew it was you. I've got a personalized vibration for each chick I used to put it to.