The mythology and mystery were the true filler. That's what I gathered from last night's series finale of "Lost". The character interactions over the past six years are what the true focus of the entire series were about. Sure, their adventures on and off Lost island most definitely led to these misfits having drastically altered lives after however long they lived on the island but that was all part of the adventure.
The final 90 minutes of "Lost" was full of heart-tugging moments as the characters were reunited in the sideways timeline with Desmond pulling strings to get everyone in the same place and to get his friends from the island to have that great realization and remember that they spent time - some of the best moments of their lives - together on some magical island. And about that island...
The island, while it sure seems to be important to the world at large, was a location that existed so these survivors of the original Oceanic flight 815 crash could better themselves. Jacob was correct in saying that he brought his candidates there because they were flawed, broken people whose lives were made better because of their experiences on the island.
The most important item still open for interpretation is the entirety of the sideways universe. In the final scene, Jack's father, Christian, says that this is a place he and his friends created so they could be together. He goes on to say to Jack that they are both dead and that's where the interpretation can really ramp up. Are the Oceanic survivors in this church because they are in heaven of is the church a metaphor for purgatory. If so, everything leading up to them arriving at the church - a sort of pre-purgatory perhaps, seems rather earthy. Maybe that's what "Lost" was all about, the experiences which the huge cast of characters shared for however short of a time brought them together so that they could spend eternity together living out the lives they were meant to have. And as each character had their great realization about the past, it was pretty obvious that they were destined to be together.
All told, "Lost" was wrapped up very nicely and while some were expecting a huge action sequence to end the series, I am perfectly happy with the finale. It was honestly the first show I had ever clung to. I was anxious for each new episode and the previous episode made for great water cooler conversations. It's the end of an era, so to speak. I don't foresee a broadcast network ever able to succeed with such a long and winding thinking man's show ever again. Already tonight we return to the drivel of "The Bachelorette" and the fall season, while having more scripted series than in previous years, looks to be full of procedural shows which fail to draw viewers in for the long haul. So "Lost" has left us in a sort of television purgatory where we are left with an unknown future.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Weiner facts
If you're here for facts about male genitalia or the "penis" as it is more commonly referred to then you're totally out of luck. However, if you're here looking for the low down on weiners (or frankfurters or hot dogs) then you're in luck.
A long time ago, a friend of mine informed me that hot dogs, or weiners, were made from lips and assholes of various farm animals including pigs, cows, turkeys, chickens, rats, geese, pigeons and guinea hens. While at least some of that is true, I chose to do some investigative work to determine the real truth because people deserve to know.
Hot dogs, or weiners, were originally invented as a form of smoked meat product by Polish immigrants who settled in the New York City and Chicago areas of the U.S.A. It made sense to get the most use possible out of their relatively expensive cuts of meat. It was sort of a waste not, want not way of thinking. So, in to the grinder went the various trimmings cut from both cows and pigs. From there, the somewhat coarsely ground meat was forced in to natural (intestinal) casings and smoked to cure the meat and add flavor and sometimes provide a product needing no refrigeration.
Today, though, the mass-produced weiners we see lining our grocery store shelves are vastly different. The weiners most people place in their mouths and hungrily suck down are closer to containing lips and assholes than we'd want to think. Ponder that for a minute - everytime you're rolling that juicy weiner around in your mouth you're actually eating an asshole. Or a beak or a snout or an ear but it's much more startling to envision one eating an asshole because no matter how much that asshole is cleaned, it was still the exit for a lot of shit.
But not all weiners are created equally. Some are short but others, particularly bun length and foot long varieties, are obviously larger. But length isn't everything. Some weiners are simply larger in diameter. Those that come to mind immediately are Hebrew National and some Schweigert weiners - especially the varieties served at the new Target Field in Minneapolis. Still others plump when ready to be stuffed in to a hungry mouth. Ball Park weiners are the most notorious "plumping" brand of weiners. I don't know nor do I claim to know what makes them plump when cooked but I'll venture a guess that we wouldn't want to know either because sometimes the answer is far worse than we could ever imagine.
With that, I will conclude today's briefing of weiner facts. Don't forget, too, to visit MinnPics and see the best photos Minnesota has to offer.
A long time ago, a friend of mine informed me that hot dogs, or weiners, were made from lips and assholes of various farm animals including pigs, cows, turkeys, chickens, rats, geese, pigeons and guinea hens. While at least some of that is true, I chose to do some investigative work to determine the real truth because people deserve to know.
Hot dogs, or weiners, were originally invented as a form of smoked meat product by Polish immigrants who settled in the New York City and Chicago areas of the U.S.A. It made sense to get the most use possible out of their relatively expensive cuts of meat. It was sort of a waste not, want not way of thinking. So, in to the grinder went the various trimmings cut from both cows and pigs. From there, the somewhat coarsely ground meat was forced in to natural (intestinal) casings and smoked to cure the meat and add flavor and sometimes provide a product needing no refrigeration.
Today, though, the mass-produced weiners we see lining our grocery store shelves are vastly different. The weiners most people place in their mouths and hungrily suck down are closer to containing lips and assholes than we'd want to think. Ponder that for a minute - everytime you're rolling that juicy weiner around in your mouth you're actually eating an asshole. Or a beak or a snout or an ear but it's much more startling to envision one eating an asshole because no matter how much that asshole is cleaned, it was still the exit for a lot of shit.
But not all weiners are created equally. Some are short but others, particularly bun length and foot long varieties, are obviously larger. But length isn't everything. Some weiners are simply larger in diameter. Those that come to mind immediately are Hebrew National and some Schweigert weiners - especially the varieties served at the new Target Field in Minneapolis. Still others plump when ready to be stuffed in to a hungry mouth. Ball Park weiners are the most notorious "plumping" brand of weiners. I don't know nor do I claim to know what makes them plump when cooked but I'll venture a guess that we wouldn't want to know either because sometimes the answer is far worse than we could ever imagine.
With that, I will conclude today's briefing of weiner facts. Don't forget, too, to visit MinnPics and see the best photos Minnesota has to offer.
Monday, May 17, 2010
It's not so much the sharing as it is the oversharing
Privacy seems to be at the top of everyone's minds right now. If you haven't been paying attention, Facebook is taking a lot of heat for its relatively lax approach towards their users' privacy. Sure, I've used Facebook for a few years myself and for about two years to promote a couple arms of the company I work for but I've always been careful what sort of information I put online for all to see. And the "for all to see" thing may be totally incorrect because I have my Facebook account (my personal one) locked down like a chastity belt just because I don't want everyone to know everything about me.
It's not that I have a ton to be ashamed of but I post photos of my daughter there and while I can't speak for her, I am fairly certain that at some point she'll want to have control of her own life and what aspects of it are made public.
That's what I don't quite get about today's generation of teens. They are the first to come of age in an era where everything can be shared online instantly. The key word there is "can" - nobody has ever said "share it all" because there is plenty that others don't need (or want) to know or flat out shouldn't know.
For instance, I'm not going to tell you what kind of underwear I'm sporting but I'll gladly tell you that I'm wearing a nearly two year old pair of Converse One Star sneakers that are dangerously close to disintegrating while I wear them. It's all about selective sharing.
But back to Facebook... I'd love nothing more than to see a company who has done nothing more than give people a place to play pointless games and share way too much meet its demise. They have been loose with the privacy of users and that needs to change. However, Facebook's owner has found a lucrative way to profit from giving people something they obviously love and collecting information they are very willing to freely give up so Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is simply profiting by being a middle man. After all, the internet is all about information and people expect websites to be free. Maybe we've become too lax in how we control our personal information and maybe a few years from now things will be vastly different and people will be far more reluctant to share every tiny detail of their lives. Maybe people will find something more productive to do with their times rather than asking everyone they know to help them with their barn raising.
Maybe if Facebook had never existed we wouldn't have experienced a huge financial meltdown in the past few years. Maybe people, instead, would have been reading the very mortgage contracts that sent them to bankruptcy. But what's done is done so let people continue oversharing but also let them realize that those photos from last night when they were naked and smoking ditch weeb from a bong might hamper their job prospects down the road.
But not all sharing is bad because without people sharing their awesome photos of Minnesota, MinnPics wouldn't exist.
It's not that I have a ton to be ashamed of but I post photos of my daughter there and while I can't speak for her, I am fairly certain that at some point she'll want to have control of her own life and what aspects of it are made public.
That's what I don't quite get about today's generation of teens. They are the first to come of age in an era where everything can be shared online instantly. The key word there is "can" - nobody has ever said "share it all" because there is plenty that others don't need (or want) to know or flat out shouldn't know.
For instance, I'm not going to tell you what kind of underwear I'm sporting but I'll gladly tell you that I'm wearing a nearly two year old pair of Converse One Star sneakers that are dangerously close to disintegrating while I wear them. It's all about selective sharing.
But back to Facebook... I'd love nothing more than to see a company who has done nothing more than give people a place to play pointless games and share way too much meet its demise. They have been loose with the privacy of users and that needs to change. However, Facebook's owner has found a lucrative way to profit from giving people something they obviously love and collecting information they are very willing to freely give up so Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is simply profiting by being a middle man. After all, the internet is all about information and people expect websites to be free. Maybe we've become too lax in how we control our personal information and maybe a few years from now things will be vastly different and people will be far more reluctant to share every tiny detail of their lives. Maybe people will find something more productive to do with their times rather than asking everyone they know to help them with their barn raising.
Maybe if Facebook had never existed we wouldn't have experienced a huge financial meltdown in the past few years. Maybe people, instead, would have been reading the very mortgage contracts that sent them to bankruptcy. But what's done is done so let people continue oversharing but also let them realize that those photos from last night when they were naked and smoking ditch weeb from a bong might hamper their job prospects down the road.
But not all sharing is bad because without people sharing their awesome photos of Minnesota, MinnPics wouldn't exist.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Finally feeling like an adult again
As I have virtually no time to much of anything except work lately, I have made time for the important things. Such as Saturday night as we sat huddled around our back yard fire pit finally feeling like adults. I made my way through a decent sized portion of my Brau Brothers sampler pack. The brothers, three of them, hail from the small southwestern Minnesota hamlet of Lucan with a population of 220. The beers are all vastly different and like anything, they are hit and miss with my taste buds but the Strawberry Wheat (delicious!) comes highly recommended from yours truly as does the Scotch Ale.
I found my sampler pack at an area Winestyles store but what beer have you discovered this year that made you drool? What am I missing?
And why are you avoiding MinnPics? It's the best selection of the best photos from all around Minnesota so check it out now.
I found my sampler pack at an area Winestyles store but what beer have you discovered this year that made you drool? What am I missing?
And why are you avoiding MinnPics? It's the best selection of the best photos from all around Minnesota so check it out now.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Just say no to the stadium
It's a day that ends in "Y" during a state legislative session in Minnesota so that must mean that it's time once again for the Minnesota Vikings to piss and moan about their hard luck and their financial disadvantages compared to other NFL teams with big, shiny, new billion dollar stadiums. Yep, yet another plan for a new Vikings stadium. And this one has a price tag of only $791 million dollars.
The irony here is that the Vikings franchise is willing to pony up a whopping $200 and some odd million dollars - not quite a third of the cost. Really? Not even a third of the price for a playground they'll use for ten days each autumn? But the rest will come from "user fees". In Governor Tim Pawlenty-speak those are really taxes but because the legislature will need his support they use his terminology and because he's a good Republican he doesn't raise taxes, he just supports new "user fees". Some of those new user fees will come from a tax on sports jerseys. So Twins, Wild and Vikings fans would each potentially pay for a part of the new Vikings stadium. So would people renting cars and hotel rooms because those people are obviously Vikings fans and nobody comes to Minneapolis or anywhere in Hennepin County or the Twin Cities except to see a Vikings game.
But the good news is that some lawmakers with common sense are calling the possibility of financing a new Vikings stadium a "non-starter". Though even bad news like that isn't souring the hopes of rabid (and hateful) Vikings fans. @molliepriesmeyer can attest to that. I watched both Friday and today as Tweets from the Minneapolis-based journalist chronicled the shit-storm which erupted after she voiced her disapproval of a publicly financed stadium. And, yes, I also feel that a stadium financed even with the bullshitology that is "user fees" is publicly financed. I just wish that people could have a civil debate - even those on opposite sides of the debate - and realize that name-calling doesn't solve anything and those slinging the names are only hurting the very cause they champion (yes, feel free to call me a hypocrite).
Nobody, regardless of what they said (especially in a civil tone) deserves to be called a cunt but Priesmeyer had that hurled at her Friday after launching an online petition against a publicly funded stadium. Hey, if this is the face that grassroots stadium supporters want to hitch their wagon to, then may the Vikings fare well in the greater Los Angeles area but I truly hope that the Vikings can find a way to secure a stadium here in Minnesota without sticking fans who will never be able to afford to see a game with the bill.
If you read all the way through that rambling screed then you deserve a break - head to MinnPics and scope out the awesome photos from around Minnesota.
If I ever had my own band
Sometimes my mind is a cluster of random thoughts. This occurred yesterday as we drove home from my parent's rural Austin, MN farm. Somewhere after Faribault I started blurting out possible band names. I then got even more descriptive and suggested possible musical stylings for these possible bands. The odd part is that my old lady and I fed off of each other. The names got increasingly dirty and profane and the musical stylings got increasingly descriptive. Here's a sampling...
Vag Doctor Collective (You see, it's a band consisting of OB/GYNs)
Double Donkey Punch (Google it)
Skullfuck (this one was long ago shot down by a friend's wife as being far to vulgar to ever be uttered again but still excellent for a bluegrass band)
Thursday Morning Shoeshine
The Greasemonkies
The Dandy Lions (See, it's a play on words but not a good one because I just explained it)
Eiffel Tower (Search it on Urban Dictionary)
Smashing Mailboxes (More damaging that simply smashing pumpkins and it's a federal crime - BONUS!)
Well, you get the picture. I could rattle these off for days but that would get old and it would cut in to the time you could spend drooling over photos from all over Minnesota at MinnPics. Seriously, check the place out.
Vag Doctor Collective (You see, it's a band consisting of OB/GYNs)
Double Donkey Punch (Google it)
Skullfuck (this one was long ago shot down by a friend's wife as being far to vulgar to ever be uttered again but still excellent for a bluegrass band)
Thursday Morning Shoeshine
The Greasemonkies
The Dandy Lions (See, it's a play on words but not a good one because I just explained it)
Eiffel Tower (Search it on Urban Dictionary)
Smashing Mailboxes (More damaging that simply smashing pumpkins and it's a federal crime - BONUS!)
Well, you get the picture. I could rattle these off for days but that would get old and it would cut in to the time you could spend drooling over photos from all over Minnesota at MinnPics. Seriously, check the place out.
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