Give Me Novacaine

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. I've meant to. No, really, I have some great rants in reserve, but today I want to write about one of the most amazing concert experiences in my life while it's still fresh in my head.

Green Day was in town on Tuesday and I was there, on the floor, 10 feet away from the stage. It was my first time seeing Green Day live and I was not disappointed. I've heard some of their live music and I've heard all the rave about their shows, but nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced. Let me be honest: I'm not the hugest, die hard Green Day fan in the entire world. I am a huge fan of theirs, though, especially in the last five years or so. I loved "Dookie" (of course, who didn't?), "American Idiot", and especially "21st Century Breakdown". I also enjoyed many of their songs in between. I have always been amazed at how they keep getting older but still nail it on the head with the younger generation. They get it. They understand how we feel. I'm not exactly "young" anymore, but I'm young enough to have grown up listening to Green Day. The crowd on Tuesday was mostly young, high school and college age, but also some others that looked my age or older (although most of the older ones were dragged there by their kids).

First Green Day concert... floor seats, bitches!

So anyway, I got off work and hopped the subway down to the Spectrum. Being that this was one of the last concerts ever in the Spectrum, the whole night felt a little more special. I got my tickets from Will Call while listening to Green Day warm up from outside ("American Eulogy"), changed clothes, and met up with Sarah, my future sister-in-law Becky, and my best man Kyle. I have been to many a concert with Sarah and Kyle. We have been on the floor, getting knocked around at many raucous punk shows. This was, however, Becky's first rock show on the floor, but she held her own surprisingly well. We tailgated, drinking a few beers and chatting before the doors opened. When the doors opened, we headed in and grabbed some crab fries and a couple more beers before heading down to the floor, soon after The Bravery was finished with their set. We took our positions and got ready for the lights to dim. While we waited, we were entertained by a drunk guy in a pink bunny suit that was dancing and stumbling around the stage for a good 10 minutes before he went backstage again. When Green Day did finally come on (around 9:15 or so), it was a non-stop adrenaline rush for over two hours.

A picture of Mike Dirnt, just because

Billie Joe opened with "21st Century Breakdown" then followed it up with "Know Your Enemy", and "East Jesus Nowhere". I had peeked at a setlist beforehand so I kind of knew what was coming, but it was still amazing. The sound was so full and perfect. Billie Joe was jumping and running around on stage, pulling people out of the audience, and then telling them to "get the fuck off my stage". During "East Jesus Nowhere", a very religiously-charged song, he called a small girl on stage to imitate a scene out of a southern Baptist church of someone being saved before telling the girl to get off his stage.

Billie Joe and the first girl he pulled on stage to sing with him, for "Are We the Waiting"

They followed that up with "Holiday", "The Static Age", and "Before the Lobotomy", which is one of my favorite songs from the new album. They then dipped into "American Idiot", not losing a step while playing "Are We the Waiting", "St. Jimmy", and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". One of my favorite songs, "Hitchin' A Ride", was next and then they dipped into some real old stuff. They played "2,000 Light Years Away" and, later, "King for a Day", during which the entire band wore silly hats. Billie Joe donned a police cap, while Mike Dirnt wore pink bunny ears, and Tre Cool wore a type of white Sunday church hat.

It's not too easy to see, but Mike is wearing pink bunny ears and Tre is wearing a white Sunday hat.

They played a string of older songs, including "Welcome to Paradise", "Brain Stew", "Jaded", "Longview", "Basket Case", and "She" before launching into an Isley Brothers cover of "Shout". They ended with "21 Guns" and "American Eulogy" before coming back out to play their encore. The encore consisted of five songs: "American Idiot", "Jesus of Suburbia" (!!), "Minority", and then an acoustic performance of single verses of "Words I Might Have Ate" and "Give Me Novacaine", followed by "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" to end the show.

Billie Joe, playing "21 Guns"

The setlist was great and the band sounded awesome, but what was really cool is the way Billie Joe interacted with the audience. They hadn't even sung a song yet and he already had someone up on stage, asking them how they felt tonight. He frequently brought people onto the stage with him, including a girl to help sing "Are We the Waiting" and three different people to sing the three verses of "Longview", including one whom he prompted to do a stage dive off the runway portion of the stage. The most incredible, though, was during their encore, when Billie Joe asked the audience if anyone knew how to play guitar. He then said, "does anyone here know how to play Jesus of Suburbia?" About 10,000 hands flew into the air and there was much deliberation until he picked a guy near the front on the floor. He hopped on stage and, upon looking out at the crowd, put his hands on his head in disbelief. He was about to play one of Green Day's most well-known and well-liked songs in front of about 40,000 people. Also, the song is over 9 minutes long. The guy didn't miss a beat though. He took Billie Joe's guitar and started jumping around the stage, doing his best AC/DC impression. He looked like a rock star out there and Billie Joe looked like a genius (we wondered later how many times that has blown up in his face).

This guy was rocking out to "Jesus of Suburbia" with Bille Joe's guitar

The rendition of "Jesus of Suburbia" was fantastic. I haven't heard many live songs that were better than it. I love seeing bands having fun and getting the audience involved during their concerts. It shows me that they really get it. They know that it's part of their job to do that and they enjoy the adoration and idolization that they get from their rabid fan base. Billie Joe made about 10 people's nights and probably their lives on Tuesday by having them on stage singing or playing with him. One guy actually full-on kissed him on the lips and without missing a beat, Billie Joe kissed him back. It was probably the most fun show I've ever been to.

One of the best parts about the show, though, was that, although there was some pushing and shoving, nobody really got out of hand. I counted three crowd surfers the entire show. There was one douche-nozzle who was acting rambunctious before the show, elbowing people in the head and calling the girls around him "bitches" (including Sarah and Becky), but I gave him a short jab to the head and he calmed down after that. I think that everyone was too mesmerized to even care about moshing or crowd surfing, to be honest. Billie Joe's frequent calls of "Hey oh!", to which the crowd would respond in turn with a "hey oh" of their own, and his prompts for the crowd to sing along were enough to keep the entire audience enthralled for a full two and a half hours. I even snuck a peek at a couple of the event staff personnel getting into the show.

Billie Joe, wrapping it up acoustic-style with "Give Me Novacaine/Good Riddance"

In all, they played 28 songs and by the time we walked out, the time was approaching midnight. We were exhausted and sweaty and thirsty. I ended up buying a t-shirt from a street vendor since the line inside was too long, only to find out that the shirt was accidentally reversible. The screen print was on the inside-out side of the shirt and on the other side was a graphic promoting the recent boxing match in Philly. Wonderful. I ended up ordering a tour shirt from their website to make up for it. By the time we got home, it was almost two in the morning and I got about 4 hours of sleep before I had to wake up for work the next morning. I was exhausted (I took a 5-Hour Energy and still fell asleep on the train), and I think I'm still feeling the effects of it, but it was well worth it. I thank Green Day for putting on such an amazing show, one that instantly ranks in the top 3 of the best shows I have ever seen and one that I will never forget.

Crazy Night

Ok, so... Sarah and I had a long, crazy night last night.

I took the day off of work yesterday and we planned to go to the Phillies-Red Sox game. We left around 4:30 for the game and didn't get into the stadium until almost 7:00. We took our seats among dozens of obnoxious Red Sox fans in the 200 level near the right field foul pole. The game was underwhelming until the bottom of the 9th inning, when Ryan Howard hit a game-tying home run. The game got boring again until the 13th, when the Red Sox scored 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk. The Phils were retired in the bottom half of the inning and the game was over.

Then there was the drive home. Bumper to bumper traffic, despite the fact that approximately half of the fans left the game before it was over. Unfortunately for us, there was a concert across the street at the Wachovia Center (Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood) that probably let out at the same time. Well, route 76 was a parking lot. We sat in bumper to bumper traffic for about a half hour. We were a mile away from the construction zone on 76, where 6 lanes merge down to 2 when... I got rear-ended. It was just a bump, nothing serious, but I was kind of pissed. I looked back and pointed at the guy behind me, an Asian guy in a Jeep Liberty. He pointed behind him, as to say it was the guy behind him that bumped me. When he went around us on the right, he confirmed that fact by telling us as he drove past. I was steaming but willing to let it go since I was fairly certain there was no damage. Sarah and I kept watching the guy in our rear views. He kept fiddling with something in his car, he had his interior light on, and he kept falling back when there was a gap in traffic, only to speed up and slam on his brakes, almost hitting me again. We watched him pull over in the right lane (which by the way, is an exit lane), stop, and turn his headlights off before turning them back on and going again. He then proceeded to rear-end another car. The woman pulled her car over, so I decided to do the same.

I got out of my car and walked back to his car, a silver Mercedes. I demanded to see his license and insurance information and told him that I was going to take his license plate number. He got out of his car with his pants unbuttoned and with only one shoe on. I can't make this shit up. I asked him for his license and he handed me his shoe. He told me that he takes his left shoe off when he drives because he doesn't drive with his left foot. When I told him I didn't want his shoe, he told me he was just trying to be honest. He assured me that he has never been in an accident and he has never gotten a ticket. At this point, we knew there was something wrong with this guy. He actually almost gave me his license and insurance card (which, by the way, was expired - that turned out being the least of his worries). We decided that we needed to stall him. The woman in the other car, Virginia, called the cops and we wanted to keep him at the scene until the cops got there. We kept inspecting the non-damage to our vehicles and I pulled my car over to the shoulder. I lent Virginia a towel to wipe off her bumper to see if there was damage. Finally, the cops arrived. When we heard the sirens, the guy said to us, "Oh, here they come. Can we just get out of here?" To which Sarah responded, "no."

The cops pulled up and took all our information. We told him what happened to both of us and then they went to interview the guy in the Mercedes. After about 5 minutes of what looked like sobriety tests, he was in cuffs and being escorted to the police cruiser. This is when we knew this was serious. After another half hour of God-knows-what goes on in that cruiser when the cops take your information, the one cop came back with our forms. Virginia's son, Mark, said he felt bad about ruining the guy's life, to which the officer responded, "Oh, you don't have to worry about him. He's going to jail." He said this while showing off his nifty new flashlight that has a slide-proof rubber seal on it. We asked him what the guy did to get arrested and he said, "Oh we found a bag of heroin in his backseat." Our jaws all dropped. We said we knew something wasn't right about him, but we didn't smell any alcohol on his breath. The cop said, "Yeah he wasn't drunk, he was just high on heroin and cocaine." I responded by asking if he was at the Clapton concert. Apparently, the guy had been in South Philly, scoring some heroin. This wasn't a junkie-looking guy either. He was in his late 40s or early 50s, with a Lower Gwynedd address (a wealthy area) and he told me he was a corporate executive. We told the cop that when I asked for his license, he gave me his shoe. The cop responded by saying, "Yeah, he's a crackhead."

So that was our evening. We made our first citizen's arrest, and it turned out being a heroin addict. We didn't get home until after 2:00 a.m. but we were wide awake on the drive home. Oh yeah, and when I went to start my car to leave the scene, my battery was dead. We had to get the tow truck driver to give me a jump. We got home way late, but I'm glad we stopped. I don't think that Virginia would have been able to keep him there on her own. And I have to give an assist to the Asian guy in the Jeep Liberty. Without him, I may not have even known which guy hit me. We still can't really believe what happened last night, but we have a hell of a story to tell for the rest of our lives.

Lost: The Incident

Ok, so I’ve never done this before but I’m going to attempt to write an analysis of the awesomeness that was the Lost Season 5 finale. This episode was amazing and might rank as my favorite season finale of the entire series to date. I think that by the end of the series, this might rank as my all-time favorite episode.

The thing that made this episode great from the outset was answers. Answers, with a capital ‘A’. The writers and producers have been feeding us answers this season at a pretty steady pace, but the first five minutes of the finale gave us a revelation: Jacob is very real and seemingly very powerful. We learned a lot about Jacob in this episode. First off, he is a weaver. Weavers have a huge place in mythology. Weavers are big in Greek mythology as those controlling the destiny of others, although they are technically referred to as spinners. The ‘spindle of necessity’, which is part of the Greek Myth of Er, tells of souls dropping from the skies, then being sent back to Earth in new bodies. This could hold some significance, but I’ll get to that later.

Jacob, the man, the myth, the legend

The next thing we learn about Jacob is that he seems to have a counterpart on the island. After he finishes weaving, he goes out to the beach to catch a fish and a nameless man wearing black (Jacob is wearing all white, by the way) sits down next to him to have a chat. Their little talk is clearly filled with tension and passive aggression toward each other until the man in black asks Jacob the question, “Do you have any idea how much I want to kill you?” Jacob’s response is a simple “yes”. What they were discussing is the arrival of a ship, seemingly the enigmatic Black Rock, the ship that Rousseau and her crew arrived in. The two men had very different views of how things would turn out. On one hand, the man in black cynically predicted that things would happen as they seemingly always had: “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.” Jacob, on the other hand, had a very different view on things: “It can only end once. Everything before that is progress.” These two opposite beliefs seem to mirror the beliefs of other characters on the show. It’s almost like Man of Science vs. Man of Faith, a la Jack Shepherd vs. John Locke. Nameless is the man of science, Jacob is the man of faith.

The dark and light between these two characters is extremely interesting. My first thought was that this man on the beach was the new “Bizarro Locke”, reincarnate (or, pre-incarnate?). But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s look at the two characters in terms of mythology. Clearly, they are opposite forces at work to control the way things play out on the island (or should I say The Island, since it has become such a large character in this tale?). Jacob would seemingly be the force of good and Nameless would be the force of evil. But sometimes appearances can be deceiving. More on that later.

Throughout the episode, we see flashbacks of Jacob touching the lives of the survivors. We had wondered up until this point whether there was one thing that connected all or some of the survivors, or at least the Oceanic 6, before they got on the ill-fated Oceanic flight 815. We had previously seen one or more characters run into each other in their previous lives, but we never saw a single thing that connected them all. Well, it seems there is a connection with some of the characters. Take note of who Jacob visited off the island, as this will no doubt be of great importance in the final season. Also, take note of the fact that he made physical contact in some way with each of the people he visited. Here are the survivors he had previously visited, in this order in the episode:

Kate: Young Kate was seen with an unknown childhood friend as she attempted to lift a super cool New Kids on the Block lunchbox from the Ames General Store in Iowa. After being caught, Jacob came to the rescue and paid for the lunchbox, but told Kate to “be good” and made her promise to not steal anymore, before touching her on the nose.

Sawyer: This scene appears to take place at Sawyer’s parents’ funeral, both victims of the murder-suicide that resulted from being conned by the man whose name James would later assume himself. Sawyer is 8 years old in the scene and is writing his “Dear Sawyer…” letter when his pen runs out of ink. Jacob to the rescue! He pulls a pen out of his jacket and hands it to James, brushing his hand as he does so. A family friend then sidles up next to him and makes James promise to not finish the letter, stressing that “what’s done is done”, a line we heard Sawyer repeat later in the episode, and a belief that was bestowed upon him by Locke himself.

Sayid: Jacob visited Sayid shortly after the Oceanic 6 returned from the island. Sayid is happily married to his love, Nadia, at the time when Jacob stops Sayid as he crosses the street to ask for directions. Nadia keeps walking and when she turns to look back at Sayid, she is run down by a speeding car. You couldn’t help but wonder if Jacob knew that Nadia would be hit by the car if he stopped Sayid.

Ilana: This scene takes place in an unknown location, but it seems to be some kind of primitive hospital (looks almost like an army barracks). Ilana’s face is heavily bandaged when Jacob walks in to ask for her help. It seems as though Jacob already knows Ilana at this point. Could Ilana have been working for Jacob when she kidnapped Sayid and brought him onto Ajira 316? Methinks this scene happened soon before the survivors went back to the island.

Locke: Jacob first meets Locke right after the fall that breaks both of John’s legs and paralyzes him from the waist down. Jacob closes the book he is reading (Everything That Rises Must Converge) and walks over to the apparently dead man on the pavement. He touches John’s shoulder and all of a sudden, John seems very alive again. It seems almost like Jacob is the reason that Locke survived the fall.

Jin and Sun: Jacob visited Jin and Sun at their wedding and while they did not know who he was, he apparently spoke excellent Korean. Jacob told them that their love is very special and not to take it for granted. The interesting thing to note here is that he visited both Jin and Sun together, which furthers the belief that they are tied together as a single entity in this storyline.

Jack: Jack had just finished his first major surgical procedure, the one where his dumb, old father embarrasses him in front of his new team by trying to calm him down after slipping up. Jack did calm down and fixed his mistake, but confronted his father afterward. He told real-life Christian that he humiliated him in front of his new team and he needs his team to believe in him. Christian’s response was that maybe he himself didn’t believe in Jack, or possibly that Jack didn’t believe in himself. Maybe Jack was just upset that his Apollo bar got stuck in the vending machine. No need to worry, though. Jacob shows up and gets the candy bar out of the machine for him, telling him that it “needed just a little push.” Interesting, because that’s all Jack needed to go back to the island.

Juliet: This was the only flashback that did not include Jacob and it wasn’t by accident. After learning of her parents’ impending divorce, Juliet stomps off to her room, yelling that she doesn’t want to get over it. This scene features another line that is later spoken by the character, when Juliet tells James that just because two people love each other doesn’t mean that they should be together. From this point on, it seemed that 1977 Juliet was doomed, as Jacob did not visit her in the past.

Hurley: Jacob visits Hurley one day before Ajira flight 316 takes off en route to the island. Hurley is released from jail and Jacob is already sitting in the cab that Hurley gets into. This was a great scene because the interaction between Jacob and Hurley was very well written. Hurley thinks Jacob is a dead person at first since Jacob wants him to go back to the island. Hurley lamented his “curse” that he can see dead people, but Jacob made it seem like it might be a blessing in disguise. He makes it clear that it is Hurley’s choice to go back to the island. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to”, says Jacob. He also tells Hurley that the guitar case he leaves in the cab is not his, which again raises the question: what is in the damn guitar case?

There a couple of recurring themes in these flashbacks. Jacob physically touches all of the survivors in some way. Also, Jacob apologizes in many of the flashbacks. He tells James that he is sorry about his family; he apologizes to Sayid because he is lost; he apologizes to Ilana because he couldn’t get to her sooner; he apologizes to Locke that his fall happened but assures him that everything will be alright.

Let’s go back now. The main plot of the episode follows Jack and Sayid as they try to get the hydrogen bomb to the future Swan station site to detonate and hopefully reset the timeline. The episode also features Locke, Ben, Alpert, and the others trekking to that ever-familiar traveling theme music as they hunt out Jacob (literally).Kate convinces Juliet, who convinces Sawyer, that letting Jack detonate the bomb is a bad idea, so they take the captain of the sub hostage just long enough for him to steer them to shore and let them out. While all this is going on, Alpert is knocking out Eloise to save her from the chaos that is about to ensue. Jack and Sayid try to disguise themselves are Dharma folk, but don’t do a very good job and Roger Linus shoots Sayid in the stomach. We see Jack has made his full transformation to Man of Faith here by telling Alpert that Locke should be trusted.

Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate meet up with Jack and the now-bloodied Sayid so that Sawyer can have a little chat with Jack. Jack gives probably the worst reason in history for wanting to reset the time loop, but nonetheless, his intentions seem to be good. Sawyer fails to see Jack’s reasoning, so he starts beating the bloody pulp out of him, until Juliet appears to give the second-worst reason for wanting to reset the time loop. Jack lumbers off to continue his quest, while Juliet spills her heart to Sawyer. Later, Jack tells Kate that Aaron would be back with Claire in this alternate reality and that seems like a more reasonable motive to reset the time loop, since clearly things weren’t working out with Aaron and Kate. One thing to note in this whole fiasco: Jack never seems real concerned with saving Sayid. He tries to stop the bleeding, but his only intent is keeping him alive until he can detonate the bomb. That means he really does believe in this idea more than anything else he has ever done (i. e. Man of Faith).

Jack sneaks into the Swan site not-so-stealthily and is immediately spotted by Phil, but his friends come to the rescue with guns blazing. Finally the shooting stops when Sawyer takes Phil hostage and Jack can toss the bomb down the hole. And… nothing happens. The drill keeps on drilling and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. The bomb does not detonate and the plan seems to have failed. Everything that is magnetic starts to get sucked down the hole while the castaways struggle to get away. There is a final confrontation between Sawyer and Phil (which is totally not believable, by the way) in which Phil is ultimately impaled by about 5 metal rods. Then the dreaded event happens: Juliet is sucked into the pit by the metal chains wrapped around her. Sawyer tries to hold on but eventually loses his grip and Juliet is gone. Interesting thing to note in this scene: Jack is smacked in the head with a toolbox and rendered unconscious for a few minutes. Kate runs to help Jack, but then sees Juliet get sucked toward the pit and changes course. It could mean nothing, but it also could be another sign that Kate really chooses Sawyer over Jack. Or it could mean that Kate really wants to save Juliet because she know how much Juliet means to Sawyer. Or it could mean nothing.

We see the others scurry away and then see Juliet come to at the bottom of the pit with the bomb still intact. Interesting that she decides to try and detonate the bomb herself. She uses her free will to try to carry out the plan as it was designed by Faraday. She starts beating the bomb with a rock and… we’ll get to that in a little.

In the meanwhile, Locke, Ben and Alpert reach the statue where Jacob lives. On the way there, Locke informs Ben that Ben will be the one killing Jacob, not himself, after Ben tells Locke that Smokey/Alex told him to do whatever Locke tells him in the temple. We learn that Ben is a Pisces (although he’s actually a Sagittarius) in the following scenes that include more riotous dialogue from Michael Emerson. We also see the other Ajira 316 survivors make landing on the main island and take Lapidus in as a “candidate”. We aren’t quite sure what they means just yet, nor do we find out before the end of the episode. We follow them through the jungle as they carry a large crate and search out the cabin (how did they know where it was?) that seems to have been deserted for quite some time. They know now that they must hurry to the statue.

Finally, Ben and Locke head into the base of the statue, where Jacob calls home. This scene is one that I definitely need to watch again and again to fully capture what is going on. Jacob greets them and Locke responds in a tone that would assume he knows him, almost as an adversary. He tells Jacob that he has no idea what he’s been through to find him (although I think Jacob has a rough idea, what with the whole weaver thing and all). Then, it’s Ben’s turn to unleash on Jacob. After shamefully declaring to Locke earlier that he had never actually met Jacob, he lets Jacob have it. He releases all his pent-up anger toward Jacob, asking him why he was made to wait to see him all the time and finishing with a “What about me?” Jacob responds simply with the same sentiment: “What about you?” But he does not say it in a mean or condescending fashion. Ben, however, takes this as an insult after his 35 years of service on the island and stabs Jacob with Locke’s knife as the contented Locke stands and watches. Jacob utters one last, dying phrase: “They’re coming.” Who is “they”? Could it be his supposed followers, the other surviving Ajira 316 people? Or could it be Locke’s former friends and the original survivors? We also finally find out what lies in the shadow of the statue from Richard (of course he knows; also his Latin is excellent). The translation for what he says is: “he who will save/protect us all”. So it is a good thing or a bad thing that Jacob was killed? But the major bombshell (no pun intended) is the fact that the thing in the their giant box is actually John Locke’s dead body. Wow.

Creepy Bizarro Zombie Locke with Puppet Ben

Theory time! First off, my theory about Jacob vs. Nameless Man. This seems to be a pretty widely-regarded theory based on what I have read so far, but I did come up with it on my own (kind of). The Nameless Man is the Smoke Monster. In order for Smokey to take form, he must do it in the form of a dead person. My belief is that Smokey has taken the form of a number of different dead people throughout this series. In fact, I think every dead person seen on the island has been Smokey. Christian Shepherd? Smokey. Alex? Smokey. Bizarro Locke? Smokey. Why else would Locke have mysteriously shown up right after ghost Alex met with Ben to tell him to follow everything Locke tells him? Why would Alex tell Ben to obey Locke, his former sworn enemy? Smokey/Alex/Locke manipulated Ben to further its cause: to kill Jacob. We already know that the Nameless man is a sworn enemy of Jacob and that there seems to be some kind of rule in place where they cannot kill each other. Well, Nameless man found his loophole in the form of Benjamin Linus. He took the form of Locke via Smokey to manipulate the defeated Ben to do his bidding. And yet, Jacob still didn’t seem in the least bit worried about dying. And here is the big question… was this event, Jacob dying, supposed to happen? Did Jacob dupe Locke by simply carrying out the plan as it was set forth? Did he weave this into his design? The theory by Lost columnist Jeff “Doc” Jensen assumes this. Maybe Jacob was building his own loopholes off the island by visiting the survivors and helping to bring them back to the island. Maybe they are all reincarnated back into their bodies in the present-day, a la the Myth of Er. Doc thinks that they will either be reincarnated back into their bodies at the time of the crash OR be flashed back into the bodies at the moment in which Jacob touched them, retaining all previous memories. This would give each character the chance to change his or her destiny, a destiny which could include going to the island or their own free will. Hence, “they’re coming.”

More questions! What really caused the flash of light? Was it the bomb exploding or was it Jacob being killed? My initial thought was that it was Jacob being killed, but now I think it was the bomb. I was thinking, Jack hasn’t been fully redeemed yet and he won’t be until near the end of the series, most likely. But really, Juliet is the one who redeems herself by playing hero and detonating the bomb. So yes, I think it is the bomb because Juliet dies (we think, maybe) because she was redeemed. But why did the bomb not detonate on impact, like Sayid said it would? Did Sayid get cold feet and try to sabotage the operation? Another thing to question is… if the bomb detonating reset the timeline, does killing Jacob restore it? You have to wonder why Jacob touched the lives of the people he did while off the island. Maybe it was to bring them back to the island to actually restore the timeline that they were trying to reset because he knew that bringing them to the island would result in his imminent death (and possible resurrection?).

More on Jacob vs. Nameless. Which one is good and which one is evil? It would seem like Jacob was the good one and that Ben just royally screwed things up by killing him. But things aren’t always what they seem on Lost. Just because Jacob is wearing white and speaking softly and touching people on their shoulder does not mean he is all good. It could, in fact, be the exact opposite. If you think religiously, there is an ongoing battle between good and evil, heaven and hell, God and Satan. So why doesn’t God just kill Satan? Or vice versa? There is an unwritten rule, much like the one between Jacob and Nameless. So no matter how much Nameless wants to kill Jacob, he can’t unless he finds a loophole. These powers need vessels to carry out their work in the form of humans. The loophole for Nameless turned out to be Benjamin Linus, or Jesus? Far-fetched, maybe, but we’ll see. We see Jacob eating a fish in the opening scene; the fish is a symbol for Christ. But why, then, would Jacob be eating the fish? If he were the Christ figure, then he would be eating the very thing that symbolizes himself. Further, if you take a closer look at the dialogue between the two regarding the ship, it would make sense that the Nameless Man represents good. He laments the fact that the shipmates will come to the island only to fight and destroy and corrupt, almost as though he would do something about it if he could. Jacob says that it’s all part of progress. Progress toward what? Killing the good forces that are trying to kill him? Corruption would be a good thing for an evil spirit. The final indication could be in the statue in which Jacob lives. We all thought the statue was Anubis but it turns out we were wrong. The head of the statue is a crocodile head, not a dog’s head. This symbolizes Sobek, a morally ambiguous dark god who oversees dark waters and preys on sinful souls in the afterlife. Even worse, Set, the Egyptian god of chaos and evil was a shapeshifter who often morphed into crocodiles and hippos in his clashes with his enemy Horus (thanks Doc!). Could Jacob be a shapeshifter, disguising himself as a force of good when he is really evil? The whole relationship between Jacob and the nameless man could be one big bait-and-switch. I wouldn’t put anything past the writers of this show.

This statue is very ominous and should play a large role in the remaining mythology of the show.

Finally, the whole issue with the Cabin and with Smokey. Personally, I believe that Smokey is working against Jacob and never really had Jacob’s interests in mind. I believe Smokey was out to manipulate a weak soul into killing Jacob. So who was in the Cabin? Not, Jacob for sure. It was Smokey, in disguise as Christian Shepherd and/or Claire. This could be proven by the fact the Ilana believes the Cabin has been used “by someone else”, meaning that the “psychopomps”, as my fiancée and I call them, are actually evil (or good, if Jacob turns out to be evil). My belief is that Smokey was working his plan for the last 35 years, starting with Ben taking over the Others. Smokey fed Ben the B.S. for all those years to frustrate him and saw Locke as his opportunity to capitalize on the loophole theory. Thus, Ben became a pawn in his own game. The puppet master becomes the puppet and Ben ends up turning against the one person he actually believed in. I’m thinking more and more each week that Ben is really good at heart and has the Island’s best interests at heart. I see Widmore as a greedy S.O.B. that just wants revenge on Linus for kicking him out of the leader post after Widmore lost touch with the Island.

Aw, hell no! BERNARD! They found us!

So what about Hurley? He sees dead people too. Ok, this is a little out there but, what if his ability to see dead people really isn’t a symptom of schizophrenia, but rather a way of counteracting Smokey? Maybe Jacob was right when he told Hurley that his ability is really blessing and not a curse. Miles’ abilities could factor in the same way. This would point to Jacob being a good guy. Maybe Hurley is Jacob’s right-hand man, through and through. He did spend the most time talking with Hurley out of all the survivors he talked to, which might make him the most important one to return to the island. I have a feeling we may be seeing more of Hurley’s imaginary friends next season and we will definitely be learning more about Smokey and what exactly he is in the final 16 installations of this series.

Anyway, enough for now. Tell me your thoughts. How did I do? Do my theories make sense, or am I rambling fool? Let me know in the comments!

Also, read Doc Jensen: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20245769_20278837,00.html

Also, yay for Vincent and Rose and Bernard! Their scene was done to perfection!

And fade to white... clean slate? Alternate reality? And whose eye was that???

City Annoyances

It's been a while since I've posted a good, old-fashioned rant, so I feel like today would be a good time to do so. I've been working in Center City Philly for about 11 months now and even though I am used to most of what I see down here, it still annoys the crap out of me.

[rant]
Number 1 issue: annoying train passengers. There are some people out there that think that the train is a good time to start a nice, long phone conversation. To those people, I say this: you are wrong. I simply cannot stand when somebody waits until they get on the train to call somebody and talk for an hour. The worst part is, the people that do this always talk in their "outside" voice. I think it's more or less an issue of not knowing the difference between an outside and an inside voice. Yesterday, just as the train was pulling out of the tunnel, a guy gets on his cell phone and calls what seems to be his mechanic. He's talking about a problem that his car has while chumming it up with this guy. Everyone is staring. People with earphones in their ears are staring, until a guy in front of him turns around and says "you know we can all hear you, right"? On Monday, a girl behind gets on the train at Fort Washington and proceeds to call one of her girlfriends to talk (loudly) about her relationship problems. I was playing my DS with my earphones in and I could still make out just about every word. I take the R5 train. This is the train line that actually tested the now-permanent "Quiet Ride" program. The first car of each peak-hour train is the "Quiet Ride" car, where you aren't allowed any cell phones, loud talking, or music devices. Wonder why they chose the R5 to test it out. It's now a permanent program on all train lines for all peak-hour trains.

Now that I got that out of the way, what is up with R5 passengers? I have never seen a more rude collection of people than on the R5 trains. People butting in front of you trying to get on the train, honking their horns at people in the parking lots of the train stations and just being generally rude. A couple incidents to point out: one morning at the Ambler station, as the passengers are boarding, a woman starts loudly accusing another woman of being rude. "How long are we going to have to put up with your childish behavior?" To which the other woman responds, "what do you mean?" First woman: "Every day you just walk in front of everybody else on the platform. I'm getting sick it!" And the conversation fades as the two walk to the back of the train car. Another incident, different morning: a guy around my age is sitting across from me listening to his iPod, albeit loudly. Yes, I could hear the music from his headphones but it didn't bother me. At the next stop, a middle-aged man (in a nice suit) boards the train and opens his newspaper. After about 30 seconds of staring at the iPod guy, he gets up, smacks the top of the seat in front of the guy and tells him to turn down the volume. The guy responds by turning the volume up. Granted, his music was loud. But there were seats everywhere. The suit guy could have just gotten up and moved to another car.

And the last incident, which happened to me: I had to drive to the Lansdale station one morning because I missed my train at Colmar. I got off in the evening (wearing my earbuds) and was walking to my car. Apparently, I wandered into the middle of the aisle as I was crossing the parking lot to get to my car. A guy in a car behind me honked his horn, which of course got my attention. I glared back and him and he mimed taking earphones out of his ears in the most condescending fashion possible. He drove past me and I flipped him off, of course. This guy actually stopped his car to yell at me (again, a middle-aged man with no tolerance of these young hoodlums and their iPods). He starts lecturing me about wearing my iPod while walking in a parking lot while I make the universal sign for "stop yapping". He proceeds to tell me that I "have a problem" and I tell him to "fuck off". He speeds away. I'm sorry, I was under the impression that pedestrians have the right of way in the great state of Pennsylvania, let alone IN PARKING LOTS!! I'll tell you what though; flipping that guy off made my day.

That's only the beginning. Then I actually get into the city and have to deal with more crap, like walking past smelly homeless people begging for a dollar (a dollar? seriously? whatever happened to "spare change"?) and hearing cabbies lay on their horns. I've never wished that cars were made without horns until I started working in the city every day. DUDE, honking your horn will do absolutely nothing! Don't you think that everyone in front of you also wants to get to where they are going? Then there are those people that walk around on overcast days with umbrellas, even if it's not really raining. Swear to God, this morning it wasn't raining when I came out of the train station. The only drops coming down were from trees and buildings, etc. And yet, I counted about a dozen people in my two-block walk that had their umbrellas up.

Then I have to deal with the noisy people that work on my floor. It seems like they maybe work for 2-3 hours a day on a busy day. They are constantly arguing with each other about something. It was worse during the election, when the one very Democratic woman was teaming up with her other colleagues on the one staunch Republican in the group. I'm sorry, regardless of your political affliation, I feel that it's inappropriate workplace discussion to be having when you are arguing over whose fault it is for the current economic crisis. You can do that outside the office, at lunch or over drinks. But that's not all. One day I heard two of the guys talking about breast implants. True story. The one guy had a friend that got breast implants and that's what they were talking about, loud enough for me and others around me to hear. And the one woman is always getting into heated arguments on the phone with companies that always seem to be charging her too much for... whatever. These conversations sometimes drag on for up to an hour and are just aggravating. The best one was on Tuesday, when she decided it would be a good idea to talk to one of her friends on her cell phone while walking around near my cube. Look, I'm not one of those guys that thinks it's wrong to make a personal call during work every now and again, but keep it to yourself. I don't need to know what's going on in your personal life.

Then I have to actually work, which can be annoying here. Everyone seems to think that meetings are supposed to start 5 minutes after the scheduled start time and end 5 minutes after the scheduled end time. I call it the "5 minute rule". Five minutes early, five minutes late. Then I have to deal with people responding to emails without actually reading them, people giving estimates without actually looking into what is being required, and people arguing with each other during conference calls, which is really one of my biggest pet peeves. I've been in several meetings, both in person and over the phone, that have turned heated and it's not fun. It's embarassing, mostly for the people that are arguing. It's not professional and it's ridiculous that people act like that in the workplace.

And then my day is done and I go home. That's my typical day. I don't know how I've done it, but I've kept my cool and stayed sane for 11 months now. I guess I know what would happen if I did lose it, though. I'd probably lose my job. So that kind of hangs over my head whenever I think of flipping out. Thank goodness for books and Nintendo DS and naps on the train. They are, I think, what keeps me sane during the workday.
[/rant]

Ah, that felt good.

I <3 Amazon

Ok, so this is something that I had to write about sooner or later. I'm addicted to amazon.com. A co-worker did this to me. He told me about Amazon Prime and voila! Two years later, I'm hooked. I do about 90% of my shopping on Amazon. It's great for Christmas shopping, especially when you have the Amazon Prime membership. Let me rewind a bit.

Amazon is a website where you can find just about anything to buy, but I use it mainly for DVDs/Blu-rays and video games. Amazon Prime is a special membership you can sign up for to get free 2-day shipping on all items that are sold and fulfilled by Amazon. The membership costs $79/year. Also, if for some reason you need the item the next day, you can pay an extra 2 or 3 bucks to get it there sooner. Think about it. The rate to ship something 2-day (a DVD, for instance) is $3.99. If you buy more than one, the shipping rate goes up, of course. So, if you do lots of online shopping, this deal will pay for itself within a month or two. And it did, for me. In 2007, I did all my Christmas shopping on Amazon. I ordered all kinds of stuff and everything always showed up in two days or less, even items that I ordered the week of Christmas.

But the kicker came when I ordered two large items from Amazon. For Sezzy's birthday, I ordered a Dyson vaccum cleaner. Can you guess the best part? That's right, free two-day shipping. Then, last August, I ordered my 58" Plasma TV for our new rec room. Best part? Free shipping (they couldn't guarantee 2-day since they ship through a 3rd party, but it was still free and it was delivered to my front door by two very nice Hispanics that didn't speak a lick of English). The delivery guys even unboxed the TV for me (after some coaxing and a decent-sized tip) and hooked it up to make sure it was working. The best part about Amazon Prime (arguably) is that you can add up to 4 other members to your account. I added Sezzy so now we have one Prime account and all items that either of us buy get free 2-day shipping.

But Amazon Prime is not the only reason I shop on Amazon. Their prices are many times unbeatable. The retail price on the TV that I bought was close to $800 more than what I payed on Amazon. And it was full price at both Best Buy and Circuit City. Also, no tax for us Pennsylvania residents (I believe the New York residents now have to pay tax on Amazon because of some stupid new law that deals with online shopping). So I can buy a new video game (which by the way, are usually a couple dollars cheaper than the list price) and pay no tax and no shipping, and I can do it while I'm watching TV or surfing the web. The real kicker here came last summer when Amazon added "Release Date shipping" to some of their video game titles. I thought that shipping for new releases was usually spot on before they added this, but this guaranteed that the games would arrive on release day. For no extra charge for Prime members.

Where Amazon really wins, though, is their customer service. Or rather, customer satisfaction. I'll be the first to admit that dealing with Amazon's customer service can often be quite frustrating. Their call center is outsourced so communication can be a problem. Usually, you end up talking to somebody in India and having to explain the situation multiple times (seriously, average call time with them is like 25-30 mins), but this is pretty normal in this day and age anyway. The thing that sets Amazon's customer service apart is that they try to do whatever they can to make you happy if you have a problem. Everyone makes mistakes, and Amazon is part of "everyone". But they realize how frustrating it is when they make a mistake and they do what they can to keep you happy, even if they are just following a script. I ordered Mario Kart for the Wii when it came out. I had it pre-ordered and chose "Release Date Shipping". It did not come on release day. I called and explained and they threw a $5 credit on my account. When I ordered the Dyson, I didn't know it could come in the actual Dyson box and not a plain brown Amazon box. It was a birthday present so I kind of wanted it to be a surprise. I got a phone call at about 3:30 pm on the delivery date from Sezzy, and all she said was "We haz a vacuum?" Thanks Amazon. I called, complained, got a $5 credit on my account. Sezzy ordered a video game with 2-day shipping for me for our anniversary in November. It took 5 days for it get here. She called up, complained, got a $5 credit on her account.

But my latest incident with Amazon is what impressed me most. It impressed me because I was the one who totally screwed the pooch in the situation. Amazon recently started taking trade-ins on video games (credit comes in the form of Amazon gift card credit to your account). I'm a pretty avid gamer and I worked at EB Games/Gamestop for almost 4 years so I know my fair share of what goes on in the retail video game industry. I know, more or less, what you can expect to get in trade value from Gamestop for most games. So I thought I would check it out. I haven't traded in any PS3 or 360 games yet because Gamestop's trade values don't impress me much anymore. When I looked at Amazon's trade values, I was impressed. There were some games that I thought were worthless (i.e. Heavenly Sword, which I got for free with my PS3) that they were willing to give a very generous amount in trade for (I got $20.50 for mine but it's back down to $13 now). Plus, they pay for you to ship your games to them. I was skeptical of shipping times and whatnot, but I thought I would give it a try since the trade values were good.

Then I saw their trade-in special. Trade in 4 or more games for any system and get an extra $20 toward a select list of games. On the list was Killzone 2, a game which I have been meaning to get but was previously too cheap to actually shell out the money for. This was perfect. I could trade in my games and get Killzone for free, basically. So I got my games together to trade in: Heavenly Sword ($20.50), Prince of Persia ($17.75), NCAA Football 09 ($9.50), Rock Band ($7.25), and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith ($3.50) for a total of $58.50. These are all games that I'm not going to play anymore, for various reasons. So, with my $20 extra credit, that comes to $78.50. That's almost enough to buy two games. So my plan was to buy Fallout 3 ($49.99 on Amazon) and then when I got my $20 credit in my email (they don't all come at the same time; trade credit first, then promotion credit), I would buy Killzone 2. Voila, two brand new games for under $25.

However, I didn't exactly execute my plan the way I intended to. Somewhere in there, I had a brainfart and in my excitement to play Killzone 2, I went ahead and bought that with my trade-in credit (by the way, I still haven't played it). This was very, very stupid of me, since I did not yet receive my $20 promotional credit. So I had $5.51 left in trade credit, and last night I got my gift card code for my $20 promotional credit. Being the idiot that I am, I still only realized this morning that my $20 credit was more or less useless. Killzone 2 is the only game off of the list of "select games" that I really wanted. So now I was looking at paying $45 for Fallout, rather than $24.50. In desperation, I called Amazon. I explained the situation (5 times, and often in piecemeal) to the customer service rep who, by the way, was very helpful. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with her, but eventually she was able to add a $20 credit to my account that I could use on anything in my next purchase. Praise Amazon. I thanked her profusely, admitting my mistake several times. I promptly bought Fallout 3, as if the credit were going to disappear as soon as I hung up with her.

So kudos to Amazon once again. I haven't found a more reliable, dependable online retailer in my short lifetime. From their great prices to their outstanding selection to their unbeatable deals to their sometimes-frustrating-but-always-satisfying customer service, they have it all figured out. I feel I will be an Amazon customer for life after the experiences I have had with them and if you haven't yet experienced the glory that is Amazon, I would definitely recommend it.

Strange Day

Yesterday was a strange day for me, full of different emotions. I woke up yesterday morning with a holiday weekend hangover, the kind that makes you feel like you never want to wake up at 6:00 am and go to work ever again, but you know you have to. I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for work, hopped the train and rode into Center City.

My workload is light right now, so I spent a portion of my morning figuring out my local taxes. I hate taxes. Local tax in Pennsylvania is the biggest B.S. ever. Not only do I pay thousands in federal taxes (on top of what I normally owe at tax time), but the local boroughs charge every working residents anywhere from 1-2% of their gross salary in local tax. In Lansdale, the local tax is 1%, with half going to the township and half going to the school district. It sucks, but it's still only 1%. Sure, I complained about it last year, but I realize now how lucky I was. I went to do my taxes this year and found out that the local tax rate in my new town is 1.5%. That means that I have to pay 50% more this year than I paid last year. Luckily, I only lived there for 4 months, but next year should be real fun. Without telling you what my yearly salary is, this puts my local taxes at over $900 per year. It's disgusting. This pretty much ruined my morning.

So I went to lunch. There's a great sandwich place just down the block from where I work, but I choose Subway over this place sometimes because Subway is cheaper. No more! To my surprise, Subway changed all their prices over the weekend. They also put up a hip new menu to confuse people with. Get this: all of their good (in my opinion) subs are now over $5 for a 6-inch! And yes, they are still running the $5 footlong promotion. Yesterday, I wanted to get a 6-inch Subway Club with the meal. The 6-inch club used to be $4.50, but they raised the price to $5.25, making it more expensive to get the 6-inch than the footlong under the current promotion. So Subway would rather waste food than have someone simply buy the amount that they want or need. Nice going Subway. Way to do your part. Not only that, but all 6-inch subs are now at least 3.99, including the veggie subs. All subs with meat are at least $4.25. I actually hope that the $5 footlong thing ends soon so they can stop wasting food. The best part is that the 12-inch versions of the 6-inch subs that now cost $5.25, cost a whopping $7.00! That's right, $7.00 for a footlong Subway Club. If you add a meal, you're looking at a $10 lunch, which incidentally is more expensive than the local deli (Kennedy Food Garden, a.k.a. The Sandwich Nazi) I mentioned earlier.

So when I got back from lunch, I was pretty peeved. But then I saw something that made all that go away. I saw a news story come up on my Google Reader with the headline "Harry Kalas rushed to hospital". Of course I clicked it. The story said that Kalas collapsed in the press box of the Washington Nationals' stadium and was rushed to the hospital. Team President David Montgomery said it didn't look good. I frantically started clicking links on philly.com to get an update and when I clicked the "Home" link, the headline on the front page read "Harry Kalas Dies". I couldn't believe it. I was in complete and utter shock. It all happened so suddenly. I clicked the link and the story said that he passed out and was unconscious when he was rushed to the hospital and the doctors could not revive him. I felt lost for a few minutes. I teared up. I've never felt so sad over the death of somebody I don't even know. But he was the heart of the city of Philadelphia and the only Phillies commentator I knew in my lifetime. He was the image and voice of the Phillies and one of the greatest commentators the sports world has ever known.

See you Harry, you were the best ever

What few people know about him is all the different things he did in broadcasting. Sure, he has been the Phillies broadcaster since 1971, but other credits include being the voice of NFL Films since 1975, as well as credits calling NFL and college football games on Westwood One radio. He was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. He was the Phillies' broadcaster during their 1980 World Series title, but did not get to call the games because of broadcasting rules set forth by the MLB. Four years later, the rules were changed and 24 years after that, Kalas finally got his crowning achievement: calling the last out of the Phillies' 2008 World Series championship. He is, in my and many others' opinions in Philly and elsewhere, the best there ever was.

Still feeling a little off when I left to head home, I read a little and dozed on the train before going home to help my fiancee with her taxes. We watched our CBS comedies (Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother), which were hilarious, before watching one of the most boring episodes of Heroes to date. At the climax of the episode, I was finishing up my local taxes and Sezzy was playing Final Fantasy III on her DS. It made me laugh at just how much the show has declined in the last two years. Anyway, I thought I would feel back to normal again when I woke up this morning and, for the most part, I did. I got ready for work and hopped in my car to head to the train station. On the way, WMMR played a Harry Kalas montage put together by a member of their morning show and I got emotional all over again (I posted it on my tumblr site). I guess it's going to take the people of Philadelphia some time to heal after this sad, sad incident. Our voice was taken from us yesterday and watching a Phillies game will never be the same. I hope the Phillies pull together this year and win another one for Harry the K. It's what he would have wanted.

Bad Day (and SEPTA Hate, Pt. 3)

Sometimes, these posts write themselves.

I was having an ok day yesterday, not great but not bad either. It was just like any other work day. Sure, I don't enjoy going to work, but I also don't loathe it. Most of my weekdays are just... days. As was yesterday, up until about 2 pm.

I was surfing the web in the little free time that I had yesterday, checking my Google Reader rss feeds and chatting on Google Chat, when all of a sudden a slew of system errors started popping up on my screen. Here is what I saw:

WTF?

Now, I'm an IT guy, but even this message doesn't mean too much to me. I thought I would try the "Check online for a solution" option since I had never seen this error before. So I clicked that option and here's what I got:

WTF????????

Whoa. At first, I thought it was funny, hilarious even. I report a problem and get a message that Windows Problem Reporting stopped working. Ha ha, funny. My next question was: "if Windows Problem Reporting has stopped working, can I check for a solution?" This was all very comical to me at this point. So I tried clicking "Check online for a solution" again and got the same message. The answer to my question was a resounding "no". So of course, I had to copy and paste these screenshots to post on the web. This was just too funny to let go. So I tried to open Paint to paste my screenshot. Crash. I tried again. Crash. Ok, so Paint isn't opening. Now what? How do I get this hilarious screenshots saved? Microsoft Word? I tried to open that and... crash. Now I'm getting a little concerned but I still thought that I could reboot and everything would be a-ok again. But I still needed to save these screenshots. And then it came to me. My Outlook was already open so I should be able to send an email. I pasted the screenshots into an email and sent it to myself. Success! Now, to get my laptop back to normal (it's about 2:30 at this point).

I rebooted my machine, thinking it just needed a memory dump or some such. I log in to Windows and... nothing. Just errors. "Windows Explorer has stopped running", "Windows Module Installer has stopped running", etc., etc. Uh-oh. At this point, I am not longer finding this comical. I am now thinking there may be a serious problem with my computer. What could I possibly have done to cause this to happen? I was doing NOTHING out of the ordinary. Surfing the web, chatting with friends and colleagues, etc. I rebooted again and booted in Safe Mode this time. Everything seemed fine. I ran a chkdsk to scan my hard drive for corruption. No issues detected. Ok, let's try to reboot again. I logged in and bam! more errors. Services shutting down all over the place. Plus, I can't even launch any administrative tools to investigate. Even Task Manager was shutting down when I opened it to try to launch/end processes. I started Googling on my work computer at this point. I found a few useless solutions. I finally rebooted and ran system diagnostics, thinking the problem could be rooted in corrupt memory or hard drives. Memory can become corrupted out of nowhere and this memory is two years old so who knows?

After about an hour of running system diagnostics, all the tests come back as passed. My memory was run through about 15 different tests and passed all of them with flying colors. At this point, I am stumped. I am taking stock of my applications at this point and formulating a plan to re-install Windows, chalking this all up to a Vista issue. I am actually planning, at this point, to downgrade to Windows XP Professional and say "to hell with Vista". Then I get a bright idea. This just started happening about 2 hours ago (it's about 4 pm at this point). I should have a recent restore point. I boot up in Safe Mode and start System Restore (I had a restore point from Wednesday morning, luckily). At this point it's 4:15 and I normally leave work at 4:25. Crap, why didn't I wait until I got home to do this? I have a green and blue screen that simply says "Please wait while System Restore Initializes". Initializes??? It hasn't even started running yet?! It's 4:23 and I have to get going. I think that maybe just closing the lid of the laptop will keep system restore running while I'm on the train.

It doesn't. Instead, it shuts the computer off. Great, now I screwed it up. I boot up the computer again, starting Windows normally, and log in and... everything is back to normal. No errors, all my applications are loading up properly. I get a popup saying that System Restore completed successfully, which baffles me because it just told me 2 mins ago that it was still initializing. I'm afraid to do anything more at this point and I really can't deal with all this right now so I shut down and head for the train station. Feeling victorious, I head down to my platform and hear this over the loudspeaker:

"Attention all R5 passengers. Service on the R5 Lansdale-Doylestown line has been indefinitely suspended. You are advised to seek an alternate means of transportation."

All aboard the Express to... oh nevermind

I stand shock-still for a few minutes looking at the other equally shocked R5 riders that I recognize before swiftly heading upstairs and grabbing a few train schedules. I know that the R5 going the other direction makes stops past Center City, but where or when the trains get into the station is voodoo magic to me. I called my fiancee and ask her if she can possibly pick me up. She has to tutor at 6:30 but she calls the kid and is able to reschedule. I tell her to meet me at Lansdale station at 5:44. I head down to the platform for the R5 Thorndale and ask a guy there if any of the R5 Thorndales go through to Lansdale. He tells me that I have to take the R5 Lansdale line to get to Lansdale. Thanks, Captain Obvious. I remind him that the R5 Lansdale line is DOWN (you dumb f*ck, but I didn't actually say that) and I need to find an alternate route. He says he needs to find out what to do in this case so he asks the rather important-looking guy in a reflective vest sitting down at a desk-like thingy and this guy snaps that he's "not a route advisor" and orders the other guy to find so-and-so and he should be able to tell him which route to take. So the guy walks away and doesn't come back.

So I go over to map again to look at the lines. It would seem that the R2 line goes to Hatboro, which is really the best I'm gonna do at this point. The next train arrives at 5:02 on the same track as my usual train. I get down there and it seems like a lot of other people have the same idea. I actually was able to procure a seat towards the back of the train, but I was one of the last people to do so. The train was packed with not only R2 passengers but also the displaced R5 passengers. I text my fiancee and tell her about the change of plans. I got to Hatboro at around 6:00, so it wasn't too bad. Turns out, all hell was breaking loose because of the light rain we got yesterday (yes, light rain). The root of the SEPTA problem was actually a PECO power outage in Ambler, thus suspending the lines. There were traffic lights out and apparently flights, both arrivals and departures, were delayed up to 2 hours at Philly airport. Seriously, it was just rain. And it wasn't even heavy rain. It was just plain old normal rain. No thunder or lightning. Very little flooding on the roads. It was barely even raining in Center City.

So we went out to dinner after I got back and the only good thing to happen to me all day happened at Ruby Tuesday. I ordered a 12 oz. beer and got a 21 oz. Woot! And, they didn't charge me for the bigger beer. Double woot! As we drove home, the electricity was still out in places. Two lights were out on 309 and the entire Wal-Mart shopping center looked to be without power. Seriously, it was just rain, nothing else.

Just... rain. I guess sometimes, things happen that are completely out of my realm of understanding.