Shout Out Loud!

I bought my plane ticket today! Isn't that funky fresh? It was bloody expensive, but money is replaceable, isn't it? Unlike people. Speaking of...Emily Winter comes home this week! And Laurel leaves Monday. Holy Smokes! Like the Smoke Monster. Which was one of those questions on LOST that did get answered, even if a long time ago. Speaking of, I loved the LOST finale. I cried for about 15 minutes after it ended, but only in private. In fact, I can't think of Juliet and Sawyer without bursting into tears. Oh dear...

But anyways, a lot of people complained that LOST didn't answer questions, but so far, all I've seen people do is complain about these ambiguous questions without actually saying what any of their questions were that didn't get answered--

(P.S. EDIT: there are some spoilers here--somehow this become a LOST rant). The only thing I've seen so far with actual questions (some of which did actually get answered--someone wasn't paying attention) (P.P.S. How crazy was it when we first saw the Smoke Monster? And we were like 'What IS that thing???' Though it was answered awhile ago, I still feel like it was a good twist).

was this-->http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291 --and I'm betting people will be borrowing from this to form their complaints. But here's the deal--many of the questions that people want to know the answer to are either a) unimportant, b) ideas purposefully left open-ended, or c) stuff that can't be answered because the question arose during a time when the writers didn't really have a solid grasp on what they were doing, and so discrepancies came about (example: the smoke monster, revealed to be the Man in Black whose purpose was to get rid of Jacob/Jacob's candidates so that he could get off the island, killed a bit haphazardly when it first came about probably because they didn't really hadn't decided what they would do with the character--also, a similar question also arises when Jack sees his dead dad off-island--when Jack sees his D.D. on-island, it's the Man in Black; but for the story to be accurate, Jack has to be hallucinating when he sees him off-island, because the MiB can't get off the island--I don't think that connection was made until later by the writers).

But anyways, the point isn't to get all the answers, because that's not realistic, and it's not very enjoyable. The creators' desire was to create an intelligent show that didn't necessarily cater to the lowest common denominator, which requires that viewers may sometimes need to think for themselves, and come up with their own theories. In my opinion, this makes the show much more enjoyable, because we form a connection to the characters (especially those who have watched it for many years), and if we are told exactly what happens to them and what their situation is, it is easy to become frustrated if the outcome is not what we hoped for. I think the ending was a perfect way to close because it made a full circle--it focused on these flawed people and the redemption they found.

Ok, I'm done riding this train for now. So recap: ticketed, hello, good-bye, LOST.

And now a little extra random bonus:

Song of the Day: Shout Out Louds, "Impossible" (Alternative: "A Hard Rain in Tokyo", SOL) --Such a good band live!

Push it...push it real good.

Hi Kids!

Today I received a very nice lovely delicacy in the mail today. I knew right away from the envelope and the style of writing that it had come from Japan; I just didn't know where in Japan it had journeyed from. When I opened it, I was greeted with this lovely surprise:

My sad and pathetic computer skills present you with a wrongly directed, poor quality version of this wondrous little letter that came from my future co-workers. I was wondering if some such letter might be headed my way, since Hera had shown me a similar written welcome from her future/now current workmates. Getting the letter helped cheer me up from the frustrating run-around I've been getting from the online airfare booking agencies (those foo's think they can offer me bait and switch for a $800 flight originally promised at $577? No sirree. Momma don't raise no foo').

Anyways, everyone remember that my g'by' party is on June 19th, and LoKate's Surprise goodbye party is this Saturday (details to follow any questions asked).

Quotes of the day:

Carrie: I sat by the weirdest couple on the plane today. One of them looked just like Abraham Lincoln.

Jillian: I hope it was the man.

I'm making Mac 'n' Cheese Tomorrow! Mm Mm Mm!

Today, after she convinced Katrina to reschedule the picnic because she was unavailable, Laurel dragged me to Border's on the premise that I could read comics and keep her company while she worked (ok, more like I wanted to get ice cream and photos from Costco and then go read comics, and she needed to work, so I tricked her into getting into my car--but at least this time I didn't force her to listen to Tegan and Sara on repeat), but the silly bookstore was out of THE ONLY COMIC I WANTED (the same one the library was out of!), and so I had to read travel books about Japan (also, I bet the majority of the 3 people who read this forgot what the sentence was about after the first pair of parentheses, so recap: sneak attack, ice cream, T&S, comics, no comics, tour book).

Anyways, after looking at every travel guide covering Japan, I realized that the prefecture I am going to is insanely unpopular. Comparison: if we compare prefectures to SoCal counties, Saitama is Imperial County. To which all of you will reply, "Not a real place." But apparently, it is! I was originally going to say San Bernardino County because as we all know, that place is gHeTtO, but I looked at a map outlining counties just for fun and saw that Imperial is not just a highway that will take you from LAX to Anaheim Hills (and that nice international market with all the lovely desserts!), but the name of a living, breathing county (well...maybe. But I am fairly certain that, similar to the above paragraph, 1 of the 2 determined readers that has continued this far will not remember what this section is supposed to be about). But despite not having any info on my soon to be residence (not that it matters; I've been to Saitama), one of the books did have a good deal of very entertaining material.

One of these topics mentioned a particular area of Tokyo that will be rather close to me, so I felt it was appropriate to read into. The specific topic of the section concerned Otaku; the nerdy Japanese population that is overly into comics and video games and maid cafes. The usual culprit is a Japanese male with worn out, bland clothes and an awkward shyness that is more off-putting than endearing, especially when they cling to their anime character body pillows. However!, this article mentioned that while men are the usual characters indulging themselves as Otaku, there is a small portion of the population that is female, and are usually seen frequenting Ikebukuro (the place in Tokyo that will be by me)--and this portion of Otaku ladies are usually interested in what they call "boys' love", which is apparently very attractive boys who are in love with each other. There are even cafes that feature women who dress up as they very attractive men for the women visitors (so follow: girls who like pretty boys visit places where pretty girls dress as pretty boys to draw them in). I find this very hilarious, but I tend to think it is probably one of those small facets of of Japan that foreigners find and blow out of proportion as a way to describe what Japan is like.