My Thoughts and Reaction to the Lost Series Finale

So one of my favorite shows "Lost" just had it's series finale last night. Overall I think the series is one of the best shows to air on television and I recommend that everyone watch it. In fact, if you haven't seen it, you are so lucky because you have 6 seasons of amazing television waiting for you. This is a review of the finale so don't read it if you have not seen it.

My first reaction once the show ended last night was... what? I was more confused than anything. This being the final episode in the series, I was expecting to finally get some solid answers. But of course this is Lost, and they are known for leaving the viewers with more questions than answers, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Since there was not a straight forward ending, I was initially disappointed. However, the more I thought about the finale and analyzed it, the more I began to understand it and appreciate it.

What Lost did was end the series in a way that was not exactly clear and instead is open to many interpretations and theories. This is actually the best way to do it. If you give a definitive answer, only those who want that answer will be happy. Everyone else would be disappointed. But if you leave it open, everyone can think about it and decide what happened on their own.

So what is my theory? I think at the end, all the characters in the room are basically at the "gates of heaven" or the place right before you go to the after life. I think the good characters made it there and were able to go through, but the bad characters were not able to go through. This is a theory I haven't heard from others yet. For example, Ben Linus stayed outside the church. I don't think this was really his choice. I think he was not able to go in with them or pass through because he had been very bad over the years. Some other bad characters also were not present.

So were all the people in the room dead at that point? I'm not sure. It seems like some of them were, but maybe some were not. If they were all dead, then this had to take place some time further in the future. Yet some of these characters did not age, so that is kind of strange if this is the case.

Overall I thought the finale was good, but a few things I didn't like. I was wondering why Sayid ended up with Shannon. What happened to his long lost love Nadia? Shannon was just a short fling on the island. His whole purpose was to get back with Nadia, so the choice to put him with Shannon was a poor one in my opinion.

Another thing is some characters did not get enough fulfillment. For example Charles Widmore. He was an important character and we really never figured out what his angle was. I mean he finally gets back to the island and he is fighting against the man in black. Then he whispers something to the man in black and Ben shoots him. And that's it for him? We should have at least gotten a better understanding of him and his purpose.

One thing I am confused about is why the man in black turned into the smoke monster when he was thrown down the waterfall. I believe he was killed when he went down, but what turned him into the smoke monster? Desmond and Jack went down there too, but remained human.

I was worried when Desmond uncorked the energy of the island and all the powers were lost. It felt like the magic of the show disappeared in that time. I was glad to see it restored when Jack put the cork back in. However I don't like that he sacrificed himself to do it. I think he should have survived and been Jacobs replacement.

So we understand that Hurley took on the role of Jacob with Ben as his 2nd in command. They never really showed what happened on the island after that time. Who was left? Was there any negative energy or evil left on the island? If not, what is there to protect?

I was kind of hoping that Jack would take over as the next Jacob and someone else would take over as the next man in black. I'm thinking Sawyer would have made a great nemesis for Jack as they battled so much though out the season. I think it would have been a great way to end with those 2 sitting side by side, staring out into the ocean and Sawyer saying how he is going to kill Jack one day. The scene would be much like the one with Jacob and the man in black before.

So overall what happened? From what I can tell, the Lost crew was currently living in the side flash reality and they were slowly remembering their experience on the island. I think their different realities kind of merged together into the sideways reality. What is real, what is imaginary, who is dead, who is alive... these questions are still confusing and I'm not sure of the answer. I think the creators of Lost left it like this so we will continue to discuss it and come up with our own theories and interpretations of the story.

Overall I had a great time watching this show over the years. This is one of those shows where, after you see the whole thing, you need to go back and re-watch it with a new understanding and perspective. One day I hope to do this and re-watch the entire series. Will there ever be another show as good as Lost? We can only hope. Maybe a spin off or a continuation of the series later on. There is so much potential. I hope we see something more from the Lost mythology in the future.

Good Still Exists

Lately I have been not depressed, but feeling kind of down by all the bad people that are out there in the world. It seems like there are fewer and fewer truly good people out there. It makes me want to avoid people just so I don't have to interact with the bad ones.

Today however, my spirits were brightened. I was shopping at Kohls and I was waiting in line to check out at the register. A young girl was working the register and I noticed she was very friendly to the customer ahead of me. Usually in a job like this, the sales associate is not very happy; they are just doing their job, so when this girl was extra nice, it caught my attention.

Then it was my turn to check out. She was very friendly to me also. She had a nice personality, but not overpowering. She even gave me an extra 15% off with a coupon that they probably give out for customers to use on their next purchase.

This girl made me realize that there are still good people out there.

This situation is similar to one of the fundamental concepts of one of my favorite shows Lost, which has its series finale tonight. The concept is good vs. evil. In the show, there is a good guy and a bad guy. The good guy has to exist to prevent the bad guy from getting out and turning everyone else bad in a sense. The bad guy wants to kill him, but the good guy keeps bringing more people to the island to join him in an effort for good. As long as good exists, it will triumph over evil. I think this is true for real life. Which side are you on?

How are these guys not topping the charts?

So I was watching this new show Jamie Oliver's Food Nation and they has this part where they sort of did a live dance/cooking performance on a college campus. They used this song and I thought it was pretty good. At 1st I thought it was Sean Paul, and I don't like Sean Paul, but this song was good.

So I go to look it up and find out it is by a group called The DNC and the song is called Jungle Flames. I look them up some more and they have 1 album out. I listened to their songs and they are all pretty good. They make the kind of music that is super popular right now, which makes me wonder why they are not supper popular? Apparently they have had songs featured in various tv shows and movies, yet I haven't heard them in the actual music scene until now. Anyway, check it out:

Youtube, Stop Changing!

Why is it that Youtube feels the need to keep changing everything up once we finally learn how to use it? I liked Youtube's format way back in the day and every update seems to make it worse.

Why is it that every feature you want to use seems to be hidden behind a button? It's like you have to jump though hoops to get to features that should be right there.

Information that used to be in the sidebar is now hidden underneath the video. So this means all the millions of video that were posted before this change which referenced content in the side bar are now obsolete.

And by the way, what happened to time stamps on comments? Now you can't tell if a comment was posted 2 minutes ago or 2 months ago.

Youtube, go back to basics. Stop changing everything to make it less user friendly.

UPDATE: 7-14-11

Youtube continues to mess things up and make the site less user friendly. Now they have decided to hide the most basic buttons that everyone needs including the play and stop button. What other necessary features can you hide from us Youtube? Why not hide the actual video so we have to click on something just to display the video?

Taxes, Returns and Deductions - Income Tax Reform Needed

So I just filed my 2009 income taxes. I did it myself online with one of the free services through the IRS. Overall it went pretty smooth but I didn't get back as much as I would have liked. I ended up owing the state a little which is annoying.

One of my main points to address in this article is how I think the tax system really needs to be changed. I understand income tax. But what I don't like is all these hundreds of tax deductions. It makes the system very complicated and leaves a lot of room for error. I don't understand why they have tax deductions in the 1st place.

There needs to be a better way to keep track of people's income and the taxes that are deducted from it. I don't see why they are leaving it up to individuals to report it. That is not good enough. I think it should be deducted and reported by the employer. But what about people that make their own money and have their own business? I guess they have to report their own.

Going through the filing process I just think there are way to many options and steps to consider when filing your taxes. It needs to be much more streamlined and accurate. It should just be, how much did you make and how much do you owe, simple as that. Maybe I don't know enough about the topic of taxes, but those are just some of my thoughts.

Reggae Style Music Recommendations

In this post I will recommend some songs that are not necessarily reggae style, but they all come from bands who have a little bit of reggae influence. And yes I meant to spell style with 2 e's in the title.

The 1st song is Fred Astaire by Lucky Boys Confusion. LBC is a band from Chicago that had moderate success but never really made it big. It's a shame because they really deserved it. They have tons of great songs and are probably one of y favorite bands. Today they still play shows occasionally, but each of the members is kind of doing their own thing with side projects. Check out this live performance of one of their hit songs:


Next up is a legendary band, another one of my all time favorites, Sublime. These guys were huge in the mid 90's and what is ironic is that most of their success came after the death of their lead singer. Brad Nowell died of a drug overdose before they released their self titled album which went on to sell millions. Here is a song I like from that album called April 29th 1992:


Last recommendation is a song called One Day by Matisyahu. It's hard to classify which genre it falls into, but it's just good. Good music and a good message. It's nice to see someone doing their own thing in the music business these days. We need more music like this. Have a listen:

The Youth Today - Teen Behavior Today vs Years Ago

Have the youth changed over the past 10 years? I work at a high school and I am troubled by the student population I see everyday. Keep in mind, the school I work at is recognized as being one of the top schools in the state. You would think being one of the top schools means you have the top students. From my experience this is not the case.

As I walk through the halls, I see students with their pants sagging down below their butt, piercings through various part of there face, and hats turned sideways. These kinds of things are not encouraged, but there is not much enforcement of the dress code rules. Another thing that bothers me is the language these kids use. It's pretty much impossible to get through the halls without hearing several bad words coming out of the student's mouths.

It's also quite common to see a couple students making out in the hallway or outside the school. This is one that really bothers me. I and I'm sure other student's don't want to see people making out as we walk to our next class. Again, it's not allowed, yet the students do it anyway.

Another thing that makes me question the intelligence of these students is when they come to school dressed completely inappropriate for the weather. It will be negative 10 degrees outside and there will be tons of kids coming to school without coats. You might even see some kids going outside in just t-shirts. Then there are the kids who come out to the bus in this weather carrying their coat. I really don't understand the logic in that. Why not put your coat on? What is it for?

Now not all students I encounter are bad. There are lots of good students too, but overall I guess I'm just wondering if kids have always been like this or if it is just a change in the times. I was in high school not all that long ago and I don't think the kids were like this.

One thing that makes me wonder is this. I hear kids listening to mainstream rap, stuff that is not very good, and would be considered a bad influence. I look down upon this, but then I remember when I was their age or even older, I was listening to the same kind of music. Same thing goes for the baggy pants. I don't like when I see the kids wearing really baggy pants, but when I remember back, I had really baggy pants when I was their age.

Given these comparisons, I turned out alright. So then I wonder, should these kids be judged on these characteristics? Maybe I'm being to hard on them with my impressions. I mean, when you are in high school, you are just trying to fit in and survive basically. These kids are still young and they have a long way to go. So even though many of the things mentioned above bother me, maybe I need to be a little more understanding and less critical.