January 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 pm
by sillyjoe (In-television)
Season 5 of Lost, my second favorite television show (How I Met Your Mother gets first billing in my heart), premiered last night and I couldn’t be happier. The premiere ruled and I have a few thoughts to share. Spoilers are sure to follow, so stop reading now if you don’t want to be spoiled.
- Future Sayid (or I guess now he’s Present Sayid) is a total badass. Total. Bad. Ass. And the way he pulled that last kill, using the knives in the dishwasher…well that was just bananas.
- Totally knew Neil was gonna bite it. He was even wearing a red shirt (Nice Star Trek nod, writers)
- Wonder why Charlotte seems to be the only one physically effected by the time changing?
- Sawyer and Juliet are going to do it. Mark my words. It will happen.
- Hurley had some fantastic stuff tonight: the hot pocket, recapping the whole show for his mom, and of course “You know, if you ate more comfort food maybe you wouldn’t have to go around with a gun all the time”
- As soon as Daniel looked at his book, I knew he was gonna try to talk to Desmond. He is his constant, after all.
- Totally crazy to see Ana Lucia again. Didn’t see that coming. And it was sweet when she told Hurley that Libby says hi.
- I really like the rules they have set up for time on the show. And Daniel’s metaphor of it being a street really helped those rules make sense.
- It was great to finally see Dr. Chang (so THAT’s his real name) in a way that didn’t involve an orientation video.
Great, great episode, and I couldn’t be more excited about this season.
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January 15th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
by sillyjoe (Feeling Bookish, Life and Introspection, Religion)
I’m currently reading A.J. Jacobs’s second book, The Year Of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Jacobs is a secular Jewish man (He says he’s Jewish like “the Olive Garden is Italian”) who decided to take a year to immerse himself in the Bible. To see what it would look like to follow the Bible as literally as possible, to the letter. Every jot and tittle, as they say. What results is a sometimes funny, sometimes profound, sometimes moving memoir. I’m about 3/4 of the year through and this passage I read this morning moved me so that I felt I had to put it somewhere for posterity. For context, this excerpt was written from Jerusalem during a short trip Jacobs took there.
Today I’m taking a rest from a walk on a set of stairs near the Jaffa Gate. Or maybe near the Lion’s Gate. I’m not sure. Frankly, I’m lost. But I’m resting here on the stone steps, which are cool and shaded and have a bumpy surface that makes them look like a Rice Krispies treat. I have my head bowed and my eyes closed. I’m trying to pray, but my mind is wandering. I can’t settle it down. It wanders over to an Esquire article I just wrote. It wasn’t half bad, I think to myself. I liked that turn of phrase in the first paragraph. And then I am hit with a realization. And hit is the right word– it felt like a punch to my stomach. Here I am being prideful about creating an article in a midsize American magazine. But God–if He exists–He created the world. He created flamingos and supernovas and geysers and beetles and the stones for these steps I’m sitting on. “Praise the Lord,” I say out loud. I’d always found the praising-God parts of the Bible and my prayer books awkward. The sentences about the all-powerful, almighty, all-knowing, the host of hosts, He who has greatness beyond our comprehension. I’m not used to talking like that. It’s so over the top. I’m used to understatement and hedging and irony. And why would God need to be praised in the first place? God shouldn’t be so insecure. He’s the ultimate being. Now I can sort of see why. It’s not for him. It’s for us. It takes you out of yourself and your prideful little brain.
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