Thursday, October 26, 2006
Fall Blooming Bulbs
I have a new article up on my Flower Gardening site about bulbs that bloom in the fall. I have most of these growing in my garden right now. If they're not already blooming, they're getting ready to bloom.
Every Man For Himself
Last night's Sawyer-centric Lost episode was great! Well, when you're a huge fan like me, they all are. I posted a recap at Lost Fanatic and a list of the Easter eggs and references I found. Drop by and let me know if I found them all. There were a lot.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Locke as the Hunter
In last week's Lost episode backstory, Locke wrestled with the question of whether he was a hunter or a farmer. He wants to be a hunter, but is he? I posted my thoughts at Lost Fanatic. Stop by and let me know what you think.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Fall-Blooming Alliums
I have a new article up on Garden and Hearth - Flower Gardening about alliums that bloom in the fall. Allium is a huge genus that includes onions and garlic, but also has hundreds of ornamental varieties. Most bloom in the spring and early summer, but I've chosen six that bloom in the fall. Check it out here.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Meerkat Manor
Two new episodes every week. This is great. Last night, the Commandos and the Whiskers fought. Remember the Commandos had cornered Flower and a small splinter group of Whiskers in her burrow and it looked grim for the Whiskers. At the last moment, the main group of Whiskers arrived and fought with the Commandos, saving Flower. Everyone in the Whiskers made it home safely that night, although with some scratches. Unfortunately, one of the Commandoes died in the battle--Ozzy, the son of Hannibal.
Later, the Whiskers left Youssarian babysitting the pups by himself. Why do they keep doing this? They should know by now that Youssarian needs babysitting as much as the pups. Youssarian left the pups while he went to flirt with the ladies of the Lazuli. The pups were completely alone and rival meerkats showed up at the burrow. Again, disaster was narrowly missed when the Whiskers returned home and chased off the others. The pups were safe.
Meerkat Manor shows on Friday nights on Animal Planet. Meerkat image courtesy of Animal Planet.
Later, the Whiskers left Youssarian babysitting the pups by himself. Why do they keep doing this? They should know by now that Youssarian needs babysitting as much as the pups. Youssarian left the pups while he went to flirt with the ladies of the Lazuli. The pups were completely alone and rival meerkats showed up at the burrow. Again, disaster was narrowly missed when the Whiskers returned home and chased off the others. The pups were safe.Meerkat Manor shows on Friday nights on Animal Planet. Meerkat image courtesy of Animal Planet.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Lost: Further Instructions
I posted an episode recap of "Further Instructions" with comments on Lost Fanatic, including a few Easter eggs that were in last night's show. There's plenty of space for comments and you don't have to register to post.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Lost Podcast
I found the official Lost podcast from ABC for 17 Oct 2006. It had some pretty interesting information on it. You can check out the summary here.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Lost Fanatic: The Red Sox
I have a new post about Lost on my Lost Fanatic site. I talk about the Red Sox and their significance to the show. I even include a photo of a shirtless Sawyer. Stop by and let me know if my theories are totally out in left field.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata)
My article on Spider Lilies is posted at Garden and Hearth in the flower gardening section. The spider lilies in my garden came from my mother-in-law's house. She said she had gotten them from her mother-in-law, who got them from her mother. I think it's nifty when a plant has a story or a memory attached to it. This one has a little history.
The spider lily in the above photo has been growing in that spot for several years, but the annuals around it are new every season.
Meerkat Manor
First Mozart is exiled and returns to the group, then Tosca (who seems to have died) is exiled, now Mozart is exiled again. Both girls have been exiled for getting pregnant. This time around, Mozart was so hungry that she miscarried. Now she is trying to get back in. Here's hoping.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Lost Fanatic
Wow! Thanks to everyone who's been stopping by my new site. Lost Fanatic, a web site devoted to the ABC television series, is climbing fast through the ranks. It has recaps of each episode, previews, and commentary. Several people disagree with my thoughts on the show, so it gets interesting. I love hearing others' views.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Cyclamen
My article on cyclamen is posted at Garden and Hearth - Flower Gardening. If you love cyclamen, you'll be interested in the link I provided at the end of the article to the Cyclamen Society.
Sword Review Fiction Contest
The Sword Review is having their annual fiction contest. The theme is "hope" and entries are accepted until 01 Dec 2006.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Lost -- The Glass Ballerina
Moved to Lost Fanatic. Stop by tonight. I'll be on during and after Lost.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Watering the Flower Garden
I have a new article up at Garden and Hearth - Flower Gardening about watering the flower garden. I get a lot of questions about this. Too much water can be just as bad for a plant as not enough.
Garden and Hearth is an online magazine with a readership of over half a million. Topics covered include garden and home (hence the name of the 'zine) as well as jobs, crafts, hobbies, and other things.
I write the flower gardening section.
Garden and Hearth is an online magazine with a readership of over half a million. Topics covered include garden and home (hence the name of the 'zine) as well as jobs, crafts, hobbies, and other things.
I write the flower gardening section.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Cyclamen
My cyclamen are coming along fine. I planted them a few weeks ago. The nursery had a zillion variations on color, but I picked the hot pink and white ones.
These white ones are great. Even though they are low to the ground, the dark green foliage makes them stand out. They can even be seen from the road.
I planted the cyclamen in a sheltered location behind the hibiscus and nandinas. I hope they will survive the winter. They would look lovely in the spring.
On the other hand, the hot pink cyclamen cannot be seen from the road. I rather expected they would be seen from outer space. Alas, my garden is not so noticeable after all. The hot pink cyclamen aren't filling out as well as the white. Maybe they're just slow starters.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Lost -- A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens
Come over to Lost Fanatic and tell me your thoughts.
Here's the first chapter of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It seems to me that it provides an outline of underlying currents in the Lost episode of the same name.
From Book the First -- Recalled to Life
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.
France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, for as much as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.
In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting. Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers' warehouses for security; the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom he stopped in his character of "the Captain," gallantly shot him through the head and rode away; the mail was waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, "in consequence of the failure of his ammunition:" after which the mail was robbed in peace; that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all his retinue; prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball; thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went into St. Giles's, to search for contraband goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a housebreaker on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand at Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster Hall; to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer's boy of sixpence.
All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures--the creatures of this chronicle among the rest--along the roads that lay before them.
http://www.literature.org/authors/dickens-charles/two-cities/
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DicTale.html
http://www.litrix.com/twocitys/twoci001.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/98
To read a summary and comments, go to Sparknotes.
Here's the first chapter of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It seems to me that it provides an outline of underlying currents in the Lost episode of the same name.
From Book the First -- Recalled to Life
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.
France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, for as much as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.
In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting. Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers' warehouses for security; the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom he stopped in his character of "the Captain," gallantly shot him through the head and rode away; the mail was waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, "in consequence of the failure of his ammunition:" after which the mail was robbed in peace; that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all his retinue; prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball; thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went into St. Giles's, to search for contraband goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a housebreaker on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand at Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster Hall; to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer's boy of sixpence.
All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures--the creatures of this chronicle among the rest--along the roads that lay before them.
http://www.literature.org/authors/dickens-charles/two-cities/
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DicTale.html
http://www.litrix.com/twocitys/twoci001.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/98
To read a summary and comments, go to Sparknotes.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Lost -- A New Blog and Thoughts on This Week's Episode
Woohoo! I am going to have a new blog totally devoted to Lost in a few days. I'll put the link here.
Edited 10 Oct 2006: My Lost blog is up and running. Check it out at Lost Fanatic and let me know what you think.
For now, here are my thoughts on this week's show. Let me know where I am way off and what I missed.
What did we learn that was new in the opening episode of season three?
Stations -- according to the film at the Swan station, there are six Dharma stations. So far, we have seen:
Swan -- the station where Desmond was a hatchmonkey and where the electromagnet went haywire at the end of season two
Arrow -- the tail section survivors stayed here. According to a cryptic comment from someone, the arrow may be a storage facility and not a station
Staff -- the medical station where Claire was taken by Ethan
Pearl -- the station found by Locke and Eko. This was where the occupants of the Swan hatch could be viewed.
Hydra -- the zoological station where Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are being held. Bears, sharks, and dolphins
On the blast door map, there is also C3, C4, and a scratched out station between the Staff and the Arrow. To figure out where the Hydra station might be on that map, I'm making a few assumptions. First, that the Hydra is close to where the Others live. Second, that the accuracy of the blast door map can be relied on. Third, that the Hydra station is on the map, just not labeled.
Watching the plane break apart from the point of view of the Others in their compound, the tail landed to the right and the fuselage to the left. That puts the Hydra at C3 or C4.
How far away from the Others' compound did the tail section land? Ben said that Goodwin could make it there in less than an hour if he ran. The fastest time in a marathon (twenty-six miles) was run in 2003 by Paul Tergat at two hours, four minutes, and fifty-three seconds. But Goodwin would have been running cross-country, and marathons are usually run on decent roads. Looking at high school times for cross-country running on Dyestat, I see that thirty-six minutes is an excellent time for two miles. So, the tail section landed between three and thirteen miles away, if Goodwin was an elite athlete, and he ran on a combination of jungle and beach.
It seems a significantly longer distance to the fuselage. Ethan probably spent most of the day getting there. Without knowing a time for Ethan, I won't guess the distance.
The Others are playing mind games with the 815 survivors. But why? That's not really new information, since Henry played with Locke in the hatch. (He pushed the button. No, wait, not really. Locke is one of the good ones, one of the ones Henry was coming for, yet he wasn't on the list of people for Michael to bring.) The mind games they are running amount to torture. What is the point? Probably to break them, but then what?
Edited 10 Oct 2006: My Lost blog is up and running. Check it out at Lost Fanatic and let me know what you think.
For now, here are my thoughts on this week's show. Let me know where I am way off and what I missed.
What did we learn that was new in the opening episode of season three?
Stations -- according to the film at the Swan station, there are six Dharma stations. So far, we have seen:
Swan -- the station where Desmond was a hatchmonkey and where the electromagnet went haywire at the end of season two
Arrow -- the tail section survivors stayed here. According to a cryptic comment from someone, the arrow may be a storage facility and not a station
Staff -- the medical station where Claire was taken by Ethan
Pearl -- the station found by Locke and Eko. This was where the occupants of the Swan hatch could be viewed.
Hydra -- the zoological station where Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are being held. Bears, sharks, and dolphins
On the blast door map, there is also C3, C4, and a scratched out station between the Staff and the Arrow. To figure out where the Hydra station might be on that map, I'm making a few assumptions. First, that the Hydra is close to where the Others live. Second, that the accuracy of the blast door map can be relied on. Third, that the Hydra station is on the map, just not labeled.
Watching the plane break apart from the point of view of the Others in their compound, the tail landed to the right and the fuselage to the left. That puts the Hydra at C3 or C4.
How far away from the Others' compound did the tail section land? Ben said that Goodwin could make it there in less than an hour if he ran. The fastest time in a marathon (twenty-six miles) was run in 2003 by Paul Tergat at two hours, four minutes, and fifty-three seconds. But Goodwin would have been running cross-country, and marathons are usually run on decent roads. Looking at high school times for cross-country running on Dyestat, I see that thirty-six minutes is an excellent time for two miles. So, the tail section landed between three and thirteen miles away, if Goodwin was an elite athlete, and he ran on a combination of jungle and beach.
It seems a significantly longer distance to the fuselage. Ethan probably spent most of the day getting there. Without knowing a time for Ethan, I won't guess the distance.
The Others are playing mind games with the 815 survivors. But why? That's not really new information, since Henry played with Locke in the hatch. (He pushed the button. No, wait, not really. Locke is one of the good ones, one of the ones Henry was coming for, yet he wasn't on the list of people for Michael to bring.) The mind games they are running amount to torture. What is the point? Probably to break them, but then what?
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Book Review -- Hoot
Originally appeared in Haruah on 03 May 2006 in One for the Book.
Hoot
by Carl Hiaasen
published by Alfred A. Knopf
New York, 2002
ISBN 0-440-41939-5
Carl Hiaasen brings his sense of humor to a young audience in Hoot, a delightful novel filled with quirky characters and their sometimes zany, sometimes sensible antics. Set in Florida, the book is a light comedy with a mystery centered around endangered owls and a national chain of fictional pancake houses.
Roy Eberhardt, the new kid in town, is being squished by the local bully, when he sees a boy running barefoot alongside the school bus. The boy veers away from the bus, clearly not going to school, and Roy's curiosity is piqued. He waits several days until he sees the boy again, then jumps off the bus and runs after him. What follows is a series of events in which he outwits the bully, solves the mystery of the truant boy, and exposes criminal doings at a construction site, while making new friends and adjusting to his new home.
There were two things I particularly liked about Hoot. The first one, and the big one for me, is the portrayal of the main character and his family. Roy is a good kid, who loves his parents and wants to please them, and he is normal. His parents are both alive, married to each other, and normal. When Roy has a problem, he talks to his parents. They listen to him and he listens to their advice. In true kid fashion, he doesn't share everything with them, he doesn't follow their advice to the letter, and he doesn't behave perfectly, but he does try to do the right thing within the limits his parents have defined for him.
The second thing I liked may be considered a bit of a spoiler for the ending, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to know. Roy solves the central problem of the book by thinking the problem through and using legal means to prove his case to his parents and enlisting their support. No calling the bad guys and having them meet him in a dark alley. No elaborate plans involving booby traps. This brought the story into the real world for me. A middle-school kid could not take on a corporation in the real world. He would need to recruit adults to his cause, and that is what Roy Eberhardt does.
Hoot is a Newbery Honor winner and a New York Times bestseller. A movie version is due to be released in theaters in May. Carl Hiaasen has written many novels about ecological problems in Florida and the offbeat characters who solve them, though this was his first written for a young audience. He has since written a second novel also aimed at ages ten and up called Flush.
I highly recommend this book for the younger readers in your life. Or read it yourself. It's a hoot.
Hoot
by Carl Hiaasen
published by Alfred A. Knopf
New York, 2002
ISBN 0-440-41939-5
Carl Hiaasen brings his sense of humor to a young audience in Hoot, a delightful novel filled with quirky characters and their sometimes zany, sometimes sensible antics. Set in Florida, the book is a light comedy with a mystery centered around endangered owls and a national chain of fictional pancake houses.
Roy Eberhardt, the new kid in town, is being squished by the local bully, when he sees a boy running barefoot alongside the school bus. The boy veers away from the bus, clearly not going to school, and Roy's curiosity is piqued. He waits several days until he sees the boy again, then jumps off the bus and runs after him. What follows is a series of events in which he outwits the bully, solves the mystery of the truant boy, and exposes criminal doings at a construction site, while making new friends and adjusting to his new home.
There were two things I particularly liked about Hoot. The first one, and the big one for me, is the portrayal of the main character and his family. Roy is a good kid, who loves his parents and wants to please them, and he is normal. His parents are both alive, married to each other, and normal. When Roy has a problem, he talks to his parents. They listen to him and he listens to their advice. In true kid fashion, he doesn't share everything with them, he doesn't follow their advice to the letter, and he doesn't behave perfectly, but he does try to do the right thing within the limits his parents have defined for him.
The second thing I liked may be considered a bit of a spoiler for the ending, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to know. Roy solves the central problem of the book by thinking the problem through and using legal means to prove his case to his parents and enlisting their support. No calling the bad guys and having them meet him in a dark alley. No elaborate plans involving booby traps. This brought the story into the real world for me. A middle-school kid could not take on a corporation in the real world. He would need to recruit adults to his cause, and that is what Roy Eberhardt does.
Hoot is a Newbery Honor winner and a New York Times bestseller. A movie version is due to be released in theaters in May. Carl Hiaasen has written many novels about ecological problems in Florida and the offbeat characters who solve them, though this was his first written for a young audience. He has since written a second novel also aimed at ages ten and up called Flush.
I highly recommend this book for the younger readers in your life. Or read it yourself. It's a hoot.
Lost -- A Tale of Two Cities
Moved to Lost Fanatic. Check there for daily updates and discussion on Lost, the ABC tv series.
Lost -- A Tale of Survival
Moved to Lost Fanatic. Check there for daily updates on Lost, the ABC tv series.
Lost -- A Summary of the Characters
Come by Lost Fanatic and let me know your thoughts.
Mysteries abound on this island--and the rest of the world, too, as we found out in the final episode of season two. Here are just a few things I'll be looking for in these first few episodes of the third season:
Will Michael and Walt come back to the island? Walt will miss Vincent for sure. Maybe he'll wait for his father to go to sleep and steer the boat to the beach in order to get his dog.
What about Kate, Jack, and Sawyer? They've been central to the series, so I'm sure we'll follow them to wherever their captors are taking them. Will Hurley double back and spring them? Or will he go back to the beach? If he goes back to the beach, there is an excellent opportunity for some of the redshirts to become backstory characters.
Poor Locke. I almost feel sorry for him. We knew the fake Henry Gale was lying to him, but Locke truly believed. He needs something to believe so badly. When he finds out he wasn't one of the "chosen" good ones, he will have another breakdown.
Eko and Charlie are a strange team. Charlie traded one dependency for another and now that Eko has abandoned him, what will he do? And Eko's visions are unclear to say the least. He thinks he is following them, but it seems to me there is plenty of room for interpretation of what his brother said to him and what Eko saw.
Island time moves slowly -- two years in our time is a little over two months in island time. Sun is recently pregnant, so that may become a plot point, or she may not have that baby for seven more years.
The issue of pregnancy and babies is one that the show has concentrated on. Claire and Aaron have been the source of plot points and seemingly minor asides (but possibly major at some later date). The Others kidnapped Alex, Danielle's daughter, when she was a week old. Sun's pregnancy probably will come into play as well.
The island heals, or so it seems. Rose said she was healed, not just in remission. Locke can walk. Jin can father a child. Is it the crazy magnetic properties? Something in the water?
Ah, and Sayid, the island's good bad guy. Bad because of his past and his seeming willingness to return to it, even when not entirely necessary. Good because he tries to hold the castaways together and he works for the good of the group. He is likely to discover something or relate something enlightening to us (the viewers) in the first few episodes of the season.
My favorite plotline involves Desmond and Penny. Penny has been looking for the island, but why? To spite her father? Because she knows what's there? What is there? The potential for two lovers to reunite makes my romantic heart go pitter-pat. Of course, the potential for Desmond to die just as Penny reaches the island is also there. I hope not, but we'll see.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Bulb and Flower Division
A new article is up at Garden and Hearth about bulb and flower division. One of my recent articles talked about the differences between bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, and tuberous roots. This one details how to divide them to grow more plants, whether to expand your own garden, or to pot up as gifts for family, friends, and neighbors. Some flowers can be divided for new plants, too. I talk about those and how to care for the new plants.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Meerkat Manor
Meerkat Manor returned for its second season on Friday night. The series begins two months after season one ended. The cliffhanger of the first season was whether Shakespeare survived the battle with the Lazuli. He saved the four pups he had been babysitting, but there was no sign of him. Sean Astin, narrating the series, starts the first episode of the season by saying Shakespeare has not been seen since then and is presumed dead.
Tosca, too, is presumed dead. Flower kicked Tosca out of the Whiskers group after she had pups (which non-dominant females are not supposed to do.) It's hard for a meerkat to live alone and, especially with the difficulties of winter survival, Tosca likely did not make it.
With spring coming, the meerkats are thinking of love. Youssarian doesn't like being pushed around by his brother, Zaphod. Youssarian leaves the Whiskers and heads for the Lazuli group, which is short a dominant male. He meets up with Pancake, an evicted Lazuli female. He hangs out with her for the night, but then he leaves her. What is he thinking? It's not like he has anyplace better to go and she seems like a perfectly nice young girl.
A new group, the Commandos, shows up on the scene. Apparently, their territory abuts that of the Whiskers, just as the territory of the Lazuli does.
Flower has another litter of pups. The winter has been difficult and there has not been enough food for the females to lactate. The pups are hungry and have to wait for Flower to return home each day from her foraging. This makes them aggressive.
A small group of Whiskers meerkats enter Commando territory to eat and find good forage. Plenty of excitement happens, including a hawk flying over.
Well, I'm still rooting for Shakespeare and Tosca, though it doesn't look good. Tosca may well have gone somewhere that the TV crew hasn't found yet. I suppose there's not much chance Shakespeare has been nursing his wounds in the burrow for two months, but I'm just not ready to give up hope.
Tosca, too, is presumed dead. Flower kicked Tosca out of the Whiskers group after she had pups (which non-dominant females are not supposed to do.) It's hard for a meerkat to live alone and, especially with the difficulties of winter survival, Tosca likely did not make it.
With spring coming, the meerkats are thinking of love. Youssarian doesn't like being pushed around by his brother, Zaphod. Youssarian leaves the Whiskers and heads for the Lazuli group, which is short a dominant male. He meets up with Pancake, an evicted Lazuli female. He hangs out with her for the night, but then he leaves her. What is he thinking? It's not like he has anyplace better to go and she seems like a perfectly nice young girl.
A new group, the Commandos, shows up on the scene. Apparently, their territory abuts that of the Whiskers, just as the territory of the Lazuli does.
Flower has another litter of pups. The winter has been difficult and there has not been enough food for the females to lactate. The pups are hungry and have to wait for Flower to return home each day from her foraging. This makes them aggressive.
A small group of Whiskers meerkats enter Commando territory to eat and find good forage. Plenty of excitement happens, including a hawk flying over.
Well, I'm still rooting for Shakespeare and Tosca, though it doesn't look good. Tosca may well have gone somewhere that the TV crew hasn't found yet. I suppose there's not much chance Shakespeare has been nursing his wounds in the burrow for two months, but I'm just not ready to give up hope.
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