This week there was NO new LOST episode :( , which made me very sad. I've gotten so use to my routine of watching LOST on Wednesdays that I did not even know what to do.



So I've decided to dedicate part of my blog to show breaks. Why do shows have to go on breaks? I'm not talking about the summer breaks, but the little breaks that networks put in between the series that make no sense! When you have a show like LOST and there are only 3 episodes left in the season, why do you do this to the viewers????? It is stupid and it makes the viewers upset. I would understand if it was a new series and the series had not expected to be picked up which forced the network to put it on a small hiatus while they film more episodes.

I hate how LOST makes these stupid little recap episodes when we have been following what has been going on for the last 13 weeks. Are they for people who just to decide to start watching in the middle of the season? I say that is bull because they are going to be confused. There is so much stuff that happens in this show that it would take forever to put into one tiny little recap.

I don't want this how blog to be ranting about the networks giving shows unneeded breaks. So I'm going to talk about this new show I started watching called Weeds. Weeds is about a suburban housewife, who becomes a widow, and has turned to selling pot to stay living the lifestyle she is living. I like this show because it is about something that could happen in real life. Although, selling pot is considered a felony, the show allows you to see an insight into a pot dealer's life. Nancy goes through many tough obstacles through the show and at the end of season 4 , not only is she pregnant with a mexican drug lord's child, but her oldest son has become her supplier. I promise to have more on the show next week along with an interesting topic to go with LOST.

Until next time

Maggie

Out of sight, out of mind....bad idea

Grey’s Anatomy came back this week! I didn’t realize how much I missed it. They jumped right in with Derrick and Meredith all giggly about the wedding. When did Derrick shave? So I guess operating on Izzie cured him, just like I said it would. But now that I find out I was right, it seems a little forced. Oh and him and Mark made up, so all is well. Except Izzie’s still dying and Hunt thinks he ruined Christina, which he may be right about.
The importance of family during death:
This week on Grey’s Anatomy Izzie is still on her death bed and the most adorable little girl died. This brings me to my next topic- the importance of family and loved ones. The little girl’s father was so frantic trying to find a way to get her to Mexico for some miracle cure, he almost wasn’t there when she died. The doctors were telling him she wouldn’t make it to Mexico, but he wouldn’t listen. Not that I can blame him. I would never be able to sit and watch my daughter die. He felt like trying to get her to Mexico was better than doing nothing at all. How could he just do nothing if there was any chance at all she would benefit from Mexico? It was a real tear-jerker this week. He comes back to her and describes Mexico with white sand, blue skies, and clear ocean, as she takes her last breath and passes away in his arms.
Watching someone die is a horrendous experience on so many levels. I can only imagine how watching your child die would rip your heart out a million times.
Izzie was busy all episode planning Meredith’s wedding, regardless of what Meredith wanted. It was obvious she was blocking out the truth of what was really happening by obsessing over the wedding. If you really thought about it, it was quite sad. Here she is planning her best friend’s wedding when she never got to have hers, and may die before she ever can. She also has a horrible habit throughout the episode of pretending to be sick, pass out, or die, just to get people to do what she wants, but when she is really sick, she hides it from everyone.
She said in the end she was trying to be who she was before she became sick, and she just couldn’t. It’s true. When you get that sick, you have to take on a different role than the one you had before. You can’t always physically do all the things you used to and your priorities change. It is very difficult to adjust to this, not including trying to accept the possibility of your death. This is why there are special support groups for those battling cancer, as well as ones for those who have beaten it, because getting back to your old life has its difficulties, too.
Death is something that we put out of our minds, we purposely try not to think about it. There’s a reason card companies don’t put vases on their cards to hold the flowers- they look similar to urns. Death is painful, but perhaps if we spent a little more time dealing with it before it became a part of our lives, we would be better able to handle it. It is an inevitable part of life for every single person and yet we are still shocked when it happens to us and those we love.
I’m not suggesting we walk around contemplating the meaning of life or spend all of our time focused on death. That’s obviously no way to live, but there is a difference between living your life to the fullest, enjoying the time you have and ignoring death until it punches you in the face and catches you completely off guard.
One problem, however, is that we don’t know how to prepare ourselves for death. There is no one way to do it. No full-proof plan to handling grief. Everyone is different, but if psychologists put time into researching this topic, preparation, death, and grief, perhaps someday we would have some answers as to how to better deal with it in life.

With reflection,
Pearl

What are you capable of?

This week’s Heroes was really quite drawn out, but there were still a few things I got from it. This episode had a lot of flashbacks to when Mrs. Petrelli was a young girl. The main idea was that the government found out that certain people had these special abilities and they locked them up in a camp in the desert. The doctors there killed kids and adults because they were different and Mrs. Petrelli lost all her family. The guilt she felt, combined with seeing a horrendous future, lead her to form a group with some of the other kids at the camp. Together they formed the “company” that we’ve seen from the very first season. This “company” has come off as evil, but as we find out here, it didn’t start out that way. This is what leads me to my point today.
The company’s goal was always a good one at heart, just gone horribly wrong. So it leaves me thinking about a few things.
Is it okay to do evil things, in order to achieve something good, the ultimate good? The ultimate evil for the ultimate good? You’ve heard the question before. Could you kill one to save twenty?
Well imagine this was a reality. Hundreds will be tortured and murdered. If you could try to change that, if it meant killing, would you be able to? Would you even want to?
It comes back to that whole ‘you can’t change the future’ notion. How can you be sure? Isn’t it worth trying?
I tried to think about what I would really do in this situation and I think it comes down to the fact that we are capable of anything if we put our mind to it. So I asked myself, am I capable of doing something like this? In this world, no. But I’ve had a good life, where I’m not fearing for my life every day.
What do you think? Would you be able to? Even if you were able to, would you take that course?
In life, right and wrong isn’t always clear. You might think the scenario here is outlandish or a waste of time to think about. But it’s not impossible. History’s already shown us that one man is capable of manipulating and brainwashing a country into thinking some people aren’t worthy of life, that it would be okay to imprison thousands, torture and kill them, just because they weren’t the same, because one man said his way was right, that some people were less than him and his followers, and it was their duty to destroy all of them.
So it’s not impossible. History repeats itself. I don’t think that sitting at my desk, thinking about how I would handle a situation like that would prepare me, nor do I think that I need to prepare. But it does help put my life in perspective.


With reflective thoughts,
Pearl

DHARMA stands for Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications

In this week's episode of LOST, we learn more about Miles, the guy who can listen to dead people. We learned that his father was actually the man who runs the whole entire Dharma Initiative. His father left his mother when he was very young. We find out in the episode that he was born on the island. Little fact: The Dharma people and even the Others had a hard time staying pregnant. Most of the women would die because of their pregnancies and there was no reasons as to why. This is why Juilet was brought to the island long ago. If this is true, then Miles must have been born off the island or the writers forgot about this.

Something else that the viewers learn is that the hatch is being built during 1977. For those who don't know what the hatch is, here is your explanation: It is one of the Dharma station. The person that lived in it was suppose to type in 4 8 15 16 23 42 in a computer and hit enter. If this didn't happen, there would be a back-up of electromagnetic energy. Obviously, you see what I'm getting at. Oceanic Flight 815 was brought down because of this electromagnetic energy.

There was a fair amount of comedic humor during the show courtesy of Hurley. He thinks that if it is 1977 and Star Wars just came out that he could send a script for "The Empire Strikes Back" to George Lucas so he wouldn't have to think to hard. What Hurley doesn't know is that:

1. The script was probably written at this point.

2. How he is actually going to send the script to him. It isn't like there is mail on the island or that there is a way to get it to the mainland. I mean hello no one knows that this island even exists. So how would someone go around finding it, when it isn't located on a map.

-I couldn't come up with a third reason so I will leave it at two.

At the end of this episode, there was a HUGE suprise! The return of Daniel Faraday!?!?!?!

I had no idea that this was coming. As to why Daniel is back on the island, I have no reason. I have a feeling that he is going to know how to get everyone off the island. Whether this will happen, I don't know. I'm sure that the writers have something spectacular up their sleeves since the season finale is in about four weeks. Im actually excited to see how the season is going to end.

Hopefully next week something awesome will happen on the show!

Until next time,

Maggie.

What Reality Really Is...

Two weeks have gone by and I have not posted a blog by the deadline. Between school and work I have not had much time to go on the computer.

When trying to think of a topic for today since I have watched little TV as of late, I got to thinking about my job. In the past week I have gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. Horse Racing does that to you. It can make you feel on top of the world and then come right back and break your heart. It's hard to explain to non-racetrackers the live we live and our careers. It's a rough business, a tough one, that most people wouldn't understand. It's no wonder I would rather associate with racetrackers than 'normal people'. Racetrackers "get" each other. We understand how we all operate and how we think. We understand others hard work schedules and devotion to being at the barn all hours of the day. No sane person gets up at 3:30 in the morning to go to work unless you really really love something.

Last weeked we had 10 horses run. They all ran pretty decently and we had a few winners. One of the fillies on Sunday was a horse that I had exclusivly worked with all winter. She just couldn't understand being a racehorse. My trainer thought she was slow but she would manage to hit the board. She loved to get second and third, but could never win. As the winter wore on she really came into her own. She looked better, felt better, and in general was just happier. She won her first race a few weeks ago. Lasy Sunday we moved her up in class and she won again, easily. I was so happy to see a filly that I worked so hard on finally get what racing was. Her owners were thrilled. They couldn't be happier. They had bred her, raised her, and broke her. It was that day that I thought "this is why I love this sport so much. Helping the horses reach thier full potential. This is why I want to be a trainer".

Today, about 3 hours ago, horse racing showed our barn once again how unpredictable and hard this sport that can. One of other horses, Forest Grinder, was breezing (running race speed around the track) with another horse when she bobbled, breaking her leg, badly, I might add. She had to be put down. I didn't take care of Forest, but I fed her every single day. Right after I learned it was her that broke down I went into another horse's stall, hugged his neck and cried. These horses are part of a big family at the barn. The horses are not supposed to get hurt. They aren't supposed to die. It's hard to explain it to the anti horse racing people. These things are not supposed to happen, they just do and you have to deal with it. Forest wasn't the first and I know she won't be the last, but everytime one loses thier life, it's like losing a member of your family. You watch these horses learn and grow and help through hardships and through good times. It's terrible to see one get hurt.

As far as people go at the racetrack, good people are hard to come by. Quite a few people have drug and alcohol addiction. People go out and party. people cheat on thier spouses. People steal. Just a few weeks ago a girl almost got raped in one of the bathrooms. there are people that are crooks or have done dirty deeds in the past. The racetrack isn't the safest place. It's hard to find good people and I am thankful I work for a barn full of good people. In the past two weeks I made a friend from another barn who I am very grateful for. She is a good person. Relationships are hard on the racetrack since good people are hard to find and we are always traveling. It always seems when someone perfect seems to walk in the door my age they are always jetted away to the big leagues of the racing world because of thier talent and how bright thier future is. It's heart breaking. I guess half the reason I like watching the millionaire matchmaker is because someday I hope I have a happy ending like these people seem to do, but on the racetrack I don't have much hope.

Reality TV for many is an escape and I geuss it is that for me too. But in the end, you can't escape reality. On a day like today, where our barn hit the lowest of lows, I have hope that we will once again return to the highest of highs. Horse Racing is funny like that. The Tampa meet is coming to an end and the horses will be going to 3 different tracks where new adventures, more new horses, and more new people await. It will definatly be an interesting ride.

The Joys of TV online.

I was going to review an episode from Animation Domination (Fox's Cartoon-Based Sunday nigh line up)

But this week they were re-run minded (with promises of new content next week). So I've decided to change it up a bit and discuss watching tv online.

I've personaly become an avid watcher of Hulu.com. They're the people who had the bright advertising campaign of "We're aleins and we're out to destroy the world." This still hasn't stopped their website from gaining a lot of favor with many American veiwers. Some of their content recieving upwards of 30,000 veiwers a day. Granted they're not the first company to offer such a great product but for the most part their content is given to the site straight from the content owners. This guarentees clearer content and a better selection.

On the the other hand what is it doing to network tv. If network television loses all of it favor, then why would networks continue to produce content. A single episode of show (a new show for example) costs millions of dollars to produce. But if no one is watching, how do you justify spending that money to have the content produced. If the content were to cease to exist because their's not use for it in it's current medium, what happens to the medium that caused it to stop existing.

Just a thought.

Sorry this is a short one.

~Dwayne
Thoughts like these are available in my mind 365 days a year.

Forgiving is a human thing

In this episode of Lost, Ben has to confront the beast a.k.a. the smoke monster and ultimately ask for forgiveness. One of the things that he has to be forgive for is letting his daughter, Alex, die. Alex was taken from her mother about 20 years prior to the present time. Ben raised her as his own and when it came time for him to leave the island. He let the army guys, Charles Widmore sent, kill his daughter in front of him.

The flashbacks throughout the episode all center around Ben and his daughter. I thought that it was really neat how they incorporated the flashbacks into his asking for forgiveness. Even though, Ben is an awful man, the viewer can see in his eyes that he feels bad for what he did. Ben really loved his daughter.

I feel that the writers did a good thing, letting Ben ask for forgiveness. Now, Ben is forced to stay and help Locke. If he doesn't, the consequences will be deadly.

I don't really have any predictions for the next episode, but I have a feeling that Sun will be reunited with her husband, Jin, soon.

Since there isn't a lot happening in LOST... next week I'm thinking of talking about the show WEEDS.

If you are still LOST- here's the recap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDDq9tVEkKc

Signing Out

Maggie

Keep your friends close...

No Grey’s Anatomy this week.

But I did watch an old episode with Fin, the vet. I forgot how gorgeous he was.
After last week’s weird AA edition of Heroes, this week followed up with a nice story about reconnecting with your family. A coincidence that recovery from drug and alcohol addiction are strongly influenced by the presence of a stable support system? Yes, probably, but it makes for a good point, I believe. In this episode of Heroes, Claire’s family is reunited. By the end of the episode Claire, her biological grandmother, father and uncle (who there’s weird sexual chemistry with because they’re dating in real life, were all there together. Even her adoptive dad was there, despite the “am I evil or not?” thing he’s been going through. But then again, he really had no where else to go after he assaulted his own wife and almost killed her and then killed an innocent man in front of everyone he worked with, both because he thought it was Sylar. Oh but in the last case it really was and Sylar just ‘played dead’ for a while. Okay, back to what I was saying about family. It really was a nice way to end the episode, except for the fact that apparently they all got together to dig up hundreds of dead bodies which Claire’s grandmother had something to do with. Other than that, the family reconnection theme was really nice and I think it’s a good point.

My uncle is in town this weekend and I’m excited because I only see him about twice a year. I think keeping in touch with family is really important and it’s often forgotten in today’s society. We have become so detached from one another and so ingrained with this because we have become so detached and so ingrained in this capitalistic, individualistic attitude that we isolate ourselves. Family and friends are important and I wish we could remember that more often. Other societies realize this and if we weren’t so ethnocentric, we would learn from others.

This is a bit of a shorter post because I have to get ready to see my uncle!

And one last note- If there's something you have wanted to say to someone, to let someone know how important they are to you, tell them how much they mean to you- stop putting it off before it's too late. It can be quite liberating. Appreciate those around you.


With sincere thoughts,
Pearl

This Show's Making Me Thirsty

So this week Grey's Anatomy wasn't on but I did hear that someone's getting married, but it's not Derrick and Meredith. I think it's Izzie and Alex. I see it going something like this:
A:Oh Izzie I love you!
I: I love you too Alex!
A: Marry Me!
I: But I could die!
A: That doesn't matter!
I: You're right! But I've already been engaged once. We have to get married right away so I don't die first!
A: Anything for you!



Heroes was on this week, however. It was pretty good. Claire got angry and cried again. Noah continued to make us question whether he was good or evil. Sylar was cool. He wants to work with Danko to kill off all the other people with abilities. And we have no idea what happened to Matt Parkman, baby Matt Parkman, Hiro, or Sylar's little friend.
Now, I noticed something kind of going on underneath the surface. Angela Petrelli is going through this emotional crisis- she can't sleep, she's regretful for being evil, she has alienated herself from friends and family, she's pulled away from active work with the church (aparently she used to do that), she's seeking guidance from a higher power, and she's trying to make things better with her son Peter, as well as accept responsibility for Nathan's corruptness.
So when I thought of all these things I realized something. Angela Petrelli is portraying an alcoholic. These are exactly the things that an alcoholic deals with when they realize they have a problem and begin a sober life. It's almost like the writers are taking notes straight from Alcoholics Anonymous (they also have a religious undertone which covers her sudden pious persona).
Then, to top it off, Claire is off in Mexico with her biological Dad getting drunk. First- she's not 21 in the show. Second-They make drinking the hero- she drinks to win money. I'm not too thrilled with this. I suppose most of their audience are adults, but college kids already have a problem with drinking. The fact that we think if someone binge drinks every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, it's normal and not even that bad- is a problem. It has become normal to binge drink every weekend so that when someone gets so drunk they black out- it's chalked up to just "oh well that's what college is for!" It's like an entire city decides they're going to become canibals and start with the youngest and healthiest. Would everyone else in the world just say "oh that's what the city's known for!"
Colleges already have a problem with students drinking, we don't need tv shows to highlight it. The point I brought up earlier about Angela Petrelli seemingly going through the AA stages-- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual's criteria to be diagnosed with substance dependence, "alcoholism" in this case, are to be affected by the following within the same year:
1-tolerance for the substance (either need for increased amounts to get the same 'high' or reduction in the effects when using the same amount)
2-withdrawal symptoms (either taking the same/similar substance to stop withdrawal symptoms, or experiencing the withdrawal symptoms typical for that drug)
3-taking larger amounts or using for longer than intended
4-desire to cut down or lack of success trying to cut back
5-spending a good deal of time in activities surrounding the use of the substance such as obtaining it or recovering from its use
6-person has given up important social, occupational, or recreational activities due to the use of the substance
7-substance use is continued despite repeated psychological or physiological problems caused or exacerbated by its use

College students may not meet all the criteria, but the fact that more than half (1, 2, 3, 6) of the criteria ARE met, should be of some concern. A lot of college students think that they're only drinking in college and they'll stop when it's over, but in actuality, for most alcoholics the problems start early in life, not at 40 years old sitting at a bar.
The problem is that it easily becomes a routine for these students and society just watches as they graduate (or drop out) and continue drinking. They learn to cope with stresses in life by drinking. Isn't this the time in our lives when we are supposed to be getting ready to face the real world? If they don't learn how to cope with the stresses of college, how will they handle the stresses of the 'real world'?


With concern,
Pearl

So.... We Are Going To Save Him?

In this episode of LOST, we learn about what really is going to happened to little Ben Linus and also how the survivors friendships are tested. If you want to know more of what happened... just watch the brief recap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_IIlhn6lSI


With the chance of Ben dying, many people were anxious to see what the outcome would be. Even though, many viewers knew the consequences and effects of Ben dying; many were ready to see him die and to see him pay for the other deaths that happened. After all, Ben is the reason why all of them were on Oceanic Flight 815, 3 years prior. I think it would have been okay for them to kill Ben, but I think that the show would be at a stand still for the rest of the season. My mom said that they should have prolonged taking him to the others for help-- or at least prolonged his death until the end of the season. Needless to say, I'm sure that the writers have something awesome in the works for this storyline.

Whose to say that Ben didn't get shot in the 1970s previously. When Kate and LaFleur take Ben to the others. Richard, the leader, gives them the strict warning that Ben will not be the same. He went on to say that he will lose his innocence as well. This explains how Ben became an evil man. Whether or not a similar situation like this happened in the 1970s, we will never know, but they are living there now.

So... what about the survivors from the latest plane crash????? And what about Sun and Lapidus????? Guess we will have to wait a few more episodes to get more information on them... since this "Ben" story is a lot more fascinating.

My prediction for the next episode: I think that the others are going to fix Ben and everything that Richard warns will happen. I think that within the next few episodes that the others will take over the Dharma Initiative compound and kill one of the main characters.

Until Next time

Maggie out.