LOST: It's coming

It's no secret that I love TV. Sometimes, I spend too much time watching TV, but that's for another time. Anyway, my favorite show is coming back on Wednesday, Lost. I guess you could say I'm one of those "Lost Geeks" that are constantly on the Lost websites and discussing about everything that happened in past episodes and theorizing what will happen next.

I started watching Lost because of the plane crash rescue scene in the beginning of the series. It was so intertwined by the many characters and situations and with the great music as accompanyment, really made the show like a movie. The Lost crew are the ones responsible for making Lost look like a 45 minute movie each episode. Consider that it may take three months to film a 90 minute movie. It takes eight days to film an episode of Lost and the cinematography quality of each is similar.

I got addicted to Lost with the fourth episode of the series "Walkabout." The episode featured a mysterious survivor in John Locke, played by Emmy winning actor Terry O'Quinn. On island, he was out and about hunting for boar and encountering, "the eye of the island." Off island, he worked in a box factory and desprately talking on a sex-line to a woman "named" Helen. At the end, Locke flies to Australia to take part in a Walkabout through the Australian Outback. If you've never seen Lost, look at this scene and see why going on a Walkabout is a problem.

I like this show, because it's not just a TV show, it's really a book in visual form. The creators say that each season is a chapter in a book. It makes you think on such a high level about what happened and what will happen next that it isn't like the other mind-numbing crap currently on TV (like reality shows).

The other thing I like about Lost is that it's the only show that I enjoy the "love stories." Well, some love stories, the Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet storyline is so convoluted for me to even enjoy that. The Desmond and Penny storyline is really the essence of a great Lost storyline.

Penny is the daughter of millionaire Charles Widmore who we found out has some sort of personal and possibly financial stake in the island. Desmond asks Charles for permission to marry his daughter, but when he finds out Desmond isn't worthy of his daughter, Charles denies Desmond and calls him a coward. Hoping to prove him wrong, Desmond breaks up with Penny and enters into a boat race around the world that's sponsored by Charles. Due to bad weather during the race, Desmond ends up on the island and is taken to The Swan station to push the "button." This is where it gets strange. Because of the electromagnetism on the island, Desmond experiences "side effects" when he finally leaves the island and jumps back and forth through time back to 1996. Through this time travel, Desmond learns that he needs to have a "constant" that is both on the island and back in 1996 or he'll die from a brain aneurysm. The only person or thing he could think of as being his constant is Penny and while on the Charles Widmore sent, Kahana boat 80 km offshore from the island he tries to contact her.

This is the phone call scene from "The Constant" which was voted Best Episode on TV in 2008 by Time Magazine and was nominated for an Emmy for Best Drama. This acene features Henry Ian Cusick, Sonya Walger, and Naveen Andrews.



The new season starts this Wednesday at 9:00. I highly implore that if you haven't watched an episode of Lost, watch it on DVD or abc.com (which currently has each episode on their website for free) because you won't understand what's going on. There's really something for everyone. Whether it's the characters, the Sci-Fi, and/or the romance, you will like at least one thing about this show. I guarantee you that when you know what has happened in the series, you will enjoy Lost and maybe even be a "Lost Geek" like I am.

2008: The Greatest Sports Year Ever, Part 3 of 3

Let's just get right into it, shall we



Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing, China, August 8-August 24, 2008

I'm glad I didn't have to go to school or work in these two weeks. With DirecTV, I got every channel the Olympics were on, in addition to an all Basketball and Soccer channel. The free package also had schedules of when the events were taking place and constantly updated medal counts. The Olympics were on at least one channel and I probably averaged 3 or 4 hours of sleep and watch about 20 hours of Olympics coverage per day. I'm one of those people who is more willing to watch the lesser known events. I mean, the Olympics are probably the only place where there are events like Badminton, Handball, Synchronized Swimming, Field Hockey, and Water Polo on American TV. It's also a great Geography lesson. If you look at the introduction of the athletes in the Opening Ceremony, how many of you knew that Lesotho is the country that South Africa sourrounds.

While I applaud NBC of their coverage, my one complaint was that it had too much of an American influence and I know I'm not the only one who thinks this. I would like to know the big stories of athletes from the other countries and even see events that the United States are not expected to win. Some American stories were unavoidable to cover and I'll get to that later, but lets get to some of the highlights.

The Opening Ceremony was one of the greatest shows I ever saw. Yes, there were some controversies sourrounding the event, but looking at those performances that celebrate Chinese history and the Olympics was unbelievable. It was evident that the thousands of performers had lots of practice and I'm glad it was performed to perfection.

Since I don't want to go too long on this, I'll mention the more important moments of the Olympics. Some of the ones that I want to mention briefly are the "Redeem Team" winning gold in Men's Basketball. The United States winning the Men's Volleyball gold medal days after the coaches in-law's were involved in a mugging and stabbing resulting in the death of his father-in-law. Also, 41 year-old Dara Torres finding the fountain of youth to win the silver and narrowly missed out on gold in the 50m freestyle.

With all the talk of the Gymnastics competition about whether the Chinese female gynmasts wre old enough, the Americans did pretty well considering. The United States won the silver medal in the all-around team competition (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise). Nastia Liukin won gold in the individual all-around competition, silver in the balance beam and uneven bars, and bronze in the floor exercise. Shaun Johnson won gold in the balance beam, and silver in the all-around, and floor. Amid all the controversies in the Gymnastics competition, the American athletes handled all of it with class and accepted whatever awards they received.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica made history by breaking the World Record in the 100m and 200m at the same event. What makes it even more intresting is that when someone usually breaks a World Record in the 100m, it is by no more than a few hundreths of a second. Bolt broke the record by almost a tenth of a second and if he hadn't celebrated before the finish, he would've been even faster. If it wasn't for a certain man winning a lot of gold medals, Bolt would've been the story of the Olympics.

I can't talk about the Olympics and not talk about Michael Phelps. You talk about the absolute pinnacle of drama in sports, this was it. Seven out of eight gold record winning races ended in World Record times, the eighth race was blamed because of faulty goggles that made Phelps virtually blind. It was those goggles that caused him not to know where the wall was, kept taking strokes and won by 1/100th of a second.

What I like about the Olympics is that you don't need to be a sports fan to enjoy the events. My mother is not a sports fan, not even close. During the Olympics, she got into the competition and cheered for the American athletes to achieve gold. It truly is the new way to show to the world you are the best country in the world. Even up to 100 years ago, warfare was the way to gain respect and instill nationalistic pride. While there is still war, now, healthy sports competition has thankfully replaced that nationalistic pride people have in their country. Look at the 1980 Winter Olympic USSR vs. USA Men's Hockey match as an example. It is that added element that makes the Olympics a delight every two years.

In closing, here is the official music for the medal ceremony that I thought was great and suitable for the occasion. It's called "Mo Li Hua" which translates to "Jasmine" in English. Also, below it, here are videos of many Olympic Sports from www.nbcolympics.com Enjoy!

Exclusive Summer Olympics news & widgets at NBC Olympics.com!

Here's to Chicago getting the Summer Olympics in 2016. I'll do all I can to be there to witness the Olympics live.

2008: The Greatest Sports Year Ever, Part 2 of 3

In case you haven't read Part 1, I'm reviewing the four best sports events of the past year. I previously covered Super Bowl XLII and in this part, I'll be covering two more events which are similar. Sorry about not posting Part 2 over the weekend but I was working 30 hours over a weekend, so I really didn't want to do anything else other than sleep.

U.S. Open Golf Championship, Rocco Mediate vs. Tiger Woods in an 18 hole playoff, June 16, 2008

I have to admit, as much as a sports fan I am, I'm not the kind of person who takes time out to watch Golf and Tennis (which will be discussed next). Sure, I watch the major events and I know the names of the top athletes in both sports, but I enjoy other sport more than Golf and Tennis. This match, in addition to the next match, kept me glued to the television all throughout the event. When it comes to Golf majors, there is usually one person who is an underdog and rarely ever wins. Rocco Mediate was that underdog. The 46 year old was always a consistent golfer, but back trouble would hinder him to be a superstar. He had hoped that the U.S. Open would be his coming out party and finally win a major event. Tiger Woods has been the best golfer over the past ten years. He is currently on pace to break almost every record in Golf history. During the event, people noticed that Tiger wasn't 100% healthy as he was wincing in pain. What we didn't know was the extent of the injury.

Over the four round event, Woods and Mediate stayed in the top 5 throughout and on the last day, vaulted into the top 2. Because they were tied, the two golfers needed to play an 18-hole playoff to determine a winner. After being three strokes behind on the tenth hole, Mediate roared back to be one stroke ahead by hole fifteen. Tiger was one stroke behind going into the last hole one stroke behind and needing to catch up to either extend or win. In an amazing display, he caught up that stroke and extended the match by another hole. That momentum put Woods over the top and won the U.S. Open. It was later revealed that Tiger was playing on a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his left tibia. Now I haven't felt the pain of a bone fracture or a torn ligament (knock on wood), but I did partially tear my achilles tendon once and was in so much pain that I was screaming and cursing everytime I took a step, so what Tiger went through must've been painful.

Wimbledon, (2) Rafael Nadal vs. (1) Roger Federer, July 6, 2008

At Wimbledon, Roger Federer, the number one Tennis player in the world, was the king of Wimbledon. He won the last five Wimbledon events and was gunning for a record tying sixth. Rafael Nadal, the number two Tennis player in the world, always would finish behind Federer except for the Clay surface court events. This was a Grass surface court and Federer was unstoppable, until now.

In the five set match, Nadal won the first two sets. While rain would interupt action the rest of the way, Federer won the next two sets resulting in a fifth set. Needing to win six games and win by two games to win a set, they both were tied two games to two when rain came again. They both were tired and traded games all the way until the 16th game. In that, Nadal fought through a competitive opponent, rain delays, and the occurance of darkness to win his first Wimbledon title and achieving the rank of #1 Tennis player a few months later. Even without the rain delays, the game lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes. With the rain delays, the match lasted almost eight hours.

After Wimbledon, the roles were reversed. As I said, Nadal became the #1 Tennis player in the world and is now the unstoppable force in Tennis. Federer has been suffering minor injuries and is showing the decline of a veteran Tennis player. The torch was passed on that day in Men's Tennis.

Part 3 will be posted soon.

2008: The Greatest Sports Year Ever, Part 1 of 3

I don't normally like to say something is the best or something is the greatest ever. When I see something like that in the media, I view it as a ploy to make something bigger than it already is. That, and also there will always be something even better and greater in the future. I do have to take one exception in that there was no greater sports year than 2008.

There were so many great sports moments that I cannot mention them all in this entry. Some of the honorable great events would be the 50th running of the Daytona 500 that ended in a last lap pass. The NCAA Men's Basketball Championship that resulted in Kansas coming back from nine points down to defeat Memphis in overtime. The Boston Celtics, who were once prominent years ago and fell to obscurity relied on Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen to shine again and win the NBA Championship over their rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers. The United States defying the odds to defeat Europe in the Ryder Cup in Golf. And last, but not least, the Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series and bringing a major championship to Philadelphia for the first time in 25 years.

Those sports events would be tremendous highlights for a sports fans year in any year but this one. There are four sports events (listed in chronological order) that transcended any normal sporting event and made 2008 the greatest sports year ever.

Super Bowl XLII, New England Patriots vs. New York Giants, February 3, 2008

Whether you like the New England Patriots or not, you must admit that the 2000's Patriots rank as one of the greatest teams in NFL history. They had an opportunity to cement that by being the second team to have a perfect season and the first team to go 19-0. The New York Giants were the kind of team that played well enough to win, but weren't an impressive team. They weren't really expected to make it to the Super Bowl and surprised most people when they did. Because of that, the Patriots were heavy favorites to achieve perfection.

The first three quarters were rather slow with the Patriots leading 7-3. The fourth quarter would be the "magic hour" as both teams traded the lead. After the Patriots scored with 2:42 left, Eli Manning and the Giants needed to move down the field to make history. With a little over a minute and on third down, Manning needed to make a play and after escaping from an almost impossible situation, slinged the ball deep to David Tyree, who was a backup Wide Receiver, caught the ball over his head and using his helmet to keep from dropping the ball.



After that, Mannning threw the ball to Plaxico Burress in the corner of the end zone for the Super Bowl winning touchdown. With the score 17-14, the New York Giants completed one of the biggest upsets in sports.

Because of length, I'll have part 2 available Saturday.

Welcome

Enjoy, as I discuss observations and things that have to do with anything and everything. Some will be topical, some will be of interest to me, and some will just be out of the ordinary. I'll try to average at least a post a week, depending on when I'm free.

"Old friends, new lovers, and the disabled. Welcome all!" -Michael Scott, The Office