Lost: Episode 314

What a great freakin' episode! Full of hotness, answers, and death. You really cannot beat that. This week featured Nikki and Paulo, who they are and why they have not been seen with everyone else.

It starts out with Nikki stripping and then going to see the club leader, Billy Dee Williams, who then shoots her. Turns out Nikki was an actress on a show called Expose. Also turns out she was sleeping with the producer of the show.

Hurley and Sawyer are playing ping-pong, when Nikki comes running out of the jungle, she looks like she is about to pass out. She says something that neither understands. And then she collapses, Hurley thinks says she's dead.

In the next flashback, Nikki is eating breakfast with the producer and it turns out his new chef is Paulo. The guy then dies, and Paulo and Nikki take a key off him and open his safe. They steal something that is worth about eight million dollars.

The flashbacks then start going back from their first moment on the island to the present. It turns out they have been looking for whatever they stole, since it was in their bag, which fell onto the island somewhere. They discover the plane with Eko's brother, they discover the second hatch before anyone finds the first one.

They go to the lake where Jack found the guns, and Paulo dives in, he sees his bag, but tells Nikki that it was not at the bottom. He then goes back down, and gets the little pouch and some nicotine gum.

He decides to hide the pouch, which is full of diamonds, in the second hatch toilet. While he is there, Ben and Juliet come in and start talking about Jack and how they will force him to do the operation. Paulo could have prevented things, or something. They leave, but one of them leaves a walkie-talkie, which Paulo takes.

Later, when Locke takes the group to the second hatch, Paulo gets the diamonds from the bathroom, which is why he was in there. Makes sense now. Nikki and Paulo start to come closer together, until Nikki finds his nicotine gum, which lets her know he has the diamonds.

She asks Sawyer for a gun, he tells her no, she gets mad and storms off, prompting Sawyer to ask "who the hell are you anyway?" She tells Paulo she found the diamonds and they go into the jungle, she throws a Medusa spider on him, which bites him on the neck paralyzing him.

The pheromones from the spider attract a bunch more and Paulo gets a bunch of bites, and then Nikki gets bitten. She runs out of the jungle, buries the diamonds, and then comes to Sawyer and Hurley.

The group starts investigating the death of Nikki and they discover Paulo dead as well. Hurley thinks that Nikki said "Paulo lies." Sawyer thought powerlines. Sun thinks the Others killed them, and after they find the walkie-talkie they are convinced of it. Charlie decides to tell Sun that it was he who actually kidnapped her because of Sawyer's plan.

People start to think Sawyer was involved because Desmond saw Nikki yelling at Sawyer about a gun. Sawyer explains and says he did not kill them. He then shows them the diamonds and while they are burying them, they dump them in the grave. Sun punches Sawyer.

In the final flashback, as Nikki comes out of the jungle, we are able to understand what she said to Hurley and Sawyer: Paralyzed. As Sawyer and Charlie dump dirt on her, she opens her eyes, but neither sees it. She is buried alive.

What a shame, look at these pictures, she was absolutely smokin'...

24: 8:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

All I kept thinking about during this episode was Natalie Portman in Garden State, when she is amazed that Andrew played the retarded quarterback, but was not really retarded...

I really wanted to see Jack torture the kid just to test whether or not he was actually autistic or something. Yeah, I am slightly sick, but c'mon Jack's done weirder things, like asking to be fired from CTU so he could go torture a guy real quick...

I really thought that Gradenko and his posse would somehow slip out of the trap, since CTU fails at every trap they set, but this one went off rather smoothly. Unfortunately next week it looks like Fayad and Gradenko may sneak off together.

The VP almost got his wish at starting WWIII, but then Palmer regains consciousness due to his sister risking his life by taking him out of the coma, and takes the reigns of our country and orders no nukes to be launched.

Sadly, we now have a repeat of season 2, the Attorney General and Cabinet meeting to declare if the President is fit for office, blah blah blah. Speaking of politics, what the hell was going on in the office with Mike and that dude over the whole Nadia thing??? That was just weird.

Onto Nadia. She is free and her hot ass is back at her desk. Good thing too, Milo was getting very worried about not getting laid. They kiss and whatnot. One thing does bother me though, the actress who plays Nadia, Marisol Nichols. She is not Arab. She is of Mexican descent. I guess they could not find a smokin' hot Arab chick, although if you fly Royal Jordanian Airlines, you see plenty of hot stewardesses.

Jack killed 2. The one was the drone pilot Jack wounded last week, and the other was a guy in Gradenko's car. Next week, I am guessing 2.

Stupid Heritage

This post will probably offend or annoy some people, and well I am sorry for that, but I said back in my StatePatricks's Day post that I would mention why I am anti-St.Patrick's Day. Well I figure today is a good day for that.

My problem has nothing to do with a stupid holiday, but more about the way people want to brag up their cultural heritage. Usually it is the dumbest things too, Irish people say things like "I am Irish, obviously I can drink more than anyone." Bullshit. Or Italian people "Of course I can cook, I'm Italian." Look asshole, pouring Ragu into a pot and boiling noodles does not make you a good cook.

My brother told me about a time when he came home from work and his roommate was drinking with some people and says to Adam (my brother, if you didn't know): "Hey man, lets do a shot of vodka, it's Gray Goose." When Adam says no he does not like vodka, the friend replies "How can you not like vodka, you are Russian??" Yeah, our great-grandfather came from Russia. That does not mean that Adam and I drink vodka on a regular basis. These traits are not genetic, there is no chromosome for making spaghetti sauce or drinking Guinness.

American's are very quick to point out where they are from, even though 9 out of 10 times, they are from America. If you're grandparents were born in America then you should not be bragging about being from somewhere else. If you cannot speak the language of the country you are claiming to be from, you probably should not be saying you are from there. Hell, if you cannot tell me the capital of the country, then shut the fuck up.

Do Europeans do this kind of thing? Do Germans have Visagoth Pride Day? Do Russians tell people they are part Tar Tar? Somehow I seriously doubt it, because the people in those countries have some sort of national pride. I understand that we are a melting pot, blah blah blah, but at what point do we stop pushing what makes all of us different and start embracing that we are all American?

Another thing that annoys me is when people look at me and try to guess what I am. Let me give you a break down of what I am: Mom's side-Russian/Slovak, Dad's side-German, English, Italian, and something else I cannot quite remember. Adam and I get the majority of features from our Mom, dark eyes, dark hair, and a little darker skintone. We have no idea what part of Russian our family came from, but I believe it was probably the south, maybe the areas of Khazikstan or one of those weird ex-USSR countries.

In one of my cultural anthropology classes, we had to watch a slideshow, and try to match the country with where the people were from. It was damn hard, most people missed like 80% of over 100 different peoples.

I am done ranting now, let me know what you think.

Smallville Stuff

If you do not watch this show, well there may be something wrong with you. Yeah I know, it's like Dawson's Creek, with superpowers, but it is so much fun, and there are always comic book references which are fun to catch.

This week featured stars, Kane and Ashley from the WWE. Kane plays Titan, a Phantom Zone escapee, who kills people on an internet fight club. Clark tracks him down and wants to fight him.

Clark has been upset lately since Lana married Lex, even though right before that she told Clark she was going to leave Lex for him. Clark has been taking his anger out on a meteor freaks and other criminals. His battle with Titan was pretty good. Titan beat the crap out of him at first, drawing blood, but Clark proved why he is the Man of Steel. In the end, he defeats Titan, actually he kills him, and at the end of it all, he feels pretty crappy about it. Luckily Martha is there to help him out.

Over at KryptonSite they mention how when he goes to the fight club, Clark is wearing all black, like when he is affected by RedK and his Kal-El persona comes out. I think the black leather choice was more to show the fight promoter that he was badass, I mean, wearing a flannel would not look cool in that kind of arena.

Supposedly the series finale may feature Bizarro, and Martian Manhunter will show up again very soon. Also, Green Arrow will probably not be showing up any more, which sucks, he was a good character.

Anyways, here are some pictures to enjoy, Lois almost kissed Ashley, which was pretty hot.

Lost: Episode 313

We finally learned why Locke is in a wheelchair. I will get to that in a moment. The episode was really cool, it only focused on the Rescue Squad and the Others. The flashback delved more into Locke.

Main Story
The squad waits until dark when Jack is alone to see if he wants to be rescued. Sayid and Locke guard the sides of Jack's little house, and Kate goes in to talk to him. Kate goes in and finds Jack playing the piano. He tells Kate she needs to go, and then motions to the camera watching him.

At that moment some guys storm in with guns, they have Sayid. They ask Kate if anyone else is with them and she says no. Locke slips over to Ben's house and walks in and tells Ben he wants the submarine. Ben says no, and then Alex comes in and Locke takes her hostage. He then sends Alex to get Sayid's pack. Ben asks how Locke knows of the sub, and Locke says that Mikhail (EPM) told him before Locke killed him.

Ben realizes that Locke must have the C4 and tells Locke that if he destroys the sub, it will destroy the illusion that people can leave. Ben also tells John that he was born on the island and his lived there his entire life, but some of the others were recruited from the outside world.

They talk about wheelchairs and how Locke became healed when he arrived on the island. Ben wants to explain things to Locke, he tells him to picture a box on the island and whatever you imagine is inside the box. Locke jokes that it better be a large box, so Ben can wish himself a new sub.

Jack goes to see Kate and lets her know that he made a deal with Ben, and he is being allowed off the island, tonight. He will get help for the rest when he gets home. Locke leaves Ben and Jack/Juliet come in and Jack wants Ben to let Kate and Sayid to let them go back to their side of the island.

As Jack and Juliet walk toward the sub, Locke comes up to them. Jack asks what he is doing, and Locke responds "Sorry." Then the sub explodes. Ben visits a captured Locke and tells him that he does not understand how Locke has some communion with the island, but Locke must be very important. Ben tells him that he found something in the box, and he wants to show Locke, what is it you ask? I will tell you in a minute.

Flashback
Locke is depressed and pretty much feeling sorry for himself. Peter Talbot comes to him and wants to know about a man that is about to marry his mother. Locke looks at the picture, and it is his father. Peter says that he found out that the guy used another name and had a kidney transplant and that Locke was the donor. Peter wants to know if the guy is trustworthy. Locke says he does not know him, that it was an anonymous donation.

Locke travels to wear his father is and wants him to break off the wedding, and to stop conning the extremely rich woman. Locke goes home and runs into a couple of detectives, who tell him that Peter was found dead.

Locke goes to see his father again and asks if he killed Peter. Cooper says no, because there is no profit in murder and that Peter's mother broke off the wedding because of his death. When Locke turns around, Cooper charges him and pushes him through the window, and Locke breaks his back.

Later the detectives tell him that Cooper fled to Mexico and that they will continue to try and find him. Locke is then lifted by his therapist into his wheelchair and he begins to cry.

Locke being knocked out a window was one of the more shocking things I have seen on this show. I did not expect it, I thought Cooper might shoot him or something, but when he knocked him out of a window, I had to rewind it and watch it again.

This brings me back to what is in the room that Ben is showing Locke? Cooper, bound and gagged. What a crazy island, I hope no one thinks of me and I just teleport onto the island.

The picture is of Tania Raymonde, the chick who plays Alex.

24: 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

How come every season, we get a VP who is crazy??? Or at least one mole working for CTU? I take it there are no background checks or qualifications for either of these jobs.

Anyways, Gradenko and Fayid launch one of the drones before CTU can get to them. The VP says that if it goes off, the US will nuke the country where the terrorists came from. Somehow I doubt it was Sweden.

Jack returns to CTU and is told to go to medical because he has messed up ribs and could have internal bleeding. He sees Marilyn and she tries to kiss him (her husband has been dead for less than 12 hours, that is my kinda girl), Jack mentions Audrey, and then learns that she died in China. Turns out she went to rescue Jack and was killed.

Jack wants the file on Audrey's death from Chloe. He is pissed that Bill did not mention it to him. Needless to say, Jack might cry, or kill 49 people, I would bet on the option 2.

Morris is tracking the drone when it disappears, turns out that the sneaky Russians have a mole in CTU, and can see exactly what satellites Morris is going to use, and just avoid them. CTU figures out that it is coming from Nadia's workstation. Milo does not want Mike Doyle (that is Ricky's name on the show) to investigate her because she's Muslim, blah blah blah.

Mike uses the Jack method when dealing with women, start choking them, but Nadia does not start talking immediately, so maybe she is not the mole. I bet it is Milo. Wasn't he a crackhead on Six Feet Under? You can never trust a crackhead.

Morris figures out that the signal is being sent 3 blocks from CTU and Jack and Mike lead a team there. Jack kills 2 and wounds one, then pilots the drone to safety, but the landing is subpar, and the core starts to leak.

The VP decides that is just as good as a nuclear strike on our country, and says to get ready to launch a nuke within the hour. Karen and Tom are against the idea, and the new plan may be to wake up Palmer (even though it could kill him) to get him to stop the madness.

Maybe my early assessment of Mike was wrong, maybe he is not as cool as I thought. It is like they wanted to make him badass like Jack, but forgot to give him any good qualities. Yeah, I'd watch a season of that guy being a dick to people. Wait, that would just be like my life, except without torture and killing people. Or being a badass, just being a dick at work.

I guessed 2 last week, and I was right. I say next week Jack takes down 4. Three of them being direct kills, the last one being the guy from this episode that Jack wounded.

On a sidenote, did it seem like they said the drone could reach it's target in like 4 minutes, and then it took like 25? Or did they say they could have F16s intercept in 4 minutes? It just seemed to take along time for the drone to get to San Fran. Or maybe I was hoping they would fail and we would lose the Bay Area. Is there a CTU in SF? I guess there was one in Denver. Wouldn't this be a SFCTU problem anyways? I think LACTU should have been like "this is out of our hands now, everyone can go home." Sorry that was a long sidenote.

Sidenote 2: I think Jack will die at the end of this season. Or has that been confirmed and I am just too stupid to know it?

Also, I swear this is the end, that picture is of Ricky when he was on Scrubs. Although, it would be great if it was Mike Doyle undercover or something. I will check with DenverCTU for his file.

Artesia

Last week I picked up the hardcover trade Artesia, written and drawn by Mark Smylie. The book is about Artesia, a former concubine to the king, who is now the captain of his army. She is a priestess/witch, and it is this combination that make her a deadly force.

The book revolves mainly around Artesia battling armies in the Highlands, and also worrying about her own King, who is making deals with foreigners. She also sees threats coming from different kingdoms and empires, and she realizes she must make certain choices.

Smylie made up his own mythology for this comic, and it seems that these different gods interact with the characters in ways usually not seen in stories nowadays. His artwork is amazing, either drawing beautiful naked women, or full-scale battle scenes, Smylie captures the mood perfectly.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy or a good barbarian book (Red Sonja/Conan).

Lost: Episode 312

Go ahead, give up on the show. I will stick by it, and enjoy it every week. It is either that, or ummm, well nothing.

Main Group
The episode starts with Claire waking up and finding a nice fruit platter prepared for her. Charlie comes over and tells her that he made a breakfast picnic and that he is no longer depressed and wants to seize the day. When they get down to the beach, Desmond comes over with a gun and says that Charlie should come hunting with him.

Claire sees a flock of birds and thinks one of them is tagged. She wants Sun and Jin help her try and catch one of them. She asks Sawyer, but he starts to call her a name, but remembers he lost the bet. Charlie thinks it is a bad idea and he goes off with Desmond.

They get ready to catch one of the birds, when a gun goes off scaring it away. Desmond comes out of the woods and Claire starts yelling at him. She then breaks up with Charlie for not helping her and thinks there is something wrong with the way he and Desmond have been acting.

Later in the day she follows Desmond and he comes upon a bird and is able to grab it. Claire demands to know how he knew it would be there. Desmond explains to her that the rocks near there were where Charlie died. He explains everything to Claire and she returns to Charlie and lets him know that he is not alone and that she wants him in her life.

Flashback
You guessed it, a Claire flashback, and this one did not involve any crazy psychics. This one starts with Claire and her "mum" getting into a car accident. The wreck leaves Claire's mom a vegetable. Claire (who is sporting some sexy black hair) fights with her aunt, and we get the sense that Claire was kind of a bitch to her mom. Claire and the aunt find out that some American is paying for the hospital bill.

On one of Claire's trips to visit her mom, the nurse says an American doctor is seeing her. When Claire goes in, guess who is there? No, not Jack, but close: Jack's dad. That guy gets around, well between here and Australia. It turns out he has been footing the bill, and Claire wants to know why, the aunt does not want her to find out. Jack's dad tells Claire that he is her father (no, he does not go: Claire, I am your father. Search your feelings. Although if he had the James Earl Jones voice, that would rock).

Later they get coffee, and Claire learns that he used to come see her, but her aunt hated him, and her mother hated that he had another family. He tells Claire that she should let him euthanize her mom. Claire gets angry and wants him out of her life.

After she is pregnant, she sees her mom and tells her that she is pregnant and giving it up for adoption. She says how she was sorry for being a bad daughter and also for saying all those horrible things in the car.

Important thing from this flashback: Jack and Claire are brother/sister, I really hope they never had sex or anything. Also, since Jack delivered the baby, he saw his sister's private parts, ewe gross.

Rescue Party
There was a lot of walking. EPM answers Kate's questions and says they could not understand how they got to the island, since they are not on the list. He then mentions someone more powerful than Ben as in charge. Kate is upset that he could presume to know that they are flawed, and Sayid says that he knows that EPM is not omniscient. EPM retorts that he does not know them at all, and gives their full names, and then looks at Locke and starts to say how he is different, and he is then cut off.

They come to the barracks, and it is surrounded by giant pylons. The EPM says they no longer work, but Locke decides to test the theory out by pushing EPM through. He is hit by a sonic blast that kills him, in a most painful way. Anyone think Locke did it to save his own ass? Is he that worried that people will find out he was in a wheelchair, or that he does not want to leave the island?

Then Kate says they will go over it, and Sayid goes to grab the ax out of Locke's bag and finds some of the C4, Sayid is definitely not trusting Locke anymore. Remember when Locke seemed all-knowing, then slightly nuts, and now he is just weird.

They get over the fence and make their way towards the barracks, once there they see an odd site. houses, people riding bikes, playing catch. Wait a minute, who is that sexy wide receiver? JACK??? He and Tom are just having a grand old time tossing the pigskin. Jack does a little endzone dance, and the Rescue Squad seems a little pissed. While they were busting their asses trying to save him, he is outside playing catch, probably enjoying good food and nice showers and whatnot. Jerk.

Needless to say, I think this episode was more like the first season, it had a little bit of everything. Maybe this is BKV's influence, who knows. Oh, for your enjoyment, I figured I would give you this picture of Kate I found...

More Baseball Stuff

This post is about baseball, if you do not want to read it, well then I am sorry, I have locked your browser and this will be the only screen available for the next 15 minutes...

Over the last year or two I have been looking at many of the alternative statistics, which many baseball fans do not either A) Know about, or B) Understand. I get flack from these people because they just do not believe that certain players are better than what they thought, or worse than they thought. Whatever.

The one stat I enjoy, and wish more people used/understood, is VORP: Value Over Replacement Player. This is a great stat for when someone says "they may not have great numbers, but PlayerX wins games for you." Well you can look at VORP and see if that is really true (another stat similar is WARP). For example, last year Kenji Johjima's VORP was 24.0, Jason Varitek's was 2.8. This helped in evaluating which player to draft in my league (as well as the fact that Johjima was still available in the 7th round mostly because someone took Varitek in the 6th. You can also look at the projected 2007 seasons through PECOTA on the mentioned links. The different projection systems are fairly accurate and should not be tossed aside. Anyways, my point on VORP is, someone (mostly an idiot Red Sox fan) will say how Varitek is much valuable than Johjima is for the Mariners, and there is a stat that really tells you whether that is true. Unfortunately it does not take into account leadership skills, such as playing catch with younger players, and giving pep talks in the locker room.

Sorry about that little rant, if you guys want a good laugh, go to FJM's glossary of terms.

Also, on FJM today they rip apart an article about guys who do not hit homers. It is pretty funny, especially this line:
"The way this guy talks about home runs, you almost start to forget it's the single most valuable thing you can ever do when you are standing at the plate short of knocking Johan Santana out of the game by hitting him in the face with the ball."

Well that is it for me today, I definitely recommend Pirates fans going over to WHYGAVS and the NLCentral FanHouse.

24: 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.

Finally, the show is getting back to what I like: Jack being badass. While being trapped inside the Russian Consulate, CTU plans an assault, which will be led by Ricky Schroeder. Oddly enough, Ricky seemed very cool to me, and hopefully does not take a bullet sometime in the future. I could seriously see them killing Jack off and continuing the show with Ricky as the new CTU Agent, but that will probably never happen.

Jack kills the Russian who takes him to the basement to execute him, and then kidnaps two employees who were going to makeout in one of the rooms. He sends the guy to get a SATphone, but when the dude returns, he brings a couple of guards, who Jack instantly kills.

Ricky and his team strike with ease, killing most of the guards (who seriously did nothing wrong, but I guess CTU had no non-lethal weapons). They get Jack out and learn that Gradenko is in the Mojave Desert, and immediately start searching the area. Gradenko finds out from the Consulate and decides to launch one of the drones. The Consulate then gets shot while firing at some agents.

Logan goes to see Martha because he believes she can convince the Russian President's wife to convince her husband to allow CTU to assault the Consulate. The RP calls the Consulate, and Markhov (I think that was his name) says he will not turn himself in, and Suberov (RP) gives the US the go.

Logan gets stabbed by his ex-wife, which was a bit of a letdown for me. I wanted to see Logan either die defending his country, or die by Jack's hands, not his crazy ex-wife. It is great that she thinks of herself as a hero.

The VP and Tom argue about how to handle the ambassador of whatever country Assad was from. The VP wants Tom to say that Assad planted the bomb, Tom finally gives in, and the VP threatens the ambassador's country with "the full might of the United States military." I wonder what will happen if Wayne Palmer returns and finds out that the VP is waging a nuclear war on the rest of the world. He will probably be like "Dude, I take one day off, and you seriously start World War III, way to go assclown."

I forgot to post my guess for Jack's kills, so we will say it was 0. There were 3 kills, so I was way off. Next week, Jack kills 2, and Ricky kills 3. Mostly because Ricky likes to use a machine gun. Also, I would look up his name, but I like calling him Ricky.

Fantasy Sports

First, I would like to invite anyone to come on and join my March Madness Pool on espn.com. The league name is eatnpark, and the password is: ryanisgay. There is no money involved, unless someone wants to start a wager. I will definitely lose.

We had our fantasy baseball draft yesterday, I think my team looks okay as of right now. Part of me wants to do a ZIPS projection on them, then figure out what that would mean for my end of year stats, but that takes time...Although I have nothing better to do, this could be fun.

Anyways, here is my team, and where I drafted them.

1. Alex Rodriguez-3B
2. Carl Crawford-OF
3. Justin Morneau-1B
4. Carlos Zambrano-SP
5. Chone Figgins-2B,3B,OF
6. Felix Hernandez-SP
7. Kenji Johjima-C
8. Trevor Hoffman-RP
9. Alex Rios-OF
10. Chris Young-SP
11. J.D. Drew-OF
12. Erik Bedard-SP
13. Hank Blalock
14. Orlando Cabrera-SS
15. Kerry Wood-SP
16. Ian Snell-SP
17. Salomon Torres-RP
18. Ryan Freel-2B,3B,OF
19. Austin Kearns-OF
20. Duaner Sanchez-RP
21. Luke Scott-OF
22. Troy Tulowitski-SS
23. Ronny Paulino-C

After doing the ZiPS projections for my team, by their calculations, my team is about a 3rd place team. That is just hitter wise, I have yet to look at the pitchers.

300 Review

I saw 300 on Thursday at midnight, and I must say I absolutely loved it. This is what a comic book movie should be, using the comic not as reference material, but actually as the storyboards. This was also done with Frank Miller's other great work, Sin City, and proves that comic movies and green screen can be combined for an outstanding product.

I enjoyed 300 more than Sin City, mostly because of the subject material. A little bit about me that some of you do not know. I received my degree in Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, which means ancient Greece and Persia were areas I studied in-depth. In fact, I had an upper level class devoted to nothing, but the relationship between Persia and Greece from the 5th Century B.C.E to after the death of Alexander the Great. I also love comic books, and I did my Speech Comm 100 presentation on Frank Miller's comic.

I have read many of the reviews online and in the paper about the movie and want to comment on what some of them are saying. The first thing I notice is that many of the reviewers criticize the movie for being a "guy's" movie, or a film with little substance and way too much violence. I know plenty of girls who want to, or have seen the movie, and they loved it. My girlfriend loved it visually, and for the half naked ripped men throughout.

Was the movie full of violence? Yes. It is a movie about a battle between a small group and a large army. Of course there is violence. Is war violent and bloody? No one really complains about Saving Private Ryan or some of the other war movies. Maybe people thought since it was a comic book movie, it should appeal to all ages. Wrong. That is one of the great things about comic books, some books are all ages, some are definitely not. 300 and Sin City deal with adult themes and situations.

These reviews also keep saying the movie is historically inaccurate. Unfortunately most of these morons failed to realize that the movie does not say "Based on a True Story" or something like that. They criticize how they make the Persians seem like barbarians, or that Xerxes comes off as effeminate. Frank Miller used Herodotus' Histories as a sort of guide, taking liberties whenever he felt like it, since it is his retelling. Herodotus takes the Greek stance that the Persians were barbarians, and also that Xerxes was feminine, as opposed to the manly, superior, sophisticated Greeks. Many of the lines in the movie were taken directly from Herodotus, such as "Our arrows will blot out the sun. Then we will fight in the shade."

I read somewhere that Frank Miller has some homoerotic tendency (they cite some of his other works), because all the men are ripped and very good looking, and the only Spartan to not show these traits was Ephialtes, who betrayed King Leonidas. Again this is something that Greek writers emphasized. In the Iliad Homer describes Thersites as bow-legged, weak, and lame. He is the person who opposes Odysseus in Book II. He makes negative comments and says they should leave Troy. Odysseus then beats him for speaking so, which rouses the men to continue on in battle. Herodotus set out to make an epic story, similar to the Iliad, therefore it is not surprising he borrowed elements from Homer.

This next complaint deals with those movie reviewers who think they are some kind of literary reviewers, and try to find symbolism in everything. The big one they are saying is that the movie is Pro-War for the U.S. against Iran. First of all, just because Persia and Iran are the same place does not automatically mean the movie is about the modern day problems between these two countries. It more or less tells us that history does repeat itself.

The comic's first issue came out in 1998 and the collected graphic novel was released in 1999. This was well before 9/11, the War on Terror, Bush II, and the current Iran issue. The movie follows the comic almost entirely, things that were added or cut still do not give me the impression of some pro-war secret agenda.

I have not seen this yet, but I am sure someone has complained about it: certain scenes, like the giant, or the guy with sawed arms, were ridiculous and could not happen. Remember, this is being told to later Greeks by Dilios, so I am sure he exaggerated somewhat, in order to help stir the rest of the Greek army before they battled the Persians at Plataea.

Anyways, the casting of the movie was superb. Gerard Butler was awesome as King Leonidas. I would love to know how they got his beard to look pointy like it does in the comic. Xerxes was played by Rodrigo Santoro, the guy who plays my least favorite Lost character, Paulo. David Wenham (Faramir) plays Dilios, the lone Spartan survivor and narrator of the events.

Zach Synder said in an interview with IGN.com that they purposely changed the fighting style of the phalanx, for visual reasons, and to mostly look cool. I am okay with this, the phalanx was not meant to be pretty, but it definitely was effective. The battle scenes in the movie looked incredible, and I am sure most would agree, it was a shame that Troy did not put forth the same kind of effort to make their battles look this amazing. One of my favorite things was the use of the red capes of the Spartans, how they flowed around them and moved during different fight scenes.

GRADE: A+
Photos from IMDB and CBR.

Lost: Episode 311

I really enjoyed this episode. It had plenty of the interactions between island members that we all love, but also deepened the mystery of the Others and the DHARMA Initiative. I will recap the episode by the different stories going on.

Main Camp
Sawyer sees Paulo with "his" Gun's & Ammo, and gets annoyed that everyone took his stuff while he was gone. Paulo says they now share everything, but the hillbilly can have his magazine back. I wish Sawyer would have knocked Paulo out, sorry he just grates on my nerves (probably because he is with Nikki).

The group then carries out a ping-pong table that Jin found from the Hatch. Hurley says they just need a ball to play. Naturally Sawyer has one and he offers them a deal. Whoever they elect beats him, they can keep his stuff, if he loses then they can decide that side of the bet. Sun suggests he cannot use nicknames for a week.

Hurley chooses to play Sawyer and asks if they will be using the mercy rule. After the serve Hurley spikes Sawyer's return, and it is obvious that he is good. Later Sawyer says that Hurley is a hustler, but Hurley says that he had a table in his basement and also at the Inst-I mean place I used to hang out. Sawyer goes to insult him, but Hurley reminds him that his name is either Hurley or Hugo. He tells Sawyer that he did okay, scoring three points, since most people never score on Hurley.

Hurley then tells Sawyer that Kate will be okay, since she is with Locke and Sayid. Sawyer pretends not to care, but Hurley can see through it and gives Sawyer his dirty magazines back.

The Rescue Party
Sayid, Danielle, Locke, and Kate trek for a few days, following the bearing that Locke got from Mr.Eko's stick. They come upon the Eye-Patch man's house, where he has some cows and a horse.

Sayid approaches the house unarmed and is then shot in the arm. When EPM comes out Locke and Kate are waiting for him and get him to drop his gun. They explain they are not the others and EPM fixes Sayid's arm. He says he is the last survivor of the DHARMa Initiative and has been here for 11 years. He was originally part of the Soviet army, but after the Cold War ended he wanted to do good and answered an ad that said "Want to Save the World."

Sayid tells Kate that EPM is lying and that he is really one of the Others. They knock him out and tie him up and search the place. Locke plays chess with a computer, which was obvious that EPM would escape and take him hostage, but he played anyway. Locke beats the game and the guy from the instructional videos starts asking questions, such as if he needed to contact the mainland or use the sonar, which were both inoperative. The last question asks if the station was overrun by hostiles.

Underneath the station is a basement with all sorts of manuals and other storage items. They also discover that the station is wired with C4 explosive. Also, the black chick we saw when Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Hurley were captured is down there. They take her upstairs to find Locke held at gunpoint. The black chick and EPM speak in Russian, and then EPM shoots her. Locke tries to get free, but EPM head-butts him and Sayid comes over and beats his ass. Anyone else think Sayid is the Iraqi Jack Bauer?

EPM tells Sayid that he will never lead them to the Others homes, and Sayid tells him he does not need him to. Sayid found a cable map which shows where the Barracks are. EPM threatens that when their guard is down, he will kill them, and Danielle wants to shoot him. Sayid says no, he is his prisoner.

Locke comes out of the station after hitting the code about the island being overrun and tells Sayid what he did. Then the building explodes and Sayid gets pissed and tells them they need to go, since the explosion would draw attention.

Flashback
This had to deal with Sayid after he left the Iraqi Republican Guard. He is a cook at a restaurant and a customer asks to speak with him. The man tells him that he wants to hire Sayid to be his chef. Sayid goes to the restaurant and meets the man's wife, and then a bunch of guys jump him.

The man says that Sayid tortured his wife and wants Sayid to admit to it. He keeps denying it, but the man does not believe him. After a few days the wife visits Sayid and tells him a story about a cat and torture. Sayid starts to cry and apologizes for what he did to her. He says that her face haunts him all the time, and she forgives him. She says she will tell her husband she made a mistake and he will be freed.

This is also why Sayid did not want to kill EPM, he does not want to be an animal. He is better than EPM and hopes to prove that, not to anyone, but himself. Also, he probably figures having a hostage may help rescue Jack. Okay that's just my theory.

Pittsburgh Pirates Preview

I have decided to do my Pirates prediction for the year. Not so much a prediction, but a preview of what we will see this year. If you want a nice in-depth look at the upcoming season, I suggest going to WHYGAVS and reading his stuff and some of the other Pirates blogs in his links.

Every season I seem to have this optimism, which leads me to be disappointed by about May. This year though, I have looked at what we have, and I do not see us being playoff contenders, probably still fighting to be a .500 team. Hopefully not sub-.500 again.

The big news of the year was the Gonzo/LaRoche trade. This was a good thing, we now have a power hitting first baseman, and someone to bat around Jason Bay, who can take the pressure of him. I think he will probably hit around .275, with between 24-29 homers.

Jason Bay will put up another really good year. I think he will again hit around 30 homers, maybe as high as 35. His average could be anywhere from .280-.300. I do not see him stealing many bases this year, maybe 10.

Freddie Sanchez will most likely not bat .340s, but he could possibly hit around .300 and hit a bunch of doubles again. Unfortunately, he will be batting 3rd, with Jack Wilson batting second, which is just dumb. Wilson should be hitting 7th or 8th, but Tracy loves to have a good bunter batting second.

Chris Duffy better not start off like he did last year. That was just difficult to watch, and I really do enjoy watching him play. Jose Castillo better does not look fat, so hopefully he stops thinking he is a big pull hitter, and goes back to hitting line drives to right field. Paulino needs to start hitting for power, but if he can continue to bat in the .300s, even if they are just singles, I will take it.

Xavier Nady better not die or have Crohn's disease. I am not saying he is superb, but he is okay, and I like him because his online nickname is Weapon X. Maybe under Bay's influence he will improve, since they are good friends from back in their days of San Diego minor league ball together.

Pitching: ugh, lets just hope the pitching staff matured and no one gets hurt. If Gorzo or someone else goes down, having Armas and Chacon starting together would be ugly.

Well let me know what you guys think, will the Pirates contend, or suck again?

Heroes Part Eighteen

So much happened this episode, it seems like each week just gets better and better. I definitely was on the edge of my seat watching some of this episode. I think I will go by character, instead of by time for this post.

Claire
Claire and the Haitian are leaving the country. He says that is the only way she will be safe. She will go to Canada and take the name Vivian. Claire is not too thrilled with this, and jacks his passport and plane ticket and then goes through security.

Instead of Canada, she goes to NYC to see Peter, who the Haitian said could not help her because he could barely take care of himself. When Claire gets to his apartment, Peter's mother, Angela, is there. She addresses Claire by her name, and then begins talking in French, to the Haitian. Angela tells Claire that she is her grandmother, and that Claire is just as stubborn as her father. So at least we know who the Haitian was really working for when protecting Claire.

Mr.Bennett
Thompson grills Mr.Bennett about Claire and the Haitian, but Mr.B does not remember anything. Thompson then goes into another room, where Candice and Matt observe through a two-way mirror. Matt says that Mr.B is telling the truth.

Mr.B goes home and finds out that his wife actually has instructions from himself about what is going on. Candice shows up and says they have to go to NYC because Isaac shot Simone.

Isaac opens the door, and the police ask him about Simone, whose body is in the apartment, when all of a sudden Simone walks in. They cops leave, and Mr.B soons comes in after. The room shifts, and it turns out that Candice has a nice little power. I do not think she is a shape-shifter, but instead a reality bender, perhaps only limited to herself, but who knows. Mr.B says that someone will be by to clean up the mess.

When Mr.B gets home, he and his wife go into the bathroom and they talk about Claire, and Mr.B says he has to take The Company down, as he says that Thompson and some thugs come in, and his wife turns out to be Candice. Mr.B is in trouble!

Mohinder/Sylar
Sylar continues to tell Mohinder how he wants to help out, and tries to call Isaac, but gets a busy signal. Remember, Hiro in the future saw Isaac dead, head cut open. Mohinder gives Sylar some Chai, which is laced with poison. When Sylar wakes up he is attached to an IV, with some kind of brain paralyzer. Mohinder plans on killing Sylar, but first decides to take a spinal fluid sample. This whole series of events was awesome, watching Mohinder have no fear of Sylar was a sweet moment.

Unfortunately, at about the time Mohinder figures out the formula from Sylar's DNA and says he can come up with a new list, Sylar's drugs stop working, and Sylar is able to shut the IV off with his mind. Mohinder goes to shoot Sylar, but the bullet stops mid-air and Sylar frees himself.

Hiro
Hiro tries to get in to see Mr.Linderman, but the guards have him flagged as a cheater. Nathan shows up and tells the guards that Hiro is delivering a painting to Linderman for Nathan. They let him in and Hiro goes to the curator. As the curator is getting the paperwork for the delivery, Hiro finds the sword.

As he goes to grab it, the curator is behind him and activates the alarm saying that 795 guards will be there in a matter of seconds. All of a sudden someone knocks the curator out. It's Ando to the rescue! Turns out he knew Hiro would need help, so he was pretending to be a security guard at the casino. They barricade the door, and Hiro finally gets his sword. The guards break in, and Hiro teleports himself and Ando away. They are standing on a building in NYC (I believe it is the same building where Simone's dad lived and where Claude fed his pigeons), but the city looks to be destroyed. Hiro says it is the future and that the bomb must have went off. Who thinks that Hiro will go back in time to feudal Japan, and become Kensai?

Nathan
It turns out that Nathan is working with the FBI to bring Linderman down. They want him to wear a wire when they meet. When they leave, Peter appears and tells Nathan about Simone's death. Nathan says he will make an anonymous call to the police, and that Peter should seek out Mohinder for help. A secretary starts to come in, but then Peter vanishes and leaves the office.

In Vegas, Nathan chills in his room until his meeting. Jessica kills the FBI guys, and then pays a visit to Nathan. Lucky for Nathan Niki has taken control. She tells Peter that he has to make a deal with Linderman, or Jessica will kill him. Obviously Nathan is confused, but he says he will kill Linderman. Niki says he will have to knock her out. Nathan punches her and leaves with the gun.

We finally get to see Linderman. He is in the kitchen making a mean potpie. He is played by Malcolm McDowell. He seems like a very nice fellow, so I guess his reeducation in Clockwork Orange worked a little bit. He knows all about Peter and Nathan's abilities, as well as Claire's. He tells Nathan he will win the election, and in two years be in the White House, on the road to the presidency. Nathan decides not to shoot him and take him up on his offer, whatever that may be.

Peter
Peter goes to Mohinder's apartment, only to find it torn apart. Blood starts dripping on him and he looks up to see Mohinder pressed against the ceiling. Mohinder says "Sylar" and Peter turns around in time to be grabbed by the throat by Sylar, who slams Peter into the wall.

Sylar says he remembers Peter, and that Peter is like himself. He starts to cut his forehead, and we see blood and then a lock of Peter's hair fall to the ground. Obviously Peter will not die, but is there where he gets his scar that Future Hiro talked about?

I just found this little bit of fun trivia on Wikipedia: The Kensai sword was cataloged in Linderman's database as CRM114. I guess Stanly Kubrick used this designation in some of his movies, including Clockwork Orange, as the drug that is given to Malcolm McDowell (Serum 114).

24: 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Yet again, Jack does not kill anyone, but he did cut off a finger, so that was cool. Logan and Jack went to the Russian Consulate, but Markov would not cooperate. Jack then broke back in and began the torture process.

He learned that Gradenko was going to use unmanned drones to release the final 3 nukes and that they were somewhere in Death Valley. The Russians stormed the room and took Jack prisoner. Jack then convinced a guard to call CTU and relay the information he gained from Markov, the guard agreed and went to call, but was shot by someone who was loyal to Markov.

Buchannon also took some action by ordering a field team to get ready in case they had to storm the consulate to rescue Jack.

President Palmer did not die, but his injuries were bad enough for the VP to take control. Tom convinced Reed and KillerGuy that he would go along with their plan, but as soon as they ran into a Secret Service Agent, Tom informed that they were involved and that he would cooperate.

I know that many people probably believe that the VP is involved in the assassination attempt, but I really do not think so. He seems like a political opportunist, who sees a chance to implement Tom's plans and to also blame Assad. If he was part of the conspiracy, then the writers did a great job of coming up with something original.

Anyways, that's about it. Another lackluster episode. Way too much time spent on the politics and only a few minutes spent on action and Jack.

State Patrick's Day

Ugh, where do I start? Students and the bars here in State College decided to complain because Penn State scheduled Spring Break during St.Patrick's Day. I guess the bars will lose money and students will not be here to get loaded. So, the bars figured why not make today State Patrick's Day. Right now a bunch of drunken morons are running around downtown wearing all sorts of green crap.

I will not make this into one of my normal St.Patrick's Day rants (I will that for the actual day), but I figured I would comment on some of the stupid stuff I have seen so far while being outside.

First off, fat chicks should not wear tight clothes. Also, Ugg boots need to go. They suck. Especially green ones.

I saw a nice little fight between a guy and girl tonight, it amused me. I could hear them arguing as they came down the sidewalk, and when I looked up he just stormed away from her. She tried to hurry to catch him and she saw me and just rolled her eyes. She then stopped to light a cigarette, which caused him to stop, come back and bum a smoke from her. He then walked away from her, she started to follow and he stopped, which caused her to stop, about eight feet behind him. It continued for like fifteen minutes, it kind of looked like the Sims, when a character goes and someone is following them and they keep stopping behind them.

I watched for awhile, wondering if he was going to strike her. He seemed very angry and she really seemed like she did not care, which made me think "why not just leave? Go to a bar, meet a different guy." They continued this game for awhile, all the way up to Old Main. I finally bored of it and went inside, but seriously this guy looked like the type that would smack his girlfriend around, and that is something that I find detestable. Oh, and he was wearing a Red Sox beanie, which makes him an automatic douchebag.

Mardi Gras beads are great, if you are in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. If girls want to wear beads, they should be willing to earn them the old fashioned way. Also, ladies remember this: it was around 50 today, but it was chilly tonight, skirts and hoochie shirts (which I approve of whole heartedly) are probably a bad idea. Do not bitch when you are all sick next week. If you do not bitch, well then go ahead and wear them, just do not get pissed when guys look at you.

Unfortunately I could not find any pictures online of drunken stupidity yet, hopefully I can, just to show the rest of you how this is a ridiculous pseudo-holiday.

Civil War Predictions Part II

Okay, so this post is kind of a recap of the ending of Civil War, and what I think will happen now.

Needless to say, some of my predictions were wrong. I at least got which side would win, but I did not see it coming that Cap would just surrender to the police. I guess that Spider-Man is going to black because he is mourning, if you missed it, Aunt May got shot, not sure if she is dead or not.

Where do they go from here? Well Tony Stark is head of SHIELD and Cap is in prison. Who is Ronan that is working with the New Avengers? My guess: Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. Why? Well last we saw him, Cap was beating him down for breaking his promise of not killing anyone. During the final battle, when Cap takes off his mask and surrenders, Castle picks the mask up and looks very sad. He definitely looks up to Captain America. Becoming Ronan could be Frank's way of redeeming himself.

The big cover-up story in Civil War: Front Line was that Tony Stark used Green Goblin to shoot the Atlantean Delegate because Tony knew that if the threat of attack came from an outside source, Atlantis, then most heroes would rather together and register to help their country. He was right, Sally and Ben figured it out, that Tony shifted the stock market funds of his, to make $90 million, which he used in a fund for police, firemen, and registered superhero pension funds. Sally and Ben promise they will never let his secret out, because he made the sacrifice of a real hero: doing something to help everyone, even though no one can ever know about it.

My guess is that Reed and Sue will get back together. It is just inevitable, you cannot have the Fantastic Four without her. And yes, they have done things before without different members.

Thor did not return, Hercules actually destroyed the clone/cyborg Thor, which was cool, since he did it with the copy of his hammer. When will Thor return, well sometime soon. Will he be pissed though? Probably, I cannot imagine a god being happy that mortals tried to clone him.

The next event coming up is World War Hulk, which should be awesome. Hulk is going to be super pissed. I seriously cannot imagine anyone being able to battle a smart and stronger Hulk.

Either way ya look at it, good things are coming from Marvel, I really wish DC could say the same thing.

Lost: Episode 310

This was not a great episode. It could have been. If you are watching this on DVD, and this episode was tucked away in there, you would enjoy it. Unfortunately, it was after a few weeks where lots of stuff has happened and we thought we were getting something cool this week.

Do not get me wrong, I liked the flashback of Hurley. I enjoyed finding out more about his life and it was cool that Cheech Marin was his father. I was annoyed by the whole Kate and Sawyer return and it only seemed like they spent about 12 minutes of the episode on it.

There was plenty of fun going around though, Sawyer and Jin drinking together, and Sawyer teaching him the three most important things to say to a woman, my favorite "No, those pants do not make you look fat." What was even better was how Jin picked up Sawyer's accident.

Charlie and Hurley break their little curses (which probably means Charlie will die next week) by fixing up a VW Bus and driving it down a hill and almost into a bunch of rocks. Hurley felt that he just had to believe the vehicle would start and then they would survive. I guess this help him believe they are getting off the island.

Nikki made an appearance. I was happy. Unfortunately, the Smoke Monster still has not eaten Paolo. Oh well. I wonder if when Kate & Sawyer got back if they asked each other "who the hell are all these random people?"

So Kate took off into the jungle, with Locke and Sayid in pursuit. She wants to rescue Jack, and she was looking for Roussou. They found her, and Kate explained how Alex is her daughter and they can get her back, along with Jack.

Next weeks episode looks promising, the Eye-Patch guy is coming!