I’m not sure what this might say about me, but when I was reading this KTVZ story about the utterly ridiculous Measure 37 claim on the Newberry Volcanic Monument, I couldn’t help but think the image filed with the story looks like a skull:

See the eyesockets? Yeah, that’s messed up.

Oh and FYI, Measure 37? Only one of the most retarded ballot measures ever passed in the state of Oregon.

C’mon, with a title like that, how could it not be?

"It" being the Halloween party we went to last night. Costumes, booze, food, and friends. And a giant inflatable Scooby Doo. (Yes, it was this same Scooby.)  Although this year, perhaps the title of this post should be, "Oh my God, they killed Scooby! Those bastards!"

Yes, that’s right: somebody killed Scooby Doo.

See, when Scooby disappeared from the back deck (where he was leering in the window this year), the assumption was the thing had deflated. Somebody suggested that Scooby had, indeed, been killed, but I thought it was just the running gag. Until Scooby’s giant deflated plastic corpse was discovered lying in a pool of blood with a large knife in the neck.

(I think this Family Guy clip applies here. I’ve been looking for an excuse to link to that.)

I knew I had been beating that dead horse into the ground, but I had no idea it would incite a murderous crime of passion…

That was a good party.

Those bastards!

Okay, I’ve managed to hold out for the first four episodes of "Lost" this season, but after tonight I couldn’t resist it any longer. It’s a rant. It’s gonna be spoilerish, and long-winded, usual disclaimers apply, etc. etc. Only click through if you’re ready.

Read on… spoilers ahead.

I’m really starting to think they (the creators) have lost track of things and everything is starting to slip. Plus, I guess I’m just not as enchanted with the show as I was during the first season and the half or so of the second. A lot of the mystery and mythology and backstory they developed at that time just seems forgotten or pushed aside now, and it feels really sloppy to me. In particular…

The Others

This season was hyped to be all about the Others, and how everything we thought we knew about them would be turned on its ear, and they’re not what we think, and pomp and circumstance. Well, so far the season is all about them, but I have to say, they are exactly what I think: a bunch of evil, lying, murdering sons-of-bitches out to get the survivors for some reason.

No? Well, instead of offering humanitarian aid of any kind to the survivors of a horrific plane crash, they infiltrated them, spied on them, kidnapped a bunch of them, and murdered a bunch. Right now they’re torturing their prisoners. And yet they keep proclaiming that they’re not killers… so did the writers forget about:

• Ethan trying to kill Charlie when he abducted him and Claire. Dead but for Jack resuscitating him.
• Ethan (we assume, maybe others as well) killing at least one, maybe more, survivors when they wouldn’t give Claire back to him.
• Goodwin (from the tail section survivors) killing the guy Ana Lucia had mistakenly thought was an Other.
• The Others on the motorboat kidnapping Walt, shooting Sawyer, blowing up the raft and leaving Sawyer, Jin and Michael for dead on the open ocean.
• They were going to operate on pregnant Claire in the medical hatch in an apparently bad way, according to Alex, who helped Claire escape.

And what about Alex, Rousseau’s daughter? (And, just where is Rousseau, anyway?) We saw her last season obviously reluctant to be working with them, and actively aiding the survivors… and we may have seen her this season sneaking a word with Kate at the work camp. Clearly she knows they’re up to no good.

Yep, except for the opening scene of this season showing the Others living in suburbia in the middle of the island, which was cool, I just don’t have this "new perspective" on the Others. They’re the bad guys, they’re killers, and there needs to be some retribution. Sun shooting (and ultimately) killing one of them two weeks ago was a good start.

And tonight’s episode, where they wasted an hour "conning" Sawyer just to show him that they’re on some prison island apart from the main island? Weak, weak, weak. Too many flaws in the "logic" of that. They’re trying to impress upon him the futility of running, but come on: the Others got to the island somehow—boats, underground tunnels, something—so it’s completely feasible that Sawyer and company could escape. The polar bears did. That should strengthen his resolve, not break down his spirit. Weak writing, guys.

And, they’ve revealed at least why they need Jack: to operate on the tumor growing on the spine of their leader. Two things: wouldn’t they have gotten Jack’s help with a lot less trouble and bloodshed had they actually just helped the survivors? And number two… doesn’t the island itself heal people?

Remember Locke? And Rose? Crippled and terminal cancer, respectively… both healed. Sun’s infertility? Pregnant now. They spent two seasons hammering into us how the island was special and was healing people, among other things. Um, hello?

The Flashbacks

Yeah, those flashbacks, which were awesome in the first season, growing a bit tedious in the second, are by now totally annoying. I think we’ve moved past the "everyone’s interconnected" stage, and it seems like it’s only being done because it’s expected… but they’re not really having anything to do with the story anymore, and don’t really serve a purpose.

Other than filler.

Important Stuff the Writers Forgot (or seem to have)

• See stuff I mentioned above.
• The monster. Or "security system." Or black smoke, or whatever it is.
• Jack’s father’s body.
• The whispery voices on the island.
• Unknown pathogen or sickness infecting "outsiders."
• Walt and his apparent powers. Yeah, I know they wrote him out of the series. How convenient.
• Kate’s Black Stallion is running around the island.
• The caves where the survivors were staying… with fresh water and shelter and everything.

The Books

Of course, I couldn’t get by without blogging the books that appear on the show, like I did last season. So far I remember Carrie by Stephen King from the season premiere, and Of Mice and Men tonight. As with the rest of this rant, though, I think any significance that might once have been attached to them no longer necessarily applies…

And Finally…

Come on, let’s have something happen, can’t we? Something substantial, and intelligent. Things are starting to slip the rails. I won’t say they’ve jumped the shark yet… but it feels like it’s heading that way.

That’s the new toy in the house from this weekend: a garbage can whose lid opens automatically (via infrared sensor). It was from Costco, but I can’t find it on their site to pull up a picture; and since I’m too lazy to go look at the brand on the actual thing itself, you’ll just have to use the awesome power of your imagination for now.

So far, the sensor has been tripped by standing too close to it; walking by it; intentionally (via Jedi hand-waving magic); and the dog. That dog one only happened once; he sniffed too close to it, it popped open, and he jumped and scrabbled away. That was pretty funny.

Now, what is that goofy phrase they always use on Slashdot and the like? …I for one welcome our new robotic garbage can overlords…

…because really, it’s just a matter of time at this point.

I’ve been on a reading tear over the summer, mostly all good books, and I thought I’d be a little self-indulgent and list what I’ve read with some comments.

• Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World. It clocks in at something like 3,000 pages total, but it was by far the best thing I read this year. Maybe several years.
• Virtual Light, by William Gibson.
• Spam Kings, by Brian McWilliams.
• Gray Lensman and Second Stage Lensmen by E.E. Smith. Two middle volumes of what is often considered to be the "best space opera series of all time." Written in the ’40s, so they’re somewhat dated, but pretty good. I don’t know about Best of All Time good, but worth a read nonetheless.
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein.
• A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter Miller, Jr. Different from what I was expecting from the description on the back cover.
• Still slogging through Gödel, Escher, Bach. Unfinished.
• Across the River and Into the Trees, by Hemingway. Tough to get excited about this one.
• Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond. I’m reading this one now, it’s very good.

Cyberpunk:

Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, noted for its focus on "high tech and low life" and taking its name from the combination of cybernetics and punk. It features advanced science such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or a radical change in the social order.

Cyberpunk writers tend to use elements from the hard-boiled detective novel, film noir, and postmodernist prose to describe the often nihilistic underground side of an electronic society…. much of the action takes place online, in cyberspace, blurring any border between the actual and the virtual reality.

Classic example: Neuromancer

Steampunk:

Steampunk… concerns works set in the past, or a world resembling the past, in which modern technological paradigms occurred earlier in history, but were accomplished via the science already present in that time period.

The prototypical "steampunk" stories were essentially cyberpunk tales that were set in the past, using steam-era technology rather than the ubiquitous cybernetics of cyberpunk but maintaining those stories’ "punkish" attitudes towards authority figures and human nature. Originally, like cyberpunk, steampunk was typically dystopian, often with noir and pulp fiction themes, as it was a variant of cyberpunk.

Further derivatives: Stonepunk, bronzepunk, ironpunk, sandalpunk or classicpunk, middlepunk, clockpunk, dieselpunk and atomicpunk, transistorpunk, spacepunk… though I don’t think most of these are full-fledged subgenres, and were developed for the GURPS Steampunk role-playing game.

Classic example: The Difference Engine

Biopunk:

It describes the nihilistic, underground side of the biotech society which is said to have started to evolve in the first decade of the 21st century. Unlike cyberpunk, it builds not on information technology but on biology. Individuals are enhanced not by mechanical means, but by human genetic engineering.

Postcyberpunk: Not so much a derivative as an evolution.

Postcyberpunk describes a subgenre of science fiction which some critics suggest has evolved from classic cyberpunk. Like its predecessor, postcyberpunk focuses on technological developments in near-future societies, typically examining the social effects of an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized informaton, genetic engineering and modification of the human body, and the continued impact of perpetual technological change. Unlike "classic" cyberpunk, however, the works in this category feature characters who act to improve social conditions or at least protect the status quo from further decay.

Includes a sense of humor, as opposed to the frequently deadly serious nature of cyberpunk.

Classic example: The Diamond Age

…At some point, you know, this all seems like a snake devouring its own tail…

Friday, after much hand-wringing and debating and questioning sanity (almost entirely by my wife), we adopted a new kitten from the Humane Society.

He’s about seven weeks old and has that full-on kitten rambunctious flexibility that all the good kittens possess. Kittens like that are like crack for some people.

Thankfully the first night was the only night (for me) that messed up my sleep… seems like the last cat we got kept me up a lot more at first. I’m not complaining!

So far, the other two cats are still unsure of what to make of the interloper. I’m sure that will pass and they’ll start kicking his ass any day now.

And now, of course, the obligatory kitten pictures.

I haven’t decided yet if that black on the nose qualifies this cat to look like Hitler…