Ron Popeil

ok so overall id have to say this was both a very boring episode and....A REALLY AWESOME EPISODE. sayid whined alot. as per usual. but he finally took charge towards the end and became the sayid i used to adore. killing mercilessly. good sayid. everything else may have melted yennas heart, but all i wanted, all i had ever wanted was soon to come..... SMOKE MONSTER! the guy comes in. makes his loud terrifying noises. knocks down trees. and wipes out an entire temple of people. with gusto. i giggled, i admit. tad frustrated with how the last two episodes claimed ANSWERS WERE COMING and yet, absolutely nothing was explained. which is fine, im enjoying the ride. im just annoyed at the claims meant to appease the fans that end up ringing hollow. keamy is so much more charming when hes being a smarmy little mob boss. i liked it. i also liked him being shot to death by sayid for being a smarmy little mob boss. so my questions for this episode: the large sum of cash that jin was carrying at the airport, was this owed to keamy, the head freighter guy? and if it was seized at the airport, is that why jin is now in a meat locker??? i dont really understand the relationship dogen and jacob had in preventing attacks of the smoke monster. so since jacob is dead, the smoke monster can leave the island. but now that dogen is dead, smoke monster can enter the temple? what powers of influence did dogen have? so now locke has an army of people who believe hes going to lead them off the island. only jack, hurley, kate, llana and ben (and lapidus lolz) are left to....fight off a pillar of evil smoke incarnate and a bunch of forest hippy mortals? i like where this is going.

your anemone should not be that translucent. a healthy bubble tip will be rich in color, not pale white. i would continue to feed your anemone until it regains a healthy amount of zooxanthellae back within its tissues. feed shrimp, krill, silversides, crab....etc.

perhaps the star polyps are spawning? eggs and sperm from both sexes in one colony?

so. hrm. if...no, nevermind. so then....sigh. jack. has a kid. like a ten year old. did we know that? did i just forget? and i wonder why or how things that happened on the island somehow corrected themselves years before...if not decades before. ie jacks appendix. he got it removed when he was 7 or 8, right? one would think he would need that removed in a few weeks after he lands at LAX...since he didnt have problems with it until weeks into his stay on the island. im still trying to wrap my head around how without the island, how differently our characters lives turned out. not just after they land, but how their entire lives changed even before the sydney flight without the influence of jacob coming to them. so did jacob not really need to get someone to the island...because hes already there? as in....he just wanted jack to find it in himself to become the hero to lead against the smoke monster fight? or do we still need someone else to come to the island and help out? and with the lighthouse broken....i guess the island wont be bringing anymore people to be candidates....right? and its too bad claire and smoke monster are together. but ill admit i was thrilled when she axed the other. good for her. now, just go back to being beautiful. all of the time.

what the french, toast.

i dont do the message boards. i love the show to death, but i cant bring myself to read spoilers and too much speculation. yenna passed this site on to me, and its about the extent of my snooping around for more details... http://www.theackattack.net/?m=20100217 the side stories lost or never explained will be a shame. i always wanted them to delve more into why walt causes birds to die around him. why he was always told he was "special". being a candidate....i dont know about this yet. im still waiting for a bit more information. the list thing from earlier seasons was fascinating and im glad the thread is starting to unravel, but i dont know enough yet to make up my mind about it yet. its very clear that jacob and the smoke monster have very different agendas and will most likely pit character against character.

they kept up with the black vs white theme in this episode: locke was drinking out of a half black/half white coffee mug while in the tub. there used to be more of this earlier in the series but its sort of making more sense now. locke played lots of backgammon with walt, claire has a dream where one of lockes eyes is white and the other is black. when locke sees the smoke monster first its a white light, while to everyone else its black. the white and black rock on the scales. i wonder how this will all culminate. one question though....does anyone remember the story line for locke and helen? how did they meet? was he in a wheel chair when they did? she suggested they elope, and that she would invite her parents and that locke should invite his dad. TO THEIR WEDDING?! is she not aware of how he lost the use of his legs?!?! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?! i think the boy could be jacob, but why would he come back as a child? a bloody child? i dont know if i saw this somewhere on a random message board or if it popped in my head somehow, but for some reason i have this feeling that boy could turn out to be aaron? im sure im wrong. i hope they dont leave the numbers as simple an explanation as: "he had a thing for numbers..." i mean, i hope there is some deeper reason why some people had an 8 or a 15 next to their name.

we saw glimpses of the temple on a map ben carried a few seasons ago. and it was repeatedly mentioned when the others split, most went to the temple, a few stayed to live with ben in the old dharmaville. it was supposed to be far away, which is why nobody stumbled across it until season five when they found the outer wall. i guess what i would also like resolved is the purpose of the others. it doesnt really make sense to me why they split into two groups: the temple group and bens group. the temple group seemed to alternate between bens group and the temple, until ben told most of the others to go there. they appear to be mostly hippies without technology. fair enough, it matches with following jacobs lead. bens group lived at dharmaville. lived in well kept houses. showered. ate a variety of culinary delights. used a submarine. went between the two islands and operated the research facilities. dressed as castaways and played mind games in the forests to kidnap people. tortured carl. it just doesnt seem that congruent of a single group following the same chain of command: the others to richard to ben to jacob. i dont mind that not everyone was seen on the plane. especially in the case of walt, i just dont think its logistically possible for the show to be able to provide that. so the audience just has to assume that everyone is back on the plane, even those characters we didnt see. i do agree that the timelines will converge. i dont know how theyll do it, but ill roll my eyes if present jack is like...."WE HAVE TO GO BACK!" again and then they go back to present island jack and akjehfkajsdhfasdh. that and a "it was all a dream" ending are also my feared series finale scenarios. i dont think they will be what we will get however, much to my delight. i have always liked locke. hes always been my favorite. i hope he comes back to life. i dont want the last i hear of real john locke being pathetic and confused. i hope the writers expand on this scene, as ive always hoped it would play an integral part to the rest of the series:

andy, your war quote reminded me how much i like and believe this quote: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” ... and maybe its not a quote, maybe its considered more of a poem, but ever since i saw it at the end of fallout 2, i fell in love with it (its taken from a poem called the tyger): "when the stars threw down their spears and water'd heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see? did he who made the lamb, make thee?"

that would make sense, but for some reason ive always had the feeling richard was on the island even earlier. i dont know why though.

the show may have lost a number of its viewers over the years, but i certainly am not one of them. i still thoroughly enjoy the show, its characters and story lines. i was very satisfied with the two hour season opener. it was just the right length of time; when i felt myself hitting that "i want to know more" peak.....there was still another hour left! i dont tend to watch interviews with cast or crew or read too much into the spoiler websites, but i did find this interview entertaining and informative. they mentioned things i hadnt thought of yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKv1R66W8PM i like the part when they reveal who the smoke monster is before the audience has even had a chance to watch the episode. so things that interested me about the last two episodes: the island under water. fascinating. the dharma shark hasnt been seen since walt was taken off the boat. i like that they brought that back briefly. i do enjoy the opposite story lines of being back on the island and being landed back at LA. its so wonderful to see claire and boone and charlie again, if even briefly. desmond on the plane was interesting. that didnt make sense to me. even if the island never existed, desmond would still have participated in that sailboat race....right? you bring up a good point yenna. so the others killed off the dharma folk. moved into their barracks and stations. made carl watch that weird video. and yet, an extension of the others also live at the temple without any sort of technology and with behavior that doesnt seem congruent with brainwashing. so that was weird. i would like to see what ben and the temple leaders relationship was before the plane crashed. from the beginning of last season we see that there are two deities on the island. one good one bad. apparently jacob has been bringing people to the island for centuries. how come? why is the dark guy/smoke monster always trying to foil his plans and kill jacob? where is home for him, i wonder? i hope we get a black rock episode, i want to see why that ship is so far inland. and i think josh holloway should get an emmy or grammy or oscar for his performances lately. hes really impressed me with the scope of his emotions, even though usually they are just frowns. claire. what? why would she be out in the jungle with a gun, when the last time we saw her she was so nonchalantly hanging out with her dead father in an old shack. now shes taking on danielles role? i hope they explain that coherently. i had a bunch more questions and thoughts after the initial opener, but theyve slipped away. ill be back here for sure from now on, just for you scott. ill hold your hand through this, you will get it!

Thank you so much everyone! I am very excited to be here and cant wait to see you all again! Come on in, if even to visit!

i regularly check in on pnwmas.org, reefcentral.com, rareclownfish.com and mofib.com

i will have a small amphiprion bicinctus, or two banded clownfish available for sale tomorrow. it is approximately 2.5"-3" long, captive bred from ORA. looks similar to this: im asking $15 or trades

which one was your original clown? youll have a nice looking mixed pair....a small occellaris and great looking percula!

No problem.

ill have a martini low range phosphate colorimeter in a few days....

ive been toying with the idea of switching out my korallias for a vortech....

i started with an AC jr and absolutely loved it. then i upgraded to the ACIII and immediately realized that everyone should have a controller. with the amount of money we invest in our systems and how easily things can go wrong, a good controller will take care of so many problems. i love that my ACIII will send me an email and a text message during problems or power outtages. that alone is certainly worth the money invested in my ACIII. i also thoroughly enjoy being able to check on my tank from any internet connection in the world and turn things on/off online. im satisfied now with my current controller, but wouldnt mind the upgraded features of the Apex. the apex has a feature that measures electrical usage, which would be nice when calculating electrical costs associated with running lights, pumps, powerheads, etc.

i used a pinpoint for years and loved it. stick with the standard grade probe, no need to spend extra on lab grade.

To everyone that was able to make it out to the meeting today, THANK YOU! This was the first monthly club meeting I have ever been able to attend and I had such a great time. So nice to meet and talk with the many people of this great forum. And for those that brought frags, I sincerely appreciated the very kind consideration! Hope to see you all again soon! Jordan

i think moonlights add a terrific element to your system. night viewing is definitely enhanced and i believe it significantly reduces the chance your fish will jump out.

while a purchase like this is a ways off for me, ive seen a few vortechs in use and....theyve been very appealing to watch in action. i have korallias now and would love to replace them with something that fluctuates water flow in a wave like manner....

ive used it multiple times. in very non precise methods. i usually just pour a bottle or so in and make sure it ends up somewhere over 1800 ppm and it works very well and quickly. i havent seen any other method successfully clear a tank of bryopsis.

still looking for those large, slightly-more-colorful-than-ugly, fast growing coral frags. if you would normally throw these away or give them out, ill take them. THANK YOU!