Blog-o-rama, a.k.a. Gwynne’s blog

After launching her rockin’ photoblog, gwynnejohnson.com, a few months back, Gwynne has gone and done it again. Her newly christened, slightly more text-y blog, gwynnejohnson.blogspot.com, will chronicle her adventures in Rockport, ME, this summer at a program called the Maine Photographic Workshop.

Ana and I are so happy for G-money. It sounds like she’s incredibly psyched about photography camp and between her new red car, her new red car, and her successful removal of red-eye from every picture of Stephen Baldwin (long story), things are clearly looking up. For further evidence, just witness the latest cheery pic on her photoblog. Alright, it’s not exactly a smiling baby, but I’m taking the disappearance of the “Virgin Mary in trash heap” motif to be a good sign. A very good sign, indeed.

Fun with Google Trends

I got this idea from Andy’s SynchingMac blog, which I just checked in on last night. Pretty cool stuff. I’d post my Google Trends chart of the Baldwin Brothers in 2006, but — well, it’s just all too disturbing.

My Theory on Lost

OK, I’m just wanna throw this out there: Locke is the lost heir to the Widmore family, an extremely weathy clan with a Murdoch-like empire of companies under their control. In the final episode of the season, we’re going to see Locke’s twin, Charles, another baldie (who looks fairly similar to O’Quinn). Charles is the British Widmore heir; Locke is the American (as referred to in the last official Lost Podcast). For those who’ve read “Bad Twin,” Locke is Zander to Charles’s Cliff.

Separated at Birth?
Alan Dale (left), set to play Charles Widmore, and Terry O’Quinn (right) as John Widmore, née Locke

The Widmore companies are the ones pulling the strings at the Hanso Foundation and, by extension, the Darhma Initiative and the Lost island. I’m not totally sure why Charles would want to bring Locke to the island (he could be sick, wanting to remove Locke as a potential heir, etc.), but my bet is that we’ll get some clue about what he’s up to in the finale.

As for Michael, I suspect that tomorrow night’s episode will show that he worked for Widmore and was, in some way or another, manipulated by his employer to spring Henry Gale two episodes ago. A lot of this is based on reading “Bad Twin” and what I’ve gotten off of lostpedia.com (Incidentally, I also like the theory that “Bad Twin” was authored by James Patterson). Although the Lost Experiece game and thehansofoundation.org site have been entertaining and fun thus far, I’m not totally sure how those clues about Alvar Hanso and the company board add up. If I had to guess, I’d say there’s something similar to the plot of “The Constant Gardener” — drug trials and scientific experiments going on in Africa, the Middle East, and hard-to-find islands, plus plenty of other shady pharmaceutical company dealings. But regardless of what the island’s actual scientific purpose is (I think there are many, actually), I’m fairly confident that the Widmores are behind it.

There, I’ve said my peace.

Damn you, Da Vinci Code Quest (on Google)

Jeez! After three-plus weeks of cracking Da Vinci Code Quest on Google puzzles, they go and pull the plug. I totally didn’t see this coming. I was down to the last round, fiddling with the hardest Soduku-type puzzle, when Ana started complaining and insisting that I come to bed. “Oh well,” I thought, “I’ll just finish it tomorrow.” Little did I know there wouldn’t be a tomorrow — at least, in the world of Quests on Google.

To up the frustration, Doug DID finish. What’s more, he got an email saying congrats and that his cryptex decoder is in the mail. That’s right, his own bonafide cryptex! Mother-effin-cryptex. Man oh man do I feel gypped. And I mean that in the gypsie-swindling etymology of the word.

While I try to live vicariously through Doug’s success — and perhaps aid in his conquering of the next Quest round — I can also console myself in the new Google Talk. Free phone calls over the internet? Sweet!

(OK, I know there were already plenty of companies like Skype doing the free phone call thingy. But honestly, don’t they all sound kinda sketchy. While Google may well be vying against the NSA, Cheney, DARPA’s TIA program, and La Cosa Nostra for the title of Big Brother 2006, they’re still the most trustworthy of the bunch, wouldn’t you agree?)

An Exquisite Dilemma

The setup: A cat laser that automatically comes on, moves in circles around the room, pauses, then circles again — all automated to save me from having to use the hand-operated lasers. As if that weren’t friggin great enough, it’s called the “Bada Beam” (evoking a certain adult club featured on a certain HBO original series).

The dilemma: Do I buy this brilliant invention, thus proving that I am the single laziest cat owner on the face of the earth, too lame to even manipulate a cat dancer or get up to shine the hand-held laser around the apartment?

Only time will tell.

The Lost Experience

It was only a matter of time until something came along to fill the emotional void left by “A Treasure’s Trove.” Enter the Lost Experience.

It’s a kind of bizarro alternate reality game that was launched last week, timed to coincide with the release of “Bad Twin”, which is a tie-in book that seems to have all kinds of clues that may or may not explain what the heck is happening on the Lost TV show’s island. Yes, that’s right, I downloaded the audio version of the book and I’m already about half-way through. So far it’s raised far more questions than it’s answered — the only thing I’m certain of at this point is that it was written by Stephen King, but that’s a whole other post. Still, the book is only the tip of the iceberg.

In last week’s episode, there was a 30 second TV advertisement for an organization called the Hanso Foundation, which was designed to totally blend into the regular commercial rotation, but was actually a clue: it gave a phone number, which leads you to a voicemail system, from which you can poke and prod long enough to get a password from someone named Persephone. Which can in turn be used to log into a deeply buried section of the thehansofoundation.org website.

I know, I know, this is all terribly pathetic. But as dorky as it sounds, there are the occassional redeeming moments, like when I puched in www.badtwin.com — thinking that the book might have its own website. What did it send me to? A link to the word “bad,” which sent me to a video. A totally hi-larious video of cats doing each other from the rear while their owners are out of town.

It may not be the true secret to Lost, but–well, I for one wouldn’t hold it against JJ Abrams if it was.

Colbert is G-D

Man, I thought Stephen Colbert was ballsy interviewing C-list House Representatives, but having just watched the video of him at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s clear that the man has a comedic death wish. Not a Belushi or Bruce kind of drug-fueled mania, but the kind that involves brutally mocking the POTUS while standing only about five feet away. And here I thought this Correspondents Dinner was all about mocking yourself, not others. As Jon Stewart put it, that speech was “ballsilicious.” If you haven’t already, check it out here.