Creepers. I have been crept on by an old middle school classmate, & by a middle-aged former theater employee who I adore but unfortunately came off a little creepy. Why must it always be creepers? Please, God, send me someone a little better with the ladies. Or at least someone who isn't using the internet & making me wonder just exactly what they've seen on my Facebook & why they're messaging me in the wee hours of the morning.

Crackhead relatives. My mom's aunt's granddaughter, who was in jail for drugs for as long as I can recall, got out a few years ago & now they're having money troubles. They basically call & harass whoever they can for money, but everyone basically knows it's going towards crack. Said aunt was told by people at a clinic that her granddaughter is using, but she's in total denial.

Monty Python's Flying Circus. I've been watching it nearly excessively. Genius. I've seen most of their movies but never the TV show, & Netflix lets you stream it over their site. So I've tackled I believe the first two seasons so far. Good fucking times.

Next up: a few of us travel into the depths of Monessen just for karaoke with our favorite DJ. We meet some interesting characters & become convinced that Monessen is, in fact, a zombie town.

1. When you come home from a long day of whatever it is you do and your brain is totally fried, what therapy do you normally seek? The same things I always do - internet, TV, books, movies. If I'm close to catatonic, TV & movies that aren't too epic & are more of the funny side work the best.

2. Of the myriad of desserts made primarily of fried dough, what is your favorite? I'm a slut for funnel cake. Or plain fried dough that they sell at church fairs & the like.

3. Most fried foods are best right out of the fryer, but what’s a fried food that you enjoy cold? I honestly can't think of one. There's fried ice cream, but I think it's kind of overrated.

4. What’s the most unusual deep-fried food you’ve ever tried? I don't get too exotic with the fried foods. Fried ice cream's probably the weirdest.

5. Where can you get really good French fries? I like Steak & Shake's fries, & McDonald's. Eat 'N' Park. And any place that has those nice big, thick ones.

Top 5 songs you think it should be illegal for anyone to cover.

1. Any song by Erasure. It just could not be done justice, at all.

2. Anything by AFI, too. Wouldn't be the same. Plus Davey's voice is so unique it would be tough to pull that off.

3. Anything by The Beatles. They're classics, & you don't need to mess with that. Yes, there are some notable exceptions, but otherwise, no covers.

4. "Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners. I know this is kind of a weird one, but think about. Do you really want anyone else doing this song?

5. Queen. Anything. Ever. Do not want.

Sometimes, I do things more becoming of a 20-year-old guy than the 20-year-old girl that I actually am. One of those things is laying on a couch for hours at a time on a weekend eating junk food & X-Box. Granted, I only play a few games - there's the social staple Rock Band, the solo Guitar Hero, my one true love BioShock, & the entire Call of Duty series. Yes, I love Call of Duty. Love it. I have played & beaten ever single one. And I plan to go back & play & beat them all again one day.

The problem is, college prevents me from playing. For the most part, I just don't have the time. The fact that I have no X-Box & just play my brother's at home is also a problem. Which poses an interesting dilemma for when one of us moves out, since there is a stack of games that's basically solely mine, but whatever. I digress. Anyway, because of college, I didn't get to actually play it until at least a solid month after it came out, but oh man was it awesome.

These people just keep outdoing themselves. Seriously.

I wouldn't love this series if it didn't have a comprehensive, well-told, & well-written storyline. Seriously. It's the same thing with actual war movies - I don't like just shit blowing up. I love plots. And the story's just as worth paying attention to as anything else, because you really do have characters, twists, epic betrayals, etc. It's not just about the amazing graphics & how fun blowing shit up is, but also seeing how things actually play out.

Still, though, they pull out all the stops. One level starts out underwater & you actually see bubbles, fish, everything. It's mind boggling to look at what they can do with video game graphics these days. Yeah, I'm 20, & this kind of technology has been around most of my life, but still. Games have come along way even since I was a kid. The first game system we had was a Nintendo 64, & that was a huge, huge deal. One of our first games was Goldeneye. The graphics, still, are one of the worst things I've ever seen but shit if you put an N64 & that game in front of me to this day I will play it & love it. Another digression.

This game also comes with a disclaimer, saying that there's a level (pretty early on) that some my find offensive. So naturally, I see this disclaimer when I put the game in & I immediately want to know what the deal is, but Brandon would not tell me. Spoiler alert: turns out, you're undercover working with Russians & you go into an airport & pretty much annihilate tons of civilians. Since such things don't offend me, I was more in awe of the graphics, plot point, & the fact that the creators had enough balls to even do that. Props to them. And I'm surprised no one in the media made a shit storm about it. Not that it's necessary. We've just become too sensitive as a country, that's all.

One more thing that blew my mind, at least that I can immediately think of: war here in the States. They take rural West Virginia & turn it into a complete mess of a war zone, which is actually really cool to see.

I don't remember how long it took me to beat the game. A couple of late Saturday nights on the couch. But shit was it awesome. I mean, seriously. Amazing.

That's right - now that Lost is back for its final season, that means my weekly, obsessive Lost recap & speculation is back, too. Tell your friends!

So, 815 is still in the air & doesn't crash, but also has crashed at the same time & the Losties seem to have been catapulted from 1970s Mindfuck Island to present-day Mindfuck Island. Alternate timelines! Except, with Not Crashed 815, something is definitely off. Jack & Rose have switched personalities. Rose was freaked out originally, & now its Jack. What's with the mystery cut on Jack's neck? There's also a kind of deja vu theme going on. And the island is underwater! Presumably from when Juliet detonated the bomb. You don't exactly come back from that, unless of course you're messing with time travel & create a sort of time split...the shitty part is, they all think it didn't work the way they wanted it to, when really, apparently, it kind of did.

It's nice to see people together with their lives not ruined, & to see dead people alive again. Rose & Bernard are adorable, as always. Hurley owned Mr. Cluck's chicken is hilarious, & it's quite interesting that he considers himself "the luckiest guy alive" when the lottery & the numbers, at least in his mind, are what got him back on the island to begin with. It was nice to see Boone again, too, although he's sans Shannon. Sounds to me like Shannon wouldn't leave with him. I loved seeing Charlie again, too, even if he was choking on his heroin & being a fail, just like he was before. Charlie, too, benefitted from the crash. I wonder if we'll be hearing from him again or not. What did he mean when he said he was supposed to die? We know what his fate was before, & Desmond's role in that. This time, when Charlie said it, the way he said it carried a lot of weight.

Some things never change, though, like Jin & Sun's complete failure of a marriage. They're among the few who were better off crashing, in a way. It's also interesting to note how Boone & Locke hooked up on the plane, & Boone's comment that if the plane went down, he'd stick with Locke - which is exactly how it happened before. And Locke is still paralyzed, & a cool dude unlike Flocke (Fake Locke)/Douchebag Locke. Even the marshall is back. That dude must've been so bummed he got killed off early, & is probably so stoked to be back. And it looks like Kate is just gradually making things worse for herself. I don't like this Kate. She's starting to make it hard to feel bad for her.

Claire makes a cameo, too, but we don't know much beyond that. And Kate's gonna fuck up whatever her pre-existing plans were anyway.

Absent are, as I mentioned before, Shannon, plus Michael & Walt. And Jack's dead daddy, which can't be a coincidence.

Something just isn't right.

Back on Mindfuck Island...

Juliet was a very unfortunate loss, but I am glad she got one more scene with Sawyer before she died. Even though we've been seeing Sawyer gradually warm up over the past six seasons, it's still so nice to see him being emotional, romantic, & cute. And they're throwing us right into it with a death in the premier. We're not fucking around here, anymore. Her telling Sawyer she set the bomb off was brutal. And when he said, "You got it, Blondie," was cute & rough all at once. Aww Sawyer.

Sayid was a sort of, almost, but maybe not really sad casualty, too. It was upsetting for me to have to wait this whole time to find out what would happen to him, & his little speech about what would happen to him when he died was heartbreaking. He had the potential to be healed, then died, then came back. The fact that there's a healing spring on the island isn't at all surprising. Does that have anything to do with the healing powers of the island? And I get that they had to go with the hourglass, but why? Sayid also needs some shirtless scenes. I'm just sayin'. And leave it to Jack to try to be a hero & save him. It reminded me of when he tried to save Charlie when Ethan tried to hang him, except Charlie's psuedo-death was more upsetting to me. Then again, if I cry during Lost with my roommate here, I will never live it down, even if it's over Sayid. Which I think is totally valid. But she doesn't watch the show & probably wouldn't understand or like it if she did. Anyway.

Flocke is Smokey. I'm not sure just what exactly this means, other than a whole lot of problems for anyone who tries to cross him.

I guess the Temple is a legit temple, but who are all those people & where did they come from? They obviously know who Jacob is & have some sense of loyalty to him, or take orders from him or something. The reappearance of Zack & Emma must be noted. This kind of suggests to me that maybe the 815 survivors have been recruited, or something, but for what? Flocke also implies that the Losties' lives have meaning on the island & they didn't before. WHAT IS GOING ON? I think the Losties are all pretty much pawns here.

Interesting that that line of ash protects you from Smokey/Flocke. Why does that stop him, & what's his problem, anyway? Interesting that the temple apparently needs protecting with Jacob dead. The appearance of the spring is also clearly related to Jacob's death. What's the purpose of the flares?

There's something about Jacob I like. I think Jacob is the good guy, Flocke is the bad guy, & we're heading into some sort of war, or the aftermath of one. What does Jacob mean when he says he was killed by an old friend who got tired of his company? Jacob needs some new friends.

Richard showing Ben Locke's body was probably one of the neatest moments of the episode. A very "OH WE ARE SO FUCKED" moment. Richard was, apparently, a slave on the Black Rock & has history with Flocke, & it ain't a good one. And if Flocke hurts one hair on Richard's pretty little head, I swear, I'll cut a bitch. Where is he taking him? My favorites aren't doing well on this show. What's Flocke so disappointed about? Calm the fuck down.

Not sure what the deal with Jacob's "bodyguards" are. I don't completely trust them, but like I said, I think Jacob is the good guy here.

The "I'm seeing it, but I'm still not believing it" line. I swear this was said by Doggett once on The X-Files. Like, I'm willing to put money down on that. Just saying.

People we still need to hear from: Rose, Bernard, & Claire in Island Time. In 815 Time, Daniel. Penny. Whidmore. Charlotte. Jack's dead daddy in both.

Unanswered questions/things to ponder & bemuse: Why was Desmond even on the plane, & where the hell did he disappear to? Will anything become of his flashes? Who's more powerful: Flocke/Smokey, or Jacob? What of the issues of fate, & course-correction? What did the paper in the ankh say? Why an ankh? What's Sayid's deal? Why are they so royally fucked if he's dead? Does the color of the spring water have anything to do with whether or not it actually works? What's that dude's problem with English? Where is home for Flocke? The depths of hell? Was Miles getting anything from Sayid? What do they need to talk to Jack about? WHAT IS UP WITH SAYID? SERIOUSLY.

The season is young, Lost addicts. We're in for one crazy ride.

The fall semester ended pretty well. I actually missed going to Music in Society because I actually enjoyed it. It was fun to get up every morning & listen to & talk about music.

I did well, in the end. Made the dean's list, & managed to get a B in that dicks history class that pissed me off all the time. I don't know how I pulled that off, to be honest, but clearly I can't complain.

Finals were okay. The only problem was that I got a severe case of cabin fever, since for some reason Pitt's break started later & was shorter than pretty much every other school's. It's made worse with things like Facebook & Twitter where I can see for myself that my friends are already on break having good times & I'm missing out, & instead have to study & throw portfolios together. It lead to some serious angst, Craig withdrawal, & a desire for alcohol. Luckily, when break finally did roll around, it was a good one with plenty of the things I lacked.

1. When did you last feel you were required to jump through meaningless hoops to get something you wanted? Sometimes I have to do this to get an interview for an article set up.

2. What kinds of hula hoop memories do you have? Entertaining ones, but also ones where I'm exhausted from overexerting myself.

3. How do you feel about basketball? It's alright. I only get the basics of it. I used to watch my brother play & occasionally middle school friends but that's as far as my interest goes. I stick to hockey.

4. What do you think of hoop earrings? I like them, a little more than I used to. I do think, though, that they were a bit of an overrated trend a few years back. They're nice, but I mean really, they're hoops. Not that fancy.

5. What’s your favorite Whoopi Goldberg movie? Ghost. Hands down, no contest. Forever.