Everything is Unfinished

Last Wednesday was jam-packed with goodness for me. As I posted before, I met Marc Summers. He was in town to give a presentation at OSU, sponsored by Hillel, but before the speech he did a “meet & greet” with grad students. I was surprised that only about 40 people were there, including one guy in a sweet Pac Man shirt and one guy who was so excited I thought he was going to burst. Marc was very cool. He came in, talked a bit with the whole crowd of us, then went off to the side to sign autographs and take pictures. I told him I’d always wanted to be on Double Dare (I’m sure he’s NEVER heard that before) and that Unwrapped had introduced me to a store right here in Columbus, the Krema Nut Company. They make their own nut butters fresh daily, using only nuts - no preservatives or added anything. In fact, I have a jar of it in my cupboard at home and the label says “Ingredients: Peanuts.”

After getting Marc’s autograph and some pictures, we tried our best to get home. Unfortunately, OSU + Construction + Rush Hour = Slow Driving, so we had to weave around to some side streets. Once home, I headed for bed and got about an hour and a half nap in before Lost. I liked the flashback wrapups of all the main characters, but it seemed like they were introducing an awful lot of new material for the penultimate episode. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s 2-hour finale, but if they leave us with a bunch of cliffhangers, I’ll be pissed.

Anyway, after Lost we packed up and went to the Lennox to get in the Star Wars line. We got there around 9:30 and headed around to the back of the theatre to find the end of the line. Like Johnny posted, the Lennox is a very well-run theatre and we kept moving and got in pretty quickly. So quickly that I didn’t even get to work on the cards I brought with me to make. That was ok though, it was fun looking at all the people dressed up and listening to everyone all excited and on edge. Three guys sitting near us had the best costumes, a very authentic Anakin and Obi Wan, and a full Wookie. Of course they had the expensive light sabers and I have to admit, they were really cool.

Once the movie started, I was surprised at how non-stop it was. There was a lot of story packed into 2 hours! I’m not an afficionado of the Star Wars universe, but it seemed to tie up most of the loose ends. Overall I really enjoyed it, and it was worth staying up that late to see it because I outgeeked all the guys I worked with - none of them saw it that night.

In other eventful news, my Australian online friend Kathryn and her husband are driving Route 66, and she’s blogging about it. I’d love to do this someday, but for now I have to settle for reading about it here: http://www.uplatette.typepad.com/

I just stole this from Wendie, who posted it on our scrapping message board:

Jorge Garcia missed his sister’s wedding to shoot this show in Hawaii.

The first season depicts the first 40 days on the island.

The first episode debuted on ABC with 18.65 million viewers. The second episode attracted 16.33 million viewers.

Yoon-jin Kim originally read for the character of Kate. The producers felt she was not what they were looking for but decided to create a new character for her along with her character’s spouse.

During Charlie’s snorting scenes, Dominic Monaghan is actually snorting brown sugar.

Charlie’s shoulder tattoo reads “Living is easy with eyes closed”. This is a lyric from the song “Strawberry Fields” by The Beatles.

The rocks used in the waterfall cave set are made of rubber so that the sound of the actors, and crew members walking about are not picked up on camera.

When the idea was to have Jack killed off in the pilot, the creators discussed casting Michael Keaton as Jack.

The part of Charlie was originally written for someone much older, but when Dominic Monaghan auditioned, the writers and producers loved him so much that they set about re-writing the part to Dominic’s strengths.

The book Sawyer reads is “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. It tells the tale of a group of lost rabbits searching for a new home.

Plane wreckage scenes were filmed at Mokuleia Beach.

Jungle scenes depicting open, grassy pasture areas at the foot of jagged cliffs were filmed in Kaaawa Valley (first season).

Mokuleia Beach is near Oahu’s northwest tip (Kaena Point). Kaaawa Valley is over 30 miles away on the island’s eastern coast.

Kaaawa Valley is one of the few valleys on Oahu which are entirely privately owned. Many productions were filmed there, including Jurassic Park (1993)’s memorable hiding-behind-the-log chase scene.

Jorge Garcia was the first actor to be cast as one of the survivors.

The sound stage where the cave scenes are filmed is at the old Xerox building.

John Locke is named after English philosopher John Locke, who theorized that before modern society, people lived in the wild in a state of equality and happiness. Likewise, Danielle Rousseau is named for Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher who wrote that society is corrupt, and that when removed from society, man can become truly noble.

Vincent, the dog, is actually played by a female dog, whose name is Madison.

In “Whatever the Case May Be” (Episode #1.12), Shannon describes having been in France and seeing a children’s animated movie about “computer fish” that ends with the song “La Mer” (known as “Beyond the Sea” in English). Although Shannon doesn’t know the name of the movie, it is clearly Finding Nemo (2003), although the French dub of Finding Nemo, like the original American movie, ended with Robbie Williams’s English cover of “Beyond the Sea” instead of the French source. This show and Finding Nemo are both products of the same parent company, Disney.

The cast was not allowed to see a certain set. They had to cover their eyes until cameras rolled. They were walked down the path, cameras now on, and their reaction to seeing the cockpit leaning against the trees was real. This one-take is what was used in the pilot episode.

In the episode “The Homecoming” (2/9/05) Charlie’s date Lucy mentions that her dad is out of town looking to buy a paper company in Slough. This is a reference to the British show “The Office” (2001) which took place at a paper company in Slough.

The symbol that Claire wears around her neck is the Japanese kanji for “love”.

Swedish TV channel TV4 were forced to cancel their broadcast of the series prematurely, because the remaining episodes were stolen.

I know the highlight of the day for Johnny is seeing Star Wars later tonight, but for me it was meeting Marc Summers:

He was so personable and energetic, pretty much exactly like he was on Double Dare and how he is now on Unwrapped. But more on this later - I need to go take a nap in preparation for the midnight movie tonight!

Earth Day 2005
April 23, 2005.
(rain date May 7th)

My friend Heather and her husband Paul are living for a while in Leeds, England. I’m so insanely jealous! But fortunately I can live vicariously through them via their blog, http://doforno.com/blog/ Go check it out and take a virtual tour of (so far) Edinburgh & London.

I’ve talked about spam before, but it was never this funny: check out spamusement.com It’s a collection of poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines. There’s a gallery of over 200, but here are some of my favorites:

Robomaid Amazing New Robotic Duster

Investor Feeding Frenzy

How To Live Without Fear In America

An Email From God

Are You Man Enough For This?

I was tagged by Johnny to do this little game. I have to pick 5 of the following statements and finish them, then tag 3 more people.

If I could be a scientist
If I could be a farmer
If I could be a musician
If I could be a doctor
If I could be a painter
If I could be a gardener I’d cross-breed 2 species of vegetables by putting them in a candlelit room together, playing Barry White, and hoping for the best.
If I could be a missionary
If I could be a chef
If I could be an architect
If I could be a linguist
If I could be a psychologist
If I could be a librarian
If I could be an athlete
If I could be a lawyer
If I could be an innkeeper
If I could be a professor I’d wear a leather coat with tweed patches on the sleeves, and affect a bad british accent for my classes.
If I could be a writer
If I could be a llama-rider
If I could be a bonnie pirate
If I could be a service member
If I could be a photographer
If I could be a philanthropist
If I could be a rap artist
If I could be a child actor
If I could be a secret agent
If I could be a comedian/comedienne I’d have one good act in me that was hilarious at first but I’d do it over and over again for 6 years, then I’d have a kid and my whole new act would be about baby sounds and poop
If I could be a priest
If I could be a radio announcer
If I could be a phlebotomist
If I could be a pet store owner I would never want to sell any of my animals. Except the ugly ones.
If I could be a police officer
If I could be a politician
If I could be a mom
If I could be an underwater basket weaver
If I could be a reality TV host
If I could be a forensic pathologist
If I could be a TV show writer
If I could be a dictator of a small country
If I could be an ice cream store owner
If I could be a teacher I’d…oh wait, I tried this one and it didn’t work out. I have total respect for anyone who can be a successful teacher, because it takes infinite time, patience and planning.
If I could be a diva
If I could be a bus driver
If I could be a fashion designer

Woody, Myke, Wendie: tag!

Dear Fashion Industry:

I am a Fat Girl. You may call me something else: plus size, full-figured, or woman. But let’s not beat around the bush here. I’m fat. Which means that, in addition to having extra padding on my butt and hips, I’ve got a gut. So unlike “regular” girls, who have some curviness to them, I have a LOT of curves to take into consideration. Which is why I’d like to formally request that you stop making pants that have hips the same size around as the waist. If I pick out pants in my usual size, I can button them but not zip them because of my ass. But if I try a pair that fits around the hips, the waist is 2 sizes too big. And how about getting it through your heads that things that look good on skinny people don’t look good on everyone? I don’t want any low-rise jeans. They make size 8 girls look fat - imagine what they do to me! While we’re at it, let’s just remove the word “Lycra” from your vocabulary. Fitted shirts are ok - no one wants to look like they’re wearing a shapeless sack - but when they have lycra (or spandex, or any other stretchy, clingy fabric) in them, all they do is emphasize the tummy rolls. We generally try to hide those from people, not put them on full display.

Now, I know what you’re going to say: it’s my own fault that my body looks the way it does. That’s true. I take full responsibility for my fatness. And I’m doing something about it, by eating better and getting healthier. But in the meantime, I can’t go around naked. And you KNOW there’s a huge market (no pun intended) for full-figured fashion. That’s why stores like Lane Bryant, CJ Banks and Fashion Bug are in business, and that’s why you got into making large-sized clothes in the first place. You wouldn’t have if there wasn’t a dollar to be had. I’m just trying to help us both out here - there’s more dollars to be had if you give us clothing that actually fits us.