LOST Alternate Endings

A lot of people weren't too satisfied with the series finale of Lost.
Personally, I was expecting to get answers to my questions about the history of the island, but in retrospect, the finale wasn't so bad - it just wasn't what I expected.

Here are some alternate endings the writers came up with:

The Other Side - Thoughts on the Lost Finale

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
I turned on the final episode of Lost, "The End", expecting that on the other side I would have answers to all my questions about the island, only to end up more confused than before.

My initial thought is this:
Lost is the ultimate post-modern TV show. There are no answers. Everyone is left to make their own conclusions. And the point of the whole show was not to get answers to all our questions anyway, but the whole point was the enjoyment of the ride itself - and it was a great ride indeed. You know - "it's the climb"!

Here are a few random thoughts/questions:

• Did everyone actually die when the explosion went off at the end of season 5? And those who stayed on the island were just "holding on" and refusing to "let go"?
• If that was "the incident" - then was everyone who continued to live after the incident actually dead?
• Did the island actually sink?
  
• What's up with the time traveling?
  
• Was everything real up until the explosion at the end of season 5?
• Are they saying that there is no such thing as reality or here and now, and we all live in a make-believe world of our own imagination, which we have created in order to "find each other"?
• Did Ben and Hurley stay alive and work together on the island for a while before eventually dying and catching up with the others in the alternate reality?
  
• What happened to Michael? Isn't he stuck on the island?
• What the heck is that island anyways? Did it really exist? It seems to me that it did.
  
• Who built all that stuff like the temple and the heart of the island? What's up with the hieroglyphics? What is the origin of the statue?
  
• How did the Dharma Initiative find the island? Why were so many people looking for the island?
  
• What's up with the smoke? I get it that the guy died, but why did he become smoke?

Maybe the most significant line in the final episode was when Desmond told Jack that none of what they were doing mattered anyway, and all that really mattered was what awaited them on the other side...

I've got a lot more questions - but I am interested in what others who have watched the Lost finale have to say.
Did you watch it? What did you think? What are your theories?

Україна має талант

If you haven't seen this yet, check it out.
This woman won Ukraine's Got Talent - and she totally earned it with this amazing and moving presentation:

On the News - A Híradóban

When we were out on Saturday with the church for the volunteer day, the local TV station was there to film us.

The short report about our work aired today. Here's the video.

You can see quite a few people from church in it, including Balázs, Nate and I. I'm the guy raking towards the end, and you can see Nate working right along side me with his little shovel :)

Szombaton, amikor részt vettünk a Szeretethíd önkéntes napban, a TV Eger is ott volt, és készítettek rólunk egy riportot.

Ez a riport ma este volt a híradóban.

Egy jó pár embert lehet látni benne a gyülinkből, azok közül Balázst, Nétet, és engem is. Én vagyok a gereblyés ember a vége felé, és ott Nétet is lehet látni, ahogyan szorgalmasan dolgozik mellettem :)

Kevin Skinner's Got Money

We really enjoyed this season of America's Got Talent. It's a nice show that the whole family can watch together - Balázs can follow what's going on, and Nate likes it too, especially the acts with animals in them!
We are happy that Kevin Skinner won; we've liked him since his audition, and wish him all the best. To go from being an unemployed farmer to having a headline show in Vegas and $1 mill...that's a pretty drastic change.
There were a lot of good acts in the top 10; our favorite was Hairo Torres, a contortionist/break dancer. Hopefully being on AGT will help launch his career. Here's a video of (in our opinion) his best performance on the show:

Surprised

I don't like country music. But I was blown away by this performance by Kevin Skinner on America's Got Talent. He comes across like a total hillbilly bumpkin, but he's seriously good.
Check it out:

Adios Paula

Apparently, Paula Abdul will no longer be a judge on American Idol, as she hasn't been offered a contract to continue with the show.
Article here.

Paula had her ups and downs, did some crazy stuff off-screen, and was obviously on prescription drugs, but I think we're all going to miss hearing her say every week: 'You're a bright and shining star' and 'I love you' to almost every contestant.

We actually liked Paula being on the show - she usually had something nice to say when they other judges didn't - and you always knew that if there was a performance that even Paula couldn't say something nice about, then it must have been really bad!
Here's Paula on AI - an example of why she might not have been invited back...

Lost

Lost will have its 6th and final season next year. I have to say that I have a hard time imagining a world without Lost. Rosemary and I look forward to it so much and are ritualistic about watching it.
In my opinion this past season (season 5) was the best ever. So many important things were revealed, and it wasn't cheesy and predictable. Some things were revealed which make us want to go re-watch the whole show from the beginning, because in light the new information we will see a ton of stuff differently now.
If season 5 was the best season, I would have to say that season 3 was the worst, and the worst episode ever was Stranger in a Strange Land, the episode about how Jack was in Thailand and how he got his tattoo. That episode was not only boring - it was a waste of time. Exposé was also a waste of time.

What are your favorite/least favorite Lost episodes?

Here's a video wrap-up of the season 5 finale. Check it out:

Egri Sztárok - Celebrities of Eger

Az egyik dolog amit nagyon sokszor megkérdezik tőlünk, mint amerikaiak, az, hogy találkoztunk-e már sztárokkal.
Balázs mondta, hogy az iskolában megkérdezik tőle, hogy mi ismerjük-e 50 Cent-et. Mondtuk neki, hogy azt mondhatja nekik, hogy "Persze, hogy ne ismérnének? Jó haverok! MSN-ezni szoktak vele szinte minden nap! De, a 50 Cent most már nem akar velük szóba állni, mert Nick lehülyézte, és ő megsertődött."

Amerikában összesen 1 "sztár"ral találkoztam csak: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brooklyn-ben amikor "A Tégla" című filmet forgották.
Úgy volt, hogy láttuk, hogy filmet forgatnak egy házban. Oda mentünk, és kb 3 méterre tőlem állt egy ember, fekete napszemüveggel, és valahogy ismerős volt az arca.
Az apukám felém fordult és azt mondta, hogy - "Hé, nézd már - ott van Matt Damon." Aztán Rosemary szólt, hogy "Ne már - az nem Matt Damon, az Leonardo DiCaprio."
Leo amúgy mindezt meghallotta - és csak mosolygott és bement abba a házba, ahol forgatták a filmet.

Múlt vasárnap az egri plázában voltam - kulcsot másoltam - és a kulcsmásoló csávó azt mondja nekem, "Hé, nézd már - ott van Gazdag Tibor!" Fogalmam sem volt, ki ez a Gazdag Tibor, de most már tudom, hogy ő a "Jóban, Rosszban" egyik főszereplője.
Életemben egyszer sem néztem azt a sorozatot, de azért örülök, hogy legalább még egy sztárt láttam.


One of the things that Hungarians often ask of us as Americans is whether or not we've ever met any celebrities.
Balázs told us that at his school, the other kids ask him if we know 50 Cent. We told him that he can tell them, "Oh, of course they know him, they are good friends! They chat all the time with him on MSN messenger! But now 50 Cent doesn't want to talk to us, because Nick called him names, and his feelings got hurt."

In America I have met only 1 celebrity: Leonardo DiCaprio, in Brooklyn, during the filming of "The Departed."
What happened was, that we saw that they were filming a movie in a house, so we went over there, and this guy with dark sunglasses was standing about 10 feet from me, and his face seemed familiar.
So then my dad turns to me and says, "Hey, look, that's Matt Damon!" Then Rosemary said, "No way, that's not Matt Damon, that's Leonardo DiCaprio!"
Leo heard all this by the way, and just smiled and walked back into the house where they were filming.

Last Sunday I was in the mall in Eger, getting a key copied, and the guy copying my key says, "Hey, look, there's Gazdag Tibor!" I had no idea who this Gazdag Tibor guy was, but now I know that he is one of the main actors on the Hungarian TV series "Jóban, Rosszban." I've never seen this show in my life, but I'm glad that at least I got to see another celebrity.

High Five

American Idol has started again.
Last year we reluctantly started watching American Idol, and got hooked. At first we were a little embarrassed to admit that we were fans, but we have since come out of the closet, and enjoy watching the competition.
We were very glad that David Cook won last year - he became our favorite when he sang Hello, way back in the top 16. Rosemary still YouTube-s his rendition of Always Be My Baby about once a week.

Even though the new season of AI has been going for a few weeks now, we just got around to starting to watch it.
At the end of the first episode, there was a blind guy, who sang well and got put through to the next round. Interestingly, as he came out to celebrate with his family, Ryan Seacrest tried to give him a high five. No, really; Ryan Seacrest tried to give a blind guy a high five!
We busted up!
Here's the video:

"Change"

It is often said that people generally hate change or that they resist change, but of course there are exceptions to this rule.
This week some changes are going to take place in our world.

Tomorrow, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America, after winning the election on a campaign which promised "Change".
It will be interesting to see what kind of changes actually take place. I've already summed up my thoughts on Obama's victory here, but I really do hope that his presidency does good things for America.

But a much more interesting change this week, at least for me personally, is that Season 5 of Lost begins on Wednesday night.
This is the kind of change that I can believe in! This is the kind of change that we here in Eger long for; there is nothing like waking up on Thursday, knowing that there is a new Lost episode to watch.

If you haven't watched season 4 yet, and don't want to know what happened, then you shouldn't read on.

The 5th Season of Lost, acccording to Lost's co-creator/executive producer/writer/show runner Damon Lindelof, "is about why [the people who have left the island] need to get back".
Season five follows two primary storylines. The first takes place on the island, which has been moved in both space and time by Ben, and focuses on the events that lead to Locke's death in 2007. The second takes place off the island following Locke's death and deals with Jack and Ben's attempt to reunite the Oceanic Six and return to the island with Locke's dead body.
Source: Wikipedia

No matter who the president is, as long as I can watch Lost every week for the next 17 weeks, I will be very happy!

Entertainment News

If there is one thing I really dislike, its "entertainment news." I could care less what Paris Hilton wore to some awards ceremony or what Justin Timberlake does in his free time (although we were pretty sad when Brad and Jennifer split up - we were rooting for them to make it long-term as a Hollywood couple).

However, there were 2 stories that caught my eye recently.

1. "Heroes" has begun to stink
   We started watching Heroes when it first came out, and really liked the first season. It was the kind of show that was able to hold us over as we waited for our one and only true show viewing experience - LOST.
   
   We watched the 2nd season of Heroes too, and that was pretty good, but recently we started watching the first few episodes of season 3, and just stopped watching altogether. The plot line jumps back and forth, it has a very dark feeling to it, and more than anything else - its just flat out boring, and we can't get into it.
   
   Apparently we aren't the only ones who feel this way.
   According to this article, Heroes, which in its first season surpassed Lost in the ratings, has lost over 2 million viewers this season! As a result, 2 of the co-producers, who were also writers on the show, have been fired.
   Bummer for those guys, but hopefully this change will result in the show being more interesting - which would be nice.
   Until then, we're just going to hold our breath and wait for Lost to start up again in January.
   
   Has anyone out there watched Heroes this season? What do you think?
   
   
2. Guns n' Roses is releasing a new album
   Rosemary and I have a common love for 80's rock n' roll.
   When we were dating, we used to go to this café in Debrecen that played 80's rock music, and we would sit there for hours drinking coffee and singing along to whatever we knew the words to. And of course, one of our favorites is Guns n' Roses "Appetite for Destruction" - one of the all-time best rock albums ever made.
   
   Guns n' Roses just announced that after 15 years in the making, their new album, "Chinese Democracy" is finished, and set to be released on Nov 23.
   According to this article, Axel Rose started writing this album in 1993 - when metal was still cool - and now, 15 yrs and $11.5 million later, we finally get to see this "masterpiece" which Axel has been "perfecting" for the last decade, recording and re-recording over and over.
   
   I watched a documentary once about Brian Wilson (the Beach Boys), in which they talked about how in the early years of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson was considered a progressive musical genius. And because of his initial success, there became a mounting pressure for him to produce something awesome with each new album - which led in the end to Brian trying to outdo himself by creating a grand masterpiece, which he never finished, because he had a mental breakdown from the pressure of it.
   It seems to me that this is the case with "Chinese Democracy" - its Axel Rose's grand masterpiece, which he was never able to perfect the way he envisioned.
   
   Here's the first single from the album - the title track.
   What do you think? Is this what you would expect from 15 yrs and $11.5 mill?
   
   

Krtek - A Kisvakond

From my experience - and maybe it is just this way in our church and nowhere else - there is almost nothing that Hungarians like to talk about more than "mesék" (tales or cartoons).
Every now and then at church someone will bring up some mese that they used to watch when they were a kid, and then everyone else gets really excited, and they all start talking at the same time about which mese is the best, and which part of it was the funniest, and then they talk about how the mesék these days are super bad, and how much better things were when they were kids.
And it seems that all their favorite mese are from the socialist period, which makes sense, since that's when they were all kids.
Tonight I was driving some people home from church, and they rattled off a whole list of mesék which I "must" watch. I don't remember all of what they said, except something about a Vízipok (water spider) and some other one from Poland.

But recently someone gave us a DVD of one of these mesék, called Krtek, or in Hungarian: Kisvakond (Mole). Its a Czech cartoon from the 50's and 60's.
We had the disc for about 3 weeks before we even tried it out, because we honestly didn't have very high expectations that it would be any good. But one day we decided to give it a try, and now we LOVE the Kisvakond!
Nathaniel loves the Kisvakond too! He has a few other movies, like Baby Einstein, that he gets excited about - but none as much as this one!
For some reason, Nate prefers to stand up while he watches Kisvakond - sometimes on the floor, usually on the couch - and he sometimes just cracks up laughing as he watches it! There is something magical about the Kisvakond that Nate loves.
I guess I understand now a bit better why the Hungarians in our church get so excited every time anyone starts talking about some socialist mese. At least this one is really good. I'll have to look into that Polish one...
Here's my personal favorite Kisvakond video - The Mole in the City:

Whomever

Rosemary and I have been watching The Office lately.
At first Rosemary couldn't stand it because Michael is such an idiot, but now she's hooked, and always asks me when the next episode is coming out.
Oh, and we're also very happy for Pam and Jim - even though they're only fictional characters...
Here's one of our favorite clips: