talkingsoup | Knew I Couldn't Run Forever

It usually happens like this; there'll be a grand sweeping plague across the school that'll hit everyone I know except me, and as soon as everyone seems to have gotten better--whammo! I'm out on the floor leaking fluids from my face and feeling like death.

Man, I saw it coming, too. I was knocking back vitamin C like it was candy! *shakes head*

So let's see. Quiz today in German that--XOMG--actually went well. Rough draft in Persuasive Argument on the gay marriage paper due today, and the final due sometime next week. We're talking about sleep and conditioning in Psych. Fiction and Poetry continue on their uncharted course into parts unknown. And Queer Studies is still just fricking awesome. It's giving me a lot of ideas on how to better understand E and Kail's relationship, woot.

In the writing vein, it's tough because I haven't had much time at all, and also I don't know what I want to focus on. Mot has kind of gone *splut* so I think I need to work on one of the others for the time being. And at this point it's a toss up between Spirits and Desert. Leaning more toward Desert, but at the same time I've wanted to work on Spirits since last yearish.

Holy noodles, television. I am liking the new chick on SVU, liek woah. And the CI episode was incredible. I worry about poor Bobby!

And, and, and, dude, oh man, dude--

LOST. IS. BACK.

So! Dude! The Others are living in like, the Island equivalent of suburbia! Complete with ovens, electricity, muffins and book clubs. And evidently computers, because how else is it that they have access to the outside world? I say this because, how else could they gather all that info on our heroes?

Jack is trapped in a fish tank (empty, thankfully) and a conniving, manipulative little bitch is observing him from behind glass like a scientist with her monkey, teaching little Jacky to behave. They're in the underwater Dharma site known as the Hydra. Her name is Juliette. She makes sandwiches. She's evil.

It was a Jack-flashback episode, where we get more evidence of how crazy he is and how obsessed and stubborn he is, like we didn't know that about him already. Pretty much he hounded his ex about who her new fling was, and beat up his father because he thought he was sleeping with her. The whole time he wants to know the name of Sara's new fling. So at the end of the episode, Juliette whips out the mondo-file on Jack and his wife, and Jack has the opportunity to ask about the guy's name--and instead asks if Sara is happy. You could tell Juliette was like, "Breakthrough! The monkey is learning!"

The Others kind of remind me of the Borg. "You will be assimilated!" At least that's what I think is happening here.

As for the others, well, Sawyer is in a polar bear cage (without the bear), and was across from another captive until they tried to escape and ended up getting caught again. Dunno what happened to the other guy. Anyway, there was a conditioning system in the cage, as in--you have to solve a puzzle to get food. Push the one button and you get electrocuted, so you have to hit the button at the same time as you pull three levers, sorta. It's actually a conditioning thing--just learned about it in Psych! B. F. Skinner came up with Operant Conditioning, whereby, you introduce a Stimulus which produces a Response which leads to a Consequence. (B. F. Skinner was actually mentioned in previous episodes--dude!) In other words: Stimulus=hunger, Response=push the button, Consequence=get shocked, so you learn not to push the button. And stuff.

Kate at first was in a shower room being creepily asked to take a shower then creepily instructed to put on a skimpy dress, then she was led to the beach to have breakfast with Henry Gale, who is not Henry Gale and instead is Ben. Which is my brother's name! And the name of the rat in that movie that killed everyone!

She asked why he was doing it and he told her he wanted her to have nice things (beach, food) because the next few weeks were gonna suck. After which she was led to the now-empty cage across from Sawyer. Sawyer was a sweetie. He tossed her the fish-cookie he won when he figured out the food puzzle.

The question, of course, is why are Sawyer and Kate in cages while Jack is behind glass?

I'm thinking--animals go in cages. In terms of the Others and how they seem to view everyone else, I guess Sawyer and Kate would seem like animals to them. Not literally, I mean figuratively. They're both criminals and do an awful lot of running away. Hence, animals.

Dude! Can't wait for next week!!

It's gotten cold here. Not like winter cold, but like fall cold. Fifties and stuff. The poor Californian in me isn't used to it.

Once again there are socks stuck to Julie's wall. ^.^

Oh, and Julie's friend Eileen is coming today and staying for the weekend! Should be fun, though I'll probably spend most of the weekend asleep. Damn cold.

I'm a bad kid. Haven't called my parents in so long. I've been so busy.

Oh, and speaking of Julie, I think I've really gotten her into Naruto! We've just hit the second part of the Chuunin exam, in the Forest of Death. And Orochimaru has just shown up.

It's weird to be watching these parts over again, especially now that I know...

...what began with Orochimaru and Sasuke then. It's kind of like watching Cowboy Bebop over. Like, you know Spike dies in the end, but you keep watching in sort of the vague hope that the ending will be different this time.

It was crafted so well is the thing, because although Orochimaru says flat out that Sasuke will come to him eventually, you hold out hope all the way up until the final moment in the fight between Sasuke and Naruto. And it's all the more terrible because for the entire series, everyone Naruto meets from Zabuza and Haku to Inari to Gaara to Tsunade to Sai ends up changing because of him. And yet here he fails. He doesn't change Sasuke. Especially after their most recent meeting in Orochimaru's lair, I'm starting to think that Sasuke is gone for good.

You know you've got good writing when you build up expectations for the viewers so much so that it seems impossible that Sasuke really will leave, then totally dash our hopes.

...man...

Well, so it goes.

Oh and, DUDE, ASIC was awesome last night. Holy shit. Gankutsuo. Really, don't let the crazy animation throw you, because the story is amazing. I gotta download it. Wow. Last night was...whoa. Intense. And Yakitate continues to be the most amazingly hilariously amazing show EVER.