Off Topic: My Latest "Lost" Theories

I love the show "Lost". I think it is by far the best show on TV and the only one that I actually look forward to every week. The first couple of seasons of the show I used to try to "figure it out". I gave up continually revising my theories last year, and just relaxed and let it wash over me. "Wow, that was crazy... I guess I'll just see what unwinds next week".

Well, yesterday was a big show. One with a lot of questions answered, and that got me going again on my theories. Below are the most recent thoughts, theories, questions and WTFs that are rattling around in my head since last night...

Parallel Lives

• OK, they are not dead and in purgatory (as I thought in Season 1)... but are living parallel lives, in different time periods, and different "speeds"

• Time moves slower on the island than in "real" life - that's why it takes so long (island time) for the helicopter to make a "40 minute" trip to the freighter

• Also some of the "others" haven't really aged since Ben was a little kid (per flashback)

• Desmond's parallel life is 8 years behind "island time"

• Per Daniel Faraday, people that are exposed to radiation or electromagnetic activity suffer "side effects" (time/space jumping)

• Jack (a doctor who deals with XRay machines and other like-equipment) sees his father

• Hurley sees his "invisible friend" from the looney bin.... was he exposed to radiation/electromagnetic fields at some point? I don't recall anything but who knows....

• The radio engineer on the freighter (works in highly electromagnetic environment). Is this the same "crazy" WW2 radio engineer (in his "real self") that Hurley gets the "numbers" from in the looney bin????

• Desmond was in the electromagnetic "blast" when the hatch blew up (and could then see the future regarding Charlie's pending demise)

• Daniel Faraday did all of those radioactive tests on the mouse. Remember when Faraday was shown watching the story of the plane crash and he starts crying? Someone asks "why are you crying?" and he doesn't know.... it's because he can almost make the connection to his parallel life on the island (and whatever ends up happening there)

• Rousseau's crew members were studying the electromagnetic properties of the island (?) and "went crazy" and she killed them all. Why not Rousseau herself? Well, she was pregnant so it would make sense that she stayed away from any radioactive/electromagnetic dangers

• By the way, Locke was in that hatch blast too.... so look for him to be next.
  

• Remember in season 1 or 2 when Desmond met Jack at the stadium (in Jack's flashback before he was on the island) and Desmond asked "do we know each other"? That's because Desmond can kind of remember from his parallel life in the future (on the island)

• Kids can't be conceived on the island because every life has to have a parallel life in the real-world (do the writers have a "life starts at conception" agenda?)

• Widmore (Penny's dad) learns about the secrets of the island from the journal of the First Mate of the Black Rock (he bought it at the auction) - he sends Desmond there on the race to see if it's true/works. How did the First Mate (or at least his journal full of secrets) make it off the island?

• Hmmm... could some of the "slow aging" others mentioned above actually have been the crew on the Black Rock???
  

Master of His Domain

• Ben knows how to control the mental jumping between the parallel lives/time - as well as physically leave - this is why the scientist team is looking for him... they want to learn how he does it. But, without his submarine is he now physically stuck on the island??

• Ben can also control other people's jumping between the parallel worlds... that's how he got Locke to see his dad locked in the closet

• Ben sends Sayid and other's into the parallel world (past) to do his bidding. Are Sayid and the others of Oceanic 6 are actually off the island, or he has just "mentally" sent them there (either by their choice or negotiation to keep the others safe in their alternative realities)?

• Jack and Kate had to "memorize" their (fake story) of how they escaped the island - the one Jack spouted out at Kate's trial. But how were their "real" bodies saved/recovered considering the reports were that *all* of the victims where found at the crash site????
  

My Brain Hurts

Now, here is the thing that currently has my head spinning the most...

• Since time runs slower on the island (the island is currently 8 years ahead of "real life" per Desmond) - at some point "real life" will pass "island time" and the parallel lives will move from being in the past to being in the future!

Then what happens?!!!

NBC - Almost a Good Online TV Experience

I applaud NBC for providing a huge amount of TV content on the web for free (streaming at least). I'm pretty good about recording my shows, but this week my cable went out and therefore I missed a bunch of my favorites. In the past, I have watched episodes online at NBC.com without much trouble and was pleased with experience - high quality video resolution, low buffering times, clean flash player experience, light on commercial interruptions.

Where the flaws get exposed though is when you try to move that experience to your living room. I have a graveyard in my basement with headstones for a myriad of devices designed to move PC-bound content to your home theater (with the honor of my earliest/first such device being the "Audiotron" from Turtle Beach). I've now simplified my set up a bit by simply taking my MacBook down to the basement, plopping it down next to the TV and running a DVI-to-HDMI cable to my TV and mini-jack to RCA to my stereo. Decidedly low-tech but works great for this purpose.

So, back to my story.... I did this to watch a bunch of missed NBC shows this week. Easy enough.... click play, select "fullscreen" and then go sit on the couch. Now the problems... there was 1 pre-roll ad and 5 commercial breaks during the show. I don't fault them for that at all. The problem is that every time it hit a commercial it would kick out of full-screen mode back into normal size (oh yeah, and I had to stand there waiting for the 30 second pre-roll to end before I could select "fullscreen" to begin with). So, 5 times during the show I had to get up, walk across the room and reselect "fullscreen". NBC, if you are listening, please fix this - I can't imagine it's a hard problem to solve.

Problem #2... I was watching Friday Night Lights (apparently the target demo for that show is middle-aged women) and I got the *same* ad every single commercial break (Dove Body Wash). C'mon, I had just watched The Office and 30 Rock... is that all they could come up with to advertise to me?

TV online has come a *long* way... but still has a little bit further to go. I've signed up to get on the beta for Hulu, let's hope they can get us a bit closer.