The Freckled Diaries

Before I Go

And in case anyone of you are as big of a nerd as I am (doubtful....) I thought I should post about the new LOST Alternate Reality Game.  Yes, people, yes, I am a nerd!  No one I know in real life actually watches the show so I am forced to the internet as an obsession outlet. Ok, ok, ONE person watches it but not quite at the same....let's call it "level of involvement" as most fans do.

Basically, if you don't know about the ARGs, they are little games set up during the period of time that LOST is off the air that have little clues about the nature of the upcoming season and details about the overarching plot that the casual viewer doesn't need or care about (the first one, though, basically answered the question of what on earth the numbers were all about and where they came from which to me was big).  The first one, I didn't play because I didn't know about it.  Last year's was launched by a fake commercial planted during the season finale of season 3 and involved billboards, phone numbers to call, a lot of "real life" stuff and was organized mostly on one website.

Anyway, this year the "story" is that the Dharma Initiative is now reforming and recruiting new members. It, too, started with a fake commercial played during the season finale which you can see here:

They launched this at a ComicCon (which is what the dates mentioned in the commercial and San Diego imply)  and you can find video of the happenings there on Youtube. Don't worry, I'm not now and will never be at the ComicCon level of geekiness! Only at the ARG level :). Basically, this guy named Hans something or another is the new head of Dharma and they found a bunch of promising recruits including one Dan Bronson.

See?  (It's video of a screen because the person recording it didn't have good seats):

Later, Dan Bronson "leaked" video of the recruitment test in front of that same audience ( you can see the leaked video here..and it's video of a screen because it's supposed to be "Dan" recording secret information):

Because of this "security breach" the recruiting efforts have stalled until it's been dealt with.  You can go to www.dharmawantsyou.com (which is where octagonglobalrecruiting.com directs you to) to sign up, take a silly "test" and it should get started soon!

< / geekdom >

And...arg...I'm back from the market and forgot to press "save" again.  This has got to stop :)

Long Time!

Goodness a week goes by quickly!  This week I:

Spent a lot of time with my local extended family because (a) I like them and (b) one of my aunts who lives much farther away, and who I seldom see and who I also like was visiting to help my aunt who was recovering from a surgery.

Ordered my laundry stuff, got cool new grocery bags and slacked off on my quest for a bike parking space (but I did get the name and number of a hot lead so at least that's something).

Got a promotion of sorts at work, and offered a very cool second job by my professor (the very same one who I was convinced would fail me because of the whole rough draft debacle) who, it turns out, thinks that I am very smart.  It was good.

Got a million and a half (or, well, six) blood tests performed (I'm fine, no worries...all standard) and fainted in the process.  Turns out I am NOT recovered from my fear of blood and needles like I thought.  I swear I didn't psych myself out either.  I was actually very concerned about another test that was to be done that day, in which I would have to be topless in front of a stranger.  I have totally bizarre nudity/modesty issues.  Like, it's all or nothing. Either I don't give a shit or I'm modest to the extreme, depending on the context and somehow "certified medical professional conducting a normal and necessary medical function" isn't the "right" context for me.  Hey, I never claimed I was sane.  Anyway, I didn't give the blood tests a second thought because I thought I was "over it" because I've gotten several shots in the past several years (boosters, that HPV vaccine, and tons of traveler vaccines) and was fine with them.  I guess injections and blood drawing are different beasts in the eyes of my panic button. 

The second the nurse put that band around my arm, I lost it, from out of nowhere.  Hyperventilating, eyes tearing up, urge to run, etc.  And then I fainted, just a little, he looked at me and said "um, maybe we should do this lying down".  I kept saying (not realizing what I was saying) "I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this" and he listened!  I actually had to instruct him (once I calmed down) to go ahead with the blood drawing.  The real crappy part?  It's been so long since I've had blood drawn that I forgot that the pretty blue vein on my left arm is a liar. No one can get blood out of there. Something about it sliding around or something gross like that. My pasty white right arm is the way to go--can't really see any veins but apparently you can feel them.  So I got stuck several times, and the whole thing was just prolonged and awful.

Also this week I got all psyched up for and watched the LOST finale.  And it was awesome.  Not as awesome as last year's finale, Through the Looking Glass or even this year's The Constant but still quite awesome.  I may start writing about LOST in more detail in here one of these days.

Today I did errands, tried to start planning Alaska (I'm going to Anchorage to visit a friend next week), and slept while avoiding the messy kitchen.

I'll try to write more about LOST and Alaska soon!

Procrastination, LOST, and Oasis

Just to note--I have my final final in two and a half hours.  I have reviewed, but I still feel woefully under prepared (I have never been good at the exam thing--I'm much more of a paper-writer).  So what am I doing?  Music on in the background, "Wonderwall" by Oasis comes on, I decide that I wonder what exactly a "Wonderwall" IS (how this never bothered me as a teenager, I don't know) so I go on the hunt.

Now, just so you know, this is one of my favorite songs.  I loved it in high school, disliked all high school stuff for a while (mixture of "I'm a grown up now" and bittersweet nostalgia) and now I'm comfortable with nostalgia and I love it again.  And so now it will forever remind me of those tough-but-great years of high drama and self discovery. One of these days I really want to get a good long story or something to capture the mood and events of that time down.  It really was great. The good and the bad, I look back on the high school years with nothing but fondness and a little longing for those days.  Anyway, that's one thing about "Wonderwall".  The other, of course, to most LOST fanatics is that it reminds me of the show, specifically Charlie.  In one of Desmond's flashbacks (or, well, really the time he seemed to jump back in time and relived everything) he encounters Charlie busking on a London street corner singing this song.  And it's ironic because eventually Desmond does save Charlie from death several times, but then dramatic stuff happens and I won't ruin it for anyone who is THAT far behind.  But you know. 

So, back to my research.  Turns out the guy who wrote it said that it is "It's a song about an imaginary friend who's gonna come and save you from yourself".  Hrm.  Think Hurley.  Hurley and that imaginary friend.  And Hurley and his most recent interactions with Charlie.  And think of just about every character on the show, who really all need a little saving from themselves (which led to the early but now disputed theory that they all actually died in the crash and are in Purgatory).

Very interesting.  And now I really should do a little more reading.  But had to get it out, and also needed to show what I'm up against.  Maybe *I* need an imaginary friend to save me from myself ;)