The general idea of this end theory is not mine, I read it, but I really like the concept and it makes me feel better about the entire ending and experience. I’ve expanded a few things.

Technically, the Flash Sideways of this final season was just an extreme flashforward, a hint of the proto-afterlife/purgatory. Despite all the flashbacks and different storylines, the absolute main character has been about Jack Shepard. This flash sideways was his “staging reality”, created between his death and his admittance into the afterlife.

During the course of the season we did get glimpses of other people’s “realities” such as Sayid being with Nadia but not as her husband as he did not feel worthy of her. Or Kate’s where she proclaimed her innocence and was finally able to help Claire. In Locke’s, he was with Helen and had a relationship with his father. Hurley is able to find good fortune and the love of another, Libby. Desmond is successful and has the approval of Penny’s father, Charles. We never see the full stories but we see many of the main characters come to grips with what they were missing most of their pre-island lives.

It all comes back to Jack however. In order to move on, he had to come to terms with any issues he had, primarily whether he could be a good father and finding peace with his own father Christian. Because this was Jack’s “reality” the people and places (primarily in the finale) are as he remembers them:

* He never knew Sayid with Nadia, only with Shannon, which is why they were true loves in this scenario.
* He only knew Aaron as an infant, so that is how he appeared.
* He felt a connection to Juliet at first, but at the end knew she was Sawyer’s love.
* He ends up with Kate, who he has loved all along.

Jack’s son, David, only existed in this staging reality to resolve an issue and was not needed to “move on.” Also why Jin and Sun’s baby was not there as Jack never knew the child first hand.

It is also why some people: Richard, Lapidus, Daniel, Charlotte were not in his final scene because they weren’t as important to him in his life. Each person’s “staging reality” may be different. You may be in my reality because of your importance to me, but I may not be as important to you and therefore don’t appear in yours.

Jack REALLY did become the protector and REALLY did die in the same spot he started his island journey. From the moment his eye closed, start the flash sideways from that point and it would be chronologically correct.

As Christian said, everybody died at different times. Some before, some after. The biggest evidence of that is Hurley and Ben’s interaction where they said “You were a great #1.” and “You were a great #2.” It’s clear they have lived together and experienced things together up to their own deaths when they reached this point. Likewise, everybody who escaped the island on the plane (Richard, Lapidus, Miles, Sawyer, Kate) could have lived far into their old age. We don’t see that however because it is in Jack’s perspective. Another example of this is when Kate says to Jack “I’ve been waiting for you for so long.” indicating she may have lived her own long life and never forgot about him.

While we didn’t get all the answers from their real time on the island, that’s because Jack never knew those answers either. Nobody ever gets all the answers in life and it’s just as frustrating as some fans feel that they don’t know why Walt was “special” or why The Man in Black became a smoke monster. The mysteries of life are taken to the grave. And I am okay with that. Could any explanation truly satisfy your curiosity? Why was there a polar bear on the island? They probably had several types of animals in cages to do experiments on and it escaped. Does it make you feel better? I don’t think it mattered in the overall retrospective of life, just like when you are close to passing you won’t wonder about the small mundane things that occurred during your time.

So the finale truly indicated the final death of Jack, who ironically enough was supposed to die in the very first episode, but other people lived on and had experiences past Jack. We should appreciate the journey we shared with Dr. Shepard, his life, and all the amazing people he met along the way.

Let me immediately make the disclaimer that the game has come out yesterday and I’ve only played it for a few hours. That being said, I have some opinions.

Super Powers of the Plains.

The number of bugs and problems with the multi-player aspect of the game is beyond reasonable and borderline unplayable. Often times players, horses, guns are completely invisible on the screen and 4 out of 5 times you receive an error message stating network connection has been lost when you attempt to join a friend’s game. The potential for a great experience is there. Myself and multiple friends raiding a gang hangout has been something we’ve been dreaming about for… about two days since we decided to get the game, but the dream burns strong. There has already been a patch released and we obviously anticipate more from a high quality developer such as RockStar, but we’re impatient until then.

The Extinction of the Wild in the Wild West.

A great aspect of the single player experience are challenges to kill, skin, find different animals out in the vast, open wilderness. So many challenges that it seems silly to ever let a living creature pass you without trying to shoot it’s head off and skin it for goods to sell back at town. While tiptoeing the line of being an environmentalist nutjob, there are times where I wish I could just appreciate the beauty of a running pack of deer rather then knowing I need to kill 5 of them to get Rank 2 – Master Hunter. If there was a skill such as “Tracker” where it benefited the player to just follow animals or watch them from time to time, it could be a nice balance. In the meantime, if it moves, it dies.

If We Want To Do Anything, Let Us Do Anything.

Last night my housemate spent a half hour riding around on the top of a train and eventually decided to hijack it. By “hijack” it means shooting the four people who were on the train and collecting around $20. This unscripted, totally user driven experience could’ve been much more rewarding by allowing the player to obtain more rewards from successfully getting on the train and holding up its occupants. A simple selection box, while pointing a gun at an NPC, should give a list of options including “Demand Money” or something of that sort. The NPC would then decide if they fork over the dough or refuse and force the player to make the tough honorable decisions the game is based on. There were also several completely empty rail cars that COULD’VE been filled with locked crates that you would have to force a conductor to open with his key, or kill the conductor and take his key for yourself. These adjustments could’ve taken the game to the next level by truly letting you live an outlaw lifestyle outside of the constraints of questing.

Grand Theft Horse.

While old GTA games have you stealing a different car every few minutes, I like the emphasis on maintaining your same horse as long as you can. The longer you have your companion, you “bond” with the animal and it gains benefits to increased stamina which allows it to sprint longer. I’ve named my horse “Friday” and greet it with “TGIF” every time it arrives.

Additionally, little things from the west could be included: You can’t buy cigarettes (although there is chewing tobacco), you can’t appear to “hold up” anyone by pointing a gun at them or store clerks, and I wish there was more interaction with random NPCs around town. A couple lines here and there where they could simply direct the player on progress, “I hear Bonnie is looking for you.” when she has a quest available or “I wish these bandits would leave us alone.” when there is a bounty waiting for you to take advantage of. That would give the world a more lively feel to it then a bunch of zombies walking around ignoring everything else.

The game continues to have potential, and like I said I’ve only scratched the surface, but I already see areas that could’ve taken this game from great to legendary. As of now, I give it 7 rolling tumbleweeds out of 10 and once the multi-player is fixed, it will definitely be higher.

I’ve decided, with the suggestion of a colleague, to begin writing reviews of movies and games. I’ve done this in the past and enjoyed it. Also with my employment at Blockbuster I have the luxury of having access to various types of multimedia. I will not have an exact scoring system, simply state my opinions and if I choose to dictate it some arbitrary number, body part up or down, or multiple meaningless symbols then I shall at my discretion.

Some movies/games I’ve seen that I’ll be reviewing in the next few weeks include (but aren’t limited to):

Iron-Man 2, Gentlemen Broncos, Ice Twisters, The Box, Daybreakers, Legion, WET (Xbox 360), Batman: Arkham Asylum (360), MLB 2k10 (360), NBA 2k10 (360), Red Dead Redemption (360), Assassin’s Creed 2 (360), BioShock 2 (360)

Some reviews will be shorter, others will be longer.

Some will end abruptly.

For those who aren’t clued into the newest “big thing” on the internet (No not chatroulette you perv), Foursquare is a way for users to “check-in” at locations and broadcast (if they choose) to their friends about where they’ve been. If Twitter’s ultimate question is “What are you doing?” then Foursquare’s is “Where are you doing it?”

One of my favorite aspects of Foursquare is the “mayorships.” You become the Mayor of a location by checking into that spot more then anybody else. As I was the only friend of mine who used Foursquare regularly, I was the top dog in all of our local hangouts. At more public locations (banks, stores, restaurants) your mayorship can always be in jeopardy. Nothing is worse then getting a notification that so-and-so is the new leader of your bank drive-thru kingdom. (okay, there are a lot of worse things, but it is pretty traumatic.)

I found myself going out of my way to defend my mayorships from challengers. Going to banks that were further away, choosing where I eat lunch based off if I was keeping a mayor spot or stealing one away. The back and forth is exciting.

Foursquare currently provides several “badges” or little awards for certain accomplishments such as checking into new places, or checking in with friends. I think they should add several new badges that encourage people to compete directly against other users for Mayor recognition. Here are some of my ideas:

Conquerer - Steal away at least two mayorships within 24 hours.
We Must Defend This House – Regain a mayorship after losing it within 24 hours.
Arch Nemesis – Steal away five mayorships from the same user.
Pacifist – Have five mayorships stolen from you.
Lonely At the Top - Be a mayor of a location with at least 5+ checkins with no other users checking in once.

Just a couple… I think the best part of Foursquare is earning badges, and I’ve reached a point where there aren’t many left for me to (realistically) achieve… I would be thrilled to see more reasons to check-in.

This is in response to Dean’s post about his top 50 movies. While I haven’t seen roughly half of his list, I’ll agree with him on several that’d share a spot in my top 50. My question for him, and for any other readers, is what makes your criteria for a “top film” ? Obviously tough to compare the dramatic plot complexities of a Crash to the self-deprecating humor of Invention of Lying. If it’s on pure entertainment value of watching the flick, I’d have to throw some slapstick comedy movies on there and movies that got me emotional like most sports flicks.

While I don’t know if I can even name 50 movies immediately, and my list would be forever evolving just based on my current mood. Let me instead present to you five nominees for movie genre categories (in no particular order).

Top Comedy
-  The Hangover, it might’ve just been a better made “Dude, Where’s My Car?” it provides an unlimited amount of laughs while still allowing for a followable plot from start to finish. Zach Galifianakis’ character is one for the ages.
-  Anchorman, Will Ferrell may be the same exact character in every movie but Anchorman was perfection. Every scene had a memorable one-liner that you’d be using with your friends for months after (”Milk was a bad choice!”)
- Spy Hard, Leslie Nielson was making spoof/parody movies before “Scary Movie” made it hip and trendy. Now every other week there’s a new spoof or mocking flick coming out, and they stopped being funny years ago.
- Mean Girls, A dark-horse of the category. Tina Fey is an excellent writer that really captures the exaggerated drama and clique-ness of High School. Plus, it features some of the hottest girls ever to share a screen.
- Zombieland, the American Shaun of the Dead

Top Action
- The Dark Knight, As everyone knows Heath Ledger made this movie and you could just as well fast forward through the scenes he wasn’t in but it’s one of those movies that I won’t giver get tired of.
- Saving Private Ryan, one of the best war movies for a reason
- Die Hard 4, Bruce Willis took a risk continuing the series but this one holds up with the rest… (or so I am told, didn’t see 2 or 3)
- Broken Arrow, I’ve always said that John Travolta makes one of the best villains in any movie. Watch and you’ll know why.
- Fight Club, I am Jack’s unrelenting amazement.

Top Drama
-  The Departed, Towards the top of best overall films. How can you argue with such an all-star cast and an extensive (NSFW) vocabulary?
- Remember the Titans, Out of all the sports movies this one does it best. While any sports movie is rather predictable for the dramatic victory, the scene where Gerry Bertier holds his arms up in triumph, too happy to even make noise, gives me chills.
- For Love & Basketball, a story of childhood friends coming to grips with their feelings and skills of the game. The guy with all the raw talent but no work ethic, the girl who has to work her ass off constantly, shows the differences between men/woman athletes as well.
- Thank You For Smoking, this movie made me want to get into public relations. The scene where Aaron Eckhart’s character is talking to his son about the best ice cream flavor taught me more about debate and persuasive argument then almost an entire  semester of public speaking.
- Crash, the way it all comes together in the end is like a symphony. Everytime the television series “Crash” is on TV I am disappointed it’s not the film.

Top Guilty Pleasure Films
- The Postman, Kevin Costner inadvertently re-energizes a post-war United States. Some people have this on their Worst Movie of all time list, but I’d never pass down a viewing.
- Tin Cup, see below.
- For Love of the Game, I know three Kevin Costner films might be embarrassing to some. I just think Costner does some of the best sports movies of all-time. The Tin Cup scene where he keeps asking for another ball to make a tough shot is both heartbreaking and inspiring. And in For Love of the Game, it’s a terrific interwoven tale of athletic success, off the field turmoil and how they all are woven together.
- Varsity Blues,  James Van Der Beek delivers one of the best lines of any movie ever.

Worst Movie of All-Time
- Moulin Rouge, A movie that took place in the past but singing contemporary music of today? Weirdly shot, didn’t care about characters, I honestly had to go shower afterwards because it made me feel sick.
- Dirty Dancing, maybe its just overexposure but I feel that it was playing non-stop in my house from age 6-10. I thought Patrick Swayze looked stupid and the girl was unattractive. yes, even at six years old.
- Payback, this Mel Gibson movie had a strange blue tint too the entire thing which became distracting and the story wasn’t interesting.
- Traffic, saw this in the theater in high school and it was confusing, boring and poorly shot.

While there are tons of movies I left off that I absolutely love (Star Trek, Harry Potter series, District 9, Garden State, Invention of Lying, Kill Bill Series, Inglorious Basterds, Lord of the Rings series) these are my current picks. They’d probably change if you asked me tomorrow.

Ever since Jon Stewart appeared on Crossfire a few years back, I’ve had a great deal of respect for him. He is a hilarious guy but when he takes off his funny hat and fights for the people, he has some of the hard hitting questions that no other media outlet dares to ask.

In his latest cause, he takes on Jim Cramer of MSNBC’s Mad Money and calls him out on shenanigans and shady dealings of the financial industry. Even if you don’t fully understand the crisis, it’s a beautiful encounter of how he nails Cramer over and over.

Using a quote from ProFootballTalk.com:

“Speaking in a voice that at times was passionate and faintly cracking with emotion as he grilled Cramer, Stewart made the typically bombastic financial guru come off as a wiseguy trying to reason with the hitman who had been sent to whack him.

Here is just part of the interview, the rest can be seen on DailyShow.com.

For those of you who don’t really understand why the economy has gone into the crapper, here’s a little video that explains pretty well part of it. It’s simple to understand and appealing to watch.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Thanks to Carl for sending it to me.

(First viewed on Casey Marquis’ Laptop… which is named Johnny)

I agree with other commenters on this video. I think acoustic, heartfelt rap songs should be the next big thing.

Even though I’m not a Steelers fan, it’s interesting to read the history of such a nationally recognized movement. Read more about the history of the Steelers’ symbol.

On a side note, Myron Cope was truly one of the great broadcasters of the time. Also hilarious:

“I said, ‘I’m not a gimmick guy,’” Cope said in a December 2006 interview with ESPN. “One of them reminded me my contract was coming up for negotiation … and I said, ‘I’m a gimmick guy.’”

I don’t really mind if he sampled all these old songs. I prefer his versions anyway. Just interesting to see such a wide variety he’s pulled from and made into hip hop megahits.

Source: Jared Paven Facebook Post

I think he definitely deserves it. An outstanding performance but I hope I’m not disrespectful to say it’s being amplified by his tragedy. It seems that with many artists their work isn’t truly appreciated until they are no longer around to create it. Would he have still won if it were him sitting at the table to accept? Unsure. Either way, it’s one of those rare moments you’ll want to see and remember.

Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat or Independent…. one thing we can all agree on is that Barack Obama is going to look very very old in four years.

On the left is Lyndon Johnson, then Reagen, then Clinton. And on the right is the the future crush of your tweener, President-Elect Barack Obama.

MTV has decided to give the guys (and few girls) at CollegeHumor their own television show. I’ve always enjoyed their comedy shorts, it’ll be interesting to see what they do with a full half hour.