Crybaby...

Oh! Somebody I don't know actually took a sec to read my last blog. Thanks! I always wonder how people find each other here. Anyway, I thought I should follow up by saying I'm not really upset about what happened or didn't happen. Not any more. And I don't mean to insult Pete Wentz or FOB just for the sake of being a bitch. I never liked their music even way before this whole situation. Not that it's their fault I didn't get what I wanted out of this game. Whatever I say or write is going to annoy people and make them think less of me, I'm going to blame Asperger Syndrome for that!

Anyway, like I said, I'm pretty much over it now. After a little online whining and muttering a few choice words under my breath, I soon forget about my troubles, most of the time. I am still a little jealous of people who participated in some of the other events. Today, for instance, at the pet store, people got a free t-shirt like the one Hurley wears in the show. The "I ♥ my Shi-Tzu" shirt. Which, I think, is pretty neat.

I also found out yesterday that not everyone who goes to one of these events gets a treat. And I assumed that some did when they really did not. So I'm clear on that now. However, I craved the experience of gathering with other LOST fanatics and looking for a piece of the puzzle more than any trinket. And to be completely honest, right around this time last week I did remember that the dcaapb website tells us there won't always be a physical location--sometimes just another website. I really did not want that to apply to my own situation, though! I will always wish that I could have been more involved in the part of this game that took place in my hometown. But you can't always get what you want!

It is cool that so far, I've collected every poster and even got a few with LOST numbers on them (408, 142, 239 and so on). I REALLY don't want to sound unappreciative. People who don't know me well don't understand how therapeutic it is for me to bitch and moan about stuff that bothers me, even for just 5 minutes. Let me whine, get it out of my system and then I will be the nicest person. 'Cause sometimes, we Aspies....venting about our frustrations is all we can do. The world just doesn't understand us, we don't understand ourselves. All I know is that I'm annoyed. Blogging helps me figure things out. And nobody's making you read it.

I think what TPTB is doing with these posters is awesome and I am glad to be able to own these prints and yes, to be "the envy of other LOSTIES", who missed out on buying them all, lol. This is going to be MY thing, you know, like...some people have all the character's autographs, some people have those little plastic dolls, some write blogs on every episode, etc etc. I want to be one of the few who owns the whole set of posters. So far, so good.

About that, I agree with Monica, "Let me have my fun". My husband totally made me feel like a dork when I told him about possibly being involved in the game and my excitement about the whole thing. These posters are so special to me but he seems to enjoy poo-pooing everything I obsess over. Don't get me wrong, he's a great husband. Very sweet most of the time. But he tends to make fun of what he doesn't understand. And he gives me such a hard time about all the LOST "junk" I've collected over the years. He really made me feel stupid about wanting the posters. It's not like I don't go without all kinds of cool stuff for the sake of my family. And as long as I can afford the posters, I'm going to keep buying them.

Besides, I don't just buy any and every piece of crap with a dharma logo stamped onto it. As an artist, I can see the value in these prints even if I don't love each and every one. So far, Locke's Secret is my favorite and I HATE Locke. $50 a pop is a bargain, because to me, the whole set will be priceless.

I can't say it enough...I LOVE LOVE LOVE this game, regardless of its flaws, the lack of freebies at every event, the spoiled urls, even the stupid "backdoor url" discovery. I AM grateful for this opportunity, for TPTB who do so much for us fans, for the artists who share their work this way, for everybody on LOSTargs and Spoiler Tv who share their findings and photos and thoughts with me and everyone else... I've been a devoted fan for 4 years, played all the games, own gobs of LOST paraphernalia, have been following this game since before it even became a game, wasted countless hours blogging the episodes, chatting, theorizing, blah blah blah. I have earned the right to complain once in a while. I don't regret any time I've devoted to LOST, not in this or any other game. Even my bad experience with TG has turned into more of an inside joke that I find really amusing.

I still think that we North Texas were somewhat jilted, but it's only a minor snag. That's it. No more. I'm moving on to something else now. Promise.

Thanks for the (Bad) Memories

In Season 1 of LOST, Rose Nadler told Charlie Pace, "I got sob stories for ya."

I guess she was trying to let him know that he wasn't the only unlucky person on the island--everyone else had their share of problems. I've got a sob story that somewhat indirectly involves Charlie. Really, there's no sobbing involved. Just a lot of self pity & whining about some stupid shit that happened here in Dallas last week. See...right now there's a strange little pseudo LOST game going on, not too many players involved. I tried to explain to my husband this way: It's a scavenger hunt, in which "they" give us clues and it's "our" job to decipher those clues in order to know where to go and when. Why do we need to go "there"? What do we get once we've been "there"? Simple: a website address. Once we have that information, we head home to post our new info on a forum, share that magic url with all the other nerds around the world. They're counting on us, those of us who can make the trip to the physical location. We have what they need. Because, soon after the website is found, a limited edition LOST poster is displayed there, ready for us to purchase. My husband said "So basically, this is just a way for you to find something else to buy?" He really knows how to drain the magic out of an experience...



But he's right. The whole point of The Game is this (taken from the original site):

In celebration of LOST's final season and as a project of fan appreciation, 16 top designers and artists, who are also fans of the show, were commissioned to create artwork celebrating one of the series' most memorable, and unforgettable, "water cooler" moments. This ultimate "fan art" was then turned into labor intensive, hand-pulled screen prints, limited to an edition of just 300, with less than 200 available to the public through our websites. Each beautiful poster tells its own different story, allowing the fan to relive memorable and influential moments in an artistic manner, as the show's storied run comes to a close. Once this limited edition print has sold out, they will never be printed again. Celebrate the fandom, community and family created by one of televisions' greatest shows by hanging a little part of it's history, inspiration and influence on your wall.


These prints are collector's items and only a few people IN THE WORLD are ever going to own the whole set. So far, I am one of those people. And so far, the "hunt" has taken us, both physically or virtually, to Los Angeles, New York City, the University of Arizona, Boston. Many LOSTIES are still hoping that an event will take place in their town. But there are only 9 more posters, 9 more opportunities for that to happen and it's just not possible for everyone to take part in this game. Those of us who live in major cities are lucky. I was pretty sure something would happen here in Texas. I wished every day for it. Be careful what you wish for!

Last week, I thought I lucked out. The first clue for poster number 6 was a silver star. Most people immediately thought "Lone Star" as in Lone Star State. Turns out, they were right. 2 more clues and we narrowed the next event location down to a concert venue smack in the middle of downtown Dallas. Superpages.com Center! We put our heads together and found out the next event would coincide in some way with a Blink 182 concert, Wednesday, September 23! And that it would also somehow involve...wait....Pete Wentz's guitar....? There was no mistake about Clue #4. We learned that Fall Out Boy, one of the yuckiest bands ever, was the opening act for Blink that same night.

Then, no more clues for a couple days and we were left wondering what to do. I wrote to a few other Dallas LOSTIES, mostly nice people. None of us could really commit to spending money on concert tickets. I mean--don't we need to save our money so we can buy the actual posters? They are $60 a pop! And by the way, there are 16 posters total! Do the math, it's a big chunk of money. I got two other LOSTIES to agree to MAYBE meet up at the concert if we didn't have to buy tickets. Then we realized you have to pay to park at Superpages (cha-ching!). No worries--I say I'll go and even spring for parking if we can be sure that our clue/website address will be on a flier or fence or sign or t shirt--something that doesn't require paid entry into the concert. I like Blink 182 as much as the next guy. I mean, I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to punk, but they're okay. More like pop music, but I'm not saying I don't voluntarily listen to them from time to time. The day before the show, I cart myself and my son up to Fair Park, downtown Dallas and Superpages.com Center. It's a mostly pleasant 30 minute drive. My mission: Case the joint and see if there are any signs/fences visible from outside the parking lot, any clues as to where The Clue might be. There are mounted cops and carnies a'plenty, the State Fair of Texas was 3 days shy of it's grand opening, and people were setting up. Gates were all locked, but, being resourceful, I found an entrance open--it was down a back alley. My son is such a square, he kept telling me "I don't think you're supposed to be driving around here.". We got past all the locked gates, past the blocked entrance to the parking lot and into the VIP section. I tweet what I find to the handful of people following this mission. There's loads of parking lots, all paid. There's fences all around but no screens or signs. And, this is what was most important, the merch. tables are ALL inside the gate and no one gets in without a ticket and a search. We go home a bit disappointed. I'm starting to think that this will not be like the other events, in which attendees and devoted fans got to see props from the show, one of the actors, or from which they at least come away with some nice DHARMA swag and/or something to eat. The last clue for poster #6 came the morning of September 23rd. According to that last clue, posted on the original site, Fall Out Boy would "pay homage" to LOST and our job was to follow the mysterious "Paces Oil Change" live via Twitter, starting at 8pm. Around 7pm, some of us Dallas LOSTIES passed around imaginary drinks over the tweets and forums, trying to find solace at the bottom of our virtual bottle. We had been wronged. Robbed. Where was OUR event? Arizona got a HUGE poster of Sawyer, LOST props from the show, neat little bookmarks and we get....Pete Wentz. Doing a bad impersonation of Charlie Pace, no less. Los Angeles got Sterling Beaumon for pity's sake! Little Ben! Do you KNOW how much I would love to meet Little Ben??? Do you know how much geek cred I'd get for having a photo taken with Little Ben? COME ON!



Boston LOSTIES got skateboards. The Others in NYC got cupcakes! I did all that driving and sneaking about for nothing, absolutely nothing. But that's not the worst part. One of us nerds here in big D actually WENT to the concert. Bought tickets and everything. He gets to the show after driving through a mess of traffic and sees only exactly what all of us saw whilst sitting at home, following Paces Oil Change on Twitter: Bad photos of Pete Wentz's bass guitar with the url stuck onto it and even more bad photos of something he'd written on his hand in black marks-a-lot. "Not Penny's Boat". LAME. But, regardless, the hidden website had now been found and those of us who wanted poster #6, The Four Toed Statue, in all it's screen-printed glory, were able to get it. The next morning, a sort of "after-clue" was posted on the original site...a clip of Pete Wentz introducing his awful tune, "Thnx Fr Th Mmrs" (and believe me, it pains me to misspell that title on purpose) by vaguely alluding to his having met Charlie & Liam Pace while playing a show in Texas some years back. Then he seems to actually be dedicating this performance to Charlie. Thanks, but no thanks, FOB.



But wait...there's more!

Some Other LOST nerd on spoilertv.co.uk (Dark UFO's forum) got the "magic" url even before Paces Oil Change posted the photos of it online. But, how could he do that? He wasn't anywhere near the concert, Pete Wentz's guitar or Paces Oil Change! Well, I'll tell you how. A few weeks ago, some genius did some sort of backwards IP address search or whatever the hell you call it (apparently it's easy if you go here) and found ALL the urls! That's right! All of them. Those of us who spoiled ourselves and looked at this person's spouse's website (if you don't want to be spoiled, she has some other interesting stories, just watch where you look!) know all the "magic" urls/web addresses already. That means, the day each new poster goes up for sale, we don't even need to pay attention to or attend these "events". We can just go about our business and at the right time, simply sit at our desks and type in the unused urls over and over to see which one "goes live". Which means, I didn't have to do anything or drive anywhere and that other guy (who shall remain nameless) didn't have to buy tickets and waste time going to a concert he would never have gone to were it not for his love of LOST. Nobody had to do anything at all. The worst part for me is that I just KNEW there would be a "hunt" in Dallas, they never do a LOST event in Dallas--it was time, it was Destiny!


Isn't Destiny a fickle bitch?


One last rant, and I can't make this clear enough:


TYSON GIVENS IS NOT REAL. BUT HE IS A JERK.