Reviews and More

Last night’s episode of Lost was the seventh of the season, which I believe marks the halfway point for this year’s strike-shortened production schedule. It was called “Ji Yeon”, and was mostly a Sun/Jin-centered ep (with several scenes of the freighter thrown in for good measure).

Sun’s story is a flash-forward that shows her being one of the lucky “Oceanic Six” who make it off the island and back to civilization. The flash-forward shows that Sun successfully carries her pregnancy to term (despite all of Juliet’s dire predictions about what might happen to her on the island), and has a baby girl whom she names Ji Yeon — something that Jin picked out back on the island.

A little while after the baby is born, we see Hurley coming to visit Sun in South Korea. Together, they go to Jin’s grave so Sun can “introduce” Jin to his daughter. The death date on Jin’s tombstone is the day Oceanic 815 disappeared, so it’s unclear if Jin is actually dead or if he is still on the island.

The freighter stuff was boring. Desmond and Sayid sit around the sick bay some more, eat a few cans of lima beans, and then talk to the untrustworthy captain of the ship, who promptly admits that the freighter belongs to Widmore.

Also, some random chick from the boat wraps chains around herself and walks the plank. Oh, and Michael is apparently Ben’s man on the boat. That was a totally anticlimactic reveal, as fans have been speculating about that for months.

More random thoughts:

– So far we know five of the Oceanic Six (not counting Ben, of course): Kate, Jack, Sun, Hurley, and Sayid. I wonder who the sixth person is? Whoever it is, that’s the person Jack went to see at the funeral home at the end of Season 3, right?

– Juliet is such a fucking bitch. I never swear in my posts, so that should give you an idea of how much I hate her. Why does she insist on butting into everybody else’s business like that? She makes me sick.

– This is a nitpick, but there’s no way in hell that Jin knows words like “affair”, “cancer”, and “murder”. If saying “Please pass the cereal” is a major accomplishment for him, then I guarantee he wouldn’t know these other words. These are not the kinds of words that beginning language learners study.

– I had a feeling that the Jin flashbacks were flashbacks and weren’t happening at the same time as the Sun story. This was confirmed when the store clerk said it was the year of the dragon — definitely not 2005, which is when Sun would be having the baby.

Overall, I thought this ep was pretty boring (even though I usually love Jin/Sun stuff). Maybe things will pick up next week….

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to many great countries all over the world, but one of my most memorable adventures happened right here at home.

When we were just out of college, my then-boyfriend and I thought it would be fun to drive down to New Orleans for a few days before starting our new jobs. We only had about $750 between us, which had to last until we got our first paychecks. The smart thing to do would have been to keep a few hundred of that money in the bank so we wouldn’t be tempted to spend everything — but I never said we were smart!

Anyway, the drive down to New Orleans was uneventful, and although we were dead tired when we arrived, there was no way we could go to bed without checking out the city for a bit. We hadn’t done much research about things to do in New Orleans, so we figured we’d just grab a drink at a bar on Bourbon St. or take in the French Quarter like most tourists. Instead, we headed straight for one of the local casinos.

We opted to play blackjack, and started losing almost immediately. Within an hour, we lost ALL of the money we brought with us, and since we didn’t have any credit cards, we were facing the embarrassing prospect of having to phone our parents to send some cash via Western Union.

When we got back to the car, we noticed that we had two dimes and a nickel in the change holder. My boyfriend looked at me, shrugged, grabbed the money, and started to walk back inside. I followed.

We got a quarter from the cashier, and put it in a video poker machine. We won a few more quarters. We played again, this time hitting a bigger hand that paid out $15.00. We then took that $15 back to the blackjack tables, and pushed our bankroll back up to $150. We called it quits right there, got a room at a cheap motel, and then drove back home the very next day — without bothering to do anything else in New Orleans!

Obviously, my past experience in New Orleans isn’t going to make it onto a list of the best family vacation ideas, but it was definitely a pretty wild time!

If you really want to learn about some fun things to do in the best vacation destinations across the U.S., then you should check out the Trusted Tours & Attractions website. There you can find activity ideas such as an Everglades adventure, sightseeing suggestions such as this Alcatraz tour, recommended restaurants, and even discount tickets to make your holiday a great one.

Better yet, you should sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter to get this free monthly mailing delivered right to your inbox. It’s full of fantastic travel-related stories and tips, so it’s definitely a worthwhile read. Plus, if you sign up for the newsletter between now and March 31, 2008 you’ll be entered in a drawing to win an iPod Nano!

Sounds like a good deal to me!