Nagel Family Website

I’m not very focused right now, so I figured I’d do a brain dump here.

Lost is ending in 2010 - as I read this, I wondered how ABC decided to continue this show after the pilot. I mean, if you watch just Episode 1, could you imagine what the writers had in store? The writers must have shared a lot more than 1 episode. And who knows the real ending? How many people know for sure, and how are they keeping so quiet?

Completely changing subjects, Jason and I went camping with Steve and Ray this weekend. Some photos are here, but Steve and Ray have more that I’m waiting to get from them. We had a good time, and found a few geocaches. Ray’s hooked, and getting a GPS unit for himself. I’m still learning, and learned to print the hint and last 5 log entries when I go, so I have some more clues as to where to find them. It’s real disappointing hiking 1/3 of a mile, up a hill, off the path, only to not find anything after 20 minutes of searching. Of course, that was exhausting, and today I feel like crap.

I’m so fed up with Geiger Brothers Construction. If you’re looking for a contractor, don’t hire them. Ever. They did my roof 3 years ago, and I had a leak near the chimney. OK - I’ll call them, they’ll fix it, I’ll pay them, and we’ll all be happy. So I called them, they called back - “yeah, we’ll be out in the next couple days. No, no charge… it’s part of the original service”. After at least 8 phone calls now and a BBB complaint, still nothing. Next steps? Hire someone else to fix it, then meet with Mr. Ken Geiger in small claims court with the bill from the other company. I’ll never use anyone but Stockmohr for my roofing, siding, windows & doors. They’re getting my business later this year for new windows. Too bad they don’t do roofing repairs. Sure, they may cost more, but you get what you pay for.

This week is crazy-busy, with Scout going to the vet, me to the dentist, 3 (yes, three) Cub Scout events, meeting w/ the financial advisors, all while trying to get some work done and heading into Mother’s Day weekend. UGH.

Well, I think I dumped enough out of my head to get to work. Hi ho, hi ho….

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Family, LOST, Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

[begin rant]

I’m sick of reading “jump the shark” lately - not only in reviews of LOST, but so many other topics as well. Congratulations, you can fit a pop-culture metaphor into your article. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. LOST hasn’t jumped the shark. Being eco-friendly hasn’t jumped the shark. Arbitrage & affiliate marketing hasn’t jumped the shark. I haven’t jumped the shark. Only the Fonz has jumped the shark!!!

[end rant]

This entry was posted by Eric on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 8:53 am and is filed under LOST. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

Seen at 35:30

The newspaper shown in the video of Juliet’s sister was September 22, 2004, which is the last day of the Eleusinian Mysteries. There have been some other references to them before.

There are plenty of similarities / theories that can be seen from this:

“The Mysteries were based on a legend concerning Demeter, the goddess of life, agriculture and fertility” - the whole fertility thing

“Hades fell in love with Persephone and kidnapped her, taking her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter;”… “Finally, by consulting Zeus, Demeter reunites with her daughter and the earth returns to its former verdance and prosperity” - does this mean Rousseau and Alex will be reunited at the end? I forgot what happened to them last…

You can go on and on and on from here.

This entry was posted by Eric on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 12:19 pm and is filed under LOST. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

I should have written sooner… lots going on:

We had a bit of an electrical problem last week: 1/2 of the house was only giving 100v at the outlets, which really screwed up my computers. Luckily, the UPS’s kicked in and took over, giving me enough time to shutdown. National Grid came out, changed some fuse, gave me some extras, and I gave them $5 in Tim Hortons bucks. They were very grateful; I should pick up some more, just to keep around for special “thank yous”.

Friday night, Becca and I went out and bought a new TV. I don’t think the guys at Best Buy work on commission… the kind folks at Circuit City definitely do. Either that, or the Circuit City people are just plain nicer. Anyway, they got my business. We now have a JVC 32″ LCD HDTV, which is very nice. I’m not used to the start-up time (do all HDTVs have a 10-second start-up?). We added this HD Antenna and now get NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS and a couple other stations in HD. The picture quality is amazing - I can’t wait to watch LOST in HD tonight.

The XBox is now working - again, in HD - and in full color. Ray tells me he has Tiger Woods golf, so I’ve been building up my player so we can play against each other, as soon as I get hooked up on XBox Live.

Easter was Sunday, and the house was crazy - imagine that: a holiday were the kids have chocolate for breakfast, and the house is crazy. I wonder why.

On Monday I ordered my weather station, which should be here next week Monday. I was hoping it’d be here by Friday, so I could put it together this weekend, but it doesn’t look like it So I’ll post more on that when it comes.

Finally, I felt like crap yesterday and laid down after lunch, to see if a little rest would make me feel better. Nearly 3 hours later, I woke up, just in time for dinner. I guess I wasn’t feeling too well after all. Feeling better today, and made it to the gym this AM, which is hard when nobody else gets up early with me.

Off to work!

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 9:21 am and is filed under Family, LOST, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

In the last episode of LOST, during the brainwashing scene, if you play it backwards, you hear “Only Fools are Enslaved by Time and Space”. Huh?

I love Lost… so I did some digging. Didn’t take long with a Google Search to get some ideas.

See, a main argument for “where are these people” is that they’re in purgatory. The writers have denied that, but it’s a good start.

First, look at the Buddhist Perspective on Time and Space:

The wise know how to use time and space perfectly; they lead free and harmonious lives. Fools are enslaved by time and space; they are busy running around all day.

Now, I know what you’re thinking - and I’m thinking the same thing. Why did I get this answer from dharmaweb.org - isn’t this site built just for the show? dharmaweb.org… Dharma Initiative… coincidence? No… Dharma really is an underlying belief in Buddhism.

Further researching this concept and Buddhism, I found an answer to, “What or where is Nirvana?”

It is a dimension transcending time and space and thus is difficult to talk about or even to think about. Words and thoughts being only suited to describe the time-space dimension. But because Nirvana is beyond time, there is no movement and so no aging or dying. Thus Nirvana is eternal. Because it is beyond space, there is no causation, no boundary, no concept of self and not-self and thus Nirvana is infinite. The Buddha also assures us that Nirvana is an experience of profound happiness. He says:

Nirvana is the highest happiness.

The best definition for Nirvana that I could come up with is:

In Buddhism, it is basically a blissful spiritual condition where the heart extinguishes passion, hatred and delusion. It is the highest spiritual plane one person can attain.

Where am I going with this? I really don’t know… just spewing out ideas. I’ll have to wait another 52 hours or so until the next episode…

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 4:55 pm and is filed under LOST. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.