The following discussion took place via Facebook over the last 24 hours. Some of the comments have been reordered for clarity’s sake.

Kevinmld: The Others have a Lazarus Pit?

On the Others versus the Hostiles and vice versa

Ryan H: They are the hostiles, Kev.  The others are a different group altogether.

Katie D: I thought the Dharma group was the “others”. Richard’s group was the “hostiles”. Then Ben killed off all the dharma folk & became part of Richard’s group. But then Ben tried to make the “hostiles” more like the “others” if that makes sense. Because I remember Season 3 there was tension in the ranks with Richard & Ben. At least that was my understanding.

Kevinmld: I’m not convinced. When we first saw the others running around in season one, weren’t they running around in rags and barefeet. I seem to remember their feet not touching the ground or something… but it’s been so many years I may be making that part up. I think it’s one group… Or they were one group in the past.

Ryan H: Kev, those others took the kids. The kids you saw today.

Jay H: Ben and Richard were a part of The Hostiles. They def wore the rags before. At some point, Ben rose to power, split off and slaughtered the Dharma Initiative. “The Others” is the name branded by the plane survivors for Ben and his people who lived in Dharmaville.

Katie D: Ben had to kill the Dharma folks in order to become part of Richard’s group.

Shawn H: i thought it was awesome when the guys were all like “oh nos don’t drown him in the magic hot tub.” asian dude shoulda been like “oh i’m sorry is your magical hot tub different than mine?”

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In another effort to improve the MLD experience, we’re excited to introduce a new mobile edition of the site.  You may be looking at it right now.

The navigation is streamlined allowing easy browsing of posts on your phone.  The downside is some of the graphics and category functions are lost, but that streamlining is sort of the point of a mobile site.  A link to switch back to the standard browser version of the site appears at the bottom of each page.  Check it out, and please let us know what you think.

So there’s this guy I follow on Twitter, named Robert Lee Brewer. He’s a poet, and often posts with hash tags like #poettues and such. I like this guy a lot, and read his blog when I have time. Inspired by a post he made here, I’ve decided to take up the reins of a Poem A Day challenge.

Yep, that’s one poem a day, for the entire year. 365 poems in all.

I have to write one for tonight, the 25th of January, but guess what, MLD-watchers? I’m on track so far.

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Just as a background, I used to be a performance poet, a “spoken word artist” as it were. I was no Alvin Lau, but I was not bad at delivering my poetry out loud. I’ve only had a few poems published, put together one or two chapbooks that are now long gone, but I’ve written poetry pretty consistently since I was about 14 years old.

You don’t wanna read those old poems. Trust me on that. Once I tried to catalog my written output of poetry, and at 18 years old, I had already written over 400 poems.

I’m 31 now. I cringe to think about it.

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There have been other 365 projects floating around the internet for years. Same notion; do a thing, at least once a day, for a year straight. In fact, Angie and PTB have one going right now, too. You might have already visited. If not, please do. Angie’s skills behind a lens are second to none. Second to NONE, yo. PTB… has an iPhone that takes pictures, too!

So, 365 poems. About the amount of poems I wrote between the ages of 14 and 18. Stay tuned at my regular blog to see the new poems as they get written/uploaded.

If I fail, I’ll be sure to mention it here, but if I make it to December 31, 2010, and have done all 365? You better BELIEVE I’m celebratin’.

I’m not going to lie to you, Chuck is my favorite TV show.  I missed it while it was away and I’m thrilled to see it back.  The first two episodes of the season didn’t click with me at first, but I made time to watch them again. After re-watching them before last week’s episode I realized I was just expecting something different from this season and there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. Episode three was fantastic, I really enjoyed the way Devon was losing it under all the pressure and they paralleled it with Chuck being able to hold it together. Also, the continuing malfunctions of the Intersect 2.0 and Buy More Fight Club were outstanding.

Last week’s guest star, Angie Harmon, was great, but I can’t tell you how ready I am for this week.  Chuck versus Stone Cold Steve Austin…come on!  How could I not be excited for this? I even liked The Condemned. Get lost, Lost.  Tonight is the highlight of the TV season!  What a year 2010 has been so far with Bret Hart on Raw and now Steve Austin on Chuck. Again, it’s my favorite show.

The Book of Eli is the story of a man’s journey across the barren wasteland of a world destroyed by war.  It’s a story of human nature and faith, and I really enjoyed it.

Everything on the screen looks amazing from the first frame. The presentation is visually stunning using a stark and desaturated palette that perfectly suits the world the story takes place in. A large number of close-ups begin many of the scenes, giving them an epic quality. These shots almost seemed to be overused at one point, but turned out to be an excellent storytelling device as the focus of the close-ups shifts late in the movie.

The score and audio effects used were also amazing, adding a real depth to events.  In particular, two scenes featuring brutal attacks on a defenseless Mila Kunis and the final confrontation between Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman were incredibly powerful as the sound almost went to white noise, overloading my senses.

If there was anything to complain about it was that some of the visuals drew my attention away from the story. At times, Eli’s clothes looked too clean. After a fairly graphic fight scene there was almost not enough blood on the ground. Too much water was spilled for the value that was placed on it, and I couldn’t help but notice some product/brand placement.  There has also been some criticism of the similarities between The Book of Eli and an indie comic published a few years ago called The Book of Jesse. I don’t know much about the comic (although I plan to investigate), but a lot of the rumblings over it seem superficial.

Some complaints were overheard on the way out about the movie being too religious, but let’s face it, if you didn’t know that going in, I don’t know how you even knew about the movie. It’s fairly obvious that there are religious and faith based themes involved.  I even saw buses that read “rELIgion is power” advertising the movie; it’s not like this was a secret.  Even so, where things could have gotten heavy-handed and sanctimonious in the film, they didn’t. The filmmakers went with a subtle approach that I really appreciated.

I’d see The Book of Eli again in a heartbeat.  In fact, I’m planning to. However, if you don’t like the idea of God contaminating your post-apocalyptic samurai Western, this isn’t for you.