Even if you’re not a fan of ABC’s Lost – a science fiction television show about a group of airline passengers who crash on a mysterious – and treacherous – island – it’s likely that you know someone who is. With its in-depth character development, nail biting suspense, and tantalizing hints of what lies behind the curtain, Lost is undeniably compelling, and Thursday’s episode, titled The Economist, was no exception.

Told from the point of view of Sayid, a morally gray former Iraqi soldier, this episode left us with more questions than answers – par for the course when viewing Lost. Rich in ethical gradients, filled with suspense, and peppered with science – the formula works, and the creators of Lost have used it to full effect. This season, they’re digging a little deeper – adding ‘flashforwards’ instead of flashbacks, introducing more off-island characters, shedding just a little more light onto the physical properties of the island. In some shows such tactics can seem cheap and contrived, but Lost feels fresh and new this season. Case in point – even after three seasons of watching Sayid, I still didn’t know what he would choose at the climax of the episode. Lost could never be accused of becoming too predictable.

With the writer’s strike over, Lost fans can give a small sigh of relief. The plotline of this innovative television show will not be held hostage for profits, and we no longer have to fear ignorant ‘scabs’ stepping in and ruining the story in a misguided attempt to conclude the series. That doesn’t mean we can completely relax, though. In the back of our minds, anyone who has loyally watched Lost has wondered if the writers really have an ending in sight, or if they’re making all of this up as they go along. Add to these doubts a late season premiere, a few unresolved love triangles, and episode after episode of answers that only lead to more questions, and you’ve got yourself a sinkhole of viewer mistrust.

And yet, I can’t stop watching. I don’t want to miss even one second of the snail-paced storyline, one seemingly irrelevant flashback, one instance of Hurley saying ‘dude’. It may all be a hoax. It might be canceled any day. But this sci-fi geek is keeping the faith.

Not that I haven’t wavered, just as the quality of the episodes has fluctuated over the years. I have thrown my hands up at the screen, have exclaimed ‘we’re –nowhere-‘ as the credits rolled. I have even declared that I had given up, that I would no longer be watching Lost after a particularly abysmal episode in Season 3 . Inevitably, though, another fan reels me back in. And that right there is a large part of the draw of this show – endless message board fodder as we theorize and pick apart each scene, sometimes frame by frame, trying to detract some hidden meaning.

To those of you who have given up, or never watched in the first place, now is a great time to jump in. After two seasons of little forward movement, Lost seems to be back to the slow but steady and engaging pace of Season One. ABC’s site presently has an hour-long recap to bring old and new viewers alike up to speed. Don’t have an hour? No problem – YouTube has a Lost in 8 minutes that will give you the quick and dirty version. Either way, you can quickly delve into new mysteries, new characters, and new nail biting moments every week. Or, if you’re a ‘details’ person (read: obsessive dork), the season DVDs are rich in cast commentary and special features to squeeze every ounce of content (of which plenty is buried deep) from each episode.

The fantasy film Labyrinth, made in 1986, continues to be one of my all time favorite movies.

Labyrinth stars David Bowie as the Goblin King who kidnaps the brother of costar of Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly). Fairies, psychedelic dreams, crystal balls, and mystical creatures makes this rank high on the hippie list.

There are some great characters in this movie, very diverse, and very Jim Hensen.

• Ludo, a tall, big, and furry brute with horns on his head that talks cuter than he looks. He can yell for rocks to come to his help when he needs them.
• Hoggle, a cowardly little mix between a dwarf and a troll with the personality of Oscar the Grouch. Mostly harmless except for an inhumane prejudice against fairies
• Sir Didymus, a small fox-terrier knight that rides on the back of his faithful steed, another dog named Ambrosius. He lives in the Bog of Eternal Stench, a place with flatulence geysers, mud, and the nastiest scents in the Labyrinth. It is a place vaguely reminiscent of an occupied public bathroom stall, complete with the fact that touching anything makes you smell forever.

As far as David Bowie goes, he plays the ultimate antagonist that is easy to fall for. With wild hair, diabolic schemes, and toxic apples, he has the ability to capture his audience’s heart as the watcher realizes he has fallen in love with Jennifer Connelly’s character. Except for the overly excessive bulge, he’s a pretty stylish character.

This is a great movie for all ages. Only mild cussing, no sexual content, and very little violence (except for the Fun Gang trying to rip off Sarah’s head) makes this movie a wonderful choice for the whole family. And if you like Labyrinth, I’d also recommend The Dark Crystal, another Jim Hensen favorite with a bit more dark side and a lot less Bowie.

Readers rejoice, you finally get to put this series to a close. The Sword of Truth series has stretched over a collection of 11 books, some short, some long, some biblical. Throughout the entire series, Terry Goodkind has been more than happy to regale the reader with all his views on life, politics, religion, and anything else about which he feels strongly. As another reviewer mentions, Terry Goodkind has become very preachy. He has designed his main character, Richard Rahl, to be a moral and political powerhouse as well as a powerful and confident fighter. I imagine Richard Rahl to look something like Terry Goodkind, who you can see on the back of his books: a stony-faced strongman who could probably roundhouse Chuck Norris at least once or twice.

In Confessor, the series comes together, culminating in the not-so-epic final battle between Emporer Jagang, Richard Rahl, the Sisters of the Light, Sisters of the Dark, and the Mord Sith (women in red leather that love to cause pain). But we will get to the ending in a bit.

Most of the book is a play by play of Richard Rahl doing one of two things: trying to make eye contact with his wife Kahlan, and trying to win at Ja’La (a game like football but bloodier and more complex). His supporters run all over trying to find him, keep the People’s Palace safe, and unravel a Chainfire spell that has taken everyone’s memory of Richard’s wife away, including her own. As usual there are pages and pages of pseudo-scientific reasoning behind very plot-friendly spells and people saying “Dear spirits” as they solve a problem that no reader ever could have figured out on their own. Back in the early days of this series, the “Dear spirits” would usually come from the main character as he solved the book’s problem, making the world a great place once again until the next issue was released; however, all the tangled plot lines of the previous books now have to be cleaned up in a single book with Richard busy playing games, and therefore the other characters must be part of the problem solving team.

I will say that the imagery behind the Ja’la games was well done. I found myself cheering for Richard’s team kind of like I cheer for a historical movie: I know who’s going to win, and I know how they’ll win, but it’s exciting all the same.

Finally, the book ends. Everyone gets into the same room and Richard once again tricks the bad guy, just like in the first book. His ploy makes him something of a God, where he creates a world of Christians to carry on with their horrible and intolerant ways while he makes his world a magical paradise. Not terribly original, and somewhat quick in coming after an entire book that in no way leads up to this scenario, but still interesting in that “what if we all came from another world that is a magical paradise” sort of way.

Jack Johnson is like a nice, big bowl of macaroni and cheese. I’d love to sit down and dig into some for lunch, but you wouldn’t catch me dead serving it to my porn star friends for dinner, or ordering it in public. Jack is…well, he’s nice. And I mean that, I really do. Plus, he’s a hot, eco-friendly, Hawaiian surfer dude, which is always an added bonus when you’re trying to sell CDs and concert tickets. I’d do a feature with him, if you catch my drift. Still, he has always left me a little dissatisfied, and that’s just something you never want to hear from a porn star like me.

Johnson is following firmly in the footsteps of Nick Drake and Elliot Smith, two handsome and soulful guitar playing boys who had the unfortunate tendency of being rather suicidal, a trait which informed their music with a great intensity but also led to their very early demise. I’m not suggesting that all great guitar boys should be depressed, but Johnson, who survived a terrifying surfing accident at the age of 17 and lived to tell the tale, married his college sweetheart, and generally seems to have a sunny disposition, could do with a little more of the Dark Side in his work.

I get the sense that Jack just isn’t digging deep enough, and after listening to Sleep Through The Static I feel a little…yawn. To be fair, the album delivers a catchy, satisfying sound with cleanly played guitar riffs. He’s mixed it up a bit on this album by adding keyboardist Zach Riff to the band, and the tracks which feature Riff (Riff’s riffs? I crack me up) lend a depth and richness to the band.

Maybe it’s just that I’m going through a messy breakup, but cute love songs kind of make me want to puke right now. Be that as it may, I think I can still objectively and critically say that Jack Johnson’s love songs are both sweet and rather forgettable, and that the best songs on the album are not about his love for his wife Kim (Angel, Same Girl), but his personal struggles (Enemy), fatherhood (Go On, Adrift), and concern for the world at large (Sleep Through The Static).

Take the Sleep Through The Static, an anti-war tune with witty, free association lyrics:

Well mighty mighty appetite
we just eat ‘em up and keep on driving
Freedom can be freezing take a picture from the pretty side
Mind your manners wave your banners
What a wonderful world that this angle can see

Or, a more introspective track such as Enemy, which relates a dream:

After we spoke I had a dream that I broke
The teeth from a mouth of a snake
Then I choked on the teeth they were mine all along
I picked up the pieces when I woke up
I put them in a boat made of things that I don’t want to see
I blew on the sail watched it drift out to sea

Haven’t we all had that broken teeth dream? Juxtapose those with the groaners from Angel (“she gives me presents with her presence alone”) or Monsoon (“monsoon-er or later”) and you’ll see what I mean. Jack would benefit from a lot more free association and a lot less trying hard to be witty, because when he does that it falls flat, and that’s something NO porn star wants to see.

I absolutely LOVED Skinny Bitch. It goes outside the norm by using biting humor and profanity to get the point out. Whether you agree with its humor or not, you won’t be able to help but keep reading it. I must also warn, it is quite gruesome. There is an in-detail discussion about the cruel fate of big industry beef and poultry, enough to make you think twice before biting into that big steak that was once Betsy the Cow.

There are a couple points within Skinny Bitch that I have to disagree with. As a student who is currently working on becoming an N.D., the authors talk about different organic snacks that can be used to substitute for the toxic chemicals that are passed off as food these days. Though these organic snacks, such as cookies, are less processed and don’t contain artificial ingredients, they still contain a tremendous amounts of sugar and can be classified in the category of organic junk food. They will still spike your insulin levels creating havoc on your system. So, if after reading Skinny Bitch, you feel compelled to go out and replace your Nabisco Oreos with its organic counterpart and eat the whole box because of the fact it is organic be prepared to tip the scales because you WILL gain weight.

The other point I would like to dispute is the position that meat is bad for everyone. This book lays out the horrors of eating meat while trying to disgust its reader into becoming a vegan. I feel that meat is alright, given a few conditions. The first one is that it agrees with your body. Not everything is compatible with everyone. Some people say they feel healthier when giving up meat. Others feel worse. I am one of the ones that feel worse. My body doesn’t do well with wheat and grains, but i am not presumptuous enough to preach to everyone that grains are unhealthy. They are just unhealthy for me and a few select others. The second condition is the source of the meat needs to be from a known source such as a local farm. Grass fed beef has a lot more health benefits than grain fed. I would NEVER condone eating meat from your local grocery store without knowing where it came from. Factory farming is disgusting.

Overall, I recommend that the average American pick up a copy of Skinny Bitch. Especially the ones that are living on the standard American diet.

For cooking information you can also check out Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-Ass Recipes for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!).