Agreed.

I’m tired of explaining to men that the feminist movement will, in fact, benefit them as well as women. I’m tired of trying to hawk gender equality like I’m some kind of car salesman showing off a shiny new sedan, explaining all of its bells and whistles. I’m tired of smiling through a thousand thoughtless microaggressions, tired of providing countless pieces of evidence, tired of being questioned on every. single. damn. thing. I’m tired of proving that microaggressions exist, tired of proving that I’m unfairly questioned and asked for proof. For a movement that’s centered around the advancement and empowerment of women, why do I feel like I’m supposed to spend so damn much of my time carefully considering how what I say and do will be taken by men?

I’m a man and I agree with this and the entire piece. If I were a woman, I’d probably be a radical separatist because it seems like the majority of men just don’t get it.

I’m not a feminist ally because it’s stylish, because it’ll get me laid (trust me: it really doesn’t, quite the opposite!) or because I have any daughters or because I have a sister.

I’m an ally because it’s only right that women get an equal shot at life, at achieving their dreams, at the pursuit of happiness.

Wasn’t there something about that in our constitution somewhere?

For one project I’d ordered a very expensive piece of networking gear (a Riverbed Steelhead, if you must know).

The UPS delivery driver arrived to deliver it and was carrying it in his arms. Which was fine, but he was curious about what it was.

I said, “It’s a Riverbed, a piece of networking gear that makes networks operate faster.”*

He said, “Sounds expensive. What does something like that cost?”

“About $30,000 for the one in your hands.”

“Holy shit, if I’d know that I’d brought it up on the hand truck!” he said as he handed it to me.

Yes, Riverbeds are expensive. Also worth it if you need one.

*Not quite technically true, but there’s no way to explain what a Riverbed really does in a casual conversation with a busy driver.

Sure, let ISPs charge for data after going over your soon-to-be mandatory data caps – but at the going rate.

That’d be about half a cent or so for gigabyte, and that includes a tidy profit for the ISP.

Hell, let them charge a cent per gigabyte. That’d give them about a 120% profit, including all infrastructure, personnel, operational, maintenance and other costs that an ISP incurs.

But no. They want 10,000%+ profits on this.

And no, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve provisioned enterprise-level bandwidth (custom fiber runs), and installed enterprise-level $25,000 switches to support it so I know exactly how much real bandwidth costs.

There will never be a TV show like Lost made again.

No matter what you think of it there won’t be, can’t be, another show with its scope, its ambition, its odd mélange of sf, fantasy, sitcom, mystery and with its peculiar zaniness and odd sincerity.

In the future there might be shows with similar themes but they won’t have the budget or the audacity to pull off what Lost did, nor the excellent cast that budget entails. Despite its flagrant and at times annoying excesses, what do you think the chances are of any other show “tricking” so many people who claim to hate sf and fantasy into watching just that for so long?

As I said, it will never happen again.

I first saw Lost  accidentally.  Like Firefly, I had not planned to watch it as I thought it sounded terrible. I caught the tail end (tail section, heh) of one episode while waiting for another show to come on, back when I still watched a show or two on an actual TV.  (Imagine that.)

I was instantly captivated, completely sucked in after only two minutes. Never have I been engrossed in a story so quickly.

As soon as I could I watched the earlier parts of the first season.

So many good things about that show. Yes, I am still upset that Kate was not the leader, as was the original plan for the show. That would’ve been more interesting as she was a better character than Jack. It’s also the first show on a major American network I recall seeing where a full half of the cast was not white. That has not happened since as far as I can tell, by the way.

Every show has its flaws and so did Lost. Like other great works, however, it rose above them and somehow coalesced into the strangest show ever that appealed to any sort of mass market. How it managed to do that I don’t know.

About the ending, I thought it was fine.  The best that could have been done. To me the journey is what matters. And what a hell of a fine journey it was – though I wanted to throw my TV out the window when Shannon died. Talk about character development done right.

And best line from the show? Undoubtedly when Frank Lapidus after realizing that all of the former Lost-ers are on his plane says, “We’re not going to Guam, are we?”