What Does It Mean to Fall out of Love?

I have an agenda on this question, I'll admit, just not an emotional one. I've been talking to some friends of mine who are on completely different pages with this question, and I realized that the answer to this question may not be the same for different people. Or there may be a right answer, but I just don't know it. And I'd like to, I'd really like to.

What does it mean to fall out of love with someone?

Seriously, what does that entail? Is it easy to do, or impossible? Is love just an emotion? Is it just a decision? Is it more than just feeling something until you commit to it forever?

What's the difference between loving your best friend and loving your wife? What's the difference between falling out of love with your wife and falling out of love with your girlfriend? And what's the difference between falling out of love with your girlfriend and falling out of love with Wendy's new Chicken Sandwich? Are these differences night-and-day or shades of gray? How many of these can you fall out of love with?

And can you fall out of love with God?

They Found Laura!

Here's a post to the story on FindLaura.Org. Not much is known too much yet other than she was living and working in Florida, which I guess makes some sense since the Mackenzie's have family down there.

One way or another, she's found! I'm thrilled about this since it's been weighing on my heart the last few months, as the Mackenzie's have been going through so much with Laura missing for... exactly 5 months, and their son Lloyd sent to Iraq two weeks after the fact.

I know it sounds silly to say this now, but I've always felt that she was alive, though there wasn't much proof or hope in that fact. I just always thought she was out there somewhere, hiding, and that eventually she'd be found. I don't know if it was any more than this damn unsinkable human buoyancy that we all posess, even the more pessimistic of us.

There's something in us that believes that there can always be a happy ending, that the white knight really will slay the dragon. And I'm glad it's not just Pollyannaism. I'm glad that sometimes our faith is justified, that our prayers and dreams meant something. It's what makes a sanguine life worth living.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Mackenzie family. I'm glad she's coming home.

Lost Theory

I (finally) finished watching Lost Season One, and I've developed my own personal conspiracy about the show, which I'm unsurprisingly going to foist on you. Here it is. Losties only if you don't want to get too confused:

J.J. Abrams and Co. planned that the show would be a group of people who died in a plane crash but must spend their time in purgatory until they've resolved what unfinished spiritual business they had on earth. This would not be revealed to the audience, but these facts would be hinted at throughout the show, until finally there would be a "moment of clarity" as the last of the characters, assumably Jack, passed on into Heaven at the close of the series. They followed this strategy throughout the first season without incident.

But after the season finished, the overwhelming popularity of the show and the deductory work of its audience prompted a re-think, and the makers of the show decided to change the point of the show. Lost became less of a spiritual metaphor and more of a government conspiracy, a deep mystery that constantly needs further unravelling. The creators figured that they could spin off on this industrial mystery bit for an infinite amount of time, until finally revealing the secrets at the end of the show. Or, if that failed, reveal that after all of this, it really is just purgatory after all.

I think the latter is unlikely now, though, as the creator's little hints have become in-jokes: "Bad Twin," the reference-heavy novel released by the creators of the show, is written by Gary Troup, an anagram for - you guessed it - "purgatory." Even Entertainment Weekly figured that one out without breaking a sweat. When you've reached the point where you're just toying with your fans, you've either got everything well under control, or you're desperately clutching at straws and pretending that "hey, guys, you haven't figured it out yet! Here's another character with mysterious connections and a shadowy past! See you next season!"

But I'll tell you, if Michelle Rodriguez reappears next season for no logical reason, I'm tuning the whole show out for good.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

It occurred to me, suddenly, that not only have I never played "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," but I also have never met anyone who's ever mentioned playing it, or even heard of anyone in real life ever playing it.

It sounds like fun, though. I'd like to play it sometime.

By the way, my Bacon Number is 4: My dad is David Wyman, who went to college with and acted in plays with Glenn Close, who acted with Sissy Spacek in Nine Lives, and Spacek starred with Bacon in JFK.

I've also decided using IMDB to cheat on "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" is perfectly acceptable, or else I wouldn't have known that both Spacek and Close where in Nine Lives. Didn't see it.

Three Dollar Reviews!

A new section'll be coming to 10-4GB soon, and not just the new films available on the site.

I've been purchasing a lot of $2-$3 DVDs at record stores, yard sales, video rental places, etc., and the ones that I purchase at one place usually end up being the same price pretty much everywhere I go. Which also means that where ever you are, the same movies will be available to you for about the same price.

Tbat's why I'm starting the Three Dollar Review section (catchy, huh? Wanna know where I got the name from?). I'll review these films as I get them, then place 'em in the sidebar. If you see one while browsing through a DVD store, you'll already know whether it's worth buying or not, or if it's so completely not worth buying that it actually becomes worth buying.

It also gives me a chance to finally write the From Justin to Kelly review.