Am I Burned Out?

You Are 90% Burned Out

You are extremely burned out. You work too hard, and you're not getting the results you deserve. It's time for a life change, as soon as you can manage it. You're giving away most of your energy to something you don't even enjoy.

Are You Burned Out?

*Coughcough*

Yeah.

Join the Blogathon Vancouver 2008

I saw this article from yesterday's 24 Hrs: it's about a Blogathon being organized by Rebecca Bollwitt of Miss604.com.

On 26 July 2008, bloggers have to post to their blog every 30 minutes for an entire day (24 hours). According to the Blogathon wiki, "...the idea is to give 24 hours of your time so that your readers can pledge/donate to your cause of choice to keep that steady stream of content going." Readers or sponsors can donate to the charity of the blogger's choice.

I'm not sure if I can participate in the Blogathon, with my wacky sleeping habits and the dedication of my friend's son. That's why I'm spreading the word now. Although I can probably try the mobile blogging feature of Blogger.com...

If you're interested in the Blogathon Vancouver 2008, go to the Sign Up page. Go to the Blogathon wiki and Miss604.com for more information.

LOST: 2008 Primetime Emmy Award Winner?

Apparently, last year's Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were leaked, so now the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is releasing the finalists for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series.

The top 10 comedy series finalists are...

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
The Office
Pushing Daisies
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Weeds

The top 10 drama series finalists are...

Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Grey’s Anatomy
House
LOST

Mad Men
The Tudors
The Wire

Will LOST make the final list of nominees? Of course, I'm biased. It will and it should! But will it win? Doubt it.

I would love to see LOST win Outstanding Drama Series this year - not only because Season 4 was just so darn awesome, but also because it's the best darn thing on TV. (That, of course, is arguable and subjective - but whatever!)

Experience has taught me to expect the worst (as in, LOST won't even be nominated) but hope for the best (LOST will win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series). I'll just have to wait for the official nominations to be announced on Thursday, 17 July 2008 at 05:40.

Anyway, whatever happens to LOST's Emmy prospects, it's great that the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films recognized LOST's brilliance by honouring it as the 34th Annual Saturn Awards Best Network Television Series. It bested Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Journeyman, and Supernatural. Booyah!

Not only that: Matthew Fox won the Best Actor in a Television Series award, Michael Emerson won the Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series, and Elizabeth Mitchell shared the Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series award with Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). The LOST actors could have swept (well, almost) the TV acting awards if Evangeline Lilly beat Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer) for the Best Actress in a Television Series trophy.

Lastly, Cloverfield - written by Drew Goddard and produced by J. J. Abrams & Bryan Burk - won the Best Science Fiction Film award.

The nominations will be announced on 17 July 2008 at 05:40, while the awards will be handed out on 21 September 2008 at 8/7 central on ABC.

Who Are You Running For?

The 17th Annual Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure will be held on 5 October 2008. I donated last year, so I received the following e-mail today:

This year’s participants have been working hard to fundraise for the Run. Can they count on your support again? If you’d like to sponsor your favourite participant and help them reach their goal, click here to find their personal page and make a donation. Making a donation is fast, easy and secure. If you’ve already sponsored someone, thank you!

If you don’t know anyone participating in this year’s Run but would like to support the Foundation, click here to make a general donation and sponsor our Virtual Runner.

Your donation will fund research in all areas of breast cancer including education and prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and after-care supports. Find out how your gift is helping the Foundation lead the way in breast cancer research by clicking here.

Thank you very much for your ongoing support!

I helped raise over CDN $27 million "towards creating a future without breast cancer." Naks! I'll also donate this year; not only will I help fund breast cancer research, but I will also get an income tax deduction!

To learn more about the Run, please go to the CIBC Run for the Cure website or to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation website.

Evie and Dom in Buenos Aires

Aha!

DarkUFO posted this video where Dominic Monaghan (the late Charlie Pace) and Evangeline Lilly (Kate Austen) were separately interviewed by an Argentine entertainment (I think) reporter. I actually didn't finish the entire video; I paused it after Evie's segment.



So, is it true then? Are Evie and Dom back together and engaged? I totally hope so!

It Ain't Jacob's "Shack"

When I see or hear the word "shack," I always think of Jacob's cabin (Jacob is a largely unseen character introduced in the third season of Entertainment Weekly's 8th best show for the past 25 years - i.e. LOST).

But I chanced upon this New York Times article regarding a surprise fiction bestseller - a Christian novel entitled "The Shack" - written by a former office manager from Gresham, Oregon, USA. According to Amazon.com's product description,

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

Interesting.

Apparently, God is represented by an African-American woman; Jesus, by a Jewish workman (like Roger Work Man, hehe); and the Holy Spirit, by "an indeterminately Asian woman" named Sarayu. While some conservative Christian leaders and bloggers have attacked the novel as "heresy" and "deeply troubling," others initially disliked it but eventually liked it. One reader even said, “It brought God alive in a way that I think few books in literature ever do."

Anyway, it has even outsold Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose" and has hit #1 on the trade paperback fiction bestseller lists of the New York Times, Borders Group, and Barnes & Noble, among others. The NYT article attributes the book's success to word-of-mouth marketing (which is one of the most effective ways to market a debut book, self-published book, or both, according to Writer's Digest).

I haven't read this book, as I only encountered this title today. I will probably add this to my reading list for the year. So I can't say anything about it yet, except that it's nice to see a Christian novel hit #1 on the bestseller lists.

Have you read this book? How did you find it: "deeply troubling" or "one of the most remarkable books" you've read? Lemme know, will ya?

The Top 30 "WTF?!" Moments in LOST History

LOST is notorious for its "WTF?!" moments. From the first inklings of the Black Smoke Monster (a.k.a. Cerberus) to the identity of the man in the coffin, the LOST writers have pulled the rug under the fans so many times.

Now, this blogger listed his top 30 "WTF?!" moments in the best show ever. Check out #23 on the list:


#23: Richard Alpert doesn’t age

Episodes: “Not in Portland,” “The Man Behind the Curtain,” and “Cabin Fever” (Seasons 3/4)

Why it’s a “WTF?!” moment: When Richard Alpert first showed up in the episode “Not in Portland,” he appeared to be nothing more than DHARMA’s smooth-talking recruiter. Of course, that’s before he appeared a few episodes later in Ben’s flashback — looking like he hadn’t aged a day from the early ’70s to the present day. Oh, and by Season 4, we spotted the seemingly ageless Alpert back in the 1950s, visiting John Locke as a child. Does Alpert really not age, or is he traveling through time somehow? It’s a mystery yet to be revealed.

Here's another one:

#8: Ms. Hawking knows all about Desmond’s future

Episode: “Flashes Before Your Eyes” (Season 3)

Why it’s a “WTF?!” moment: Desmond’s consciousness hopping around through time in “Flashes Before Your Eyes” was a “WTF?!” moment in and of itself, but even more bizarre was his encounter with jewelry store clerk Ms. Hawking. When Desmond tries to change his past and buy an engagement ring for Penny, Ms. Hawking informs him that he will do nothing of the sort. Instead, he will break Penny’s heart, enter the boat race to prove her father wrong, and end up stranded on the Island where he will push the button for the next three years. History, it seems, has a way of “course correcting.” How Ms. Hawking knew about Desmond’s future — or even that Desmond’s consciousness was traveling through time — remains a mystery.

The moment in the top spot shouldn't be a surprise. It still tops the last scene in the Season-Four finale! What's the number one "WTF?!" moment in LOST up to the Season Four finale? Read the entire article to find out.

Evie and Dom to Marry?

I gasped in shock when I turned to page two of today's 24 Hrs tabloid this morning. The paper's celebrity gossip page reported that Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan (Kate Austen and the late Charlie Pace, respectively, in the best show ever) are getting married!

Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan are reportedly set to marry. The actors - who split briefly earlier this year - are said to be planning a quiet ceremony in Hawaii, as a tribute to LOST, the hit TV show on which they met. A source said: 'Evangeline and Dominic have been spending a lot of time together... and are very excited about the future.'

That is interesting. I wonder who the source was.

If this item were true, I'd be very happy for them. They are perfect for each other and they'd make beautiful, creative, talented, and athletic babies.

I hope it's true!