What?

Yeah, that about sums it up.

I am Jack Shephard

I laughed when I read the last line about tattoos (I have two). Also, apparently only 3% of people who take this test are Jack Shephard. So, which Lost character are you?

A “Lost” sprint

It’s no secret that I’m on the Heroes bandwagon, or that I used to be on the 24 bandwagon (Let’s be honest; the show’s just no good anymore). But only recently did I jump on the Lost bandwagon, and it’s incredible. How I avoided this show for four years, I’ll never know.

My mom got me the season one DVDs for my birthday (two months early, mind you), and I’ve watched 16 episodes thus far. My goal is to be totally caught up before the WGA-strike-shortened fourth season begins on January 31. Let’s do some math.

There are 8 episodes left to watch in season one, 23 episodes in season two, and 22 episodes in season three, for a total of 53 episodes left to watch to be totally caught up. Starting today, there are 26 days until the 31st. That means I need to watch an average of 2.04 episodes per day until the season four premier¹. I initially titled this post “A ‘Lost’ marathon”, but methinks “sprint” is a bit more appropriate.

Any other Lost fanatics out there (No spoilers, please)?

Best of 2007

I am pleased to present the second annual JakeBouma.com “Best of” list. Feel free to argue with my choices in the comments. Here’s the list for 2006.

1. Army of Me - Citizen
2. Matt Nathanson - Some Mad Hope
3. Andy Davis - Let the Woman
4. Anberlin - Cities
5. Kanye West - Graduation
Honorable Mention: Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger, The Alternate Routes - Good and Reckless and True, Eric Hutchinson - Sounds Like This, William Fitzsimmons - Goodnight

1. Once
2. Atonement
3. Bourne Ultimatum
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Sweeny Todd
Honorable Mention: Ratatouille, American Gangster, I Am Legend, Oceans 13, No Country for Old Men

1. Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From A Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation by Andrew Root (Review forthcoming)
2. Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church by James K. A. Smith
3. Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
5. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr (Review forthcoming)
Honorable Mention: The Courtier and the Heretic by Matthew Stewart, The Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch

1. Chicago Cubs games
2. Heroes
3. Man Vs. Wild
4. The Colbert Report
5. Project Runway

1. Google Reader (seriously, I live a different life because of it)
2. Twitter
3. Bleed Cubbie Blue
4. IAmJoshBrown
5. Rethinking Youth Ministry

Are you suffering from Heroes hysteria?

Sometime least fall, I came down with a horrible case of Heroes hysteria. Not much is known about the disease, so I just let the thing run its course, and although it took about eight months, I eventually conquered it. Well, Heroes hysteria has returned to my system. At least, I’m feeling the symptoms, anyway. I have a feeling that it will worsen tonight at about 9/8 central.

Since last year’s iteration of the disease, Heroes hysteria has mutated itself to become stronger and more contagious. Not convinced? Here are seven reasons why (warning: spoilers).

Please pray for me while I battle this wonderful, wonderful disease.

• In light of the recent accusations against my hero, Bear Grylls (including being called “the adventure equivalent of a cheese souffle“), the new episodes of Man vs. Wild will be “two hours long, instead of one - partly because so many of the locations are so remote, but also so we can go into greater detail, and show the behind the scenes work, including the crew’s role.“ 09/05/2007

Bear Grylls is my hero

Lately I’ve been watching lots of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel. The premise of the show is that a man named Bear Grylls is dropped in some remote wilderness (usually he sky dives) with only a water bottle, a knife, and a flint, and he has to find his way back to civilization.

Some of the places he’s been dropped in season two include Ecuador, the Australian Outback, Iceland, and the Everglades. In the shows that I have seen, Bear has done some pretty insane things, including: successfully hand-catching a salmon and biting into it while it was still alive; drinking his own pee for the sake of hydration; eating spiders and grubs; and peeing on his shirt and using it as a headdress to keep cool in the desert.

But Bear Grylls is not just some John Doe that the Discovery Channel hired for this television series. He served in the British Special Air Service (SAS) for several years, in which he recalls that he was “highly trained in unarmed combat, desert and winter warfare, combat survival, medics, parachuting, signals, evasive driving, climbing and explosives.” At the age of 23, he became the youngest Briton to summit Mt. Everest, which he did only two years after he broke his back in three places in a parachuting accident. He has also broken several other world records, some of which he has done for charity. He’s a straight up badass.

In response to a fan question about what he always takes with him on his expeditions, Bear replies:

Flint and striker, so I can light a fire however tough it gets — lifts my spirit always and has often saved my bacon! My Christian faith: high mountains and my time in the military taught me that it takes a proud man to say he needs nothing, and I need my faith. And, finally, a laminated picture of my family tucked inside my shoe.

In addition, he’s written several books, has his own “Bear Grylls” knife, and is an international motivational speaker.

I officially have a man crush.

• What I’ve Learned: Jack Bauer. “If you don’t have a Taser gun, the wires from a lamp will deliver the current needed to shock your subject just enough to get him to give up the information you need without doing any permanent damage.” (thx, John) 01/28/2007

The year in review

I realize it’s a little late to be doing a year in review, but I can’t resist. Here are my favorites from 2006.

Books:

How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins

The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Movies:

Little Miss Sunshine

The Prestige

Stranger than Fiction

Mad Hot Ballroom

Television:

Heroes

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

24

Music:

The Gufs, A Different Sea

Matt Wertz, Everything In Between

John Mayer, Continuum/The Village Sessions

Josh Rouse, Subtitulo

Dave Barnes, Chasing Mississippi

Snow Patrol, Eyes Open

Anything that I left off the list?

Heroes hysteria

Tonight is the mid-season finale of Heroes until it returns on January 22. This is only the second television drama (excluding reality shows) I have ever faithfully watched. The other, of course, being 24. I am so obssessed that I even read a Heroes blog.

Did you know that Claire the cheerleader (real name: Hayden Panettiere) is a budding pop star? Check out her Myspace page. Her debut album comes out next spring.

If, like me, you can’t even wait, here is a five minute preview of tonight’s show care of Access Hollywood.

I am a television junkie

Not only am I watching season 13 of Survivor (go Yul!), I just finished watching the first episode of NBC’s Heroes, a drama about everyday people who wake up with extraordinary powers (e.g., flying, teleportation, etc.). It might sound silly, but I got pulled right in. It has received generally favorable reviews, and since I really have no commitments on Monday nights, I’ll probably be watching the rest of the season.

Also, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip immediately follows Heroes, so I’m watching that, too. I am a horrible human.

Survivor fever

The 13th season of Survivor, the reality show that began the reality TV craze, began last Thursday night. I used to watch every season, but the last full season I watched was Survivor: Pearl Islands (Season 7). I went to New York in 2002 with a choir from my high school and I still have a t-shirt I bought at the CBS store with the Suvivor: Australian Outback (Season 2) logo on it.

This season takes place in the Cook Islands, and the most astonishing thing is that the four tribes are divided by race: Asian-American, Latino, African-American, and Caucasian. In an interview on CBS’ Early Show, host Jeff Probst said that Survivor itself is “a social experiment. And this is adding another layer to that experiment.”

Brandon has watched every season and always has a contest to pick the eventual winner. If it’s not too late, I would like to submit Yul as my entry.

Because I watched the first episode, I have committed myself to watching the entire season. It’s a good thing 24 doesn’t air during the same time of year, or I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.

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