Have You Hugged Your Constant Today?

I watched my favorite episode of Lost the other day because...well, I just had the urge to for no reason that I can really say. It made me think how fantastical and awesome this individual story arc was even IF the ending sucked.

Just think hypothetically for a moment. What if you and I were dating. In love. Looking to marry. Then I suddenly cut off the relationship and joined the armed forces.
Two years later, after not hearing from me at ALL, I call you and say I need to see you. You refuse. I then track you down through your father.
Though irritated, you let me talk. I tell you that if you ever loved me or still have any hope for our relationship, you need to give me your phone number and keep the same number. I'm not going to call for eight years, but when I do I NEED you to answer.

Those of you who watched Lost will, of course, recognize that I am talking about Desmond and Penny's story arc, specifically the events in The Constant. (probably my favorite episode of the series)
Though Desmond never specifically tells Penny that he's jumping through time, watching it again made me think about that (almost entirely) unlikely scenario. How in the world do you tell someone that if you don't make contact with them in eight years (during those eight years, we WON'T talk. At all.) you will die of disorientation by time travel.

Asking someone to be your constant is an incredibly serious thing to ask. Literally life and death. It has a bit more leverage than asking someone to be your valentine. Whatever that means today.

And so, I'd like to present you with

Lady Brainsample's Guide to Choosing Your Constant

When considering a constant, there are many important factors to consider. This guide endeavors to help you explore the important questions to ask about the person who potentially qualifies.

1. Is your candidate familiar in both time periods?

This isn't the time to call up Susie from second grade. The candidate should exist in both time periods and also be someone you can potentially get ahold of in both time periods.
Lady Brainsample recommends taking very careful consideration about using parents or grandparents because of this qualification.
As our posterboy Desmond Hume knows, there can be a large amount of time between the two periods one is shifting to and from, so if you happen to have been isolated on an Island for a few years and suddenly need a constant, you don't want to call on your Great Grandma Louise who was on the brink of death the last time you saw her. Likewise, even if you are pretty sure Susie would agree to be your constant, if you haven't spoken to her since the last time you attacked her with snowballs, (with the assistance of your tiger) she probably isn't the ideal constant.

2. Is your candidate someone meaningful to you?

You may have your old boss's phone number burned into your permanent memory banks, but if you toss and turn in your sleep with nightmares of your boss's former demands that he needs you to come in Saturday, you probably don't have a meaningful relationship with him.
Because the whole reason you need a constant is to avoid a brain aneurism, you don't want to speed up the process by your only contact being someone who threatened to do so every day of your life you worked for him.
To avoid dying by brain aneurism by time travel, your constant should be someone whose voice and presence bring about positive feelings. Our posterboy Desmond Hume, for this reason, picked the woman he loved, Penny Widmore, to be his constant.

3. Is your constant likely to believe fantastic phenomena?

Though Desmond Hume didn't directly tell Penny about his time travel problems, Lady Brainsample recommends being more straightforward to your candidate about their duties as your constant.
If you are great friends with your physics professor, but he makes a comment about how only nut jobs believe time travel could ever be possible, it's probably a good idea to be discrete about your time travel problems and look for a constant elsewhere.
On the other hand, if your conspiracy-theory loving best friend sports an X-Files "I Want to Believe" shirt with the appropriate spacey planet earrings and green eye shadow, she is probably more likely to believe your time traveling tales and be more than happy to assist you.

If you answer yes to all three questions, then congratulations! You've found yourself a good candidate! All of us at Cease Repining wish you the best in your traipsings through time travel.

The Lameness of LOST

First a general note, if there's anyone left who actually reads this blog, I apologize profusely for not staying regular on my blog. I've noticed that I've lost about five followers, probably because of this fact. I wish to get back in the habit of posting stuff, so even though most of my readers don't watch Lost, I will post about the finale because that is what has been on my mind recently. If you don't watch Lost, skip to the end of this article because I discuss some other stuff that has nothing to do with the show.

The finale of Lost....oh.....dear.........
The week after the finale aired, every day our family would stomp around, then jump on a soapbox and make a loud tirade about some aspect or another, and then make the resolution to stop thinking/talking about because it was making us mad.....this article is bascially a compilation of our best tirades. (except for a bit at the end that has to do with EJC and blogging issues/reader involvement.)

Spoiler alert, as always...

First, the positive. I really enjoyed the episode as an episode. I really loved the character resolutions, and I loved that the great couples (i.e., Charlie and Claire, Sawyer and Juliet, Sayid and Shannon, Desmond and Penny, and Daniel and Charlotte) had a resolution, and they ended up together. I also loved that in the "sideways" (second life, heaven before heaven, whatever the frak you want to call it) Ben had a great relationship with Alex and his father, and he had a happier time of it than in the....pre-life, or whatever you want to call it.
Basically, I enjoyed all the individual character driven moments and strory arcs of the episode.

Now, the bad.....
The writers lied to us. They said at the beginning of the series when everybody theorized it was purgatory that the Island had nothing to do with purgatory. So now that the whole point of the show is that they make a new afterlife and then pass into "nirvana" together or whatever, it makes all the great science-fiction of the show pointless!!!!!!!
What's the point?!
What's the point of the electromagnetism?
What's the point of the time travel?
What's the point of the Dharma Initiative?
What's the point of pregnant women on the Island dying?
What's the point of moving the Island?
What's the point of having Jacob and the Man in Black?
What's the point of the hieroglyphics and all the Egyptian mythology?
What's the point of Walt's "powers"?
What's the point of Jacob's cabin?

"Ok," you may answer, "but the show was never about that. It was always about the characters."

Yes and no....yes, the show was about the characters, and that was a major draw for the series, but if you're going to make a character based drama, don't add all the cool sci-fi stuff to hook in the geeks (like me...) then not come to answers or a point with it.
If Lost were a character only based drama, they could have made it in one or two seasons. Put 'em on the Island, resolve their problems, either get rescued or not. End of story. But instead they made all these awesome mysteries which then became immaterial.
Like Dad said, "They ditched the sci-fi crowd and hung us out to dry."
And who was it that stuck with them during the tedium of Seasons 2 and 4??? The geeks. Because we thought they knew where they were going and that how they got there would make sense in the end.

Now I can't go back and watch the whole series and see how the finale makes sense with the rest of the series, because it doesn't!!!
If I may compare the ending of Lost to Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar was a great story that made sense the entire way through. They were humanity fighting to survive against the cylons, and they were always searching for Earth to settle. That was always the overlying story arc, and the finale MADE SENSE to support that story arc.

Anyway, I thought the episode was good, but terrible for an ending. It was a cop-out that left me underwhelmed and disappointed because it went in a completely different direction than the rest of the series.

So, if there's anyone left reading this article at all, because I will now have no reason to post about Lost, does anybody have any suggestions or requests of stuff they would like me to post about? I'd like to get back into blogging seriously again.
Namarie, dear blogger friends,
Lady Brainsample

P.S. By the way, if any of you are on facebook and watch my films, we have a fanpage/like page, whatever it's called these days; just search for EJC Productions, and it should come up. Danke!

Lost: Reduced

The Reduced Shakespeare Company (if you haven't seen the Complete Works of William Shakespeare Reduced, you MUST) did a promotional video for Lost: Season 6 and it ROCKS.
It's five seasons of Lost done in 10 minutes. With that said, if your internet stinks, you may not want to try to watch this video because it's very long.
Enjoy!!!

*Dance of Joy*

LOST defeated the State of the Union.

Damon and Carlton interview.

I can't wait for the premiere....

If only I didn't have rehearsal that night...

Let's just say I'll be getting out of there pretty quickly as soon as it's over...

In the mean time, I'll listen to Pop! Goes My Heart, Wonderwall, and X-Files theme song remixes to make me feel better.

LOST: Dead is Dead

I loved this episode, because in flashbacks it showed another side to Ben that often gets shoved under the rug, so to speak. We see a less calculated more compassionate side of him that allows Rousseau to live, against orders, and takes Alex, her child, as his own daughter. And Widmore wanted her dead!

Conundrums like this make it impossible to tell whether Ben is the "good guy" and Widmore the "bad guy" or vice versa. I'm beginning to think that neither of them are the ultimate bad guy with the introduction of Jacob's enemy in the finale. Yet, how much do we really know about Jacob. Maybe his enemy is the good guy! I don't know...it's impossible to speculate with any assurance of anything being right.

Another interesting point with this episode was the mention of Penny's mother. Ben said that Charles had "broken the rules" by leaving the Island regularly and having a child with an outsider. This is assumingly Penny by some unknown woman because Faraday is Ellie's kid and she's certainly not an outsider. No wonder Eloise slaps him.

And of course, we totally called it that Desmond had beat the crud out of Ben for almost trying to kill Penny.

So...the Temple. We finally get to go inside it, and it's very very creepy/Egyptian. And that whole scene with Alex....creepy even more. Now I feel the urge to talk about a post-finale theory about that scene, but I feel that might "break the rules," so I'll wait....

LOST: Whatever Happened, Happened

As you may recall, I did a mini-post on this episode, so now I guess it's time to do the normal sized post, which will still be quick because I'm trying to get to the finale.

First point, *We so totally called Clementine. How did Sawyer get such a request in such short a whisper? That's the mystery...

*Totally disagree with Cassidy's assessment of Sawyer....he jumped to save them, not to run away from a relationship with Kate. (though running for that reason is good too!)

*Kate......so she tells Carole Littleton that she's going back to the Island to find Claire....well, nothing of the sort has happened yet...they better tell us in Season 6 what happened to Claire and whether she really is dead and in ghostly form like we all think she is. (see this post)

*LOVED the time travel talk between Hurley and Miles.

*And of course, referring back to the mini-post, one of the best parts of this episode was the irony....

LOST: He's Our You

I have only two things to say about this episode.

1. Oldham was cool, especially considering the actor who played him also played Sebastian in Blade Runner.

2. Sayid has officially lost it.

LOST: Namaste

All right, so I'd really like to talk about the finale of Lost, but because I haven't caught up yet, I'm not allowed to. So...here's the quick, emphasis on QUICK, catch-up for Namaste.

*One of my favorite parts of this episode was when Juliet went over to check on Amy Goodspeed and the little baby. I love how as soon as Amy told Juliet his name was Ethan, she immediately gave him back. Ethan Goodspeed/Rom....nice.

*I also love how Jack was assigned to be a janitor according to his 'aptitude tests.' He's a spinal surgeon, for cryin' out loud!! I wonder if Sawyer had anything to do with it because Hurley very naturally was put to the kitchen to work.

*To anyone who thinks that the writers make all this stuff up as they go alone, explain the runway. Waaay back in Season 3 when Sawyer, Kate, and Jack were captured by the Others, Kate and Sawyer were forced to work on what seemed to be a runway. Flight 316 landed on said runway on the Alcatraz of the Island.

*When Jack went and saw Sawyer, I loved Sawyer's speech. "I heard once Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the Blitz. He said it made him think better. It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, 'cause back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead." Jack so totally needed that...and Sawyer's a wayyy better leader than Jack was, in my opinion.

Was that quick enough? I think so....

Whatever Happened, Happened

*a mini-post on tonight's Lost episode because I have too much homework to get caught up, but can't not post this one thought*

How ironic that while Sayid thought he was going to change history (to make it "better") and kill Ben, he himself is going to cause Ben to become the man he is. For, as Richard said, if he saves Ben, Ben will lose his youthly innocence and always be one of them. This explains alot...

Wow.

This episode rocked.

LOST: LaFleur

So far, this has been my favorite episode of Season 5. "Why?" you ask. Because for once since this episode, which was a season ago, Sawyer has been happy and non-stressed out. Well, at least in the middle of the episode.

Ok, now I have to make my token speech about the end of the episode. Many of you have heard this before...

Kate is going to RUIN EVERYTHING!!!! She's going to be all indecisive again and go for Sawyer when he has clearly gotten over her. Besides, Juliet and Sawyer make a MUCH better couple. Juliet covers Sawyer's back. Whereas Kate was always snide and mean and just plain annoying. I take that back. More than annoying. Excrutiatingly annoying. Juliet is also very intelligent, which matches Sawyer's personality.

So we got to see the back of the four-toed statue....Interesting. This has led Dad to believe that Richard Alpert and the original Hostiles/Others who were long-lasting residents of the Island were Egyptian. The statue was the final straw, but there have been many other indications of Egyptian swill. Hieroglyphics on the walls of the Temple is the indication that most readily comes to mind.

I say again....WHY WHY WHY DID CHARLOTTE HAVE TO DIE???????????

*Ahem.* That just stinks for Daniel... And icing on the proverbial cake is that he sees her as a girl and it makes him even sadder!

So Sawyer became head of security...How cool is that?

LOST: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Ugh, I've been feeling out of my element for writing about Lost these days, but I will attempt to coherently write about my thoughts towards the Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. Seems to me it shoulda been called the Life and Death and Life of Jeremy Bentham. (*those who know what I'm talking about chuckle amusedly*)

This was kind of a depressing episode because we knew where we were headed, we just didn't know how we were headed there. Kind of like Revenge of the Sith. We all knew that Anakin was going to become Darth Vader, but we didn't know how. But, it was stil enjoyable because it answered some of the questions we had about Locke's time off the Island.

This episode also had the distinction of confusing the heck out of whether Widmore is good or bad. I'm not even going to try to figure it out. On the one hand, he WAS the one to send the freighter to extract Ben and killed a lot of innocents in the process, but on the other hand, he's helping John do what he needs to do in this episode. On that same hand, Widmore tells John he was leader of the Others before Ben exiled him. Is he lying?

Abaddon: He helps people get to where they need to go. Like PiningfortheFjords commented on one of my older posts, "Abbadon was also shown meeting with Naomi about selection of the team to go to the island, lending credence to the idea that he either determines who goes or how they get there."

See this post. The writers always have some sort of significance in mind for their character's names, so if he's Abaddon, I still think he's akin to a dark angel.

Jack: Still in his Doubting Thomas stage. Finds it only to be a coincidence that Locke ended up in his hosptal. Says his father is dead, not admitting having seen Christian on the Island or having seen the empty coffin. Good grief....

And now I come to the part I hate talking about.....Ben seems to genuinely be bad. That part....(anyone who's seen the episode knows which part I'm talking about) I almost saw it coming, but I didn't want it to be true. What in the world is going on???? Why, why why???? Oh well. At least he's come back to life on the Island like everyone thought he would.

And oh what a cliff-hanger ending they gave us with Locke seeing Ben right at the end.

I say again...Good grief.

LOST: 316

UGH!! I am SO far behind in my writing about Lost....Entyhoo, on with the show. I am again going to take it point by point in sort of a stream of consciousness style because I feel a bit too frazzled to try to make a paragraph out of everything.

*This was a GREAT episode. In contrast to the mayhem and insanity of Season Four caused by the writer's strike, this episode took its time when it needed to, which was fantastic.

*I'm back to liking Jack. I know, it's sort of a cycle. I hate Jack for the first season or two, then he does some awesome stuff and I like him. Then he acts all stupid about the Island and the whole, "There's no such thing as miracles," then I don't like him. Now he's getting everyone back to the Island, and I like him. It's quite crazy....

*Yay for Frank Lapidus being back!!!!! (We're not going to Guam, are we?")

*Theories as to why Ben is all beat up? Desmond beat the crud out of him when Ben tried to kill Penny. (see 'revenge on Charles Widmore for his people killing Alex')

*Lamp Post station rocked....Eloise Hawking is slightly creepy.

*This one had the most awesome twisty, cliff-hanger ending ever: Jin got a job at Dharma!! Very tricksey of them because they don't even tell you about that until two weeks later. Hah!

LOST: This Place is Death

Just for fun, my initial thoughts are in random bits. As always, spoilers appear from the get-go, so be forewarned. After this picture, you have no excuse to read unless you have seen the episode. Unless you just want to see spoilers...but I can't understand why you would.





-NO NO NO!!!!!! Why did they kill Charlotte???? Now Daniel is sad! But....he traveled in time to tell her not to go to the Island again? I thought he knew that he couldn't change anything...Hmm....maybe he's going to experience a crisis of some kind and become irrational. They did confirm that her parents were part of Dharma. So...why did her mom leave. That is the question. Also, who is her father? That's another question. Maybe her mom caught wind of the Purge...that would be a good reason for leaving.

-MWAH HA HA!!!!! Mrs. Hawking IS Dan's mum. And she is deeply enscanced in the mythology of the Island.

-So THAT'S how Montand lost his arm...Oy vey.

-Yikes! Smokey is guarding the Temple...which is apparently some sort of Sanctuary for the Others. So except in the case of Ben summoning Ol' Smokey, maybe most of those encounters with him have been in the vicinity of the Temple.

-Christian(speaking for Jacob) tells Locke that LOCKE has to move the Island?? Again?!?! Good grief, I did not see that coming. So we know the Island (or at least the people on the Island. But only certain people) has been moving in time....does that mean it's been moving in space each time as well? Or only certain times?

-And thank goodness we learned about Danielle in some way! They kept their promise. So there was a disease... It seems to me that she was the only one not affected because she was the only one who didn't descend into Smokey's summer home.



-Good for Ben with his rant! They need to quit ragging on him all the time.

Now for a serious paragraph...
Charlotte said that once she left the Island, she asked her mom about it, but her mom denied its existence. She even went so far as to say that Charlotte had made it up. It occurred to me watching the episode the second time that this parallels Lucy and Edmund in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Charlotte Staples Lewis is also named after its author, Clive Staples Lewis. Both Charlotte and her mom had been to the Island, but left. Likewise, both Lucy and Edmund had been to Narnia. But, once they were back in the "real world" Edmund denied the existence of Narnia just as Charlotte's mom denied the existence of the Island.

As always, it's been fun. I shall return later to discuss my adventures in the land of Hill Country.

LOST: Jughead, and The Little Prince

I have been a very lazy blogger recently, and for that I'm sorry...But I do actually have a legitimate excuse by being sick for almost a week... Because I'm so far behind, I'll cover two episodes in one post.

Anyway....

So THAT'S why the episode was called Jughead...the army people had enough of a sense of humor to name their hydrogen bomb. Apparently it's still buried somewhere on the island. I wonder if it has to do with the thick concrete under the Swan Station because Sayid mentioned he hadn't seen concrete anywhere that thick since Chernobyl.

Confirmed theory: The compass!!!! Mwah ha ha!!! John told Richard to go see him!!

Supported theory: Mrs. Hawking being Daniel's mum. Widmore told Desmond to go to Los Angelos. Mrs. Hawking is there, assuming Ben didn't go far to see her.

Speaking of Widmore...He was an Other??? Er, Hostile. I did not see that coming at all. And he's also alot older than I would have thought. So somehow he's going to get off the Island and become a multi-billionaire. Perhaps he exploited the Island in some way to get all that money??

Desmond and Penny are happily married now...with a son called Charlie! Damon and Carlton confirmed on the Lost Official Podcast that he was, in fact, named after Charlie Pace, and not Charles Widmore.

Time travel...I guess it's possible to run into yourself on the Island if you travel to the right time. Locke certainly wanted to avoid it though. Sawyer saw Kate helping Claire give birth to Aaron in months past, which, as Dad noted is a pretty far foreshadow: Claire is now gone, and Kate has Aaron off-Island.

Another season shocker: Jin is alive!!!! Yay!!!!! Maybe he'll be an instigation for Sun to quit being so weird and to get off the side of Charles Widmore.

And.....this has been a pretty rambly post, so I'll leave y'all for now. All I can say to close is that things are probably going to get even more dire, because next week's episode is entitled This Place is Death. I guess the zombie season is coming earlier than Damon and Carlton claimed.

LOST: Because You Left, and The Lie

So.... I had planned to write a lengthy, ranty post about politics and the Obama administration the other night, but while I was writing, I got depressed about the whole bloody affair, so I quit. To see what disturbs me, you can visit the links to these two articles.


1. Guantanamo Shut Down; Relased Detainee Back to Confirmed Terrorist Activities
2. Our Taxes Will Now Support Abortions Performed World-Wide


But....on to happier matters.
It's late, I know, but....
Time to talk about LOST!!!!!! Warning, as usual, I give away LOTS and LOTS of spoilers.


First of all, theories:
*Daniel, when he was working on the Orchid station, wasn't supposed to be there. He was traveling in time.
*Pierre Chang's baby is MILES. (second place for my favorite theory)
*The baby (whoever it may be) may also imply that at that time, children conceived on the Island won't die. Maybe Daniel did something to mess with the potential energy and caused the childbirth problem.
*The compass that Richard gave Locke, is the SAME compass that John is supposed to pick when he was a child being questioned by Richard. Locke's going to give Richard the compass in the past so that Richard can find him as a child.
*The British soldiers may explain Widmore's line about how the Island has always been his. Maybe they have something to do with when Widmore actually controlled the Island.
*Desmond is special because "The rules don't apply to you." The rules mean that you can't change the past or the future. But if the rules don't apply to Desmond, it means he can change things.
*The Island moving around: if those marks on Mrs. Hawking's computer are places the Island has been, than that northern mark was how the polar bears got there originally.
My personal favorite: *Mrs. Hawking is Daniel's mother. (!!!) Like Dad said: "It's not like Daniel told Desmond to go find his mom because his mom makes great apple pie." That would also explain why Daniel would be so involved with Oxford.

I knew that Daniel would be an awesome character. And I think he's now my official favorite of the freighter folk and possibly one of my overall favorites. Though Miles is hilarious...and Charlotte has the awesome name...and Frank has the most fascinating eyes...Ack! They're all so interesting...but Daniel's my favorite of those four.

So...I wanted to leave you with the trailer for the next episode, (Jughead) but my internet was killed last night. It's functioning about as well as someone with pneumonia. That's also why there aren't any cool pictures up either...oh well. When the internet gets better, I'll add some.

Less Than 24 Hours....

Until LOST!!!!!!

Yesterday I spent a considerable amount of time obsessing over promotional photography. Here are some of my favorites:

I can't wait....

EDIT: By the way, I'm having some trouble with something.... On my Flickr page I have two pictures that are untitled, and it's bothering me....anyone have any suggestions??

Obsession....

(you know you're a geek when you obsess about promotional photography of Lost....)

We only have to wait until January 21!! It's coming!!!

Cause maybe....you're gonna be the one that saves me

I absolutely LOVE songs that tell a story. Not just narratives, but an underlying relationship or event that isn't expressly stated.
My musings are inspired today because I finally got Wonderwall (by Oasis) from Mom. The reason she thought to get it is that Charlie sings it in Desmond's flashes and it's such an ironic song for him to sing in regards to Desmond.
Here is a snippet:


And all the roads that lead you there winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that
I would like to say to you
I don't know how

I said maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me?
And after all
You're my wonderwall


Isn't that ironic??? Desmond, the man who sees flashes of Charlie's death in many different forms, witnesses Charlie singing THIS song in his flash. The music directors of Lost are awesome at finding songs that perfectly pertain to what's going on. So yeah. That's my current song that I'm obsessed with.




NOTE: I will have a new EJC Productions video up soon. Just a fluff piece on my kitten, but I thought it was fun to watch her be a cute little baby rat looking thing again, ha ha.
And also, in the works is another film that is Phantom of the Opera related. The script has been written and negotiations will start soon for a guest actor in the production.

James "Sawyer" Ford

"You're just not looking at the big picture, Doc. You're still back in civilization. Me? I'm in the wild."

"Doctor playing golf. Woo, boy howdy, now I've heard everything. What's next, cop eating a donut?"

Commenting on Ethan taking Charlie and Claire: "So a tribe of evil natives planted a ringer in the camp to kidnap a pregnant girl and a reject from VH1 has-beens. Yeah, fiendishly clever."

Talking to Libby with a shoulder wound: "You're a shrink? Well, maybe you ought to talk to my shoulder."

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf. How could I forget this place? "

"Yeah, well, him says even though Pippi Longstocking and the Grape Ape are ideal candidates for the Dirty Dozen... I'm just going to say we might just want to bring the Red Beret. "

"Great idea, Moonbeam, then we can sing Kumbaya and do trust falls!"

"Don't get mad at me...just because you were dumb enough to fall for the old Wookie prisoner gag."

Recommended Websites

Ok, I found some really cool websites just now, so...I'm starting another one of my list articles.


Entertainment:
Andy Hunter (one of my favorite musicians; he's a genius!)
Arwen-Undomiel (great LotR site)
Chad Vader (awesome parody by Blame Society Productions)
Lostpedia (WAYYYY better than normal wiki for Lost information)
Spareoom (great Narnia site)

Other:

Amazon (great deals on books)
Christianbook (when you can't find it on Amazon, you can find Christian stuff here)
LaughLab (fascinating look into the psychology of humor)
Monologue Archive (YES! ACTORS NEED THIS!)
Picnik (the best free photo editor I've found)
Zazzle (triciakeierleber) (our business, political, Christian, and many more products!)