Except for the flash-sideways in the last season it was all real.

Jack and Kate killed the man in black. Jack saved the island. The good guys won. Jack died on the island after saving it.

Hurley went on to be the new protector of the island. Hurley made Ben his right-hand man. They ran the island for an unspecified period of time after the events in the finale. We can assume they found a way to send Desmond (and maybe others remaining on the island) back to the real world.

The airplane gang (Miles, Lapedis, Richard, Sawyer, Claire, and Kate) made it off the island and went on to live the rest of their lives in the real world.

Richard apparently becomes mortal.

The flash-sideways is a kind of purgatory. At some point each character must remember their real life and be reunited with each other. They are then free to “move on”. Presumably to heaven, although the writers were careful to include symbols from several major religions in the scene where Jack is talking with his father. So “moving on” is open to interpretation depending on your religious point of view. The flash-sideways world exists outside of time. Everybody may have died at different times but they were all reunited in this one place. The specific people in the flash-sideways were put together because of their shared experience on the island which was the most important of their lives.

The origins of the island and why it is special are never explained. I’m fine with this. We don’t need it to be explained. Some things need to remain a mystery.

I’m wondering if there’s a parallel to be seen here regarding today’s large entertainment and telecom organizations. Many of them are holding onto an antiquated business model while the world is changing around them. Those who ride the wave of change will prosper while the old guard will continue to complain about falling revenues and will eventually die. When they do it’ll be their own fault. Sure, there’s risk in anything new. There’s risk in change. But there’s far more risk in refusing to adapt because that leads straight to stagnation and death.

Update: The “west” wall is done. The mail station has been cleaned out and organized. Stuff on the floor next to the wall has either been moved to where it belongs or to the other side of the room for now. It’s modest start but it gives me a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to keep it up.

1 – Metal
This was expected.

2 – Alternative (90’s Seattle Scene)
Stuff like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice and Chains, etc.

3 – British Alternative
Stuff like Radiohead, Coldplay, Oasis, Keane, etc.

4 – Lighter Alternative
A less heavy variety of alternative music from the 90’s or bands that were popular in the 90’s. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Foo Fighters, etc.

5 – Progressive
This is hard to classify. It has a lot of the instrumental guitarists I listen to as well as Queen, and Tom Petty. Looks like it’s music by musicians that other musicians really like.

6 – Modern Alternative
The Killers, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, etc.

7 – Children’s Music
Ya, I have children’s music in my library because I have children.

8 – Soundtrack Music
All those Lord of the Rings and Star Wars soundtracks albums I have.

9 – 70’s Rock
Van Halen, Billy Squire and bands like Queens of the Stone Age and Wolfmother because they’re very 70’s influenced.

10 – New Age
Enya, Enigma and for some unknown reason Trans-Siberian Orchestra. That’s a head-scratcher.

11 – Nu-Metal
Linkin Park, Korn, Papa Roach, Rage Against the Machine, etc.

12 – Rock with mostly Female Singers
Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Jewel and… Billy Joel? Yes, I said Jewel. Her first album was pretty good.

1. Finished installing Snow Leopard and supporting applications on Emily’s old MacBook Pro and delivered it to Emily’s dad. He’s in serious need of a new computer. One that doesn’t have issues with anti-virus/malware software or overly restrictive firewalls that won’t even let you print, or Flash plugins that don’t play sound. He needs a computer that just works and this one should just work for him.
2. Picked up Cali’s (our dog) poo from the back yard.
3. Emptied garbage cans in the house in anticipation of garbage pickup tomorrow. However, there was a nap happening upstairs so I avoided those for fear of waking up a sick little baby. You have to let sleeping babies lie.
4. Stapled the cords to two decorative wall-lights in Jillian’s room. One is a green ladybug. The other is a pink flower. I needed to make the cords straight so they weren’t hanging lose against the wall.
5. Cleaned Jillian’s art easel. Her and a friend painted the entire easel red last week. I finally got around to cleaning it today.
6. Finished importing all of our home video tapes onto one big external hard drive. The price of 1TB drives is now to the point were it makes perfect sense to have one. With this drive I can fit all 40+ tapes we’ve recorded over the last six years with room left over for about 40 more. Unless, we go HD at some point in the future.
7. Trimmed the vines on the sides of our house. It’s one of the few pieces of vegetation that looks pretty good on our house. But every few months it grows shooters that get out of control and need to put trimmed. That was today. The kids helped with their little scissors as always.
8. Installed new porch lamp. Emily bought a really cool porch lamp from Home Depot a few weeks ago. I got it installed today. Without shocking myself either. It looks really good lit up at night. However, we might want to replace the 100 watt bulb that came with it with something a little less bright. The light extends all the way out to the street with what’s in there now.