In the past 10 years I’ve done some pretty cool things with Caedmon’s Call.

In April 2004 I went along on a trip to Ecuador.

In August 2007 I spent 4 days in Texas with the band for the release of Overdressed (btw, I liveblogged the whole thing at Caedmonscall.net. Click here and you can read all 50 entries in reverse chronological order.)

in fact, here’s one of my favorite videos from the Overdressed Release Week trip, from the Rivers Ranch in North Texas:

People sometimes ask me how it ended up that I was afforded these opportunities. I always tell them I was the right fan to come along with the right ideas at the right time. And I had some good help from Megan, Nicole, Geof, and a bunch of other folks as well.

Of course, it also helped that I was a psycho fanboy of the band for quite awhile. In fact, I was going through an old cigar box recently and found a bunch of CC ticket stubs from the past decade.

Six ticket stubs in six different states. I’ve probably seen them in concert 25-30 times in 6 or 7 different states. So if you’d like to travel with your favorite band and get to know them better, my first piece of advice is to start stalking them. At some point, they won’t be able to ignore you any more.

Which got me thinking, what band/musician have you seen live more than any other? Are they you’re favorite, or just the one you’ve seen the most?

Last night’s episode wasn’t my favorite of all time, but wow, there were a lot of answers and reveals…

as always, these do not contain spoilers…I don’t know anything that will happen beyond the most recent episode. this is all just speculation that i’ve thought of and collected from online. Please don’t leave spoilers in the comments. And no, I didn’t go back and fix typos…this is too long.

+ Faraday’s rat was named Eloise. So is Mrs. Eloise Hawking (confirmed in the re-airing of “The Lie” at 8pm last night). Chick with a gun on the island was named “Ellie”. There’s a 98% chance that “Ellie” on the island is Eloise Hawking. And since Faraday named his rat “Eloise”, I’d say chances are good that Ellie is his mom.

+ If that’s the case, then odds are decent that Charles Widmore (who was an other!!!) could be his dad. We did learn that Widmore has been funding Faraday’s research for the past 10 years. So in 1954 young Widmore meets a time traveling Faraday…then he learns of the Islands powers…then in 1994 (or sooner) he finds Faraday and starts funding his time traveling research?

+ Meanwhile, if Ellie turns out to be Faraday’s mom, that’s just weird. In 1954 she meets her future son, and then he disappears right before her eyes.

+Remember last season during that Widmore-Ben convo when Widmore called Ben “boy”. Now it makes sense, because Widmore was probably on the island as a 40-year old in the 1970s when Ben showed up as a 10-year old (I’m sure my dates are off). Was there a struggle for power between Widmore and Ben that Ben won? Was it because Richard felt Ben was the leader? Why is Widmore off the island now? Was it because he turned the frozen donkey wheel at some point?

+ Or here’s another scenario. What if Widmore turns the wheel and gets booted off the island before Ben arrives. And what if Widmore wants a way back onto the island, but can’t get back so he creates the DHARMA Initative (along with the Degroots and A Hanso) in order to get back there. And as a part of the DI, Ben gets onto the Island too (we saw that part happen in a Ben flashback). But then Ben goes rogue and helps the Island folk to “Purge” the island of DHARMA, in essence killing all of Widmore’s people.

+ Back in Season 2, Sayid said he had never seen concrete so thick except for Chernobyl in the Swan station. What if the bury the jughead bomb and then build a Swan Station around it to release the massive energy in tiny bursts every 108 minutes? Only problem is, theyve made it seem like that was Electromagnetic Energy, not Radioactive energy from an H-bomb.

+ or what if The Orchid (and the donkey wheel) was built around the H-Bomb…it did melt a drill bit when they were working on The Orchid in the opening scene this season. That was in the late 1970s.

+ Is the girl in the coma (Theresa Spencer) suffering the same thing that killed the rat “sending the rat’s brain through time”

+ Back to the Swan for a second. When the button wasn’t pushed, the result wa enough Energy to take down Flight 815. But remember, it didn’t all come out. Before the energy did its full thing, Desmond turned the failsafe key. What did that Failsafe Key do, exactly?

+ Richard Alpert seemed surprise by the notion of time travel in 1954. What’s the implication there if he is “very very old”.

+ Assuming the island had a unique power before the H-Bomb showed up, did the leaky bomb enhance the island’s power and bring about time travel? or did digging to bury the bomb lead to a discovery that led to time travel?

+ Richard said to Locke in 5.01, “next time we meet, I wont recognize you”. How did he know that? Did he remember meeting Locke for the first time and not knowing who he was? (brain starting to hurt)

+ In season 2 Goodwin uses an US Army knife from the 50s to cut fruit with Ana Lucia. Now we know how he got the knife.

+ If Faraday’s mom is Charlotte’s constant, and if Ellie is Faraday’s mom, then we know that they have met before in time (see picture above)

+ When Claire said to Kate, “Don’t bring him back.” Was she talking about Aaron or Ben? When Hurley gave the message to Jack ‘Don’t raise him” was that in regards to Aaron or dead Locke?

+ Rumor has it that the library worker at Oxford was also a Flight Attendant in an earlier season…have to find more info on that.

+ If Miles walks over Nikki and Paolo’s grave, will they tell him about the Medusa Spider bites. And will that lead to the spider being used to comatose Locke? (assuming he’s not dead)

and finally…

+ Where is the smoke monster? I miss it.

So…those are my two cents on last night’s episode. If you watched last night, please add your two cents to the discussion as well, would love to hear some more speculation and reaction from the show…

Here’s a picture from May 2007 of my good friend Than (short for Nathanael…you can call him Nate if you like).

Than is happy in this picture because he’s holding his newborn son, Brady.

Here is a picture from one hour ago, taken by Nate as he was getting his wisdom teeth out.

Not sure if this was before or after the surgery, but it’s just too great not to post it. (I’ll apologize later.)

However bad this morning has started out for you…just remember it could be worse.

Seems like most people have had their wisdom teeth out. Me? I still have all 4, with no plans on getting any removed.

What about you? Still got them all in? or have you already had a morning like Than is having today?

What’s your story?

New LOST Tonight! Episode 5.03 titled “Jughead”. As we get prepared, I thought it would be good to throw out a few more questions regarding last week…

As I’ve read more about the Season 5 premiere this week, these are the random questions that have popped into my head. Some are original and some I’ve pulled from the web…

if you’ve got answers or theories (but no spoilers!), let us have em…

+ Is the island skipping in time like a broken record because it needs it’s constant? If so, is it’s constant the Oceanic 6? Just one of the O6?

+ does the island skip through time every 108 minutes?

+ Is there something more to the Foucalt Pendulum at Mrs. Hawkings’ place?

+ Why are they bringing Locke back? because the island needs him? because you need a dead body to return to the island? or because he will no longer be dead?

+ Was the 4-Toed statue we saw in Season 3 built for one of the Losties? Like maybe someone who recently stepped on something with bare feet and could possibly get an infection in a toe???

+ Faraday told Sawyer that the rules were that no one would answer the door of the Hatch when he knocked. Later on, Faraday is alone and gets Desmond to answer. Was this Farady changing the rules?

+ Speaking of changing the rules, remember what Ben said when Alex was killed last season? “He changed the rules.”

+ Can LOSTies traveling in time meet former versions of themself? I seem to remember a DHARMA video where two rabbits with the same number on them appeared in the same place. Dr. Marvin Candle freaked out about it. Maybe this can happen to the LOSTies too, though I kinda hope the show doesnt go that route.

Just 32 episodes of the series are left, we should get some more answers tonight! enjoy!

Seems like every few months I highlight Publishing Agent Rachelle Gardner’s blog here at my site. Like I’ve said before, it’s one of the best sources of information on the publishing industry that you’ll find online. She writes openly and honestly on a daily basis about the things writers want to know about.

The past few days she’s been discussing the concept of Elevator Pitches. She describes them as such:

Imagine you’re at a writer’s conference, waiting for the elevator up to your hotel room. The agent of your dreams walks up and stands beside you. He/she smiles and says “Hi.” You manage to return a coherent “Hello” in response. “Enjoying the conference?” the agent asks. “Yes, it’s great!” you respond.

The elevator doors open and you both step in. The agent presses 15. You press 17 (even though your room is on the 5th floor).

Agent looks you squarely in the eye and asks, “So what are you writing?” You now have 15 floors to make an impression.

? What will you say?

As for the purpose of your Elevator Pitch, here is her take:

“The purpose of your elevator pitch is to get someone to want to hear more. That’s IT.”

She asked her readers to submit their Elevator Pitches in the comments section, so I spent a few minutes working one up and sent it in. Over the past few days she has critiqued a handful of them and offered insight into how they could be improved.

This morning she chose 8 submissions as examples of Elevator Pitches that were almost there, saying “These have a chance of making an agent or editor want to know more.”

I scrolled through the 8 she chose, and was excited to see that my pitch for Prayers For Blowouts was among them! Very encouraging way to start off the morning. Here’s the Elevator Pitch I submitted to her. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s a start. If we’re ever in an elevator together, feel free to ask me “What are you writing?” (and then enjoy the spectacle of me stumbling through it).

Bryan Allain: “It’s called Prayers For Blowouts – The Christian’s Guide To The Frequent Collisions of Sports and Faith. It’s a humorous book that covers everything from a biblical history of sports to a Christian’s guide to playing Fantasy Football to the athletes who love to namedrop Jesus after a big win. There’s also some great stories from my life in sports that readers will relate to – from not making my little league team to where I am now as a sports parent for my two children. It’s a book that will hopefully leave readers entertained and encouraged that sports are more than just a trivial distraction to their spirituality.”

Are elevator pitches applicable to other occupations outside of writing? I think so. If  you were stuck in an elevator with a well-respected leader in the industry you work in, and he asked “what do you do?”, do you have an elevator pitch? I’d love to hear it…