Grammar Police Officer

Three Trailers

Stay tuned for entries covering the interest in the Hilo Farmers' Market, the confusion and non-understanding I feel with super-patriotism, and my jolt of joy during my sister's phone conversation last night.

Kaleidoscope: Two-Minute Hate

Today's Kaleidoscope is in lieu of the Friday Five, which is about Halloween today. I just don't do Halloween--I don't really get the appeal. Anyway...ahem...

"List 6 people, or 6 groups of people, that really annoy you."

Today's Kaleidoscope is in lieu of the Friday Five, which is about Halloween today. I just don't do Halloween--I don't really get the appeal. Anyway...ahem...

"List 6 people, or 6 groups of people, that really annoy you."

1. Old Farts. People who have old mindsets. They don't have to be chronologically old, they just have to be convinced that old dogs can't learn new tricks, and neither can they...and that they are beyond all that "learning" silliness.
2. People who are pushy. I usually see them in the grocery or in WalTopia, when they think they are in a bigger hurry than the rest of us, and push in front of me. I also call them VIPs.
3. People who don't listen, who just pretend to care about you but don't hear what you are saying, and don't care about communicating for the purpose of becoming closer.
4. Sports-obsessed people. Now, I understand those of you that like to follow athletic events, and like to watch athletics on TV or listen to it on the radio, or who like to go there and actually see it. You are not the ones that annoy me. I am talking about the truly obsessed, you who have fantasy leagues and record some sporting event that took place in Australia last night, you who have entire outfits devoted to some sports team or athelete...you know who you are. It's time to get a little bit of balance! You are also not allowed to make fun of me when I bring a book when you drag me along to your sporting event.
5. Obnoxious manipulative "nice" people. Have any of you ever met that really sweet old lady who gets things done by getting you to do them, and she gets you to do things by asking you. How can you say no to her? She is such a nice old lady! So sweet! She takes care of us! She loves us so much! Grr. I just want to go up to them and say, "Lady, I know that you are a very capable woman, but you are not fooling me when you play your 'I am in need of somebody to come to the aid of this damsel in distress' bit. Just ask people for their help instead of guilting them into doing it because they feel sorry for you!" Grr.
6. Sarcastic people. You can never tell if they are being serious.

a funny harry potter story that includes nikki e.

How many of you Covenanteers remember Nikki E.? She lived on 5th North, she was an English major, she was one of the drama people. She was in my SIP class.

For you non-Covenanteers, the SIP is the Senior Integration Project.

How many of you Covenanteers remember Nikki E.? She lived on 5th North, she was an English major, she was one of the drama people. She was in my SIP class.

For you non-Covenanteers, the SIP is the Senior Integration Project. Basically just the bachelor's thesis. My SIP was about Harry Potter, and I spent so much time researching HP that I called him my other boyfriend. "Well, Bob, I have to go out with Harry, my other boyfriend." (Bob, I'll just bet you are reading this. Didn't I say that once or twice at least?)

Well, during my senior year, in December, I got really sick. I had a sore throat for a week solid, and all my other cold-stages just took forever to go away! It was bad. I had no energy, I was trying to finish my SIP, I was teaching (pre-student teaching), packing because I was moving at the end of the semester, and trying to get ready for finals and finish all my research papers. It was rough. Well, I was in my bed one afternoon, and trying to nap, but I knew I had to go to class or something soon, so I had the radio on, and in honor of the premiere of the first HP movie, they had an HP quiz question. The ninth caller would win 2 tickets to the Chattanooga movie theater that was showing HP! Well, I was the 9th caller, and the radio guy asked if I was a mom or something and I said, "No, I am a college student, and I am writing my senior thesis on Harry Potter!" I was really excited because I had just won!

I called Bob and my sister because I wanted him to hear me on the radio. He didn't get to hear it, but I told him all about it, and we laughed and he said, "You mean anyone can hear it? Everyone could hear it? Some random person like Nikki E. could hear it and know that you won?" I laughed and said, yes of course, I was on the radio!

The next day in SIP class, Nikki asked me what I was doing on the radio, because she heard me! The funny thing was, was that she never listens to the radio, but she happened to be in her car and was testing the speakers or something, and there I was, saying "Oh my gosh! I won! I am writing my senior thesis paper on Harry Potter!"

I laughed so hard over that. I still laugh over it.

thursday Thumb-Twiddler

1. Is it ever all right to seek revenge? What determines the rightness -- the nature of the offense, or the nature of the retribution? Immediate answer: "No, you can't take revenge, because God says 'vengeance is mine.'" I am a good Christian school kid, and I have been well indoctrinated. But sometimes God's vengeance seems waaay too slow. And then I want to take things into my own hands. So, in the [impossible] case that vengeance is ok, here is my opinion on the rightness or wrongness thereof. If the vengeance-taker is taking vengeance out of pleasure (like, "I want to see you cry when I tear your arms off!") then that's no good. Unless you are in a movie, then it makes a great plot point.

2. If you could go back in time and live through any five-year period of history, what (when, where) would it be? I'd have to have the mind and experience I have now, before I'd ever go back and try to do a even a year again. I'd relive my last year of high school and my 4 years of college. That year in high school was the only year I enjoyed, and I learned so much at college.

3. If you could write a sequel to any movie, what movie would it be? I just saw The Italian Job last night. I'd write a sequel to that...assuming that I would suddenly have spectacular writing skills...but I just realized that it was well-done and the writers closed off the story really well. Well, then, I'd do a sequel to Center Stage. I just love that movie. I love dance movies! I'd make it to where we get to see how all the original cast people are doing in their lives, now that they are no longer in the ABC. Wow. That would be great.

From here

A Quiz for Jeannette

Cb major - life is full of complecations,
commitments and organisation. You love to make
sure everything is just perfect, but sometimes
this can cause you to fall over your own feet.
A slightly unsociable key: why Cb major when
you could be the identical Bmajor? It has less
accidentals.


what key signature are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Another Quizzilla

Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks for the quiz, Jeep.

Tragedy

Verbingnouns has a post about how watching the news makes her desensitized to it. That led to this post.

I remember on September 11

Verbingnouns has a post about how watching the news makes her desensitized to it. That led to this post.

I remember on September 11 (the real one, the first one), my mom was telling me about the moment she first realized what was going on. She had the Early Show on and saw footage and thought they were hyping a new destruction movie by making a commercial look like a news report. It was only after a few seconds that she realized it was not a commercial for a new destruction movie but the real news.
When I was watching the live news reports that morning, it didn't seem real to me. It seemed like the movie Independence Day, when the buildings all across the United States and all around the world were laser-blasted, exploded, and all the people ran in the streets away from the awful fire.

Yesterday was parent-teacher conference day, and one of the 3-pre teachers (her students are 3-year-olds) was in the 'dungeon' (what we call the teachers' lounge/school library/administrator's office because it is a basement room) crying because she had lost 2 of her good friends. She began telling a sordid story involving restraining orders, kidnapping, murder, and suicide that I had heard on the local news just that morning. I knew all the facts of the story from Channel 9 News (One of the Good Things about Hawaii), but I just didn't care till Pam was telling the story.
Here's the story. The Mom was out, and the Little Girl, a 3-year-old, was with Grandma and Grandpa. The Mom had filed a restraining order against her Ex, the child's Dad, but he came by anyway, shot and killed Grandpa, shot and critically injured Grandma, and kidnapped the Little Girl. She saw the whole thing. The Ex/Dad of the child became filled with remorse and dropped the Little Girl off at someone else's house and went off to the jungle and killed himself.
To me this sounds like the plot of a cheap movie that will show on Lifetime: Television for Women right after Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? But it is real life.

Now I dislike the movie Independence Day. And I no longer care for cheap Lifetime: Television for Women movies.
I think I am inured to FakeViolence until it becomes real. So I can still watch war movies because we've never had wars on our own turf. And I can watch the Elizabeth Smart Story when it's on CBS.

A Few Shorts

• I love the verb defenestrate. It is so nice and specific. Some verbs, like 'go' and 'make' can have many meanings, depending on context. Make can mean anything from catching a spy to peeing to sculpting. But defenestrate...that is nice and tight, nothing more than one meaning.
• Here is Huck Finn. For free. ...One of my students is reading it, and I said it was a great book. And that it had been banned for a while. I then had to explain what a banned book was, and then I had to try to explain to a 10-year-old why it was banned...I told him that people back in the day didn't like how it showed a friendship beween a black slave and a while boy, and I think he understood. Kids understand skin-color and culture issues here, because there are soooo many colors here compared to the mainland.
• Do any of the Covenanteers remember all the Racial Reconciliation chapels we had? We must have had one a semester, at least. It was all about how Whites and Blacks need to acknowledge differences and get along. (It was deeper than that, but that is the summary.) ANYway, I remember Elissa M. writing to the Bagpipe and talking about all the other colors besides White and Black, and that we need to make room in our Reconciliation Discussion for those colors too. At the time I thought she made a good point but never realized what she really meant till I got here. There are so many colors of people here! Filipinos, Native Hawaiians, Chinese, Japanese, Haole (that's White), and many, many mixes of all the above. It's remarkable. I get what you mean now, Elissa, and I am glad I am here.
• Slippers are flip-flops. There are no flip-flops here. Pau means finished, like "I'm pau with the project." Package means bag...you put your groceries in a package when you leave. Haole (as I mentioned) means White.
• Three hours of great TV tonight!

Thumb-Twiddlin' Thursday

1. Kids get punished by having something they value taken from them temporarily. As an adult, what would you least want taken from you for a month as punishment? Interaction with other adults. I am a teacher and I love it (most of the time), but it's nice to go bowling or to Starbuck's or just have dinner with my peers.

2. Would you rather work around people who are more, or less, talented than you? That's a hard one. I dated a guy who is smarter than I am, and it was hard in some ways...I really started second-guessing my own ability to be constantly outthought and outshined like that. But when I am around people who are less talented than I, I get arrogant. I think I'd rather work with people more talented than I so that I could get better.

3. When you spend money, do you think about who is profiting from your expenditure? Usually. Most of the time. I spend money anyway.

From here.

How I Got to Hilo

I found out in April that my contract would not be renewed. This was not a surprise to me, because the school is having budget crunches. I was the one that was 'crunched.'

I found out in April that my contract would not be renewed. This was not a surprise to me, because the school is having budget crunches. I was the one that was 'crunched.'

So I started out sending resumes and applications to schools all around, but particularly in the South and in Pennsylvania. After the school year ended, I flew to Philadelphia to interview at The Christian Academy, a classical Christian school in the ghetto. I really enjoyed my time at the school and my day being a tourist in Philadelphia. (I saw the Liberty Bell and Independendence Hall and Ben Franklin's privy pit.) BUT that was a no-go; they hired the English teacher who could also teach science.

So then it was the end of June and I had no more leads. I got on the ACSI website and did a search for schools that were hiring English teachers, and decided that I would search every state...even Hawaii. I decided to call The School for fun, and sent them my application by email just to see what would happen. Well, after many phone calls, I was offered a 5th grade position and accepted it.

I am here for 2 years, at least. That's not really a long time, considering a person's life span. I have this year, 5th grade, which is different than I thought. It is much harder than I thought! It's also easier to get the kids to do what I want them to do! I can praise one child and everyone wants praise, so they all shape up. Next year...who knows? I miss teaching upper grades and the intellectual stimulation in that situation, but there are already people who want me to do this again next year. Who knows, really? I will not even think about it till February and contract time.

So once I decided to come here, I started looking for a plane ticket. Transpacific flights are expensive! But God provided me with a buddy pass that cost less than $150! That is sooooo cheap--but I had to fly standby. The Denver-Salt Lake City leg was easy and there was no waiting, but the Salt Lake City-Honolulu flight was tougher. I was #4 on the list, and there were 2 open seats. Still, I got on! It was a miracle. I was prepared to spent the night in the airport, but I made it. And God provided a seat on a Honolulu-Hilo flight too, and here I am.

Now I am here. I have an efficiency apartment that is just across the street from the school. There is a grocery catercorner from my apartment, and a YWCA just across the street from me. I can walk a lot of places, so I am doing more walking than I used to.

So I researched Hawaii for fun and I called this school because all the East Coast schools were closed, and lo and behold, here I am.

Mayra Yamaly

She is 7. She is Honduran (maybe the Dust Bowl Migrants can go visit her). She lives with her mom and dad. She plays a musical instrument, plays jacks, and plays with dolls. She is in primary school, and her performance is above average. She regularly attends Bible class and vacation Bible school.

She is cute as the dickens.

Compassion tells me that

She is 7. She is Honduran (maybe the Dust Bowl Migrants can go visit her). She lives with her mom and dad. She plays a musical instrument, plays jacks, and plays with dolls. She is in primary school, and her performance is above average. She regularly attends Bible class and vacation Bible school.

She is cute as the dickens.

Compassion tells me that my love and support witll help Mayra to receive the assistance she needs to develop her potential. I worked there one summer and really enjoyed it...and realized how many children they have in their huge databases...[did you know that the photos are not taken with digital cameras, and that each child's photo is taken with a card that shows his or her number? They crop the numbers out of the photos once they are scanned and saved]...but also that they are committed to helping underpriveleged children by sharing the wealth a little.

I delayed signing up for a while. "That's $28 a month!" But then I realized that it is $28 a month. That's less than $1 a day...and if I abstain from McDonald's each day, or if I don't buy just 2 CD's, or if I eat only fresh local fruit and veggies, there's the money. I do have the money, even though I am an underpaid teacher.

I complain about being underpaid and about my silly little apartment (room) and about not having the independence of a car, but then I think about Mayra and her (so I imagine) pathetic little house and how much a postcard or a bookmark or a letter will mean to her, and how much she will learn with the money I 'sacrifice' for her, I have to stop complaining.

Her picture is taped to the bottom of my computer monitor. I have paper and a nice color printer and a computer, and I look at her cute-as-a-button face every day and think about her. Does she limp? Is she a chatterbox? Does she like to run and play, or sit and play? Does she have a cute lisp? She is standing crooked...does she have scoliosis? Does she know Jesus? Does she love him? Does she have people around her that do know Jesus? Do her mom and dad know Jesus? Will I really have an impact on her? Who will be impacted more, Mayra or me?

I have only been a sponsor for a few days, and already she has changed me.

Cover Me

Thanks, Bebo.

Cover me, cover up my tears
Cover up this man who's covered up in fear
I need a peace of mind, I need a piece of You
To cover all that's gone with everything that's new

You unveil me with Your mercy
I want to breathe You in
You unfold me, then You hold me

So cover up my heart and cover up my soul
And cover up this world and everything I know
And cover up the sky and cover up the sea
And cover up the mountains and every part of me
and every single breath I breathe cover me

I am still alive, but I'm covered up in years
Covered up in lines as innocence appears
To give me a peace of mind, give me a piece of You
To cover all that's old with everything that's new

You unveil me with Your mercy
I want to breathe You in
You unfold me, then You hold me

You unveil me with Your mercy
I want to breathe You in
You unfold me then You hold me
I want to shed this skin
You unveil me with Your mercy
You unfold me then You hold me
You unbreak me, would You take me home

From here

Friday Five

Even though I am taking the week off bloggin', I need to do the Friday Five.

1. Name five things in your refrigerator. Passion-Orange-Guava Juice, Milk, Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chips, Baking Soda

2. Name five things in your freezer. Flour, Cornstarch, Can of Bacon Drippings, Edy's Whole Fruit Lime Bars, Frozen Lunchies

3. Name five things under your kitchen sink. Formula 409, Roach Bait, Clean Sponges, Paper Towels, Laundry Soap

4. Name five things around your computer. Film to Develop, Pencil Cup, Lotion, Drinking Glass (empty), Picture of my Compassion Child (Mayra from Honduras)

5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet. I have nothing in my medicine cabinet, because I've seen roach droppings in there one too many times.

From Friday Five

A Breather

I am following verbingnouns's example and taking time off blogging.

Tuesday Five

October 18, 2002 Last year's questions being answered now.

1. How many TVs do you have in your home? One, a little black and white with the dial that turns around. Baby boomers, you know what I am talking about.

2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week? I watch a lot: probably 21 hours a week. I live alone and use it for company and to have something to get me awake in the morning and to keep me company in the evenings--but I am careful to prioritize real people and fake people correctly.

3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children? Yes. I heard a friend explain to me once that the flicker rate of TVs is 60 times a second, and when kids watch TV, they see the flicker, not the pace of the scenes. So Tellytubbies, which is paced for toddler minds, is still bad for them, because their brains go too fast, trying to keep up with the superfast flicker rate. Consequently: more hyperactive kids. Plus kids need to learn to entertain themselves: go play with the sticks in the backyard! Go play in the tree fort! Go play with the dollies! Go unload my cabinet and play drums with my pots and pans! Go get into that fridge box and play fort! Go read a book! Get out there! None of this "I want to get to level 446 on the newest Disney Video Game that's really just a marketing scheme!"
SO when I have kids, under-6 kids will watch no TV (or video games or computer monitors) and kids 6-10 may watch 30 minutes a day, and 10+ kids may watch 60 minutes a day. They can store their minutes up (like we store up our sick days in the grownup world), but the limits are clearly set.

4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you're heartbroken? Survivor, Alias, and CSI:. In that order.

5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like? We would have a morning show that combines news, music performances, weather, and trivia/learning stuff, but with no silly co-anchor chit-chat (silliness is to be reserved for Letterman that evening). Bob Barker, of course, would be on, as well as Martha Stewart Living (she is really funny; once she had a spot where she was teaching us how to make mixed drinks, and got schlippier and schlippier as the show went on--and have you seen her with her mom on the show? She's really rude!). We would have nothing on during the day but syndicated Seinfeld, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and Dharma and Greg, and in the evening a news show that is more news than commercials, Jeopardy!, and some funny and/or learning shows in the evening, followed by the best late night show: The Late Show with David Letterman.

Friday Five

...posted on Saturday. Oh well. AND they are last week's questions.

1. What vehicle do you drive? When I am on the mainland, I drive a '93 teal-green Ford Escort station wagon.

2. How long have you had it? I learned to drive in it. I've gone on several road trips in it: once on a loop to Pennsylvania, south to Covenant, and back west to Colorado. Many times from Colorado to Covenant, once from Covenant to Pennsylvania and back, once from Covenant to Florida and back, and several times from Covenant to Columbia, Tennessee.

3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle? Nothing really exotic. Nothing cool at all, actually. It's kind of an economic car (read: low budget), but I love it because I have spent to much time in it and know it pretty dang well. For example, I don't need to look at the air conditioning/heating area to adjust things how I want them; I don't need to look at the radio buttons to set it how I want, and I can open the hood when even the oil change guys can't find the latch.

4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle? Both the handles on the driver's door and the passenger door are broken, so to get out you have to roll down the window and open from the outside.

5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now? A Mazda of some sort (the zoom-zoom commercials got me addicted) and a KIA (it comes with my monogram).

Aunty or Mrs.?

Sossity subbed for second grade last week. Her nephew was in the class. Now, instead of calling her Aunty Sossity, he calls her Mrs. R. I think that is pretty funny.

Becoming Kama'aina

...which means 'local,' by the way.

This morning talking with Alicia and Sossity (her aide) we were making plans about how I am getting to Kona tomorrow for the StarTeacher Luau. I said Sossity could pick me up at the bayfront because "I have to go Farmer's Market anyway."

(I left out the preposition which is one major thing I have noticed locals do.)

Hooray.

Chapel

I have been going to chapel my whole life. I went to the same Christian school from pre-school to 12th grade, and then I went to a Christian college. I admit, it was a bit annoying to have chapel after chapel, but I have really learned a lot from all those chapels.

I have been going to chapel my whole life. I went to the same Christian school from pre-school to 12th grade, and then I went to a Christian college. I admit, it was a bit annoying to have chapel after chapel, but I have really learned a lot from all those chapels.

(Here is some quick math...I went to about 430 chapels before I went to college, and then to about 600 chapels in college. Yikes. [That's assuming I went to one chapel a week before college, with 36 weeks in the school year. And assuming I went to each chapel in college, one a day each day of the semester...assuming there are 75 days in the semester. Whew. AND I always had extra skips each semester...except one, when I miscounted and skipped one extra chapel than I thought I did, and consequently was on chapel probation the next semester. I thought it was absurd, because each semester before that I had at least 5 extra skips that I didn't use. WHY couldn't they just take a previously unused chapel skip and apply that the the EVIL semster? I don't get it.] That's over 1000 chapels. Not including the ones I have attended as a faculty member.)

After that long tangent, now I am a teacher ("On the dark side" as one of my students said last year) and chapel is a different experience when my colleagues or I plan and run it then when I sat through it as a partaker. Yesterday, Alicia ran chapel, and she did a wonderful job. First she led singing with her ukulele and we sang Trust and Obey, Did You Ever Talk to God Above?, and "The Steadfast Love of the Lord Never Ceases," and they trippy part for me was that we sang T&O; and DYETtGA from the very same poster-lyric-book things that I had sung from in my elementray chapel days. WELL, I was the holder-of-the-lyric-placard, and it was so good for my soul to hear all the children's voices as they sang the songs. It is a unique experience, a reminder of the kind of faith we each need now.

There is nothing wrong with debating doctrine and philosophical questions until we all go mad like the hatter, but I think that at places where Great Hall discussions regularly include the benefits and problems with the regulative principle, it's easy to worry about Platonism and Neo-Platonism and angels who dance on heads of pins and about the appropriateness of uncovered women's heads in worship and lose sight of nourishing our faith, which really just needs to be as simple and robust as that of a child's.

Dinner Plans

I am going to L&L; Diner for yummy Chinese tonight. My favorite is chicken fried rice, but there is none of that here, so I shall be having noodles (chow mein) and chicken katsu.

Marie will be coming along. I assume Susan and Danielle will also. And Doug.

LWW

A quiz via Jeep.

The first book written, you're perhaps the most well-known of the Chronicles. From Mr. Tumnus to Turkish Delight, statue people to Aslan's resurrection, there's nothing not to like here.


Find out which Chronicles of Narnia book you are.

Ironic because we are reading that very same book in my class. I love to gear down with the kids at the end of the day, instead of just rushing them out. I heard my neighbor teacher, Alicia, playing her ukulele and leading her class in a happy praise song. It is so good to lead my students and to love them and discipline them and play with them and see them growing. sigh

A Funny Story

On Monday, the kids were trying to guess my middle name, because I was wearing the bracelet my sister and brother-in-law gave me for graduation (it has my initials). They know the first letter of my middle name is A, and the clue I gave them (they begged) was that the second letter is neither Q nor Z. (That was a good clue, I know.) ANYWAY, one of the kids (K-L) yelled out "Alexis," to which Z replied, "A Lexus is a car, stupid."

I laughed. I still laugh. It wouldn't be funny in the Great Hall, but it is funny for a teacher of 10-year-olds. Haha.

Countdown

75 days!

Burned

I got a bad grease burn yesterday morning while I was cooking bacon. It really hurt! My friend Alicia was at my place, and she called her roommate Pua who is a manager at McDonald's, and the cure was to hold cold tomato slices on the burn for 30 minutes. I did, and now my skin hardly hurts. It's just a little red and dry-looking, like it's chapped.

So I held the tomato on my skin, switching them out as often as I needed to make sure it was cold against my skin, and it really helped with the healing. I mean really helped!

Use tomato next time you get a grease burn.

Episode 2

Read the synopsis of Succession if you did not see last night's episode of Alias.

So here is my take on the last 2 episodes of "Alias," my observations and predictions and questions.

Will the relationship between Sydney and

Sark grow? Syd seems to hate him but he seems to have true respect for her. He was surprised she was alive...I think he was truly surprised, and not just faking it. And how can Sark be a Romanov? And where would he get all that money? Didn't the Bolsheviks pretty much clean out the Romanovs?

I think Sloane has something to do with the 2-year hiatus, but I also think he excluded Sark from his machinations with Sydney's missing time. I cannot believe that Sloane is reformed. He has to have something up his sleeve.

It's too bad that they cremated Sydney and scattered her ashes...they could have studied the dead body and seen whose body it really was. And how she died. Here's a question: How could the CIA think it was Sydney's corpse when it really wasn't? Don't they have the technology to keep from making a mistake like that?

In that DNA lab that Sydney busted last year, there were records of 2 people having been cloned; one became Evil Francie and the other is a mystery. I had thought earlier that Clone #2 was the clone of the CIA agent that Syd extracted when she busted the DNA lab, but it seems like Clone #2 is a mystery. Could there be a clone of Sydney out there and THAT is the person Jack has in his little video? OR what if Clone #2 is Sloane, and Real Sloane is out there wreaking havoc while Clone Sloane (haha that rhymes!) is in Zurich running the relief organization.

What is the deal with Jack and Irina? Are they in love again? Why do they miss one another? Is Jack a double agent? Was Irina really in league with Sloane, or is she triple-crossing? If Sloane gave the CIA so much valuable intelligence, then why don't they have Irina in custody? Is the CIA under the control of Sloane or the Covenant? Is Sloane in the Covenant?

Will Sydney run into Will Tippen? I think there is no way that they could just write him out of the show like that...did they? I liked Will, and I think he will end up back in the show, and that he and Eric Weiss (the hefty CIA guy and Syndey's new neighbor) will vie for Syndey's attentions.