I'm Making Like the Oceanic 6 and Going BACK!(Details on the Oahu Premiere Meet-Up)

Those of you who've been reading my posts since Season One might remember that in the early years of the show, I often found myself writing my episode recaps while on a flight -- or while camped out on the floor outside of a gate at O'Hare or LaGuardia (ah, soft pretzel/smoothie stand, you were so good to me...).

Yes, in my days of working for The Man, I traveled often. I'm very thankful for all of that time spent on the road, however, because it earned me enough frequent flyer miles to be able to make a quick trip out to Oahu for the LOST premiere this coming weekend. As you may know, "Sunset on the Beach" was held on the Waikiki waterfront for the Season One, Two and Three premieres, and it will be back again January 30, three days before the show returns on ABC. After my trip to the Island in October 2008, I honestly never thought I would return while the show was still on the air -- much less for such a cool event.

The main reason I decided to go is because -- as crazy as this may seem -- I prefer Hawaii's 80-degree, sunny weather to Chicago's 30-degree, crappy weather. No, honestly, I'm making the trek in order to finally meet fellow LOST bloggers and fans of the show who I feel like I've gotten to know online over the past few years.

That's why I was really excited when Jo of Get LOST with JOpinionated organized a meet-up for anyone who's flying in for the premiere. So... if you will also be in Oahu this weekend, please join us at Rumfire on Friday night from 8 - 10 PM. Or pass along the following information to anyone else you may know who plans to be in Honolulu:


From Jo's site:

"Please join me, along with special guest Erika ('e') from Long Live Locke, on Friday (1/29) from 8pm-10pm; I have reserved the Upper Ewa patio of RumFire at the Sheraton Waikiki. You're on your own for food and beverage, but they have created a special $5 LOST cocktail just for us!

Be among the first 100 people to arrive and participate in a trivia contest for a chance to win a commemorative LOST tote bag! And, of course, everyone who attends will receive a custom LOST Fan pin.

There is an official invite on Facebook, and you may also RSVP via email [jo at jopinionated dot com]. Feel free to pass this on to fellow LOST fans who will also be on the island for the big event.

For those of you who are unable to join us, you can follow the weekend festivities through our Twitter feeds (@jopinionated and @ErikaOlson). I will post details soon about how YOU can win one of the custom tote bags too!"


OK, now it's me again. Don't you love how I'm the "special guest"? Hee, hee. *I* love it. For anyone who's able to make it, I am 99% sure I'll be in a black and white Locke Lives shirt, so that's how you'll know which nerd is me.

Since my intention is to do nothing but max and relax in Oahu -- as in, I'm NOT planning to brave the crowd of 15,000+ people just to be able to snap a few blurry pictures of any of the cast on the red carpet -- I'm not sure whether I'll be posting about my experience here on Long Live Locke or not. And I certainly have no intention of mentioning anything about the premiere itself, so rest assured you'll read no spoilers from me. But, as Jo mentioned above, I will be sending out a few updates about the premiere activities via Twitter, and you don't have to have a Twitter account in order to read them. Just go to twitter.com/ErikaOlson and since my feed is public you'll be able to follow along.

That's it... now the question is, will the Island let me head back to Chicago come Sunday the 31st? (I hope not.)

- e

The T-Shirt Winners

Yet another incredible display of creativity from LOST fans with this contest! If you have a few minutes, definitely scroll through the 155 award categories submitted here. I guarantee you will be entertained. Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter.

And now, the twelve winners, who were picked at random.

***We had a few entries from different people who actually had the same username, so I'm including the submissions and (where applicable) blogger profile links for the winners just so there's no confusion:

NobleLawyer - Best Death Scene: Charlie

Arwengreenleaf - Most Easily Misled: John Locke

MonkeyFace - Most Episodes Performed without a Shirt: James "Sawyer" Ford

Kim-the-girl - Best Cry Scene: Juliet

Luis - Best Anti-Aging Make-up: Richard Alpert

Alexistran - Most Invisible: Jacob

Amber - Best Overreactor: Doc Arzt

Fiona - Aaand the award for Best T-Shirt worn throughout the whole series of LOST goes tooooo.... HURLEY! ...for the "I ♥ My Shih Tzu" Tee.

Brandon - Most Honorable (has never told a lie): Jin

Lisa - Most Wishy-Washy: Kate.

Kelly,UK - Least lucky in love: Sayid

Josh - Best Use Of "SONOFAB*TCH": Juliet :(
(This one was actually one of my favorite entries because you'd THINK the winner would be Sawyer, but I agree with Josh that Juliet put his infamous line to better use when banging on Jughead at the end of Season Five.)

There you have it!

WINNERS: I need you to contact me either through Facebook (if we're connected) or this blog. I must have your email address as well as your mailing address. I will not publish any comments with your personal information that you send in through the blog. I must get your information by Tuesday, January 26 -- otherwise your shirt's going with me to Hawaii to be given away at the premiere.

Thanks and congrats!

To everyone else, I intend to have two very short posts up between now and the premiere on February 2 that are not contest-related -- woo hoo!

- e

Win a LOCKE LIVES T-Shirt:The January Contest (Part 2)*CLOSED*

NOW CLOSED.

I'll admit it: I'm sick of running contests. And I'm sure many of you out there are sick of reading about them. So this will be the last one until the end of February, OK? I'm just trying to ensure that any overseas winners receive their goods before the premiere, and that's why I'm back with one more chance to win a LOCKE LIVES t-shirt now that the Twitter contest has wrapped up.

(As I said in my last post: While I personally believe that we'll see Real Locke alive and well again before the series ends, I chose the saying for this t-shirt more as a play off of my blog's title, and as an homage to the Frodo Lives! slogan from back in the day -- if you don't know what that's about, you should really click the link, it's pretty hilarious.)

Let's get to it. If you watched the Golden Globes Sunday night, then you were probably as bummed as I was that Michael Emerson (Ben) did not nab the Best Supporting Actor statuette. At least LOST composer Michael Giacchino was recognized for his most excellent work in Up, though, right? (Trying to look on the bright side.)

The Globes inspired me to hold a little awards ceremony of my own for this next contest. If you want the chance to don a LOCKE LIVES shirt, then make up an award category and tell me which character would be announced as the big winner. For example: "Loudest: Michael," or "Best Accent: Desmond," or "Most Secrets: Ben." Entries can be funny or serious -- I'll still be picking the winners at random, so all that matters is that you give it a shot. You must also enter in your size: Medium, Large and XL are all I have left. See the post below this one for information on sizes.

Here are the rules:
1) One entry per person.
2) Open to anyone in any country that I can mail to from the U.S.
3) I won't publish anything spoilery or vulgar.
4) Only comments entered into this blog will be considered -- no tweets, Facebook messages or emails.
5) Give me a made-up awards category and the character who would win.
5) If you don't enter in your size you will not be considered. Medium, Large or XL only. See the post below this one for information on sizes.


You have until Wednesday at 8:30 AM Central Time to enter.

Good luck!

- e