Cocktail Confessions

The Survivor Nicaragua cast has finally been revealed.  Supposedly it’s the ‘young’ versus the ‘old’. meaning that one tribe will consist of players over 40 while the other tribe consist of players under 30 years of age.  I’m not sure I like this seasons gimmick as I did the “heroes vs. villains” angle they did last time.  It just seems inherently unfair from the get-go, and while you could argue that there are some whiny and weak players in the past there were younger, I think Survivor history has shown that the older players (with very few exceptions) last very long.

I still not so secretly wish that they would ditch the tropical settings they’ve done for so many seasons and go with some new surroundings.  I’d personally like to see something in the mountains and higher altitudes such as the Rocky Mountains or something like Yosemite, or maybe even a colder place like the Alaskan tundra or way up in northern Canada where contestants may have to deal with the cold and maybe even snow and grassy plains than the typical tropical beaches and rain.

Onto Big Brother, episodes 13 & 14:

During the eviction ceremony we learn that Kristen in fact has a boyfriend back home.  *Gasp*  The boyfriend is shown watching BB at home, and he’s not to happy that Kristen and Hayden are making out.  He comments that if she comes home, their relationship is most likely over.

Kristen is infact voted out.  Julie Chen then questions Kristen about her boyfriend back home, and Kristen just says “I may need time for myself” and won’t go into any further details.

The new HoH competition finds Kathy being out first thus becoming the only ‘have not’ of the week.  Brendon falls out early on to a disappointed Rachel.  Britney ends up throwing the competition herself as she feels that she is safe enough and doesn’t want to be in a position where she has to decide people’s fate.  Sounds a little chicken-shit to me, but I kinda understand her thinking on this.  She’s pretty confident that everyone else is gunning for Rachel and Brandon, and she’s pretty much correct by most accounts.  Anyway, it ends up coming down to Matt and Ragan and Ragan finally slips up and Matt is the new HoH (2nd time).

The last two episodes sees Kathy trying to melt back under the radar, and while still considered a ‘floater’ by some, she’s managed to stay low and out of trouble thus far.

Ragan

The Brigade is ecstatic that Matt has won and they are all pretty sure it is time to get rid of Brendon or Rachel.  Rachel senses this and really tries to pitch an alliance of some type, any type, to save her and Brendon.  However, when she approaches Matt (while he and Ragan are talking) she of course makes some dumb-ass comment that sets Ragan off.  Ragan is a little perturbed by these series of events and before you know it, he and Rachel are now arguing as Matt just sits back and watches it unfold.  Soon enough, the rest of the houseguests are made aware of the current argument.  Brandon then walks in out of left field, not knowing how it all started, and opens his big mouth to Ragan trying to defend Rachel, but really only succeeds in making him looking very stupid.  This isn’t lost on anyone and I think Brendon figures this out a bit too late; the damage is done, and he’s trying to save face but just can’t recover at this point.

Meanwhile Pandora’s Box is once again let loose on the house and Matt decides to open it, taking the newly revealed ‘diamond veto’ for himself, and thus also introducing a new saboteur into the mix.  America has chosen to elect Ragan as the new saboteur and he must last 2 weeks.  If he does, he collects $20K.  He does a fantastic job of not arising suspicion when the other house guests learn there is a new saboteur.  The houseguests also learn that former contestants and showmancer’s Jordan and Jeff will be dropping by for a visit.

BB12 Kristen

Yeah, I know…it’s been a while since I made any Big Brother updates, but I have some spare time today and I think I have enough to make some observations and comments on the continuing shenanigans going on in the house.

In the last 2 weeks both Andrew and Monet were evicted.  Personally no big loss to me that Monet was let go, as she was just annoyingly two-faced and had selective memory of some of her antics.  Monet’s eviction was a personal blow to Britney, as the two of theme were the two cackling hens and gossiping bitties in the house, with much of their ire directed towards Rachel.  However, they never said it to Rachel’s face and were thus reduced to gossiping and mocking Rachel behind closed doors.

Britney has bounced back somewhat and is fully admitting to playing the part of being interested in whatever Rachel has to say now to the point of being vomit inducing-ly sweet to Rachel. 

Speaking of Britney, it’s still my belief that Kathy and Britney are mother and daughter, but so far, if it is indeed fact, Big Brother himself is doing a great job of not leading us on to this point.

Ragan is doing a brilliant job of flying under the radar.  He has a good one-liner per episode, but he’s allowing everyone else to play the game without him and so far, it’s a strategy that seems to be working for him against all conventional wisdom.

On the other hand, last week, Andrew was used as a pawn by Matt (third weeks HoH) in order to try and possibly backdoor either Rachel or Brendon.  I didn’t understand his logic then and neither did his fellow Brigade members, and it ultimately backfired.  When Brendon won the Veto competition against all odds and to the Brigade’s dismay, Andrew began to lose it.  Kathy, the other nominee for eviction last week, laid low and kept to herself allowing Andrew to self-destruct.  So, in a blaze of glory, Andrew made a very dramatic last ditch speech which more or less sealed his fate, (although he pretty much figured he was out anyway).  In his speech, he called out Hayden and Kristen’s ‘hidden’ showmance and alliance in which both vehemently denied (BTW: they are in a showmance), and was subsequently voted out.

Next up in episode 10, after Andrew is booted out we have the next HoH competition.  Much to the chagrin to the Brigade and defying the odds, Rachel becomes the HoH for the 2^ndtime in 4 weeks.  The competition seemed very personal between Kristen and Rachel, and when Rachel pulled out the win, it got heated quickly.  Thanks to Rachel’s barbing, she and Kristen had a very vocal debate in front of everyone else.  Within the span of just a few minutes, Kristen went from being a non-threat to public enemy number one in Rachel’s eyes.  Rachel also called Hayden and Kristen on their showmance, which they still denied, but the rest of the house guests aren’t really buying it. 

Behind closed doors, the remaining members of The Brigade (Enzo, Matt, & Lane) tell Hayden he needs to buck up and if it comes down to an either/or situation, that Hayden needs to boot Kristen, feelings or not.

When the HoH room is revealed for the week, everyone attends (begrudgingly and putting on fake interest and congratulatory statements) except Kristen.  This is noted by Rachel.

Hayden tries to do some damage control with Rachel, but Rachel doesn’t buy it.  Hayden then tries to tell Kristen that she should also try some damage control.  Earlier, Rachel tried to extend an olive branch to Kristen, but Kristen rejected Rachel’s attempts at an apology.  Of course this irks Rachel even moreso and is more determined than ever to evict Kristen.  When Kristen ‘finally’ comes around in her attempt of damage control, Rachel is only listening for show, but her mind is made up, Kristen has got to go.

Brendon is starting to get very nervous about the way Rachel is going through the house on her cocky power trip and is hinting to her that she needs to back down a bit, lest they become a target once again after this week is done.

Kathy has insecure fears that she is going to be put up again this week due to her friendly associations with Kristen, but in the end, during the nomination ceremony, its Hayden and Kristen that are now nominated for eviction.

If you’re a Star Wars nerd like me, you’ll get that reference.

Anyway, apologies for the lack of posts lately.  I actually have a review of El Cid of Los Angeles already written along with pictures and video clips, it’s just a matter of me uploading everything and doing some final edits.

In brief, here are a couple things in the meantime:

1. Work has been extremely slow as of late.  I’ve actually been watching paint dry and counting air molecules to pass the time.
2. Been enjoying new Bud Select 55, the low calorie beer, although I can’t seem to get a buzz from it.
3. Watching a lot of Netflix lately.  Love the streaming feature.  Watching Sparticus (Season 1) and Weeds (Season 3).  Tried watching Jack Black’s and Michale Cera’s “Year One”, but it is soooo bad.  Also started watching the first season of True Blood.
4. Gonna try and smoke a brisket this weekend with my new smoker.  Never did one before, but we all gotta start somewhere, so I’m thinking I may buy a brisket after work today and cook/smoke it for saturday.  I may buy a 6lb brisket from El Toro Meats to start with.  It’s $6.99 a pound, so a 5lb brisket is upwards of $35!
5. I know I’m lacking in the Big Brother updates.  I’m about 4 episodes behind as of this writing.  I’ve watched them all so far, so I need to do a brief synopsis later in a combined entry (maybe later today if I’m bored).

Check out this really cool ‘steampunk’ USB drive (pictured left).  It’s 8GB in size and it’s creator says the design was inspired by an old country sign….Er…okay…I don’t see it, but I love the end result anyway.  I just love this Jules Verne looking stuff.  It’s so much more interesting than all the other streamlined tech out there these days.  It’s a piece of art in my book.

The creator gives it an esitimated worth of $300, which for an original piece of alternate Americana technology, it’s tempting (if I had the extra money). *Image courtesy of ChipChick.

Lastly, although I’m really enjoying my new Kodak Playsport, it seems Panasonic just announced their own shoot-and-share handheld HD flash camcorder.  The TA1 currently has a pre-order (release date is tentatively Aug 17) price listing of $169, which is in line with all the others in this category, but has few things really stand out for me: 1) It’s Panasonic, and they make great stuff.  I think their plasma televisons, DVD players, and old school VCR’s are top notch, especially for their price, so I doubt you be assured the hardware is strong.  2) The stand alone camera is 8MP whereas all the otehrs in this category are 5MP.  3) It’s Skype enabled (how sweet is that?)  4)  And finally, someone has added a front facing LED ‘light’ used to help illuminate recording in low light conditions (double sweet!!).  Hopefully this additional features will prove to be worthy enough to be included in future incarnation by the other developers for the next generation of these hand held devices.  If so, I can see myself upgrading in about a year from now.

Quick hits:

Okay, I know it seems like a heavy BB week and not enough BBQ’ing, cocktails, stories, and other stuff here on the blog, but this weekend appears as if it is going to be very hot and long (we’re expecting temperatures to be at least 100 if not more). I’m hoping to build my new smoker, work on a model, and do some video and/or podcast editing and have some beers with the neighbor for his 46th birthday.

Anyway, on to Big Brother:

We open the show with the obligatory recap which I tend to hate as they always seem to go on much longer than they should. I know why CBS does this, but it feels like they often do a double recap, once just before the opening credits, and then another brief one just afterwards.

Once the Veto ceremony ends, Annie, the replacement nominee for Brandon produces a little drama by voicing her anger and frustration on being the newest nominee. She snaps at a few fellow housemates, even Brendon, which seems to hurt his feelings. So much so in fact he appears to be on the verge of tears and this greatly troubles his showmance partner Rachel. In a moment in one of the rooms, while discussing matters, Rachel is visibly taken aback at Brendon’s display of feelings for Annie being nominated. She thinks that Brendon should be more concerned about her than Annie. Brendon on the other hand thinks Rachel is insensitive to his feelings and thinks she is making this all out to be about her.

Annie, with very little time until eviction tries a few different times to make a very compelling argument as to why she should stay and Rachel should be voted out. She actually convinced me and the way she lays it out makes a lot of sense. It appears that Annie does indeed plant the seeds of doubt in the other housemate’s heads so we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out. It appears that Andrew and Kathy are actually thinking that it would be wiser to get rid of Rachel due to her obvious alliance with Brendon.

Meanwhile, us, the viewing audience, are informed that Annie is indeed the saboteur. She was among my short list as I initially thought it was a girl, but I kept bouncing back between a few other candidates as well. I’m still a bit skeeved that it was revealed this earlier, but since Annie is up for elimination I suppose CBS felt it’s hand forced. In the end it seems to be that this whole ‘saboteur’ angle backfired for CBS (no surprise there as it seems other things they’ve tried in past seasons have gotten revealed way before they intended for them to be). They made such a big deal out of it early on, and in one weeks time the person was up for elimination. I’m sure they wanted to get some additional mileage out of it, but…oh well. The pranks were kind of stupid in my opinion as well and really did not do much to shake the house to it’s core.

Once again Ragan, Kristen, Kathy, and Monet fly under the radar for the whole episode.

The live eviction took place and Annie made one heck of a last ditch argument, really throwing Brendon under the bus for his failures in disclosing everything about him, his alliances, etc. While looking somewhat desperate, it made a whole hell of a lot of sense, and had me convinced that Rachel should in fact go. But in a surprise even to me, the houseguests unanimously voted Annie out (not sure that was the smartest thing). There was no love lost on Britney’s farewell message to Annie, and Ragan admitted he might believe that Annie was in fact the saboteur and that’s why he voted for her. Hayden also flat out said that his vote was because Annie caused drama and was a bit too negative.

Annie leaves the house and speaks with Julie Chen. Says she proud of how she played, but thinks she played too hard and too good and that’s why she’s out. I beg to differ. Rachel’s farewell message was also dramatic accusing Annie of trying to woo Brendon. Annie also says that Brendon hit on her first and when she rejected him, made his way over to Rachel calling her ‘sloppy seconds’…Oh, snap!

HoH competition is next and to “The Brigade’s” chagrin, Rachel eeks out a victory in the end and is the new HoH. She is ecstatic and is seen hugging Brendon. The Brigade is probably shitting Twinkie’s at this point.

Finally, the show has picked up a little more steam this episode, but it really had to by the sheer fact that a veto competition was at stake.

It’s still a little hard for me to craft a concise episode recap, so until the pack thins out a bit, I’ll just give a brief synopsis on what stood out for me.

It seems Brendon and Rachel are taking their showmance to the next level by some heavy flirting which leads to a make out session under a blanket, on the hammock in the backyard.  The other houseguests watch the spectacle from the kitchen as if they were all in High School.  Brendon asks if they can go out on a date after the show and she says yes.  Hayden points out in the diary room that this paints even a bigger target on their backs as it proves they are in an alliance.

Speaking of alliances, Britney hints that Allie is spending a bit too much time with Brendon and Rachel and thus plants the seed to ‘The Brigade’ that Allie must also be in an alliance with Brendon and Rachel.  When Allie eventually finds out that Allie is dropping this ‘hint’, whatever semblance of a friendship they did have is now out the window and both Allie and Britney are now rivals.

Kristen, Ragan, Monet, Kathy basically have zero screen time this episode and are largely forgettable for the most part.

Saboteur comes in at one point and proclaims that two of the houseguests are life-long friends.  Of course this starts another round of wild speculation with everyone looking at everyone else and drawing to draw connections.  The only plausible one that I might be able to agree with is that *perhaps* Kathy and Britney may actually be mother and daughter!  There are a couple of times when the camera pans to them sitting on the couch, so I paused the DVR and my wife and I began to study their faces intently for a resemblance.  All I can say is this is very ‘plausible’.  They are both from the south (AR), blonde, have similar features, and I believe Kathy said she had a child when she was 18.  Well, Britney is 22 now and Kathy is 40.  The math works.

Andrew makes for a very odd moment after the saboteur clip plays, boldly proclaiming he can’t be the ‘saboteur’ due to the fact no one knows about his belief in Judaism.  He also makes yet another comment about kosher food in the house.  Andrew to me is a wild card at this stage in the game, not making any alliances with anyone, seems a bit on the outside, but does these strange things that bring him into the spotlight for few minutes or two when there really isn’t a need too based on his explanation of his strategy.

Meanwhile, ‘The Brigade’ runs through various scenarios on possible outcomes of the Veto competition.  They all want to see Brendon leave, but can’t seem to agree who is the best replacement nominee if either Rachel or Brendon win and take themselves off.  The names of Kathy and Allie bounced back and forth, but leans towards Allie as they think she may be in an alliance with the two nominees.

The Veto competition takes place, and ‘The Brigades’ worst case scenario comes true: Brendon wins by a landslide and takes himself off the block.  Hayden then places Allie up as the replacement, which she expects.  Allie vows to fight (they all do) to stay and blames Britney for her situation.  Brendon also vows to go after Hayden now.  Rachel feels a bit safer, but not by much. 

Finally, host Julie Chen announces that the saboteur will be revealed to the viewers next week.  Still a bummer to me as I like trying to guess this out, but it appears that he/she survived week 1 as eviction takes place tonight.

I watched the second episode as it aired on the west coast and here are my thoughts, as jumbled and unreliable as a Lindsey Lohan court appearance are:

Speculation on this years twist, the saboteur, was on the tip of all the houseguest’s tongues.  The saboteur, (whose sole job is to screw with the rest of the players in a covert fashion) only has to survive through week five.  If that person makes it through by not getting voted out wins themselves a cool $10k.  Wild theories began to fly from various players, and while some ‘plausible’ points were brought up, not many of them are standing out as holding a lot of water.  Although the viewers have only seen two events up to this point, (and they were pretty tame) there really isn’t much to go on.  I can say this, whoever the saboteur is, either CBS is doing a fine job of editing thus far, or that person really is a good actor.

Some of the players are seen speculating in a room powwow that it is one of the girls, where as a few of the guys who started their own alliance called ‘The Brigade’ are eyeing Andrew, the tall, athletic swim coach who strangely decided to brush his teeth in the dark during the first event.

Personally, I don’t have enough information to form my opinion based in any fact, but it is fun to speculate.  I hope that CBS doesn’t reveal the saboteur prematurely because it is fun to try and guess this out as well as reading all the other BB forums and tweets doing the same.

So in my own un-scientific way, here are my top picks for the saboteur, (thus far) and why:  A) Annie – just seems a bit mousy and ‘too’ innocent right now as if she is purposely trying to fly under the radar and suspiciously quiet when all the others are taking about it.  B) Ragan – basically the same reasons as Annie.  C) Matt – this real life Mensa member is smart and seems a bit eager to point out other theories and seems to deflect speculation naturally, before people even begin to look at him.  D) Kathy – for a cop, I can’t help but wonder if she’s throwing challenges.  She just seems weaker than she should be and her reaction to things seems a tad ‘off’. E) Brendon – What the hell was he doing lying on the floor near the door, behind the couch when the lights went off?

But like I said, right now my guess is as good as anyone else’s.

Now onto the guests themselves and other events:

• Andrew – I don’t have much to say about him yet, but his ‘kosher’ kick is already beginning to wear on me and we’re only on episode two.
• Annie – The bisexual who proclaims to have a girlfriend to Ragan, and then cries about it.  Why are you crying and why do we care?  She seems so quiet right now that I expect her to have a ‘dramatic event’ later on if she makes it that far.
• Brendon – Talks science to Rachel, and perhaps the first signs of a budding showmance and alliance with her early on.  The ‘Brigade’ alliance (more on this later) sit up and take notice, especially Hayden.  Hayden thinks it’s a good idea to squash this possible alliance between Brendon and Rachel before it really even starts.
• Britney – cute as a button, and seems like she could also have a ‘dramatic event’ somewhere down the line.  She’s already having an issue with Kathy and biting her tongue early on.  I think that’s a good strategy…not to ‘wig out’ early on, but the seeds of discomfort are starting to stew and I can see her blowing up at Kathy later on.  Her face was ‘X-ed’ out on the video wall along with Kathy by the saboteur as a possible suggestion on who the first two nominees for eviction should be and she was a bit confounded by this.
• Enzo – Sorry, but as an Italian myself, Enzo is the type of meat head that gives our stereotypes a place on Jersey Shore.  He thinks he’s running the show so far, but its way to premature for him to be thinking that.  Came up with the ‘Brigade’ alliance (Hayden, Enzo, Lane, Matt) and came us with STUPID nick-names for each of them. 
• Hayden – Won the first HoH and put up Brendon and Rachel as his first nominees.  Appears to be slightly smarter than he looks, and according to Twitter land, he’s the dreamboat for most of the women viewers out there.  Really?  The guy with a mop on his head?  The guy who seemingly has an IQ of a tree branch?  That’s what women are going for these days?  Ugh…we have no hope as a society.
• Kathy – The 40yo cop who I’d be pretty embarrassed to have on my force.  Would be criminals….go to her area and go on your crime spree as you’ll have virtually no chance of getting caught if she’s in pursuit.  Shockingly un-athletic for her size, and seems like a world class whiner thus far.  Absolutely wortheless in the Have/Have-not challenge.
• Kristen – Nothing to note this episode.  Totally under the radar right now.
• Lane – Big guy, athletic, part of the Brigade by default.  Seems like a follower and not a leader. 
• Matt – Mensa member and while appearing to fly under the radar, I think is secretly slightly manipulative towards others to deflect perceptions.
• Monet – Diva.  Under the radar in this episode like Kristen.  Only shining moment was her strategy in the carmel Have/Have-not challenge.
• Rachel – Flirting with Brendon, and when learns of her nomination for eviction vows to get both herself off and also to save Brendon in the process.
• Ragan – As predicted, already throwing out the homosexual innuendos as if no one notices he’s gay already.  I find this really weird that no ones seems to care he is gay in the house, yet he makes it a point to remind them he is, as if they could forget or are too stupid to notice.  Closet narcissist.

 So, not much really happened here again, at least not too noteworthy.  We see the formation of Enzo’s Brigade, a budding showmance, Annie crying to Ragan about her ‘secret’, the stinky (and bug laden) Have-not room, and wild saboteur theories.

Big Brother 12

So Big Brother season 12 started last night on CBS.  I don’t know why I always get so giddy about this show.  The idea of being the proverbial fly on the wall and watching silently 12 other people living in a sequestered house from the outside world for the next few months fascinates me.

Of course, there are always different personalities, but you can usually always count on one over-dramatic female, one stereo-typical gay person, one meat-head, one brainiac, and one social outcast.  The formula in how they pick cast members always seems straight forward, and as the saying goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”, and in this, CBS pretty much did the same as they had done in the past. 

However, there are a few differences to note this time around: 1) There really aren’t any contestants over the age of 40.  In the past, you could usually count on one or two middle aged or older players, but this season they are all in their 20’s and 30’s.  The oldest one is the 40 year old female cop.  2) As someone pointed out on a Twitter feed I was reading, this is probably the “whitest cast” yet.  I didn’t really notice that myself until I read that, and I have to agree.  The cast is indeed predominately “white-bread”, with one gal that seems to be half black (if that).  3) This has to be the best looking cast yet.  Seriously, it seems as if CBS execs and producers really went out of their way to choose people that were very pleasing on the eye and to the camera.  So much so in fact, I wonder if it is a way to boost rating here after they realized the smash phenomena Jersey Shore is with all these young, hard bodies.  The girls are all extremely attractive in one way or another, and the guys all seem like they may have come out of Surfer or GQ magazine.

Too bad the season premiere was only an hour long.  There was nothing else on television except some stupid press conference regarding LeBron James going to Miami, (and what a Disneyland press conference that was) there was just nothing else on.   An hour just wasn’t enough to get a good feeling for the house guests.  It was barely even a tease.  I suspect there will indeed be some showmance hookups, drama, and alliances, but there just wasn’t enough time devoted to the players for the audience to even warm up to any of them.

Not sure what I think about the saboteur aspect this time around.  Could be fun, but I wish CBS wouldn’t reveal the player so soon, (they said next week).  I think it makes it fun for the audience at home to make their own guesses and be just as surprised, sorta like a mystery for us to solve at home and has a lot of potential to keep us hooked.  However, by revealing the ‘saboteur’ to the viewers after week one, takes some of the tense drama out of the game.  Anyway, I’ll be posting more about the strategies and individual players as the show marches on.

We finished the night by watching Zombieland, a psuedo-campy comedy horror fil with Woody Harilson.  It was ‘okay’ leaning towards ‘good’, but at 88 minutes in length, and the subject material, what do you expect?

Eye Exam

Later today, I have an eye exam.  I’ve always been very blessed with excellent eyesight.  I’ve never had to wear glasses before and at my last general exam, (just over a year ago) I was told my vision was 20/15, meaning at 20 feet, I can see what most people have to move up to 15 feet in order to see.  I also have blue eyes which do make them more sensitive to light than those with brown eyes, and I do tend to get headaches more easily in direct sunlight if I’m not wearing some sort of polarizing or quality sunglasses.

However, the last few months I’ve noticed that my eyes over all just seem to tire more easily than before.  It may be a couple of different things: my age for one (as I did just broach 40), the fact that I stare at flat panel computer screens for the majority of any given day, and finally the fact that I build very small train models (I often wear magnifying diopters along with tweezers when building them).

Needless to say, by the time evening rolls around my eyes just feel a little sore.  They still work just fine, but I am noticing (or maybe its all in my head) that it’s taking a few seconds longer to focus.  Everything is still sharp, but it seems my eyes are slower to respond now at various depths.  When reading small print, I’ve caught myself moving the paper away a few extra inches just so my eyes can relax and adjust, not because they can’t focus.

Maybe it’s time for reading glasses now.  I’m not exactly sure what’s gonna happen, but  they will most likely dilate my eyes where I’ll be wearing glasses until 9pm and I’ll have to look through that funky lens device.  That’s 2 hours from now, and I already feel like it’s a chore and my eyes are tired.  It’s hell getting old.

Crackpot

Here is the long overdue is a 30 minute podcast catching us up the last 3 weeks of Big Brother season 11.

I didn’t really realize how hard it was to keep up with this once a week and before I knew it, time slipped by pretty fast and I was three weeks behind.  To those that have sent me e-mails asking where they are, I’m happy you find them somewhat interesting enough to point out I’m behind. 

For this recap, I was surprised how hard it actually was to try and remember all the stuff that happened.  Needless to say I cut alot out just to get to six pages of written notes.  That works out to be about two pages per televised episode.

Anyway, suffice to say Chima is a crackpot and I’m glad her days are numbered.  Natalie the gnat is annoying and has a warped sense of reality when it comes to the game….she forgot she’s actually playing a game and takes everything so personal and now that Jessie is also gone, Natalie actually has to start playing her own game and not riding on his coattails.  The funniest line from her was this week when she says she was ‘running’ the house…..LOL….No ‘Gnat’, you weren’t, Jessie was manipulating everything and you were his ‘Yes’ girl.  Then to hear her explain and actually convince herself of the truth of her ‘alterted’ facts is mind blowing.  I told Monica I don’t even think Gnat can comprehend her own reality right now.  Jeff of course is level headed, and Russell has calmed down quite a bit.  Michelle is finally emerging as a player, and I give props to Kevin for being a very smart player, but he’s just hooked up with the wrong people.  Finally, my thoughts on Lydia are really shifting now.  Her messianac complex when it comes to Jessie is down right disturbing and she’s next for the loony bin.

Anyway, enjoy….

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (31.0MB)

Casey faces eviction in week 3

 In this Podcast recap I run down episodes 7, 8 & 9 from Big Brother season 11 on CBS.

I played a litte bit with the settings on Audacity (recording software) and how I did my recording.  Seeing that this is just a recap and nothing fancy, I recorded this in mono (single channel), and tried to cut to the chase in many instances of what was going down in the house.  This made for a leaner and overall shorter podcast both in size and length.

But long story short: Ronnie is an idiot, Jessie loves Jessie but not as dumb as he looks, Russell is a snake, Casey is getting the short end of the stick, Kevin is smarter than he lets on, Chima is starting to chill out (for now at least), Lydia is a whiner, Michelle is a cautious kiss-ass, Jeff is sane, Jordan is not, Natalie likes to stir up trouble.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (16.5MB)

Ronnie - Not a Jedi.

This podcast episode is indeed published out of order  as I haven’t finsihed editing episode 5 yet (w/ guest Brian Liles & the Grand Canyon), so don’t fret.

After a few false starts, I did this one again in one take, so it may sound a little rough around the edges.  I still feel I need to cut this down in length as even I was surprised it was close to another 1/2 hour.  But it was trying to condense the highlights of three hour long televised epsiodes into a sub 30 minute podcast.  It was a tad bit scripted (5 pages….ugh) as I had to write notes for each episode that aired so I could remember the sequence of events.  Maybe next time I can cut it down to three pages or so and get it closer to 20 minutes.

As always, feel free to leave comments below, or write me at cocktails1@hotmail.com.

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