Say J!

There are SPOILERS in this post.

Don't know if you've met her yet - her name is Jenn, and yes, she's been there since day one.

(Lost with all the Big Brother lingo?  Go here.)

The POV competition caused the live feeds to be out for over seven hours which is part of why this post is running late.  It threw off my routine.  I then had to pack up the rest of my stuff and ship it off to Virginia.  Anyway, enough excuses let's get down to business, and by "get down to business" I mean a short farewell to Wil and then business.  This isn't so much as a recap as it is a game update at this point.

Wil, I will miss you so much.  To your benefit and your downfall you were always able to read the house.  You knew that there was a large alliance, but you weren't sure who was in it.  Unfortunately, you mentioned it to two people that were in it.  You made me laugh every episode.  Goodbye~

What's happened since last Thursday?  Shane shocked the house by nominating Frank and Boogie, and they're ticked.  Really, really, ticked off.  Boogie has even sunk as low as saying he'll get to Michigan to "f*ck Dan's wife" and unfortunately Frank and even Ian have fallen to new lows this week.  It's the Boogie effect.  Like I said earlier Boogie is so sleazy he'd make even saints standing next to him look bad.  The duo of Boogie and Frank have wanted to cause a little bit of chaos and have succeeded to an extent.  The Quack Pack is starting to show a bit of wear and tear in the seams.  Britney has some paranoia issues, and Ian is basically money in the bank.  Danielle is...Danielle and Dan ended up taking the fall for something Ian did.  The moment Ian screws up Dan is throwing him to the wolves.  However, Ian is so under the radar for anyone but Britney and Dan that Dan may not get the chance.  That said - not an Ian fan.

POV winner is Frank.  He used the veto on himself and to the surprise to everyone but the Quack Pack Jenn is nominated in his place.  Jenn is incredibly angry about this and starts playing the game!  Jenn went OFF.  She is incredibly lucky that people want Boogie gone as badly as they do because this week she imploded.  She would have been one those self-destructing nominees.  What's more is that Jenn is a CLEAR pawn.  She honestly believes that her being nominated was a backdoor attempt because her social game is "tight"- she had to be convinced otherwise.  She's relaxed a bit but wow.  At least she's realized she has to DO something.

Boogie is set to go home this week, and someone please make sure Dan's wife knows not to open the door for Boogie.

Dan is walking out of this week with a large target on his back due to the workings of Britney and Ian.  Danielle may have lost a potential vote in Jenn.  Ashley has chosen to work with Frank and has been trying to get votes for Boogie to stay.  Joe has been roped in a bit by members of the Quack Pack, but he's not part of it.  Joe is pretty loyal, and Shane seems to have earned his loyalty.

Enjoy the week bluejays~

(PART ONE)
Diary Room - DR - A "confessional" room where house guests share insights to their strategies and what they think of other house guests to the audience watching at home.

The Powers that Be - TPTB - The people that control the show are dubbed "The Powers that Be."  Long time Big Brother fans have a general distrust of the TPTB believing that they rig the show to save "favorites," and often in unbelievable ways.  Usage:  "Looks like TPTB rigged the veto competition so that Frank could win and stay instead of him being voted out like he should have been the night the reset happened."

Allison Grodner - The head power that be.  Without her there would not have been Big Brother.  Frequently accused of playing favorites and rigging the show.
 
Live Feeds - LF - Big Brother is a game played in real time, as such, there are numerous cameras set up all across the Big Brother house.  The cameras are left on and those who are willing to pay are able to watch, on their computers, Big Brother play out in real time instead of the edited version shown on television.  Those with Live Feeds often know everything but the events that happen live on Thursdays by Wednesday afternoon.

The Tapes -  A term used by house guests to refer to the episodes of Big Brother that are shown on television.  Often used in a manner of trying to prove innocence.  Usage:  "When you get out of this house and watch the tapes, you're going to see that I didn't throw you under the bus."

Throw Under the Bus - To try and deflect blame and suspicion from yourself to someone else - often by lying or telling "half-truths" or revealing secret information.

Have Not - HN - Have nots are house guests that are not allowed to eat normal food, but rather, they have to eat Big Brother slop and whatever America chooses to allow them to eat.  Slop is said to be a disgusting mixture that resembles oatmeal in appearance.
Slop - A bland, disgusting mixture that resembles oatmeal in appearance.  Slop is bad.
 
Chenbot - A nickname for the Big Brother host Julie Chen.  This nickname was given to her due to her robotic hosting of the show.
(PART ONE)

I use a lot of very specific Big Brother terms in my Big Brother posts, so I thought I'd make a post on the lingo.
(PART TWO)

House Guests - HG - The players of Big Brother are referred to as House Guests.  Sometimes they may also be called Hamsters.

Head of Household - HOH - The player in charge of making nominations for evictions.  This title is won in a contest played out on Thursdays after the previous HOH has a nominee evicted from the house and comes with special perks.

Nomination - Two people chosen by the HOH to be eligible for eviction.  First nominations happen on Fridays. First nomination nominees are eligible to play in the Power of Veto contest.

Power of Veto - POV - The POV is won in a contest that takes place on Saturdays.  The POV holder has the ability either save one of the two nominees from eviction, or if a nominee they can save themselves.  It does not have to be used.  If it is used a replacement nominee is named.  The two nominees on "the block" are the ones up for eviction by a live vote on Thursday.

The Block - Also known as the "the chopping block."  The block the two people at risk of leaving the Big Brother house on Thursday.  Usage:  "I'm up on the block this week; I need to secure votes to stay."

Backdoor - Used when the "real target" of the week is not part of the first nomination process and, therefore, is not likely to be able to play in the Power of Veto contest.  The real target then becomes the replacement nominee after the power of veto is used.  Back doors are usually planned in advance and done to prevent the target from protecting itself.

Replacement Nominee - The person put on the block if one of the original nominees have the power of veto used on them.  A replacement nominee is not the same as a back door target.  A back door is planned in advance, and a replacement nominee is just unfortunate.

Pawn - a person put up by the HOH in an attempt to ensure that the HOH's target goes home.  A pawn is believed to be a person that under no-circumstance has any reason to worry about being voted out, however, Big Brother has a bad history with pawns.  Pawns tend to go home.      

(PART TWO)

thank you cbs.com

On August 23rd, I will not home because I will be in the middle of the moving to a new state process in order to go back to school.  (I'm a junior in college.)  I will try to have the post-eviction blog post up on Saturday as is my usual habit, however, I won't promise it.  Also, unless I come across a lot of good fortune that day, I will not be live tweeting during the August 23rd episode of Big Brother.

With this back-to-schoolness there may be delays in the post-eviction posts of Big Brother from the August 23rd episode until the end of the season, and the post schedule for MasterChef may also be altered.  As it stands, I do post-eviction posts on Saturday's and I do post-elimination posts on Thursday's.  It is likely that post-elimination posts will be moving to Friday evenings, but post-eviction posts will most likely stay the same, however, I may move it to Sunday's as needed.  If I do move the post-eviction posts I will include more information in them than what is included now.

All this said - it's August 16th come join me at Twitter (https://twitter.com/realityjunkfood) at 9PM eastern standard time as I continue to cringe at the forced Ashlian (CBS's term, not mine) and root for Dan, Britney, and Danielle!  (My darling Wil is leaving tonight, so I'm trying to pick a new team.)

Bye Bluejays~

In the last episode Frank and Becky were the top two chefs, so for this episode these two were made captains.  The major test was that the they were all going to be working in a real restaurant kitchen - Hatfields.  Hatfields has a Michelin Star which is supposed to indicate that the restaurant is fine dining.  It's a big deal to have a Michelin Star.

The Owners and Head Chefs

   This is my first time watching the series of Master Chef, so I don't know if a challenge like this has been done before, but I wondered "how much did Master Chef have to bribe the owners to let these home cooks cook for their guests?"

The teams being paired up as boys vs girls.  Christine was finally chosen first!  While Joe expressed extreme doubts over her ability to work in a kitchen like this, I think she handled herself quite well given the circumstances.
The boys in this challenge are a mess.  They are a complete and total mess.  The blue team's redeeming quality is, however, is that their food tastes better to the owners.  The red team, baring Monti's normal amount of chaos, quickly finds their rhythm and the reason why Christine was chosen first is seen.  Because of her disability she has to use her other senses to determine how the food is and as such her sense of taste is heightened (or so we're led to believe at least) more than that of the other contestants.  She quickly becomes the red side's taste-tester.

The red team is ultimately declared the winner due to their ability to work in the kitchen and the fact the food is good.  Just because the owners liked the blue more, doesn't mean that the red team's was bad.

The blue team must face the pressure test but TWIST:  Frank is given the opportunity to save himself or one of his team mates and after going on how he would save Josh he chooses to save himself.  Josh is understandably a bit ticked off.

Am I angry at you for doing what everyone else would have done?  Yes, yes I am.

The pressure test proves to be yet another advertisement for WalMart.  Yes, it is a steak pressure test.  The two men (David and Josh) must cook a rare steak, medium-rare steak, and a well-done streak.  I honestly believe that had all things been equal David would have won the pressure test.  However, David was running on borrowed time.  Did he really deserve to stay longer than Felix?  No.  I believe there was a bit of navigating done in order to have equal numbers of men and women, so that a men vs women scenario could happen in this episode.

Neither one of the two are capable of a well-done steak (don't blame them - well-done steak is too done) but it appears that David takes a bit of an edge, they both struggle with the medium-rare with it appearing as thought David takes a bit of an edge again, and Josh handily wins the rare steak challenge.  The biggest fault the judges have with David's cooking is that he is heavy-handed with the garlic.


The judges deliberate, and I was seriously frightened over Josh's chances.  However, as I said David was running on borrowed time.  Upon announcing David's departure (in that typical Gordon Ramsay way of "you're-safe-wait-no-you're-not") he is also given a huge prize.  David is now working at one of Graham Elliot's restaurants in Chicago.  I can't help but wonder if he'll be getting a major pay cut from going to an education administrator to a cook in a restaurant, but if he's happy it doesn't matter much, does it?

We're now down to the final five!  Josh has a vendetta and Becky got another ego boost.
Team Monti!

For the nomination ceremony Frank nominated Wil and Joe after heeding the advice of Boogie.  The Power of Veto was played on Saturday and Frank also won the Power of Veto.  With the Power of Veto, Frank was given another opportunity to nominate Dan - this time, however, it would be as a back door scenario.  Wil who was on the block at this time pushed hard to have Frank put up Dan.  Boogie, Frank's closest ally, pushed hard to have the nominations stay the same.  Frank tried hard to show his alliance that getting Dan out now was what was best.  The "Quack Pack" (Dan's alliance) all found out about Frank's desires before the Power of Veto ceremony.

(All pictures are from Big Brother live feeds or CBS.com)
Dear Dan:  nice shirt.

Live Feed Screen Capture from 8/11

Dan has a clear favorite shirt.  Each of these photos are from a DIFFERENT episode, and they all have him in the same shirt.  (There have been 13 episodes of Big Brother this season.)






This shirt can be found in Dan's very own Spreadshirt store:  http://renegades.spreadshirt.com/
Store link from Dan's Website:  http://www.dangheesling.com/

However, Dan remind me to buy another t-shirt.  I'll even order it from your store.

Let me start by saying that I hate the team of Frank and Boogie.  Boogie is a sleaze ball.  Frank shows signs that he's actually a pretty decent guy, but he's paired up with Boogie.  Boogie is so sleazy that he could make saints look bad just by standing next to them.  What really bothers me about Boogie is that I originally thought that he had changed for the better earlier this season.  The way he tried to help Ian and his loyalty to his team were positive traits.  Boogie's spiteful send of message to Janelle was repulsive.

credit:  cbs.com

CBS in an attempt to prove that the phrase "expect the unexpected" means nothing to them and that they only say it in order to have something catchy to say, let America "vote" to give the judges the "option" of coming back  into the game of Big Brother.  While I have no doubts in my mind that most of the audience voted to give the option, I personally voted no.  Why should these coaches be allowed to play again after getting a couple weeks of what is now essentially immunity?  Two of these coaches have already WON the game.  One of these two coaches won ALL-STARS.

This option was also so painfully rigged.  If just ONE coach hit the reset button ALL coaches returned to the game as players.  It could have worked out to where three coaches said "thanks but no thanks" but because ONE hit the button all would return to the game.  In this twist, Mike "Boogie" actually chose to not to return to the game as a player, but is now having to play in that capacity.  It's not fair to the newbies.

Because three of the four coaches decided they wanted to "reset the game" (which you just lost) there was no eviction for the night, and the house guests set out on a long endurance competition.

For non-live feed viewers: spoiler alert for the rest of the post.
  
Danielle won the head of household (HOH) competition!  I was ecstatic when I found this out.  Danielle is by no means my favorite (that honor goes to Dan this season with Wil in second), but the way that Janelle and others kept belittling her makes me excited that she was able to give them a slice of humble pie.  However, Danielle was getting by as a floater, so it is not clear how she and the rest of house will connect after her HOH reign.

Overall, the episode began to show America at large the side of Janelle that live feed viewers have been seeing for the last few weeks.  Janelle is a plastic.  Danielle had been an easy target for her for the last couple weeks unfortunately.  Janelle's been mean while in the house this season.  It also showed the strain that is developing between Wil and Janelle.  Wil was livid when Janelle told him she "saved" him from being back doored and there was a lot of debate wondering if this was the week he betrayed Janelle.  It's no longer a question of "if"but now a question of "when."

Currently Wil and Frank are up for eviction.  The power of veto holder is HOH Danielle.

Yes, I take pictures of the television and computer

Whoo hooo!  Big Brother has officially kicked off yet another season of awesomeness!  I have been watching Big Brother since Season 5, and must admit I wondered if I wanted to get my hopes up for this site.  While I knew I was going to watch it, I didn't know if I was going to be excited.  However, the day of the Big Brother premiere came and I couldn't stop myself from being excited all day.  Why was I excited?  I knew Britney Haynes was coming back.

For Big Brother newbies go to the website and get yourself acquainted!

The show began with the house guests being given an "invitation" to the Big Brother house and not a key.  This is different because in seasons past the house guests are given their "keys to the Big Brother house."  When the guests are nominated for eviction, it's by not being given their keys that week by the Head of Household (HOH) aka the person in charge of the house.  So by not giving any guests a key it is telling the house guests "you aren't living here yet."  That hints that one or more of the guests can still be made to leave without going through the formality of the eviction process.  Only one newbie made note of the fact that he was given an invitation and not a key and that happens to be the adorable (at this point) nerd known as Ian  Good eye, Ian, good eye.  I'll be watching you.

All the newbies settle in and we the viewers start getting views into their personalities.  Ian, again is the adorable nerd; Wil (one L) is already one of my personal favorites (we'll see how long this lasts though); Willie is the brother of Russel from Survivor fame, and he is going to be LOUD; JoJo annoys me; and Ashley might be a hippie.  The rest of the cast doesn't really stand out to me with the exception of Jenn.  She stands out because she has made herself physically noticeable, but personality-wise she has not made herself noticeable.  I hope this changes because when I saw that she was an out, loud, and proud lesbian I wanted to be Team Jenn.  I'm still holding out for that.

After all the newbies meet and greet they are given a huge surprise.  Four of the most competitive and famous players of seasons past are coming back into the house.  However, the host, Julie Chen, states these house guests need not worry about competing against these veterans because, in this seasons huge twist, these returning house guests are returning as mentors.  Theses mentors are going to be guiding their teams to victory in hopes that one of their players wins the grand prize, so that they themselves get $100,000.

With all the players in the house, what else is there to do than go right into the first ever HOH competition of the season?  The coaches, however, before anyone is allowed to begin competing have to pick their teams.  Also the house guests are informed that only eleven of them will be given keys - that means someone is leaving right after the HOH competition.

Team Britney consists of Shane, Willie, and JoJo.  Team Britney has my least favorite person on it and is in the running for my least favorite team.  Britney placed fourth during her season.

Team Dan consists of Jodi, Danielle, and Kara Monaco.  Honestly, I think he's going to be the best coach in terms of keeping up moral.  Team Dan, however, doesn't impress me yet.  Dan was the winner of his season.

Team Janelle consists of Wil, Ashley, and Joe.  This team is definitely balanced.  I think it was probably one of the smarter combinations.  I'm leaning towards Team Janelle as being my favorite.  Janelle placed third in both of her seasons.

Lastly, Team Mike "Boogie" like Janelle ended up with some what of a balanced team.  His team consists of  Frank, Ian, and Jenn.  Boogie won Big Brother All-Stars and placed 8th in season two.


With these teams in place the HOH challenge was then announced:  the first team to get all their teddy bears across the three moving platforms and then turn off their night light would have one of it's members (chosen by their mentor) be the first HOH of the season.  The last team to get all their teddy bears across and to turn of their night light would have one of their team members (again chosen by their mentor) leave the house that night.

Who won these first HOH competition?  Team Britney!  Which shows that she's at least got a physical power house of a team.  That'll help her out a lot.  After winning the challenge Britney chooses to make Willie HOH.  By this point in the episode, a number of the house guests and at least three of the four mentors (Will, Dan, and Janelle) had indicated that they knew that Willie was somehow related to Russel.  Britney after awarding Willie the HOH power then reveals that she too knows.  Which makes sense because Britney and Russel are actually acquainted with each other, and that's probably why she chose Willie in the first place.  She states she feels like Willie needs the week as HOH in order to himself in a position to last in the game.  I agree whole heartily.  I personally did not even think of that.  It was a good call.


Dan is then forced to evict one of his team members and start the real part of the game a member down.  Who does he get rid of? Jodi - poor woman I knew she was goner the moment her team lost.


There we go there's my in-depth analysis and way too long blog post about Big Brother season 14 episode 1!


Night blue jays~

Purple - Joy Blue/Green - Erica

So, being the the Big Brother junkie I am, I decided to give what people are calling the "Brother Brother rip off" a shot.  While not as much as a Big Brother rip off as other fans may claim it to be there is still an unmistakable similarity.  However, there are enough differences where I'm able to see this show as it's own show.  For example, it appears that these contestants are allowed photos from home, they make use of Twitter, they get "Fanswers" where fans vote their answer to a contestants question, the viewers choose who their least favorite contestants are and one those people are guaranteed to go to "Limbo," and the viewers ultimately choose who goes back in the glass house from Limbo.  The captain who wins the challenge is free from the threat of Limbo and someone from the losing team is voted into Limbo by the contestants.  (Get the contestants bios here.)

The show is supposed to last for ten weeks and it's currently on week four.  Ratings wise it's not doing very well because so many people see it at a Big Brother rip off, so those people refuse to watch.

This episode starts out with Joy and Kevin arguing with each other.  For those who didn't watch last week (aka 99.9% of the world), police man Kevin and "she-who-loves-the-booze" Erica got really drunk and made out with each other.  It was actually funny with the slurred speech and Kevin freaking out because he has "no game" (his words). (Watch Episode 3 Here)  Anyway, Erica being part of the losing team was the one voted to be sent to Limbo.  Joy was angry at Kevin because she believed that Kevin only voted for Erica to go into Limbo because he was regretting the drunken make out session, and he kind of did regret it, but I don't think that's why he voted the way he did.  Unkind words were exchanged and then the part of the episode came where the contestants and viewers alike got to find out who America chose to save from Limbo.

Like a puppy.

America decided that they liked Erica more than Robin.  Erica's first comment was "please tell me you saved me booze."  Then the divisions in the house that began, almost a little too rushed and forced, last week started to become wider and more obvious.  Joy clung to Erica's side like a lost puppy (which she acknowledged).  Then it was time to get ready for the competition part of the show.

Week four saw Holly and Ashley (surprise, surprise) being put as captains.  Going into unfortunate, offensive stereotypes, Holly is the pretty girl no one likes because once she messed up it unleashed the rabid lions, so everything is held against her, and Ashley...well, she just doesn't stand out.  This weeks challenge saw the contestants try to put a ball in a tube.  It had to go through the triangle hole and they had to move the ball on that giant, heavy disk object in order to get it into the tube.  Yellow team won which means Holly, the hated pretty girl, is guaranteed safety.  This means Ashley's exit pass was handed to her.  The contestant from the losing team sent to Limbo was Kevin.

The thing with Ashley is I don't think she's the least favorite contestant she just doesn't stand out enough order to get the votes to stay out of the bottom two three weeks in a row.  I feel pretty confident when I say there are contestants people like less than Ashley because they're off-putting.  However, with being a hated contestant comes a loyal and rabid fan base that will vote repeatedly to save that hated person.  Ashley wasn't loved or hated enough to develop that rabid fan base.

The showmance between Joy and Gene was not played up this week which makes me question the whole thing, and Gene is being played out as this lone wolf character that is working both sides.  This show's editing has me very confused.  I don't know who the "good guys" are, I don't know who is in what alliance, overall, this show isn't explaining enough to me.  All I know is that Holly is easily used, Stephanie makes Kevin and Mike paranoid, and Ashley is going home.  I want to pick a side and root for it; that's half the fun of these shows, however, The Glass House isn't giving me enough in order for me to want to pick either side.

Overall, this show is very easily forgettable, and I don't want to re-watch in order remember details.  The show as whole so far is 5/10.  The Spooning Song on the live feeds definitely provided me enough amusement to say this show is at least average, but it's not anymore than average.  If it's back for a season two...it'll only be because it's reality television and can provide a nice filler.

Nighty-night blue jays!