simplyme

I realize this is one if those things where your mind just supplied the almost-right word (inner) instead of the word you wanted (second), but the result made me laugh out loud. My God! Jason is having inner thoughts! Who knew he did any actual internal thinking instead of just saying the few things he did think to Alex for his required smacking? *snicker*

Heh. There should be a mass campaign to vote for Cameron. Only there 12 hours? Sounds like my favorite houseguest! As to Raven or Matt first... Raven is more annoying to live with and does better in challenges than Matt. On the other hand, Matt is so boring we're talking about his shirts and cereal. I think people are worried if he somehow doesn't get taken out now, other targets will seem bigger and more threatening and suddenly they're facing the color beige in the f2. And strangely, a lot of people paint rooms beige. Not because they like the color, but because it's better than other options.

This makes me like Probst more.

I'm almost done watching S30 for my first time (a painful experience that could not go fast enough), and because Sierra was in Game Changers I think I was more aware of her than viewers at the time. I can definitely see that she has potential in Worlds Apart. She's not Joe, but she's pretty athletic, and she seems aware of a lot of the currents going on and is just trying to figure out how best to work them for her. I think she definitely wanted to keep Shirin but couldn't figure out how to get the numbers without getting people pissed off at her. In fact, that seems to happen a lot. She can see where voting against her alliance at that point might get out someone really heinous... but the problem is that it would leave someone (like Joe or Jenn) who is a bigger threat to her socially and challenge-wise in the game as well as putting a target on her in a highly misogynist season. (I don't tend to use that word casually, but Dan and Rodney definitely qualify. Jebus.) So I'm glad she was chosen for Game Changers. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think given the heinous cast she had to work with, she played her way through S30 fairly well socially doing what she thought was best for her, even if I, the viewer, wanted her to help vote off Dan's mansplaining ass so my annoyed eye twitches would stop.

I stumbled across this recent article on Fiji's 20th player, the one who quit before the game even started: https://medium.com/a-tribe-of-one/fijis-20th-player-130871f7b4b3 In case anyone else is interested.

Are those coughs or sneezes? My Q tip usage often triggers a horrible-tickle-OMG-have-to-cough brief coughing fit (during which I remove said Q tip from my ear for safety reasons). Then more Q tip and a few more fits to get the job done. (The singing thing helps a lot, actually. Much less tickle in throat, fewer coughing fits.) She appears to be snee-coughing practically rhythmically. I suppose it could affect her that way, but it could just be something she read about and decided to fake. Either way, only use the Q tip once (ick), and definitely throw your own stuff (Q tips or used condoms) away. Gag. I mean, at one point in college I shared a house with four other people (and various regular guests). I'm pretty easygoing when it comes to sharing living quarters. But bodily secretions of any type on something get disposed of immediately by that person. Not negotiable. It's a good way to see simplyme morph into simplyscarybitch in the blink of an eye.

First and most important, happy birthday to @Callaphera. I'd offer to send you some poutine from a local restaurant, but I doubt it travels well. (Also if I go anywhere near poutine, I eat it, and since we just gorged on it for my mother's bday that would be twice in one week. Pretty sure my arteries would not thank me.) So, um, birthday wishes and hopes that someone else comes through with the poutine for you. Second, I'd guess that @Nashville was right on the bleeped word in Alex's zing being cocksucker. Anything with cock in it has to be bleeped. (It's also one of George Carlin's famous 7 dirty words you can't say on TV.) I had a weird moment when I saw that Raven said something about how cleaning her ears with a Q tip makes her cough and it's very rare. That happens to me. No idea if it's true for Raven or not, but it is A Thing. Not an illness, though. It has to do with the Q tip stimulating a certain nerve. Something like 2% of the population has that effect in one ear and .6% in both. (You just clean carefully and loudly sing "ahhhh" as you do it to help fight off the effects. I'm probably a treat to watch as I groom.)

Ignore this. I can't tell what thread I'm in. Sheesh.

Reading these boards is extremely effective for killing one's appetite. Thank you all so much for your descriptions of the hamsters, their food, and their completely nauseating eating habits. Urrrgh. :P Insta-diet.

The problem here is that I don't believe the Bairds were able to feed themselves while the other two teams were not. If this went on indefinitely, I'm pretty sure what we'd discover is that none of the teams would avoid starvation. :P It's just that both of the Bairds were young and had a significant amount of mass to live off. Er, "everyone" is a bit of an overstatement, imo. Both sides were pointed out. If you're active and a large person, it generally takes more calories to sustain you. That said, if you're slender, you don't have nearly as much wiggle room in how much weight you can lose before you're pulled. If you need a reminder on how adamant some posters were about this, try rereading the posts for the last episode of S3. Yikes. Most of the posts I recall from early season that speculated that the Bairds would be gone soon had absolutely nothing to do with their size and everything to do with them not knowing their own gear or the wildlife. They came off as idiots to several posters (me as one, obviously). Ah well. On to season 5...

The Simply family just finished watching S29 San Juan del Sur (Blood vs Water 2). This was a new season for all of us, and we loved the winner. One thing that Probst talked about at the reunion was how much food the Survivors are given. He held up the bag of rice each tribe is given, and showed how much rice per day each Survivor then should get to eat if they are rationing for the entire stay and said it's equivalent to about 100 calories. So... the castaways get about 100 calories per day from rice, plus whatever they can get from fish, coconuts, bananas, limpets, snails, etc, foraging, and every three days there is a chance that the reward challenge involves food, which they may or may not get. I think we can safely say that even if someone wins every reward challenge, eating one good meal every three days and what? 200-300 calories if they're lucky the other days is definitely a starvation diet. They may be more generous on returnee seasons, but "more generous" is still pretty scanty, I think. The bad news for the Simply family is that we just started S30. Three episodes in and we hate almost everyone. I mean, S29, we guffawed at the men in general. It was clear from early on that a woman was going to win unless a miracle occurred because, in the words of SimplyDad, "the men are dumb." But there's a difference between being somewhat bumbling strategists and an entire cast that if Probst were to ask me "Who do you want to throat punch?" I would have great difficulty choosing because there are so few I don't want to smack.

When both (or all) options are horrible, I've been known to cheer for a wayward meteor.

An excellent point. Pointing out that nature favors certain body types in certain situations was exactly the right thing to say to make me feel a bit better. Thank you. :)

The thing is that you have to accept it. The winner(s) is not to blame if you don't like the result because they went out there and did what they could with what they had. Rejecting it isn't fair to the winner(s) because they legitimately won based on the structure of the show. IMO it's fair to be happy for the Bairds, yet disappointed for others. I am, however, really bothered that the structure of the show favors people with more meat on them. I am not a survival expert in any way, and I'm disturbed that I appeared to have more actual knowledge than the winners. A show full of people who stick a tarp on a stick and only move out of bed to find firewood and food (especially seaweed and limpets) and which comes down to size and metabolism is going to be really, really boring. I was fine with Fowler winning because he did a lot of stuff. He made things: shelter, traps, a duck hunter, spoons, his memory stick, a dock, the path down to the lake. I even would have been okay with Megan winning last season. She foraged, explored all over, tried to trap, fished, and talked a lot about nature and what she came across. I guess what it comes down to is that I feel disillusioned that a show about trained survival experts cast people I felt clearly were not... and then they won. Which is not the fault of the Bairds. It's to their credit. But it leaves me going, "So... the point of survival skills is... nothing? Why am I watching?" ETA: Sorry if this post was sort of stream-of-conscious. I was sorting out my feelings and why I felt them as I typed.

I laughed so hard I cried at that jumpsuit. Honestly, I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It amused the heck out of me, but I sure wouldn't have worn it. :) Which I guess just reiterates where I come down: It may not be for me, but it's their choice. I realize other people feel differently, though.

One thing people overlook when talking about who "deserves" to win BB or Survivor is that both are social games. If you strategize yourself to the end but have socially alienated the jury, in most cases that's on you. Jury management is a large portion of the game.

One of the most interesting scenes to me in e4 is towards the beginning when JP, Brad, and Adam are all doing something at the boat. Either Brad or Adam brings up the idea that the women may be annoyed at the men for not doing anything. JP is like, "Nah. And if they are, what are they going to do about it? They need us! We're the strong men!" The focus of the scene is, of course, on JP's arrogance, but to me the important part was really how Adam and Brad were acting. It's pretty clear that both Adam and Brad just kind of go, "Sure" and keep tying stuff while they avoid eye contact, but you kind of get the idea that both of them can count and realize that there are more women than men. That's really the scene for me that signaled JP was toast. No eye contact from two of your homies means if you light yourself on fire, they're going to shrug and fan the flames rather than look for water to douse you.

I'm disappointed. Frankly what I learned from this season is that actual survival skills beyond "find food, don't fall in the water or fire, and don't break any bones" don't mean anything for this show. The Bairds literally had fewer survival skills than my elementary school brownie troop. And yes, I used the word literally correctly. Megan's shelter didn't bother me last season. It was minimal, but she used the tarp to create walls to block the wind and hold some body heat in. The Bairds had no walls and complained about the wind. IMO, one of those shelters was minimalist and the other was built by bleeping morons with no common sense. I mean, congrats to them for having the staying power, but it sure wasn't because they had any knowledge whatsoever. Being big, young guys really worked for them in this case. Meh, I say. Meh.

People wear a lot if things I wouldn't wear to do an ANW course.* Jeans (hi, Lance Pekus), giant baby outfits, or a T Rex costume all seem like worse choices than Alyssa's booty shorts to me, but people have worn them. I love Jessie Graff, but I wouldn't say her outfits have always been completely practical. Awesome, yes. 100% practical, no. I figure if the ninjas are willing to deal with the hassle, then that's their choice. I mean, yeah, I may laugh at them for wearing it (and I do!), but if it works for them or makes them feel good, that's probably what matters. As to young boys who may be watching... Well, I'm going to paraphrase Xander from an old Buffy episode in reference to how the minds of most guys past a certain age start to work. Looking at linoleum can make them think of sex. *Note: I am never actually going to run an ANW course. I dislike bleeding.

First, thank you for answering my questions. Even the obvious ones. :) Second, this twist sucks almost as much as Paul's chest tattoo. Apparently obnoxious idiot, red lipstick, and uses tic-inducing catchphrases were all on the casting checklist. (I believe only the red lipstick may be new to that list since the last time I watched.) Also... I'm really the only person to see Christopher Walken in Kevin? I admit it's not perfect, but I feel like it's there, at least for me.

I finally started watching BB this season. I'm a bit... perturbed. Admittedly, that's usual for BB. Things I want to know that have probably been answered in the previous twenty-some episodes, but I'm not up to reading that much: Why the hell is Paul back? Did they even put another vet in the house to make the favoritism a bit less obvious? Why do so many of these people YELL instead of talk? What's with using the term "boo boo" all the time (Or even worse, the term "kitty boo boo")? Do they think they are in Jellystone Park and are going to go steal some pic-a-nic baskets? Does Kevin have a Christopher Walken vibe or is that just me?

This was why I could never really get on the Ozzy bandwagon to begin with, even before South Pacific. Ozzy is a challenge beast, but he looks down on and sometimes actively picks on people who aren't alpha males. I think Ozzy has grown up some since then, and I respect his physical abilities, but I will always have The Billy Incident stuck in my head preventing me from going fangirl. I think there are certain circumstances where it's warranted. In China, Peihgee and Jaime threw a challenge which enabled them to vote out Aaron. That meant former tribemates Frosty and Sharea were safe and they were closer to evening the numbers between the original tribes. The also removed a strong player. Probst was horrified, but it was strategically sound. They had to scrap throwing more challenges because they realized they couldn't count on Frosty and Sharea, but it was still a good move. I've always thought that the challenge that should have been thrown but wasn't was in Fiji after the merge. The teams were determined by random draw: Alex, Mookie, Dreamz, Stacy, and Michelle vs Earl, Yauman, Boo, Cassandra, and Edgardo. Earl's team won and Michelle got sent home. Had Earl's team lost, they could have sent Edgardo home, keeping Michelle and gaining a solid lead in numbers. But Ozzy throwing a challenge to get rid of Billy? *sigh* No. Just no. Just keep him and be nice. If you lose, you have an easier vote off than most TCs. If you don't lose, he can be a number for you. Have I mentioned the holes in Ozzy's social game? :P

I just shook my head at Corinne being peeved that no one defended her or Phillip when Brandon said mean things about them at the impromptu tribal. OMG, Corinne. Brandon was not stable. Everyone else was being intelligent and just keeping their mouths shut to get through it and try to keep Brandon as calm as possible. Phillip should have been punched in the nads for having the stupidity to keep poking the wasp's nest with a very short stick, and Corinne wasn't a whole lot better.

A clue to a hidden HII gets stolen from one player by another in Cagayan (S28). So... apparently it's okay? I put the details in a spoiler tag in case anyone hasn't seen that season. I guess I'm overly paranoid or something. (I'm rewatching Cagayan right now. Tony's paranoia is contagious!)

1. It's harder for some people to gain weight than others. 2. I doubt most people who are willing to go live in the wilderness on a starvation diet are concerned about this, but gaining weight changes your body's idea of what weight it should be for a loooong time. Then when you lose a lot of weight, your body freaks out and attempts to get you back to that weight. It produces more hormones that increase hunger and fewer that suppress appetite. Your muscle fibers change and become more efficient, so you burn fewer calories doing the same exercises and activities you did before. Parts of your brain involved with reward and restraint react differently. So once you start gaining weight, it's very difficult to keep any lost weight off. Here's a NYT article that talks about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html That said... I very selfishly wish Brooke had gained some weight before she did this. :P