fishcakes

Content produced by AI is garbage because it's simply a content scraper and regurgitator without the ability to reason. Here's a question and answer from Google AI. Another infamous example was, "how do you keep pizza toppings from sliding off?" and one of the solutions suggested by AI was to use glue. As @peachmangosteen mentioned above, it's an environmental disaster because the data centers that house AI servers use a tremendous amount of electricity, need massive amounts of water for cooling, and produce excessive greenhouse gases. Also, the whole model depends on stealing copyrighted material and producing derivative work, which is often if not usually just a direct parroting of protected work belonging to someone else. AI is being forced on us by the tech companies. It's in operating systems and software including Word, meaning content that you write can be scraped. At this point, you can still turn it off (it's a good idea to occasionally drill down through the Privacy menu of anything you use that has one to find a way to turn off all data sharing), but if the techbros can ever figure out a way to make AI profitable, that will cease being an option. So the fewer people that use it now, the better off we'll be in the future. I should probably say something on topic now so: this episode contained less than optimal Betty screentime. I demand more Betty. Oh, and although I did appreciate the hotness of scruffy Will, it was sort of a relief to see him back in suit and handkerchief mode.

Carolyn wants to be trustworthy, but I don't think she's capable. She folds quickly when asked a direct question, and even when she's not talking she gets a panicked look as soon as an uncomfortable-for-her conversation begins. The only thing she has going for her is that people think she's so odd and inconsequential that they don't pay much attention to her, but I fully expect at some future Round Table, something will make her nervous and she'll blurt out, "I'M A TRAITOR!"

The game is already stacked so much in their favor and I hate that so I hate the new rule. This is the first time I've watched the show and my first impression is that the traitors do seem heavily favored. They have more information than the faithful, they have an automatic alliance, and unless I'm misunderstanding the rules, only a traitor can win the entire $250K+ at the end and if only faithful are left then they have to split the pot. I don't know if I have that part right.

I approve of the amount of Betty in this episode. I was surprised at how mad Nico was at Will. It's not like he tossed them out on the street when he left. Nico got to live in the house and he left money to live on. I guess, abandonment issues? But everyone knew what Will was going through, so it seemed a little much. Especially taking Betty! Make him sleep in the garage, sure, but you do not take a man's purse dog from him! I haven't seen Gina Rodriguez in much, but I liked her here. "I have to go, I'm being shamed." Although I agree that the cast does seem bloated, what with Faith's new partner, who is adorable, and the new (?) mayor, who is not.

It's been like ten minutes and I can't stop laughing at this line.

Yes, a wistful, "gone too soon." 😔

She couldn't even stop herself from getting in a couple of digs at Kyle during FTC. "I'm not dumb. I'm not Tweedley-dee." (The world: "It's Tweedledee, dumb ass.") and also saying how supportive her tribe was when she was feeling down, "even Kyle!" as if he's some kind of monster. I don't think this is why he did it, but I'm glad he voted for Sam, which pushed Sue into third place, instead of letting her tie for second. At the same time, I do think she was gracious about getting shut out. I agree. Players are now relying too much on finding advantages over having any kind of long-term strategy, which is only partly their fault, but also it means that the show can cast weaker players and I think they have. I was struck last night by one of them saying something about the feeling of reaching Day 25 in the game. If they weren't New Era players, all reaching day 25 would mean is that there are still two more weeks left in the game and good luck with that. Now that I think about it, the most entertaining part of this season was the Ghosts commercials where the ghosts were watching the show. Thor: "Sue's face very dirty. Thor like that."

A not-at-all surprising ending, but still disappointing for me. Rachel deserved it, compared to the rest of the F4, but I found her insufferable last night. It's particularly a letdown to me because she was someone who I thought, at the beginning of the season, was going to be one of my favorites. She's just become so full of herself in the last few episodes and last night especially, saying things like, "everything I do, I do with incredible determination," which is a fine thing to say about someone else, but not oneself. And then when Sam gave that emotional answer at FTC and she felt she had to match it, so she talked about how accomplished, yet humble, she is in real life and how her husband is the best whatever in the world but has no confidence and how she realized that [start holding back non-existent tears here] is actually a description of herself. GTFO. I was also surprised that her statement that she was loyal to everyone and that no one was loyal to her until she found Sue didn't lose her at least a couple of votes because that statement is only true if they were playing Bizarro Survivor. Best moment for me was Andy pointing out to Rachel how she doesn't think Ben or Mike were deserving winners and how does she reconcile playing the same game they did and her face when she realized he was right. But she won, so congratulations or whatever. When Jeff was giving Sue the stats on women over 50 in the game and got to the number who made it to FTC, I was thinking, yeah, but they were dragged there as goats, but fact-checking myself and actually no. Kim Johnson won final immunity in Africa and voted out Lex to bring Ethan with her, Lil Morris won final immunity in Pearl Islands and voted out Fairplay to bring Sandra, and Carolyn Rivera in Worlds Apart won the F4 fire-making challenge to get to the end with Mike and Will. So kudos to all of them, but less so to Carolyn because she was an ass. I like splitting the finale into two parts because starting the finale with six people and having to have 4 TCs in one episode was always too much, but if they're going to end up adding an extra hour anyway, I wish they'd go back to a real reunion show. It'd doesn't have to be a big production with an audience, just get the whole cast together and give everyone a few minutes to talk about their game. When Jeff first took over the reunion shows, he did a great job for a few seasons, so I know he's capable. Just take out all the extraneous stuff like kids predicting the winner and Terry Bradshaw and Tyler Perry and it will be fine.

This is Jeff's very polite way of saying that these four suck.

Oh, that's right! I'd forgotten she did that. I do think that was a very smart move. I agree with this. Great strategists are fairly rare, and this question is complicated for me in that I remember earlier seasons much more clearly than later seasons. But to name a few, first I'd say Tina Wesson in her Outback season; she had no compunction about having multiple, competing alliances and she boxed Colby in to an F2 with her because she knew that there was a real danger that he'd ultimately go with Jerri/Amber if she didn't get Jerri out while Nick, Rodger, and Elisabeth were still in the game. Second, Vecepia Towery, who was the first real flip-flopper; she played Rob Cesternino's game before he did, yet she gets zero credit for it where he was always praised as "the best player to never win." Brian Heidik, the first to use a goat strategy, and who somehow managed to hide his true personality throughout the entire game; although to be honest, I'm not sure if this makes him a great strategist or just a sociopath. Yul Kwon and I'm not hearing any nonsense about an "overpowered idol" because he never used that idol except to force Penner to flip, then he voted Penner out because Parvati, also a good strategist, explained to him how he would lose at jury if he didn't; so that was the season of extortionists, albeit charming ones. Jeremy Collins, who is so very boring to me, but he played a smart, dull game. He started the whole "meat shield" thing by keeping Joe around to keep the target off himself as a physical threat; he also did this thing where he would often lie down or sit lower than whoever he was talking to, which is the opposite of all those management books that tell bosses to make their desk chair 5 inches higher than the other chairs to intimidate their employees. I also want to say Hannah Shapiro from MvGenX, although I can't recall the specifics now; I just remember that she was behind a lot of moves that Adam made and she had to talk him out of doing stupid stuff and ultimately he won and she got zero votes and I am still mad about that but in a now-vague way. And I begrudgingly will say Dee Valladares, who played an effective but repugnant-to-me game by keeping lovesick Austin on a string and then, to show the jury that she had been the one running things, by telling the jury how she played him. In the Winners at War season, Natalie was asked why she didn't make fire, but I think part of the reason for that is that she had been the first voted out and so spent most of the game at Edge of Extinction. She was someone who needed to show the jury that she had done something in the game. But that might have been a bit personal as well, since she had quit talking to everyone a few days before the end of the game; she was also asked about that during FTC.

Rachel wouldn't have had to use her idol for Sol. There were 10 people left, Kyle didn't have immunity that week, and Caroline didn't have a vote. Gabe/Sue/Genevieve and most likely Kyle were voting for Sol. That left, on the other side, Sol, Teeny, and Sam, who were working together, Andy who was still nominally with Sam and who had shown some indication he wanted to work with Sol, and Rachel. Rachel seemed initially to want to save Sol because she told Sam that Sol was the target, but then she got mad at Sam because he told Sol -- which I don't understand because what did she expect would happen? So she jumped back to the Lavo alliance, who would have voted her out had Sol not saved her, and to Genevieve, whom she knew had floated her name previously. If she had gone with the non-Lavos, they had the votes to both save Sol and get Kyle out that week, without her using her idol. I can't really call that a mistake on her part because she's still there and is probably going to win, but I don't feel like she's a particularly great strategic player. She's been very good in challenges, has had some good luck that she's made the most of, and unlike the overwhelming majority of people who've played this game, she knows when to keep her mouth shut. But strategy-wise, she's been average and only looks better because no one has been great in that regard this season. And now it's just Sam, who is crossing his fingers and hoping no one notices he's still there, Teeny who has no idea what's going on ever, and Sue whose big strategic push was, "I'm 45 and I bit my tongue." Of course Rachel looks like a genius next to them.

The season started out as fun in a nutty way, but once Sol was voted out, my interest level went way down. I half-heartedly was rooting for Kyle because he was both a challenge beast and an underdog and for Andy because it would have been hilarious, but this F4 is uninspiring, to say the least. Rachel is deeply unlikable to me, Sue is the classic goat who thinks she's Queen Shit, Teeny is adorable but clueless, and Sam is just kind of there. I'll watch to the bitter end, but I really think the show has run its course.

I loved that Operation Italy worked, even though I would have preferred to see Sue or Rachel voted out. Caroline is too boring for me to care about. I'm a little surprised it wasn't Sue because she's been better in challenges than Caroline, but her name never comes up, so she probably has goat immunity. They might just regard her as the filthy elderly woman who won't shut up about Kyle even after he's gone. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking it was a skin condition because the discoloration was in the same places on her face for at least 3 episodes. But since then we've seen her be a little cleaner and now much dirtier again. They tried to explain it by showing her crawling on the ground, but unless she's putting her whole face in the dirt and grinding it around, I don't think that's the reason. Whoever it was here that last week said she's deliberately putting dirt on her face as a substitute for contouring makeup is probably on to something. Teeny, aaah, I don't even know. I was starting to like her and then she went insane and not even in a way that's fun to mock like when what's-her-name last season lost her shit over an Applebee's burger. lol, she did show her hand there by complaining to the others that if Sam were smart he'd be trying to get her to flip instead of Andy. I think Teeny probably will try to flip next week because Rachel will likely still be the target and if she wins immunity again, which seems like a decent bet, someone she's allied with is getting axed.

Sierra thinks Andy is a two-faced brat? Sierra who pretended to Andy that they were in an alliance together but behind his back said they'd keep him around as long as they needed his vote but as soon as they didn't he was gone? Okay. I mean, that's how the game is played so good for her, but since Andy played the same game and she got got, better for him. Being mad about it is a bad look for her.

I got the DVD set a few years ago; it was a lot of fun to rewatch. It was also the first time I saw all of the later seasons. I'd seen a few of the Hollywood episodes here and there over the years, but not the whole thing. As bad a rap as the later seasons get, I thought they were pretty good. The early Milwaukee seasons were better, but overall I don't think the L&S decline was nearly as steep as the one on Happy Days after that show started to focus on Joanie and Chachi and their friends.