Kara

I didn't start watching until the Globetrotters first season. I just discovered I can watch previous seasons on Amazon, so have been binge watching. I really liked the first 3 seasons. I am watching season 4, and it is by far my least favorite. The clowns are the only likable team. And I am shocked and disappointed that tptb would force female contestants into a situation where they would almost certainly be sexually assaulted. Indian public transportation has long been notorious for sexual assault. Only in the past couple years has it gotten wider attention, but it was well known by seasoned travellers for years, and never should have been allowed to happen.

I just started watching now, so I haven't read the thread, and can't comment on the dance yet, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, Cat's dress. She looks adorable

I know nothing about obtaining rights to music for broadcast, but I wonder if the rights for season one were different that later seasons, and that is why we never see anything from season one. I started watching this show right before season 4 started. MTV ran a marathon of seasons 2 and 3 that got me watching. They did not show season 1. Even if Nigel is bitter, I can't imagine he would have the power to block the revenue that the production team (and FOX?) could have received for rebroadcasting season 1 when they were doing the marathons.

For a few years I lived in the hometown of Mark Espinoza, who played Jesse on this show. When he would come back to visit, he would go to the bar that was my regular hang out. I was shocked at how small he was. On the show he looked fairly tall, but irl, he was probably about my height and super skinny. So I can only imagine how tiny the girls on the show were, as he was much taller than them on the show. As an aside, he was a super nice guy. My brother and I used to watch this show together every Wed night (another straight guy that watched the show), and my brother had just left to join the army. So I asked Mark to write a note for my brother and autograph a bar napkin, he happily did it.

Hmmmm...I guess I am the only one who was completely bored by this episode. I am sick of the whole waiting room will he live/die trope. I just wanted to get it over with so we can move on with the story. Don't care about Hank and his daughter. I did enjoy amber and Drew, but didn't really care about Ryan. Been there done that. wish she would have just called and told him and saved a lot of time since it didn't change anything in the end. Glad to get a break from snowflake academy. I didn't have a problem with Julia telling Joel over the phone. Joel left, she is doing the best she can, her dad is in the hospital, she just needed to quit being pressured by Joel. Although I do hope they get back together. He was my favorite character until the writers decided to give him multiple personality disorder last season. I am will to just erase that all from my memory though.

I really relate to Amber's character, she reminds me a lot of myself at her age. So, maybe I give her too much credit, but I don't think she has unrealistic expectations of what parenthood actually means. She is smart, and obviously scared, so I am pretty sure she has considered the reality of becoming a parent. There are women who think having a baby is going to be similar to having a really cute living dolly to dress and have fun with, but she doesn't strike me as that type. She has seen her mom struggle as a single parent. She has witnessed Sydney and Max's asshole behavior, and the baby with colic as living examples of how difficult children can be. And if she hasn't, trying to force her to recognize it right that moment, isn't going to all of a sudden open her eyes. First, Amber needs to be able to trust that she truly has her mother's love and support, and then she will be more open to listening. By going straight with the negative, Sarah was telling Amber that she didn't trust her or think she was competent, and Amber wasn't going to be open to listening to Sarah or taking advice from her. I wouldn't be either. Like I said, I think Amber and I have really similar personalities, so I feel like I just take her pain really personally. I just want to hug her and let her know she is smart and strong, and it will be hard, but she will be ok. But like I said, I get Sarah's reaction, and her feelings and concerns are not wrong, but sometimes as parents we have to let that go and address the heart of the matter, which was Amber's fear, not only of becoming a mother, but fear of rejection from her family. After that, we can work on the other details. Of course, if my daughter comes to me, young, single and uneducated, announcing her pregnancy, I reserve the right to screw it up too. Parenthood is hard!

I mentioned this last week, but I was in a situation similar to Amber. No hospital traction sex :p But with a relationship with an unstable partner that ended right before I found out about the pregnancy. I waited until after the first trimester to tell him (and considered not telling him at all) because I didn't want to have to deal with an emotional draining, emotionally abusive asshole's reaction if I had a miscarriage. I am not saying this is exactly Amber's reasoning, but it is hard enough dealing with the reality yourself, without adding the reaction of an unstable man to the mix. As I said before, pregnancy is a long haul thing, there is no need to resolve every issue immediately. Amber is not stupid (though she does make some stupid choices, but who hasn't). I think she just needs time to adjust, and she will get it right in the end.

The reason I keep watching this show, as ridiculous as most of it is, is that when they get stuff right, it hits home. I think the whole thing with Amber and Sarah and Zeke is pretty realistically done. And I just want to slap Sarah. As much as I hated her reaction, it was pretty realistic, and consistent with her character. I thought she was going to get it right the second time, but it took her third try to get to where she needed to be. Pregnancy is not something that immediately needs to be immediately resolved, as scared as Sarah is, and as much as she wants what best for her daughter, and her feelings about it aren't wrong, she has six months left to work with Amber and make sure she is in the best place she can be in when the baby arrives. The immediate need of any expectant mother, but especially one who is young and single, is unconditional love, and the knowledge that the people closest to her are going to love her and support her, and not shame her, because she is feeling enough doubt and shame and fear all on her own. Just a tip if anyone is ever faced with the need to immediately react to pregnancy news. There is lots of time to make sure that everything else is in place. Lectures will not be well received. And I am not sure if Sarah was trying to tell Amber she should get an abortion, but pressuring someone into it be basically telling them they would suck at motherhood is going to cause long term emotional damage. I am fully pro-choice, but the decision needs to come from the pregnant woman because she has weighed her options, and decided it is the best choice for her, not because she feels other people will not support the pregnancy. As for the whole Snowflake Academy lunch kerfluffle, it was absolutely ridiculous. Here is an idea. I have no experience as a school administrator (which apparently makes me as qualified as Kristina) but here is an idea. If you call your vendor, and are about to explode the relationship, take a step back, take a deep breath, and tell vendor that you understand that they can't make last minute changes, and not to worry about it. Then allow the vendor to continue honoring the contract and get the other children fed, and figure out how to get the one kid lunch. It is probably a lot easier and cheaper than having to figure out how to feed 40 kids, no? You can then look around for other vendors, or work with the parents on a solution. Also, I can't imagine with the chaos in that tiny kitchen, with inexperienced child chefs, that there is no cross contamination. Seriously stupid idea. But of course it all works out. I wish the school would fall into a sink hole (when no kids are there of course) and they would just scrap that whole stupid story line. Does anybody know if the school is a charter school or a private school? I was thinking it was a charter school, in which case it is required to make "reasonable accommodations" for food allergies provided that there is a diagnosed allergy with doctor certification. What "reasonable accommodations" means is up for debate, but no parent can demand special foods and expect it to be met that same day. I am assuming if there was medical documentation that the paperwork stating such would have had to be included in the registration paperwork, and they should have been aware of it in advance, and if not, that would need to be taken care of and a plan put in place, which takes time and won't be done the same day. Kristina is an idiot. She lets the parents at the school act the same way they let Max act, so at least it is consistent.

I also thought Zeke was a goner when he went to take a nap. I however, was disappointed that he woke up. He may be the most annoying to me, and his crappy attitude is probably the reason for the rest of the Bravermans' annoying dysfunction. Does that make me a horrible person? I was dreading Sarah's reaction to Amber's pregnancy. I was older and educated with a good job when I became pregnant under similar circumstances. It was hurtful that nobody was happy about my pregnancy. I understand Sarah's concerns, just like I understood my mom's. But at that point the ship has sailed. There is a baby coming into the world, and being openly negative about it is hurtful, and doesn't help at all. Sarah has every right to be worried, I would be too, but you suck it up and focus on the fact that there is a pregnant woman who needs positive support. You act happy, even if you aren't. My sister who was married got pregnant a few weeks after me. She got cards and congratulations from family. I got crickets. It sucks, and I will never trust some of my family members again because of their response. So, I guess this was kind of personal for me. But realistic, so I can appreciate that. Also, Haddie was lovely, it took living across the country for a year to develop a functional personality, because she was one of the most whiny, annoying, selfish characters before she left. Getting away from the co-dependence did wonders for her. I want her to stick around, but am afraid she would fall back into bad habits. I work in a kind of Snowflake Academy. Although it is a public school, not a charter school created by very special parents. But it is a small school (about 50 kids) for kids who cannot function in their normal public school. It is for 7th-12th grades. About 75% of the kids are there because of criminal activity. The other 25% have various disorders, severe ADHD, learning disorders, extreme social problems, etc. Left alone, I have no doubt that the criminal kids would bully the kids with social problems. But we run an extremely tight ship. The kids are never, ever left unsupervised. When they switch classes, or even have to go to the bathroom, they have to be escorted by an adult. Only 1 kid at a time is allowed in the bathroom (we wait outside while they go). There is about a 3:1 student to adult ratio. That is the only way to prevent bullying. Because I am assuming the Snowflake Academy is for special needs kids, they most likely have funding for a lot of adults, but they have to be on it all of the time. But, there is a huge range of abilities at my school, the classes are multi-age, depending on ability. But, the goal is to get the kids to be able to function well enough to get back into their home school. The truth is, we cannot offer great education, because of the differing abilities, the kids on the higher end don't get the opportunities they would get at a bigger school. So, unless they are only offering spots to kids that are highly intelligent, they are going to have a difficult time meeting everyone's needs. Of course, it is the Bravermans, so they will figure out how to operate an ethical, excellent charter school that can offer individualized education to every child, despite abysmal budgets for education.

My almost 9 year old daughter's reviews: Alexander: "Meh, it's ok" Amanda: "That's ok too" Char: "Meh, ok" Emily: "Ahhh! That is all kinds of wrong!" Kini: "Ummm, I don't want to be mean, but she looks like the worlds smallest pregnant woman" Korina: "I like that, it is definitely on the maybe list" Sandhya: "Ooooh! That is more like it. That is my favorite so far" Sean: "I like it and would wear it if I didn't have anything else" By far her favorite was Sandhya, lol. I made her look at all 3 views, hoping she would see the hideousness of it, but nope. So she liked Sandhya, then Korina then Sean. I take no credit for her taste in clothing. I also loved how Zach was totally into the dolls and knew all about them.

It was storming here last night so the satellite cut out several times. I had missed that the chin was supposed to be a tongue, and could not figure out what was going until the judges inspection, and they were raving about it. I think it was a clever idea, but the execution wasn't quite there, and I didn't really like the makeup as a whole, it looked really cheesy and fake. I was surprised that he was in the top. Though it definitely was better than the bottom 3. I would have put him in the middle. I was glad they used the save last night. I like all of the bottom 3 and want to see more from them, although at this point in the season, there is not anyone that I really want to see gone. I think Sasha has a pretty unique perspective, and her stuff is usually fairly unique. I agree that it is a problem that she hasn't spoken up in the group challenges, but hopefully the past couple weeks are a wake up call to be more assertive. I also thought the deer was a disaster. It could have been a tiny bit less of a disaster if it weren't for the elf costume. As it was, it could have been a great horror parody, and one that I would laugh my ass off watching, it just wasn't creepy in any way. The backwards homecoming queen was a mess too, the concept was just too difficult in the amount of time they had. But I did like the black and white idea.

I agree. And the instruction not to make it "costume-y". I wedding dress is nothing but a beautiful costume to be worn on a stage in front of an audience.

I did not like Dita Von Teese. All of her judging was about her and what she would wear. The challenge was not to design for her, so she needed to step out of her own self importance and think about what another woman would like. I did like the other guest judge. She might not like or want to wear all of the designs, but she could get past that and see some of the positives. I agreed with Heidi about almost everything. Thought Kini should have won. Loved Fade's fabric. I was disappointed w/ Sam and Alexander because I loved the oxblood red, and the dresses could have been gorgeous, but they went overboard with the appliques. I really liked Sandhya today (not her design, but her straight forward, honest attitude).

The blind dance made me super uncomfortable, and I had to ff through most of it. Did not enjoy the Bollywood. Was it just me, or was the synchronization off through most of it? Valerie was ahead of Jessica most of the time, which made Jessica seem tired, but it could have just been Valerie going too fast. Was there any ball room tonight? I really liked both of the tap routines. Hello Aaron! The tap choreographer is really good. He makes tap fun and accessible for a broad audience, which is difficult. Zach and Ricky (we are in the finale, and I still want to call him Billy, he obviously is not making a huge impact on me) were my favorite of the night. I thought Zach was harder hitting in it. I really liked the opening group routine too. I loved how they were same sex partnering through most of it. It was unexpected, and beautiful (and I am sick of Travis's routines, so I was surprised when he was the choreographer) I hope Zach wins, but don't care too much. Jessica is my least preferred dancer, but I just wouldn't care very much if she won. This season has not grabbed me. Even though the last few season's have not be my favorites, there are usually at least one or two dancers I feel passionate about, but this season, they are all fine, but that is it.

I watched the first 5 minutes with my 8 yo daughter and she was in tears. She does not like the new doctor. But she looooooooved Matt Smith. She wants to be his companion. I sent her to bed after that, but will have her watch the rest in the next few days. I am interested as to how she will react to seeing Matt at the end. I think I will be ok with him. At this point I don't think I will hate him, nor will I love him as much as I did 10 & 11, but we will see. The last scene w/ him and Clara made me think it is possible. I was totally unspoiled for Matt Smith, and I was happy to see him again, but I was always so annoyed by his relationship with Clara, it just felt really contrived. I did like Clara more this episode than I did all of last season. Hopefully she will continue to grow on me. If not, I hope they get a new companion soon. As for the story, I was kind of meh. I found the end intriguing though and am looking forward to finding out more.