The Daily Bongo
August 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008 -- Evening
On the Big Brother 10 show this evening, we saw the HOH competition that was won by Jerry. The houseguests were asked questions about the date that something happened in the BB house. They then had to roll a skeeball up a board into the correct answer. They received penalty points for the distance they were away from the correct answer. Dan was leading the competition until the final two questions, but then a fluke with the way the balls bounced gave Jerry the lead. Jerry then put up Dan and Keesha after making a deal with Memphis for final two. However, Memphis and Dan have a deal to go to the final two together. They have been together since the beginning of the game, and were originally friends with Brian in the first week. From watching the feeds, Memphis won the POV and is probably going to take Dan off. As Memphis said at the end of the show, he has a deal with Dan and with Jerry, and an agreement with Keesha. So Memphis is gunning to get Renny out of the game.Friday, August 29, 2008 -- Early Morning
I woke up this morning to the horror of horrors: Jerry won HOH. I think that really sucks because he is one person for whom I have no respect or liking. I suppose that means that one of the people that I sort of like will be going home. My two favorites are Renny and Memphis, so I'm going to hope that they remain in the game one more week. Jerry, of all people. That really sucks! At least Ollie went home. It makes you wonder if they should have sent Jerry packing in the second eviction. I wonder if Ollie would have been easier to beat in the HOH.Thursday, August 28, 2008 -- Evening
I'm one of those folks who can't watch the Big Brother 10 double eviction show because of football. The Steelers are playing their last pre-season game tonight. So I am keeping my eye on Joker's Updates where someone is posting as things happen. Michelle was evicted first with Memphis, Keesha, and Renny voting to evict. Keesha won the HOH competition. Now, she should nominate Jerry and Ollie, and she does. Waiting on the POV competition. I'm keeping an eye on Big Brother Network. The guy (or girl) is really good about updating the site, and it's not being hit with everyone in my state--Big Brother-less in Pittsburgh. Dan won the POV. That means that he probably won't be using it. Now the question is who will they vote out? Ollie or Jerry. It really sucks that Jerry would still be around, but the thing is that you know he would suck at any competition. So he is the one that you would want around. Great news! Ollie was evicted from the BB house. Boy, I would love to see the jury house when Ollie shows up. Jerry is really lucky though. He is the most foul-mouthed, scumbag that I ever saw on BB, and he's just coasting along because people keep on wanting to get rid of others. The only good thing is that Jerry has sucked at the competitions. I think coming up close in the HOH (he was tied with Keesha and had two tie breaks with her) probably took it out of him. No live HOH on the show. It's supposed to be later on the feeds. I'll keep an eye out for the competition or at least the results.Tuesday, August 26, 2008 -- Evening
There have been fireworks in the Big Brother 10 house, and Ollie has been the troublemaker. After he stewed over how stupid he was (because he was incredibly dumb to think he was in charge when he wasn't HOH), he started trashing the house. In the past, folks have been given penalty nominations or thrown out of the house for such actions. However, Ollie appears to have suffered no repercussions. On the show tonight, they had the scheming, POV competition, and POV ceremony. Dan picked Rennie's name out of the bag, Memphis picked Keesha's name, and Jerry picked houseguest's choice. Jerry picked Michelle so she would win the POV, take him off, and since Ollie is supposedly "safe," then one of Dan's alliance would go up. As Dan said in his diary room confession, Ollie was incredibly stupid to believe that Dan would give him such power. I think that Ollie just hasn't watched the show before to know that the person who is in the last two of the endurance competition and who gives up, usually gets screwed in the end. Usually, they wind up as the replacement POV nomination and voted out of the house, or one of their alliance is thrown out. Remember Michelle and April this season? April promised to keep Jessie safe, and then put him on the block. Back to the POV competition. It was a puzzle completion competition. It was broken up with Dan, Michelle, and Keesha playing in one heat, while Memphis, Rennie, and Jerry play in the second heat. The winners of the heat compete against each other. Michelle claims to be such a great puzzle solver, but she was an idiot who couldn't get the pieces together. Keesha won the first heat. Memphis won heat 2. Rennie as even really trying. She was just trying to enjoy herself and wondering what she looked like. Jerry was completely useless and out of it. Jerry like Michelle, claimed to be good at puzzles, but he wasn't even close. Memphis won the POV, and in the diary room, Ollie was saying that he was giddy because he knew that he would have a say in the POV ceremony. So Dan came up with an idea to get everyone fighting. He asked Ollie to say Rennie's name, Michelle to say Keesha's, Keesha to say Michelle, and Rennie to say Ollie. Dan basically wanted to get the pressure off of himself. Dan then plays "Replacement Roulette" during the POV ceremony. He says everyone has to say a name, and if they don't, he will put them on the block. Ollie was smirking the whole time until Dan said that Ollie lost the bet, and Michelle was going on the block. We saw some short clips of Ollie going around breaking things. Ollie should be thrown out of the house for that. We found out during the show that there was a poll on the CBS BB website that allows the viewers to get involved in the HOH competition. Basically we get to vote on the answers to the questions in the competition. Also Thursday is a double eviction night, so tune in!Monday, August 25, 2008 -- Late Afternoon
What an afternoon in the Big Brother 10! The POV ceremony just ended, and it seems that Michelle is now up on the block. Ollie and Michelle are really pissed over it. The only thing that would have been better was if Dan had put up Ollie. He didn't though, and Michelle runs up to Dan's HOH room to complain about being thrown under the bus. Ollie sat there and started to explain to Rennie, Keesha, and Memphis how he was in charge this week, how he was really the HOH, and how he was controlling everything. Ollie then tries to tell them that Dan lied to them. Meanwhile, as Keesha said, she's not on the block, Michelle is. It was hilarious because Ollie kept on telling them that he was supposed to be HOH, and Keesha said that maybe he shouldn't have fallen if he was supposed to be HOH. Ollie's thing was that Dan was a plant because Monica didn't exist. It was hilarious about how befuddled Ollie was. Great stuff!Sunday, August 24, 2008 -- Evening
I have been watching the Big Brother 10 feeds this afternoon (since there weren't any Olympic broadcasts on TV), and it is rather interesting to see how Michelle has dumped her alliance with Memphis to join up with Ollie and Jerry. Ollie is so sure that he has the power in the house, and that he is going to be the person who makes the call on the houseguest who is put up on the block. The threesome have been talking away about how the others don't seem to realize how Ollie is in charge of the house, even though he isn't HOH. They really don't seem to realize that Dan is sticking with Memphis, Keesha, and Rennie. I would just love it if Dan puts up Ollie and Ollie is sent to the jury house. That would just be hiliarious. Meanwhile on the show this evening, they showed the results of the HOH competition. Jerry was complaining about the rope cutting into his groin. Jerry said that the circulation to his legs were totally cut off, and he had trouble walking at first. Jerry told Renny that's what happens when you are 75. Trouble started between Memphis and Michelle when Memphis accidentally got Michelle in the face with one of his water balloons. Michelle got all pissy about it, and Memphis said later in the diary room that Michelle should take a valium. Keesha fell shortly after Jerry when the swings smacked into the wall. Jerry came to help her because he knew how it felt on your legs. MIchelle got ripped off the swing when her sneaker got caught in some vines. Memphis just slid off the swing because his body had enough. Again, Jerry came to the rescue. So it was down to Ollie and Dan. Dan said later that his only agenda was to last one second longer. Ollie said that he didn't want to get "this close" and then quit. However, he made a deal with Dan because Dan gave up most of the power for HOH to Ollie. Ollie got to pick one of the nominees (Memphis) and is supposed to get the power to put up the replacement in POV. Memphis was rightfully pissed off about Dan putting him up. However, he said that he was putting his faith in Father Dan. You could only hope that Dan would have the smarts to break his deal with Ollie and put Ollie up in place of Memphis.The closing ceremonies for the Olympics were really impressive. Lots of fireworks. We can only hope that they were live and not CGI as with the opening ceremonies. Tons of people were involved in the dance act. They had little lights on their outfits, all very pretty and well orchestrated. I thought it was great when they had the acrobats with the pogo-stick like shoes on. They were jumping around, reminding me of the contestants on Unbeatable Banzuke. The flame was then handed over to the mayor of London, where the 2012 Summer Olympics will be held.
Saturday, August 23, 2008 -- Evening
The Olympics are winding down with the closing ceremonies scheduled for tomorrow. Six athletes were caught doping at the Beijing games. Those caught include Ukrainians, Igor Razoronov (weightlifter) and Lyudmila Blonska (heptathlaon). Blonska lost her silver medal because she had a positive test for steroids. Others caught doping were: Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Vietnamese gymnast Do Thi Ngan Thuong and Greek hurdler Fani Halkia. Kim Jong Su was using some sort of blood pressure regulation medicine to slow his heart rate so he would have steadier hands at shooting. He had to give up his 50-metre air pistol silver and 10-metre air pistol bronze medals. You would think that they would all know that they would be tested and would get caught. So that must mean that they thought they were doping in a way that couldn't be caught. Or maybe the persan giving them the stuff just didn't do it right. You have to wonder how bright these folks are.There was a lengthy period of trivia on the Big Brother 10 feeds this afternoon, and I think that it was for the POV competition. It seems from things that people are saying that Memphis (who is on the block) won the POV. Now Ollie is telling Michelle that he gets to pick the person who goes up on the block if Memphis takes himself off. If Dan had any sense, he wouldn't do that. In fact, if I were Dan, I would put up Ollie and get everyone to vote him out. We'll have to see what happens, and if Memphis did indeed get the POV.
Friday, August 22, 2008 -- Morning
It seems that Dan won the HOH competition last night after three and a half hours. It seems that having gloves and a raincoat were some help. It came down to Dan and Ollie at the end, and Dan won out. Supposedly on the Showtime late night show, Dan and Ollie were making deals, giving Ollie some say in who goes up for nominations. We'll have to see if that actually pans out.Thursday, August 21, 2008 -- Evening
It was eviction night on Big Brother 10, and not surprisingly, April was evicted with a vote of 4-1. Ollie was the only one who voted to keep April, probably because they were having sex all the time. The pair isn't very bright and didn't realize that the night vision cameras were catching them in the act, not once, but several times. What I think is funny is that they have been pretending it hasn't really been happening. Ollie asked April in his farewell speech if she would be his first girlfriend. I would think that she already is since they are having sex. The HOH competition is an endurance competition. The houseguests are sitting on a disk hanging from a rope. As usual with Big Brother, the houseguests are yanked up into the air and showered with water. I think this one is going to be a longer endurance competition because it doesn't seem like something very strenuous. Every now and again, the houseguests are swung into a cushioned wall. Next Thursday is going to be a double eviction night. Forty five minutes into the competition, Jerry, not surprisingly, is first out of the competition.The USA women's softball team lost the gold medal game to the Japanese yesterday. Well, we found out about it this morning because Beijing is 12 hours ahead of us. What I found interesting is that the US team appeared to have a ringer in the game. It's Crystl Bustos. Bustos looks and sounds like a 30 year old man, and she even has a widow's peak. I'm not sure if it's steroids or what that has Bustos looking AND sounding like a guy. The thing is that if I didn't know she was a woman, I wouldn't have figured it out from the interview. What do you think?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 -- Late Evening
Exciting news at the Olympics! Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh just won the gold medal in women's beach volleyball. The pair is undefeated in the last 108 matches. It was getting nerve wracking for abit there because of the heavy rains that were going on for most of the match. But May-Treanor and Walsh pulled it off. We got to hear all the stories: how the pair almost broke up in 2006 when they were in a losing slump but stayed together and changed their coach; how Walsh hurt her shoulder, had surgery on it, and has the weird looking tape on it; how May-Treanor was going to sprinkle her mom's ashes on the court after the gold medal win (her mom died in 2002); and how Walsh lost her wedding ring in one of the earlier matches and had it found by the grounds crew. Xue Chen and Zhang Xi, from China, got the silver. After the match, Walsh and May-Treanor both said that although they still loved volleyball and weren't giving up on it, they both wanted to start families, future volleyball teams as May-Treanor said. It was really something to see their excitement. You would think that they didn't win the gold already in Athens.Tuesday, August 19, 2008 -- Evening
I went to the Frick Cafe for afternoon tea today, and I was very disappointed in it. The cost of the tea had gone up by $2 to $18. The quality of the food, however, had really gone downhill. There was no discernable chicken in the chicken salad, either to see or taste. The bread for the sandwiches was dry. The scones and creme were okay, maybe the scones were abit drier than I would have liked. The desserts were small and tasteless. Instead of giving four whole strawberries, there were only two, cut in half. The tea was good, and the waiter did bring out all the pots of hot water we wanted. Because of the cost and the quality of the food, I doubt that I will return. Instead, I'll make my own afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches.Big Brother 10 was on this evening, and we got to see the POV competition. It was really funny to see Ollie competing for the POV and being scared shitless because he isn't a very good competitor, and he could tell that April would rip him apart for now winning for her. In a guessing elimination game (guess the number of an item--the person who is closest gets 1 point, the one farthest from the answer is out), it really came down to Jerry with 2 points, Ollie with 0 points, and Dan with 2 points. Dan won the POV and then had a conflict over using it. Dan wanted to use it to take Jerry off, but only if Rennie would put Ollie up. Rennie really didn't play along with Dan's questions. She wouldn't say if she had a deal with Ollie, or who she was thinking of putting up in Jerry's place. The only thing she would say is that if Dan used it, she would view Dan as a trader. So, of course, Dan didn't use the POV, and it is going to come down to Jerry and April on Thursday. Since the show is ending in around three weeks, they are going to have to start eliminating people more quickly.
Sunday, August 17, 2008 -- Early Afternoon
Rafael Nadal won the gold medal in men's single tennis today. Roger Federer had been out of the tournament since earlier in the week, but did manage to win a gold medal in men's doubles yesterday. Federer's performance over the past year has been interesting. Last year at this time, Federer was viewed as unbeatable with a impressive future ahead of him. Now he seems incapable of getting through a tournament to the end. It makes you wonder what has changed. Is it that he can't sustain the level of perfection that is needed to remain number one? Is it that he is aging? (only 27, but still!)Yesterday evening, Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of this year's Olympics in the 4x100 medley relay. I believe that almost every swimming race in this year's Olympics broke a world record. The question that I have is how much of this level of performance is due to inate ability, and how much is due to performance enhancing drugs. I mean, when you have someone like Dara Torres who is performing better at 41 than she did in her 20s, you really have to question what the swimmers are doing, and I don't think it's all in the suits. As one of the guys on Sports Reporters said this morning, if this were any other sport, like baseball, and you had someone in their 40s outdoing their achievements in their 20s, you would instantly believe it was due to performance enhancing drugs. As I've said before, I think that this is the drugs Olympics. The athletes are just taking drugs that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) are not testing for because the drugs are so new or unknown.
Saturday, August 16, 2008 -- Early Evening
There has been a ton of controversy and questions about the finish in the Cavic and Phelps race. The Olympic officials, and the guys who created the timing system, assure us that we should not be question the validity of the results. However, I did find this picture from Sports Illustrated, and it does look like Phelps fingers might be slightly bent. I'm not sure what amount of pressure or how much of the surface of the finish pad must be touched. This race will probably be a question mark in some minds.
News from the Pens. It seems that Ryan Whitney has had a chronic problem with his left foot. The thing that I think is interesting about this is that we haven't heard about this chronic condition before. The even more surprising bit of the news is that instead of having surgery right after the Stanley Cup finals, Whitney chose to wait now to have surgery to correct the problem. He is expected to miss the beginning of the season and to be out for three to five months. As I said, this is an interesting turn of events considering we haven't heard of this chronic problem in the past. I wonder if it's bunions.
Saturday, August 16, 2008 -- Morning
It seems that Milorad Cavic's coach didn't get anywhere with his protest yesterday, and Cavic accepted the silver with grace. However, there are still a few of us out there who question whose hands touched the sensors first. If you look at this nice overhead picture, it looks like Cavic indeed had his fingertips on the sensor while Phelps' hands are still in midstroke. Oh well, it is what it is.
Friday, August 15, 2008 -- Late Evening
I was just watching Michael Phelps race for his seventh gold medal in the 100 meter butterfly. Phelps was behind for most of the race, but they say that he touched the wall a hair's breath before Milorad Cavic. The thing is that as I watched the replays and the slow motion of the final, it looked to me as if Cavic was the one who actually touched the wall first. However, that wouldn't have fit in well with the fairy tale that is Michael Phelps. No, I'm not a Michael Phelps fan. However, it just looked really close and as it if went the other way to me. What I think is really funny is that the NBC guys were saying that it doesn't matter how it looks--because it does look as if Phelps finished second. They claim that the electronic pad that the swimmers touch at the end of the race show that Phelps finished first. Hmmm, interesting! The Serbians have filed a protest to have the race reviewed to make sure that Phelps won. More on the story tomorrow.It seems from the live feeds that Renny nominated April and Jerry for eviction, and it seems that the houseguests are under lockdown now for a possible POV competition later this evening.
Thursday, August 14, 2008 -- Evening
I wasn't able to watch the live eviction on Big Brother 10 this evening because the preseason Steelers game was on the local CBS station. Instead, I had to keep my eyes on Joker's Updates to find out that Libra was evicted. Everyone was talking about evicting her, and she will become the first member of the jury. Finally something nice. Renny won HOH. It came down to her and Keesha, and Renny won out in the end. That is really nice because Renny misses her family, and everytime the HOH got letters from home, Renny would cry for the person. I wonder how Renny will turn things on its head. What she should do is nominate April and Ollie to break that team up. If one of them gets the POV, then maybe put up Jerry. It's going to be an interesting week.Wednesday, August 13, 2008 -- Afternoon
I recorded last night's episode of Big Brother 10 to watch today. It was more of the same. The POV competition had the competing houseguests chopping onions and placing them in either a container to win the POV or a container to win a prize. The two contestants with the most in the prize box won something. Memphis had the most, and unfortunately, he picked the envelope with an onion necklace it in. April was second and got five designer outfits. The usual fighting happened with the girls at each other's throats. Jerry went on a power trip and wanted to have Dan voted out, even though Dan wasn't nominated. Tomorrow is eviction night, and it will probably be Libra who becomes the first jury member.Tuesday, August 12, 2008 -- Late Afternoon
I watched the lamest Olympic sport today. OK, OK, it's probably not THE lamest, but it's one of them! Team handball. Have you seen team handball? Basically, it's a bunch of guys (seven) on a team, who run around throwing a volleyball sized ball to each other. The goal is to throw the ball into a net slightly larger than a hockey goal, and alot smaller than a soccer goal. This is another sport that probably doesn't need performance enhancing drugs. I could get a group of kids from the street on a team that would stand just as good a chance of winning as some of the national teams. What a huge waste of time! There was more controversy in China. The little girl who sang at the opening ceremonies was a stand-in lip syncer. You read that right. The original girl was told she wasn't that cute because of misshapen teeth. So the organizers had a pretty girl stand there, and lip sync because the girl with the misshapen teeth had a good voice. Tiki Barber and some woman announcer were outraged at it, but who really cares. I saw the pictures. The singer girl had crooked teeth. The other girl was perfect in looks (and teeth.) It's not a big deal. Things like this happen all the time. Actors (including child actors) don't sing. They are there for their looks, and a singer provides the voice. I think there are bigger fish to fry than being concerned about hurting a 7-year-old girl's feelings about being a great singer, but having crooked teeth.Monday, August 11, 2008 -- Evening
Although Jerry was talking about using the POV today, he wound up not doing it. The nominations are going to stay the same. The question becomes which of the pair are more likely to be voted out of the Big Brother 10 house. I'm figuring it will be LIbra because she is the one who really inspires others to hatred.There was a report on the news about the swimming times at the Olympics. There are world records being broken left and right, and everyone is wondering what the deal is. Well, the story was that it was the type of swimming suit that the competitors are using. It seems that Speedo came up with this new technique to make a swim suit that cuts down on swimming times. After competitors started improving performance, other companies came out with a similar suit. The most interesting comment in the story was Gary Hall, recently retired US swimmer and Olympic medalist. Hall commented that it could be the suit, or it could be the performance enhancing drugs. As Hall says, people take things that aren't on the banned substance list, yet, because the substance is new and the officials aren't aware of it. That's cheating because they know that as soon as the officials find out about it, it will be banned. So the report talked to Dara Torres, the 41 year old mother who made the Olympic swimming team. She said that she only takes amino acids that are on the approved list. I thought that was a funny statement. Here's a woman who is swimming faster in her 40s than she did in her 20s. Yes, that is highly suspicious, and it's not how the human body works. It wreaks of performance enhancing drug. Is she using a banned substance or an officially undiscovered one? When Jimmy Connors was competing in his late 30s and early 40s, he had some bright moments, but he admitted that he didn't perform at his early standard and that his recovery time was much longer. Are the athletes now just super men or women or chemically enhanced? I would bet on the latter.
Sunday, August 10, 20008 -- Evening
Olympic observations:- I don't think the badminton players take performance enhancing drugs.
- I can't believe a close-cropped beard will cause you to a swimming match, but it obviously will. So why doesn't the coach make players shave?
- Beijing looks very clean and modern when we see the city on TV. I think that I expected something less modern. Beijing looks like any other modern Western city, even with Westernized fast-food restaurants.
- I think that it's neat that Coke sponsored the Olympics show this afternoon on NBC and minimized the number of comercials. It was great to watch long stretches of sports without all those commercials.
- I cringe everytime I see the women volleyball players, drenched in sweat, give each other a big old hug. Imagine exercising in high humidity and heat, and then hugging with wet, smelly, flesh. Yuck!
There have been tons of fights on the Big Brother 10 live feeds. Unfortunately, they always happen later in the evening for me, so I have only been watching them on YouTube. Jerry won the POV competition, again! He's an annoying old man, but he manages to keep himself as a vital element. He's always willing to mix it up, and in the POV competitions, he's always willing to go for the POV as opposed to the other gifts and enticements. On this evening's Big Brother, there were lots of fights. April, MIchelle, Libra, Keesha, and Jerry just got into one fight after another. Jerry is just really going over board, saying that Dan should burn in hell for saying he would keep Jessie, then voting against him. When it came to the food competition, the stars from the past seasons were there. For season 1, it was Chicken George; season 2, Bunky; season 3, Amy; season 4, Jun; season 5, Jase; season 6, Janelle; all-stars, Boogie; season 8, Jen; and season 9, Matty. Dan went first for Monday and picked Boogie. The houseguests had to pick a former houseguest and decide if a story was in the news based on help from the star. Dan picked Boogie and lost food for the house because he thought the Brett Favre story was false (that Favre was going to the Jets.) Rennie picked Jen and won food for the house because of the question on gas prices. Jerry lost food when he picked Janelle and didn't believe her when she said that Jessie was not in the news for getting on the cover of Muscle and Fitness. Memphis picked Amy and played for a Grill. Amy made up some stupid story about Chinese officials banning bald, smelly taxi drivers during the Olympics. That story was actually true though. Ollie picked Matty for the Thursday food day. Matty told the story about Chinese story about scientists using lasers to prevent rain. Ollie didn't believe it, but it was true. Libra played for Friday with Bunky. She didn't want to believe Bunky when he said that Cheech and Chong were reuniting. Michelle played for a feast with Jase. She got the question that BB simulated an earthquake, which wasn't true. April picked Chicken George for Saturday. Her question was that Britney Spears was going to record a country album, and she believed Chicken George. Finally, it was Sunday and Keesha's turn. She picked Jun. The comment was that Paris Hilton told people not to vote for George Bush again. Only Rennie, Michelle, and Keesha got food for the house. After the game, back in the HOH room, Michelle and Memphis have a talk, but Michelle is not too bright. Rennie goes up to talk to Michelle and tries to remind Michelle that April was the one who put Jessie up. As Rennie said, April is full of crap that she didn't want Jessie to go home, but April put Jessie up. Rennie brought to Michelle's attention that April knew that Jessie was in trouble but didn't want Jerry to use the POV. Michelle ain't bright though, and didn't get it.
Sunday, August 10, 2008 -- Early Afternoon
I've been spending alot of time over the past day watching the Olympics. Yesterday, Michael Phelps won his first gold medal in his quest to become the Olympian with the most gold medals in Olympics history. Right now, he has seven medals. The win yesterday was in the 400 meter individual medley, and Phelps broke the world record in the race. I also watched Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win their opening match in women's beach volleyball. This morning, I watched men's soccer. The US actually managed to tie in its match against the Netherlands. The Netherlands initally had a 1-0 lead. Then the US tied and pulled ahead, but the Netherlands came on to tie it up in the end. President Bush is at the Olympics. Yesterday, he visited with May-Treanor and Walsh, hitting the ball around with them, and giving May-Treanor a playful smack on the backside. Today, Bush was on hand to see the US men's basketball team beat China.Saturday, August 9, 2008 -- Evening
The Big Brother 10 live feeds have had alot of trivia today. It's probably because the houseguests are participating in the POV competition. Keesha and Libra have not so suprisingly been nominated for eviction. It was pretty obvious that Michelle would do that because she feels that the people most responsible for Jessie leaving are Keesha and Libra. However, she should be blaming April, who put Jessie on the block. If Memphis was April's real target, then she could have put Dan up against him. Also, when Libra and Keesha went to April and said that they wanted to vote out Jessie, then April should have had her puppet, Jerry, use the POV to take Jessie off the block.The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics started yesterday. NBC is devoting all three channels it manages to the Olympics. I have to admit that I wonder about each athlete that I see. I wonder if they are using some sort of chemical enhancement. I would imagine that I'm not the only one who is disillusioned about the state of athletics in the world. It would be nice to think that there are people out there who excel and succeed because of natural ability and hard work. However, I think that most of the athletic accomplishments nowadays is because of chemical enhancement.
Thursday, August 7, 2008 -- Evening
It was eviction night on Big Brother 10. The show started out great. We got to see the live feed scheming by Libra and Keesha to get Jessie out. They got Renny and Dan to vote with them to give Memphis the four votes he needs. Jerry goes to talk to Dan afterwards and after alot of yakking things that Dan is on the side to vote out Memphis. What no one knows is that Dan is America's player, and he is going to have to vote the way the fans say. I think from reading the Big Brother websites that the majority of people are against Jessie, so we will see if that is actually the case. The fans did vote to evict Jessie, by a vote of 4 to 3, Jessie was out. What was funny was that during the interview with Julie Chen after the eviction, she didn't mention that Dan was America's Player. We found out that the houseguests were kept away most of the night by screams from fans who got to call in and make wake up messages. The HOH competition had the houseguests answering true and false questions about the wake up calls. Unfortunately, Michelle won the HOH. I would imagine that she'e going to e putting up Keesha and Libra, maybe Dan. Julie announced a twist to the game. There is going to be one houseguest from each of the previous nine seasons who will compete in a special competition with the current HOH. There will be more details on the Sunday show.Wednesday, August 6, 2008 -- Evening
I watched Big Brother 10 last night, and boy was it interesting. Well, it was interesting in the sense that all the houseguests starting yelling and fighting with each other (well, fighting verbally.) It was hilarious, and the funniest moment was when Michelle asked the group as a whole if they knew what they were fighting about. Meanwhile, it was Keesha's birthday and between spirited yelling bouts, the houseguests sang happy birthday. It was truly hilarious. The fighting started because April was complaining in the HOH room about Jerry and Libra being two of the people picked to play in the POV competition. Yeah, the two are weak links, and April was doing a superb job of whining and being a cry baby about how she was the only one to fight for POV. Well, the real kicker was that Jerry and Libra were the final two to compete with Libra winning the competition. It was one of those deals where the winner could pick from the prizes that the others had won. Libra chose to take Michelle's Hawaiian vacation and that left Michelle with the unitard. Boy, even more whining, crying, and poor sportsmanship from Michelle at that one. She didn't want to embarass herself with a unitard. Heavens she could embarass herself by being a crybaby. Jerry as the second finisher took the POV after getting April to agree to give him and Libra a share of her $10,000 winnnings. It looks from the live feeds that Jessie will be the person going home, especially since America gets to control Dan's vote.The groundbreaking for the Pens' new arena should happen next week. The event will be at 11 a.m. on Thursday, August 14.
The scientists at NASA finally had a press conference to stop the rumors and misinformation. The rumors went from the President being briefed about organic materials on Mars to the supposed discover of organically inhospitable soil. Well, scientists spoke up to say that they really don't have anything to announce at this point, and that they are still investigating the results (which appears to be varying depending on the testing oven on Phoenix. It seems that the scientists admit that they did find perchlorate in the soil samples. However, they haven't determined yet if perchlorate makes the soil inhospitable because scientists have found perchlorate on Earth, especially in Chile's Atacama Desert which has been used as a stand-in for the Martian surface for Earth bound scientists.
Sunday, August 3, 2008 -- Evening
I have been reading some science blogs that claim that the folks from NASA have been briefing the President about the Phoenis Mars Polar Lander findings. On Thursday, tests confirmed the presence of water on the Martian surface. Because of this, Phoenix's mission has been extended. However, it doesn't end there. The story is that the President has been briefed because of something else that has been found. (Shades of Dan Brown's Deception Point.) Supposedly it isn't a lifeform, but organic fingerprints. This might mean that life existed at one time on the planet. The only problem with the blog stories is that the briefings with the President have been "secret." Yep, that means that there haven't been any official record or announcement about them. So that makes me wonder about the validity of the stories. With that said, it does make for an interesting discussion. Was there life on Mars at one point? Could it possibly still exist? What would this mean for those whose religious beliefs tell them that life only exists on this planet? Of course, we will see if there are any further annoucements, or if this is one of those Area 51 type rumors.Big Brother 10 was on this evening. Jessie was talking to Rennie at the start of the competition to figure out who she would nominate. Rennie said that she wasn't sure, and it might not be him. Meanwhile, Jessie keeps on talking throughout about which body parts are being exercised by the competition. Jerry was the first to bail at 26 minutes. As he said, he just couldn't hold out. Libra was being a baby the whole time, and she gave up at 33 minutes. What a sissy! Melissa commented that she knew that either she, Jessie, or Memphis needed to win. Dan admiteted that he needed to throw the competition, and that he felt safe as America's Player. Dan said that since he has been throwing the competitions, no one will come after him. Meanwhile, Weak Link, Libra, said that she believed that Dan threw the competition, and she claimed that something just wasn't right. Hmmm, but Libra didn't throw anything by giving up after 33 minutes. Ollie gave up at 55 minutes. Jessie meanwhile was whining and crying about being in pain. You would think that someone with muscles like that would have been able to hold on. Jessie claimed afterwards that it was a bogus competition. Renny just thought that it was amazing that the other guys were dropping but that she was still there. Memphis was out at 1 hour and 16 minutes. The interesting thing is that everyone of these people just gave up. It wasn't slipping or anything else. Just lack of willpower. Renny was the only one who slipped. She was trying to get the circulation back into her hands, and lost her grip. Renny was out at 1 hour and 58 minutes. Michelle and April make a deal. Michelle said that she can't hold out much longer, and April assures her that she won't put up Michelle. April swears to god that she would not put Michelle or Jessie up for eviction. (Liar.) Michelle, however, doesn't drop, and April says that she can't promise her more. Michelle just cries. Finally after 2 hours and 40 minutes, and a promise from April that she wasn't going, Michelle let go. Jessie came over and brought Michelle a drink and gave it to her. The celebration was very subdued, and there wasn't alot of loud cheering. Michelle cries and tells Jessie that April said that she wouldn't put up Michelle or Jessie. Michelle just kept on crying and saying that she couldn't use her hands. April comes over to hug Michelle, and Jessie thanks April (with Libra listening in.) Dan was given the assignment as America's Player to try to get Jessie nominated. So when Dan talks to April, he freaks her out, and she starts to think that Dan is acting really weird. When April goes to tell Keesha and Libra, they say that Dan must be a twist. Boy, the guy isn't very good at doing things. Keesha tells Memphis that the others might be going against him. Memphis tells Keesha that sometimes you need someone who isn't in your alliance to help you out. Memphis says that he thinks he will go up against Jerry or Dan. Meanwhile Keesha lets out to Memphis that it will probably be Jessie who would go up. Renny also lets Keesha know that April is talking about Keesha behind her back. April doesn't like how Keesha talks to Memphis. So Jessie and Memphis are nominated, and Michelle hopes that April wasn't lying when she said that Jessie wasn't the target. I would get rid of Jessie because he is the most annoying player, well, second only to Libra, and maybe April and Ollie.