The Daily Bongo

July 2009


Friday, July 31, 2009 -- Early Morning

Russell Wins HOH
It came down to Russell and Jeff last night, and Russell managed to hang on longer. After the competition, Russell and Jeff had a talk. Russell promised Jeff and Jordan safety. Russell even swore on his dad's life. We'll have to see if Russell keeps his promise. I would love to see Ronnie, Jessie, or Lydia go home this week. They should target Jesse because he could be a threat with HOH wins.

Thursday, July 30, 2009 -- Post Show

Endurance Competition
Great news! Ronnie quickly eliminated. He got knocked off by the diploma and joins Kevin on the sidelines! Also out are Lydia and Natalie. Let's go Jeff or Jordan.

Thursday, July 30, 2009 -- Evening

Eviction Night
It's eviction night on Big Brother. It's sad that Casey has been nominated because Ronnie got caught scheming with Jeff and Jordan, but unfortunately, he's going to remain in the house. For some reason the houseguests that that an endurance competition on for the HOH competition. On the show this evening, we found out from Julie Chen that the cliques are being disbanded. That is going to make it easier now for someone who is in the same clique to get rid of others. No one is safe now. When it came time for the vote, everyone except for Russell voted to evict Casey. That is a shame because Casey was a fun guy. His speech before the vote was amazing. Casey called out Jesse as an ignoramus who was self-centered and called Ronnie a jerk. Casey also told the others to not be sheep and led to their slaughter. When Casey was leaving, Jesse tried to say something, and Casey just told him that he told everyone one thing and stabbed people in the back. Then Natalie, the pit bull, was trying to make it seem that Casey was the back stabber. I really, really hate Ronnie, and I hope that he gets his just desserts this coming week. Jessie is a close second, Lydia third. After Casey left, the house guests were called into the living room and told that there were no more cliques. They were also told that one of them would get a mystery power that could be used in the next two weeks. The power must be kept a secret until it is used. It's an America Votes, so the fans get to decide who gets the power. It's called the Coup D'Etat. That person can replace one or two of the nominations for eviction. The HOH competition was an endurance match. Makes you wonder how they figured it out. The houseguests were on small seat swing and spun around. A huge diploma was added to the mix to whack the players as they spun around. The first five who are eliminated get to pick a prize package. One of the packages has a $5000 prize.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 -- Evening

Casey Blindsided
Things are heating up on the Big Brother live feeds. All the houseguests seem to be scheming against each other, and the Lydia/Natalie rivalry is heating up. Michele took herself off the block, and Casey was put up in her place. He was really blindsided by that because everyone seemed to think that Jessie would nominate Ronnie. Lydia and Kevin are trying to keep their clique sound, but it seems that everyone is in on the plan to vote out Casey. The thing is that someone other than an Athlete or a Brain needs to win HOH. I would love to see Jessie, Natalie, Ronnie, or Chima go home next, especially Ronnie. Natalie is really scheming to get rid of Lydia. The funny thing is that I'm feeling for Jessie because he has both Natalie and Lydia giving him a hassle. Chima, wearing a big-ass, ugly hat as you can see in the picture, Jordan, Michele, and Natalie were talking about what the next HOH competition might be. They started talking in detail about different types of endurance competitions (obviously they think it will be endurance this week) when BB told them to stop talking about it.

Sunday, July 26, 2009 -- Evening

Ronnie the Rat Lives
With Jessie as the HOH, Ronnie the Rat is safe in the house for another week. Jessie is keeping Ronnie around for some unknown reason. It seems from the live feeds that Jessie nominated Jordan and Michele for eviction, but Michele won the POV competition yesterday. There are rumors that Casey will be put up in her place, and he will be voted out. Now for a description of what they had on the BB show. We got to see what happened after the HOH competition on Thursday. Ronnie admitted that he was quite hopeful that Jessie would keep him. Meanwhile, Kevin was worried because he saw Ronnie mouthing "thank god" when Jessie won. Casey told Kevin that they would have to see what Jessie would do because he has the ability to manipulate Jessie. Also, we got to see Russell make a secret deal with Ronnie. Russell admits that he is trying to play as many angles as possible. Back in one of the rooms, Natalie and Russell want to get rid of Casey. Ronnie the Rat laughs at the idea that there is hope for him because of the support of Jessie, Russell, and Natalie. It was obvious that there is tension between Natalie and Lydia over Jessie. Lydia has been having sex with Jessie (really disgusting in my opinion), and she is jealous of Natalie's relationship with Jessie. Well, Casey mentioned in front of Natalie that Jessie really needs to not add a target on his back by keeping Ronnie, and Natalie ran and spun that to Jessie because she wants Casey out and Ronnie to stay in. I think it is hilarious how the stuff we see on TV tries to show the Jessie/Lydia relationship as a kindergarden love. Nope! As Kevin put it, "Lydia's into Jessie, Natalie's into Jessie, and Jessie's into Jessie." In the Have/Have Nots competition, the Off-Beats had 12 ice cubes in their cup, while Jordan (the only remaining Popular) had 11. and the Brains had more than more that 12 and had to be the Have Nots. Kevin was targeting the Brains because of Ronnie. The food voted on the menu by the fans was cocktail weinies and cabbage. I really hate Ronnie, and hie arrogant happiness at not being nominated. He had an act where he tried to pretend that he was surprised to not be nominated. What a jerk!

Thursday, July 23, 2009 -- Evening

Eviction Night
Tonight was eviction night on Big Brother. CBS showed the outing of rat, Ronnie. They also showed Russell tormenting Ronnie. For the past few days, Ronnie has been holed up in the HOH room, eating the candy and chips that he got as HOH. Everytime Ronnie would leave the room, when he was called to the Diary Room for example, Russell would race into the house, and mock Ronnie the entire time. Unfortunately, it was down to Laura and Jordan, and everyone except for Natalie voted for Laura to be evicted. After Laura was evicted, we saw the HOH competition. The game was a skee ball type game. The houseguests got to launch a ball down a slide that they could jerk to launch the ball. Everyone got one ball. Jessie and Jeff tied, so they had a tie breaker round. Jessie scored in the 6 bucket. Jeff almost got the 10, but it bounced out and into the 3 bucket. It sucks that Jessie is HOH because he is still buddy-buddy with Ronnie so that means he will probably be safe this week.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 -- Evening

Feynman Video Lectures Online
Well, I guess I have to thank Bill Gates. Yes, it does make my skin crawl, but after obtaining the rights to the Richard Feynman 1964 Messenger Lecture videos from the Feynman estate, the BBC, and Cornell University, Gates made the videos public. The videos were produced from a seven lecture series given at Cornell in 1964 and broadcast on the BBC. Gates is making the video series available on Project Tuva. I started to watch the first lecture on gravitational motion, and I have to admit that I was impressed. The videos are accompanied by a transcript of the lecture and extras that give more information on the topic as it is discussed. For example, when Feynman brings up Galileo, the extra has a biography of Galileo Galilei. If you click on the extra, the video pauses while you look over the material. All in all, a wonderful treat. And we get to see Dr. Feynman lecture, in addition to hearing him. Now we can watch him write on the chalkboard and pace the stage with nervous energy. If you have the time, check out the seven lectures.

Tuesday, July 21,2009 -- Afternoon

Ronnie Outed
Ronnie was outed last night on the Big Brother feeds. He was spreading rumors, saying that Laura said that Russell was voting for her. Natalie said it wasn't true and left the room to complain to Jesse and Russell. Well, things progressed, and finally Laura came out and denied in front of everyone that she said that to Ronnie. Ronnie tried to backpedal, but too late. He was caught. The whole house got together and compared notes. Then everyone realized how Ronnie has been playing and lying to everyone. Yes, he's "playing the game." When you get outed though, there's not much left for you. Now it's Ronnie against everyone, and everyone wants Ronnie on the chopping block next week.

Sunday, July 19, 2009 -- Evening

Ronnie as HOH
So Ronnie has been showing his true colors and his allegiance to the athletes. As the show started this evening, Laura smartly called Ronnie as someone who worked both sides, even though Ronnie denied that he did not vote for Braden. Meanwhile Michele admitted to Chima that she voted for Chima to go. Chima went off on Michele. Ronnie claimed though that Michele still voted to evict Braden after that. I don't know why Ronnie thinks anyone doesn't see his double dealing. Right after talking to Jeff, Ronnie runs over to Russell, Jeff, Lydia, and Natalie and says that he told the others that he voted for Chima and they believe him. Yeah, right. Ronnie is such a weasel. He told the Athletes group that he is just playing the game. Well, I hope the game plays him next week, and he finds him butt outside of the house. Ronnie's HOH room was sickening with Ronnie going crazy over getting Legally Blonde: the Musical and a bubble wand. Ronnie really let the power go to his head, telling Casey that Casey is the one who voted for Braden. I really, really dislike Ronnie.
BB Show
A good portion of the begining of the show dealt with Ronnie's backstabbing. Then the houseguests had a luxury competition to watch a special screening of The Ugly Truth, a new movie. One guy and one girl got to compete to watch the movie. Jessie was really annoyed to see Dan, BB19 winner, host the competition. Casey and Jeff battled for the win, and Casey won. Poor Casey: the person he least wanted to go to the movie as Chima, and she won. So Casey and Chima were going off to see the movie, and they got to pick which group would be in the have nots. Casey said he thought it should be the Athletes because they had it easy last week. Chima said she wanted it to be the Populars. Well, Casey wanted to do rock, paper, scissors to decide, and Chima said that it was obvious that Ronnie wanted to go home. She was a real bitch. I really don't like Ronnie, Chima, Russell, and Jessie.
BB Live Feeds
Jordan is miserable on the live feeds because she told Ronnie to never talk to her again, and Ronnie immediately ran to Russell, Natalie, and Lydia to say that he's nominating Jordan in Jeff's place.

Saturday, July 18, 2009 -- Evening

Nominations and POV
Ronnie has had to expose himself since he won HOH. From watching him last week, he was making deals with both camps in the Big Brother house. The question was where did he actually stand? Well, we knew as soon as Ronnie stabbed the Jeff/Braden group in the back by telling them that he was going to evict Chiima when instead he evicted Braden. However, some wanted to see who Ronnie would nominate for eviction. Fans of the show were hoping that Jessie, Russell, Natalie, or Lydia would go up. No such luck though. Ronnie has aligned himself with those that he feels are strong in the house, little realizing that he will be the first to go in that alliance. Ronnie nominated Jeff and Laura. The POV competition just ended a little bit ago, and it looks as if Jeff won the POV. Who will Ronnie put up in his place? We are all hoping that it will be Russell, but that's not very likely. I would imagine that Ronnie will go for Jordan. We'll see if I'm right, probably on Monday.

Thursday, July 16, 2009 -- Evening

Eviction Night
It was eviction night on Big Brother tonight. Ronnie had been saying that he would vote to evict Chima, and he was scheming with those who were on the side of Braden and the Athletes. When Braden and Chima got to give they final speech, Braden apologized for the negative things he said, and asked to stay. Chima, on the other hand, attacked Braden saying anyone who would vote for a misogynist or bigot should be voted out. Russell, Natalie, Kevin, Lydia, and Ronnie voted to evict Braden while Jeff, Jordan, Laura, Michele, and Casey voted to evict Chima. So Ronnie got caught in his lie, but will he pay for it? So Jessie broke the tie by voting to evict Braden. When it came to the HOH competition, Ronnie won, which means that the Brains are safe this week. In my opinion, the Athletes should have not been allowed to compete in the HOH. It should have been against a whole clique. Oh well. I don't like the Athletes (except for Jeff), Lydia, Kevin, Chima, or Ronnie. So far, I think that maybe Casey is my favorite player.

Thursday, July 16, 2009 -- Late Afternoon

Crosby Espy Winner
Sidney Crosby won the ESPY as Best NHL Player last night. Dan Bylsma was nominated as Best Coach and the Pens were nominated as Best Team. Obviously, Bylsma and the Pens didn't win those awards. The ESPYs will be broadcast on ESPN this Sunday.
Apollo 11 stream
We Choose the Moon turned out to be rather lame. Yeah, it was a nice Flash animation of the lift-off, but other than that, it gets a big thumbs down. The NASA Apollo 11 radio transmissions are very cool. Yes, it can be incredibly boring to hear every second of back and forth discussion, but I think it's really cool to hear every second. We get to hear about the astronauts heartbeats, trajectory, what they see, which stations are picking up the signal, and other minutiae.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 -- Evening

Pens' 2009-2010 Schedule Released
The Pens have released their 2009-2010 schedule. None of the games leap out at me as one I must attend. This season, I'm going to share the tickets with another couple. The costs keep going up every year, and this just makes it affordable.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 -- Evening

Apollo 11 Anniversary
This coming Thursday, July 16, will mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon launch. There are several events planned around the event. NASA is doing its part with its Apollo 11 40th Anniversary page and by putting out the radio transmissions between command and the astronauts. The radio transmissions will run in real time starting on Thursday. Also, they have been releasing tweets about the mission. Finally, NASA will be releasing a remastered version of the moon landing on Monday, July 20, to coincide with the actual moon landing. Another option to experience Apollo 11 in real time is We Choose the Moon, which is sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. I know that I will be glued to the computer/television from Thursday through Monday. On Monday, I'm planning a small party to celebrate the moon landing by watching The Dish and watching Apollo 11 documentaries.
POV Competition
From the live feeds, I know that Braden has pretty much sealed his fate with his arguments with Lydia and Kevin after Braden was put up on the block when Lydia was taken off. I'm not a huge fan of Lydia. In fact, I'm having trouble this season in liking anyone. At the start of the show this evening, Jeff realized that he was out of the loop with his own team because he didn't know who was going to go up. Meanwhile, Lydia and Kevin are claiming that Jeff knew and that he kept it from Lydia. In the show this evening. Lydia as just boo-hooing about how she was being judged for his looks, and it was so high school. Well these folks act like high schoolers. I really can't stand Ronnie. He told Chima that he was a national champion for persuasive speaking. Ronnie is an idiot. He has a secret alliance with the Athletes, but then he goes and tells Braden that he is going to go up on the block. Russell caught him, and Ronnie tries to deny it. Ronnie is one of the many annoying people in the house. The guy is an idiot. He's a "brain" because he's a weird gamer. If anything, he should be on the Off-Beats team. Unfortunately, it will probably be Braden who leaves on Thursday because of the fights he had with the Off-Beats, and we will be stuck with Chima's annoying laugh.

Sunday, July 12, 2009 -- Evening

BB Show
We got to see the BB HOH room on the show this evening. It looks really cool with a wall that has a waterfall built in. It looks really cool. Of course, this season we have to see more of Jesse, which can make a person want to puke, but whatcha gonna do? Ronnie seems like a real idiot. He's only a "brain" because he plays video games. OK! The food competition is now a food and other stuff competition. So if your clique loses, you have to eat slop, can have only a cold water shower, and have to sleep in a room that has just a very thin mattress and pillow. The competition this week was basically to connect some pipes between giant H, A, V, and Es so the neon liquid going through them empties out in the end to spin a wheel. Well, the Brains were totally incompetent. I had no problem believing that because the Brains seem like a bunch of idiots. They lost (because I don't think there is a full brain between the three of them), and Chima threw a hissy fit because she is a pampered princess. Meanwhile, we see Laura constantly trying to hit on Jesse. Meanwhile, he doesn't even talk back to her. At the nomination ceremony, Jesse nominated Chima and Lydia for eviction. Of course, we already know that Lydia is off the block and Braden is on.

Sunday, July 12, 2009 -- Late Afternoon

Big Brother Rewind
Real Player has done a wonderful job with the BB live feeds. They have a new feature called Flashback that lets you go back to watch past action from the live feeds. This was really cool when I got a chance to catch the action of Russell flipping out on teammate Jeff. It seems that Russell had issues with Jeff not being able to spell technotronics in a competition. (Fight was at 11:20 am today.) Russell really seesm to be off the dead end. Also, I found out that Russell won the POV, and that he took Lydia off the block. Braden is up in her place, and it seems like the house is going against Braden. Tonight is the second episode. I wonder what we will get to see in it.

Friday, July 10, 2009 -- Early Afternoon

POV Competition Starts
I just got home from work, and as I ate my lunch I was watching the live feed for BB. From the conversation that everyone was having at the breakfast table (10:30 am BB time), it seems that Lydia and Chima are up for eviction. Chima is annoying with her laugh, but I really don't know anyone yet to have a strong dislike, or like for that matter. While I watched Ronnie and Laura primping in the bathroom, Natalie came in saying something about POV competition, and the feeds all went to fishes.

Thursday, July 9, 2009 -- Evening

Big Brother Returns
Finally! My favorite time of summer: the return of Big Brother. This is number 11, and it seems like it might be an interesting season. There are some interesting people. Lydia is covered with tattoos, Ronnie is an annoying geek, and Laura has humungous fake boobs. All the girls were drooling over Jeff, a really cute ad guy. The twist is that everyone is part of a clique, which we already knew. The big thing is that when a member of your clique wins HOH, no one in the clique can be nominated for eviction. Some people didn't like the cliques, like the off-beats becuse high school was always rough for them. As we know, the groups are the Brains, Popular, Athletes, and Off-Beats. This is how it broke up:
Athletes: Russell, Jeff, Natalie
Popular: Braden, Jordan, Laura
Brains: Michele, Chima, Ronnie
Off-Beats: Lydia, Kevin, Casey

The houseguests had to compete for HOH once they went out in the back to find out which clique they were in. The competition was called the wedgie. They had to get into this rig with big underwear and then hold on to a toilet seat as they were raised into the air. The last person holding on won, but that person wasn't going to be HOH. That's where the mystery houseguest came into play. the mystery house guest was a former BB competitor and associated with a clique. The former BB competitors are:
Athletes: Jessie
Popular: Jessica
Brains: Brian
Off Beats: Cowboy

Whichever clique won would have their former BB member come into the house as the HOH. First out was Michelle, quickly followed by Ronnie. Then the former HOHs got to vote on giving superwedgies. Both Cowboy and Jessica voted for the Athletes, while Brian voted for the Brains, and Jessie for the Off-Beats. then Lydia, Jordan, and Kevin fell out. Then Jeff dropped. Then the Athletes were given three super wedgies while the Brains got one. That caused Chima to drop out for the Brains. So Brian was not going into the BB house. Then Casey dropped, and the Off-Beats were out. No Cowboy! It came down to the Popular and the Athletes. Then Laura was down. It was down to two (Russell and Natalie) for the Athletes and Braden for the Popular. Braden dropped out, and the Athletes won. So that menas Jessie was back in the house. Russell was happy because he was safe for a week, and was worried about the target on his back. The show ended there, and the live feeds don't start until midnight Eastern time. So more on BB tomorrow!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 -- Afternoon

Max Talbot Shoulder Surgery
Max Talbot had shoulder surgery today for a problem that has been bothering him for awhile. The surgery was on his left shoulder and repaired a torn labrum, which circles the socket where the arm connects to the shoulder and provides more support. Talbot is expected to be out for four to five months, so that means he will miss the beginning of the regular season.
Pens' Stanley Cup DVD
The Pens released a DVD of their 2008-2009 Stanley Cup run. Last night, Kris Letang and Tyler Kennedy joined a lucky group who got a special screening of the DVD at a local theater, the Lowes at the Waterfront. The DVD costs $24.98. I'm waiting until Thursday to order mine from Barnes and Noble online because I have a coupon that will give me an additional discount on top of my member discount.

Friday, July 3, 2009 -- Evening

Fedotenko returns
Ruslan Fedotenko signed a one year, $1.8 million deal with the Pens today. Fedotenko did a good job last year, and it really was a shame that he broke his hand in that fight with Colby Armstrong. Fedotenko was on a good run at that point, and it took him awhile to get back into the groove when he came back. No word yet on Petr Sykora, but Ray Shero seems to think that he can just let Sykora sit around because no one else will want him.

Thursday, July 2, 2009 -- Afternoon

Will They Stay or Will They Go? They Go...
Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill will not be Pens next season. Hal Gill will be going to the Montreal Canadiens for $4.5 million over two years. Rob Scuderi will be going to the LA Kings. So far, the only thing that I have heard there is that the signing happened. One of the local sports reporters, Rob Rossi, who reports for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, said that he got a confirmation text from Scuderi. TSN finally posted the details for Scuderi. He'll get a total of $13.6 million for four years. Also leaving the Pens is Mathieu Garon. He's heading to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a total of $2.4 million over two years.
Canadian Hockey Team
Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Jordan Staal were invitees to Canada's 2010 Olympic hockey team. This does not mean that they will be on the team, but they have a shot to make the roster. All in all, 46 players were invited.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 -- Evening

Big Brother 11 Houseguests Announced
Big news from Big Brother 11. We finally got to find out who the houseguests are and what the big twist or plot will be this season. There will be 13 houseguests. Twelve will start the show with a mystery guest to come in after the show starts. The houseguests are going to be split into one of four groups: popular, athletes, brainiacs and off-beats. Yep, it's a theme of high school cliques. Someone on one of the Big Brother rumor sites thought that might be the case. The house looks really cool.
      
I can't wait for the new season to start. Here's a break down of the houseguests:
It will be interesting to see how the guests are split up. Some are obvious; others aren't.