The Daily Bongo

September 2008


Tuesday, September 30, 2008 -- Afternoon

Bad news for the Pens. Sergei Gonchar is going to need arthroscopic surgery on his dislocated left shoulder and will be out for four to six months. The surgery will take place this Thursday. The rest of the Pens are in Stockholm for their season opening games this weekend.

The Steelers played last night in a real thriller. The Baltimore Ravens came to Heinz Field as favorites because they were undefeated so far this season. The Steelers weren't playing too well at the beginning of the game, and it seems that Ben Roethlisberger started yelling at the guys in the locker room during half time. I guess Roethlisberger was getting sick of getting sacked and spending so much time on his back. There was alot of finger pointing going on about the possible cause of the Steelers lackluster performance during the sports call-in show that aired during half time. Howver, things picked up when Roethlisberger got to go no huddle, and it resulted in a touchdown. The score was tied by the end of the game, and in OT, the Steelers got close enough for Jeff Reed to make a 46 yard field goal. There was a steep price to pay with several new injuries. Rashard Mendenhall suffered a fractured shoulder and Kendall Simmons injured his ankle. Final score: Steelers 23 - Ravens 20.

Thursday, September 25, 2008 -- Afternoon

The Pens have been doing well in the past few pre-season games. They beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in Florida, and then returned home to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. There has been one problem though. Sergei Gonchar dislocated his left shoulder in this past Saturday's game against the Lightning. Gonchar was the victim of a cheap hit (well, at least some were calling it a cheap hit) by David Koci in the first period of Saturday's game. Gonchar is out indefinitely because they are unsure how long his recovery will be. He is definitely out for the season opener next weekend in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sunday, September 21, 2008 -- Evening

The Steelers played the Philadelphia Eagles later this afternoon. It seems that the Steelers haven't won a game in Philly since 1965, and this time was no exception. The team just played a crappy game although there were moments of brillance from the defense. They were having a good ole time intercepting the ball from Donovan McNabb, but the offense really wasn't able to get anywhere with it. Ben Roethlisberger left the game with a couple of minutes to play. The announcers were still commenting on his separated shoulder, saying that it was separated, but not alot. The final score was Steelers 6 and Eagles 15.

Saturday, September 20, 2008 -- Late Evening

I went to the Penguins pre-season game against the Tampa Bay Lightning this evening. I didn't stay for the whole game since it was a pre-season game and really didn't count for anything. There were quite a few empty seats, but the Pens were playing as if it was the regular season. There were a couple of fights as players tried to prove that they belonged on the regular team. Not all the players were on the ice this evening. Basically the first two lines were playing for the Pens, and we got to see Sidney Crosby play with Miroslav Satan and Evgeni Malkin played with Petr Sykora and Jordan Staal. The Pens wound up losing in a shootout with a final score of 4-5. As I said, it really doesn't count, so it's okay that they lost. They need to feel out how everyone is going to play together. I have a page of pictures of the first two periods and the two fights.

On Thursday, the Pens had an open house, and Evgeni Malkin was one of the players to appear. He spoke English at the event, just a little. It was heavily accented, but he obvious could understand the questions without a problem, and spoke very well. The event is on Pens TV along with several other interesting clips.

The Large Hadron Collider has been experiencing some problems over the past week. The latest is a problem with the magnets that will put the LHC out of commission for two months. It was really disappointing because they were going to do some collisions starting next week. Scientists suspect that the problem is due to an electrical problem that caused 100 of the LHC's super cooled magnets to heat to around 100 degrees Celcius. This caused a couple to melt and the other magnets malfunctioned. A ton of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel, and the fire brigade was called out to help with the situation.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 -- Evening

It was the final night on Big Brother 10. Dan and Memphis have been doing the usual boring, male bonding games over the past four days. Yes, that means, eating, sleeping, and playing practical jokes on each other. Memphis found out during the final two question time with the jury that Dan and Michelle had gone on the trip during the luxury competition. And then Michelle called out Memphis about being in an alliance with her and throwing HOH competitions. Memphis said that maybe he didn't need to win HOH since he made it to the final two. It was very obvious from the beginning that April was on Memphis' side, probably because Dan booted out her sex buddy. I love how Steven called Jerry on his obnoxious behavior. Jerry was the rudest, meanest spirted jerk in the house. Here's how they voted:
Libra: Dan
April: Dan
Michelle: Dan
Ollie: Dan
Rennie: Dan
Keesha: Dan
Jerry: Dan
So Dan won BB10. He did deserve it because he played the game. Who got the $25000 as America's favorite juror? Surprisingly, Jerry was second. His family must have spent alot of money on text messages to get him in second place. Keesha won though, and gets the money. And so ends another season of Big Brother.

I watched some of the Steelers game on Sunday evening against the Cleveland Browns. The game was really affected by the remnants of Hurricane Ike as it meandered its way into Canada. There were high winds and some rain, and that made scoring difficult. The Steelers managed to pull out the win with a final score of 10-6. Ben Roethlisberger made the news again because he hurt his shoulder in the game. It seems that it was just sprained, but somehow a story got in the news that he has a separated shoulder. That's sort of typical of Roethlisberger. He always plays up his injuries as if he has something really serious when he only has a slight boo-boo.

Thursday, September 11, 2008 -- Evening

It was eviction night again on Big Brother 10. They dragged out the first HOH competition. I guess they didn't want to make Jerry look as bad as he was in this game because Jerry was out before ten minutes had gone past. Dan was proud of the fact that he threw the final POV. Memphis thought that Dan's act of being mad was great because Memphis though that Jerry really believed it. Then we see Jerry (with bizarre eye movenments) making it clear that he believed the act. Jerry made a dramatic fall off the side of the plane. As Memphis said, he was surprised that Jerry fell off so quickly. Memphis said afterwards that he thought Dan was overplaying the bitter part because they didn't want Jerry to realize that it was obvious. So Dan was wondering why Memphis was holding on so long because it wasn't part of the plan, but Memphis didn't want Jerry to be suspicious and think Memphis was throwing the competition. So Dan won the first HOH. It seems the goal was to get Jerry to throw the second HOH to Memphis because Memphis might be better able to beat Dan. Jerry stupidly thinks there is a nice side to Memphis because he doesn't realize that Memphis is playing him. The second round of HOH was a stupid question competition basically about saying who was HOH and the final nominees. They basically a gathering of cutouts and Jerry and Memphis had to knock down all the houseguests who weren't HOH or final nominees. Jerry was totally lost, as we would have expected. Memphis was worried that he was too slow, but he finished all the rounds in 8 minutes and 35 seconds. It took Jerry 51 minutes and 22 seconds! My gosh! That was so awful. The guy was nothing but a jerk in the house and kept there because he was so easy to beat in competitions. We also got to see Keesha join the others in the jury house. April continued to act like a petty person. I would have thought that having non-stop sex with Ollie in the jury house would have put her in a better mood, but jealousy is a hard emotion to break. The final competition was a complete the question with comments made by the jurors. Dan won the final HOH competition by getting four points to Memphis' two. Of course, Dan evicted Jerry. The final two are the Renegade alliance, and they will get to be in the house alone for the next few days.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008 -- Evening

Later this evening (actually earlier in AM), CERN will turn on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The goal is to see if they can gather information about the time right after the Big Bang. They will also be looking for antimatter and the Higgs Boson (the God Particle that gives matter its mass). There has been consternation on the part of some people because they are worried that by turning on the LHC, black holes will be created that will destroy the Earth. Granted, according to scientists, there will be small black holes created, but they believe that everything so go safely. Unfortunately, there have been some crazies out there who have sent death threats to the scientists involved to stop the experiment. The biggest reason is fear that the Earth will be destroyed, and also because we are doing something that only "god" should do. Hmm, then why did god give us the intelligence and abilities to create the LHC? The scientists are looking forward to collecting tons of information, and we should have more information about what happened and a first explanation of how things went tomorrow. Of course, there won't be a full analysis for some time because scientists will need some time to go over the amount of data that will be generated through the experiment. There should be more than half a gigabyte of data generated every second. Yes, you read that right, every second! Just think how thrilling it would be to actually be there and be part of it all.

Tonight was live eviction night on Big Brother 10. We got to see how really, really stupid Keesha and Jerry are. They both seem to believe and trust Dan and Memphis. Jerry thinks he now has a tie to Memphis because Jerry believes that Dan betrayed Memphis. Keesha thinks that Dan has her back because Dan didn't put her on the block. Meanwhile, the truth is the complete opposite! It seems from the feeds that Keesha will be the one going home, but we should know for sure in this episode. Dan and Memphis think that Jerry will be easier to beat in the endurance competitions which will guarantee them both final two. We got to see what happened on Dan's trip to a private island with Michelle. Michelle gave Dan a hug and said that she was surprised to find out that it was Dan who picked her. Dan's plan was to show Michelle the charming Dan. Michelle admits that she doesn't know if she trusts Dan, but she's in paradise now, so she is willing to listen. Dan tells Michelle that Memphis, Keesha, and Rennie knew that she was going on the block. Dan asks Michelle if there was any hope for him. Michelle says that she doesn't know, but she alludes to the fact that she might be able to persuade people to Dan's side. Time for the POV competition. It was basically a question game. The houseguests had to climb a veto stairway of 10 steps. Each step had two clues about one houseguest. They had to get the step right before they moved onto the next step. Jerry really sucked at the game (per usual). Dan looked as he was coming to the top to see if he could see who is winning. Dan's plan was to throw the competition so Memphis could win. It was really coming down to Memphis and Keesha on the final clue, and Memphis got it just right before Keesha. Jerry was nowhere close to the top of the steps. Keesha figured out that Memphis was going to evict her. She started crying and told Memphis that he should at least tell her if she was going home. Memphis took himself off and sent Keesha to the jury house. As Keesha was leaving the house and going out the door, Dan whispered in his ear that he took Michelle on the trip. Keesha told Julie that she was quite shocked. Dan also gave Keesha a rock as she left, and it said "hot" on it. So who knows what that is supposed to mean. After Keesha left, Dan told Memphis that he wouldn't take him to the final two, but who knows if that was just to lull Jerry into not competing. It just really sucks that Jerry is in the final three because he was a real jerk to the houseguests and really sucked in most of the competitions. Now it's the start of the first round of the HOH competition. In this round, all are on mini bi-planes. They have to keep their balance on the plane to win. Both Jerry and Dan have jackets on, and all have helmets. It will be interesting to see if Jerry holds out in this competition.

Sunday, September 7, 2008 -- Evening

I watched Big Brother 10 this evening. I knew from the live feeds that Dan put up Memphis and Jerry, and that Memphis won the POV. So it's either going to be Keesha or Jerry going home. Meanwhile, right after Thursday's live show, Dan grabbed the envelope from under the Sumo wrestler's butt to learn that there was supposed to be a luxury competition. Well, Jessie came back to the BB house dressed up in a gorilla costume to participate in the competition. Jessie, the gorilla, took them outside where there were random statues all over the yard. The challenge was to use the clues (statues) to come up with a common phrase that has something to do with the Big Brother house. No all the clues had to do with the phrase, and as time went over, they would be covered up one by one. They had three hours to figure out the phrase, and when they figured it out, they had to ring the bell and give the phrase in the diary room. They had up to three tries to get the phrase. They would not know until after the competition who was the first to guess correctly. Memphis thought the gorilla was pretty funny. If only Jessie had been entertaining like that when he was first in the house. Jerry was the first to ring in, and his answer was "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil." Keesha's first guess was "let sleeping dogs lie." Jerry rang again and gave the answer "diamonds are a girl's best friend." Keesha's second guess awas "blew it" because there was a blueberry and an IT. The female contortionist left, so Jerry's second guess was gone. Dan was of the opinion to not give an answer until you know the answer. Jerry gave a third guess of "a dog is a man's best friend." Jerry realized that he should have waited because all of his guesses were being covered up. Keesha's third guess was "don't count your chickens before your eggs are hatched." Memphis admitted that he sucked at word puzzles. Dan's first guess was "bury the hatchet." Memphis went to just give an answer to give one, and said "fruitless exit." Dan guessed at the end that it was Jessie when the gorilla made Jessie's bodybuilding poses right before leaving. Dan wins and goes to the diary room. He gets a helicopter trip to a remote, private beach trip. He can either take a current housemate or a jury member. Dan decides to take a jury member because he doesn't want to cause problems in the house. Dan thinks that he should take Michelle because she might appreciate the trip. Dan doesn't tell the others in the house that he is taking jury member. Dan tells them that he didn't want to create animosity in the house so he didn't take anyone in the house. Jerry said that Dan could be going to a private beach somewhere near the jury house. Jerry was surprised that Dan didn't take Memphis because they were attached to the hip. As Dan said, not telling the others could backfire when the other two get to the jury house. Dan and Memphis talk about who to put up, and what the others two think. Memphis tells Dan that the safest thing might be to put Memphis up on the block to make Keesha and Jerry not think that they have an alliance. So Dan put up Memphis to hide the alliance. Jerry said that he was surprised that Dan put up Memphis and that Jerry is going to use. Keesha and Jerry actually believe that Dan doesn't have an alliance with Memphis. So Memphis' plot worked.

Sunday, September 7, 2008 -- Afternoon

I have to admit that I haven't been very interested in the Steelers lately. I guess that I'm just not as much a fan of football as I am of other sports, like hockey. The NFL started the regular season today, and the Steelers played the Houston Texans this afternoon at Heinz Field. The game was pretty much a route with the Steelers taking the early lead and just wiping the field with the Texans. There were quite a few interceptions. The final score was Pittsburgh 35 and Texans 17.

Thursday, September 4, 2008 -- Evening

It was eviction night on Big Brother 10 this evening. The segment about Rennie and Keesha was very touching. They both really like each other and have been supportive of each other the entire time. The two shared a bottle of wine and got really teary-eyed. I really do like Renny because she has a fun personality, and really seems to be on the ball, even when she gets confused about the time difference between New Orleans and Hollywood. (She thought that it was 2 hours later as opposed to earlier--so she thought that it was 7 pm in New Orleans when it was 9 pm in Hollywood.) I am really going to miss Rennie because she is hilarious. Then we got to see a segment on Memphis that showed he is basically a nice guy. Memphis' girlfriend is a cute blonde, who is very tolerant and understanding of Memphis. While he was in the house, he seems to be appreciating what he has with her. The jury house was pretty laid back. Libra guessed everyone who came into the house, and kept on telling them, "I said it would be you." That must have irritated the piss out of people. What always gets to me are the petty comments made by April and Michelle, like commenting on Keesha's butt size. Girls, it's called jealousy. Of course, Renny was voted out by Dan and Memphis. She looked gorgeous with a short, black dress, and nicely styled hair. As she walked to Julie, she stopped to shake hands with folks in the crowd. The HOH competition is down to Memphis, Dan, and Keesha. The questions are based on pictures of this season's previous competitions that were placed on the memory wall. The final score on the seven questions was Dan 7, Memphis 6, and Keesha 1, which means that Dan is the new HOH. I like Dan so I'm glad that he won. Meanwhile, right before the commmercial break, we saw a Polynesian warrior sitting in the living room, waiting for the houseguests to enter. The guy is there to tell the houseguests about a luxury competition, which is a trip that has a twist to it. It looks like we have to wait until Sunday's show to find out what happens. The warrior guy tells them in his language that he is sitting on the information they need, but of course, they don't understand him. The next live POV and eviction ceremony will be on Tuesday, and on Thursday, we should know who the final two will be. The final episode is scheduled for Sept. 16.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 -- Early Morning

I recorded the POV competition show from Big Brother 10 to watch today. The competition was one of those morphing picture competitions. Each baby photo was a compilation of a male and female houseguest. When we watched the houseguests compete, Jerry seemed to do the worse. However, Renny stupidly refused to believe that the old, bald, Jerry looking baby was Jerry. She used every male name, twice, before she finally used Jerry. Renny took 23 minutes and 32 seconds. Jerry took 8 minutes and 1 second. Dan took 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Memphis took 2 minutes and 50 seconds. Keesha took 5 minutes and 16 seconds. So it was down to Dan and Memphis. Keesha felt really horrible after losing the veto because she realized that the only way to save herself and Renny was to win the veto. As Memphis said, he wants to trust Dan, but he's not sure if Dan can be trusted. Memphis really wants Renny gone because he realizes that Renny can beat them in the final two. Memphis was saying that he has to see if he can still keep his deal Keesha and Jerry after pulling Dan off the block. Renny will obviously be going home because Memphis wants her gone. Memphis is right because Renny going to the end would definitely win. Good news about Thursday's episode. We get to find out what has been going on at the jury house. I love those segments because it is hilarious seeing the losers go at each other.