Big Brother 12 - Live Feeds Into Sunday Morning - August 29

Ragan half-heartedly talks using his hand puppet.

Britney's hand puppet has blond hair just like hers!

Here are the late night and overnight happenings from inside that Big Brother House of Puppetmasters:

• I'm in shock. I'm embarrassed. I might just have to plead insanity or exhaustion, but I don't believe I mentioned ...
• ... the fact that Lane too had a Pandora's Box.
• He claims he went for envelopes of money but that all combined, he got $97. He also said he chose three rewards and three punishments.
  
• But, due to his opening Pandora's Box, they had no Have/Have Not comp this week.
• Instead, they have punishments they must comply with or become a Have Not.
• The first one was going without using utensils for eating. I did mean to post that, but it was so un-newsworthy that I didn't.
• But now they have a more interesting punishment.
• Each was issued a hand puppet quasi-resembling themselves.
• Every time they speak, they must move the puppet's mouth.
• Hayden and Lane took off their puppets to prepare dinner, thus being unable to speak at all as they made the meal.
• Ragan had his puppet talk to the Internet. He said he knows he's leaving on Thursday and wonders how he's been portrayed.
• He said, if he could do it all over again, he wouldn't cry as much. Oh my, what an improvement that would be!
• He also would have stayed up on the paint can and take down "the boys."
• Too late for crying over spilt paint, I say.
  
• He says he has some proud moments.
  
• Although so much of Ragan this summer has been crying, pouting, Drama Queen, arrogant and rude belittling of others (especially Rachel and Brendon), lecturing all ... he does have some moments in which he can be very proud.
• His performance (until he tossed them to Matt) in the two endurance comps.
• His house knowledge and the way he studied hoping the HOH and then the PoV would be knowledge-based.
  
• I can't believe how he was rattling off the house events timeline with minute details, backwards and forwards.
• I couldn't do that.
• No one else in the house this season or any other season could have done it.
• Alas, the comp which did him in had nothing to do with extreme house or season knowledge.
• Although he was upset about Enzo "taking" the win from him in PoV, he says he's over it -- he claims he just needed time to calm down.
• I believe, that if Enzo physically knocked him aside or something, BB wouldn't let Enzo keep the PoV.
• But it really sounds like Enzo saw Ragan eying and heading towards the needed clue and beat him to it.
• It was kind of like Brendon looking at Ragan's puzzle to cheat, but makes more sense as Enzo could beat him to the punch while Brendon copying the puzzle would always remain behind him.
• Ragan likened himself to the movie Castaway -- He's the Tom Hanks character while his puppet is Wilson. He feels isolated.
  
• And that he is.
• Wilson! WILSON! WILLLLLSSSONNNNN!
• I'm sorry. I can't resist calling for Wilson when I think of the movie.
• Ragan wants Lane to win.
• Hmm.
• Enzo asked Britney if she would go out with Lane if she and Nick split up.
• She refused to answer.
• One refreshing thing about Britney, despite her mean girl ways at times, is her loyalty to Nick while she's in the house.
• In a scenario in which so many women seem to get so trampy (Erika and Boogie, Rachel and Brendon, Kristen and Hayden), she has done nothing to tarnish her relationship with her fiance.
• Britney doesn't feel well and asked for medicine.
• Well, her puppet asked, I guess.
• Enzo listened to Lane's Eminem CD and rapped with his puppet.
• Yeah, Enzo's a lazy lout.
• But at least he can be entertaining at times, as can Britney.
• Lane comes up with some good "dumb country boy" lines, but is more entertaining when with Britney.
• Hayden is actually kind of boring unless you like to hear him talk about sports, skiing and snowboarding.
• They're all wondering what the third punishment will be.
• Wanna bet Lane got more than $97? At least it's better than the $1 lie by Matt.
• They're all asleep as I post this.
  

Why did two cameras focus on this photo in Lane's HOH forever last night? Why are the feeds so often all focused on different views of the same thing so much? Why did the live feeds which we pay for NOT COME BACK ON AT THE SAME TIME AS THE SHOWTIME AFTER DARK SHOW after the second HOH comp on Thursday night?

Off Topic - That Was the Week It Was - August 29, 2010

Sunday morning ... lots of time with nothing to do, lots of time to spend with you, on Sunday, Sunday morning. -- Spanky and Our Gang, "Sunday Morning"

Well, I don't know about the "nothing to do" part of that. But it is Sunday morning and that means it's time for my weekly off television photo post reflecting on the week gone by. Sometimes my photography is decent, other times I'm just showing you a bit of what I've seen in my day to day life. I think this week is more leaning towards the latter.

I believe I'm wearing down. The early part of the week was rainy and, in the latter part, I seemed to be running late, not seeing anything which really struck me as photo fodder for "the picture of the week" or I had my hands full. Sometimes it was a combination of all three things. I had a great hawk opportunity, but he just wouldn't fly still! He was so close that he kept flying out of my camera's path much too quickly. Hmm ... why was a hawk circling ME?

Sigh. As much as I enjoy the blog community and all the fun, Big Brother tends to really tire me out by about this time every year. (Note -- a new BB12 live feeds report will be posted a bit later. We're talking puppets and punishments.) Something odd or traumatic usually happens during the blogging of the summer in the BB house, too.

The first year I attempted blogging it, the cartilage in my left knee had inexplicably shredded as I was merely walking along. I spent the summer awaiting surgery that, when it happened, the knee never recovered from. One year I had shingles. One year I deliberately scheduled knee replacement surgery during the BB season so I wouldn't be working full time and covering the feeds. Of course, it's the knee which didn't recover before and I had a DVT atop the surgery just to make things more interesting. Last year, my 17-year-old cat died a few weeks into the season.

This year? Hmm ... it's been relatively trauma free and we only have a few weeks left. (Everyone knock on wood, please.) About the only thing out of the norm going on is that I have jury duty scheduled the day after Labor Day. I've had jury duty before and it usually ends up being a whole lot of people watching, reading, sketching ... and boredom. I've never even made it to the voir dire. At least I'll get to photo stomp around Elizabeth, NJ ... a city I haven't had a reason to wander around since I moved to the state.

Although I'm in a busier crime county than the last time I was summoned (Union County versus Somerset County), I don't think it will mean anything other than the usual. At least my workplace pays me the difference between jury pay and my normal pay. Otherwise, I'd earn a whopping $5 a day for being on jury duty!

Other than that, it's been the same old stuff here -- BB live feeds, BB show reviews, work, eat, sleep and pay attention to a certain cat. Onto the photos for the week (clicking on an image will open it larger in a new window, clicking again will make it even larger) --

Ghost train at night

The almost empty train looks a bit eerie as it sits at the Bridgewater Train Station last night after dark. This is the train heading west, away from Newark and New York City. Apparently everyone is having too good a time to head home this early. I'm actually waiting for the train to go towards Newark and NYC, but getting off in Plainfield.

Ballpark lights at night

I worked later than usual last night and it was dark as I waited for my train adjacent to the TD Ballpark in Bridgewater -- home of the Somerset Patriots, a minor league ball team. It's usually light as I pass through there when ball games are on. At least it gave me a chance to shoot the lights. The small white flecks are bugs attracted by them.

Tuesday night's full moon

I keep trying to get a decent full moon shot -- one in which the moon isn't so glaring white as to obscure the details. This is my best attempt so far. I need to keep trying! (Or get a better camera which is out of the question.)

Morning moon over Presbyterian

Wednesday morning as the sun shined in the east, this was to my west. Note the leafless branches on the left. So many of the trees have suffered here this summer. It was dry for so long accompanied by record heat waves. Earlier this past week when it rained for three of four days straight, many big branches and entire trees came down, unable to continue on. East Front Street, Plainfield.

Rainy train day

My apologies for all of the train station shots this week. Alas, that seemed to be the only time I could (a) be out of the rain or (b) actually had time to shoot photos. I liked this one because of the reflection of the station lights on the train windows -- practically a light a window. Plainfield Train Station.

Same Day, the Other Way

Now I feel I'm cheating with the photos. I turned around and shot the other way. But the lights aren't reflecting in unison with the train windows. Note the platform difference between Plainfield and the photo of the Bridgewater Station.

Plainfield is a raised platform which makes it level with the entrance. Once in the train, there is a handicapped/bike/bathroom area, then you can go either upstairs or downstairs to sit. At stations without raised platforms, it's a climb into or a steep descent out of the train. Me? I prefer a raised platform, please ... even if it means you see feet when sitting on the lower level.

Let there be a mushroom

Yes, the stinkhorns are still around for photo fodder if I want to go that route. But I decided a cute little mushroom in wet grass instead. Notice how the stem is nearly translucent. It's so delicate. So I stomped on it!

Er, no. I didn't.

I made the stomp part up.

Looky! More Plainfield Train Station!

This time in sepia.

Even MORE Plainfield Train Station!

This one I edited to leave the "Plainfield" sign in color, the rest in black and white.

Train station, but different

There was a huge dark bank of clouds obscuring the sunrise early Monday morning. It made it look almost like we have mountains in the distance. We don't have mountains here. In the other direction from this shot, there are the Watchung Mountains. But they really are no more than hills. When I first moved here, I was shocked over how flat everything is. I was used to the Adirondacks and then the Berkshires and Catskills. Or, in my skiing days, I loved the Rocky Mountains.

Panda King

A new Chinese restaurant replaced the old one on Watchung Avenue in Plainfield. I deliberately obscured the phone number on the sign just so they don't get any crank phone calls. But I'm not here to talk about the new Chinese restaurant. I want to talk about the color scheme. Who does this? Melon, orange and lavender mixed with the original red and tan mosaic tile on the front of one of the buildings. Drugs, anyone? At least the orange Caribe taxi fits in well with the color scheme.

I don't think it's New York

I think it's more like China, Malaysia, etc. When I lived in New York (remember, I'm originally from NY), I don't recall seeing any "New Jersey Furniture and Linens." East Front Street, Plainfield.

I NEED to be on your shoulder!

Vincent droops himself over the edge of a chair. I've never known such a drooper of a cat. This is pretty much his pose when he's draped over my shoulder. What an odd kitty I have in my life. But I wouldn't give him up for the world!

How was your week?

Big Brother 12 - Live Feeds Into Saturday Night - August 28

Ragan must be pondering his future
in the jury house with Rachel and Brendon.

Here are today's events from inside that Big Brother House of Flying Pigs:

• There was a power outage, then partial power before the hamsters really got up and going for the day.
• Ragan kept on studying.
• As we now know, it was to no avail. The comp wasn't on house knowledge, nor was it the faces morph.
• They rehash bashed Brendon and Rachel.
• Enough already!
• An extensive feeds block went up as the comp went down.
• Ragan was upset when the feeds came back up.
• He thinks Enzo grabbed something from him in the comp causing him to lose and Enzo to win.
• Apparently it was one of the comps where they have to find clues/HG pictures or something.
• Enzo saw Ragan heading towards something and beat him to it.
• From what they're saying, there wasn't any physical contact -- Enzo just cut in front of him to grab the clue (whatever).
• So Enzo has the PoV and finally won something.
• It's only taken him all season.
• He's sure to take himself off the block.
• Lane might put up Hayden -- Hayden already had volunteered before Lane decided Enzo in the first place.
• It's more likely Britney will go up.
• Either way, Ragan is the target and should be going home this week.
• Most likely unanimously once again.
  

Big Brother 12 - POV Winner

Pigs must be flying over Bayonne tonight.

Enzo won the veto.

I'll have a full report up late tonight ... very long day.

Big Brother 12 - Live Feeds Into Saturday Dawn - August 28

Lane grooves to his Eminem CD.

It's been same old-same old in the late night/overnight hours inside that Big Brother House of Rejected Reality. Here's the scoop:

• Britney thinks she's still in with the boys.
• Ragan knows he's not in with the boys.
• Enzo is worried if he's still in with the boys or not.
• Said boys now pretty much ruling the house are Lane and Hayden.
• Lane and Hayden believe if they're with anyone else other than each other in the final two, the vote will be a slam-dunk against them -- Britney, Ragan or Enzo would win.
• They've decided it would be much more of a fair "fight" if they were in it together.
• So, the other three are expendable and can really go in any order.
• But they want Ragan out first.
• Since he's almost exiled himself, Ragan has done practically nothing except run through all of the events in the house, study the memory wall photos and recite counts of stuff, as well as other house info.
• If the PoV comp is related to memory or the morph, unless he freezes, Ragan should be almost scary good at it.
• If it's skill, he's probably sunk.
• Enzo has been studying a lot on his own, too. He's worried. He knows Ragan is the target but he wants to be safe.
• I have more faith in Ragan winning than I do in Enzo winning.
• As they say in the house, "It is what it is."
• And the "is" is that Enzo is totally inept at comps, even when he tries to win.
• Enzo was finally relieved of the penguin costume.
• Keep in mind, they also took all of his clothes for charity.
• No, he's not naked.
• He's borrowing clothes from Lane and Hayden.
• If they had kept Brendon in the house, Brendon was lending him clothes, too.
• Britney isn't lending him clothes, although it would be interesting if she did.
• They're all asleep as I get this posted.
  

No longer a penguin.