Big Brother 16: More cast videos and some pre-show thoughts

There are several media outlets with hamster videos out there. This isn't one of them. Well, okay, now it is as I'm linking one of the "bigger media who gets chosen for such things" videos. One site has videos that are nearly 20 minutes each! Yikes! The ones I'm posting here, from bigbrothernetwork.com, are five to six minutes each -- much easier to take, yet more in-depth than the ones on the official CBS website.

Here are my thoughts after not only watching these videos, but others too and poking around on the web. Now, I could be misjudging based on preliminary information, but this is what I think:

• Caleb has to go. With all the racial prejudice stuff from last year, they took him on the cast? Not necessarily shown on the videos, more on stuff he's personally posted on the internet, I don't like him. I don't care if he's good-looking.
• To counter Caleb, several of the guys want to go in as honest and nice. The ones coming immediately to mind are Derrick, Devin, Cody and Donny. All admit there will come times they need to lie, but on the whole all seem to want to play the game with as much integrity as possible.
• A handful of the women in the individual interviews really want to make a LASTING female alliance, knowing it's never really held up before. Now, if this handful of women can actually get together and make it last, it could go down in BB history!
• There are at least three true superfans in the cast this season -- Donny, Christine and Nicole. Donny and Christine have seen every season. There are other good fans such as Jocasta, Derrick and Frankie, then there are some who were recruited and never watched the show until they were approached by casting and/or in sequester. One, Victoria, was a fan of the show in another country as she spent each summer in Israel. That might bring an interesting perspective to her gameplay.
• As far as gameplay, I think Derrick might just have a great edge in the house with his undercover police background and being a big fan of the show.
• It seems Amazing Race wannabees get cast on Big Brother -- both Caleb (if I'm not mistaken) and Devin applied to TAR, Frankie had applied to Survivor.
• Although I personally had no idea or knowledge of either Frankie or his pop star sister, I guess many people are familiar with them. I personally don't like a built-in fan base who might be voting for things which influence the game and there's a power block. I didn't like it with Elissa last season, and I'm not too keen on the possibilities of it happening with Frankie this season. That said, he seems okay on his own. 
• Cody is not only good eye-candy for me, he's a Jersey boy. And, he comes across as nice. I just might have to cheer him on despite whatever hamster comes up in my blog pool pick.
•  I wonder what it's like going through life knowing you're all that and a bag of chips ... AKA Zach.
• Speaking of blog pool picks ... have you entered your name on the blog pool pick post yet? Only enter on that post, not on this one, please. We might miss requests from other posts!

Without further ado, here are the videos from bigbrothernetwork.com --

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE VIDEOS**

Big Brother and Me (and you, too!)

Greetings, fellow hamster fans! Since we have some new folks coming aboard each season for the show, I thought I'd post a bit of the history of the blog, what we do, the blog community and more! If you're a returning blog community, a lot of this will be old news to you. Not to worry -- we'll have enough new news in just a few days!

Who am I?
I'm Jackie. I run the place here. I started watching Big Brother in its first season and hosted the AOL Message Boards for the show as well as some of the AOL chats. When blogs came to being more popular, I happened to be out of work with knee surgery the summer of BB6. Unlike Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, I had no neighbors committing murders. So, I turned my interest to another form of voyeurism -- a Big Brother blog on the now defunct AOL Journals product.

I decided I wanted to cover the live feeds in addition to show reviews. (I've had the live feeds every season, even the first one with its chicken coop cam!) But, since I'm just one person, there's no way I could post every breath the hamsters take 24/7. So, I created a bulleted listing, sort of a Reader's Digest condensed version of what struck me, the major happenings and just stuff I wanted to report. Very few blogs were doing the live feeds at that time.

My blog did so well that I was soon writing show reviews and live feeds reports for Blogcritics, then AOL Television, eventually getting picked up as a freelance writer for TV Squad (AOL Television, now Huffington Post). Along the way, as I wrote the paid reviews of the show, I thought I was shortchanging my own blog community -- that's when I came up with the blog parties on show nights.

During each show as it airs on the East Coast, I put up a blog party post. In the post, while I don't write a review per se, I post the major happenings on the show. Oh, sometimes I interject my own opinions in it. But, hey ... it's my place, right? The parties are actually in the comments area where dedicated show fans in this community post their thoughts throughout the show. We share cyberdrinks and eat lots of fattening food without gaining a pound during these parties!

Alas, the AOL Journal product died and it's no longer available, even cached. The paid gig went away when Huffington Post took over and didn't want freelance writers. But, this blog remains! It's actually a year-round blog and includes Survivor and The Amazing Race, plus my own weekly off television topic photography post.

As I watch the hamster introductions and those who claim to be "superfans," I can only think that I would have to qualify as a super-über-fan or something of that ilk with my BB history! I'm not stupid enough to go on the show, though.

But I couldn't have done it without you! Over the years, the blog community members have stepped up to the plate -- from Zoetawny creating cool gifs for the blog to ORKMommy (and Lifeguard Laurie and Margo) running the blog pools! The community we've built here on the blog is definitely opinionated, but generally respectful of others. Now, that's a rarity these days!

I do monitor the comments and ask that others talk about the houseguests, not their fellow commenters and that comments are kept to a PG level. I'm also not keen on people making nasty comments about the physical aspects (or religion, gender, any racial or sexual slurs, etc.) of various hamsters, nor coming up with nasty names to call them. Heck, sometimes I don't even know who people are talking about when they call a hamster other than his name! I don't like to remove comments, but will remove trolling comments or flame wars. The First Amendment does NOT apply to a blog, y'see!

That said, I go into each season hoping never to have to delete a comment. We'll see how this season does! We do have lots of fun here. We've found out that you can have fun without being hateful. That's a good thing! New commenters are always welcomed by the group, too. We're not exclusive -- the more the merrier!

What you can expect posting-wise from the blog:

• Once the live feeds start up -- Thursday night/Friday morning 1am -- I will regularly be doing two to three live feeds reports daily, along with screen caps.
• On show nights, I'll post a blog party coinciding with the East Coast airing of the show. I turn off the word verification on comments, so comments during the party are very free-flowing. You're all welcome to attend!
• When endurance comps go on after the show, I'll provide real-time coverage from the live feeds -- along with screen caps and the winner.
• Even though most comps are blocked to the live feeds, we find out shortly after who won what. Since I'm the only one posting entries, I guarantee that any winners I post actually won. Unlike some sites where anyone can post false information (and sometimes they do here in comments, but I remove false info comments), if I post something, it's because I saw it for myself. And, you can bet your bippy on that!
• This blog, with the exception of the blog party show nights, is all about spoilers. We generally know who won PoV and nominations more than a couple of days before it's shown on the air.
• We also get to know the hamsters outside of any CBS edit, plus when they show situations out of order.
• I also have a Big Brother on Jackie's TV Blog Facebook page where I link any posts I make on the blog. Occasionally I put other content on there, too. If you "like" that page, you'll know the moment I post here on the blog.
• I also link updates to this blog on Twitter, but tend not to really twitter much otherwise.
• I also have a personal Facebook page, but try not to post much on Big Brother on that page as it overwhelms the page. Believe it or not, many of my friends and family aren't into the show! Yikes! That's why I created a separate page mainly for BB. Most of my BB posts on that will be directing people to the show FB page.

SOOOO ... wanna come aboard the party boat for Big Brother 16?

You can get into the blog pool at THIS LINKED POST -- the cut-off for the blog pool is Sunday night, midnight EDT. Please only sign up on the linked post as we might miss your request on other posts.

The first blog party of the season will start on Wednesday night, 8pm EDT. Be there or be square.

Big Brother 16: Blog Pool OPENS!

Yep, yep ... the pool is opening and the water is just fine!

ORKMommy will be doing the random match-ups and running the pool again this season. She rocks, right?

What it's all about: Blog community folks in the pool will randomly be matched up with a hamster in the Big Brother house. Now, they might get a "good" one or they could end up with a "hated by the Internet" one. You never know. That's as random as it gets! They get to cheer on their hamster during its life in the house. If your hamster wins, you retain bragging rights until the next season! I'd say you win a gazillion dollars and, while the sentiment is indeed there, the money is not.

Entry to the pool closes Sunday evening, June 29, midnight EDT.

Yes, we'll be skipping the first eviction. Why? Because we never even get to see that person on the feeds or anything! They're gone before we get to know them. By skipping the first eviction, at least we get to quasi-know the second evictee by the time the eviction comes.

ALL ENTRY REQUESTS HAVE TO BE ENTERED IN COMMENTS ON THIS POST!!

I'll be linking this post to all the posts between now and the cut-off date (next Sunday night). I cannot guarantee you'll make it into the pool if you ask in on other posts!

Hamster watchers ready?

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - June 22, 2014

Good morning! For those now cruising the blog for Big Brother television show news, I'll be posting the blog pool sign-up post later today (don't sign up for it on this post, please!). This here post is my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way.

As for the week gone by itself, it wasn't a heck of a lot of much more than work, work, work. The big news is that Big Brother started revealing the new hamster house, new hamsters and new twists. I've covered those things in previous posts and will be posting more daily as we head into the season premiere on Wednesday night.

The weather here in my area of New Jersey hit the nineties for the first time this year. As it was only two days, it wasn't a legitimate heat wave. It still felt like it. I'm not a big fan of summer with ultra-hot and humid days. If summers could have an 80 degree cut-off with low humidity, I'd like it much more. I don't like sweating!

I had good luck with critter photos this week -- a pigeon with its wings expanded during landing and the Plainfield Train Station groundhog, along with a rabbit and a squirrel. Had I been more prepared, I would have had a nice deer shot last night. I climbed up the stairs at the Bridgewater Train Station only to practically walk into a large doe. I gasped. She gasped. She ran so quickly that I couldn't get the shot. She even scared a bunch of rabbits who also hopped away quickly. I was happy that she ran into a fenced area rather than towards the train tracks.

Onto the photos for the week ... clicking on the photo will show it in its Photobucket page. In that view, there's a magnifying glass on the bottom right. You can make the photo larger twice there. To get back to the blog, just close the Photobucket window.

Can you see the hidden groundhog?

This groundhog at the Plainfield Train Station thought he found the perfect place to hide from me. Yeah, right. I've got you, groundhog!

Religion and Politics Shouter

With a nod to Stephen King's "Monster Shouter" in The Stand, I came across this man with a megaphone at the corner of Park Avenue and East Front Street in Plainfield one afternoon this this week. He was shouting against gay marriage, abortion, Obama ... you name it. No one was paying any attention to him. Also, no one was at the chess tables in the sun!

My flower slideshow teaser

If you're reading this post from the main page of the blog itself instead of the individual post, this week's flower slideshow is after the jump.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

Big Brother 16: Cast Interviews

Now, I watched all the Jeff Schroeder interviews with the new hamsters at the CBS website. They're short, they're CBS-controlled. I've also made it clear that I'm very tired of Rachel Reilly. But, to give her credit, she does know the BB world inside and out. These cast interviews, which play after the initial intro ones, are longer and much more interesting. If you click to watch them on YouTube, you can pick and choose which cast members to watch in what order.

I'm getting more and more partial to Donny here. It's definitely not the beard. He's watched every season and is way into reality television. Good. Every video I watch of Zach annoys me.

These come from BiteSizeTV/Reality Relapse --

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