Big Brother 17: House Tour, 16 Place Settings and Weekly Twists

Now things seem to be getting a bit complicated. Fourteen new hamsters have been introduced, yet there are 16 settings at the table. Check out the house tour video below ...

I actually kind of prefer this year's design over last year. But then there's the pesky count of seats at the kitchen table ...

And now we have a bit of an announcement regarding the expected, er ... expect the unexpected, twist(s) for the season. Hmm. From the announcement: "Each week a surprise guest will appear on the show to announce a new and different twist into the game." Um. Okay. It doesn't explain the extra two place settings.

What do you think it's all about?

Big Brother 17 New Hamsters: Part Three

This is my third and final(?) installment looking at the new cast we're going to live with all summer. Why the question mark? Well, there's only 14 houseguests listed on the CBS website yet 16 places at the table. I expect we'll have a few more coming in the house -- my guess would be previous hamsters. I just hope it's not Frankie. My other hope would be that it's two people over 40 years old or of color. This cast is very young (33 is the oldest) and quite milquetoast bland.

My previous two posts on the cast are Part One and Part Two. ALL of my Big Brother posts can be found at this link right here. Check 'em out!

Jace Agolli

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Skater Boi. Personal trainer. Thinks he's super-personable. Claims to be a big fan of the show. It's all about the gameplay more than the money. Fast talker for a guy originally from the south and now living in California. Adrenalin junkie. Very confident, but not all that off-putting. He could very well have game.

Jace is 23, I assume single, originally from Dunwoody, Georgia, now residing in Venice Beach, California. His bio doesn't offer up much more than I saw in the video. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. He might be a smaller version of Frank without Boogie.

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Da'vonne Rogers

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Finally, a woman of color -- the only one in this bland cast! Her name is pronounced DAY-vonne. Ha! A professional poker dealer who's not going to reveal her job! Maybe she'll recognize what's-her-name, the pro-poker player! Another "huge fan" of the show from the start. Although she's older than some, I'm still having problems thinking children are sitting around watching the show. She would have been 12 during season one. She does seem to know the show, though. She wants to win it to give her daughter a better life than she has had. I worry a bit because she's outspoken and that can make for enemies in the house. She definitely has the right attitude going in.

Da'Vonne is a 27 year old single mom originally from Inglewood, California, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Well, this is interesting -- she watched the show all the time with her grandmother, the one who convinced her to apply. She loved and hated Rachel -- loved her in comps, hated the emo agenda. (I can understand that although, for me, the emo bit was over the top and diminished the super comp competitor side.) She's the rebel from a family deep into religion. She should be interesting to watch!

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Shelli Poole

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Oh, geez ... another perky blonde gal. She plans on laying low in the beginning and observe. Her strategy is to continuously adapt as you never know what's coming. Even she thinks she's "older" at 33 and has an edge in playing the game.

Shelli is 33 (the OLDEST member of the cast, sigh), single, an interior designer originally from Marietta, Georgia and now living in Atlanta. She has an etsy.com site for selling her custom designed jewelry. She got married when she was 28 and divorced a year later. I don't know. She's very perky and blonde. I'm not sure I can take all this perkiness.

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John McGuire

This guy is still the hold-out on the Jeff Schroeder interviews at cbs.com. That's why the funky photo of him. I had to take it from his online show bio.

John is a 27 year old dentist originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania who now lives in Jefferson Township, Pennsylvania. He doesn't like the "nerdy know-it-alls" on past seasons (like Ian, Derrick, Nicole) because they let their knowledge of the game turn into hero worship. He says he's loud, obnoxious and energetic.

Hmm ... maybe he said something evil to Jeff? I don't know why no interview. I'm probably not going to like him, but I'll hold my judgment ... for now.

Big Brother 17 New Hamsters: Part Two

You can find my first post on five new houseguests at this link here. Here goes the second group of five --

Meg Maley

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Another "people person." Oy. Another "big fan" of the show. "Goofy girl" -- okay, the second one of them! Similar to Steve, she wants to play innocent until she backstabs. This one just might be the voice which makes me cringe on the live feeds.

Meg is 25, seems to be single, originally hails from the rather mellow South Jersey town of Collingswood (known for its farm markets and such), currently resides in NYC where she works as a server. How typical is that casting? At least she's not a mixologist. I don't know. Perky tends to turn me off a bit. I'll have to see with her. Uh-oh. In her bio, she says Frankie Grande was her favorite. Can she be first out, please?

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James Huling

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Oh, my. I didn't expect such a strong Southern accent from him! Another "people person." He has a daughter and an adopted son. Aw. Downright country boy? He thinks he's in for a great experience. He wants to play the game with integrity. We all know how well that works. But he really would like to win the money for his family. He mentioned that he's the first "hillbilly Asian" ever in the house.

James is one of the "old" guys on the show -- he's 31! He's a retail associate originally from Sumter, South Carolina and currently living in Wichita Falls, Texas. He lived in a boys home after his mother died and his father couldn't care for him. He was adopted by a Caucasian family whom he thinks the world of. He served six years in the military. He seems like a really good guy. That integrity bit might just trip him up, though.

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Liz Nolan

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Is there a reason she came all exposed to the interview? That dress is cut almost down to the navel with no bra. I think I'll have to refer to her as "Sex Kitten" for the summer. That's apparently the image she wants to have. She talked of her heels, bikinis and rocking her body. Ew. She's single and wants a flirtmance. I'm sorry. Call me a prude. But I can't get behind someone who introduces herself to the world with her boobs hanging out. She claims to have been into the live feeds. That doesn't make me like her. Although sitting, she seems to dwarf Jeff.

Liz is 23, a marketing coordinator from Miami. One of her worries about being in the house is that she has to remember not to walk around naked. @@ Yes, I'm rolling my eyes. I don't want or need to see that. I think she forgot to wear clothes for the interview! She likes Jeff and Jordan ... and Frankie. She's a mainstay on the Miami nightclub circuit. Why am I not surprised? NEXT.

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Jason Roy

 

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Superfan, live feeds fan. He talks about missing his girls but my gaydar is going off. I could be wrong. It doesn't really matter. He says he will probably losing his job stocking groceries. Ah, okay ... now he's talking about being the "gay glue" and working with a girls alliance on the show. I wasn't wrong. He's also a fan of all the English speaking international BB shows. I can see where this guy might be fun to hang out with, but could be annoying living with him day in and day out.

Jason is 25, lives at home with his parents in Fall River, Massachusetts. He seems to have a lot of girls for a supermarket overnight stocker. His fandom level seems just a bit shy of writing blogs and monitoring AOL message boards since season one. (Now, who's THAT crazy?)

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Clay Honeycutt

My first impressions from the Jeff Schroeder interview: Well, hello, good-looking young man! Here's my eye candy for the season! One point against him -- in the first minute of the interview, he used the phrase "at the end of the day." I'm so tired of that bunch o' words! He just discovered the show four months ago. Hmm. Sigh. He's a repeat user of "at the end of the day." Like we needed another one of those! He says he's a Momma's boy and also loves his Dad and siblings. If he wins, his first use of the money will be paying for grad school. He seems like a nice guy, but being nice and not really knowing how nasty things can get, he just might be out of his element. Third "at the end of the day." He needs to stop that.

Clay is 23, from Dickinson, Texas. He currently resides in College Station, Texas and is a graduate student at Texas A&M. He's single. What I find the coolest (besides the eye candy factor) is that his mother keeps exotic animals and is a wildlife rehabilitator.

That's all for now! I'll be posting Part Three tomorrow morning. Right now one Jeff interview isn't up on the site. Hopefully it will be remedied by morning.

Big Brother 17 New Hamsters - Part One

Okay, the cast has been revealed and the Jeff Schroeder interviews are up for CBS All Access subscribers! This is the first installment of five hamsters for the blog here. Unfortunately, I had to work all day at my real job and now I'm playing catch up.

Before getting into the individual houseguests, I need to say --

• Where is the diversity? 
• All young.
• Mostly white.
• At least one lesbian and one transgender so far, so LBGT gets some representation.
• Is there a law against having anyone over 40? 
• Gah. Very typical Allison Grodner/Robyn Kass kind of casting.
• Sigh.

Audrey Middleton

My first impressions from the Jeff interview on CBS.com -- Wiggly, chewed gum, not anyone I'd really want to hang out with, extremely confident ... maybe too confident; should tone it down a bit in the house. I did like that she compared her expected gameplay to Dexter Morgan without being a sociopath.

She's 25 years old, single, from Villa Rica, Georgia. While her job sounds fancy, it's basically responding to FB posts for a company. She says she's a super fan of the show and never missed an episode. So, I assume she started watching at age 10? Has she followed the live feeds, the websites? She didn't say. TMZ is reporting Audrey as the first transgender houseguest.

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Austin Matelson as Judas

First impressions from Jeff interview: I think I like the dude. I didn't think I would. His pro-wrestling name is "Judas." He said that Austin is good guy, but when the top hat goes on, out comes Judas. Under all that hair, he kind of reminds me of Christopher Meloni (Stabler from Law and Order: SVU) in looks. Rather surprising guy. Beside the Austin/Judas bit, if he wins he plans to give some money to an anti-bullying charity. He was bullied himself as a child and in wrestling circles.

Austin is 30 years old, a professional wrestler from Woodland Hills, California. He didn't mention single or married. In his bio, it's mentioned that his parents let him stop attending school in eighth grade. He now has a masters in medieval history. Huh. He says he's been a fan since the first season. I think he's going to be interesting to watch gameplay-wise and for entertainment value.

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Becky Burgess

First impressions from Jeff interview: She says she's optimistic, positive and thinks because her job is a retail manager, she'll have an edge -- she's used to dealing with high school kids (heehee). She thinks she's loud, sill and a bit goofy. I think I like that better than Audrey's (above) qualities. She smiles a bit too much and goes for perky. A long time fan of the show, she says that she knows she'll have to lie at some time in the game. I think that she might just be a bit too "nice" for this show. We'll see.

Becky is 26, single and hails from Denver, Colorado. She's on the athletic side and thinks she's a people person. She thinks she get along well with both the men and the women in the house. Hmm ...

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Vanessa Rousso

First impressions from Jeff interview: She's hoping to use skills learned in her poker career such as reading people and strategy. She also studied game theory and hopes that might help her, too. She says she's a big fan of the show. She's very worried that someone will recognize her as a professional poker player and wants to stress her DJ work. (I wouldn't recognize ANY pro poker players, nor would I care. One was on Survivor a few seasons back and he certainly didn't win!)

Vanessa is 32, from Las Vegas and has a longtime girlfriend. She likes Dan Gheesling as a player in the house. Uh-oh. She's scared of flying insects and being publicly humiliated. Does she know what she's getting into?

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Steve Moses

First impressions from Jeff interview: Gee, looks like they're trying for Ian II, doesn't it? Aha, a real superfan into the live feeds and all! We gotta like him! He seems like he might have a decent likable, excitable boy strategy, yet he thinks he can be ruthless as well. While he's reminiscent of Ian, I doubt he'll isolate himself as much as Ian did.

Steve is a 22 year old college student from Gouverneur, New York. His favorite player on the show is Danielle Reyes, always a good choice. She would have won her season had they not shown the hamsters the diary room sessions. That stopped that practice! I'm not sure how his innocent yet gregarious strategy is going to work and it's probably not a good thing that he looks a bit like Ian (as far as the other hamsters go, not the show fans). I'd like to see him do well.

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - June 14, 2015

Good morning! Since it's indeed a Sunday morning, it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. If you're interested in Big Brother 17 television show news, I have posts at this link and will be posting on the new cast reveal this coming Tuesday evening.

I really don't have much for you this week. It was either raining or hot and humid all week. That's so not my favorite kind of weather. I prefer highs in the low 70s! Here are some random thoughts on the week and stuff:

• Two different bugs seem to be going around at work -- a stomach bug and a coughing bug. I don't want either one. People need to stop breathing on me.
• For the most part, I can't even tell I have a neighbor where the noisy screaming thumping family lived. Good. Hopefully he feels the same about me.
• I filled out the latest NJ Transit customer service survey. I complained about all the riff-raff hanging out, drinking and such at the Plainfield Train Station as well as the horrid condition of the tunnel and elevators. I'm sure they'll listen to me. Right?
• I don't like to sweat. Wah.
• I think I need a nap.

Onto the photos for the week -- clicking on an image will bring it up larger in a gallery of all the photos on the post.

Berries

I didn't realize my camera was in a bizarre mode when I shot these berries at the Plainfield Train Station. But I kind of like how it turned out.

A posing pigeon

This is an adolescent pigeon who was a roly-poly fluff ball just a few weeks ago at the Bridgewater Train Station.

Canned goods

These were atop the mail boxes in my apartment building one day, apparently for anyone wanted to take them. The only brand name I've seen before is the Del Monte. I have my own canned goods and would be more likely to do this than to take them. But, I'm sure someone can use them, off brands or not.

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