Big Brother 17: Live Feeds Sunday into the Evening - August 2

Shelli workin' that sword!

Here's the latest from inside that Big Brother House of Kinda Sorta Medieval Times But Not Quite:

• I've made it clear that I'm not a Shelli fan. Oh, I don't hate her or anything like that. She's just not someone who'd be a friend of mine in real life, I don't think.
• But I have to give her credit where credit is due. She rocked that punishment! (Which, by the way, was given to her by James who then took the veto away from her.)
• To give her even more credit, whomever runs her official Twitter is following my Twitter -- first hamster account to do so. Hey, maybe we could be friends in another life!
• 2400 times in 24 hours, she had to walk a triangle in the yard. First she had to hit a hanging punching bag with her sword, then put the sword through a target, then knock a bar down with it.
• She did it, finishing about two hours shy of the 24 hours she had.
• Meanwhile, Clay has been little but a bad example of a recruited player.
• He's going around saying that people should vote him out and let Shelli stay in the game.
• True, she has a better chance of winning it all than he does.
• That's why James and Company want her out instead of Clay.
• Clay isn't much more than an interfering oaf who thinks he's all that and a bag of chips.
• Steve even apologized to the camera, saying that he's sorry that Clay took a space instead of those who would really play the game and want to be there.
• You don't throw away a chance to win a half-million dollars for someone you met a month ago!
• Julia had an interesting talk with Meg and James. She totally gets that Shelli is the more dangerous player and why James made the nomination choices he did.
• I only wish she didn't come with the baggage of Austin and Liz. If they offed Austin, Liz would probably be better off. But I do see why Julia is the "nice twin." She's also the smarter one, I think.]
• Clay seems to think being on the show is his ticket to Big Time Hollywood. Silly boy.
• Vanessa is still worried that she'll be backdoored.
• @@
• I think Vanessa is paranoid a bit too much. She too would drive me crazy in real life.
• Hmm ... when I think about it, I believe all of them would get on my nerves. Don't let me in that house with a sword!
• A skywriting plane flew over the house merely writing "I <3 --="" a="" didn="" it="" li="" love="" name.="" specify="" t="" you="">
• They all freaked out. 
• Huh. This morning's wake-up music (blocked on the feeds) was 'Psycho Killer' by the Talking Heads. Appropriate.
• They had photo booth today. Whoopie.
• The time came for Vanessa to stop shining Jackie's knight armor, but Jackie is still stuck in the armor for the week if I'm not mistaken.
• Hey, at least she won't be on the block in it!
• There ya go!

Jackie in shining armor

Leave 'em both on the block!

Willing to give up his game

Steve apologies to us for Clay taking space

Big Brother 17: HoH Endurance Winner, Nominations Show Blog Party

Good evening! Ready for a blog party? Tonight's episode will show the outcome of the HoH endurance comp ... which many of us already know about, but ...! "It's going to be a tense week." And, we love tense!

As the show airs here on the East Coast, I'll update this entry with the major happenings. Refresh the page to get the latest. As always, the real party is in the comments area. I hope to see you there!

Recap, recap. (Of course.) Cut into the endurance comp in action. The rain comes down, the wall tilts forward and the stuffed birds attack. Now they're getting glopped with "bird poop." Steve out first, immediately followed by Austin. Julia down, then Meg. More stormy weather and bird attacks. In DR, Johnny Mac thinks it's awesome.

Jackie's out. James knows he needs to win it. Liz is out. Vanessa tells us anyone but James would be okay for her. Becky out. Clay out. Shelli tries to make a deal for safety for her, Clay and Johnny Mac. James agrees. Johnny Mac goes down. Shelli jumps. 

James is HoH, promises to get blood on his hands and go for big targets. To us, that is, not to the fellow hamsters. Shelli is sure he'll keep his word.

Heh.

They show Julia has shown up on the Memory Wall but don't point out that they put her in place of Jace.

Liz and Julia talk about Austin. Liz tells Julia that Jason twisted everything. Julia is less than thrilled with him. She doesn't trust him at all. I like Julia!

Vanessa is bothered that Shelli didn't include her in the safety deal with James.

James, Meg, Jackie and Becky talk about how Shelli and Clay are running the house. "What they did to us, we'll do to them." James wants Shelli out.

Becky runs to tell Chelli that a backdoor plan is in motion.

Vanessa ran to James to make her own plea for her own safety, throwing Clay and Shelli under the bus -- about the Jason thing and the fact Shelli didn't include her in the deal. They never showed James's HoH room reveal. Is that a first? She offers him a safety deal down the road.

Clay and Shelli visit James. They throw Austin under the bus. James is just telling them what they want to hear at this point.

James tells Meg he might just throw both Shelli and Clay on the block, that way one would go home.

Nominations Ceremony time! James nominates Clay and Shelli. Ha! He says his contract wasn't valid. Shelli pleads her case. 

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - August 2, 2015

Good morning! Welcome to my weekly off television topic reflection of the past week in both words and photographs I've taken along the way! This post is a year 'round "feature" on the blog. If you're looking for Big Brother posts, they can all be found at this link right here. If you're not interested in this particular post, please feel free to skip on by it. I'll be posting a Big Brother blog party post coinciding with the East Coast airing of the show and, late this evening, another live feeds post. Stay tuned.

Here in the NJ/Greater NYC Metro Area, we had another hot week with temps hovering around and often going over 90 degrees. While the city itself (NYC) didn't have enough 90 degree days in a row to qualify as a heat wave, we in the inland areas did. The heat never actually broke. But, storms coming through towards the end of the week broke the humidity a bit. By tomorrow, the humidity is expected to return. I am NOT a summer, high heat, high humidity person! I would like autumn weather, please.

I had another rather uneventful week here -- working, working on the blog, not enough sleep, rinse, repeat. I kind of wanted to take my folding chair and head across the street for a free outdoor showing of Selma the city was putting on Friday night (raindated from Thursday). It was right at the Aristacare center where I would have gone for rehab after knee surgery had I been forced to do time in rehab.

But I guess I'm getting too old and crochety or something. I thought of lugging my chair which is wood and heavier than a lawn chair, jaywalking across the street with it, bug bites, the heat and how tired I was after work. I ended up posting a BB live feeds update on the blog, then napping. After napping, I went to bed.  Such is my life these days.

Onto this week's photos! Due to the heat, I didn't take a ton of shots, nor really seek out photography fodder. I went for the easy stuff that was right in front of me. If you click on an image, it will open it up in a larger version.

Posing pigeon

The two young pigeons born this past spring at the Bridgewater Train Station seem to have a real curiosity about my camera. As a result, I often end up with many photos of them.

Help me! Help me!

Oops. I should have posted a human head on his face to be posting "Help me!" with this fly shot. I believe this is a flesh fly, not the kind of housefly you might have to battle with in your home. (Of course, I let Vincent the Cat battle flies that might sneak in here.) They feed off dead animals and such. Ew. But he was kind of cool to photograph.

Eek! A bus!

While it might appear that I'm risking my life for the shot, I'm not. Or, to be more accurate, I wasn't. I took this shot of the 59 bus headed to Newark from the westbound platform of the Plainfield Train Station. It was rounding the corner from Gavett Place to North Avenue. 

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

Big Brother 17: Live Feeds Overnight into Sunday - August 2

Becky in her outfit

Well, it hasn't been a big game talk night with all the punishments from the PoV comp going on. Here's the latest from inside that Big Brother House of Jousting Knights:

• Heh. James thinks watching the show on television is much easier.
• Of course it is! I prefer to mock them from afar. But I wouldn't be caught dead in that house. Real life is hard enough.
• Another reason the game talk has died some is that James has been adamant that he's keeping the nominations the same.
• I think he will. 
• There's a lot of buzz going around about a double eviction. However, I think that's unlikely this week what with the endurance comp, punishment costumes and actions in the PoV, first solo HoH and all this past week. They have a lot of fodder for the show on Thursday. I'd say the soonest for a double eviction would be next week.
• But I could be wrong.
• Gee, there was some talk about them seeing "older" people in the last stages of pre-season and how they must have been cut by casting.
• Heaven forbid you have someone over 40 years old on the show!
• Becky didn't expect to make it as far as jury.
• I didn't expect her to do so, either. See? I can be wrong.
• Becky who? There's a Becky in there? Oh. That gal who goes on the block.
• As part of the punishment from PoV, Vanessa must buff Jackie's knight armor for 24 hours.
• At least the punishment has Vanessa in a red beret. Someone needs to throw that green knit hat over the fence. Please.
• Shelli's punishment has her doing battles with a sword. She has to walk (or run) around poking her sword into set targets on the lawn, then ring a bell when done.
• As of 4:30am their time she hit her halfway mark of 1200. 
• Unless she falls on her sword, she should make it.
• I bet it's a fake sword. They wouldn't trust her with a sharp long pointy object.
• Would they?
• Sigh. They had a card which said their "friends on the live feeds" want them to play Spin the Bottle.
• No. I don't want that. 
• I'd rather a brouhaha, please. They never ask us to vote on a brouhaha. I'm sure we would ALL vote for that!
• Before she got so involved in her punishment, Clay and Shelli tried to come up with some way for one of them to come off the block.
• I think they realize that resistance is futile.
• And on it goes.

Shelli hit the halfway mark at about 4:30am

She has a sharp weapon!

A captive audience

Clay in a cape

Vanessa and Jackie

Big Brother 17: Live Feeds Saturday Daytime, PoV - August 1

Too bad, so sad

Greetings, hamster watchers! I just want to start this live feeds report by mentioning that I don't post the live feeds moment to moment live as they happen. I'm just me. I work a full-time real job and do this in my "spare time" -- ie: when I should be sleeping or taking care of real life things. During the BB seasons, this is more of a Reader's Digest condensed version of what's gone on since I last posted. There are more than a few sites out there with many people reporting every breath taken on the live feeds. Here, the commenters often pipe in with happenings when I can't post. I will say that I generally live cover every TV episode and endurance comps. But no one single person can be expected to cover every minute of the live feeds.

That said, here's what happened so far today inside that Big Brother House of Love on the Block:

• BB woke them all up very early today. Well, early for them, that is. It was about 8:15am their time.
• Liz, Austin and Julia tried to sleep in in their Have Not room even though it's not all that comfortable.
• It still took them over two hours after wake-up call to hold the meeting to pick veto players.
• In addition to Clay, Shelli and James, we have Austin, Becky and Vanessa. Julia will host the comp.
• We never see the comp. We used to get FOTH (Front of the House), then music and trivia, the last few seasons Jeffish (Jeff Schroeder segments with highlights and interviews).
• We know that Becky doesn't want to win it -- she and Johnny Mac talked about that. James really wants to win it himself so he can retain complete control of the nominees.
• James wants Shelli out.
• Vanessa really doesn't want to win it. It would make her make a decision.
• We know how she hates to make decisions.
• Shelli cried some more.
• The latest cry was that people are treating her differently.
• Go figure.
• Austin told Vanessa (and I agree) that she has to think of what's best for herself in the game if she wins veto.
• He doesn't want to win it, either. He's scared that Liz will go on the block if he wins and saves someone.
• Best to not win it at all in that scenario.
• Shelli continued on with her "nobody wants to talk to me anymore" saga.
• Vanessa continued with her "woe is me, what should I do" saga.
• Steve had been predicting this PoV would be the one with vacations, money give, a unitard/costume, etc.
• He was apparently right.
• The PoV went down and James won it! Now the noms should remain the same -- Shelli and Clay.
• Becky won $5,000. Clay won a trip to Ireland. Shelli got a punishment -- doing 2400 knight routines in 24 hours. Jackie and Vanessa have to be chained together.
• Clay started telling everyone to vote him out and let Shelli stay.
• @@
• Both Johnny Mac and Meg got all teary. Stress? I dunno.
• Vanessa cried.
• Out of them, the only surprise is Johnny Mac. I flashbacked on the feeds and can't see why he cried.
• They both have imbibed some, though.
• Shelli thinks that James will buy into her plan of assuring him jury votes from her and Clay if they can stay.
• I'd have a better chance of selling him the Brooklyn Bridge.
• So, that's that. It's practically guaranteed that either Shelli or Clay will be out the door this week.
• What a darn shame, eh?

Worried about being targeted next week

Not worried about being targeted

Austin makes me want to stab my eyes!

Crying again, she's too naive methinks