Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen-X Season Finale Blog Party - December 14

As the Survivor season finale airs here on the East Coast, I'll be live-blogging with the major events. The season finale is two hours followed by an hour-long reunion show. As always, the real party is in the comments area. Please feel free to join in on the fun! It's been a good season with many blindsides, twists and turns!
 
Here are the blog pool match updates from our good buddy, Lifeguard Laurie:

Survivors
Adam Klein - Brian, Kelsey NY, Sharon N
Bret LaBelle - Brandi Peralta, Judi Sweeney, Skyriverblue
David Wright - Buzzmaam, MikesGirl, Sharon C
Hannah Shapiro - David, meb, Terry is a Texan
Jay Starrett - Becky, Jackie, Shayne
Ken McNickle - Dolores in Hollywood, Margo, Russ

Jury
Michelle Shubert
Taylor Lee Stocker 
Chris Hammons 
Jessica Lewis
Zeke Smith 
Will Wahl 
Sunday Burquest

Survivor fans ready?

Jeff tells us that we'll have a sneak peek at the cast for the next season. The castaways are all gathered with him to watch the finale together and then do the reunion show. I've heard rumors that Michaela is in the next season.

We're starting with a look back on the season and a look at the remaining castaways.

Jay is regretting playing his idol for nothing. He figures he'll look for a new one tomorrow. Bret is shocked they didn't go with the plan to get rid of David. He's sure either Jay or David will win and they both need to go. David thinks he needs to create some chaos. He doesn't think there are any idols left in the game, so he's been working on making a fake idol ... for someone else to find.

Jay spots the fake idol and thinks it's real. Oopsie, Jay! 

Whoa! Ken opens up the Legacy Advantage left to him by Jessica -- immunity at the next Tribal Council. He's keeping it a secret.

Immunity Challenge time ...race through obstacles collecting bags of tiles, solve a combination lock, retrieve a key to puzzle pieces, solve puzzle. The first to finish also wins reward -- a steak with all the fixings.  

Jay got the combo and left it showing ... David goes to look, then they all do. 

DAVID wins Immunity (and steak)! Ooo ... Jay takes over the reward and takes David because he beat him. He can choose one other, goes for Adam because Adam gave him the Reward Takeover Advantage.

Jay tells them that he will take them both to the final three. He wants them to take Bret out. David is tempted. Of course, David knows that Jay's "idol" won't save him. Ken is worried that Jay will win and they -- Bret, Ken and Hannah -- think Jay should go. Adam thinks they should leave Bret in. Oh my ... looks like we night head into another Tribal not having a clue who will really go out. 

Tribal Council time. Again, good questions posed. 

Suspense ...

The tally: 
Wait! Jay plays the fake idol! Oopsie! Ken pulls out his Legacy Advantage and claims his immunity. 

Ken, Jay, Jay, Jay.

He takes it best of anyone I've ever seen! But Jay is now on the jury.  

Right into Immunity challenge. David is worried ... it's swimming. Maneuver a buoy through obstacles, take wood pieces over teeter-totter and solving a puzzle.

KEN wins Immunity!  

Of course, Adam wants David to go home. He thinks he has both Bret and Hannah on his side, but wants to find an idol. He thinks if he doesn't find one, David must have it. Meanwhile, David thinks that Adam must go and that he (D) has Hannah and Ken to keep him safe.

Adam indeed does find an idol. Uh-oh, David. Adam tells Bret he has an idol. Then he tells Hannah! Stupid move. She can switch Ken's and David's vote to Bret.

Off to Tribal we go! 

The tally ... Adam plays his idol. 

David, Bret, David, Bret, Bret.

Bret is OUT! He doesn't take it as well as Jay. He told David congratulations and told them the rest of them lost a million dollars.  

David is overjoyed that Hannah and Ken saved him. Adam not so much. Adam tells Hannah she made a big mistake. He's so fearful of David winning that he's obsessive about it.

Immunity Challenge time  ... the final one of the season. Long pole to maneuver bowl through a channel. Thirteen bows placed wins. Tallest stack in thirty minutes wins if no one gets to thirteen. It's between Ken and Adam. Gah. Ken, then Adam, lose their stacks.

Yikes! It's tie between Ken and HANNAH. They do a tiebreaker five minute version of the challenge. 

KEN wins the Final Immunity! 

David thinks Ken will remain loyal to him. He's thinking the worse case scenario will be a fire-making challenge against Adam. Hannah thinks she needs to make Ken target David. Again, nothing is a sure bet.

Penultimate Tribal Council --  Jeff pumps up Hannah. He asks about David's pitch to Ken. David talks loyalty, honesty and integrity from Ken.

The tally --
David, Adam, David, David.

GAH! David is gone. He takes it well, though. 

Final Tribal Council time. 

Taylor - His vote isn't set, wants them to pitch. Hannah talks about her strategic cut-throat game, went from being a mess. Ken said two sides to the game, human being, moved forward. Adam says he played the best game of the three remaining.

Sunday - Tried to be adaptable and flexible. Were you? Did you play like a millennial or Gen-Xer. Ohh ... Ken makes a flipper comment. Adam thinks he's a combination of both. Hannah claims that she made decisions that she thought were right for the time.

Jessica - Ken, put on a pedestal for loyalty and honesty. You took out David. Ken says his number one alliance was his daughter (in tears).

Will - Respects David for voting Ken out. Adam, reason you couldn't get your moves to work? Adam blames Hannah. Hannah speaks up for herself.

Zeke - Evolution of Survivor strategy. Ken did nothing to evolve the game. Adam, Hannah what did you do to evolve it? Adam did some double-talk. Hannah actually pleas a good case for herself.

Michelle - Hannah, how many votes on the wrong side? Michaela only. Adam - why your victories overtake your blunders? He blames Hannah again. 

Bret - Ken, when did you really start playing? Ken says at the start when he felt he was at the bottom of Gen-X. Adam, how long did it take for you to vote out David? Adam blames Hannah, but didn't answer the question. 

Jay - Adam, we're brothers why didn't you use me to take out David? Tears. You were in the way.

Chris - I'm a trial lawyer, never served on a jury. He talks about David as the most dangerous person in the game. He tells Adam he should win because he changed Ken's mind. 

David - Experience was transforming. What evolution did you undergo? Hannah says what we'd expect. Ken was socially awkward, ticks and twitches, talks about his daughter. Adam personal dream, two years ago applied with mother, cries and tells of his mother's cancer.      

Jay obviously votes Adam as he says "Love you, buddy." after voting.

It's onto the live part in Los Angeles.   

The final tally:
Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam.

Adam wins. Jeff says it was a clean sweep, unanimous.

I know from news reports that his mother passed away a day or two after filming ended. So, she never knew he'd win it all. My gosh, she died an hour after he got home. It's a sad tale. He's now involved in Stand Up to Cancer. His mother never smoked, always lived a healthy life, yet died of lung cancer.

The Bret/Zeke "we're gay" bit comes up. Then the Hannah crush on Ken. Onto Michaela ... did she know how good she was? Nope! Ohh ... now we know why Figgy dropped Taylor due to something on the outside world she didn't know .. he has a new baby.

Jeff promises us familiar faces on next season. 

Next season -- Fiji. Most competitive ever. Survivor: Gamechangers. And, yes ... Michaela, Tony, Tai, Caleb, Cierra, Cirie, Sandra, Ozzy! It will premiere in March.

Also in it are Aubry, JT, Zeke and Malcolm.  

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 11, 2016

Good morning! Since it's Sunday, 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. This is a regular Sunday part of this blog in addition to the television posts. 

If you're a fan of Survivor, please stop in Wednesday night for the big two-hour season finale blog party! The show (and blog party) start at 8pm ET. I'll be live-blogging the major happenings as they air here.

I really have very little to report on this week and even but a few photos. It's not really my favorite time of year and my health pain-wise has been rough. Plus, it's been cold! Supposedly, we're expecting snow this afternoon and evening, but it's supposed to turn to rain and warm up overnight.

Despite my pain issues, I'm going to arm myself with some ibuprofen, go into work early tomorrow, then head into the city after work. I haven't been going into Manhattan because I haven't been feeling all that well lately. But I now have a reason to go and a purpose. An online friend of more than 20 years from Glasgow (Scotland) is visiting the city. It's one of those odd nowadays tales of knowing someone so well and so long, but never actually meeting in person. He's much younger than I am. I recall he was an older teenager when we first met in a CompuServe forum circa 1995. At that time, he was barred from flying here due to some sort of marijuana issue.  

Now, fast forward twenty years -- he got married in his kilt a year or so back and he and his wife are passing though after visiting her home town of Ottawa. While I'm meeting them on the Lower East Side for dinner, I'll be arriving at Penn Station, walking over to Herald Square to catch the subway down there and taking a different route back up through the city and returning home by bus from Port Authority at the edge of Times Square. So, I'll definitely be taking some photos even though I won't hit Rockefeller Center and such. To be honest, they do look the same year after year anyway although if you haven't been there during the holidays, you need to get there sometime! The bus home drops me off across the street from my apartment.  

That's it. Here are the few photos I took this week. Clicking on an image will open it in a larger version. 

Holidays at the Plainfield Police

"Darn it, Jim. I'm a cop, not a tree lighting design engineer!" But the sentiment is there! The green lanterns by the entrance to the police department aren't holiday related. When I lived in CT or upstate NY, I never saw green lanterns by police department entrances. I noticed that NYC police stations had the lights, though ... as does Plainfield which is much closer to the city. So, I looked up the meaning behind them. I found this reference -- "According to the NYPD website, "It is believed that the Rattle Watchmen, who patrolled New Amsterdam in the 1650's, carried lanterns at night with green glass sides in them as a means of identification. When the Watchmen returned to the watch house after patrol, they hung their lantern on a hook by the front door to show people seeking the watchman that he was in the watch house. Today, green lights are hung outside the entrances of Police Precincts as a symbol that the "Watch" is present and vigilant." Huh. Interesting. The original Green Lantern(s)!

Here, then gone. Here, then gone.

The struggle is real. I fear the dandelions will lose the war; winter will win it soon.
 

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

Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen-X Blog Party - December 7

As Survivor airs here on the East Coast, I'll be live-blogging with the major events. Although tonight's show is only an hour, two castaways will get the boot!  As always, the real party is in the comments area. Please feel free to join in on the fun!
 
Here are the blog pool match updates from our good buddy, Lifeguard Laurie:

Survivors
Adam Klein - Brian, Kelsey NY, Sharon N
Bret LaBelle - Brandi Peralta, Judi Sweeney, Skyriverblue
David Wright - Buzzmaam, MikesGirl, Sharon C
Hannah Shapiro - David, meb, Terry is a Texan
Jay Starrett - Becky, Jackie, Shayne
Ken McNickle - Dolores in Hollywood, Margo, Russ
Sunday Burquest - Brenda, Kristen from Ohio, SueGee
Will Wahl - Cheryl, Indiana Jane

Jury
Michelle Shubert
Taylor Lee Stocker 
Chris Hammons 
Jessica Lewis
Zeke Smith

Survivor fans ready? 

Will has delusions of manhood from his Tribal Council vote to oust Zeke. Bret is trying to think of how he'll stay alive in the game without his ally Zeke. He and Sunday go to Adam saying that David, Will and Jay are the most dangerous players left in the game.

Will? Dangerous? Um, well, maybe because he can't be trusted. 

Oh, right to the Immunity Challenge! Race out to disks, stack them, over balance beam and wire maze ... reminds me a bit of a recent BBOTT comp.  Will is dangerously keeping in last place.

JAY wins Immunity! 

Jay talks to Will about taking out either David or Ken. Will, who's the Big Man on Campus, thinks he's calling the shots and goes around telling people to target David. David thinks he himself is the target, too. Adam isn't too keen about Will thinking he has the power. So, HE goes around bad-talking Will. He tells Bret. Bret and Sunday will both target Will. Hmm. Adam tells Hannah. Now she's a Nervous Nelly all over again. 

Now Adam thinks HE's in charge of the game.

No time wasted tonight, it's off to Tribal Council! No real clues in the questioning.

The tally:
David, David, Will, Will, Will, Will, Will.

Ha! That's what happens when you get too cocky!  

Jay knows he's all alone in the game. He tells Adam not to take David to the end. Adam tells us Jay needs to go home. 

Onto the second Immunity Challenge! Solve a block puzzle, timer in the form of a Survivor pinball doohickey that times them out in errors. Good challenge! They have to toss a ball through a maze, work on the puzzle, retrieve the ball before it gets caught in the pinball time-out.

Adam is helping Ken! KEN wins Immunity! 

Adam's plan is for David to go home. David is worried. Jay wants David to go. David thinks they should set Bret up to go. Meanwhile, Hannah thinks they should target Sunday because she thinks Sunday will be brought to the finals because she'd be easy to win against. Adam tells Ken and Hannah they need to vote for Jay. He wants either Jay or David out. 

Adam tells Jay he needs to use his idol tonight. Then he tells him his Mom is dying of cancer and he's playing for her. Jay's Mom also has big health problems. Now they're besties once again.

Hannah is still pushing the Sunday Out Bit. She doesn't want David to go as she loves him.

Time for Tribal Council.   

Jay plays his idol.

The tally:
Jay, David, David, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.

Woot! David stays, Jay's idol is flushed out and Sunday goes!  

Next week is the two-hour season finale!  

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 4, 2016

Good morning! Since it's Sunday, 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. This is a regular Sunday part of this blog in addition to the television posts. 

After what seems like an eternity of covering Big Brother and Big Brother Over the Top, that's done and over with until summer comes around. I might post newsy bits now and then about BB stuff in between now and BB19, but (thankfully) no juggling blog coverage of it and work at the same time. I'm live blogging Survivor episodes as they air on Wednesday evenings. Come join the blog parties! I might also post some other television-related stuff, but I'm definitely going to take a bit of a breather from other daily show posts for a bit.

Work in my real world is exhausting me. At least now I'll get a bit more rest. I hope.

I really don't have much to report on for the past week here. Nor did I even get any great photos this week. Oh well. Onto the photos anyway! Clicking on a image will bring up a larger version. 

What? No one going to Manhattan?

I could jump on that bus and head into Manhattan for the evening. Nah. When I took this shot, I just wanted to go home. Home is where the cat is. Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

There it is! Plainfield's Christmas Tree!

While I didn't stick around in the cold and wind on Thursday for the actual lighting of the tree, I could see it on Friday from Watchung Avenue across from the police station. I had had a rough day at work and didn't feel like walking over there. I will do that someday.

Trying to stay warm

With no hawk around, the pigeons gather where the sun shines on the brick of the Chotola Apartment Building on North Avenue. 

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

BBOTT: Season Finale ... the winner is ...!

Tonight is the first and only live Julie Chen hosted show of the season! One of the final three -- Jason, Kryssie or Morgan -- will be voted the winner by America and win the grand prize. This version only has a grand prize of a quarter-million rather than a half-million. I believe second place still gets the 50 grand, but I could be wrong on that.

So, let's see which of the two win. Oh. Did I say two? I guess I did. Eh. I'll go with it. Let's see whether Jason or Morgan win ...! 

I had no sound when Julie started the show. Once we went back to Jason winning HoH, the sound came back.

 
Mostly recapping at this point. They're doing diary room speeches with video from the season.

Speeches over, the previously evicted hamsters are brought on stage.

Neeley's opinion -- impressed with Danielle kicking it into gear.
Scott - Shelby's being a lawyer shocked him.
Monte - Sister twist was good, proud of Morgan.
Whitney - Surprised at Shelby's secret, but knew she was smart.
Alex - Her alliance was scared America would target them if they targeted Jason.
Morgan and Alex are both sure they'll be closer now.
Shelby - Live diary room helped her, didn't hurt her.

Now we see diary room highlight clips.  Julie mentions the bad language.

Justin - A clip of his dancing. Strategy or being himself. Being himself.
Shane - Sacrificed game for Danielle? Regrets? None. Now has short hair.
Danielle - In a relationship with Shane now. 
Cornbread - Surprised to see Kryssie in the final three. He's blown away.         

Online voting.
Alex, Whitney, Shane, Neeley and someone else voted Jason.
None voted Kryssie
Justin didn't vote.

Now it's speech time with the two minute speeches from yesterday.

Julie announces the votes have been tallied.
The 2nd prize is 25 grand, not 50.

Third place and evicted -- Kryssie. What a shocker! 
Julie talks with her.  

MORGAN wins!