Suddenly, the show isn't so dark anymore. There are bright colors everywhere - singles are back! This part is fun because now everybody is on their own. No one can hide behind the weight of the entire team. No more coasting. It's every man for himself now. Everyone will be held responsible for their own actions... or non-actions.
Here's another fun part. All the old contestants from this season came back. They have another chance to get back into the game. Of course, the people who are currently still in it weren't happy to hear that. They've fought this long to stay afloat and now they have to worry about one more competitor. The person that gets to come back to the show will get voted in. It's purely a popularity vote. They can vote for anyone to come back except for your former teammate.
Remember Migdalia? No one can forget her and her mother, Miggy. Yep - even Miggy's back, but Migdalia didn't come back. Her husband went to Iraq and there would be no one at home to watch her kids. Remember the Blue team (not the Black vs. Blue but the original two)? The mother begged and pleaded to let her daughter back into the show. They've been there twice and got sent home immediately both times. They failed to complete the very first challenge and when they were given a chance to come back, they had to compete against yellow for the most weight lost. Obviously, yellow won.
On to the voting. It would have been hilarious if it was a 12 way tie. Like that'll happen. Right off the bat, everyone started to vote for John. He obviously made a big impact during the short time he was on campus. Just when it seemed like John might win, the votes started to come in for Victoria. It got to the point where it was a tie and Michael had the last deciding vote. I smell something stinky. The producers had to have a hand in this. I wonder if they had to turn in their votes prior to the taping so that the producers could know who was voting which way. That way they could line up the contestants in whatever order they wanted to make it oh, so dramatic. That would make more sense because whoever was the last voter could change his mind right on the spot if he wanted to. That wouldn't have been nice. It would have been a more truthful vote if everyone voted beforehand without knowing the final results.
In the end, Michael voted for Victoria and she won. O'Neal and Sunshine could sympathize with Victoria and her mother. They also lost the very first challenge and knew/understand what it was like to be sent home immediately. It would make sense that they voted for Victoria to stay. Wonder if she just ends up winning the whole thing. Wouldn't that suck for the others?
It's not over yet for the banished contestants. They were given another chance to get back on campus. They had to compete in a stepping challenge. First person to 1,000 steps wins. Miggy and Melissa have a long history of feuding, so of course, right off the bat they both fly way ahead of everybody and they were neck and neck throughout the whole challenge. Melissa pulled ahead of Miggy and was able to keep that lead. She ends up winning. I can imagine just how thrilled everybody was.
The top three players in the stepping challenge were Melissa, Miggy and Lance. Koli made a great point. Lance just left, Miggy's a huge troublemaker and Melissa quit (and she's just plain annoying). Why would anybody be happy about having any of them back?
Melissa and Victoria were given immunity. I was glad for Victoria but felt that Melissa didn't really deserve it. The trainers came in and found out that everybody was back to singles. They were thrilled! Maybe now that everyone is accountable for their own actions, they will step it up. However, this is about the time when alliances will go kaput. Happens every season without fail.
Bob was so adorable. His face was so awww when he saw Victoria walk in. He even cried (or got close to it). Mr. Trainer is in touch with his feelings!
Speaking of alliances going kaput... In one of the one-on-one interviews with Sunshine, she boldly stated "I'm going to be in the final 4. These are just people for me to play with." So cute! Also, Koli turned against Stephanie. He went to Ashley and told her that he thought that Stephanie was throwing the game. She's messing up the weigh-ins on purpose for whatever twisted reason. He got Ashley to believe him. How sad. I refuse to believe for even a nanosecond that Stephanie could be the kind of person who was playing the game all along and hiding behind her innocent-looking face. I felt so bad for her. BUT - it's always the quiet ones that'll get you... isn't it? Once Stephanie found out, she confronted Ashley and Drea. She managed to work things out but I wonder how long that'll last before Koli steps in and messes with their heads again.
At the weigh-in, O'Neal finally walked up the steps one foot at a time. Wow. It was so emotional that Bob cried. It's amazing just how many things we take for granted. We don't even realize how hard something as simple as going up the stairs might be for someone else. Be thankful you have two feet and be thankful that you can walk up the stairs.
Well - the weigh-in come down to having Sam and Stephanie below the yellow line. Koli made a big speech about how Stephanie is playing games, that she's pretty shady, and how he can't keep someone around like that. OH come on!!! We know you'd never vote for Sam. Why not just come out and say "I'm never voting for Sam for obvious reasons" and just leave it at that!? I'd like you a hell of a lot better if you had just said that.
Stephanie got sent home and it was apparent that Ashley felt bad. Yeah - I hope you feel guilty, Ashley. You betrayed a friend and ran right over her when it was convenient. Way to go.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 10
Home Sweet Home. Everybody went home this week to see if they can resume their routines and still maintain a healthy lifestyle. The cameras followed everybody home and captured their joyous brief return to their crazy lives. Michael's return was hilarious. He had just been home the previous week and was only back on the Ranch for a few days before being booted back to reality. His family greets him (without the anticipation and excitement like all the other families) and tells him that his grandmother hasn't been doing much better. It was almost like a soap opera complete with bad acting and awful ominous music in the background.
If you've watched enough Biggest Loser, you'd know by now that every time the cast goes home, something (or someone) follows them. This time, the surprise was a stationary bike. A DVD announces that they will be biking a marathon to win $10,000. The fastest time wins. However, they would be able to add 5 minutes to someone's time by eating a 100-calorie cupcake. I'm proud of most of them. Many chose not to play the eating game and decided that they wanted to win it with hard work and integrity. A few others - shame on you! Lance was the worst. He ended up eating 17 cupcakes at 1700 calories. I truly believe that if his wife wasn't there to egg him on, he wouldn't have eaten so much. So much for spousal support, Melissa, and I'm talking about the good kind.
It wasn't surprising to see Sam get the most cupcakes against him. He is a fierce competitor and has been on a good streak lately. He is definitely a big threat to everybody. It would be hilarious if he still won the event.
The game begins and everybody is off to a good start. Many of them start blazing right through, wanting to be in the lead right away. Moderation, people! Find a good pace and stick with it all the way through. It's common sense that if you start blazing right away, you will lose the momentum and start slacking off towards the end. That’s never good. Sam starts off very strong with Sunshine and Lance extremely close behind. Ever since Sunshine has won her spot on campus, she has proven herself to be a strong competitor. She can fight with the big boys. With Melissa gone (and she is nowhere near as sweet as Tara), Sunshine has become Tara #2. This is always refreshing to see.
Sam ends up winning 1st place, but there are still the cupcakes stacked up against him. All those cupcakes dramatically dropped Sam from 1st place to 8th place. Several others had cupcakes against them so the roster got all mixed up. What's really funny is that Koli did not finish very strong and he ended up winning 1st place just because no one named any cupcakes against him. Word to the future contestants - if you're going to eat food for someone else, spread it out! Lance - if you had devoted just a few of your 17 cupcakes to Koli instead of shoving most of it on Sam, you would have won 1st place. That's so sad.... for you.
On to the weigh-in... Even with 1700 calories eaten, Lance still lost 8 pounds. Maybe he's the kind of guy who can eat whatever wants and then lose that weight straightaway if he worked out afterwards. I guess anybody can do that. But it wouldn't be advisable to eat 1700 calories worth of cupcakes on any given day. IF he didn't eat all those calories, he might have lost much more than 8.
Blue proved that they could do well at home. All had pretty good numbers, basically identical to what they would lose if they stayed on the Ranch. Bob & Jillian taught them well.
Black needed to lose 26 to win. Stephanie tends to lose just a few on the Ranch (usually between 2 to 7 pounds each week) and she lost 9 while she was at home! 9! That's amazing. She broke through the 200 pound wall and is now 199. Awesome. Ashley must have went along with Stephanie for the ride because when she stepped up on the scale, she found out she lost 10! They did something right, that's for sure.
Black's much needed accomplishment meant Blue's demise. They finally lost a weigh in. And guess who went home? Lance. I knew those cupcakes would come back and bite him in the ass.
Enter Mike, stage left.Is that all you can say Mike!?
Mike: Is she doing any better?
Mom: (cue dramatic music, lips tremble) No. (Sob)
Mike: (somber) Oh.
If you've watched enough Biggest Loser, you'd know by now that every time the cast goes home, something (or someone) follows them. This time, the surprise was a stationary bike. A DVD announces that they will be biking a marathon to win $10,000. The fastest time wins. However, they would be able to add 5 minutes to someone's time by eating a 100-calorie cupcake. I'm proud of most of them. Many chose not to play the eating game and decided that they wanted to win it with hard work and integrity. A few others - shame on you! Lance was the worst. He ended up eating 17 cupcakes at 1700 calories. I truly believe that if his wife wasn't there to egg him on, he wouldn't have eaten so much. So much for spousal support, Melissa, and I'm talking about the good kind.
It wasn't surprising to see Sam get the most cupcakes against him. He is a fierce competitor and has been on a good streak lately. He is definitely a big threat to everybody. It would be hilarious if he still won the event.
The game begins and everybody is off to a good start. Many of them start blazing right through, wanting to be in the lead right away. Moderation, people! Find a good pace and stick with it all the way through. It's common sense that if you start blazing right away, you will lose the momentum and start slacking off towards the end. That’s never good. Sam starts off very strong with Sunshine and Lance extremely close behind. Ever since Sunshine has won her spot on campus, she has proven herself to be a strong competitor. She can fight with the big boys. With Melissa gone (and she is nowhere near as sweet as Tara), Sunshine has become Tara #2. This is always refreshing to see.
Sam ends up winning 1st place, but there are still the cupcakes stacked up against him. All those cupcakes dramatically dropped Sam from 1st place to 8th place. Several others had cupcakes against them so the roster got all mixed up. What's really funny is that Koli did not finish very strong and he ended up winning 1st place just because no one named any cupcakes against him. Word to the future contestants - if you're going to eat food for someone else, spread it out! Lance - if you had devoted just a few of your 17 cupcakes to Koli instead of shoving most of it on Sam, you would have won 1st place. That's so sad.... for you.
On to the weigh-in... Even with 1700 calories eaten, Lance still lost 8 pounds. Maybe he's the kind of guy who can eat whatever wants and then lose that weight straightaway if he worked out afterwards. I guess anybody can do that. But it wouldn't be advisable to eat 1700 calories worth of cupcakes on any given day. IF he didn't eat all those calories, he might have lost much more than 8.
Blue proved that they could do well at home. All had pretty good numbers, basically identical to what they would lose if they stayed on the Ranch. Bob & Jillian taught them well.
Black needed to lose 26 to win. Stephanie tends to lose just a few on the Ranch (usually between 2 to 7 pounds each week) and she lost 9 while she was at home! 9! That's amazing. She broke through the 200 pound wall and is now 199. Awesome. Ashley must have went along with Stephanie for the ride because when she stepped up on the scale, she found out she lost 10! They did something right, that's for sure.
Black's much needed accomplishment meant Blue's demise. They finally lost a weigh in. And guess who went home? Lance. I knew those cupcakes would come back and bite him in the ass.
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 9
Whoa, I'm pretty behind on keeping up with the Biggest Loser. Guess I will be doing lots today by writing about four episodes (I hope). I'm just glad I kept notes!
From this episode on, I'm going to be keeping track of what seem to be obvious manipulations by the producers. There was once a time when I thought reality shows were actually reality without little (or any) interference. How sad. The Biggest Loser reeks of control by the producers during each episode. Who's still in, who's out and how the teams are divided are definitely deciding factors on how the producers want to go about setting up the challenges and stuff.
Clue #1: This week's pop challenge was a trivia challenge. Granted, trivia challenges are not unheard of but the Biggest Loser thrives on physical activities. Did they switch to a trivia challenge this week particularly to give the Black team a fighting chance? Up against Blue, Sam and the ladies don't have much of a chance of winning at all. This hardly seems fair. If the producers changed game play to help the Black team out, that would mean that Mike's strategy of dividing the strong versus the weak (and casted out his biggest competition in hopes of eliminating him) failed.
The prize for winning the brain teaser challenge was a 1-night stay at a fancy-shmancy hotel with expensive tiny-portioned meals and over-the-top spa treatments. They would also get a gigantic room all to themselves. The losers would end up cleaning the filthy kitchen (how could they eat there!?) and the sweat-covered gym (yuck). Winning the challenge would be a nice perk, but they have to remember that they're there to work hard, to lose weight and to keep sight on the fact that they're giving themselves a better life.
Wouldn't you know it - even after Black was given a fighting chance - Blue still won. That's a shame. It was painful to see them lose and it was even worse to see them have to clean the kitchen and the gym... but hey, at least they're burning off calories while working while Blue loses a day of working out. Let's see how this works out for them.
Dr. Jillian reared her ugly head again during the episode, this time with Ashley. Apparently Ashley and Sherry do not have a healthy mother/daughter relationship and there are some rifts between them. Seriously - what mother/daughter relationship is perfect? Some might be closer than others, but I don't see the need to analyze everybody's relationships and then determine that if they don't "solve" their issues, they wouldn't change their lifestyles effectively. I don't even remember what the issue was with Ashley and Sherry. Something about Ashley having to take care of Sherry, I think. Jillian decided that it was time for Ashley to say "Cut the crap and let me live my life." Granted, I might feel the same way but she is her mother and families take care of each other.
Michael left due to a family emergency. He would be away from the Ranch and might not be working out and eating healthy as he would be if he stayed. We'll see how he copes with the real world while losing weight at the same time. This is an excellent test of whether Michael has changed his habits back at home.
There was a cooking challenge. Curtis Stone shows up again (we have been seeing lots more of him lately) and is acting as judge on taste and calories. There was a long table with many food items. Each team takes turns taking 12 items off the table. Once the item is off, the other team can't use it in their dishes. There was a 30-minute time limit to make an appetizer, main dish and dessert. Wow - that is tough. The winner of this gets a 5 pound advantage. A tough challenge comes with great rewards.
After a bad losing streak, Black wins the cooking challenge and the 5 pound advantage. How awesome for them! Did the producers give them another chance at winning after failing the earlier non-physical activity? I don't think I remember an episode where there were zero physical challenges. Each episode had at least one, I think. If I am right, the producers were probably pushing hard to keep the Black team afloat. My guess is that drama might ensue if more of them stayed to fight against Blue.
Blue has it really bad this week. Michael is gone, they wasted a day at the spa and Black has a 5-pound advantage over them. Even so, this still isn't a time for Black to slack off. They have fewer members on their team which means they all have to work harder to lose their required weight to stay in the same.
I had high hopes for Black at the weigh-in. How could they not lose, right? They worked out, burned extra calories while cleaning and had a huge advantage over Blue. Their results were subpar. I especially felt bad for Stephanie. She loses so little every week. It's like her body isn't giving her a chance at all. Or maybe she just needs to figure out the perfect combination of food and working out to get her body to wake up and respond.
After Black weighed in, it was determined that Blue needed 45 to win. Could they do it? Apparently, they could. They ended up losing 56. They did not only meet the requirements but surpassed it. I was genuinely surprised.
Sherry ended up being eliminated. I wasn't surprised because in the past, the older people have always been the first to go (when people aren't feeling so terribly sorry for you, like they did for Ron. On another note, they knew that Ron didn’t have a fighting chance of winning with his bad knees so what was the harm in keeping him? That would only boost their chances of winning).
Helen is currently the oldest title-holder at 40-something. Will we ever see an elderly Biggest Loser after 50? Only time will tell.
From this episode on, I'm going to be keeping track of what seem to be obvious manipulations by the producers. There was once a time when I thought reality shows were actually reality without little (or any) interference. How sad. The Biggest Loser reeks of control by the producers during each episode. Who's still in, who's out and how the teams are divided are definitely deciding factors on how the producers want to go about setting up the challenges and stuff.
Clue #1: This week's pop challenge was a trivia challenge. Granted, trivia challenges are not unheard of but the Biggest Loser thrives on physical activities. Did they switch to a trivia challenge this week particularly to give the Black team a fighting chance? Up against Blue, Sam and the ladies don't have much of a chance of winning at all. This hardly seems fair. If the producers changed game play to help the Black team out, that would mean that Mike's strategy of dividing the strong versus the weak (and casted out his biggest competition in hopes of eliminating him) failed.
The prize for winning the brain teaser challenge was a 1-night stay at a fancy-shmancy hotel with expensive tiny-portioned meals and over-the-top spa treatments. They would also get a gigantic room all to themselves. The losers would end up cleaning the filthy kitchen (how could they eat there!?) and the sweat-covered gym (yuck). Winning the challenge would be a nice perk, but they have to remember that they're there to work hard, to lose weight and to keep sight on the fact that they're giving themselves a better life.
Wouldn't you know it - even after Black was given a fighting chance - Blue still won. That's a shame. It was painful to see them lose and it was even worse to see them have to clean the kitchen and the gym... but hey, at least they're burning off calories while working while Blue loses a day of working out. Let's see how this works out for them.
Dr. Jillian reared her ugly head again during the episode, this time with Ashley. Apparently Ashley and Sherry do not have a healthy mother/daughter relationship and there are some rifts between them. Seriously - what mother/daughter relationship is perfect? Some might be closer than others, but I don't see the need to analyze everybody's relationships and then determine that if they don't "solve" their issues, they wouldn't change their lifestyles effectively. I don't even remember what the issue was with Ashley and Sherry. Something about Ashley having to take care of Sherry, I think. Jillian decided that it was time for Ashley to say "Cut the crap and let me live my life." Granted, I might feel the same way but she is her mother and families take care of each other.
Michael left due to a family emergency. He would be away from the Ranch and might not be working out and eating healthy as he would be if he stayed. We'll see how he copes with the real world while losing weight at the same time. This is an excellent test of whether Michael has changed his habits back at home.
There was a cooking challenge. Curtis Stone shows up again (we have been seeing lots more of him lately) and is acting as judge on taste and calories. There was a long table with many food items. Each team takes turns taking 12 items off the table. Once the item is off, the other team can't use it in their dishes. There was a 30-minute time limit to make an appetizer, main dish and dessert. Wow - that is tough. The winner of this gets a 5 pound advantage. A tough challenge comes with great rewards.
After a bad losing streak, Black wins the cooking challenge and the 5 pound advantage. How awesome for them! Did the producers give them another chance at winning after failing the earlier non-physical activity? I don't think I remember an episode where there were zero physical challenges. Each episode had at least one, I think. If I am right, the producers were probably pushing hard to keep the Black team afloat. My guess is that drama might ensue if more of them stayed to fight against Blue.
Blue has it really bad this week. Michael is gone, they wasted a day at the spa and Black has a 5-pound advantage over them. Even so, this still isn't a time for Black to slack off. They have fewer members on their team which means they all have to work harder to lose their required weight to stay in the same.
I had high hopes for Black at the weigh-in. How could they not lose, right? They worked out, burned extra calories while cleaning and had a huge advantage over Blue. Their results were subpar. I especially felt bad for Stephanie. She loses so little every week. It's like her body isn't giving her a chance at all. Or maybe she just needs to figure out the perfect combination of food and working out to get her body to wake up and respond.
After Black weighed in, it was determined that Blue needed 45 to win. Could they do it? Apparently, they could. They ended up losing 56. They did not only meet the requirements but surpassed it. I was genuinely surprised.
Sherry ended up being eliminated. I wasn't surprised because in the past, the older people have always been the first to go (when people aren't feeling so terribly sorry for you, like they did for Ron. On another note, they knew that Ron didn’t have a fighting chance of winning with his bad knees so what was the harm in keeping him? That would only boost their chances of winning).
Helen is currently the oldest title-holder at 40-something. Will we ever see an elderly Biggest Loser after 50? Only time will tell.
Friday, March 26, 2010
ASK before you touch!
I have a deaf-blind friend. Let's call her A. I met her in high school, but we were never really acquaintances because we ran with different crowds. As fate would have it, I bumped into her years later and she helped me land a job. I'm forever grateful to her.
Since I've been working with her and getting to know her, I've been learning more and more what it's like to be deaf and blind. It's a tough world out there when you're deaf. It's even tougher when you're blind too. Sometimes it's funny.
The stories I love to hear from A are the ones where she can't identify odd-looking things. Things that are gross. Things that she would never ever have touched if she knew what it was. Even if you have perfect vision (or close to it), your eyes could still play tricks on you and you'd be right in the same boat as A.
A’s biggest threat is the water hose. To her – it looks identical to a snake, no matter if it’s coiled up or flattened out. So whenever she sees a green thingy, she very carefully steps around it. I can imagine what other people thought about that. It must be funny to see a girl tip-toeing around a garden water hose. Better safe than sorry, eh?
A was in Galveston a few years back and stayed at a hotel/beach house with some friends and family. One night, she encountered something weird in her bed. It was touching her. She felt around for it, picked it up, squished it, and rolled it around in her hand before deciding that it wasn’t anything of much importance. She tossed it away. A little while later, she woke up with some pain. That little squishy thing attached to something hard had bitten her. She called for her mom and had her mom turn on the lights to see what was in her bed. Here’s the funny part. When her mom realized what it was, she started laughing at A. Nice, huh? What A had in her hands earlier that evening was a little hermit crab that the previous tenant must have left behind. They knew it wasn’t a random crab from the beach because that crab had a painted shell, the kind that you see in the stores. If it were me, I would have NEVER felt around for it, picked up anything like that in the dark, squished it then tossed it away!
Here’s something that happened to a normal-sighted person and probably the most disgusting. A girl went into her mother’s shower stall and noticed a big black gunk in one of the bottom corners. She took a close look at it and tried to figure out what it was. She was stumped. She kind of panicked and thought that it was a big nasty bug. She called for her mom and sisters to come check it out. All the ladies in the family trampled into the bathroom to see what the fuss was all about. After a few seconds, the mom became red in the face and started laughing. That big black gunk wasn’t a bug, but actually a mass of pubic hair. Who did the hair come from? The girl’s step-father. I bet that girl was thankful she didn’t poke at it.
At work the other day, I had a rude (but dead) visitor. It was Monday so little critters had the whole weekend to explore the office. Whenever A is out sick, I take over and work in her office (while juggling two of my other responsibilities). At first I didn’t notice. I don’t know how, but I didn’t. My usual morning routine is this: I sit down, clock in, check what’s on the yahoo front page for interesting news, sign into Yahoo chat, sign into all my emails, go into the kitchen to drop off my lunch and then come back to the office to start working. That morning, my routine was the same – except that I stepped over an icky bug and worked right next to it for a while without noticing. I left the room to do something and when I came back, I noticed a big, dead brown tarantula that was right next to my chair. Ick. I called the only male employee into the office and asked him to toss it out for me. He did, minus one of the legs. It must have broken off when he picked it up. Double ick. I tried to ignore it and kept working, but eventually I got sick of just knowing that a leg was right next to me so I ended up vacuuming the whole office.
A came into work the next day and I told her what happened. She laughed and said that she was glad it wasn’t her who found it. Yeah right. Would she have found it? She probably would have stepped right on it, and if she noticed it, she might have just picked it up and threw it away. A said that after a lifetime of touching icky stuff without knowing what it was, she has learned one thing….
The moral of all this: If you don’t know what it is, ask before you even think about touching it. You’d save yourself a lot of grief and icky moments.
Since I've been working with her and getting to know her, I've been learning more and more what it's like to be deaf and blind. It's a tough world out there when you're deaf. It's even tougher when you're blind too. Sometimes it's funny.
The stories I love to hear from A are the ones where she can't identify odd-looking things. Things that are gross. Things that she would never ever have touched if she knew what it was. Even if you have perfect vision (or close to it), your eyes could still play tricks on you and you'd be right in the same boat as A.
A’s biggest threat is the water hose. To her – it looks identical to a snake, no matter if it’s coiled up or flattened out. So whenever she sees a green thingy, she very carefully steps around it. I can imagine what other people thought about that. It must be funny to see a girl tip-toeing around a garden water hose. Better safe than sorry, eh?
A was in Galveston a few years back and stayed at a hotel/beach house with some friends and family. One night, she encountered something weird in her bed. It was touching her. She felt around for it, picked it up, squished it, and rolled it around in her hand before deciding that it wasn’t anything of much importance. She tossed it away. A little while later, she woke up with some pain. That little squishy thing attached to something hard had bitten her. She called for her mom and had her mom turn on the lights to see what was in her bed. Here’s the funny part. When her mom realized what it was, she started laughing at A. Nice, huh? What A had in her hands earlier that evening was a little hermit crab that the previous tenant must have left behind. They knew it wasn’t a random crab from the beach because that crab had a painted shell, the kind that you see in the stores. If it were me, I would have NEVER felt around for it, picked up anything like that in the dark, squished it then tossed it away!
Here’s something that happened to a normal-sighted person and probably the most disgusting. A girl went into her mother’s shower stall and noticed a big black gunk in one of the bottom corners. She took a close look at it and tried to figure out what it was. She was stumped. She kind of panicked and thought that it was a big nasty bug. She called for her mom and sisters to come check it out. All the ladies in the family trampled into the bathroom to see what the fuss was all about. After a few seconds, the mom became red in the face and started laughing. That big black gunk wasn’t a bug, but actually a mass of pubic hair. Who did the hair come from? The girl’s step-father. I bet that girl was thankful she didn’t poke at it.
At work the other day, I had a rude (but dead) visitor. It was Monday so little critters had the whole weekend to explore the office. Whenever A is out sick, I take over and work in her office (while juggling two of my other responsibilities). At first I didn’t notice. I don’t know how, but I didn’t. My usual morning routine is this: I sit down, clock in, check what’s on the yahoo front page for interesting news, sign into Yahoo chat, sign into all my emails, go into the kitchen to drop off my lunch and then come back to the office to start working. That morning, my routine was the same – except that I stepped over an icky bug and worked right next to it for a while without noticing. I left the room to do something and when I came back, I noticed a big, dead brown tarantula that was right next to my chair. Ick. I called the only male employee into the office and asked him to toss it out for me. He did, minus one of the legs. It must have broken off when he picked it up. Double ick. I tried to ignore it and kept working, but eventually I got sick of just knowing that a leg was right next to me so I ended up vacuuming the whole office.
A came into work the next day and I told her what happened. She laughed and said that she was glad it wasn’t her who found it. Yeah right. Would she have found it? She probably would have stepped right on it, and if she noticed it, she might have just picked it up and threw it away. A said that after a lifetime of touching icky stuff without knowing what it was, she has learned one thing….
The moral of all this: If you don’t know what it is, ask before you even think about touching it. You’d save yourself a lot of grief and icky moments.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Just blogging... Just because
I sat down to blog. I tried, I promise. But I don't think I can do it. I'm exhausted. Oh well, better luck tomorrow I hope.
At least I came on and posted about something other than the Biggest Loser (ha!).
At least I came on and posted about something other than the Biggest Loser (ha!).
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
M's Thoughts
Ever wonder what goes on inside my head? Ok - I hear a joke coming on here - I can faintly hear L or J say "nothing!" Ahem. Like everybody else, I have random thoughts that'll pop in my head out of nowhere. Just recently, I've started to take notes. See… it's not all that scary inside...right? Some may be silly, but at least I’m brave enough to admit what I’m thinking.
How come I've never seen a bird drop dead from the wire?
Is time travel even remotely possible (with all silliness aside)?
If pandas could communicate, what would they say about being the mascot/spokesperson for Panda Express?
At your local grocery store, did you ever realize that you might be touching the same food that people touch after peeing and not washing their hands before/during shopping? Yeah - you might want to think twice about that.
We all know about mail-order brides. Where are the mail-order husbands?
What does deja vu really mean? Depending on your beliefs, it could be the exact same moment from a previous life, uncanny ESP, or just that you've had the exact same conversation (or activity) before. So what does it mean when I have deja vu feelings at a restaurant that was just built last week (and I get the feeling that I've been there before, had the same conversation and took a bite out of my food at the exact same moment)?
Speaking of deja vu, what if we DO repeat our lives again and again. Each time we experience deja vu just proves that we take the same paths over and over again - otherwise, we wouldn't be having that. Right? Maybe not. Whatever.
Do some birds have a fear of heights? I got this from a friend and have been wondering about it since.
It's amazing that how in this recession Americans are still getting bigger. Burger King has changed some locations to be open 24-hours (not just the drive-thru). If fast food places were only open like 5 hours a day (or how about none at all?), I'm willing to bet that our total weight as a country would drop dramatically.
I realized that because I hear the word "recession" all the time now, I actually forgot (briefly) what the economic term was for the opposite of recession. How sad.
Will we ever run out of water? Like, ever?
Every time I see a Ford Escort, I think "I really miss that car." I'm still furious. Just months after I paid off my car, a stupid idiot wrecked it. It was never a powerful car, but having "sports" on it made it very cool in my book. It was my first brand-new car. I bought it and paid it off all by myself with my own money. I was so proud and I felt like such a grown-up.
What would be worse - dying on the first day of war or dying on the last day of war?
Is it really better to have loved and lost than never loved at all? Sometimes I don’t think so.
Seriously, has anybody ever seen a large dog like a Saint Bernard have sex with a teeny dog like a Chihuahua? What would their puppies look like?
What if there really are friendly vampires living among us? Would you want to be one of them?
Why must all good things come to an end?
People can die from all kinds of things... has anybody died purely just from stress (no heart attacks, no strokes, nothing - just falling asleep and never waking up due to stress)?
When will the world get sick of worshiping celebrities?
When will I die and how?
I can relate to the people on Lost. They're stuck on an island and some of them don't want to leave because it's all they know. Sometimes I feel that way about some situations in my life.
Will Wal-Mart ever go bankrupt?
With so many people out of work and watching their spending habits, how is it that there are new restaurants and retail stores still being built all over the place? Thought they were all suffering?
Wouldn't it be nice to have a deaf version of the Bachelorette?
Living in a deaf town would be hell, wouldn't it? No privacy (you can't just meet someone in public and sign whatever you want - people will know what you're saying), constant drama and eventually, you'll lose your sanity.
And my final thought for the day - this is the best blog ever. Right? Right!
How come I've never seen a bird drop dead from the wire?
Is time travel even remotely possible (with all silliness aside)?
If pandas could communicate, what would they say about being the mascot/spokesperson for Panda Express?
At your local grocery store, did you ever realize that you might be touching the same food that people touch after peeing and not washing their hands before/during shopping? Yeah - you might want to think twice about that.
We all know about mail-order brides. Where are the mail-order husbands?
What does deja vu really mean? Depending on your beliefs, it could be the exact same moment from a previous life, uncanny ESP, or just that you've had the exact same conversation (or activity) before. So what does it mean when I have deja vu feelings at a restaurant that was just built last week (and I get the feeling that I've been there before, had the same conversation and took a bite out of my food at the exact same moment)?
Speaking of deja vu, what if we DO repeat our lives again and again. Each time we experience deja vu just proves that we take the same paths over and over again - otherwise, we wouldn't be having that. Right? Maybe not. Whatever.
Do some birds have a fear of heights? I got this from a friend and have been wondering about it since.
It's amazing that how in this recession Americans are still getting bigger. Burger King has changed some locations to be open 24-hours (not just the drive-thru). If fast food places were only open like 5 hours a day (or how about none at all?), I'm willing to bet that our total weight as a country would drop dramatically.
I realized that because I hear the word "recession" all the time now, I actually forgot (briefly) what the economic term was for the opposite of recession. How sad.
Will we ever run out of water? Like, ever?
Every time I see a Ford Escort, I think "I really miss that car." I'm still furious. Just months after I paid off my car, a stupid idiot wrecked it. It was never a powerful car, but having "sports" on it made it very cool in my book. It was my first brand-new car. I bought it and paid it off all by myself with my own money. I was so proud and I felt like such a grown-up.
What would be worse - dying on the first day of war or dying on the last day of war?
Is it really better to have loved and lost than never loved at all? Sometimes I don’t think so.
Seriously, has anybody ever seen a large dog like a Saint Bernard have sex with a teeny dog like a Chihuahua? What would their puppies look like?
What if there really are friendly vampires living among us? Would you want to be one of them?
Why must all good things come to an end?
People can die from all kinds of things... has anybody died purely just from stress (no heart attacks, no strokes, nothing - just falling asleep and never waking up due to stress)?
When will the world get sick of worshiping celebrities?
When will I die and how?
I can relate to the people on Lost. They're stuck on an island and some of them don't want to leave because it's all they know. Sometimes I feel that way about some situations in my life.
Will Wal-Mart ever go bankrupt?
With so many people out of work and watching their spending habits, how is it that there are new restaurants and retail stores still being built all over the place? Thought they were all suffering?
Wouldn't it be nice to have a deaf version of the Bachelorette?
Living in a deaf town would be hell, wouldn't it? No privacy (you can't just meet someone in public and sign whatever you want - people will know what you're saying), constant drama and eventually, you'll lose your sanity.
And my final thought for the day - this is the best blog ever. Right? Right!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 8
Usually the opening of each episode is pretty somber. It’s sad for the person whose partner just left the show. It’s sad for the viewers as well, because by now, we’ve grown to like these people. However, this time around, the opening was a little bit silly. Because the blue team lost, they had to decide who would be leaving and in other words, who O’Neal would be replacing. Sunshine was on the Blue team and O’Neal was sitting at the table right across from the door waiting for sunshine to come thru the door. One by one, members of the blue team filed in and each time, it wasn’t Sunshine. This was major manipulation by the producers. That was NOT nice! Sunshine was the last one to walk in (again, not nice!). After O’Neal calmed down, he turned into a big motivator. He started to rally up the team with a pep talk. That reminded me of Coach Mo.
The Biggest Loser wouldn’t be complete without something new to freak the contestants out with. This week, the contestants were given a full time job, where they would be working 8 hours a day for 5 days. They would be learning how to fit in workouts before/after work, bring healthy food to work, etc… just like the rest of us. Michael wasn’t looking forward to the new routine… wake up, work out, work, work out, sleep and start all over again. Who looks forward to that? Not Me. I may not work out as much as they do but I have stuff that keeps me busy to the point where it’s almost the same thing – always constantly doing something.
At this week’s challenge, the prize was free groceries for a year. How cool. The game was to pull semi-trucks down a road and collect crates with puzzle pieces along the way. The puzzle pieces spells out the prize. I felt so bad for black, they could not get started. It was all women with just Sam. This fueled the distaste I felt for Michael when he first organized the teams. Eventually black caught up and was moving through it well. Their biggest problem is actually getting the truck moving again once they stop to load the back with puzzle pieces. Once they can get the truck moving, they do pretty well and they are able to keep semi-caught up.
The black team gave up a good fight but ultimately, they didn’t make it. The blue team had to try so hard to stay ahead and to actually win the thing. While strength isn’t black’s forte, they could make up for it with determination and a mind-set to do whatever it takes to stay in the game. They were finally catching up to blue while doing the puzzles. It got to the point where blue was starting to panic. When they did win, they were so thrilled and celebrated loudly like beating black is a difficult thing to do. This just proves that it doesn’t matter who’s on black and who’s on blue. Granted, black might have an easier time with the challenges if some of the people were switched around, but the fact that they still put up a good fight was satisfying to see.
While the blue team celebrated, all I could do was think bad thoughts. I kept reminding myself that it was Michael that did this, not the entire blue team. During private interviews, Koli was talking smack saying that the blue team should watch out. During Sam’s interview, he said that they better get out the popcorn because the real show is the weigh-in. I definitely agree. They proved themselves last week and I’m hoping they prove themselves again this week.
I’m proud of Sam; he gave a great pep talk. It certainly helps to have someone lift your spirits when you’re down. He was saying that it doesn’t matter who’s winning during halftime – what matters is who’s winning in the 4th quarter of the game. He also said that anybody watching the show is probably thinking that they can’t do it and that they should prove everybody wrong. Well Sam, hate to say it but you were wrong. I’m watching and I think you CAN do it. I’m rooting for you guys.
Watching them go to work was funny. Koli was smart and volunteered to do the heavy outdoor work because he could get a good workout in. Daris partnered up with someone to do inventory. While reading off the labels, he mispronounced vegetables and said “veggie-table.” That was cute - who says that!?
The contestants spent their week working at a food bank. They organized inventory, moved food and handed out food to the less fortunate.
Watching them wake up every morning at 5:45, get on the bus at 7:30, arrive to work at 9, eat lunch at 12:30m, stop working at 5, get home at 6, work out until 7:30…. that sounds a lot like my life minus all the working out. Just watching them go through the routine made me feel irritated. How can anybody stand doing that every day!?
On to the weigh-in...
It’s starting to irritate me now when people get disappointed with losing just 5 pounds. Anybody would give to lose 5 pounds in a week… most of us take weeks to lose even that. They have to remember that they had full time jobs this week and worked out less – living the life just like the rest of us. 5 pounds is still pretty damn good.
Lance looked like a very giddy little boy just waiting to break through that 300 pound wall. It would be SO awful if he lost zero or gained weight. He ended up losing 10. Good job.
After blue was done weighing in (nothing exciting happened with them except for Lance breaking through the 300 pounds), it was determined that black needed to lose a little more than 38… a little over 6 each person to make it. With a team of 5 women, it is still doable. Drea ends up losing 7. Ashley loses 8. Cheryl lost 5. Sherry lost 5. Stephanie only lost 3. Sam needed more than 10 to keep his team out of the elimination room. That is certainly doable under normal circumstances (normal for the Biggest Loser), but this week, everybody had to work. It seemed that black was on a roll and then suddenly, it went downhill. Sam only lost 4. Bummer.
Sherry lost the most percentage out of the black team so she’s safe from elimination. Watching it, I have no idea which way it’s going to go. Anybody was pretty up for elimination. It was bittersweet for blue because they have to watch their partners on the black team face elimination. They had their little moments where they said good-bye to their former partners, not knowing whether they’d see him/her again.
After watching the black team discuss about who needs to stay and who needs to go, I had basically figured out that it was down to either Sam or Cheryl. The voting was what surprised me. One went to Stephanie because Cheryl felt she was strong enough to do it at home (and Stephanie voted for Cheryl – uh, why?). Sherry voted for Sam because he was strong enough to do it at home. Ashley voted for Cheryl, her own mother’s closest friend on campus! Was it a strategy to keep the younger people on campus so she’d have more allies? She certainly wouldn’t vote for her own mother, that was a given. With three votes, Cheryl was booted out. While that itself isn’t surprising, I was especially surprised that Cheryl would vote for Stephanie and that Ashley would vote for Cheryl. Things people will do….
The Biggest Loser wouldn’t be complete without something new to freak the contestants out with. This week, the contestants were given a full time job, where they would be working 8 hours a day for 5 days. They would be learning how to fit in workouts before/after work, bring healthy food to work, etc… just like the rest of us. Michael wasn’t looking forward to the new routine… wake up, work out, work, work out, sleep and start all over again. Who looks forward to that? Not Me. I may not work out as much as they do but I have stuff that keeps me busy to the point where it’s almost the same thing – always constantly doing something.
At this week’s challenge, the prize was free groceries for a year. How cool. The game was to pull semi-trucks down a road and collect crates with puzzle pieces along the way. The puzzle pieces spells out the prize. I felt so bad for black, they could not get started. It was all women with just Sam. This fueled the distaste I felt for Michael when he first organized the teams. Eventually black caught up and was moving through it well. Their biggest problem is actually getting the truck moving again once they stop to load the back with puzzle pieces. Once they can get the truck moving, they do pretty well and they are able to keep semi-caught up.
The black team gave up a good fight but ultimately, they didn’t make it. The blue team had to try so hard to stay ahead and to actually win the thing. While strength isn’t black’s forte, they could make up for it with determination and a mind-set to do whatever it takes to stay in the game. They were finally catching up to blue while doing the puzzles. It got to the point where blue was starting to panic. When they did win, they were so thrilled and celebrated loudly like beating black is a difficult thing to do. This just proves that it doesn’t matter who’s on black and who’s on blue. Granted, black might have an easier time with the challenges if some of the people were switched around, but the fact that they still put up a good fight was satisfying to see.
While the blue team celebrated, all I could do was think bad thoughts. I kept reminding myself that it was Michael that did this, not the entire blue team. During private interviews, Koli was talking smack saying that the blue team should watch out. During Sam’s interview, he said that they better get out the popcorn because the real show is the weigh-in. I definitely agree. They proved themselves last week and I’m hoping they prove themselves again this week.
I’m proud of Sam; he gave a great pep talk. It certainly helps to have someone lift your spirits when you’re down. He was saying that it doesn’t matter who’s winning during halftime – what matters is who’s winning in the 4th quarter of the game. He also said that anybody watching the show is probably thinking that they can’t do it and that they should prove everybody wrong. Well Sam, hate to say it but you were wrong. I’m watching and I think you CAN do it. I’m rooting for you guys.
Watching them go to work was funny. Koli was smart and volunteered to do the heavy outdoor work because he could get a good workout in. Daris partnered up with someone to do inventory. While reading off the labels, he mispronounced vegetables and said “veggie-table.” That was cute - who says that!?
The contestants spent their week working at a food bank. They organized inventory, moved food and handed out food to the less fortunate.
*Disclaimer: I absolve myself of any responsibility for this next comment.“Isn’t it ironic how a small, skinny starving person would go to a food bank only to be given two bags of food from an obese person?”
I am merely a messenger. It is funny and definitely makes sense (I’ll
admit to that), but I’m not taking responsibility – just because I can :)
Watching them wake up every morning at 5:45, get on the bus at 7:30, arrive to work at 9, eat lunch at 12:30m, stop working at 5, get home at 6, work out until 7:30…. that sounds a lot like my life minus all the working out. Just watching them go through the routine made me feel irritated. How can anybody stand doing that every day!?
On to the weigh-in...
It’s starting to irritate me now when people get disappointed with losing just 5 pounds. Anybody would give to lose 5 pounds in a week… most of us take weeks to lose even that. They have to remember that they had full time jobs this week and worked out less – living the life just like the rest of us. 5 pounds is still pretty damn good.
Lance looked like a very giddy little boy just waiting to break through that 300 pound wall. It would be SO awful if he lost zero or gained weight. He ended up losing 10. Good job.
After blue was done weighing in (nothing exciting happened with them except for Lance breaking through the 300 pounds), it was determined that black needed to lose a little more than 38… a little over 6 each person to make it. With a team of 5 women, it is still doable. Drea ends up losing 7. Ashley loses 8. Cheryl lost 5. Sherry lost 5. Stephanie only lost 3. Sam needed more than 10 to keep his team out of the elimination room. That is certainly doable under normal circumstances (normal for the Biggest Loser), but this week, everybody had to work. It seemed that black was on a roll and then suddenly, it went downhill. Sam only lost 4. Bummer.
Sherry lost the most percentage out of the black team so she’s safe from elimination. Watching it, I have no idea which way it’s going to go. Anybody was pretty up for elimination. It was bittersweet for blue because they have to watch their partners on the black team face elimination. They had their little moments where they said good-bye to their former partners, not knowing whether they’d see him/her again.
After watching the black team discuss about who needs to stay and who needs to go, I had basically figured out that it was down to either Sam or Cheryl. The voting was what surprised me. One went to Stephanie because Cheryl felt she was strong enough to do it at home (and Stephanie voted for Cheryl – uh, why?). Sherry voted for Sam because he was strong enough to do it at home. Ashley voted for Cheryl, her own mother’s closest friend on campus! Was it a strategy to keep the younger people on campus so she’d have more allies? She certainly wouldn’t vote for her own mother, that was a given. With three votes, Cheryl was booted out. While that itself isn’t surprising, I was especially surprised that Cheryl would vote for Stephanie and that Ashley would vote for Cheryl. Things people will do….
Stay Tuned!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 7
Oh boy! Bye-bye Olympics and hello Biggest Loser! How I missed you! When I was starting to teach my class an associate pastor showed up, sat down and said “I’m ready for your class.” I knew he was joking so I waited while he paused and he goes “haha, nope, I’m going home to watch the Biggest Loser!” Even though I knew I was recording it, I was still jealous.
Just when I thought I was done with seeing anything Olympic-related for the next two years, the show opens up with a review of what happened during the last episode. I’m all for short reviews. Anybody who knows me knows that I have bad short-term (and probably long-term) memory. A little refresher never hurt anybody, but this refresher was kind of annoying. Two weeks of Olympics is enough for me.
Remember what happened at the end of the last episode? Orange n Black was battling it out for the spot to stay on campus….and they were both in trouble. Crooked torch versus tense pain in the knees – who will prevail? Orange made it when Black dropped the torch in just under 10 minutes. I don’t think I could even do it for 5 minutes.
Yay! Next came the Temptation Challenge… my favorite challenge of them all, mostly because I get to see Jillian and Bob freak out over who ate what. Food challenges always come with a very nice reward – and that never ends well. This challenge involved eating chocolate chip cookies. Sunshine commented on how much she loves chocolate chip cookies…. who doesn’t? However, too much of one thing can never be good for anybody. Ali announced that now everyone would be split into black and blue. Surprise, surprise – winner of the temptation chooses who’s on black and blue. This person would also choose who gets immunity, even themselves, and there’s a catch….
Ali announced that before they know what the game is, everybody’s gotta decide if they’re in or out. Ali counts to three and only two people decided to play. Michael and Drea (white and black) were the suckers who decided they wanted the power – how nice. The game is Memory – match up the artery-clogging treats that are behind each square. Inside there somewhere, there are two golden cards to match up – the “pick the teams” card. If you match any of the treats, the other person has to eat a cookie and you keep playing. If you don’t get a match, you eat a cookie and 100 calories that goes with it. Once someone matches up the golden cards, the game’s over.
If you have played Memory before, you’d know that like any game of memory you don’t get a match during the first few turns unless you’re extremely lucky. I figured that they’d be going at least 3 or 4 turns before they even start to see the 2nd match of anything. This is funny – my roomie is sitting with me playing right along with the contestants and pointing to where all the matches are. It might be easy on this side of the screen but imagine all the pressure that’s put on you to choose the right squares.
Lance (red) pointed out that he was extremely happy he didn’t volunteer to play because of all the cookies and food that Michael and Drea are eating. Yeah – duh. Anytime there’s a temptation challenge, you do not play! All those calories aren’t worth it. About 6 or 7 rounds in, Drea is whipping Michael’s butt and has found 3 matches. She has also found one of the golden cards that give the power to choose teams.
Michael finally gets a match and Drea ends up eating a PB&J sandwich. The game still hasn’t ended and at this point, Michael is just praying that Drea finds the ticket just so it’ll be over. But then he says that he has to find the ticket or otherwise this would have all been for nothing. Yeah, you think? After all those calories and after all the matches Drea has made – Michael found the last ticket and matched them up.
There might be lots of but kissing now….or maybe not. Michael said he wanted to be fair but at the same time he needed to protect himself. He hasn’t done anything off the charts thus far; he did have great power in the past and was fair.
Now came time for Michael to announce who is going to be on what team. First order of business: splitting up Koli and Sam. Whoa – splitting up Tongan cousins. Smart if you want to play the game but not smart if you want to stay friends with them. Next, he split up the orange team. Drea mentioned to Michael that she wanted to stay with Bob but Michael put her with Jillian. The only thing he honored was putting red with Bob like he wanted. At least he has one ally. It seems that he’s building one team up against the other … strong versus weak. Did he even think that after the losing team loses a contestant that he’d be joining them (IF he chose himself for Immunity)? Most likely he’d be stuck with the weaker team. Not smart. Or maybe he’s betting that he’d lose the most out of everyone each week and have immunity each time (if they still do immunity for person who lost the most for that team). My head is spinning with all these different game tactics. So many ways to do stuff – and so many ways to make enemies.
Michael kept pink together. I figured he’d keep yellow together and give himself immunity. Right? But wait!!! Michael didn’t give himself immunity. He gave it to O’Neal (yellow) and put himself on the blue team. He’s betting that black will lose weigh in and that O’Neal will end up there and thus Sunshine up from her father. That’s horrible. Black looked so tiny versus the blue. There’s no way that they’ll win the weigh in… however, Jillian was faced with that challenge before. She was given a black team back when there was a red and blue team. Jillian got stuck with the outcasts and eventually the outcasts kicked red and blue’s butts. I really hope this is what happens this time around. This would make for excellent TV!
Enter Jillian. One pissed Jillian. Sprinkle in a little bit of peeved Bob. The end result: a lot of yelling. Jillian was yelling at Michael about giving everybody a fair chance. Why can’t everybody stay based on hard work and not manipulation? Michael said that he couldn’t make it even and increase the risk of sending himself home. Well maybe if he made it all even, he’d kick himself into overdrive and lose all that weight.
Bob tells blue that regardless of them being stacked against black, there’s still no time to slack. It would be funny to see Bob say “you know what? I don’t agree with how the teams are set up” and just walk off. Michael had the gall to tell Miggy “if you don’t lose weight for my team, you’re gone. You’re no use to me.” This isn’t the Michael that we came to love. Greed will get the best of anybody, huh?
Here comes the first challenge for the black/blue teams. This is their first test of seeing how well they all work together. The task was to pull your banner up a tall building by pulling them up from the roof. Blue had a strong start but eventually, they started to fall apart and black was creeping up on them. I’m rooting for the black – I’ve always liked the underdogs. In the end, blue won and they received letters from home. At least black gave up a good fight.
At the weigh in, Michael felt that he needed to lose a lot of pounds to prove himself to his team. He ends up losing 15 and breaks Rudy’s record from last year of 101 pounds in 7 weeks. He lost 107. Way to go… I guess… I like Rudy a whole lot better and would have liked him to keep his record.
Lance’s personal record was to get out of 300 and he needed 6 pounds to do it. He lost 5 and got to an even 300. Hopefully he’ll break through that wall next week.
Blue team pulled two big numbers (13 and 10) and the rest were average. Nonetheless, they put up a big number for the blue team to match. They need to lose a little more than 39 pounds. It came down to an average of about 6 pounds each person. I’m hoping that if a few of them fall below 6 pounds, that Sam could make up for the difference. But it just might be too much of a job to carry. Drea played the food temptation game and lost so she was the first up for the blue team. She only lost 5. Cheryl only lost 4. Sherry lost 6. Sam loses 8. Stephanie pulled 8… it was the first time she lost that much since week 1. Ashley needs to lose 9 to keep her team safe….do I feel a commercial break coming on here? Yep. Go figure….After the commercial break; we saw that Ashley lost 10! TEN! Eat that, Michael! I’m taking an early bet that Michael would be the one to go home, but let’s see.
I spoke too soon. Ali announced that Michael has immunity because he lost the most percentage of weight out of everybody on the blue team. What a bummer.
I’m curious, who decides the order that they sit in at the elimination? Before and during the elimination, Michael kept saying that it shouldn’t have been them. Uh, right. Hey Michael, that’s another backfire. Maybe you should have learned your lesson after that big backfire during the string challenge. Playing games isn’t working out for you, you should stick to just losing weight and staying on campus by pure heart and determination.
In the end, it came down to Miggy and Lance because they were the two lowest percentages. Miggy ended up going home because everybody figured that Lance would be a better asset for the challenges (they have O’Neal coming in and he can’t do challenges). By now, everybody has learned the challenges could make or break your week. How sad for Miggy – but she won’t be missed. She tends to be stressed out a lot and she passes that on to the people around her. I have a good feeling that she’ll do well at home. After all, she’s got that fire in her that we saw during the first episode.
I’m up for another exciting episode of the Biggest Loser. Why must we wait another week!?
Just when I thought I was done with seeing anything Olympic-related for the next two years, the show opens up with a review of what happened during the last episode. I’m all for short reviews. Anybody who knows me knows that I have bad short-term (and probably long-term) memory. A little refresher never hurt anybody, but this refresher was kind of annoying. Two weeks of Olympics is enough for me.
Remember what happened at the end of the last episode? Orange n Black was battling it out for the spot to stay on campus….and they were both in trouble. Crooked torch versus tense pain in the knees – who will prevail? Orange made it when Black dropped the torch in just under 10 minutes. I don’t think I could even do it for 5 minutes.
Yay! Next came the Temptation Challenge… my favorite challenge of them all, mostly because I get to see Jillian and Bob freak out over who ate what. Food challenges always come with a very nice reward – and that never ends well. This challenge involved eating chocolate chip cookies. Sunshine commented on how much she loves chocolate chip cookies…. who doesn’t? However, too much of one thing can never be good for anybody. Ali announced that now everyone would be split into black and blue. Surprise, surprise – winner of the temptation chooses who’s on black and blue. This person would also choose who gets immunity, even themselves, and there’s a catch….
Ali announced that before they know what the game is, everybody’s gotta decide if they’re in or out. Ali counts to three and only two people decided to play. Michael and Drea (white and black) were the suckers who decided they wanted the power – how nice. The game is Memory – match up the artery-clogging treats that are behind each square. Inside there somewhere, there are two golden cards to match up – the “pick the teams” card. If you match any of the treats, the other person has to eat a cookie and you keep playing. If you don’t get a match, you eat a cookie and 100 calories that goes with it. Once someone matches up the golden cards, the game’s over.
If you have played Memory before, you’d know that like any game of memory you don’t get a match during the first few turns unless you’re extremely lucky. I figured that they’d be going at least 3 or 4 turns before they even start to see the 2nd match of anything. This is funny – my roomie is sitting with me playing right along with the contestants and pointing to where all the matches are. It might be easy on this side of the screen but imagine all the pressure that’s put on you to choose the right squares.
Lance (red) pointed out that he was extremely happy he didn’t volunteer to play because of all the cookies and food that Michael and Drea are eating. Yeah – duh. Anytime there’s a temptation challenge, you do not play! All those calories aren’t worth it. About 6 or 7 rounds in, Drea is whipping Michael’s butt and has found 3 matches. She has also found one of the golden cards that give the power to choose teams.
Michael finally gets a match and Drea ends up eating a PB&J sandwich. The game still hasn’t ended and at this point, Michael is just praying that Drea finds the ticket just so it’ll be over. But then he says that he has to find the ticket or otherwise this would have all been for nothing. Yeah, you think? After all those calories and after all the matches Drea has made – Michael found the last ticket and matched them up.
There might be lots of but kissing now….or maybe not. Michael said he wanted to be fair but at the same time he needed to protect himself. He hasn’t done anything off the charts thus far; he did have great power in the past and was fair.
Now came time for Michael to announce who is going to be on what team. First order of business: splitting up Koli and Sam. Whoa – splitting up Tongan cousins. Smart if you want to play the game but not smart if you want to stay friends with them. Next, he split up the orange team. Drea mentioned to Michael that she wanted to stay with Bob but Michael put her with Jillian. The only thing he honored was putting red with Bob like he wanted. At least he has one ally. It seems that he’s building one team up against the other … strong versus weak. Did he even think that after the losing team loses a contestant that he’d be joining them (IF he chose himself for Immunity)? Most likely he’d be stuck with the weaker team. Not smart. Or maybe he’s betting that he’d lose the most out of everyone each week and have immunity each time (if they still do immunity for person who lost the most for that team). My head is spinning with all these different game tactics. So many ways to do stuff – and so many ways to make enemies.
Michael kept pink together. I figured he’d keep yellow together and give himself immunity. Right? But wait!!! Michael didn’t give himself immunity. He gave it to O’Neal (yellow) and put himself on the blue team. He’s betting that black will lose weigh in and that O’Neal will end up there and thus Sunshine up from her father. That’s horrible. Black looked so tiny versus the blue. There’s no way that they’ll win the weigh in… however, Jillian was faced with that challenge before. She was given a black team back when there was a red and blue team. Jillian got stuck with the outcasts and eventually the outcasts kicked red and blue’s butts. I really hope this is what happens this time around. This would make for excellent TV!
Enter Jillian. One pissed Jillian. Sprinkle in a little bit of peeved Bob. The end result: a lot of yelling. Jillian was yelling at Michael about giving everybody a fair chance. Why can’t everybody stay based on hard work and not manipulation? Michael said that he couldn’t make it even and increase the risk of sending himself home. Well maybe if he made it all even, he’d kick himself into overdrive and lose all that weight.
Bob tells blue that regardless of them being stacked against black, there’s still no time to slack. It would be funny to see Bob say “you know what? I don’t agree with how the teams are set up” and just walk off. Michael had the gall to tell Miggy “if you don’t lose weight for my team, you’re gone. You’re no use to me.” This isn’t the Michael that we came to love. Greed will get the best of anybody, huh?
Here comes the first challenge for the black/blue teams. This is their first test of seeing how well they all work together. The task was to pull your banner up a tall building by pulling them up from the roof. Blue had a strong start but eventually, they started to fall apart and black was creeping up on them. I’m rooting for the black – I’ve always liked the underdogs. In the end, blue won and they received letters from home. At least black gave up a good fight.
At the weigh in, Michael felt that he needed to lose a lot of pounds to prove himself to his team. He ends up losing 15 and breaks Rudy’s record from last year of 101 pounds in 7 weeks. He lost 107. Way to go… I guess… I like Rudy a whole lot better and would have liked him to keep his record.
Lance’s personal record was to get out of 300 and he needed 6 pounds to do it. He lost 5 and got to an even 300. Hopefully he’ll break through that wall next week.
Blue team pulled two big numbers (13 and 10) and the rest were average. Nonetheless, they put up a big number for the blue team to match. They need to lose a little more than 39 pounds. It came down to an average of about 6 pounds each person. I’m hoping that if a few of them fall below 6 pounds, that Sam could make up for the difference. But it just might be too much of a job to carry. Drea played the food temptation game and lost so she was the first up for the blue team. She only lost 5. Cheryl only lost 4. Sherry lost 6. Sam loses 8. Stephanie pulled 8… it was the first time she lost that much since week 1. Ashley needs to lose 9 to keep her team safe….do I feel a commercial break coming on here? Yep. Go figure….After the commercial break; we saw that Ashley lost 10! TEN! Eat that, Michael! I’m taking an early bet that Michael would be the one to go home, but let’s see.
I spoke too soon. Ali announced that Michael has immunity because he lost the most percentage of weight out of everybody on the blue team. What a bummer.
I’m curious, who decides the order that they sit in at the elimination? Before and during the elimination, Michael kept saying that it shouldn’t have been them. Uh, right. Hey Michael, that’s another backfire. Maybe you should have learned your lesson after that big backfire during the string challenge. Playing games isn’t working out for you, you should stick to just losing weight and staying on campus by pure heart and determination.
In the end, it came down to Miggy and Lance because they were the two lowest percentages. Miggy ended up going home because everybody figured that Lance would be a better asset for the challenges (they have O’Neal coming in and he can’t do challenges). By now, everybody has learned the challenges could make or break your week. How sad for Miggy – but she won’t be missed. She tends to be stressed out a lot and she passes that on to the people around her. I have a good feeling that she’ll do well at home. After all, she’s got that fire in her that we saw during the first episode.
I’m up for another exciting episode of the Biggest Loser. Why must we wait another week!?
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