Wednesday, 06 October 2010
This evening, we watched the fourth episode of this season’s Survivor. I know it’s still early in the TV season, but I’m gonna go right ahead and declare this to be Survivor’s Worst Season Ever.
I’ve been getting increasingly bored with each season of the famed TV show…oh, look, another season of people trying to live…in paradise. Instead of yet another yawner of people hanging out in beautiful locations, I’d like to see Survivor: Yukon or maybe they could do a show on a rugged mountain terrain, with high elevation. But, no, the producers keep taking the show back to either Central America or the Islands of the Pacific.
Apart from being another forgettable, carbon-copy location, this season introduces the coveted “medallion of power.” For those who don’t know, this medallion gives the team that uses it a significant advantage in challenges. The catch is that once a team has used it, it passes to the other team, who can then use it for a future challenge of their choosing. It’s a great way to remove any semblance of a level playing field; it’s like playing Monopoly with someone who insists on starting out already owning Broadway and Park Place.
But my dislike of this issue can be boiled down to three very specific problems:
1. One game per episode.
The most enjoyable parts of each episode are the games. In past seasons, there were almost always two games per episode: one to win a reward (such as pizza) and one to win immunity. This season, so far at least, there’s been only one game per episode. Stupid. My son doesn’t like it, either.
2. Another deflated “look how cleverly we divided the contestants” ploy
In past seasons, the producers have divided the players by gender, by whether they’d played the game before or not, by how well liked the players were, and even by ethnicity. This season, they divided the players by age. I like this idea of dividing along strict lines like this but, first, dividing by age has already been done before. Second, as we saw in the sneak peak at next week’s episode, the players will be reshuffled into new tribes anyways. So, big deal. They segregated by age for four episodes. Whoop de doo.
3. This woman:
Meet Naonka. She looks friendly enough – but look a little closer. There’s an N tattooed right on her arm. Does it stand for Naonka, or narcissistic?
Of course, part of the fun of the show is watching the interplay between the characters; who leads, who follows, who can get along with anyone, and who fights with people.
But in past episodes, when there’s been disagreements or even fights, you can usually see both sides of the issue – “Yeah, person A does talk too much, but person B could’ve told them about it nicer” – that sort of thing.
But this woman just seems to enjoy being abrasive to half of her tribemates. She repeatedly argues with people and, though the show might just be edited that way, I can’t even figure out what her problem is, much less if it has any merit. Unlike past players, she’s not even ‘evil’ in a fun way, she’s just annoying. Even when talking to the camera in private, she just mouths off about how sassy she is.
Two weeks ago, she fought over a hidden clue with Kelly, another teammate, even to the point of pushing that teammate down. I understand that they both had a desire to obtain the clue, but Naonka spent the rest of that episode, and the next one, complaining about “how dare Kelly try and get that clue.” Then she made derogatory comments about Kelly’s prosthetic leg. In fact, she keeps mentioning that Kelly is an amputee, saying that Kelly better be careful or she’ll throw her leg in the water, or that Kelly shouldn’t expect special treatment just because she’s down one limb. I think Naonka is obsessed with it, or attracted to it in a weird way that is making her feel uncomfortable. There’s no other explanation.
Oh – and it turns out Kelly is a world-record holding athlete. So, no, I doubt she’s looking for pity.
Thursday, 07 October 2010
This evening, I hosted Atheists Talk for the twelfth time. Adding in my appearances as a guest, it marked my fifteenth episode.
Burnsville and Eagan: Ch. 14. Air times vary. Check their web site www.bect.tv for day and times.
Bloomington: Ch. 16. Monday 9:30 p.m. and Tuesday 5:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Minneapolis: Ch. 17. Saturday 8:30 p.m. Sponsor: Steve Petersen.
Rochester: Ch. 10. Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 7:30 p.m.
Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, North Oaks, Little Canada, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Moundsview, New Brighton: Ch. 14. Wednesday 10:30 p.m.
Stillwater: Ch. 16. Tuesday 7:00 p.m.; Wednesday 9:00 a.m.
South Washington County: Ch. 14. Tuesday 7:00 p.m.
White Bear Lake, Hugo, Lake Elmo, Mahtomedi, Maplewood, North St. Paul, Oakdale, Vadnais Heights: Ch. 15. Saturday 7:30 p.m.
Or you can CLICK HERE to get the podcasts.
No need for ex-JWs to get debaptized. Witness baptisms are so incredibly fake that God wouldn’t recognize them anyway. But I suppose if someone wanted to get debaptized from the religion, that could work. And if someone doesn’t believe in God anyway, no need for a debaptism because he isn’t real, so the baptism meant nothing anyway. I can see the reason to do it for fun though.
Rebekah,
It’s an atheist organization so no one there believes that any baptisms are real. It’s just kind of a fun thing to do. I did it and thought it was kind of silly, but it was sort of fun. When I was a JW and got baptized I believed it was for real. Now that I’m not a JW I don’t think there is a god and I don’t believe any religion is real, so it’s kind of funny to me that anyone would say that my JW baptism was fake but a baptism for another religion wouldn’t be. To me they are all meaningless.