{"id":893,"date":"2010-10-08T14:59:32","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T19:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/?p=893"},"modified":"2010-10-11T15:07:34","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T20:07:34","slug":"this-week-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/2010\/10\/this-week-on\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week On…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, 06 October 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

This evening, we watched the fourth episode of this season’s Survivor<\/em><\/a>. I know it’s still early in the TV season, but I’m gonna go right ahead and declare this to be Survivor’s<\/em> Worst Season Ever<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But my dislike of this issue can be boiled down to three very specific problems:<\/p>\n

1. One game per episode.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

2. Another deflated “look how cleverly we divided the contestants” ploy<\/p>\n

In past seasons, the producers have divided the players by gender, by whether they’d\u00a0 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

3. This woman:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Oh – and it turns out Kelly is a world-record holding athlete<\/a>. So, no, I doubt she’s looking for pity.<\/p>\n

Thursday, 07 October 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

This evening, I hosted Atheists Talk<\/em> for the twelfth time. Adding in my appearances as a guest, it marked my fifteenth episode.<\/p>\n

In part one of the two-part show, I interviewed Eric Jayne. Eric organizes and heads up the south-of-the-metro book club. Eric gave details on where\u00a0and when the book club meets and how many people usually attend. Eric then discussed some of the books the club has discussed in recent months, include Sam Harris’ The End of Faith<\/em> and John Allen Paulos’ Irreligion<\/em>.<\/div>\n
In part two of the show, Eric continued his discussion of the book club. He gave examples of books the club had discussed that are critical of disbelief and atheism. Eric also explained why such books are not likely to be discussed in the future.<\/div>\n
I then shifted gears to discuss Eric’s “Debaptism” ceremonies. Eric organized and hosted one such ceremony last spring and is planning for future such events. Eric explained how he came up with the idea of being debaptized and responded to some of the criticisms it receives. Eric explained that for many people it is just good fun, while for others it can be a catharsis. Eric went on to explain the “hair dryer of reason” and admitted that he does not operate the hairdryer differently depending on if the participant had originally been merely sprinkled with holy water or fully immersed in a body of water. Eric pointed out that the debaptisms are open to anyone – even if they were never baptized into a faith.<\/div>\n
Since I am sometimes asked “When does this show air?” I’m pasting in a recent list of the showtimes. It varies by city, and not every city even airs the show (notably, St. Paul). Anyway, here are the listings:<\/div>\n

Burnsville and Eagan:<\/strong> Ch. 14. Air times vary. Check their web site www.bect.tv<\/a> for day and times.
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Bloomington: <\/strong>Ch. 16. Monday 9:30 p.m. and Tuesday 5:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Minneapolis: <\/strong>Ch. 17. Saturday 8:30 p.m. Sponsor:\u00a0 Steve Petersen.
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rochester:<\/strong> Ch. 10. Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 7:30 p.m.
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, North Oaks, Little Canada, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Moundsview, New Brighton: <\/strong>Ch. 14. Wednesday 10:30 p.m.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stillwater: <\/strong>Ch. 16. Tuesday 7:00 p.m.; Wednesday 9:00 a.m.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Washington County: <\/strong>Ch. 14. Tuesday 7:00 p.m.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

White Bear Lake, Hugo, Lake Elmo, Mahtomedi, Maplewood, North St. Paul, Oakdale, Vadnais Heights:<\/strong> Ch. 15. Saturday 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Or you can CLICK HERE<\/a> to get the podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":934,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}