After a brief, computer issues-related delay, the Diary Room is now open!

Cast your vote to evict now!

Do you vote to evict:

Brittany, the single mom who will never let your forget that she’s a single mom and she deserves to be in the house more than … well, apparently, more than anyone who has ever been in the house before or after!?

Or

Donny, the groundskeeper who inspires fear in the hearts of house guests everywhere!?

Cast your vote over on the right side of the page now!  And then watch tonight to see who will join Joey, Paola, and Devin as a former houseguest!

Happy voting,

Lisa Marie!

P.S.  Thank you to everyone who asked!  The knee is doing much better!

{ 81 comments }

Hi, y’all:

Well, if you’ve been watching the LFs today, you’ve undoubtedly seen Brittany campaigning to stay.  She spent a long time trying to convince Caleb to give her his vote and, when last I checked, she had moved onto Hayden.  Caleb appeared to, at the very least, be open to thinking about voting for Brittany.  Perhaps he realizes that he’s on the outside of the new alliance.  Or, then again, he may have just been humoring her.  He did take advantage of Brittany’s desperation to force her to listen to him talk about Amber for a while.  

As for Hayden, he seemed far less interested in anything that Brittany had to say.  As she spoke, he simply stood there and nodded and said, “Yeah…yeah….yeah…”

Brittany is campaigning so hard to be allowed to stay that it’s tempting to think that she might be able to sway some of the houseguests.  However, when you actually listen to what she’s saying, you start to see how weak Brittany’s arguments actually are.  As usual, she’s been talking about how much of a struggle it is to be a single mother and how she deserves the money because she needs it the most.  Unfortuantely, that’s the type of argument that might work when you’re one of the final two and you’re talking to the jury.  But when you’re asking people to vote to keep you in the house, it’s probably best not to remind them that you deserve to win more than they do.  Caleb, to his credit, actually called Brittany out on this and told her that she needed to stop with the “sentimental” stuff and instead just limit her appeal to game talk.  Brittany said that Caleb was right but then, as soon as she started talking to Hayden, she went back to the same old “I deserve the money” argument.

Brittany’s other main argument is to say that neither Victoria nor Zach deserves to be in the house and that it would be totally unfair for her to evicted before either one of them.  And, regardless of what you may think of either Victoria or Zach, that’s a totally useless argument because neither one of them has been nominated.  Brittany doesn’t seem to realize that she has to convince the other HGs that they would rather spend another week with her instead of Donny.

And, finally, Brittany just told Zach that she thinks that if she can get Caleb to support her, then she’ll be able to get the votes necessary to stay home.  The fact that Brittany thinks that Caleb has any power at all just goes to show how out of the loop she really is.  Zach, for his part, is encouraging her to call a house meeting and demand to know how everyone is planning to vote.  Brittany doesn’t seem to realize that this is the exact same advice that Zach gave to Joey.

Sad to say, Brittany also just said that she’s pretty sure that she has Derrick’s vote as well.  Brittany seems to sincerely not realize that Derrick is the one who pushed for her to be nominated.

So, as of right now, it looks like Brittany is going to be very surprised when she’s sent home on Thursday.

Lisa Marie

{ 82 comments }

Hi y’all:

Well, here I am stuck at home for tonight and tomorrow because I slipped while I was vacuuming the staircase and I ended up slightly twisting my knee.  That means no dancing for tonight and no work tomorrow.  Bleh!  But, oh well, at least I can get caught up with what’s going on in the Big Brother House!

Now, as you’ve probably all heard, Victoria has taken herself off of the block and Cody replaced him with Donny.  At first, it seemed like Cody might go through with his plan to nominate Caleb, which certainly would have shaken up the house.  However, when push came to shove, Cody chickened out and he nominated Donny.

Now, I know that a lot of people are upset about this but I don’t think y’all have anything to worry about.  I think that Brittany is still the main target and that she will be going home next week.  I also still think that she would have been smarter to give up the opportunity to play for the veto next week.  If she had, then she would be able to say, “You can always get rid of me next week when I can’t even play for the veto!” and I think that argument probably would have worked.  Then Brittany would have at least another week to maybe win HoH or at least try to make a deal.

But, by going out there and kicking all of those goals, she let the guys know that she is determined and a competitor and, as a result, they’re now probably even more determined to get rid of her.

And that leads me to the big epiphany that I had earlier today!

She may have been a terrible player.  She may have had no social game.  She may have made the mistake of thinking that she could use politics to win the game.  She really has no one else to blame for being evicted.  And her male alter ego got on my last nerve but, even with all that in mind — JOEY WAS RIGHT!

Joey said that the only way that the girls would survive would be to form an all-girl’s alliance and, right now, the game is proving her right.  Unfortunately, for Joey, this season’s girls seem to be uniquely incapable of working together in a way that would allow them to form an alliance and none of them seem to be a real threat when it comes to competing for HoH.  (After nearly four weeks, we’ve only had one girl win a HoH comp and she pretty much allowed herself to be easily manipulated by Derrick.)  And the guys this season seem to be pretty determined to pick off the girls one by one.  Out of the three houseguests who have been evicted so far, Devin was the only guy and the only reason he was evicted was because he turned out to be mentally unstable.

But right now, it really looks like this game is coming down to Guys Vs. Girls and the guys are pretty much dominating.  Of the girls, I imagine Christine probably has the best chance to win, specifically because she’s viewed as being one of the guys.  Amber will probably survive for a few more weeks because nobody wants to deal with Caleb getting upset over her being evicted.  Brittany could have been a strong player but she handled being nominated so poorly that she’s pretty much guaranteed that she’s going home this week.  (Unless, of course, she can make another deal but I don’t think the remaining HGs are going to be as easily swayed as Devin was…)

As for Sobbing Jocasta, Nicole, and Victoria: It’s hard to imagine any of them suddenly becoming a factor in the game.

So, let’s give credit where credit is due.  Joey had the right idea.  She just didn’t know how to implement it.

As for Jocasta:

Where to begin?  I have to be careful talking about Jocasta because I don’t want anyone to think that I’m attacking her for her religious beliefs, because I’m not.  In fact, I’ve always felt that the Big Brother producers tend to be way too condescending and elitist when it comes to dealing with the religious beliefs of the people in the house.  We’ve all seen, in the past, clips where a houseguest would say, in the Diary Room, that they had been praying for victory and the producers would respond by playing gospel muzak in the background or by having a heavenly light suddenly appear over their head.  I can’t stand stuff like that because, while I might not be extremely religious, I still don’t like the idea of anyone being made fun of because of their beliefs.  I remember the season where Adam the drug dealer won — he and some of the other HGs would spend hours reading the bible to each other and the show’s producers started to mockingly refer to them as being the “Bible Buddies.”  And that annoyed me because it just seemed incredibly condescending.  

But, with all that in mind, I have to admit that I’m hoping Jocasta does not make it a habit to start speaking in tongues during every competition.  Because, seriously, it really did just come across as if Jocasta was, once again, being overly dramatic and — as a lot of you have pointed out in the comments — it’s not like they were in church or attending a religious ceremony.  Instead, they were competing on a reality TV show and, regardless of what you personally may believe about God, I’m fairly sure that we all agree that she has more important things to do then worry about who wins Big Brother!

I guess when it comes to religion on reality TV, I prefer the example of Survivor’s Michael Supkin (who would always pray that nobody would get injured during any of competitions) to the example of someone like Rachel Reilly (who, on the Amazing Race, would loudly pray and then, second later, say the most horrid things about the other racers).

Of course, I should admit that part of my problem with Jocasta is that I suspect  that she was recruited after she and her son appeared on Shark Tank.  Because, watching her in the house, it’s obvious that she really doesn’t know much about how to play the game.  

And I think that’s why so many of us love Donny.  He’s a superfan, he wasn’t recruited, he’s authentic, and he actually wants to be in the house..  And I do think it can be argued that he is, in his own individual way, at least thinking about the game.  Unfortunately, for Donny, he hasn’t really found an alliance in the house.  It’s obvious that neither Frankie nor Derrick really take Team America all that seriously and socially, Donny doesn’t fit in with the Detonators.  Unfortunately, the people that Donny does fit in with — the other outsiders — don’t seem to be interested in playing the game.  If Donny, Hayden, Jocasta, Nicole, and Victoria became an alliance, they could probably take on the Detonators and maybe even bring Caleb and Amber over to their side.  But unfortunately, with the exception of Donny, it doesn’t seem like any of them really understand just how far on the outside they really are.  Instead, they seem to be content to be sitting ducks, to be taken down one after another.

So, that’s why I do like Donny despite the fact that he hasn’t exactly made any big moves.  I do sincerely feel like Donny could play the game if  he actually had someone to play it with.

Well, that it for now.

Stay supple (you know I was going to have to say that at some point this season!),

Lisa Marie

{ 74 comments }

Okay, so I’ve been out-of-town for most of yesterday and today and, as a result, I haven’t really been able to watch the live feeds.  However, I’m back, I’ve read through the comments, and I’ve done some checking around and let’s see if I can keep straight what has happened in the house since I last posted:

Super Hot Cody nominated Brittany and Victoria.

Frankie nominated Amber and Sobbing Jocasta.

(Yes, some of the HGs have nicknames and some don’t.  What can I say?  I’m still getting to know this latest group of Houseguests and, unlike previous casts, this group seems to be careful about what they say and do in the house.  There’s been a definite lack of TMI conversations going on.)

Amber and Jocasta won the Battle of the Block!  So, Cody is now officially HoH and Frankie has made an enemy out of Sobbing Jocasta.

Today, they had the POV competition and guess who won?

VICTORIA!

Now, I’m happy about this because, even though nobody else seems to like her, I do like Victoria because she looks a lot like she could be related to my BFF Evelyn.  I have to admit that Victoria’s resemblance to my bestie is about the only reason I have for liking her.  For the most part, Victoria has been one of the more low-key people in the house.  She doesn’t seem to know how to fit in with everyone and there’s also something of a language barrier.  (At home, Victoria mostly speaks Hebrew.)  Victoria is a bit of an unknown, to both the viewers and to the other people in the house.  Even though Cody and Frankie had earlier said that their target was Brittany, it was totally conceivable that Victoria could have been voted out this week because she literally seems to have next to no allies in the house.

(Or in the viewing audience.  Judging from some of the comments on twitter, a lot of people forget that Victoria is even in the house, except when she’s casting her vote to evict.)

So, Victoria now suddenly has a little bit of power.  She’ll undoubtedly use it to save herself.  So, does that mean that Brittany is going to go or is Cody going to backdoor someone?  This would be a perfect opportunity to backdoor Caleb, though I’ve heard some talk that it might be Donny instead.

(If Donny is nominated, how much you want to bet that the show’s producers will put some pressure on the HGs to vote out Brittany instead.  Donny is good for ratings.)

And here’s another question to ponder –

With the number of HGs starting to dwindle, how much longer will the double HoH twist continue to be in effect?

Lisa Marie

{ 161 comments }

Hi y’all:

So, last night, we all saw Devin get voted out.  Every single houseguest voted for him, despite the fact that Cody apparently gave a lot of thought to trying to get rid of Caleb.  But, anyway, Devin got voted out and, as he had planned, he left after giving a huge hug to Caleb and getting a heart from Brittany.  I have to say that Devin was surprisingly well-behaved while he was being interviewed by the Chenbot.  That’s actually why Devin drove so many of us crazy — he could occasionally be so charming but then he would always eventually end up being a jerk.

As for the rest of last night’s episode, it was good but predictable.  We all knew that Devin was going so there wasn’t a whole lot of suspense.  The BB producers seemed to realize this as well because they padded out last night’s episode by having Jeff Schroeder interview Donny’s parents.  His parents were cute but I kinda wish they could have held off on that for another day or maybe just posted the interview online because that time could have been used to show up a complete HoH competition, instead of leaving us with one of those frustrating HoH cliffhangers.

I have to say that Zach is growing on me.  Every season, I’m annoyed with the artificial nature of Julie’s awkward interaction with the houseguests during the live show.  Last night, by being sarcastic in his answers, Zach livened up what is typically a rather boring exchange of pointless questions and empty answers.

But anyway, what we all really care about it is which team won the HoH competition!  

Your new HoHs are:

Frankie and Cody!

And who are they nominating?

Well, here’s where things are getting a little weird.  I was under the impression that Cody’s number one target would be Caleb, though I figured that he would probably try to backdoor him in much the same way that Derrick backdoored Devin.

Instead, it appears that — after spending last night thinking about it — Frankie and Cody are going with the following:

Frankie will nominate Amber and Sobbing Jocasta.

Cody will nominate Victoria and Brittany.

And, depending on who wins the Battle of the Block, the target will either be Jocasta or Brittany.

Which, I really have to say — why?  Neither Brittany nor Jocasta seems to be a threat and Cody seemed to be pretty convinced that Caleb needed to be a target.  I think a lot of it has to do with Derrick, who feels that he can’t trust Brittany and who spent a lot of time lobbying for her to be put up.  Which just goes to show that, for now, Derrick remains the real power in the house.

(It’s interesting that both of the big reality shows — Survivor and Big Brother — have recently been dominated by cops.  That said, I still like Derrick a lot more than I liked Tony!)

So, I can understand how Brittany has become the target.  As for Jocasta — to be honest, it seems like it would be a waste of an HoH to get rid of Jocasta when there’s still so many strong players left in the house but maybe they’re worried that, if she could convince Donny to win the PoV for her, then maybe she can convince other “outsiders” to help her out.  Who knows?  It still just seems like a very weird move to me.

The nominations and the Battle of the Block should all be happening later today!

Lisa Marie

{ 128 comments }

Hi y’all:

Well, since there’s not much going on in the house beyond talk of messy eating and magic frogs, let’s go ahead and open up the Diary Room!

Cast your vote to evict now!

Do you vote to evict Caleb, the tattooed, Amber-obsessed, Kentucky-based hunter?

Or…

Do you vote to evict Devin, the perpetually smiling and angry man who, rumor has it, might have a daughter?

CAST YOUR VOTE NOW OVER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE!

Lisa Marie

{ 200 comments }

Hi, everyone!

Well, I promised daily updates so here is today’s daily update: THERE IS NOTHING HAPPENING IN THE HOUSE!

Well, that’s not quite true.  There are things happening.  Zach and Frankie were cuddling earlier.  More and more people are apparently becoming convinced that Zach is related to Amanda and Zach, for his part, has decided to play along with the lie.  

To be honest, my opinion of Zach changes on a daily basis.  I couldn’t stand him when I first saw him.  I incorrectly predicted that he would be the first person to be voted out of the house.  I thought he talked too much and that he was trying too hard to be this season’s villain.

And then he was nominated for eviction and he stood up to Devin and he went out there and he campaigned and he gave a pretty good pre-vote speech, I thought.  I actually found myself liking Zach.  If nothing else, he was at least entertaining to watch.  But then I would turn on the LFs and I would be reminded of why Zach got on my nerves in the first place.

There’s a real neediness to Zach.  It’s now pretty obvious that he’s essentially a very insecure guy.  All of his talk about not needing anyone is actually part of a wall that he puts up to try to keep people from realizing just how insecure he really is.  That neediness makes him both a good ally and a potential liability.  Frankie has obviously figured that out and is using that to his advantage.  When Frankie finally does openly turn on Zach, it’s probably not going to be pretty.

But that probably won’t be for another few weeks or so.

Until then, where is the drama?

Caleb is still obsessed with Amber, even though she told him — once again — that she’s not romantically interested in him.  That was probably a surprise to Caleb, seeing as how he had offered to “sacrifice” himself for her.  However, Caleb still hasn’t really accepted it.  You can tell by listening to Caleb that, in his mind, he and Amber are already married and living in Kentucky.

And Caleb’s obsession certainly is creepy but it hasn’t quite gotten dramatic yet.  I’m sure that it will eventually.  At some point, either Amber or Caleb will be targeted eviction and it’ll be interesting to see how they react to it.  How will Caleb react if Amber votes to evict him?  You know that she’ll do it but I have my doubts whether Caleb would ever vote to evict Amber.  

But until then, where is the drama?

Devin is apparently campaigning to stay, even though he said that he wasn’t going to.  Earlier today, he told Caleb that the Diary Room told him that he had to campaign and that’s the only reason why he was doing it.  That didn’t seem to bother Caleb that much, probably because he knows that the entire house is pretty determined to send Devin home.

Add to that, Devin may be campaigning (and he deserves some credit for not giving up, even in the face of the longest odds) but that doesn’t mean that Devin is any good at presenting his case.  He’s still the same old Devin — talking too much, cutting people off when they try to make a point, and thinking that grin of his will magically get him out of any trouble.

So, yes, Devin is trying but it’s not very dramatic.

On Thursday, the house will vote to evict either Devin or Caleb and then, there will be an HoH competition.  Will the two new HoHs work together like all the previous HoHs have?  Will the nominees actually compete at Battle of the Block or will it be another case of one team throwing the contest?

Or will it be another week of consensus?

The good thing about Big Brother is that you know that the drama will eventually arrive,

I just hope it gets here quickly.

Lisa Marie

{ 100 comments }

Hi, y’all:

Well, this is going to be a quick post but I still think that a lot of you will be happy when you read it.

They held the POV ceremony earlier today.  Donny kept his promise.  He used the veto on Jocasta, taking her off the block.  Derrick, in turn, kept his promise as well.  He nominated Devin in her place.  

Now, I have to admit that I would have a hard time choosing between Devin and Caleb.  Yes, Devin is annoying but he’s also so hated that it’s pretty much guaranteed that he would never end up winning the game.  If he made it to Final Two, it’s hard to think of anyone who couldn’t beat him.  Add to that, keeping Devin around will always mean that there will be a big target in the house.

Caleb, on the other hand, could still conceivably win in the final two.  If I was in the house, I would be really tempted to go ahead and get rid of Caleb while I can.

However, as of right now, it looks like Devin is definitely going to go home.  Derrick has told everyone that Devin is his target and — unlike Devin during his HoH — Derrick hasn’t alienated everyone in the house.  As of right now, Derrick believes that the vote to evict Devin will be unanimous.  It’ll be interesting to see how Devin handles all of this.  Earlier this week, he was saying that he was fine with getting voted out but everyone always says that and nobody actually means it.  I’m expecting that we’ll hear a lot about Devin’s daughter over the next few days.

But anyway, Derrick is our first truly successful HoH of the season.  (Devin failed to get rid of his target and Caleb had to switch targets after Donny won the veto.)  He’s also proven everyone (like me) who doubted him wrong.  Unfortunately, by being such an effective HoH, Derrick has probably increased the target on his back but, as of right now, I think Derrick has to be considered one of the season’s early front runners.

Okay, gotta run so talk to everyone later,

Lisa Marie

{ 93 comments }

Hi all!

Well, as you’ve probably already heard, they held the POV competition earlier today and Donny won!  That means that Donny has now won 2 out of 3 of the POV competitions so far.  Could the bearded gentleman from North Carolina turn out to be this season’s challenge beast?

Time will tell.

But, while we’re on the subject of Donny, what does everyone think of the game that he’s playing so far?  Or, to be more to the point, does anyone think that Donny has even started playing the game?  It’s funny — for all the talk of the other HGs being convinced that Donny must secretly be a mad genius of some sort — Donny really doesn’t seem to have any strategy, beyond being a nice guy.  Lately, he’s been saying that he thinks that its important that a “good” person wins but that’s not really a strategy.  (Add to that, it drives me crazy when people talk about good and bad on a reality show.  Anyone who can survive until the end of the game deserves a chance to win the money, as far as I’m concerned.)  Donny is finally a member of an alliance but that’s just because America voted him into one.

It’s easy to see why Donny is one of America’s favorite players but, as far as playing the game is concerned, he really doesn’t seem to be playing it.

But anyway, Donny won the veto and, before the veto competition, he promised Jocasta that he would use it on her.  Jocasta is nominated for eviction but apparently, she has come down with the flu and was on death’s door during the hour right before the veto competition.  Now that Donny has won the veto and Jocasta knows that she’s probably going to be coming down off the block, she seems to be feeling a lot healthier.

Now, a lot of people think that Jocasta was faking being as sick as she claimed to be.  I happen to be one of those people.  However, I think that was brilliant strategy on her part.  By saying that she couldn’t play for her safety because of a circumstance that was out of her control, she got everyone’s sympathy and made it so, regardless of who actually won the POV, the only decent thing to do would be to use it to save Jocasta.

Myself, if I was a houseguest, I would be concerned about being literally trapped in a house with someone who had the flu so severely that she literally could not get out of bed.  I mean, it’s not as much of a concern as Jeremy’s ringworm but still, the flu is the flu.

I guess my point is that if Jocasta was so sick that she couldn’t even compete for the veto than it would be fair to ask if she’s too sick to stay in the house.

So, here’s the situation:

Derrick is HoH.

Caleb and Jocasta are nominated.

Donny has the POV.

Donny says he’s going to take down Jocasta.

And, if all goes according to plan, Derrick will nominate Devin in her place.

If you had to choose between voting out Devin or Caleb, who would you go for?  Personally, I’d have a hard time making up my mind.  They’re both challenge threats.  Devin is more irritating but he’s also so unpopular that I imagine just about anyone could beat him if Devin somehow made it to the final two.  Caleb, however, may have his issues but he’s not disliked the way that Devin is. 

So, if you’re voting based on who you don’t want to reach the final two, then I think you have to take this opportunity to vote our Caleb while you can.

But if you’re voting on who is more annoying, then you have to vote for Devin.

It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.  I have a feeling that Devin (assuming that Derrick sticks with his original plan) will be voted out on Thursday, if just because nobody wants to run the risk of getting trapped in the jury house with him.

Lisa Marie

{ 99 comments }