Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

#67 Notes

I spill peanut shells.

Mike asks about my Skype icon: Squirrel Pope!

Never in any Survivor season, have I so badly misjudged a contestant in my first impression. Cirie was awesome.

Mike and I initially disagree about the wisdom of Cirie's plan and Danielle's involvement.

I sell him on Cirie's plan from her perspective, but whether or not it was in Danielle's best interests is harder to establish.

We don't see Terry being too upset about Courtney leaving.

Shane would be good to take to the final three because he sucks at the endurance challenges. He doesn't seem to have the strength and determination necessary.

Shane's fake blackberry was a little goofy, but not really crazy. And Danielle's reaction was odd. She's only now figuring out that he's crazy? She acted like she thought he was being serious.

We discuss the preview that implied Terry was going to lose the immunity challenge. It was so obvious that it functioned as a reverse-spoiler.

We are shocked, SHOCKED that the car reward was a GMC Yukon! Also, we wonder why the car was awarded in the final six instead of the usual final five. Also, why did they not mention it until the losers had been sent away?

Would Courtney have enjoyed winning an Eeeeevil SUV?

Cirie put in a solid effort, but it's clear that she's responsible for her team's loss in the reward challenge.

We laugh about Shane pushing Cirie off the hitching post. Does he have a crush on her?

We're amused that it took this long for Cirie to even try fishing, but good on her for catching one!

Captain America!

We thought Cirie's initial squeamishness was going to be her death-knell, but she has definitely not let it hurt her game. She's actually thinking ahead!

Terry is guaranteed final four now. But who will the other three be? Who does Cirie want it to be. We think she will want Aras for sure, because he has the best chance of beating Terry in the last challenge, and he might take her to the final two.

Who does Terry want to go to the final two with now?

Does Shane have any allies left? Cirie seems to be able to assuage his fears in the preview clips.

We suspect that the family members show up, triggering the "break down" Shane has in the preview clips. But were the other players laughing at him?

Danielle has not been playing that well, but we give her credit at least for not overplaying the "swing-vote" factor.

How funny would it be if Terry never even had to use the idol? Also, we discuss a rumor that the plan was for the idol to be re-hidden if it was used.

What sorts of variations might we see next season?

Probst's teasing Aras about spending time on Exile Island.

Shane's comments when voting for Danielle were hilarious.

We're glad to see that Bruce is healthy enough to return for the jury.

Terry is in a very good position, jury-wise, with Sally, Austin, and Bruce almost certain to vote for him. Courtney may join them simply out of sour grapes.

There were three plans in play this episode! The original Cassaya plan to vote out Danielle, Terry's plan to vote out Aras, and Cirie's plan to vote out Courtney.

Cirie may be the smartest player in the game right now.

Danielle can't win at this point.

Do players other than the first two get any money?

Predictions for next time. We think Cirie will pacify Shane, Terry will win immunity again, and Cirie and Aras will go to the final four with Shane, voting out Danielle.

Who'd have thought we'd be giving Cirie the power vote?

We remember Aras's bluntness to Cirie and Melinda from episode 2.

If the final three is Terry, Aras, and Cirie, and Aras wins, who should he pick?

Only one episode to go before the finale!

We discuss a Post-pre-show, where we'll play clips of our first impressions and then discuss whether we were on the money or way off.

The big news this week, of course, is Bruce, but it's a little less big because it was spoiled by the previews.

They switched the preview for this week, and the one plus the other = spoiler.

The now infamous "three weeks from tonight" preview was composed entirely of scenes from this episode! Whoops!

The Dead Air Show!

Survivor Previews: Edited by drunken monkeys.

We introduce ourselves.

We mix it up a little by planning to discuss the episode chronologically.

Terry no longer needs social skills.

What was it that Courtney and Danielle were yelling at Shane about? What were they doing with those logs in the water pot?

Bruce getting sick - People of Asian descent are often more likely to be lactose intolerant. Did the milk from last week's reward challenge make things worse?

We spend an unfortunate amount of time discussing diarhea versus constipation.

If Bruce got a bowel obstruction, leaving the game was inevitable.

Mike thought the reward challenge questions were more provacative this time, but we decide it was just that the people in this one are so bad at shielding their emotions.

Shane says in the challenge that he doesn't percieve himself as controlling the game, and the next time we talked to him, he talked about how he was controlling the game.

When asked "Who is the biggest poser?" Shane picked himself! He can make fun of himself, but no one else can make fun of him.

Is Courtney a poser? We think she's acutally sincere, just weird.

No one on the show is deceptive enough to be a poser.

How can Courtney be THAT surprised that people find her annoying? We think she's really just oblivious to people's feelings unless people spell it out for her.

We actually felt bad for her this week. Just because I find her annoying doesn't mean I want her feelings to be hurt.

Her inability to tell when she's being annoying is one of the most annoying things about her.

It's like on American Idol. Sometimes, people just plain need to be told that they suck. But there is a difference between being honest and being mean.

Some people really need to learn things (like that they are annoying) the hard way, but this is a much harder hard way than most people will ever have to deal with.

Good that counseling is provided for the returning Survivor contestants.

When Aras picked Terry as "Least able to Survive alone", was he joking? I think he through the question to give it to Cirie, and used the opportunity to give a friendly jab at Terry. But Mike felt he was serious.

I think it was a big mistake for Cirie to not choose Shane. Mike kind of agrees, but thinks that the time has come for the others to cut Shane loose.

Best to avoid promises like: "If I win, I'll take you on the reward with me" because it guarantees hurt feelings.

If Cirie had not picked Danielle, Danielle wouldn't do anything about it. But, as Mike points out, she IS hot.

Daniell isn't going to defect, whereas Shane is a total loose cannon. "Like an animal" and back to promising the lives of his kids again.

Shane is ridiculously fun to watch. He threatens to kill her, she's offended that he insults her apartment, and he gets mad that she's offended!

Swearing on your kids is biased against people who don't have kids.

Best to not make promises like that though. No good can come of it.

What scenario could ever require me to swear on my guinea pig's life?

Pacifying Shane's "calculated" tantrum.

Is Shane in control? He's behind the wheel, but doesn't know how to drive.

Funniest Final Two Ever: Shane Versus Courtney

What has Courtney contributed to anything?

The Plus/Minus ratio: Shane has done bad stuff, but also good stuff. Courtney hasn't done anything.

Terry: Will he make the final two? Is he doing anything to control who he'll be up against? Should he?

What does Terry have to lose?

Would anybody be willing to make a deal with Terry? Why would they, because nobody wants to be in the final three with him.

What happens when/if Terry finally loses an immunity? Could they let him through to the final four without even making him use the idol?

Our predictions for next time: If Terry wins again, Danielle goes. If he doesn't, it's probably Aras that wins, in which case, Danielle still may go, but maybe Shane

Danielle is on the outside, but does she realize it?

Let's align because you're hot.

Taxes

Mike does his early. I don't.

Given that so many people just take the standard deduction, the IRS pretty much knows everything that we tell them, why do we have to do anything?

Given that they OWE ME a refund, what would happen if I just didn't file?

A refund is not like a present from the government. It's YOUR money that they've been earning interest on all year.

The US Tax Code is ridiculously complicated and that causes problems.

would a national sales tax instead of an income tax be better?

Impossible to have a tax code that is both simple AND fair, but that doesn't mean that complicated is fair either.

Anyone that comes to me for financial advice is taking their life into their own hands.

"Good" tax breaks, but where do you draw the line?

A really odd tax break setup in Louisiana.

Podcast Pickle has been nominated for a Webby! Go here to vote: Webby Awards and it's not really a fair competition, so they really need your help.

An excellent Video podcast: Team Tiger Awesome

My favorite episodes are: Die Hard: The Ballad of John MacClain, and "28 Day Slater". I play the theme song for 28 Day Slater

My Star Trek Movies plan: A friend of mine recently confessed that she has not seen ANY of the Star Trek films, 1-6, even though she is a scifi fan even a star trek fan. So over the coming weeks, we will watch all six in sequence and then talk about each one.

The evens are good, odds are bad thing.

I think film 1, "The Motion Picture", is sometimes underrated, but there's no question that it has many flaws, most significant of which is that it is very simply TOO LONG! Also, too many things just didn't quite work.

Parts of it just didn't "Feel" like Star Trek.

Film 5, "The Final Frontier" wasn't that bad for much of it, but got completely stupid at the end.

Film 3, "The Search for Spock" was just kind of boring. Spock growing up and everything really drags on and on. No one would ever watch this one except out of completeness.

We split on whether 4 or 6 is the best one, but we can each see the other's point of view.

4's environmental message is not subtle.

2, Wrath of Kahn, feels more dated, but is still good. Less concerned with being a grand epic.

And of course, the death of Spock sequence is a classic.

And the ear bugs! *shudder* Why were those so memorable, given that they are fairly tame compared to many other films, such as John Carpenter's The Thing?

All about context.

We recall that we actually saw film 6 in the theater together. It's my favorite because the story is so compelling, but without losing sight of the characters.

Mike likes the "fish out of water" aspect of 4, because it forged a connection between the "far future" parts of the story with the real world.

Placing the Star Wars films "a long time ago and a galaxy far far away" is genius, because it conveys the impression that if you could get there, you could be a part of it.

Is it easier for you to imagine yourself in the past or in the future?

We could have talked about South Park, but Mike hasn't watched it yet. I feel it was an excellent 2-parter though.

We talk Sopranos. We've talked about it before without recording, but we discuss the season so far. We thought Tony's dream sequence was kind of lame, or at least, it went on too long.

Mike has a feeling that it's being rushed.

Does the Sopranos "glamorize" the Mafia?

Storm clouds are brewing from all sides for Tony.

Tony had to beat up someone who didn't do anything, just so his own friends wouldn't see him as weak and try to kill him.

What does the actual Mafia think about the show?

We take it upon ourselves to speak for the mafia.

There's no "honor" in it.

Is it "rushed" or just "coming to a head"?

Looked at over the whole series, it's a "messy masterpiece"

Adventures with Mike's roommate.

We missed last week not because we are lazy slackers, but because we are busy slackers.

We sum up last week's episode, where Terry displayed admirable strategic skills considering it was one week too late for him to do anything.

Terry's strategy: Win everything.

Bruce would be willing to switch as long as it would actually turn the tide, but without another defector, it wouldn't do him or anyone any good.

Courtney WANTS to go to the final two with Terry? Does she really think that Cassaya loyalty will lead anyone to vote for her instead of Superman?

I'm not "liking" her now per se, but Courtney hasn't been annoying me as much lately.

She's pretty good with those spinny things.

Last week and this week were practically the same episode.

The preview from before the March break had Spoilers! WTF?

Preview for next time and Bruce's tummy-ache. Does he leave? Where's the fake-out?

More on the spoilers. Has ruined the last couple of tribal councils, if you knew them.

Was it a mistake? Did they show spoilers on purpose? Oh, the mystery!

As the episode started, Terry and Sally are desperate, but Terry less so, because he has the idol, and perhaps, the ability to win every single challenge.

As it stands now, it's six to one against Terry, and that sounds like even odds!

I'm looking forward to watching the alliance of 6 eat itself alive in front of Terry's "cocky" grin.

Terry could win.

Cirie! From the bottom of the barrel, and now practically guaranteed final four!

Given his strategy, Terry can just sit back and grin at all the tribal politics.

How cool was it when Probst called out Danielle on her "cocky" comment.

Shane is a strange person.

He can't possibly win.

Could Aras get anywhere by going to Terry with a "Don't you want the final two to be the best players?" argument? We don't think he'd use that either way.

Betraying the other Cassayas would just make him lose the final two, even if it got him to the end.

Aras is also a strange person. He couldn't figure out the island clues, and yet he deduced that Terry had the idol with remarkable insight.

He's stuck with a less-than-ideal alliance and it's gotten him this far, but now he has a huge target on his back. What is Aras's move now?

This alliance, as ludicrous as it seemed, has managed to hold together stronger than many that seemed smarter.

Bobby was right, they are bonding together out of weakness.

Cirie has impressed us, but we wonder if we're giving her too much credit.

Though she definitely deserves more credit than Lydia from last season, though their strategies have been similar.

But who would want to go to the final two with her?

Is it "impossible" for her to win the final three immunity challenge? It's always an endurance/willpower challenge, but it would depend on the specifics.

If you were in a final three with Cirie and Terry, and you won immunity, who do you choose?

We think Cirie, but it's a tough one. You just have to get Terry out any way you can or else he's going to win.

Shane and his rash.

Was Cirie "unprofessional"? Is that even relevant?

It's a very different situation than with Margaret in Guatemala.

He didn't wear his little skirt for very long, and he certainly wasn't very discrete.

Shane seems to be a very passionate, emotion-driven person, which is important to know when trying to deal with him. You can't expect him to act rationally.

Mike assumes that the preview from next time, and Bruce's trouble is a fake-out. I suspect it might be legit.

Of the remaining people, the ones I wouldn't mind winning are Terry, Aras, and Cirie, but I think Terry may well be the most likely. Aras probably goes the next time they have tribal council, and no one would want to go to the final two with Cirie.

Danielle and Courtney aren't really doing anything.

Mike insists that Danielle is hot, and that that should count for something, though he's annoyed with her sour grapes comments about Terry.

As stupid as it seemed, maybe that alliance of 6 isn't stupid after all, because it WORKED!

How could Shane EVER win?

What if it was Shane and Courtney in the final two? I would want Shane to win, just because he's been more entertaining. Mike would give it to Courtney, because she earned some respect back, improving over the course of the game.

We're still hung up on what Terry should have done two weeks ago.

What if Aras wins immunity?

The strategy at this point is really going to kick into high gear! When (if) Terry loses immunity, and they want to make him use the idol, they have to distribute their votes very carefully to avoid letting him send Aras home.

The votes will be all over the place with constantly shifting alliances. The idol is fricking genius!

If they let Terry get rid of Aras, who among the rest of them is ever going to beat Terry at another challenge?

Aras is in a really tough spot right now. His only way to stick around is to get other people to act against their own best interests.

Bruce has been a little disappointing lately. He's being very reactive, not proactive.

He just doesn't have a head for the strategy element of the game, and doesn't seem to really want to win that badly.

Some people go on the show just for the experience, but while that's understandable, we want the million to go to someone who shows up intending to win.

A podcast is essentially like a radio (and sometimes video) program available on the Internet. Only unlike conventional radio, the shows are pre-recorded, so you can listen to them whenever you like, rather than having to listen at a specific time.

You can get them one of two ways: Manually (works, but ultimately more trouble) or by subscription using a free software program called an "aggregator" or "podcatcher".

Listening on the Webpage and Manual Downloads
If you want to do it manually, you can simply go to the website and click the "The Episodes" link, or here's a direct link.

You'll notice that each entry has a little gray picture by it that says "Pod" on it. If you just click it, you can play it right in your web browser, (you may need to install a plug in if you've not played mp3's in your web browser before,) or you can right click that little picture, and choose to "Save Link As" or "Save target as" or something similar, depending on your browser.

That will download the mp3 file to your hard drive, at which point you can play it right on your computer like any other mp3, you can upload it to any portable mp3 player, or, if you have the right hardware and software, you can burn it to a CD.

Subscriptions
However, if you subscribe, every time you run your aggregator program, it will check the podcast RSS feed to see if there are new episodes, and if there are, it will download them for you automatically. This is what makes it a "podcast" rather than just an ordinary mp3.

So, what is a "podcast aggregator"? Well, basically, it's just a program that is designed to check RSS feeds, and to download new podcasts when they are available. The most commonly used program these days is Apple's iTunes. That's the one I use, because the user interface is intuitive and the whole thing is just pretty convenient. Unless you really just want to stay away from Apple for whatever reason, that's the one I would recommend. However, there are some excellent alternatives. Click here for a listing of some of them. That site, by the way, has lots more helpful information as well.

Anyway, once you've chosen an aggregator, you simply need to "subscribe" to the podcast.

If you've got iTunes, the easiest way to subscribe is to go to the podcast website (here's mine), and just click the "iTunes 1 Click" button on the left hand of the screen. That will open your iTunes program, subscribe to the feed, and begin to download the latest chapter. Since you'll want to start at the beginning, just go to the "Podcasts" section of your iTunes, expand the listing for "Nina Kimberly the Merciless", and click "Get" for all the previous episodes.

Then you're done! Every time you run iTunes, it will check to see if there are any new episodes available. If there are, it will download them to your hard drive automatically, for you to listen to whenever you want.

If you choose an aggregator besides iTunes, the process is similar, but will vary in the details depending on which one you pick.

Easy peasy, eh? You can actually use the same process to subscribe to any podcast you want. (There are thousands of great ones, including some more wonderful free audiobooks. I recommend checking out Podcast Pickle and Podiobooks to start looking.) Not all of them will have an iTunes 1 click button, but if they don't, just copy and paste the url for the RSS feed. (It'll just be code if you click it through the browser. Nina's is: http://ninakimberly.libsyn.com/rss) When you find the url, go into iTunes and select "Subscribe to a podcast" from the Advanced menu and paste in the feed address and you're done. Or follow the instructions in your own aggregator program.

I play Bubble Bobble Music for Mike (Thanks to Conrad of SPainful Films! Check out his vidcast!)

Lost in nostalgia for Bubble Bobble.

Survivor

We call BS on the preview for this show. Implying that one survivor gets med-evac'd out is actively dishonest.

I got spoiled by accident again! This time for the machete accident.

We're sure it hurt, but there was no real danger or anything. Boo hiss we say!

We were disappointed in general with what happened in this episode.

We get right to it: Should Terry have given immunity to Nick?

Could Terry have given the hidden idol to Nick AFTER the vote?

Doesn't matter. He could have given Nick immunity some other way, either by giving him the hidden idol before the vote or giving him the regular immunity.

Either way, he should have. It would have sent Shane home tonight, and then it would have been five to four and Bruce would then have sole swing power, would have switched, and the whole game would have changed. Now it may be too late.

It's possible he could just keep winning immunities, but counting on that is not good strategy.

Bruce had no advantage in switching this time, because it would have only produced a tie. If Shane left, he could have flipped it.

Shane and Aras trying to pretend Bruce was their leader was laughable. We don't think Bruce was fooled.

Could Sally appeal to Danielle, Courtney and Cirie to form a female alliance? Wouldn't have provided any advantage this time around, but could work in future episodes.

What is Cirie's best move right now? Mike thinks she should be working harder to plan for later in the game. I agree, but think she's smart for staying low profile right now.

As far as anybody knows, Bruce, Terry or Sally could have the idol.

Terry, by keeping immunity this time, has screwed things for himself and Austin, and probably Sally. Now, they have no way of recovering the numbers.

Could Shane's Episode 1 "Final 4" ACTUALLY be the final four!?!

I try to think of a positive way to spin "Women are untrustworthy"

It looks like Terry starts trying to use his idol as leverage next time, but it's too late now.

Austin knew what Terry should have done. That's why he tried to talk Terry specifically into dropping out of the challenge.

Ways that Terry giving immunity to Nick could have gone wrong. There are some, but we think they were unlikely.

All the idol can get Terry now is an "extra life" so to speak. The first time he doesn't win immunity, he loses the idol. The next time, he's gone.

Preview for next time: What could any other player possibly give him that would be worth giving up the idol?

Telling people he has it, even if he never intends a deal to actually go through, could make the others gunshy about voting him out.

When does the immunity idol expire? Getting to the Final Four, or voting out the fourth?

Is anyone rooting for Shane, Aras, Danielle or Courtney at this point?

Shane and Courtney bicker because they are both unpleasant people.

I reflect on the double-standard I'm applying to Courtney versus Shane.

The challenge wasn't particularly interesting this time.

Similar endurance challenges in previous seasons.

The old Cassaya members only hanging on because they thought they might get food? Very cocky. Though frustrating that their cockiness is being borne out so far.

It seems as though many of the players aren't planning ahead at all. It may just be that we're not seeing it because of the editing, but from what we've seen, they aren't thinking long-term.

We were surprised Aras didn't do better at the challenge, but we think he just wasn't worried about it.

Austin! Dude! It's one thing to play weak, it's another to tell everybody about it.

We're bummed, because Terry could have changed the game, but now it may be too late.

We attempt to divine the future.

How could they get rid of Terry without letting him choose who they sacrifice to use up the idol?

Mike references some bizarre pirate/gold logic problem, but fails utterly to explain it. Here's what he was talking about!

Long Story Short: There are ways they could accomplish it, but in their perspective (within the maze), it's too complex.

1:02:00 Speaking of logic problems, did you see the premiere of Unanimous?

The premise of the show: 10 people have to unanimously vote to give ONE of them $1.5 million. (Plus additional wrinkles)

GMC Yukon Update: "Some challenges" required "ingenuity."

"Thus making the three-toed sloth is the most ingenious animal on earth."