Survivor - Cruel Genius

One thing to say... Boston Rob is a cruel genius. More on that later.

This week marked the final battle at Redemption Island before the winner would rejoin the game as Ometepe and Zapatera merged. The Redemption Island challenge between Matt and Sarita involved standing between two walls with your feet perched on ever narrower blocks. Whoever stood the longest would win. Now this looked like it could have been the worst timed challenge for Matt as he had just cut his foot in the previous episode, but despite his injury he was once again victorious. His victory was witnessed be every member of both tribes. Upon Sarita's departure came those famous words from Jeff Probst, "drop your buffs" (at least I think he did actually say it this time).

So the tribes are merged. They were sent off to a brand new beach on which they would begin their new life as a single tribe. I hope Phillip listened to Rob and brought all his stuff with him to the challenge. Once on the new beach they were treated to food. I'm sure for most of us sitting at home, comfortable on the couch, eating snacks, we sometimes laugh at how excited they get over food. But when you realize that they have been only eating a very small amount of rice each day and are actually starving, any food is a luxury. Ask anyone who has actually played Survivor and they will tell you that it is hard and that they are always hungry.

The next thing they had to do was come up with a new tribe name... Murlonio is their name. A name chosen by Rob. He claimed it was Spanish for something or other, but it in fact means nothing at all. It is the name of one of his wife, Amber's, stuffed toys. The ring leader of her stuffed toys to be exact. Hilarious!

So now Murlonio is off to its first individual immunity challenge. This challenge looked tough. One wrong move and you would be out. They had to balance on a log, then balance first one, then two, then three balls on a plate. The moment you dropped a ball or fell off the log you were out. I was in fact surprised how long most of them lasted. In the end it was down to Mike (former Zapatera) and Natalie (Ometepe). Mike looked rock solid. It was tense to watch because hopefully you like I, don't like the former Zapatera members and would like to see them lose. Natalie was barely hanging on when Mike fell off his log. Natalie, the winner of the first individual immunity. Cheers!

A twist. Redemption Island begins again. Whoever is voted out goes back to Redemption Island to rejoin the game later.

Now the strategy begins. Mike is not dumb. He sees that in order to survive he must make a big move. He hopes that he can get Matt to flip. Ometepe did after all, send him to Redemption Island. He also sees that Matt is tight with Andrea. If he can convince Matt and Andrea to join him and Steve they could be the final four. He makes his case to Matt. Matt sees the benefit. He approaches Andrea. She sees how it could work but also that it could be a dangerous move if it backfires. So we are left wondering will Matt do it or not.

Well, we are not left wondering too long because Matt, being a good and loyal guy decides he will stay with his old team. That could have been the end of it. But no. Matt had to go and tell Rob of Mike's offer to him. Why on Earth would you tell Rob that you were thinking off betraying your old tribe and that you thought it was a good idea, even if you had decided not to turn on them.
So Rob did the best, most cruel and brilliant thing ever. He decided that Matt should be sent back to Redemption Island. Ahhh... I love it!
Anyone that doesn't think this was the right move just needs to see how even after telling Rob that he would stay with Ometepe, Matt was still flip flopping in his own mind. Even Andrea could see that Matt was being wishy washy.

And so, we come to tribal council. A lot of cool things happened. It seemed that the old Zapatera people thought that Mike would be the target. Ralphy boy decided to play his hidden immunity idol to save Mike. The funny thing is that there were no votes for Mike. So that is one less hidden immunity idol to worry about.
Then the votes are read. Grant gets five votes. Steve gets one vote. Then Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt and the eighth person voted out of Survivor Redemption Island is... Matt.

Oh, how I love this game. I'm sure that Matt is a nice guy. And I know it is awful to laugh at someone else's misfortune. But that was was one of the best moves ever. It makes complete strategic sense, especially if you are Rob. Matt could easily flip. He almost did. He likely would in the future. So he had to go. I feel a little bad for him, but he has performed well at Redemption Island and maybe he can keep it up and be back in the game once more.

But until then, I will say it again... Boston Rob is a cruel genius!

A Couple of Doctor Who Things

This Easter Doctor Who returns with a new season. I don't often do Easter. I can never find it. It's always at a different time. But I digress.

In March, BBC put out two cool bits of Doctor Who. One was the shorts, "Space" and "Time" for Red Nose Day and the other was a new trailer for the new season.

"Space" and "Time" were silly, but funny and entertaining never the less. The exterior of the Tardis has materialized inside the interior of the Tardis, but the interior is a few moments in the past when compared to the exterior. Complicated, but not important. In fact the plot is not at all what we care about. What we do care about is that suddenly we have two Amy Ponds, then two Rorys and finally two Doctors until it is all resolved and we are back to one of each. It is the character interaction that is priceless.
At this point I must say that I always thought Amy Pond was cute, but in this she is smouldering hot. I suspect that has a lot to do with the way she was flirting with herself. I have a feeling that like Rory, I would also deserve a slap. Amy has definitely grown on me. It is her character that has become attractive, not just physically, but it's her strength and loyalty (and flirtiness) that make her so. In fact I could say much the same for Rory (a really likable character) who you actually want to be there. He is much more than a third wheel. And Matt Smith has really taken the Doctor and made him his own.

The new trailer is spectacular. It looks like we will be taken on quite a ride and get to see the characters grow some more. It seems we will find out who River Song really is. It appears that somehow Rory and Amy are in the tenth Doctor's Tardis. And we have some great Doctor lines... A VOICE "Fear me. I've killed hundreds of timelords." The DOCTOR "Fear me. I've killed all of them."

I am really looking forward to this season. Can't wait till Easter.

Survivor - Sad, Great, Hilarious and Good

This week's episode of Survivor covered a whole range of feelings.

First we had the Sad. Well, at least sad for me. Others will like what happened. The Redemption Island challenge between Stephanie (my favourite) and Matt involved a matching game. They would take turns turning over tiles trying to match the symbols. The first to five would win. Matt got lucky on his first turn and got a match. Stephanie did the same. Then Matt took the lead and kept it until the end beating Stephanie.
It is amazing how much more emotion is involved when the player is eliminated from Redemption Island than being voted out. It is like they had some hope and then their hopes were dashed and the finality of it all sets in. They are out of the game. They burn their buff (and they don't get another one as a souvenir) and they are done.
I will personally miss Stephanie. She was a good player that wanted to compete, but due to circumstances mostly beyond her control she was eliminated. The circumstances I am talking about is the stupid way that Zapatera played the game. Throwing a challenge to get rid of Russell, then picking off his two allies even when David came to his senses and tried to get the tribe to keep Stephanie for the sake of keeping the tribe strong. It's rather surprising that a team that on paper should be the stronger tribe has completely fallen apart.

The Great. It was a great immunity challenge. One that has been done before but that didn't reduce the excitement. They tribes had to go through a series of obstacles, a pile of hay, ropes and brick walls, and after each obstacle unwind a bag of balls from a coiled wire. Once they got through all obstacles and had all the balls they had to get all six balls into a basket. This challenge was tense. Both tribes were neck and neck throughout. Zapatera even had the lead until Ometepe pulled past and got all their balls in the basket. I cheered! Zapatera lost and would go to Tribal Council. Ometepe was off on a fantastic reward.

The Hilarious. Ometepe won an amazing trip by helicopter up onto the edge of an active volcano. They got to enjoy the view as they feasted. Of course somewhere in the reward would be hidden a clue for the immunity idol. I guess the group was so into eating that no one but Rob even thought to look for it. This is even more amazing considering that Grant had found the last two and Phillip knew about it. Oh well, their loss. Rob found the clue in a jar of cookies without anyone seeing.
Then came the best part. Rob sitting on the edge of the volcano talking to the camera. Rob already has the idol so, "Might as well just throw it away" and he tossed the clue without even opening it into the volcano. Awesome! Rob is secure in being one of the greatest players in the history of Survivor.

The Good. Zapatera came somewhat to its senses and voted Sarita out at Tribal Council.

I want to finish by reminding people that Jeff Probst live tweets during the show. You can ask questions and get insight into the game. For instance, did you know that each player is given sunscreen and a medical box with band-aids and condoms. Yes, condoms. But no toothbrush, no toilet paper and no soap.
So follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffProbst

Earth Hour - What Did You Do?

Earth Hour 2011 has come and gone. Some people probably didn't even notice, but some turned off the lights and had a good time. So what did you do?

I turned off all my lights, my computer, tv and even my heat (I have electric heat). I lit one candle and then sat in the dark listening to music on my ipod.

Actually, my Earth Hour turned into two hours. It was nice to just listen to music without any distractions. I will certainly have to do that more often.

I hope you all enjoyed Earth Hour.

Earth Hour - Why

March 26th, 2011 at 8:30pm, Earth Hour begins. For one hour people around the world are encouraged to turn off their lights and other non-essential electrical items. It is a symbolic gesture to enlighten people to ways of saving energy.

There will be cynics that will say that the energy saved in that one hour is negligible. It is true that if done for only one hour it is a small saving in energy. The point that they miss is that it shows people how they can continue to save energy throughout the rest of the year. If you can go with no lights, no TV, no computer or no video games for an hour, then you can probably continue to leave less lights on and turn the TV and computer off when you are not actually using them for the rest of the year. That would add up to a good energy savings.
Additionally, it is to re-focus people on the costs of using so much energy. Not just the monetary costs, which are high, but the cost to the environment with pollution and green house gas emissions. These are important issues that many people are aware off but tend to forget about when going about their daily lives.

Finally, it is fun. It is really cool to sit in the dark, perhaps by candle light, on your own or with friends and family. A time when you can actually talk to each other without distractions. A time to look at a city in the dark. A time to see the night as it actually is. (although cities will likely keep street lights on for safety)
For those that remember the great blackout in August 2003, you will remember being able to look up and actually see stars from the city. It was amazing. Perhaps we should do this more often.

I'm looking forward to Earth Hour. I will be turning off my lights. Will you?

Night of the Supermoon

Saturday, March 19th 2011 - Night of the Supermoon

I was going to start by saying that the moon tonight was not all that special, but then I realized that every celestial event is special. It is truly amazing to look up in the night sky. People should do it more often. If events like the Supermoon can encourage people to pay attention to the sky more then that is a good thing.

The Supermoon is a full moon when it is at its perigee, that is when it is at its closest approach to the Earth. It appears slightly larger and slightly brighter than a normal full moon. Although, without anything to directly compare it to I don't think you would be able to tell with the naked eye. You would likely just think that the moon is really bright tonight.
But none of that matters. The moon is incredible. It is amazing to look at it and imagine what it would be like to be standing on the moon, what is that mountain ridge like, how flat is that plain or how deep is that crater.
And the really cool thing is, a small group of people have actually been there and done just that. Amazing.

Grab a pair of binoculars or even better a telescope and take a look at the moon close up. It is stunningly beautiful.

I hope everyone will look up every time they go outside at night and enjoy the wonders of our universe.

Survivor - Zapatera Zapped

I am loving this season of Survivor. A season like Heroes vs Villains was great because we were watching experienced pros play the game. Regular seasons can be great because of new interesting characters. This season is a combo of both. And the addition of Redemption Island so far has been exciting.

The tension and emotion of the Redemption Island challenges is amazing. This week we watched Matt and Kristina battle to put together what was a really heavy puzzle. The both looked exhausted by the end (make that a few seconds into it). In the end, Matt won. I didn't really like Kristina so I was not sad to see her go, but even so it is remarkable to see the emotion in the players that have to leave. Much more emotion than getting their torch snuffed. They have to burn their buff instead. To me that would hurt. If I were playing, I think I would become attached to my buff or at the very least want it as a souvenir. I asked Jeff Probst about that. He said that it was a last minute decision when they shot the first Redemption Island challenge. They needed something that punctuated the departure like the torch did at Tribal Council. It certainly adds that emotional punch. Kristina didn't want to let hers go. Jeff added that what is good for the show comes before the contestants getting souvenirs. He is right of course.

A few other things of note during the Redemption Island challenge. Matt asked Rob why he voted him out. Rob answered, "It doesn't take one person to vote someone out, Jeff, you know that." This is why Rob is such a great player. Also we had Stephanie pipe up about the situation at Zapatera and how she and Krista would be great allies if they made it to the merge. I am liking Redemption Island.

Back to the rest of the show. Zapatera is fractured and not playing smart. Their first mistake was getting rid of Russell. This put Stephanie and Krista on the outs with the rest of the tribe. The tribe referred to getting rid of Russell as a "personnel" problem. How wrong they are. In my opinion you should never throw a challenge. Julie referred to Stephanie and Krista pawns. Pawns can cause a great deal of hurt if you are not watching what you are doing. Then came the arguing. Sarita and David went at it a little. The cracks are beginning to show.
The challenge was a good one. The tribe blindfolded to collect puzzle pieces, directed by one person and that same person doing the puzzle. It was Stephanie against Rob. Rob was brilliant again even after dropping a puzzle piece. Stephanie did a good job directing her tribe. The only problem I saw was Ralph not knowing his left from his right. Stephanie came up short in the end and Zapatera lost the challenge.
Here is where I am conflicted. I don't like Zapatera as a whole, so I am happy that they lost. I do, however, really like Stephanie and also Krista. That loss put them in a vulnerable position. The tribe complained about Stephanie doing the puzzle. It should have been David. Well, if it should have been David you all should have insisted he do it. Stephanie did a good job despite the loss. I don't think David would have done better.

Back to the victorious Ometepe. They got their reward of coffee and doughnuts which they greedily devoured. Grant noticed a clue in the jar of coffee. Rob noticed Grant noticing. So the two of them snuck off together with the jar. Now here we get another piece of brilliant playing by Rob. He is a master, the Van Gogh or Davinci of Survivor. He took out the clue, sent Grant back with the jar to avoid the group knowing it was missing, then ran off and replaced the second clue with the first really vague clue that he already had, and then met back up with Grant. Grant had know idea. Rob played it like a genius. Great Survivor.

At tribal council sadly it was Krista that was voted out. I really hope Stephanie can do something to keep herself in the game until the merge.

So next week we get to see if Krista can beat Matt at Redemption Island.