Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Episode 33.10

You might be wondering why I didn’t update this blog after the newest Survivor episode aired. Well, I was very busy from sometime on Wednesday when the episode originally aired, causing me to miss the episode, until sometime on Monday after all the chaos of Thanksgiving break happened and ended. I was out of state visiting relatives. Normally, they come here for Thanksgiving, but things change and I may be leaving state again. Hopefully I’ll be able to see the episode, or I’ll do an awkward post here about how I wasn’t able to actually blog about it, like I did with the third episode of Caramoan that I probably could have watched online without any problems. So I’m sorry about the lack of a blog post last week and I should inform you that new updates of this blog will now be on Thursdays, the day after a new episode airs, until the end of the season. Now, back to the regularly scheduled blog post:

Something that I didn’t mention in my last blog post was something that Lex from Africa and All-Stars posted on his facebook page. There was some facebook error which had memorialized his page. He posted about the mistake as he was surprised that this would have happened. I do have to wonder about memorializing facebook pages since someone I know has died and that seems like the logic thing to do. I wouldn’t want to leave it out in limbo at least. I still don’t know who will be death number four for the Survivor community and I don’t honestly want to know since that would mean that it actually happened. I just hope that it’s not Todd from China as he’s been going through a lot.

It seems like a lot of things have been going on with this computer. The AVG Zen thing seems messed up in a way. I don’t think that I wanted it in the first place, and now I’d have to pay for it to keep it. Can I at least keep the regular AVG? I like the free version. I don’t want this to be some annoying thing that computers do or try to do to you despite what you actually want. I just hope that they aren’t trying to take over the world as the plot of many movies are. Has anyone else been having this problem with AVG? Is there a different antivirus I should use instead?

I had dreams about what might have happened in this episode before I was able to see it. The dream was basically another confusing thing where it implied that I would be watching the next episode before or without me seeing this one first. I’m surprised and annoyed that they made it two hours long. That wasn’t even clear in the promos. They said that two contestants would be voted out, but they never said that it would be a two hour long episode. It could have been like in Samoa or Heroes versus Villains where they had two people voted out in a postmerge episode that only lasted an hour. It is always annoying when they just air a longer version of a show as if most of us don’t already have some sort of plan in place with what to watch after the show under a normal basis. Aren’t we normally watching whatever other show we want to? I guess that they don’t care about our normal plan on those nights. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the tribe gets back from tribal council. Jay doesn’t like how Taylor threw him under the bus. But he shares the rest of the food with the tribe and he is certain that no one will think that he has an idol now.

In the second segment of the show, apparently Hannah and Ken might be together, but this is according to the awkward Hannah who can’t even say what she’s trying to say. Will tells Zeke about Jay’s idol and this soon becomes common knowledge throughout the tribe. (What happened between you and Professor Quirrell was a complete secret. So, naturally, the whole school knows.) Next comes the reward challenge. David wants to sit out of his own accord, but ends up playing after the support of his tribe. Jay is the one who doesn’t wind up playing. I'll always hate forced losers. The purple team of Zeke, Adam, Hannah, Bret, and Sunday ends up winning.

In the third segment of the show, Hannah is glad that she won her first reward, although she’s doesn’t want the losers to be upset. Adam is emotional when he gets a letter from home. All of the reward winners get a letter too. David somehow had a fear of life. Is that a real thing? That seems bad. David wants to vote out Chris, although it seems that Jessica wants Zeke gone. It’s too soon to know what will happen for sure until the immunity challenge.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. It is something different, yet very similar to challenges that we’ve seen in the past. David winds up winning the challenge, although it was a close finish. It's hard to recap the challenge this time.

In the fifth segment of the show, Jay talks about blowing the challenge. Sunday wants to get out Jessica. Why can’t women get along on this show? There are three women left and they turn on each other. Haven’t they seen John Tucker Must Die? There is discussion among who to vote for. Well, right before I started watching the episode online, I was spoiled as to who would be eliminated. I should have just gone straight to Survivor’s part of the website. Chris gets voted out and proves that when Jeff asks you if you are safe third, you are probably the one getting voted out.

It then goes straight into the post tribal council life. Jay is glad that he didn’t play the idol: that his gamble paid off. David wants to get rid of Zeke and Zeke thinks the same of David. Somehow, David and Zeke form a rivalry with their sides to the game.

In the sixth segment of the show, there is more talk among David and Zeke about each other. Why are they so against each other? I guess that, like most rivalries, there isn’t really a cause: it just happens.  At the reward challenge, instead of the sit-out automatically losing, this time, the sit-out automatically wins. That seems strange to me. The orange team of Bret, Sunday, and Zeke win the challenge. Adam talks about not using his advantage this time around.

In the seventh segment of the show, Zeke and Bret become drinking buddies. Bret is apparently gay and tells Zeke about it. So they bond over this. I wonder if they will start dating at some point. There’s not much to this segment.

In the eighth segment of the show, Hannah wonders who to vote out. She reveals information to David about the game. David then considers what potential mistakes he may have made in the game. We then get to the next immunity challenge. The challenge has a maze that has to be solved before anything else happens. But, contestants can’t see the maze as they solve it. Jay solves it first and then has a huge lead on the sliding puzzle. He ends up winning the challenge.

In the ninth segment of the show, Jay doesn’t want to give his idol to any other player. You know, Adam is probably the only one in the game who still has a secret idol still. Things seem to be falling apart for everyone, it seems. Is it still David and Zeke? I can’t honestly tell. How did things become five against five anyways? We might be missing something here...

At tribal council, David plays his idol for Ken. But Ken doesn’t get votes. It is between Zeke and Hannah. This means that if he had played it for Hannah like she wanted, he could have averted a tie and caused his enemy’s elimination. After the first tied vote, they vote again. There is still a tie and they decide to draw for rocks as they can’t decide who to vote out. Jessica (whose side was she on?) is the person who ends up drawing a rock. She wills her legacy advantage to Ken. Why Ken? That doesn’t really seem like a connection she had, but we don’t know much about her from her invisible edit.

On the next Survivor, David does something or another of some sort. The loved ones challenge changes the game once again. Will Adam use his advantage? Why do they even have such a strange advantage in the game in the first place?

Total confessional count: Zeke- 28, Jay- 22, Will- 8, David- 32, Sunday- 9, Chris- 15, Adam- 24, Bret- 12, Jessica- 15, Ken- 13, Hannah- 17.

New confessionals this episode: David- 7, Sunday- 2, Chris- 1, Adam- 4, Bret- 2, Jessica- 4, Ken- 1, Hannah- 4, Zeke- 9, Jay- 4, Will- 1.

Chris had only one new confessional in this two hour episode. He had the same number as Ken and Will. Jessica had four confessionals this episode, the same number as Hannah, Jay, and Adam. The people with confessionals between the number of Jessica and Chris were Sunday and Bret. David and Zeke were both higher than four with Zeke as the highest with nine. In terms of total confessionals, Chris and Jessica have fifteen confessionals. Those with a lower number are Ken, Will, Sunday, and Bret. The lowest total count is Will with eight. David has the highest with thirty-two. While it probably was two separate episodes combined into one, I still decided to make it one count for this episode.


Well, I’d like to apologize again for this being a week late due to Thanksgiving. Hopefully this won’t happen again, but I should be able to explain it in the next post if this ever does happen again. I know that I’ve missed planned posts in the past, although that’s typically from the hiatus between seasons when most people don’t even update their Survivor blogs anyways. I’ll be back tomorrow with the episode that airs later tonight. Posts will be on Thursdays now until the season is over. Then, I’ll move them back to Wednesdays. I don’t know yet when the new season will start, but I’ll find out more about that later. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Episode 33.9

Isn’t it weird that only one man has been eliminated from the game thus far? The merge has made me realize that somehow, men have taken control of the game, whether other people, including these men, realize it or not. You’d think that the women should band together but they may not realize this, nor would they see it as anything other than what it really is: women just happen to being the victims of the vote week after week. But this is unusual and I’m not sure there has ever been a season this successful for men before. Now things could turn for them, but I doubt that a woman would win this season. It’s a shame that we don’t see more women winners (or that they get such bad edits like last season’s winner). I wonder if I’m the first to notice the gender imbalance still in the game.

I don’t know if I like Adam this season or if I want him to win. I think that I should. I do wonder when/if he will be voted out or otherwise eliminated this season. He might be in it for the long haul. Only one other person thus far named Adam has played. He was in the Cook Islands season. He made it all the way to the finale and was the highest ranking member of his tribe. We still don’t know whether or not the name alone will prove successful or not. I think that Survivor Oz has done articles on this. But whatever great game play he had seems to be quickly deteriorating so I’m not sure he will make the finale. He could be good, but I just don’t know.

It’s a good thing that I was able to see the Price is Right Survivor special when I did. Otherwise, I would have only just watched it for the first time on Friday and you wouldn’t see the post until the winter hiatus of the show. It’s good to finally be at the end of watching the recorded from last season. Man I have got to stop procrastinating sometime. I think that I will later. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Jay talks about what happened after tribal council. Some people are worried about what secrets could come to light in the future. Taylor and Adam seem to have an agreement about not to rat each other out. Why is Taylor pulling a NaOnka? Vinara is the name of the merged tribe. Why is it called that?

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge that I miss a lot of as I’m preparing supper for myself. Hannah’s group loses the challenge which causes her to question herself. At the reward, the score sounds kind of like Gantsa’s Paradise to me. Back at camp, Adam, who did not steal the reward, talks to Jay and things do not seem to go well. I don’t think that Adam meant to be rude, but he was considered that anyways. If you want to know how a different Adam feels about things like that sometime, check out my facebook page. I should go back to twitter where I’m less likely to get in trouble for things that I post. I go on a political rant on facebook, I get into long arguments. I go on one on twitter, I get four new followers. Weird difference, right?

In the next segment of the show, Sunday is worried about someone. She wants to get rid of Jessica. Why are the women always trying to get rid of each other when only three of them are left? The immunity challenge offers a sit out or play option. I honestly wouldn’t sit out for a measly meal like that. Ball on a bow is a new one. Also, Screen Junkies, if you are reading this, please do an honest trailer for this show (Survivor) because I’d love to hear you talk about the ball fetish that the somehow straight Jeff has. Will and Zeke are the only people who sit out. Ken wins the challenge.

In the next segment of the show, David thinks that they should split the votes between Taylor and Jay. But the promos have basically revealed that something dramatic was going to happen. Jay doesn’t like being on the bottom. Jay doesn’t know what to do with his idol. He was a person with an idol, right? We then get to tribal council.

Taylor comes forward about the food, but lies and says that Adam had some of the food. Taylor then blabs about his advantage. Adam comes forward about it when comforted about it. Taylor is convinced that Adam would only use his advantage on the loved ones reward. I don’t think that I like either one of them. Here I was thinking that the mudslinging was over for a while. Maybe the vote isn’t as obvious or all this drama is supposed to make us forget it. No votes are revealed. No idols are played. Taylor is the person who gets voted out. Somehow, I didn’t see that coming despite the signs to the contrary. And I might be coming up with a nominee for dumbest move of the season.

On the next Survivor, the gen-xers are imploding and Will reveals Jay’s idol which them becomes common knowledge to people. Remember that crazy promo before the double tribal council episode of Gabon? That’s what this promo reminds me of.

Total confessional count: Sunday- 7, Chris- 14, Adam- 20, Bret- 10, Jessica- 11, Ken- 12, Hannah- 13, Zeke- 19, Jay- 18, Taylor- 20, Will- 7, David- 25.

New confessionals this episode: Bret- 1, Jessica- 0, Ken- 0, Hannah- 2, Zeke- 1, Jay- 4, Taylor- 3, Will- 1, David- 1, Sunday- 3, Chris- 2, Adam- 2.


Taylor had three confessionals this episode; the same number as Sunday. The only person with more confessionals was Jay. Everyone else had less. Jessica and Ken are the only people this episode without new confessionals. Ken didn’t even get one after winning, which must show how irrelevant either this episode’s immunity was or how irrelevant he is. In terms of total confessionals, Taylor had twenty, which is the same number as his rival Adam.  The only person higher than them is David with twenty-five confessionals. Everyone else is lower than those three are. The lowest are Sunday and Will who are the only two people still left with single digits. They both have seven total confessionals. That’s pretty much all the new things to talk about here. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Episode 33.8

I am behind on tapes that have shows that I watch recorded on them. So while the election is over, this means that I will still have to see a lot of those ads in what I have recorded. The mudslinging of elections has gotten much worse over the years. And while I normally don’t like Christmas commercials airing before Thanksgiving, I’m going to more than enjoy them replacing the political commercials. I do hope that the country is better off after the election and that things will work out well for a change.

http://adamdeckerelementarytvshow.blogspot.com/ Here’s a link to a new blog of mine. As the url implies, it is about the TV show Elementary. While I’m planning on updating it every Thursday starting out, I know that this won’t happen during Advent when I do this blog on Thursdays. (I know that I could post both blogs on the same Thursday, but I’d rather not do that. I also cannot under most circumstance blog about any other show besides this on one the day the newest episode actually airs.)

Anyways, due to changes with my other blogs, I may not do any Sunday posts during the winter hiatus. Those are always chosen whenever I want them to be, but I don’t know yet when the season finale is and I don’t think that they do Sunday finales again for some odd reason. Of course, it was odd that they did them there in the first place. At least we don’t have to worry about football delaying it like it did with at least the South Pacific, Philippines, and (in some regions, but not mine) Blood versus Water finales. (If the Nicaragua finale was delayed, I don’t remember.)

I like the fact that the merge is happening at this point in the game now that something crazy has happened on every tribe in the game. What better way to make everything crazy that just letting all the sides turn on each other? Is it even still a battle of generations? Who will the battles be between? If this isn’t one of the craziest merge episodes ever, I will be really disappointed.

I’m hoping that Blood versus Water comes out on DVD soon. (Is it already? I don’t know.) If it does come out on DVD before Christmas, I hope that I can get it as a gift or for myself whenever it is released. When I am able to do the look back, it will be the first time that I’d be doing a look back on a season that I’d have already blogged about. I might even post a blog post about the first time I blogged about it. I don’t know if I will or not, but this blog does change from time to time.

Something that I noticed on Tuesday and Wednesday last week was which networks preempted planned new episodes because of the World Series. Of course, all FOX shows were preempted as they were the network airing games six and seven. Of the CBS shows that I watch, they preempted NCIS, Bull, NCIS: New Orleans, but not this show or Code Black. ABC did not preempt an election themed Fresh Off the Boat or a new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. On Wednesday, they aired the CMA awards, thus preempting whatever new shows might have otherwise aired anyways. The CW aired, as usual, new episodes of The Flash, Arrow, and Frequency. NBC preempted Blindspot and Law and Order: SVU. You have to wonder what this means for some of these shows long term. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Ikabula gets back from tribal council. Jay thinks that he made a good move. Hannah says that she would have voted with them; it seems that she was trying to make sure that she would be on their side if she wants them to be. This tribe then gets a notice about the upcoming merge. They leave on a boat with a time limit. I wonder if they were forced off of that part of the island or not. I heard that happened in Marquesas.

In the second segment of the show, the orange tribe is where the merge will take place. People get used to their new tribe while wondering who is with who now. Zeke feels that some allies of him can tell them what happened on the other tribes. Broliance? Is that a thing? Well, I guess that I too had made up words under the right situnario.

In the third segment of the show, Adam looks for a merge idol while ignoring the merge feast. He gets a reward stealer which seems like another in a long line of bad twists that they’ve been using recently. We’ll see if it can be used fairly or not. Also, isn’t there still a legacy advantage in the game? Taylor hides some food for just himself, although this does not go unnoticed. Adam and Taylor have a conversation and Taylor appears to think that Adam is being dumb. (Don’t you ever hate sentences where you can’t use pronouns like you want to?) Bret talks about what he saw during the night and tries to get people to vote out Adam and Taylor.

In the fourth segment of the show, Taylor tells Jay about what Adam was talking about regarding getting rid of Will. Zeke overhears some of this conversation. We then get to Jay and Taylor telling Will about Adam’s plan. Hey, they finally brought back this immunity challenge! They changed it so it is harder to do. Sunday, Chris, and Bret are the first three out respectively. Jay is out next followed by Zeke. Ken is out next. Then it is Hannah who is out. Michelle is then out. It is down to just Will and Jessica in the final round of the challenge. Will ends up winning the challenge, thus becoming the new youngest person to win individual immunity. I bet his record gets broken someday.

In the fifth segment of the show, it turns out that Adam might get voted out of the game. Does that mean that I’ll be voted out of the blogosphere? Wait, he’s a different Adam. Well, Michelle doesn’t think that voting out Adam is the right move. Zeke tells Adam about his mistake. His side starts scrambling. Also, have nearly all the women been voted out? I don’t think that this many men have made it this far together before, but I might be wrong. Didn’t a lot of women start the eliminations in Panama? Adam wonders whether or not to play his idol. I’d rather waste one than be voted out with one. The banana chip stealing is brought up again at tribal council. Adam decides not to play his idol. Why did Michelle get votes? Ultimately, she is voted out. I’m a bit confused here. Why wasn’t Taylor a target?

On the next Survivor, it appears that people know what sides people are on, but Taylor stands to possibly ruin everything. Will he? Loose lips sink ships, remember? Never blab if someone tells you a secret. That’s Survivor 101, right? It’s lesson 2 after don’t tell secrets.

Total confessional count: Michelle- 7, Hannah- 11, Zeke- 18, Jay- 14, Taylor- 17, Will- 6, David- 24, Sunday- 4, Chris- 12, Adam- 18, Bret- 9, Jessica- 11, Ken- 12.

New confessionals this episode: Zeke- 4, Jay- 3, Taylor- 4, Will- 2, David- 3, Sunday- 0, Chris- 1, Adam- 6, Bret- 3, Jessica- 0, Ken- 0, Michelle- 2, Hannah- 2.


Michelle had two confessionals this episode, the same number as Hannah and Will. The only ones lower this episode were Chris, Jessica, Ken, and Sunday with Chris being the only one of the four to actually get a confessional. Adam had the most confessionals this episode with six.  As for the total confessional count, Michelle had seven total confessionals. She has more than Sunday and Will with Sunday being the lowest with four. Besides those three, Bret is the only other one not yet in double digits; everyone else is higher. David has the most confessionals with twenty-four. I don’t understand why Michelle got voted out, but my mom says that it was because others thought that she didn’t have an idol. That’s pretty much all there is from me for this blog post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Episode 33.7

There are a lot of people that we’ve seen thus far in the game. There are also a lot of people that we haven’t seen much of at all. Can we guess that if you haven’t gotten airtime by now that it’s likely that you only will get airtime if you are eliminated in that episode? But there could be misnomers. A major blindside could be awaiting David allowing someone completely different to take over the game. We’ve seen it happen before. Meanwhile, you do have to wonder when/if they will switch back to two tribes. They have never done a merge and anything other than two tribes before. That’s not to say that they never will, but that is something to keep in mind.

If the Cubs win the World Series, I fear that we will never hear the end of it. It will sort of be like when Harry from the Early Show got a live colonoscopy on TV. He became the butt of everyone’s jokes and then we never heard the end of that crap. Plus enough crazy and terrible things have happened this year that we don’t need something as bad as this. Let’s just hope Trump doesn’t get elected next.

One can wonder if the ad for this episode means that Adam might get eliminated. I guess that he’s my boot prediction going into it. We’ll have to see what happens but one can always get in trouble for making big moves. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Takali gets back from tribal council. Taylor talks about feeling bad now that Figgy is voted out. Adam seems strange with the way that he talks to Taylor about it. Why even bring it up? That might not be the best post tribal move.

In the second segment of the show, we are shown Vanua. David wants to get rid of Michelle. He wants to work together with Zeke. David reveals his idol to Zeke. They sort of remind me of Penguin and the Riddler from Gotham, sexual innuendo and all. Michaela once again speaks her mind openly in front of the whole group of contestants when she mentions that she is glad that Figgy is gone. I think that Coby Archa loved her language there. I just wonder if this is going to get her in trouble sometime. It probably will because he who talks a lot in Survivor doesn’t typically do well long term.

The challenge once again goes into the ball fetish of the somehow straight Jeff. Just look at the huge sack of balls. Did they mean for them to look like that? (Man, I miss the Survivor Shade site. They would love this episode a lot.) Vanua gets first place in the challenge. Despite doing poorly for most of the challenge, the green tribe gets second place. I check the World Series score and hope that I’m prepared for the second coming of Jesus as the Cubs are winning.

In the third segment of the show, Vanua gets back from winning the reward. Zeke binge eats and Michelle clearly doesn’t like the guys on her tribe since they have no table manners. I do wonder if she has to eat with them. Taylor doesn’t like discussing politics. But he does make deals about what names not to write down. Umm, you’ll never get a jury vote that way. Michaela seems to be getting stranger as the days go by. Hannah is suspicious of Bret for some odd reason. She’s right as he is lying about being a funeral director. Why does paranoia run so rampant in this game? I do know a fun funeral director in life. Last I checked, he was also a fan of this show.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. The green tribe loses. Sunday is convinced that it will probably be her or Bret. They decide to vote against each other. Michaela doesn’t think that it matters who they vote out. They want to split the vote. I forget who has idol on this tribe. I think that it is Jay. Why does it seem that men find the idols more? It seems as if they are getting rid of Michaela. That is the talk among players as they feel that she is too smart for the other players. Man, this would mean that all three tribes don’t care about which generation has the numbers. Why vote out the side you are with? It is hard to tell for sure why people keep doing that.

At tribal council, the third question on trust is asked to Michaela. If they ever ask this question and you are the third person to be asked it, you are in danger. Jay admits to his vote right before the last vote against Michaela is read. Hannah does freak out about it as they suspected. That’s among one of the greater exits in Survivor history.

On the next Survivor, we get to the merge already. Hannah wants revenge on what happened. This will make a Survivor first: three tribes merging into just one tribe. I also wonder if my Cardinals shirt that I wore today ended up working as the jinx that I hoped it would. We’ll see.

Total confessional count: Michaela- 16, Sunday- 4, Chris- 11, Adam- 12, Bret- 6, Jessica- 11, Ken- 12, Michelle- 5, Hannah- 9, Zeke- 14, Jay- 11, Taylor- 13, Will- 4, David- 21.

New confessionals this episode: Chris- 1, Adam- 1, Bret- 2, Jessica- 1, Ken- 0, Michelle- 1, Hannah- 3, Zeke- 2, Jay- 3, Taylor- 3, Will- 1, David- 2, Michaela- 3, Sunday- 1.


Michaela had three confessionals this episode, a tie for the highest shared with Jay, Taylor, and Hannah. The only person with no new confessionals this episode was Ken. In terms of the total confessional count, Michaela had sixteen confessionals. The only person who is higher than her is David with twenty-one. David is the first person to go over twenty total confessionals. Will and Sunday tie for lowest confessionals with four a piece. Since there will be a turning point in the game now, this is around the time where confessionals are no longer potential red herrings. If I had to guess, I’d say that if you aren’t in double digits now, then you may not affect the rest of the game. We’ll see what happens. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.