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tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
As a long-time non-believer, my first inclination would be to say congratulations -- but this is the Rants thread, so this decision is presumably not a cause for celebration for you. I hope you have all the support you need, to get you through whatever crisis has driven/is driving this.
No need to be insulting about it, you know.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
No insult intended.
Though Catholicism and feminism always seemed like strange bedfellows to an ignoramus like me, Mary strikes me as being sufficiently knowledgeable -- and more than smart enough -- to have reconciled any potential conflicts between her faith and her politics to her own satisfaction. But maybe I was wrong to assume that...?
What is your new designation, or have you decided on one yet?
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Looks like I tore a ligament or tendon in my knee.. on a list for surgery in 1-2 months hopefully
Taking it in stride, focusing on physio
Taking it in stride, focusing on physio
How terrible. 
First you get hurt while dancing, and now... you need to quit having accidents.
But speaking of trips (as per The_J's post)... Survivor now accepts Canadian contestants, and a Canadian has won the last two seasons. Fancy a trip to Fiji (or wherever they shoot now)?
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
First you get hurt while dancing, and now... you need to quit having accidents.
But speaking of trips (as per The_J's post)... Survivor now accepts Canadian contestants, and a Canadian has won the last two seasons. Fancy a trip to Fiji (or wherever they shoot now)?
It's from the same dancing accident.. although I'm still hopeful my diagnosis will somehow change once I'm done w/ physio. It doesn't seem possible, but I'm trying to stay positive and focusing on the physio for now, one step at a time.
Is Survivor any good these days? I tried watching it once, but instead of interesting wilderness survival challenges it was all stupid drama, "alliances", and games that had nothing to do with wilderness survival. I'd rather watch Survivorman. It's been like 15 years though. Is Survivor still bad or has the format changed?
Thanks, I have been trying to stay upbeat about it. Even the physio looked at me after notifying me of the "probably surgery" diagnosis and said.. "You seem to be taking it well". I guess in my mind I was ready for the worst, so I braced myself for bad news ahead of time. No puns intended, etc.
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It's actually 20+ years now. Season 42 was on this spring, and they skipped a year because of the pandemic. The actual competition part of it has been condensed due to the necessity of quarantining for 14 days, so things move at a faster clip now.
There are still alliances (Richard Hatch proved in the first season that they work, so that's what both Survivor and Big Brother have done ever since). The drama... kinda depends on the people. Some are more into drama than others, and it tends to be the biggest drama-creators who get remembered. For instance, who can forget "Johnny Fairplay" lying about his not-dead grandmother to elicit sympathy when he was in danger of being voted out? Or Coach, who was on multiple times and made a big dramatic performance out of every damn thing his first couple of times, before toning it down and acting like a normal person in his final season? I still have a soft spot for Rupert, the tie-dye-wearing hippy guy who gleefully played pirate and literally sewed his own clothes when his tribe won a sewing machine in a reward challenge.
Recent seasons have been less interesting, in part because the casting seems to favor identical-looking model-types plus the obligatory few non-white people who have to scramble to avoid being voted off first, plus an older man and woman who are also seen as easy vote-offs (surprised the hell out of everyone when one of those older women won). Some of the model-types look so similar to me that it takes several episodes before I learn to tell them apart (this is also a problem with Big Brother). Earlier Survivor seasons cast more regular people.
All that said, there is still enough about the show that's interesting. As for wilderness survival, things got really ridiculous for awhile, in that an average reward challenge would see the winner(s) getting an overnight excursion to a fancy resort with gourmet feasts and sightseeing from a helicopter. Contrast that with the reward in season 1 that consisted of a single slice of pizza (won by Gervais, who generously shared it with his tribemates; everyone got one bite each).
They've dialed this sort of thing back now. It used to be that tribes started out with a bag of rice, a cooking pot, and a machete, but now they don't get the rice. They have to forage or fish until the first reward challenge that includes a flint and maybe fishing gear. Some later rewards do include food feasts - pizza, burgers, donuts, or whatever product placements they've arranged. But for the most part the food angle is more challenging now. They still have to build their shelters, and figure out fire. There's more incentive to win challenges, because losing tribes have to give up their flint (thus learning to make fire without it is a more useful skill).
The last two seasons they've had a twist in which one person gets taken to a bare-bones island where they have to spend a couple of days absolutely alone. They get bare subsistence equipment (machete and pot) and have to find their own food. They also have a decision to make, as there's an hourglass and hammer left for them. What this does is give them the ability to reverse the outcome of the last challenge, so the winning tribe's win is nullified and they, not the losing tribe, have to go to tribal council and vote someone off. In both instances the players have chosen to smash the hourglass and reverse the outcome - which did result in better circumstances for them.
There are other twists like immunity idols that only function in tandem with immunity idols found by people on opposing tribes.
Of course just because these twists have been on the show the last two seasons, it doesn't mean it will become the new standard. They always have something new each time.
What else is new is that Jeff Probst sometimes breaks the fourth wall when he isn't in the presence of the players, and tells the viewers about whatever twist they're about to unleash on the unsuspecting players. I enjoy these little asides, as they provide some information into the producers' ideas about the show and how it's changed over the years.
There's a small group of us over on TrekBBS who regularly watch and discuss the show (also Big Brother and The Amazing Race when they show that one).
Snerk
Smeghead
I got a cold. 
Though after a week of blowing my nose every ten seconds it's finally fading.
Though after a week of blowing my nose every ten seconds it's finally fading.
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Snerk
Smeghead
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Isn't it a ripoff how we get colds but never warms?
Imagine if you got a warm one day and were more productive & felt a lot better for a couple days, and people wanted to hang out with you more and potentially exchange bodily fluids so they could catch some of your warm
Imagine if you got a warm one day and were more productive & felt a lot better for a couple days, and people wanted to hang out with you more and potentially exchange bodily fluids so they could catch some of your warm
Snerk
Smeghead
That would be nice. But nature doesn't do nice.
EnglishEdward
Deity
I think the latter are called fevers.
Snerk
Smeghead
Fevers make you feel like you're boiling and freezing to death at the same time.
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EnglishEdward
Deity
To achieve that effect, I'd have to put my hands in hot water and my feet in the ice box.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I suppose it is survival of the fittest and not the fattest
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