Dingo's Hamster Watch - Big Brother 5

"Position the habitat of your hamster somewhere light and airy,
away from drafts, heaters, direct sunlight and other pets.
Never put it on or near a television, radio or hi-fi or a fridge."

This site isn't about who should win, who will win, who I'd be friends with, or who is cute. It's about watching hamsters: which ones are doing what and why. Which are fun and which are dull. If they aren't entertaining, get rid of 'em! More to come, bookmark & come back! .. that dingo

Linkage

Daily feed recaps & opinion ratings navigation tool for this often-biased site
HamsterWatch Big Brother 8 here we go again
HamsterWatch Big Brother 7 Hamster all-stars in the house
HamsterWatch Big Brother 6 time to do it all over again
CBS Big Brother 5 the official site
Housecalls live web show with Marcellas, also archived shows
TV Updates feed updates, screencaps, and fun boards - easy to use and functional!
bb5fan's 30 second refresh screencaps if you don't have feeds (great at work!)
Hollyisms and Cowboyisms and Lisa-isms from me, that dingo person
Sir LinksALot Big Brother 5 all the links
Reality TV Links emphasis on individual hamsters' sites
Aldav has all of the edgier stuff & the best mini-recaps in town (alternate url)
Today's must-click special: Grin's BB5 Park: Day 61 from Jokers
Bonus must-click special: Karen's art site she's got cred

8/31/04 - Day 61 >> to the future >> dwell in the past >> latest

Diane: I'm having a "Drew's getting on my nerves" day

If you read yesterday's HamsterWatch episode, this line pretty much sums things up.. I could just stop here for today, and probably should

I started off yesterday saying I've been getting carried away and need to "simplify" .. but then they all went nuts, and we know where that led

Today the fallout continued, everyone's getting "parannoyed" and Big Brother's contributing to it even more than usual with endless lockdowns
and things going missing

Hamsters are are on lockdown for a long time - and feeling pretty rough after last night

They get to write a message for Marcellas and Housecalls, to internet fans (that's us!) They get paper and pencil!! They misunderstand the directions a bit (thinking Housecalls is a fansite rather than show, and they're to write 100 characters or less - they write a novel!) Karen doodles a quick and excellent Nakomis drawing while they brainstorm what to say.. they remember to get Adria about 10 minutes after starting..

Nik (on all the things they miss in there): ..after you've been depraved of them
Cowboy: I'll remember this every summer, cuz I'll wish I was at the Big Brother house

Adria's still being shunned and the house is still tense, but the euchre lessons/tournament continue.. Nik is now playing from a perch, or standing

Karen makes a surprising discovery.. (surprising nobody discovered it before Day 61)

Karen: Dude, I see him in there! I can see the camera! It says v-i-a.. Viacom! Shit, now I have to clean the window
....
Cowboy: This one's cool, you can see the tracks and the back of the aquarium
Drew: Awesome! You know we're bored when we're looking at the back of the aquarium
dingo: yea, we know what you mean!

Diane's clearly still rattled from last night

Diane (after losing a hand): I don't know why I play this, I'm just retarded! Drew, maybe you and me someday alone in a dark place, you can tell me how to strategize this game
Diane: Karen do you wanna play? Go ahead, take my hand, I suck at this game anyway
Karen: No, I'll play tonight.. you guys are in a game.. Diane jeez don't take it so personal
Diane: I'm so stupid
Karen: You diss yourself too much Diane
Diane: I know
Big Brother: Diane, please go to the Diary Room

Another lockdown inside - most lay down to nap, but then it's another lockdown outside! They cuss and grumble, but find a new game.. they read the directions, bounce the balls awhile - having fun - then get to practicing.. Adria does best

All: It's like basketball! It's like dodgeball! It's like cornhole! It's like four-square!

It's another long lockdown.. Adria does laundry - nobody's speaking to her at all..
They practice, mope around.. finally inside to euchre, and a bridge of sorts is made

Diane (to Drew): Stop looking at me
Nik: You two sound like kids in the car.. 'he's looking at me'
Diane: That sounds just like my parents (laughs)
Diane (to Drew): Every time I throw something wrong, you make me feel dumb
Drew: I do?
(they win a hand)
Diane: It's fun when you win!
Adria: You still pissed off, Cowboy? Those shades worked you over didn't they? One shade too many
(they talk about toenails coming off, someone who cut their own toenail off)..
Diane: I did that in high school
Adria: You did that??
Diane: Yea, I had to
Adria: I couldn't do that

It doesn't last long though: Adria is back outside again, and talking to herself again..
mostly about being shunned.. it's unclear if she's talking to herself, or to us, or maybe she's just got talking withdrawals - but she talks a long time out there

Euchre goes on and on.. Marvin sends out a nice appetizer from the kitchen - Karen thanks & compliments him on it.. a quick game of Break Your Toe then they go in for dinner.. after a little while Cowboy goes out to tell Adria it's on the table

posted at TV Updates: She may have deserved the nom but not the treatment

Karen whispers to Nik about things she's noticed are missing from the house, and things she's heard Adria saying to herself about Diane.. Nik looks like it's all putting a hurt on her brain.. Diane comes in and they change the subject to Adria herself (without skipping a beat), that she must work for CBS.. it's a weird blend of right-on observations and paranoid ramblings

Karen: I heard her (Adria, about Diane) say 'every time somebody leaves, somebody else turns into the bad apple'

Then Diane stuffs her bikini bra..

Diane: Every time I dry it, the pa.. these tiny paddings come out
dingo: I said I don't want to rely on these things, but sometimes the feedmasters just give them to us

Fasten seat belts

Diane goes into the gym room to talk to Drew..

Diane: I just busted Nakomis for the third time today talking about something, then she looked surprised and changed the subject when I got there
Drew: I'm telling you, you and I have to spend less time together.. like today in the cloud room you said 'we're over here strategizing'
Diane: I have to say that (as a joke), otherwise they'll know when we whisper at night! We don't spend enough time together!
Drew: Okayyyy..
Diane: Sometimes you just have to listen to me
Drew: Last week I wanted something that you didn't, and I did what you wanted.. what is there to talk about?!
Diane: I'm not here to talk about us!! Every time I try to talk to you about the game, you make it about us!!

(she stomps out, then sticks her head back in the door)
Diane: You need to tell me what you want! I need you to not just sit around, I need you to verbalize it!
(she leaves again)
Drew (muttering under his breath): Fucking cunt!

more to come, but that's the gist of the day, plus the big payoff:
Diane's wail that came a few minutes later, which started off this episode:
"I'm having a 'Drew's getting on my nerves' day"

She only planted a couple seeds yesterday, but they produced a banner crop today. Diane's house of cards has crumbled a bit thanks to Adria, who realized Diane's (only?) vulnerability is her insecurity about her and Drew's relationship. Adria merely asked about it - pleasantly enough - but it was enough to inspire Diane to drive a wedge between them herself.. sweet! Diane often mentions her 'day of leprosy' - bitterly - but Adria's been given a solid week of it, and is handling it incredibly well.

Cowboy is the guy to follow on the feeds. Stick with him and you won't miss another pivotal event: he has a knack of showing up wherever something's going down. He's having such a good week it's easy to forget he's nominated - he isn't nervousing over it at all! And who didn't enjoy seeing the lovely April and Chasen on their phone call? Even Cowboy-haters have to begrudge him that.. one of the few genuine 'awww' moments of this season. Cowboy may be a lot of things, but it's now clear that his talk of being a devoted boyfriend and dad is not just talk.. it was wonderful to see.

She had it all going for her for a minute, til she let a couple simple questions rattle her cage. Now, when it counts, her insecurity about Drew is pulling her attention from her game even more, and her lies are starting to come back on her. She was finally busted on tv for a couple of them: in-house hamsters are one thing, but too many feeders have been believing she's said things that she didn't - merely because she said she said them. (sorry, that sentence needs a diagram!) Diane's cagey in more ways than one though - I'd say brilliant but I think she's running more on Diane-instinct than plan - and may yet stick til the end. Her specialty is defending herself, and if she's openly targeted she'll pull out all the stops (bring it awwwn!!) But I hope Julie has extra security if Diane does walk the plank to her boudoir.. she may just live up to all her tough talking threats if she gets evicted.

Upgraded to neutral for providing a pivotal moment, but I stand by everything I said yesterday. Even though he's finally starting to realize Diane may not be his best asset, and even though he talked back to her <gasp> it was so little, so late.. the best he could do confrontationally-speaking was silently cuss behind her back, and then have a chat with Adria (giving psycho-babblers everywhere a new buzzword: passive-assertive.) And still, our hormonally-challenged dweeb couldn't pass up his nightly kiss 'n cuddle - short as it was - he even shaved his famous pubes before bed in case he got lucky again.

All that floating Karen's done? All the trash-talk, raunch-talk, and crying? All the questions she asks everyone about their lives? It's all paying off: MILF is the least self-obsessed of them all, so she sees what's on everyone's horizon before they do. These keen observational skills are also giving her an edge in the 'parannoyed' side game of Somebody's Stealing Our Stuff.. which may also give her the edge in an upcoming competition? She really can draw, and she did a super job of boiling down the many words of their letter to Marcellas to a few.. something I need to work on.

I'm worried about Marvin. He knows something's up, but I can't tell if he knows what. He's too smart to let Diane's pinky swear promise lull him into complacency, but he's been so low-key lately it's disturbing, not to mention boring. Karen noticed (of course) and alerted the others, so they're all on guard now.. which is ironic, considering they thought they were plotting against him! I sure hope Marvin's on to everything and just not letting on.. we need him in there! It could just be that he doesn't play euchre.

Nik kept on instigating today in her small but irritating way, so much so that starry-eyed Diane is finally starting to notice. Nik's needling of her escalated to in-yer-face proportions just after Diane blew a fuse from her & Drew's flare-up: she was stomping around the cloud room and Nik said in a sarcastic, sing-song voice 'Diane has a heart attack'.. gutsy!! And very worthy of ups, but her badly misinformed take on the fetish scene (way back on August 18!!) airing across the nation tonight jerks her right back down to neutral. Also, it becomes a bit more clear each day that 'the smart one' is letting Karen do all her homework for her.

Tuesday was a great show! Having skipped Saturday, they had a lot to cram into an hour, and they did pretty well on that front. They've always shown Diane in a not-great light, highlighting her selfishness, but busting her on tv for the blatant lies she's been telling the others - and that feeders are believing! - was nice to see, and probably guarantees Diane won't take 1st place if she gets that far. If the beached hamsters get to see the aired shows. The ice block competition was just silly and the frenzied circus-on-acid music accompaniment worse than usual.. but Karen gave a wonderful veto speech: from the heart, not slick or stiffly rehearsed, and full of valid points that I bet she believes too.. even if giving back the power works to her advantage game-wise as a by-product.