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)

9/14/04 - Day 75 >> to the future >> dwell in the past >> latest

"Pictures are everything.. they say over 100 words, or more"

thanks to Sherri for providing Nik's stuffed cow, and to Aldav for Karen's 'Trust Me Diane'
and 'Stool Pigeon Cowboy'.. today's headline is another Cowboyism

Let me help you with that

Right around the time Cowboy helped Diane with a hair emergency, there was control room slippage again and we heard the three hamster leftovers talking with staff

I didn't see Cowboy come off, but apparently he was eliminated (almost immediately) for letting go of the ever-present symbolic key.. while Big Brother was still clarifying the rules to them

This quad shot by Amy's Bus Ticket posted at 7.01pm Pacific shows Cowboy's hand clearly on his key.. Syren at Reality TV World may be the only one who caught it come off for an instant, as the feeds were unwatchable for most of us.. Was it intentional in this 'throw the competition' season? Or was he hoping nobody noticed?? We may never know - either way, Diane was involved (surprise!)

A minute or two later all hands are on deck again, Diane's hair is fine, Cowboy's looking around and doing a "whew" sort of exhalation.. at the time I found it comical (was he wondering how long he could hold out?) but maybe he's hoping he got away with something.. Regardless, the rules were being clarified at the time, and why did it take 15-20 minutes for the authorities to make a ruling? All around, it smells a bit fishies to me

Diane: Oh my God I can't breathe!
Drew: What are the rules?
Big Brother: So, you guys will be holding on to these keys, and you will be..
(fishies)
Cowboy: Hey I got a question.. say if it shakes and somehow both our legs falls off the post, but we hold ourselves up, can we reposition ourselves if we don't touch the ground?
Big Brother: If you can manage that, sure..
Cowboy: And is the internet watching this?
Big Brother: Yep
(fishies)
(a few minutes pass with frozen feeds and RealPlayer 'communicating' messages)
Cowboy (still in it): It was good to see her smile.. it was hard to watch her crying at the table, but we've all had our weak moments, and there's nothing wrong with that.. that did not enter into my decision
(more feed problems - almost 20 minutes have passed since the hair-fix)
....
(around 7.17 to 7.20 Cowboy's down and pacing the yard)
Diane: I'm sooo sorry Cowboy.. why didn't you help me with my hair Drew??!!
....
(around 7.40 Drew & Diane agree Drew will step off and Diane will take this stage)
Diane: I don't care if I break his heart
Drew: Ok.. ready?
....
(a minute or two later, Diane reaches to cover more of her newly-enlarged backside with her too-small jeans and lets go.. Drew wins this stage about 45 minutes in)

Meanwhile, turning back time..

Any attempts to report the day in correct sequence are obviously out the window again (yea editors, I hear you snickering).. but what came before wasn't much

The final four struggle with boredom and impatience.. Nik & Diane are packed.. Diane applies her first layer of makeup for the live show

Drew: There are people out there who type out everything we say
Diane: I'm just weak, and frail today
....
Diane (inside bathroom): You guys only want to use the bathroom whenever I'm in here changing! Only!
Drew: Always in the way, Diane.. always in the way

The nominees chat in the green chairs, with an entirely different tone than last time they met here.. then it's everyone to their stations (Cowboy's asleep)

Diane: I never sat here for a live show, it's kinda weird!
Nik: Welcome to the club

Big Brother spins records in an attempt to pump them up, including Alicia Keys "If I Ain't Got You" and Beck's "Loser" (titles are mere coincidence I'm sure).. Diane adds a few more layers, and gives Drew a photo "to remember her by.. just in case.."

We get an eerie look into one possible future.. and so does Drew

Diane: Which earrings do you like better, these or these?
Drew: Probably those
Diane: These ones? Really? Not these?
Drew: They look nice
Diane: Well yea, you're probably right.. but these small ones..

On the treadmill, Drew takes some deep cleansing breaths and pep-talks himself.. then he studies, rattling off HOH winners, evictions, etc.. Cowboy's late for the study date but pitches in with a few corrections while he rolls on his roll-on

Drew: Love you Mom, love you Dad, love you Ben.. doing this for you..
Drew: <clap> Smokin' time!! <clap> Feel alive feel alive!! <clap>

Time! Drew has a final primp.. so does Diane, with Nik's assistance.. Cowboy's already in place, with his veto medallion (the "Precious")

Nik: Is that your 'I got into my jeans' walk?
Diane: Yea, but my ass crack shows in them
Diane: If only I had some bootleg jeans, then I'd be set
Diane: This blazer doesn't go with this like it should

Nakomis is gone with the fishies, and we meet the pricey endurance apparatus, ready to settle in for an all-nighter.. dramatic sky-cam zooming around.. no expense is spared.. it shakes.. you know the rest

Aftermath includes a fight, as usual.. Cowboy prepares cheese.. Diane cooks a towel

Drew: I don't trust you anymore, that was bullshit out there!
Diane: I knew you'd say that!
Drew: Whatever, it's all good
Diane: It's true! I swear on my sister's life, I swear on my sister's grave! She isn't dead but if she was I would!
Drew: If you say your foot fell off, your foot fell off.. I believe you
Diane: I can feel your karma!

The boys take apart the remnants of the pricey apparatus (against direct orders from Big Brother) and play ping pong, with shoe paddles.. Drew & Diane are back in the clouds for their nightly love/hate ritual - this time Diane feigns interest in a long story about Drew losing a college homework project.. the feedmasters feel our pain and give us the plasma screen bubbles on Feed 4 the rest of the night - thanks guys!

So long Nakomis, you'll be missed

You know how the feeds mess up sometimes and you get these chromakey blended effects? That's how this came about, almost a month ago.. it remains my favorite cap of Nakomis

The watercolor effect and the pose just seems
to capture her essence, and her colorfulness

She's definitely the most colorful of them this year with her tattoos, piercings, and in-your-face attitude.. her look changed frequently, but her demeanor was pretty constant - except when she felt betrayed, and that says more about her than anything.. she even quit smoking without a fuss

Nik was thrown in with people she probably wouldn't normally associate with - nor they with her - and she fit in with them as far as she wanted to.. She never pretended to be someone she isn't, and she made it to the milestone they all aim for at the beginning: Final Four

She gained a brother from this, whom she probably won't be close with but they'll likely stay in touch.. I think she got something more in her friendships with Will and especially with Karen

She cussed up a storm and fought hard in competitions - winning many - and she carted her cow and Garfield pillow back & forth from the clouds to HOH, reminding us that it hasn't been so very long since she was a little girl named Jennifer

I wasn't always kind to her, but I loved the kooky little things I'd find her doing, like sleeping with boxing gloves :) She was the resident weirdo (a compliment) and I love and respect how she went out.. I think she held herself back from us most of the time and that's ok: she doesn't owe us a thing

Ladies and gentlemen, your final three: Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod

In a few short minutes he cut the new family ties he was so proud of and likely secured himself the worst BB finishing position: third. He's going to give it all to the gruesome twosome and go home with no money, no actoring contract, and no free trip to Mexico. Or, he might get second, depending whose lies crumble harder, and then he can buy all the ground beef and why-whist-cherry sauce he can eat. Come to think of it, at the rate he's going he'll probably win it all through yet another series of cosmic jokes - the guy is still here! Ups potential for his creepy look when giving us a message are destroyed for lowering the endurance bar to an absurdly low level (even though that call may be suspect) but c'mon.. for fixing Diane's hair??

How much more can she give us? In the space of one hour: a tangled hair incident required enough assistance to get Cowboy eliminated almost as Julie said 'go'; Cowboy called her 'a friend' minutes before she said she doesn't care if she breaks his heart; she blew what little trust Drew may have had in her (along with a huge wad of the CBS budget) cuz her jeans were too small for her new figure and her butt was hanging out; and she responded to Drew's angry accusations that she broke (another) deal with 'I can feel your karma!' The ultra-entertaining Diane is back with us, yay! I think she keeps her juju in that bobbling top-knot 'do' of hers - it mesmerizes her victims into a trance, and that's when she gets them to agree to do her evil bidding.

The golden boy is solid brass and about as smarmy as they come. He has no sense of ethics whatsoever - which is fine in this game - but unlike the great BB liars of the past, this creep seems to believe he's still on moral highground and holier than Nik's jeans. The now constant 'I'm doing this for you' messages to his folks are likely causing their friends to make polite excuses and their credit rating to plummet.. you can almost hear his lawyer dad screaming at his RealPlayer 'Shaddup Drew! I make a good living!' Even if he wins this thing, he'll come out a loser: he's only gotten this far by hiding behind Diane, and now he's got Cowboy doing his homework for him too. Even with that, he's stuck in neutral like Fogerty's stuck in Lodi cuz it's so funny watching how fast he's shifting from cocky to confused to meek.. and that's just with Cowboy.

I bet the meetings at Shapiro/Grodner and CBS are tense this week: first Nik's explosion when (apparently) only interns were on duty, and now a fat budget chunk for quake simulations, hover-cam, and lovingly-crafted foam rocks prepared for the 9½ hour endurance girl all down the drain in about 40 minutes. We have a tie for out-of-context crimes on Tuesday's show: first up, Drew & Diane's pre-veto convo (in which he's grinning like a maniac) was presented as back-story to all the deals that led us here, and fodder for the romance subplot. The real story is that Drew was severely agitated at the time from a) Cowboy's having just confronted him about his six-fingered Jase Erase lie; b) Drew was hiding that from Diane while sliding into his interrogator role with her for yet another (innocent) convo of hers; and c) diary room was repeatedly beckoning Drew to report (likely about the dressing-down Cowboy had given him). Also, both Drew & Diane were irritated by Cowboy's incessant visits to their lovenest. No hint of any of this was given, letting viewers believe that Diane & Drew have emotionally-charged conversations routinely, like any other prime time couple. (It's not that I want to keep track of all these petty details, but this site has proved to be a handy reference for who's wearing what when.. that was fashion show night, and Drew didn't wear that too-tight green shirt for long: he'd made it clear he hated it.) The other outrageously out-of-context crime was in not giving any indication of the booze involved in Nik's meltdown: she was smashed. But to their credit, they didn't pretend the breakdown hadn't taken place, nor did they air any of the 'I can't believe what I'm seeing' portions which made up the bulk of the ordeal. It was presented tastefully, in a way that shouldn't haunt the normally-reserved girl or make her feel ashamed of letting her emotions get the best of her. (The sappy music was ridiculously over the top though.) All in all, another horrendous translation of what really goes on, pulled up to neutral only for their classy treatment of Nik's 'little thing' and cuz Julie seemed a little afraid of her in the boudoir kiss 'n cry.

'The Smart One' turned out to have perspective & ethics, and garnered respect for being herself. Overcame ratings-based emotional blackmail and proved that reality tv needs real people.

First out for playing well, but chameleon strategy is better defense than offense. Elevated the game with empathy, Oscar-caliber acting, and right-on-target rants. Most photogenic by far.