joeware - never stop exploring... :)

Yes, any frequent reader knows I am sort of a reality TV buff, well at least I like most of the shows. I didn’t watch Amazing Race this year, last year’s just made me tell my media center to ignore it. Also I didn’t watch Surreal Life until just recently when for some reason I found it interesting. I guess it is just Survivor and the Apprentice that I like… Oh and the Dance show, something like “You think you can dance” or whatever. That was a hoot. The one show that I know for sure I wouldn’t haven’t a chance in the world of even making it to any part of the show with the cameras.

Survivor is one reality show I always watch. I love that show, I think about survival stuff on a regular basis anyway (like if civilization was gone tomorrow, what would I do, where would I get food, where would I get water?). So of course I often wonder how I would do on that show. I expect I would either be voted off first or make it towards the end. It would probably depend on my mood at the beginning. If I were in make everyone laugh and have a good time and take care of folks mood I would do well. If I was in my “you are all boobs” mood, I would be gone before the first vote as someone would probably try to take the machete to me.

Every time Survivor has their auditions I think… hmmmm…. but then I read about how the last batch came back and had 15 different parasites and odd diseases and I think, do I really dislike myself that much and do I really need to prove myself? Doing something like that isn’t going to change the minds of anyone I care about about who or what I am and I am not looking to be famous and don’t need a platform to launch myself from… Living off the land and being in the wilderness for over a month doesn’t phase me. Being mostly solitary for that long doesn’t phase me, I would bring an unabridged dictionary or book on learning spanish or chinese or japanse and just read or I would use the time for a lot of thinking. Being stuck dealing with a really annoying or stupid person phases me a little. While I am around electronics all the time now, I could easily walk away from it if need be. The worst part would be losing touch with a few folks that I only can communicate with this way.

So anyway….  

Danielle Dilorenzo, unfortunately, didn’t have a chance to win against Aras nor Terry. That kind of sucked for her but I thought that was relatively clear even when down to the last 6 or so. She shouldn’t feel bad about it, she tried hard and got a long way, she just didn’t have enough umph to get past Terry nor Aras. On the positive side though, I picked her fairly early on as one of the people I would like to see do well. Some of the folks were extremely annoying and she really wasn’t which floats people to the top in my book. :) I think she was silly on a couple of occasions but mostly I think she made a couple of good moves at the right times that put her in a position to be at the end. Unfortunately, the laying low which I think was definitely part of her strategy kind of hurt her at the end. I think that being pretty didn’t hurt her chances of staying around either, plus I am sure the Survivor editors were quite thrilled too. If she wants it, I expect she can have a decent 15 minutes of fame or if she really wants I think she has the look and personality to stick around the public eye like Elizabeth did.

I was glad Danielle beat out Cirie. I liked Cirie but liked Danielle better. When I watch survivor I visualize these folks truly having to survive in the wild without cameras and med folks and people making sure they are ultimately safe. Cirie towards the end might be able to survive, Cirie at the beginning wouldn’t have. Had it been about making the strongest team instead of angling for who was going to be at the end of the game she would have been killed and eaten early on. The ability to manipulate people does not make you strong.

Terry was amazing. I wasn’t surprised at how well he did though. I worked with a former military jet fighter pilot myself and he was one of the most levelheaded calmest coolest people I know and extremely intelligent and rational and realistic. If out in the a real survival situation, I would have teamed up with Terry right off. I don’t think I can recall a single time where he screwed anyone over or didn’t play with the utmost respect for others. Obviously, you see what the editors want you to see. Look at Rupert in previous seasons, one show they make him look one way, the next they make him look entirely another way. However, again, my friend Jeff reminds me very much of Terry and I wonder if the stuff the fighter pilots go through whittles the candidates who make it down to that quality or somehow hones them to be like that once they are in the program.

Aras is a good kid, but still quite a kid. He started out with his Yoga chants and the world is all peace and love and then when the going got tough the veneer was stripped quite quickly and he became downright rude and crude. His parents should record all of the episodes and give them to him to play back constantly so he can see that. Either he knows the yoga stuff is an act or he will be quite surprised.

I thought Bruce was great, I wish he could have gone further. I loved his rock garden and probably would have done something similar as I love rock gardens too, they are extremely relaxing. I was blown away by his artistic talent.

Shane was a madman. He actually reminds me of a guy I used to work with who is in MCS. Crazy hair, crazy guy. Anyone who knows the MCS folks I have worked with reading this will know exactly who I am talking about. When he was using a piece of driftwood as a Blackberry I about fell over laughing.

Who else sticks out in my head… Oh Courtney. She was actually insane I think. Ok, maybe not clinically insane but she sees a very different world from everyone else. Had she taken a machete to the whole tribe one night after being told she was annoying by everyone I would not have been surprised in the least. If on an island with her, I would have learned how to sleep with one eye open.