Survivor 42 Premiere

There are some more thoughts on the previous season to mention throughout this post. I did read some of other Survivor blogs and do understand more why Xander lost. He was kind of an ass. And I want to talk some more about their thoughts on some twists on the show. There isn’t much else that I can think of for this section right now.

 

Let’s get to the one time challenges from the fourteenth season. There were a lot of them in the end. I don’t think that there was that much of a theme to them, although one of them was clearly about Fijian culture which hasn’t reappeared throughout the whole series of the show despite having been in Fiji a record number of times now.

 

Chariots of Mire (opening challenge from Something Cruel is About to Happen… Real Soon): In this challenge, two players will pull the rest of the tribe on a chariot while grabbing hanging bags. As a man, I know that such a thing might hurt and be considered a crime. Wait. Not that type of bag. Anyways, after they grab a tribe flag, everyone uses the puzzle pieces in the bags to solve three puzzles. This will reveal a spinning wheel combination which would help them find a knife to chop a rope and raise a flag. This does not seem like it could be done while social distancing, although maybe parts of it could work that way, I don’t think that all of it could.

 

Supply Ships (challenge from Snakes are Misunderstood… We Have an Understanding now): In this challenge, the players have to get floating crates, pull them to shore, and empty them to solve a puzzle pole that must be put in its place with the tribe flag on top. I have no idea where they got the name from. While parts of how fandom describes the challenge doesn’t seem to make sense with the way that they phrased or wrote it, I think that an individual version of this could be done while social distancing. That’s what I can understand about it. I wonder if these challenges are on YouTube or not. I don’t think that I’d include links to them in this blog, but I’d still want to watch them.

 

Crab Pots (immunity challenge from Let’s Just Call Jeff on the Jeff Phone): In this challenge, the players have to be rescued by others in cages where they then row to shore to unlock the last player. Maybe this could be done while social distancing, but I’m not sure if it can be. If it were a relay race, maybe it would work in the end after all.

 

So You Think You Can Meke? (reward challenge from the episode of the same name): In this challenge, the tribes must first learn a traditional Fijian dance called a meke and then do it in front of three judges. Whoever gets the most right in different terms wins the challenge. I couldn’t find out much about how a meke is done on Wikipedia as in whether or not it can be done individually or without touching another person at all. Thus, I have no idea if this could be done while social distancing or not.

 

Torched (immunity challenge from Blackmail or Betrayal): In this challenge, it is like the board game Battleship where the contestants pick three squares in a row to represent themselves. They get to pick squares. If people are hit, they are revealed with a burst of fire. The last person with at least one square not picked in it wins the challenge. This could be done while social distancing.

 

Keep on Truckin (first part of the reward challenge from I Wanna See if I Can Make a Deal): In this challenge, contestants are harnessed together in teams of three. They must cross different sized seesaws in different orders without falling, crawl through a net maze, dig up a buried hatchet, unwrap it, and then chop through a rope. This could not be done while social distancing.

 

An Axe to Grind (second part of the reward challenge from I Wanna See if I Can Make a Deal): In this challenge, all contestants have to do is throw a hatchet at a wall to break two ropes that are in a crisscrossing position. This will get them to win the reward that’s unraveled. This could easily be done while social distancing.

 

Grapple Perch (immunity challenge from I Wanna See if I Can Make a Deal): In this challenge, players have to use a ball and rope to snag and lower a balance beam to move on to the next round. After this is over, they repeat the round a second time. The third round has them crossing a final beam, stand on a perch, and use a grappling hook to get a buoy to float. This could be done while social distancing.

 

Hanging by a Thread (final immunity challenge from You’ve Got That Puzzled Look): In this challenge, contestants must lie over a platform while holding onto a handle while water spills out and the angle by which they are hanging keeps increasing. This could easily be done while social distancing.

 

Now I don’t talk much about current events in this blog since they often don’t affect the show that much in the end. The pandemic was a notable exception. Well, I’ve decided that I want to post paragraphs in foreign languages by using google translate. I used to do various ones in my Madam Secretary blog before the show ended. I did do this for a while in my Good Fight blog. But there aren’t any posts on any episodes to do in my Good Fight blog for now.

 

There are a whole lot of languages that I could do in this blog and it will vary season by season. In fact, I’m going to start doing Chinese paragraphs in my posts on China to finish that out. For all of this season, though, I’m going to do paragraphs relating to the recent past in Ukrainian.

 

Незабаром розслідування Мюллера закінчилося численними арештами та засудженнями, але нікого з критиків Трампа це не хвилювало, тому що він ніколи не говорив, що Трамп розмовляв по телефону та зробив один із багатьох актів імпічменту, намагаючись вимагати Україну за перевага на президентських виборах 2020 року. Таким чином, цей параграф буде розміщено як російською, так і українською мовами. Це покаже вам, наскільки схожі ці мови. Я буду продовжувати публікувати відповідні речі російською, оскільки вони все ще будуть тут, щоб знову і знову втручатися у вибори в США, а республіканців це не хвилює, тому що вони виграють від цього і вважають, що все це брехня, оскільки вона ніколи не вказувала на Трампа в їхні думки, незважаючи на те, що Мюллер сказав, що це жодним чином не звільняє Трампа. Це також буде мій спосіб представити будь-які пости, пов’язані з Україною та скандалом, через який Трампу вперше оголосили імпічмент.

 

Movie update: I am putting updates about what movie that I watch from my movie watching lists here in the blog posts of this season. They were in the posts on China, but have left that forever with me doing the updates here. They will last here until either this season ends or the right thing winds up being watched at some point in the future.

 

Here’s the way that the lists stand up at this point in early 2022. Wednesday’s list is Aladdin, Celtic Woman: Destiny, Field of Dreams, Gran Torino, Pot O’ Gold, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Thursday’s list is Bella, crossover tape, The Devil Wears Prada, nature documentaries, The Rookie, and That Darn Cat. Saturday’s list is Crazy People, Dances with Wolves, Grumpier Old Men, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and Shrek. Sunday’s list is Bend it Like Beckham, Ghost Town, The Lion King 1 ½, Runaway Bride, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, and A Wrinkle in Time. It is Wednesday that I will talk about first in season 42’s posts.

 

Anyways, on Wednesday, I watched Celtic Woman: Destiny. I replaced that with Celtic Woman’s original concert. Now I last left people in this blog posted somewhere in Madam Secretary before stopping at the conclusion of Gabon’s posts. This is linked into the Celtic Woman: Destiny watch. The place where I left you in that blog was here:

 

http://adamdeckermadamsecretaryblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/episode-from-3-20-2016.html

 

On Thursday, I watched The Rookie. I replaced that with The Polar Express. On Saturday, I watched Shrek. I replaced that with Shrek 2. On Sunday, I had other plans with lunch so no movie for me. I do like supporting restaurants during this pandemic era. On Wednesday, I watched Celtic Woman’s original concert. I replaced it with Celtic Woman: A New Journey. On that next Thursday, I didn’t watch a movie so I could see a home video instead.

 

On Saturday, I watched The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I replaced that with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. On Sunday, I watched Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. I replaced that with Tower Heist. On Wednesday, I watched Field of Dreams. I don’t know if I’ll watch it again. It wasn’t bad, just uninteresting. I replaced that with Elf. On Thursday, I did not watch a movie.

 

On Saturday, I watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. I replaced that with Kingsman: The Secret Service. On Sunday, I had different plans for lunch so I didn’t see a movie. On Wednesday, I saw Gran Torino. I replaced that with Night at the Museum. On Thursday, I watched The Devil Wears Prada. I replaced that with Dumbo.

 

On Saturday, I watched Shrek 2. I replaced that with Pocahontas. On Sunday, I watched The Lion King 1 ½. I replaced that with Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue. On Wednesday, I watched Aladdin. I replaced that with Back to the Future. On Thursday, I watched The Polar Express. I replaced that with Raising Arizona. I was originally going to have other plans on Thursday, but that didn’t wind up happening. I was going to get my booster shot of Moderna, but that was moved to Monday instead.

 

On Saturday, I watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I replaced that with The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. On Sunday, I had lunch plans with family instead of doing anything with movies then. That was Sunday afternoon. I decided to create a Sunday night list for the moment.

 

What are the choices put on this list? They are The Little Rascals, Catch Me if You Can, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Rain Man, Despicable Me, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The one that I wound up rolling first was Catch Me if You Can. I replaced that with Copacabana. I will still finishing that movie on Monday, even though I didn’t want to be watching a movie then. On Tuesday, I was still too tired from the booster shot to want to watch another movie or so I decided. I would have been stuck with a scab list and didn’t want to risk being stuck with certain choices when I had other things that I wanted to be done. On Wednesday, I didn’t watch a movie, even though I could have made one work potentially. It didn’t that day.

 

On Thursday, I watched Bella. I replaced that with Absolute Power. On Friday, I had the potential to start a new list of movies, but one of them could have sucked too much time away, so I did other things with my time instead of watching a movie. On Saturday and Sunday afternoon, I was spending time with family and thus didn’t have time for movies then.

 

On Sunday night, I wasn’t watching the Super Bowl for various reasons at least at some points, but did decide to watch The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I replaced that with True to the Game. On Monday, I would not have had the time for a movie even if I wanted to. On Tuesday, watching a movie with a new list did not work out. On Wednesday, I watched Night at the Museum. I replaced that with Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. On Thursday, I watched The Ultimate Gift instead of something that was on my list of things to watch. While I was still finishing this movie on Friday, I still decided to start a new list on that day of the week. This makes six lists. I’ve never had that many at once before.

 

What are the new choices on this list? They are Blast from the Past, Monsters University, Air Force One, I am Sam, Toy Story, and Forrest Gump. The first thing that I rolled was Blast from the Past. I replaced that with Baby Geniuses. On Saturday, I watched Kingsman: The Secret Service. I replaced that with its sequel called The Golden Circle. On Sunday afternoon, there was no movie watched because of conflicting lunch plans. On Sunday night, I watched the Olympics closing ceremony instead of a movie. I might have had the chance to watch a movie on Monday from a scab list, but it didn’t work out.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Celtic Woman: A New Journey. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart. On Thursday, I watched Raising Arizona. This continued on Friday so no movie on Friday. I replaced it with The Return of Jafar.

 

On Saturday, I watched Pocahontas. I replaced it with A River Runs Through it. On Sunday afternoon, I watched Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue. I replaced that with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I did not watch a movie on Sunday night. That will actually be a regular thing. You might wonder, then, why I created that list. Well, it’s more for when it does work out than when it doesn’t, even though it won’t be used too much.

 

On Tuesday, I decided that it would be better to put Wednesday’s list now instead of keeping it on Wednesday. Thus, I watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. I replaced that with Invictus. On Thursday, I watched Dumbo. I replaced that with The Fugitive. On Friday, I watched Forrest Gump. I replaced that with The Great Race.

 

On Saturday, I watched Dances with Wolves. I replaced that with Front of the Class. On Sunday, I did not have time to watch movies from either of that day’s lists. On Monday, I decided that to free up time, I would want to put Thursday’s list on Monday instead of when it was. I then watched The Return of Jafar. I replaced that with The Omega Code. I didn’t have time for a movie on Tuesday. Which brings us to here, now. The updates will be weekly starting next post. That means that they shouldn’t cover this much time until either this season is over or the updates are removed from it.

 

Now I had mentioned at one point that I would talk about some more relating to last season. When I think about the beware idols, I believe that they could be better this season if people would just keep their mouths shut about it. I also think that some other bloggers are confused about the shot in the dark. Some people think that the odds would be affected after they are used. But it is more like an actual die being rolled. What they don’t seem to realize is that after someone uses a die, they would replace whatever positive or negative advantage was used for the next round. The only way that it would be different would be if more than one person played it during the same tribal council. But that would only ensure that one of the people there isn’t safe, unless we are at the point where there are two safe options in the game.

 

Also, I had mentioned some about the last season relating to the missionaries in Haiti that had been kidnapped at the time. The good news is that they have been released. I hope that nothing bad had happened to them while they were kidnapped.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/americas/haiti-missionaries-released-intl/index.html

 

As long as there are new spring seasons of Survivor airing, I will probably now be talking about March Madness in this blog for a while. With teams still unknown, I’m still planning on mentioning locations that I find important to cover for this blog. Note that the states from last year where I rooted for any team are largely still there. The only one that isn’t is Virginia. The other states of Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Washington, Oregon, California, New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, and New Mexico are all important ones that I’ll keep caring about for now. Also, here’s an update on the planned hosting locations of previous years versus the current one now.

 

Dayton, Ohio is hosting the first four. They always seem to do that. They always host, but only seem able to host just that part of it all the time. They were meant to host in 2020 and 2021. This gives them the place that they were wanting to hold previously and takes Dayton out of the potential teams to root for as a result of this.

 

While Indianapolis, Indiana wasn’t entirely screwed by hosting the sweet sixteen and elite eight in 2020, it did not matter for the city too much since they hosted the championship in 2021 and was the hub for the whole tournament that same year as well. This year, it will be hosting the first and second rounds of the tournament, getting back in it and also ensuring that like Dayton, they will never get special teams to root for as a result, although if Butler is in it, I’ll still root for them. That, and some other teams as well that I mentioned in one of the last Gabon posts.

 

Still haven’t hosted yet: Albany, New York; Spokane, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; Tampa, Florida; Greensboro, North Carolina; Omaha, Nebraska; Sacramento, California; Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; Houston, Texas; New York City, New York; and Atlanta, Georgia from 2020’s planned hosts and Providence, Rhode Island; Boise, Idaho; Detroit, Michigan; Dallas, Texas; Wichita, Kansas; Lexington, Kentucky; Raleigh, North Carolina; San Jose, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Denver, Colorado; Memphis, Tennessee; and Brooklyn, New York from 2021’s planned hosts.

 

While I will be talking about Lent some and Wednesday shows later in this blog, note that only one post of this season should be on a Thursday after all. The rest of them, such as this one, will all be normal in terms of how it is updated. I am annoyed again not be the fact that this is a two hour premiere, but by the fact that there was a lack of notice of this being a 2 hour episode in the promos themselves. I will make this complaint as often as I need to until this show finally learns note to do this. You can do a two hour episode. Just be sure to promote it as such. But enough of my ramblings.

 

In the first segment of the show, various contestants are seen. We see Jonathan and Drea. Lydia doesn’t like sand. It is coarse and gets everywhere. We get to the start of the roller coaster. Roller coaster. Roller coaster ride. Roller coaster. Ooh ooh ooh ooh. She dreams about being on Survivor. Mike is star struck by Jeff. Jeff is convinced that it will go away. Zach says something, but it was more lame than he was intending to be. The introductory challenge happens next. Daniel seems to be hurt at the challenge. There are people who get to the second stage and have to make a decision.

 

The three of them, one of them Hai, decide to help each other out and take an advantage. I do like that there is way of making it seem like there is good reason for them to be late. The other two on this are Drea and Lindsay. It is the blue tribe that wins. Daniel gets treated by medical and his shoulder gets fixed which will hopefully last. Mike doesn’t like the start of the game thus far.

 

In the second segment of the show, we see Ika, the blue tribe, arrive at camp. They all introduce each other. Swati is from the National Guard. That name makes her sound like she should be a shooter. Tori is a therapist lying about what she does by saying that she does something else instead. What is it about therapy and lying? People lie there. This makes me wonder, how does Tori lying about not being a therapist make you feel? I also think that she’s sort of like the character from Power Rangers: Ninja Storm. Also, is there really not a Mr. Universe? There should be beauty challenges for men too.

 

People on the green tribe learn of what to do. Mike doesn’t want to do heavy lifting. He convinces the tribe to figure out the triangle puzzle. Taku, the orange tribe, decided to try the triangle as well. The number turns out to be 51 which both tribes get right.

 

In the third segment of the show, Rocksroy doesn’t like the other members of his tribe doing their own thing by goofing off and doing the Survivor theme song. Well, someone has to do the Survivor theme song since the show won’t anymore. Meanwhile, the contestants from the second leg in the challenge go through what they have. They learn that they have an advantage armlet which gets more powerful as the others are played. Thus, they have to be careful when they play it. All three of them in the game are an extra vote. Just two is a steal a vote. And only one remaining is a full idol.

 

In the fourth segment of the show, Jackson comes out as trans to his tribe. He had originally applied as a woman before he transitioned. Lydia isn’t close to crying yet. Wait, isn’t she supposed to be a tattooed lady? Daniel likes everyone on his tribe. He also talks about his scar from surviving leukemia as a child. Zach wants to make an ally on his tribe. He bonds with Romeo. They are the skinny dudes. Tori thinks that people would believe her lie about not looking for an idol. Seriously? Maybe she was looking for food, but she realizes her mistake.

 

In the fifth segment of the show, Maryanne, Drea, and Jenny gather for the summit. One of them is familiar with prisoner’s dilemma. Jenny decides to protect her vote. That’s what I would do. The other two both risk their vote.

 

In the sixth segment of the show, Jeff arrives the orange tribe’s camp. He comes for Jackson. Jackson has been having some issues. Jackson didn’t disclose something to them until right before the game was about to start. He was on lithium. What does that even mean? I’m confused. I guess that I’ll ask my brother-in-law about it this weekend if I have a chance to. Jeff makes it seem like he won’t be able to play the game at all. This is very unusual. He can’t play the show without the medicine and they can’t give it to him for some reason. Is this like an ejection? I’m confused a bit.

 

In the seventh segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. If more was discussed about Jackson’s departure, it wasn’t seen in the episode. Jeff then introduces the shot in the dark die. The blue tribe loses the challenge and Zach feels responsible.

 

In the eighth segment of the show, Zach tries to own his mistake. Tori thinks that others think that she has an idol and says that she doesn’t. People think that she’s being paranoid. Rocksroy is brought up as a target. But it seems like it will be either Tori or Zach.

 

In the ninth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. Zach says what Jeff normally says about the first tribal council. Jeff talks about the difference between camping, watching the show, and actually playing it. Jeff asks about the shot in the dark. Swati would lose a finger to not be here. I think that Kathy from Micronesia was similarly minded in that way.

 

Tori says that she’s trustworthy and loyal, but Zach doesn’t think that she is being honest. Tori is convinced that she was looking for food. If that were the case, why didn’t she mention something more well known as food? Plus, we are long past the days of Borneo where someone would actually be looking for tapioca and not an idol. There weren’t idols back then. Zach decides to play his shot in the dark. He’s not safe. And he does get votes. He was right to think that he was in danger. He thinks that it was cool to be voted out of Survivor. Has that ever happened before?

 

On the next Survivor, the game is shifting, Mike is a target, and I can’t really get much else out of the promo as they are dumb with promos. Have I covered that in my TV blog yet? I hope so. Zach then becomes the first contestant to mention the Survivor Wiki or fandom as it is now known on the show. I wonder if he’s an editor of it.

 

Total confessional count: Rocksroy- 1, Lindsay- 1, Romeo- 2, Jackson- 2, Hai- 1, Swati- 1, Chanelle- 1, Jenny- 1, Tori- 2, Lydia- 2, Maryanne- 3, Marya- 2, Daniel- 2, Mike- 2, Drea- 3, Zach- 3, Jonathan- 2, Omar- 3.

 

While I know that I missed some confessionals, it is worth noting that the highest of those that now remain in the game are Omar, Maryanne, and Drea. I hope that I don’t get confused too much between Marya and Maryanne. I might have to change the order that I have of them right now. It is also worth noting that I plan to post each month’s planned blog posts until at least August until I know for sure when the premiere of at least Survivor is if not CSI: Vegas as well.

 

Planned April blog posts

 

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Not April	Not April	Not April	Not April	Not April	1: The Good Wife	2: TV
3: CSI: Cyber	4: Elementary	5: Madam Secretary	6: Survivor (maybe)	7: The Good Fight (maybe)	8: The Good Wife	9: TV
10: Survivor (maybe)	11: freebie	12: Survivor (maybe)	13: Survivor (maybe)	14: freebie	15: Survivor (maybe)	16: TV
17: Survivor (maybe)	18: Madam Secretary	19: Survivor (maybe)	20: Survivor (maybe)	21: freebie	22: Survivor (maybe)	23: TV
24: Survivor (maybe)	25: Madam Secretary	26: Survivor (maybe)	27: Survivor (maybe)	28: freebie	29: Survivor (maybe)	30: TV

 

All of the posts sans for one will actually be on Wednesdays during Lent this year instead of the usual Thursday lateness that I’m sure that you are used to. I’ll explain more in that post when I’m late that day and I’ll try to warn you the week before. Also, in case there is any confusion about it, in the event that this blog has a current season post delayed past when it normally should be updated and this probably happens again, I would be able to use the same one that I used before to not risk bumping back the potential posting of other old seasons to after this season is done being covered in this blog. I hope that what I just said makes sense.

 

For instance, if a post of this season winds up on a Friday, I can still do a post of this on other Fridays until this season is over instead of posting any next delayed ones until Sunday or even Tuesday. Now with there not being any CSI: Vegas to post instead of this blog, it should be way less likely that I fail to get this done in time. Well, that’s the hope now, anyways. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Taskmaster

As we continue with the new twists and ways of doing Survivor, there has been something that the most very recent seasons have been doing. This started from Edge of Extinction onward. There has been some sort of twist that can affect a player or a group of players, if not all of them.

This is what I was getting at in one of my posts when I was implying that reward challenges were going away so that these various tasks or whatever can be done instead. They have some people doing a twist of some sort that relates to a task that needs done.

It was in Ghost Island that this was sort of done and horribly done with the people at the island doing the dumb game of chance for an advantage or, even dumber: getting nothing at all for no good reason. But after what seemed like it should have been a fluke of a onetime event, the producers decided instead to fine tune what didn’t work into things that also didn’t work as well, but could get more of the fans talking and more of the players involved in this.

With Edge of Extinction, there was enough going on there the first time that affected the people not in the game with the weird twists and stuff. Then, it Island of the Idols, you saw a lot more of people doing stuff there that could affect the game. It went really crazy when they had Edge of Extinction combined with the fire tokens. People competed for more fire tokens and more stuff kept happening that had an effect on the game that largely related to doing tasks. Now, we even have the summit where people even know how to help others in the game through the twist there.

I’m honestly not sure what else there is to add or say about this. Note that I will not have most of the new Survivor season on Thursdays after all in the posts since my church will have an earlier Lenten service that will not affect watching Survivor and is one that I can go to. This will be the last post of the hiatus so stay tuned because next week, I should be back the premiere of the new season of Survivor. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Reasons Why I’m Probably Never Watching Foreign Seasons of Survivor

It is a bit confusing for me to hear (or, more accurately, read) different Survivor bloggers talking about foreign seasons of the show. I have done some research or have some other knowledge of a little bit of some of what has been done on other Survivor seasons outside of the US version. As you can tell from the title of this post, I’m probably never watching foreign seasons of Survivor. Here are the reasons why, in no particular order.

Reason one: I don’t know how I’d do this. I’m guessing that there could be ways to do this. I mean, there obviously would have to be ways for people in the US to see non-US versions of Survivor. Based on some sort of lawsuit that I don’t understand, there will never be foreign seasons airing in the US.

Reason two: I’m not sure that I could legally see it. While I plan to possibly do a post on the ethics of watching bootleg shows, if the only way I could see foreign seasons of Survivor is breaking the law, then I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to especially if I have to spend money to do it.

Reason three: I do not have the time for watching any foreign season of the show. While this might have been true at some point in my life, there is no way that I have time for this. I blog too much. I have a full time job. I need way more sleep then I’m getting.

Reason four: I have no idea how I’d work out something like this into this blog of mine. I already have some issues trying to keep up with the current season, whatever past seasons I care about watching at the time, and the random posts that I also care about during the offseason of the show. It just would be way more tedious than I already have to deal with.

Reason five: I don’t currently want to see any of the foreign seasons of Survivor that exist. I’m just not interested in this. I could care more about it, but I don’t. And this is the most important reason that I can think of as to why I wouldn’t want to spend my time doing that. 

And there you have it. Those are the reasons why I wouldn’t want to keep track of foreign seasons of the show right now. I have nothing against them by any means. Indeed, if there wasn’t a Swedish version, then there wouldn’t have been a US version. But I think that it’s fine for me to just let it be its own thing and ignore them. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Which Comes First: Koah Rong or Cambodia?

Now that we are getting rid of names for Survivor seasons and simply replacing them with numbers instead, this makes me wonder, what comes first? Does Kaoh Rong come first? Or does Cambodia come first? This may sound like a dumb question, but there was something different about these two seasons when it comes to the numbering of Survivor seasons. 

We know that Cambodia aired first, but Koah Rong was filmed first. This is where the confusion comes from that causes this post to exist. Was Cambodia really the 31^st season? Or was Kaoh Rong? You’d think that the only thing that makes sense is to just stick with the existing numbering. We should just ignore the fact that they were filmed out of order and just count how they aired. I doubt that they will ever air seasons out of order again. So even if Koah Rong was sort of first, it won’t ever count as that. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Loose Lips Sink Ships

It seems like secret keeping in Survivor isn’t something that has happened for several seasons now. Since at least Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers, we have seen contestants blab their secrets to others who then blab that to others. And this is so common that by now, people should know better. I mean, they really should.

The title of this post is from an expression out of World War II. You weren’t supposed to tell people about where family of yours was stationed or they could easily wind up dead with their location known by the enemy who could be spies in this very country.

This relates to Survivor because any secret told by one to another is certain to be known by three people in the end. You should be able to do the math and figure out that there are issues with that as you won’t even know who this third person will be or if they will be part of your alliance or a different one.

While some have complained about the beware advantage and how it was common knowledge, it would not have been if this wasn’t openly revealed at a tribal council after the merge to all of the other players still in the game. We’ll have to see if the secret can be better kept this time around to see if the idols will fall apart. Only the three people on the three different tribes should have known what was going on. But even before that tribal council where the secret was revealed to everyone who didn’t know, at least every player on one of the tribes knew and more than three people knew.

You do have to wonder if this could be its own theme for a season. Survivor: Secret Island. With the new twist in the game, you can learn secrets about other players, but then you’d risk yours being revealed if you were to do that. Is the truth bomb worth its risk of bouncing back and biting you in the butt? They might not do that since after 40 seasons of names, they gave up and just did numbers. In fact, I might have to do a post on how numbering could be affected.

That’s all that I can think of since I can apparently pull out a random post when I can want to get it done if I have to. I am working on something that isn’t too potentially long and might not get done during this hiatus because of how much research I have to put into it. You’ll have to wait and see what it is. I’m lucky that I even know where to find the info for it. Just know that I should keep coming back until the show returns. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Animal Imagery

An import part of Survivor can often be overlooked or at least not focused upon by other bloggers as much. But I notice that they like to use animal imagery a lot. It is randomly inserted places and like a bunch of random things that the Canadian Lad can tell you about the MCU on YouTube, it often always means something important.

The best example that I can think of this in the show’s history would have to be in Pearl Islands. As a scene was going on, we kept seeing one animal slowly eat another one. I knew based on that imagery that Rupert would be voted out that episode and he was.

This is still seen a lot in Survivor. In fact, it could be the original television Easter egg predating anything in the MCU or most other Easter eggs. Maybe the editors of Survivor owe this phenomenon to others, if I’m phrasing that correctly at all.

Keep an eye out for such things. I know that I still do. Since I’ll be blogging about the first season again, I should make sure that I know what might be the first example of this. You have to figure out what it is and what it means. I don’t think that they include red herrings when they do this. So it’s important to keep an eye out for it to get what the editors are hinting at as we know that it has to be important in some way. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: China episode 10: It’s Been Real and It’s Been Fun

There are ways that I have and continue to have to rig old seasons to be watched from time to time if and when it works out. That’s one of the reasons that the dates that this happens is good for me when it does happen. I’m not rigging anything for Blood versus Water yet due to complicated rules and reasons. But there are two reasons why I would want to make sure that I post about an old season again.

 

One would be a Survivor contestant birthday rule. You see, I’m friends with a lot of Survivor contestants on facebook, although I wouldn’t be surprised if any of them aren’t actually the person they claim to be. For instance, there seems to be multiple Danielles (originally from Panama) that are on facebook. But the point currently is that if I’m able to wish them a happy birthday when blogging about their season or seasons, then I will mention that in the wish and then share the most recent post on that season that I’ve done, meaning that I must now do another new post as soon as I can.

 

The other thing would relate to various updates with the movie watching lists that I have. To ensure that some can happen and there be some update, I will post that. Whether this means transferring it from one season of this blog to another, doing this because a year ended, making sure that I can start a new series of old blog posts to share in this one due to the right thing being watched, or anything like that, I would post about it in a blog post if possible.

 

One should note that this is a recap special. They haven’t done one of these since South Pacific. It’s fine that they don’t do it. It does affect my blog at times, especially if I was switching back and forth between two different blogs, at which point I give up one of them to just finish off the other.

 

I’ve talked about a lot of shows in the past season that I had watched at certain times together. I am going to mention one last one now. When I started my full time job and still had to finish my part time job until they had a replacement for me, this affected the shows from Mondays from early 2021 that I was watching. The good part was that Black Lightning’s final season from the CW had not started until the end of that job so I didn’t miss any of it and could just watch it live when I could. The other shows that I watched then at the time were All Rise from CBS, Bull from CBS, 9-1-1 from FOX, 9-1-1: Lone Star from FOX, and The Good Doctor from ABC. I could have cared about The Weakest Link on NBC, but didn’t at the time.

 

Let’s get to idols from Winners at War part 5. Note that Natalie bought an idol before the first reentry duel and was still able to use it after winning the second one and was able to help vote out Denise as a result of this idol use. I despise late in the game idols more than any other twist including the new final four twist that we’ve been stuck with since Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers. I’m glad that they did not do that in season 41 and hope that it never happens again. Don’t put a new idol in the finale. Even though it might not have actually happened to a player that got back in the game, it is still a huge issue that can cause too much to go wrong.

 

Now getting to the challenges that start with the letter o from Survivor, there’s a good chunk of them in the game. I forget if this is something that I rolled for out of other choices or not. But just know that these will now be covered. This does not include something that might have been on just 41 and one other season that wouldn’t have had a page at the time.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/O-Black_Water

 

In this challenge, the contestants have to cross a course one at a time and then get a grappling hook to then get all their rings and win. This challenge could maybe be done while social distancing, especially if turned into a relay race where each person did just one task at hand. It looks like that is how we even have the challenge designed in the first place.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Odd_Shaped_Bottoms

 

In this challenge, contestants have to race across a ladder with puzzle blocks and solve the puzzle at the end. I do not believe that this challenge could be done while social distancing, unless it was just an individual challenge and not a team one.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Operation_Balance_Build

 

In this challenge, contestants have to maneuver bowls through a medal structure on a spring and either stack them all first or have the most stacked by the end of the time limit. This challenge could easily be done while social distancing.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Out_on_a_Limb_(challenge)

 

This is also known as compass ropes, tarantula, lei of the land, rise to it, temple of the dog, giant tick, and slide on. In it, contestants have to get items to a central location in a giant spider web course and sometimes solve a puzzle. I do not see how this challenge could be done while social distancing, unless contestants did it one at a time. Of course, that would defeat the race aspect of it and thus wouldn’t work, meaning that it can’t be done that way.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Over-Extended

 

This is also known as With a 10 foot pole, ten foot pole, and audio slave. In this challenge, contestants have to balance an idol on a pole. This could be done while social distancing. The line, with a 10 foot pole, seems to be taken from the song, You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch. That means that I will share that song in this blog when it is December again.

 

Now setting up a link from my Elementary blog, I mention a Sandman video or Enter Sandman song. I also talk some about the once obsolete what replaced what thing that I did regarding CBS shows and other networks. It was gone in 2020 because of the pandemic. Now, I’ve brought it back. I reference the Popeye movie by bringing up the up to no good tax. I also reference the Bourne franchise.

 

http://adamdeckerelementarytvshow.blogspot.com/2018/07/july-2nd-2018s-episode.html

 

As stated before, I will not doing these blog posts from Elementary for a while. Well, I’ll still be doing the cast updates in them. But I won’t be sharing links from old episodes in this blog for a while. I do plan to watch the movie True to the Game again this year. This means that you might see that show again from this place that I leave you hear this season.

 

Now I have a lot of videos to share that relate to things that are recent enough and make enough sense to me. I was switching between animal songs and other animal related videos. I’m going to share the Elton John song Crocodile Rock next. I think that I went with The Muppet Show version of it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8gowZkMGAM

 

Next, I’m getting to the Metallica song Enter Sandman. It is a fun rock song that I might only know because my brother had it on his phone’s special playlist and we listened to it while travelling a long way for Thanksgiving. I am glad that I got to know it.

 

SEIZURE WARNING! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD-E-LDc384

 

Now I’m sharing a song called More than a Feeling which might relate to a challenge name or maybe had sounded like a similar thing to something already shared before. I sadly can’t always remember why I wanted to share something, but here it is nonetheless.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSism86Y4bk

 

My last song for this blog post is the Grateful Dead song Shakedown Street. I think that it was a name that was possibly used as an alternate name for a challenge as I don’t think that I covered the letter s yet in the challenge title names. But I do like this song enough to share it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_T2_XSYcQM

 

Movie update: On Wednesday, I watched Popeye. I replaced that with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. On Thursday, I chose not to watch a movie. On Saturday and Sunday, I was with family over the weekend. On Monday, I also chose not to watch a movie.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Forest Gump. I replaced that with The Fighting Temptations. On Thursday, I did not watch a movie once again. On Saturday, I watched Run Fatboy Run. I replaced that with Shrek. On Sunday, I was busy with lunch so I didn’t watch a movie. On Monday, I watched Invictus. I was still finishing that on Tuesday. I replaced that with Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I’m going to try to watch my Monday movies during the month of October as the last thing on the crossover tape is Halloween related. That’s part of the reason why I ignored it other times that weren’t Labor Day.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Adventures in Babysitting. I replaced that with Aladdin. On Thursday, I once again did not watch a movie. On Saturday, I watched A Few Good Men. I replaced that with Grumpier Old Men. I don’t have the original in the collection. I just have that, the sequel. On Sunday, I was busy once again with lunch so I didn’t have time for a movie as a result. On Monday, I was not able to watch a movie this time around. On Wednesday, I chose not to watch a movie.

 

On Thursday, I watched The Muppets Take Manhattan. That was quite the news story, wasn’t it? lol. I replaced that with The Devil Wears Prada. On Saturday, I watched Dumbo. I replaced that with Dances with Wolves. On Sunday, I watched Stuart Little. I finished it on Monday so no movie on Monday. I had tried to count a Monday choice, but this didn’t happen. I don’t expect that to make sense. I replaced Stuart Little with Turbo: A Power Rangers movie. On Wednesday, I did not watch a movie. I also was busy with family visits so I didn’t watch one on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, even though I might have had time that last day. Ultimately, I wound up stuck with certain choices.

 

Now it’s time for a quick break from the movie watching that I’m doing for an update on TV shows on DVD that I watch. This is remembering that I’m posting on the second list of things that I have. There is also a potential change that I plan to get to in another post. Basically, NCIS graduated to the main list so it will be NCIS: Los Angeles occupying its sole place on this list. It also freezes Parks and Recreation on this list and puts Power Rangers back in its place.

 

On Wednesday, I watched The Fighting Temptations. I was still watching it on Thursday so I didn’t have a chance to watch any other movie then. I replaced that with Field of Dreams. On Saturday and Sunday, there were family visits that prevented me from watching movies. On Monday, I watched Front of the Class. What an appropriate thing to see since the actor from that movie is also on a show that airs on Mondays. Anyways, I replaced that with nothing as there was nothing that I could replace it with.

 

This means that I will have to dissolve Monday’s list into the others. The five remaining choices on that list in the order that they will be moved to the four others are crossover tape, The Hobbit series, Beauty and the Beast, Pot O’ Gold, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Believe instead of anything from Monday’s old list as I have to go with the next choice in a series should there be more in a series to watch. On Thursday, I did not have time based on what I was doing to watch a movie. On Saturday, I watched One Night with the King. I replaced that with The Hobbit from the list on Monday since the oldest Monday choice was a c choice which I already have on the Saturday list right now. On Sunday, I watched no movie as I was busy with family that day.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Celtic Woman: Believe. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Destiny. On Thursday, I watched one of my four nature documentaries, this one on South Africa. I did not replace it as there are three other ones to watch. On Saturday and Sunday, I was busy spending time with family again so I did not have time to watch movies then.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Toy Story 4 with commentary. I replaced that with Beauty and the Beast from Monday’s list. On Thursday, I watched The Omega Code 2. I replaced that with crossover tape from Monday’s list. On Saturday and Sunday, I was busy spending time with family once again and didn’t have time for any movies as a result.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Beauty and the Beast. I replaced that with Pot O’ Gold from Monday’s list. On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving, so I didn’t have time for a movie then as a result. On Saturday, I watched part of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I did not return to it until Sunday, but not the Sunday right after it, the next one after that. I did finish that movie then. I then took a break from the main movie watching lists that I do in order to see Christmas movies and specials.

 

Not surprisingly, with less time for Christmas stuff since I had to finish this movie and didn’t want to put off finishing it until 2022, I did not finish all of the Christmas watching that I wanted to do. I think that there might have been five times where I could have watched something in terms of movies that had related to Christmas, but this might not have been the case. I know for sure that there were three of them and two of them was because I wasn’t done with The Hobbit. I didn’t that Saturday so I could focus on a blog post and not watch anything. That Sunday was spent finishing that movie. At least once, I didn’t watch anything due to seeing a Christmas TV movie for a different blog.

 

I didn’t even attempt to watch some of the choices that I could have, but still decided that I will want to add at least two Christmas movies to my list of things to watch sometime this year. If I’m not able to watch them before the pre Christmas season where they start airing Christmas commercials and do other Christmas things too soon, then I’ll just have to wait to see them until December as usual.

 

There are a lot of potential complications and issues with the movie watching lists as I start the year of 2022 out. I won’t even be keeping the updates of that in this season’s blog posts as I will be moving them to a different season in this same blog.

 

On Saturday of the start of the New Year, I watched Eclipse in America and replaced it with the last choice from Monday’s list, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. This officially leaves me with just four lists to start the year 2022 with. I will probably be adding at least one more. But not yet.

 

On Sunday, I watched The Lion King. I replaced that with The Lion King 1 ½. On Wednesday, I watched something that will be explained elsewhere. I am moving these movie updates to my posts on Survivor 42. You’ll learn more there. I want to move the posts to newer season episodes, having missed my chance to do that with seasons 40 and 41. While there will be the potential to move this to posts on the first season, this might happen later and I have to take advantage of moving it to where I want to now or I might not get the chance to move it there at all, which can cause other issues.

 

Here’s the way that the lists stand up at this point in early 2022. Wednesday’s list is Aladdin, Celtic Woman: Destiny, Field of Dreams, Gran Torino, Pot O’ Gold, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Thursday’s list is Bella, crossover tape, The Devil Wears Prada, nature documentaries, The Rookie, and That Darn Cat. Saturday’s list is Crazy People, Dances with Wolves, Grumpier Old Men, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and Shrek. Sunday’s list is Bend it Like Beckham, Ghost Town, The Lion King 1 ½, Runaway Bride, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, and A Wrinkle in Time. It is Wednesday that I will talk about first in season 42’s posts.

 

It was on 1-18-2022, a Tuesday, that I rolled and watched this episode again. Well, I didn’t roll it. I rigged the roll as usual. But I will tell you if I ever don’t rig it in the event that I do. I will talk more about the whole roll thing in relation to the shot in the dark in my first blog post on Survivor 42. But let’s get to the episode in question now.

 

We begin with a closer look at the final seven. Courtney thinks that her not being strong is actually her strength. All of the final seven get a new confessional. They call James and his two idols invincible. Are they being serious, bro? They know what happen with that.

 

There was a grueling start climbing up a bunch of stairs. Ashley thought that her outfit was too short and so did others. Leslie thought that the welcoming ceremony was too much like worship. Todd wants to put the leadership role on Aaron instead of himself. Erik and those on Zhan Hu will eat anything that they can find there since they are that hungry. Ashley thinks that this all is disgusting. There was a lot of different food that they ate such as frogs, worms, leaves, root, and spoiled rice. Some of them wonder if some things are poisonous. I have the feeling that production wouldn’t let them eat it if it were.

 

James criticizes Aaron’s poor leadership since he’s laying around doing nothing. James criticizes a whole lot and seems to always be complaining. Frosti and others react to their tribe, Zhan Hu, getting flooded some with Erik helping devise a plan to fix it. Dave talks about how the water has worked. We also learn again about what happened with the idol.

 

Aaron says the name of the episode, saying that it wasn’t fun being the leader. He gives this up only to just instantly boss people around. Dave has a lot of sleep deprivation going on. He also doesn’t want to eat before a challenge and is responsible for the loss. But he still isn’t voted out that night.

 

Leslie dumped the bait, annoyed at the flies on it. Denise thinks that this is stupid. James thinks that without food, they would die. Jean-Robert complains about Todd. Courtney mentions this and this leads to a confrontation between Todd and Jean-Robert. Later, Dave gets upset when it seems that Sherea would get rid of shells that he was saving. Later, Todd does impressions of Jean-Robert and then does other impressions as well. Courtney does this as well.

 

Frosti is blackmailed by Amanda and Todd to ensure that he stays with them. We don’t see Frosti’s perspective in this. But we do know that he was loyal to a fault. When James notices that people have a fake idol, he gets a bit Machiavellian about it. At the merge feast, Jamie talks about how much she likes the drinking far into the night. They even sing a lot, these people. Well, the drunk ones, at least.

 

James talks about how all he ever does is work and that’s all that he likes to do as well. He thinks that he is holding everyone together. But he is shown having issues with first Jean-Robert and then Peih-Gee. Peih-Gee wants to apologize to James, but he doesn’t accept this at all.

 

We return to the still unresolved cliffhanger from the previous episode as we learn more about what will be going on. What will happen with James and his idols? On the next Survivor, we get to more of the reward or whatever is happening right after tribal council and then it seems like Amanda is going to turn on her allies and work with Peih-Gee. We end with a segment of Courtney talking about other people, some of them still in the game.

 

Total confessional count: Amanda- 18, Courtney- 19, Todd- 35, Jamie- 21, Peih-Gee- 19, Denise- 14, Aaron- 8, Frosti- 16, Jean-Robert- 16, Chicken- 4, Leslie- 15, Dave- 12, Sherea- 12, Erik- 16, Ashley- 7, James- 28. New confessionals this episode: Courtney- 5, Todd- 8, Jamie- 4, Peih-Gee- 2, Denise- 4, Aaron- 0, Frosti- 2, Jean-Robert- 1, Chicken- 0, Leslie- 2, Dave- 2, Sherea- 1, Erik- 6, Ashley- 2, James- 7, Amanda- 2.

 

There isn’t too much else to talk about as I close out this blog post. I need to remember to underline the name of the person who is voted out in each episode. I might talk about how I spoil what has already happened that we know has happened elsewhere as well. I also have no idea just how confusing and potentially off the count is now due to any potential repeat ones in this episode.

 

Also note that in case there was any confusion about this that if there aren’t new episodes of Survivor on the air, if you see me blog about one and I could potentially get it done the same day of the week the next week, then I will not be posting that next Wednesday doing a random blog post. People who stuck with this blog during the long hiatus would know this. It is part of the plan and not something that I just didn’t get done on time and decided against doing at all. I just want to take the week off in a way. It is normal and might not happen that much. Keep that in mind as this post is incomplete once again for the challenge at tribal council. To be continued… again…