Welcome to My Mind

I will never claim to be the authority on what constitutes a good or a bad Christmas movie. However, I do consider myself a connoisseur of sorts. I love Christmas and everything that comes with the season, especially the movies and specials. I also know that people have strong opinions about which Christmas movies they consider to be the best. I happen to be one of those people. I try to keep an open mind with every Christmas movie, but I have clear allegiances to a select few, which I'm not ashamed to admit. I've tried to watch as many movies as I can from different periods. Naturally, my list will skew a little on the newer side since I was born in the late 90s.  Initially, I was going to make this exclusive to movies, but there were a few specials that I felt needed to be recognized. There aren't many of them, but enough for me to include. I'm excluding television series or singular episodes from shows because then it would become a little too niche. I prefer a full ...

For three years now, I've looked forward to Big Brother season. While I'm a little late to the party compared to others, my enthusiasm is always sky-high when the season begins. With the writers on strike throughout the summer, the season was announced to be 100 days, making it the longest in the show's history. The season took place in the BB Multiverse, with four separate universes colliding to bring havoc at every turn. On the one-week anniversary of a winner being crowned, I'll recap some of the most significant events, storylines, and talking points from 100 days of action.  Night 1 Doesn't Skip Out on the Twists (Week 1) The game wasted little time getting started as the houseguests entered the house. The 16 players entered the backyard and were divided into groups to compete in four competitions. The goal wasn't to win, just not to lose. The person in each competition who finished in last place would be on the block to be evicted at the first eviction. By...

100 days. That's a long time to live amongst strangers. It's an even longer time to watch 17 people live amongst strangers. The 25th season of Big Brother ended on Thursday night, but not without crowning a winner. A lot of work was left to be completed before Finale Night. A special Sunday eviction gave way for the Final 3 before the jury of seven said their piece and cast their votes for the 25th winner in the show's history.  Bowie's 3rd HOH Reign Before we could get to the excitement of Finale Night, one more houseguest needed to be shed. When we last checked in, Bowie Jane had won the Final 4 HOH after defeating Jag in a tiebreaker, making this her season-tying 3rd HOH. As expected, she nominated Matt and Felicia for eviction. None of this mattered because the veto winner held the power for the week, casting the sole vote to evict. To no one's surprise, that winner was Jag, taking his record-breaking seventh veto of the season. This meant Bowie held no power, m...

Like most Big Brother fans worldwide, I'm ready for the season to end. Fortunately, we've almost reached the end. This week continued the stream roll for The Minutemen, with both members winning a competition. This meant we knew the entire week without ever needing to play it. Regardless, we saw seven days of gameplay and an eviction none of us were looking forward to.  The Minutemen are Cracking The only interesting part of the week was the continued cracking of Matt and Jag. While I'm not 100% sold they won't take each other to the end, we may see one cut before Finale Night on Thursday. We have Cory to blame for this because he was very clear that Matt is the better player between the two, and this has gotten in both of their heads. This only helps Bowie Jane and Felicia, who are now further down on the list regarding their threat level. Otherwise, it was a long week with little movement.  Matt's HOH Reign Before the HOH Competition last Thursday, Matt told Cirie...

After a very underwhelming double eviction that wasn't really a double eviction, we finally got the night we'd been waiting for all season. If only it weren't so predictable. Maybe it's me complaining because of the end result. With an unprecedented Head of Household in charge for the week, the writing appeared to be on the wall following Cory's eviction. While it didn't go exactly as expected, the result was the same.  Jag's 2nd HOH Reign This week was largely uneventful, so I'm going straight into Jag's HOH. For the first time in Big Brother US history, a houseguest won HOH in consecutive weeks. Of course, it was the one guy no one wanted to win because he's won everything in recent weeks. Let's start by clarifying that I don't dislike Jag as a person. I dislike him as a Big Brother player. I don't think he should've been allowed to win this competition. There were many ways for him to throw this, like Claire did in BB23. Nevert...

While my title for the week doesn't rhyme perfectly, it basically sums up this week of Big Brother in a nutshell. With the Comicverse taking over the house, it was supposed to be a week dominated by anonymity. That's not how this house operates. It led to some big blowups, high drama, and one of the biggest blindsides of the season. All in all, it made for a good week of Big Brother.  BB Comics Much like Zingbot last week, BB Comics has become a staple of Big Brother once we reach this point in the game. Also, like Zingbot, they can be very hit or miss, playing off the broadest detail of the houseguest to create a comic character that might be really good or really bad. This year's crop of comics was largely misses. There were a few rare decent ones, like Matt's pool-themed character, Pool-tergeist, Jared as Muffin Hands, or Red as his living embodiment, The Chill-Billy. All three play on commonly known things about each. Others like Cirie, Blue, Hisam, Cameron, and Jag...

This week, almost anything was possible. With one of the most incredible HOH wins I've seen, the house was thrown into disarray as Bowie Jane won the HOH competition live on Thursday's episode. After weeks of male-dominated gameplay, specifically Cam and Jared, it was time for a new voice to lead the charge. With the jury phase underway, the gameplay has been focused on the endgame. Finale Night is on everyone's mind. It's too bad they still have a few more weeks to get through.  The Lines Are Being Drawn Not only is it clear who everyone is aligned with, it's clear that everyone knows who everyone is aligned with. Even with all the side deals and fake alliances this season, there is little hiding who is working together. There are the obvious duos of Cory and America and Matt and Jag. The older ladies of the house are working through a slightly strained relationship. Blue is getting closer to Cirie every day. Everyone thinks they have Bowie, though she's floati...

I have no problem forgetting that last week happened. It clearly did, but we're going to ignore its existence. With the power structure back in the game, the strategy continued, making for a more stomachable week. Once the resurrection brought Cameron back into the game, the result of the ensuing HOH Competition was inevitable. I'm just happy that the game resumed after a terribly slow and tedious week.  The Game is Back On Last week was an anomaly that took two months to finish. There was very little gameplay, with only Cameron and Jared getting to compete. With Cameron back in the house and the HOH Room, things were kicked back into high gear. Cameron is a chaos agent, but this week wasn't quite as chaotic as we've seen from him. Honestly, I was so happy for the game to be back in its proper form. Big Brother only works when there are competitions, a power structure, and an eviction. Last week wasn't Big Brother. It was terrible. The live feeds were worth watching...