MTV's The (RW/RR) Challenge: Cutthroat

Time for another installment in this series. I've been thinking I'm about done with it for the last couple of seasons, but then I hear of a favorite or someone interesting from the past coming back, and it draws me back in. This time it was Abram and Derrick. Initially I had not heard they were a part of the cast, and I was scrapping to round up the people I really liked on the challenge (Katie and Brad). So, as an old school fan specifically, I was super excited when the other two were added. Abram is very well suited for these challenges, with a mostly fearless and willing to do anything attitude. He's also one of the more interesting cast members to me because he has different sides to him, and you never know what side is going to come out. He's intense with a bit of temper, but also peaceful at times. Kind of stir-crazy, but intelligent, philosophical, and talented (published a book for children, built a house, art).

So, the first episode was Wednesday, October 6 at 10 PM. Very excited about this season being in Europe (Prague, Czech Republic). I love that there are three teams and that the teams were done by the old schoolyard method of picking (each team had an appointed captain, and each captain took turns selecting cast members). I also love the secret voting. If you remember The Gauntlet (the original) challenge, the Road Rules team employed a secret ballot system which caused a bit of drama. I think it will provide drama for this season as well, so can't wait to see how that plays out. The mission was interesting. Tear gas and codes and puzzles? I wonder if Shauvon was less affected by the tear gas because she was wearing glasses? I don't think anyone else wore glasses. Glad the gray team won. Not sure if I will continue to keep rooting for the gray team, though, because my favorites (Brad, Katie, Derrick, and Abram) are spread out among the teams. The other people I kind of care for are as well, so it's kind of hard to pick. I probably should go for the red team more because Brad has yet to win a challenge.

On to the action. I don't blame Shauvon for not wanting to wrestle Laurel. Plenty of girls aren't into play wrestling like boys are. Laurel once again seems to lack the social grace and awareness to know when to start, how to start, and when to stop with people (not just the wrestling thing, but some of her past comments). She realizes the girls didn't like her last season and has seemed to take an “I don't care” approach to it all. Shauvon was obviously sloppy drunk and probably did overreact to it a bit, but I see her side. I think I kind of feel sorry for her on these shows because she is totally seen as a joke. She does not help that perception of her go anywhere, but she seems like she could be nice enough, and I don't think she deserves as much flak as she gets.

Poor Camila. OK, so I was thinking there was no need to add a person from Spring Break Challenge into the mix. It's already an issue that they put people on the show who have never been on The Real World or Road Rules (the Fresh Meat people). But I think a lot of fans were under the impression that it was just a fun activity for some of MTV's spring break participants to do. But surprise, she is added to the challenge. Now after watching the first episode of Cutthroat, I think they did her a disservice by making her the only one cast from SBC. I could not believe how some of the other girls behaved towards her – girls who just came off of a challenge as Fresh Meaters themselves (Theresa). It's one thing if they decided to vote for her or weren't interested in hanging with her, but they drunkenly accused her of stealing other cast members' belongings just because they saw them under her bed. That Theresa made herself look like a total fool last challenge, and once again she's doing the same. Only this time, she's a lot ruder. And it's not an entertaining rudeness mixed – something that makes us laugh or rudeness that seems warranted on some level. It's just ridiculous drama and she does not come across as charming or clever or entertaining by it whatsoever. She just comes across as really sad every time she is featured. I just don't understand how she is still that unaware of herself after last season, in which she played herself IMO. I think I'll stop paying attention to her – hopefully she stays out of the major drama and storylines this season (or gets eliminated soon). But she made Camila sympathetic, and I think a lot of viewers didn't even know who she was or didn't even want her there.

So I'm glad Camila won the elimination over Cancun Emilee (we really need some diversity in names, BMP). Brandon was also one of the FM people from last season that I sort of ended up finding interesting or likeable, so I was glad for his win as well over Cancun Derek (who may have been the most tolerable person of that season). The previews for the season have made me quite excited and interested - CT and Tina back?!! Some people are saying that Tina is not menacing or tough, so they should have brought someone else back, but I'm glad it's her. She not a favorite of mine, but I feel she has been on some of the best challenges, she is a pretty good competitor, she's an old school vet, and she has a loud (though often obnoxious) personality. She's made me laugh a couple of times as well (remember her silly fight with Tonya on Battle of the Sexes II?). Let's see how long this season is entertaining for me.

Pan Pacific Championships - Swimming

This was Ryan Lochte's meet. Amazing performances - six gold medals. I'm surprised by how good he looks this year, even though he's had to recover from injuries. His dolphin turn under water is looking so powerful and I think it will be as much of an advantage to Ryan as Michael Phelps's dolphin turn is to Michael. I was shocked by how much longer he stayed under water compared to the other competitors. I think his healthier diet and his focus on upper body strength due to his lower body injuries have also greatly benefited him. Michael Phelps, though not in his typical tip top competitive shape, did well in his events, outside of the 400 IM, even though he was not happy with his times. I am ready to see him buckle down and get back to the standard he's set for himself, and I'm sure he is motivated to get back there after Nationals and PanPacs. He will need to get back there to hold off Lochte. I look forward to seeing amazing matchups between Phelps and Lochte. I think Lochte is getting even better than before and I think things will be tighter between him and Michael. Tyler Clary is doing well, too. While I expect Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte to be the ones to edge him out for the U.S. spots in the major meets, if one of them should flub up, Tyler will probably be there to take advantage. He already bested an admittedly out of tip-top competitive shape Phelps in the 400 IM, a race which Michael hadn't done since the Olympics (and he planned on not doing it after Beijing). I was surprised to hear of Michael doing the 400 IM, but he can still be very competitive in it, and if he doesn't mind doing it, why not go for it? I'm thinking he will probably end up swimming around the same amount of events in 2012 as he did in 2008 if he keeps the 400 IM, though. I'm sure he and his coach will figure out what will work the best for him. I'm thinking he will end up in the same events as 2008 at this point, maybe dropping one of them, but not adding on new events.

I was also impressed with Natalie Coughlin. She's taken a lot of time off as well since the Olympics and has come back to swimming this year after getting married and doing Dancing With The Stars. I look forward to seeing just how great she can do with more training time under her belt. Rebecca Soni continues to do a great job in the breaststroke events. She's been holding it down for the U.S. women this quad. I hope she will get a little more attention in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics. I'm hoping Rebecca and Natalie does, actually. The U.S. men are so successful and either have interesting personalities or achieve such amazing feats and deserve the spotlight, but these two ladies are really doing a great job as well. Amanda Beard having a comeback, and a competitive one at that, is really surprising to me. I think it would be awesome for her to be a five time Olympian. It's really impressive that she's been able to get back into shape so quickly after time off and having a baby. Hope she keeps improving.

Other thoughts: I was really happy to see Jason Lezak compete again. I really hope he receives some sponsorship, because I'd love to see him continue. Good to see Kitajima back as well. I was surprised the Australians were not as competitive against the U.S., in terms of winning medals, at this meet. I do realize they were hurt by Stephanie Rice having to pull out of the meet, though. There was a guy on the team that was out of shape and just getting back in shape. And it seems they had a few up and comers. I expect them to be more competitive next year.

U.S. Gymnastics Nationals

U.S. Gymnastics National Championships

The Men:

I'm more excited about our men this quad than last. I think there is great talent, and more than that, I just feel better about how they compete. I feel they can really accomplish even more than the last group did. I am proud of what the last group did at 07 Worlds and the Olympics, and I liked some of them and rooted for them, but they definitely struggled and were inconsistent. This group seems to be a bit more together somehow. Congrats to Jonathan Horton for defending his national title. I was really happy with how he competed in finals. Finally put together a really consistent day in the all-around. Must have been a relief for him. I think Danell Leyva really pushed him, and I think he liked it and kind of needed it. I think he works best that way. It was good for the both of them. Leyva did an amazing job. I am so excited about how quickly he has come along. I thought he would win. He did an awesome layout Kovacs in which he flared his arms out to the side while doing the skill - I was so impressed by it and it was a competition highlight for me. It was huge, and he really flies on it. It's nice to see some creativity from the U.S. men, as well as the ability to handle that creativity and compete it well. Kevin Tan on rings, Glen Ishino on high bar, Brandon Wynn's arabian looking skill between the parallel bars (yeah, I'm not good with naming skills), and Bryan Del Castillo's overall presence (very aesthetically pleasing) when competing were the other highlights for me. I think the group U.S. men overall have a better swing on high bar as well.

The Women:

Very happy that Rebecca Bross hit eight for eight and won her first senior national all-around. She looked very determined to hit all of her events - sometimes I think she was a tad bit too determined when it came to sticking her landings. I think she seemed to be a bit tightly wound, and I think it caused her to take a step here or there. I was even more excited for Mattie Larson's performance, which garnered her second place. I am so happy to have this gymnast back competing. I hope she (and teammate Samantha Shapiro) stays healthy. She is great to watch, particularly on floor - my favorite performance of the competition. Vanessa Zamarippa surprised everyone with a well done difficult vault in prelims - unfortunately she didn't hit it in finals, when NBC finally decided to show her on vault. Still, she established herself as a contender for the world team, yet she and her coaches decided not to focus on the world team this year, apparently. I'm very pleased she made the national team. I was a bit worried about Bridget Sloan. At U.S. Classic, I knew it was just a tune up for her, but seeing her fall on beam in prelims at Nationals felt a bit scary. No one's perfect all the time, but I was concerned with her chances for making the team. I think the U.S. needs consistent beam workers, and I felt that was one place Bridget could deliver (along with bars), though she is just a good all-around gymnast period. She seems very determined to get in gear, and with that determination, I believe she can do it. Hopefully she does, because I think the team really needs her ability. Still impressed by Alicia Sacramone, and I think she should easily make the team. I felt bad for Mackenzie Caquatto for falling so easily on UB, before really doing anything . That event will be the key for her making the world team, so I hope she does a great job at camp. I don't think she looks like Shawn Johnson (Al Trautwig said he thinks they could be sisters). I think the world team will be Bross, Larson, Sloan, Sacramone, Raisman OR Hunter, and Caquatto OR Whitcomb. I think camp will probably decide between those last four I mentioned. I think Caquatto has a lead over Whitcomb at this point. Not completely sure about Raisman and Hunter, but Raisman has that Amanar. If she can hit it in camp, I think she will make the team.

U.S. (CoverGirl) Classic - Gymnastics

Finally finished watching (and rewatching) the U.S. Classic yesterday. At least, the senior portion of the competition. Still need to go to YouTube and gymnastike to see routines I missed (as well as the juniors), but I watched all of the Universal Sports coverage. I can't remember getting so scared watching a gymnastics competition. So many falls and not just falls, but scary falls/landings. And I hope our gymnasts get the confidence to really rock a beam routine. It's lacking right now, and it kind of feels like I took Shawn and Nastia for granted a little bit. I'm sure Martha is very disappointed with balance beam, since she was the BB coach during her and Bela's gym coaching days. And of course, uneven bars is not a strong point overall for the U.S. at this point. It's really sad because for decades, UB was the standout event for the U.S (and it's one of my favorites).

Aly Raisman's fall was the worst. I am so glad she is OK, because that fall could have caused a serious injury. She was said to have been overrotating the Amanar in training/camp, and I would prefer for her to do it the Shawn Johnson way (take a small step forward) than to try and go too hard for the stick and not overrotating. At least at this point. She bounced back well enough on UB, which is kind of impressive since it's her weaker event. Loved her sky high opening double arabian on floor! Very impressive, and my favorite thing I saw from her that night. And I give her credit for hitting her BB routine as well. In terms of hitting the routine and confidence, one of the best of the night.

Sami Shapiro was another big scare, of course. Universal Sports just didn't show her vault in motion. But it was still scary to see Shapiro sitting on the vault mat and not getting up. One of the biggest scares of the night. I was so afraid she'd come back from injury only to injury again in her comeback competition. I wish she could have finished and made the podium. Thankfully it was just hyperextension, but that's still painful, and I hope she will be just fine and able to compete to her full ability at Nationals in a few weeks. I thought she was great on BB as a jr. but paid more attention to Larson and her wonderful floor presentation - think I like her as much as Larson now. GORGEOUS style. I wish she could have finished and made the podium.

Alicia Sacramone - very pleased with how she did! USA Today agrees. Very happy she's back, and I hope things go very well for her at Nationals. Thank you Alicia for providing the exclamation point to this meet! Love the football boyfriend, Brady Quinn, coming to a gymnastics meet. I want her on the world team. She looks to be in fantastic shape (and she really rocked the purple)! The U.S. needs someone who seems confident enough to rock a routine. It was lacking in this competition. She is a spark plug for the team. I just hope we don't have to keep hearing about her screw ups from 2008. We know what happened, let,s move on. I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Enjoyed her commentary as well.

Mattie Larson - extremely happy she won! I anticipated her coming to the senior ranks when I saw her floor in 2007. She and Rebecca Bross were my favorite juniors then. So happy she is back. I guess Saturday was a night in which I felt like making comparisons in the looks department, because I thought she looked like a mixture of Hollie Vise, April Burkholder, and Ashley Postell . Would like to see her floor choreography change up - liked the routine, but it looked like her old floor too much, like, "let's take the dance from the old and put it to new music." The turn on her stomach is a trademark Mattie move, though, so I don't mind that part. Hope she has a top three finish at Nationals to hopefully increase her chances at the world team. She really needs to pull out all the stops on floor and hit her vault as well as she can.

Rebecca Bross - still love her on UB, and I love her on BB, but I am hoping (and I bet she is, too!) that she gets over this "one big mistake a competition" phase she's going through. At least this was a smaller competition. Nastia went through the same thing for a while, and everything worked out for her at the end. She won silver at her first worlds, which was the first one of the quad, and the same happened for Rebecca. Both Nastia and Rebecca also finished second to their U.S. teammate who won the gold (2005 - Chellsie Memmel, 2009 -Bridget Sloan). Carly also only won a world silver AA medal (thought it was the world championships before the Olympics).

Mackenzie Caquatto - girl looks like a cross between Wendy Bruce and Michelle Campi. Takes me back to the early 90s, with a touch of late 90s (Vanessa Atler - who I think slightly resembled Campi at times, and I told her so). At first I thought she looked more like Michelle Campi, but now I think Mackenzie is much more Wendy Bruce looking. Has Tasha Schwikert/Chellsie Memmel type of UB routine - love it.

Kytra Hunter - LOVE the tumbling. It just looks so effortless and smooth to me. Often powerful tumbling/difficult tumbling does not look that smooth (i.e. Dos Santos), but she does it. Love that Kelli Hill has another great top gymnast. Kytra and Mackenzie are going to rock at Florida!

Vanessa Zamarippa - Favorite in NCAA and I love that she's doing elite since she's so talented. Didn't pop as much for me on FX in this competition, but as I understand it she had to change her routine around. Looking forward to her development in elite and NCAA. What did pop is her personality! I love her spirit. I hope to see more of her in elite gymnastics. I'd love for her to make the national team and get an international assignment. She is certainly at the right college for deciding to go back elite, with Miss Val and Chris Waller behind her. She could be even more of an inspiration for Sam Peszek to continue elite when she gets to UCLA.

Bridget Sloan - scared me when she did her UB dismount. I haven't seen her BB routine yet. I hope she is ready to go for Nationals. If she wasn't ready for this competition, then I don't blame Bridget and Marvin for not having her do all the events. She is already qualified to Nationals. Plus she's the world champion and a veteran. I am going to give Team Bridget the benefit of the doubt and think they are doing what's best for her.

CGA girls: Cassie Whitcomb - nice to see she is still in the running for a world team based on her UB and FX. Amanda Jetter - another Amanda for Mary Lee Tracy. Hadn't seen her before. MLT's comments about her BB routine were interesting (the words "garbage" and "you look like an idiot" were throw out when talking about how her skills went) - I'm sure they were in good fun and humor, but it was kind of surprising for me to hear them.

Who had Shawn Johnson's old music?

Without thinking much about scoring potential and who would compete what events, my spur of the moment dream world team was Sloan, Bross, Larson, Sacramone, and Whitcomb or Shapiro. That was with me thinking only five gymnasts were going to this world championships, too. But with there actually being six going, and with me paying attention to scoring now, it's down to Whitcomb, Hunter, Caquatto, and maybe Shapiro for who will be the fifth and sixth gymnast. I will be very happy as long as Sloan, Bross, Sacramone, and Larson make the team. I'm not really getting into analyzing what's the best and most realistic team right now.

Sally Girl Cosmetics

Sally Girl's mini baked eyeshadow is my favorite eyeshadow of the moment! It's very affordable ($0.99 at the moment - $0.94 with a Sally Beauty Club Card), it is well pigmented, it has a metallic finish, and it has a nice variety of colors. So far there are 12 overall. I am hoping they expand the line and include new colors eventually, but the variety in the selection right now is pretty decent. I own all of the colors. The only drawback of this baked eyeshadow is it is easy to break the eyeshadow from its compact. All it takes is dropping it or plopping it down too roughly. But I haven't had any completely shatter on me.

The regular Sally Girl eyeshadow is also really great. I first used those. There are 48 colors available. I have a handful of these, and most of them are pretty well pigmented, too. There are matte, glitter, and frost/shimmery types in a variety of colors. These are the same price as the baked eyeshadow. What's also cool about these is that they connect together as well.

Sally Girl also has eyeshadow quad palettes. The colors in the quads look like some of the singular eyeshadow shades to me, so I bought a number of the quads to try out a bunch of colors I didn't already have. The quads are also $0.99.

I tried the mini liquid eyeliner as well (in black). It goes on just fine (if you are used to applying liquid eyeliner, which can be tricky). However, it does peel off. I had something dropping down in my eyelashes and didn't know what was bothering them, and I soon figured out it was the eyeliner. It's convenient for me because it easily fits in my purse (I sometimes finish my makeup in the car while being driven to work). It works and can stay on long enough, but it's not the smoothest looking and not my favorite. I'd probably only buy it again if I needed something cheap and was in a Sally Beauty Supply and crunched for time.

The mini lip glosses are cool. Once again, the size makes it very convenient to carry in your purse. There are a lot of pinks, there are a couple of neutral shades, and there are a couple of wine/burgundy shades. There is also a clear one. It is pretty smooth and comfortable to wear. Really tiny, but it's also cheap at $0.99. I've tried about three of them and liked them all. I'd say the lasting power of the glosses were about moderate for me.

You can find these and other Sally Girl mini makeup products at Sally Beauty Supply. If you don't have one near you, you can order them at http://www.sallybeauty.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-SA-Site/default/Search-Show?prefn1=brand&prefv1=SALGRL&brandLandingPage=true

Sally Girl Eyeshadow Connecting Compacts
Top row (l to r): Navy, Turquoise, Aqua, Teal, Onyx

Middle row (l to r): Cranberry, Rose, Beige, Chocolate, Snow

Bottom row (l to r): Sally Girl Quad Eyeshadow in Miss Behaving, Gum Drops, Dream Boat, and Envy




Sally Girl Mini Baked Eyeshadow
Top row (l to r): Dark Green (388120), Dark Aqua (388129), Dark Purple (388127), Grey Purple (388128), Shadow Rose (388125), Light Pink (388126)

Bottom row (l to r): Gold (388122), Sage (388121), Bronze (388124), Silver (388130), Gunmetal Grey (388131), Pearl White (388123)

Fresh Meat 2, New RW

I'm so excited Landon and Carley won! I'd actually spoiled the results earlier, but it kept me wanting to watch the show. I wasn't too happy with the overall cast, and I considered not watching, but once I heard Landon was competing, I had to watch. Landon is one of my favorite RW cast members - I just adore him so much. It goes all the way back to RW Philadelphia. He wasn't perfect on his season, but overall I always got the feeling that he was a good guy, and I'm glad he is getting a lot of love and support from the viewers on challenges now. The only other person I would not have minded winning was Darrell. Landon winning is even better for me, though, and it's nice that I'm completely satisfied with the winners this time.

What sort of "made" this challenge is that the same people were not in control the entire time like in the last several seasons. That was refreshing. However, I felt the challenge was lacking overall. It's been that way for a while. I don't think I see the challenges returning to what they used to be, sadly. But I've seen so many years of challenges (since the beginning), so I've seen a lot of great challenges and moments. This challenge in particular had a number of people who I just didn't care too much for. Plus fresh meat competitors (from both seasons) outnumbered the actual RW and RR people, and that's tough to see. But some of them were eliminated and I was happy with the outcome, so it could have been worse.

It's time for a new season of The Real World. This season is set in New Orleans. At first I was disappointed because I wanted to see a new city. But after thinking about it, going back to New Orleans (the city for the ninth season of The Real World) was favorable to seeing them in another New York or California city. Plus the possibility of the cast having a job to help rebuild the city was great. BMP has also finally cast a person from the same college I went to. So I had a bit of interest in this season despite not really enjoying the last couple of seasons.

Fast forward to current times, and I'm singing a different tune. I finally saw the MTV page for the show and the trailer. This may seem minute, but I am very annoyed with the fact that this season is being called "RW: New Orleans." For those who know the history of the show, this is shocking because there already was a RW New Orleans. What was BMP and MTV thinking?! This is what I think they were thinking - I think they were thinking that it's a new generation of watchers who would not know about the ninth season being in New Orleans. It's been 10 years since the original New Orleans season. Can you believe it? I think it's not wise for them to call this season the same name as the original New Orleans season, though, because it could cause confusion online. It can also cause confusion between fans when they discuss the shows. I still can't believe it. This factor combined with the declining quality of the show and my lack of interest in the trailer has made me not want to watch. I felt my RW watching time was coming to an end, anyway. Now it feels like a new era even more, and it's about time for me to hop off the train. Guess Melissa Howard won't have to worry about a marathon of the original New Orleans airing, because with the title of this season, it's like history has been rewritten.

Hello Hello!

Welcome to tubeoFLIPgloss! This is my very first blog. The main reason I decided to start this blog was to contribute to swatching makeup that I own. As I've gotten into collecting makeup more (and buying it online especially), I've searched for swatches and have been appreciative of those who have posted them. I thought I could possibly help those wanting to have another view of what certain products look like by starting my own blog. I also thought it would be an easy way to be able to list and quickly view the makeup products I do own. That thought was triggered by me going through my collection the other day to throw out old products and noticing I had a few tubes of the same lipstick (and it's a bad color for me to make matters worse). I impulsively buy the cheaper makeup a lot, just to test out a color. And not all of my makeup is together; it is scattered all over, in different containers in different locations in my home. I have some things I use on a regular basis and keep together, and stuff I've collected over the last several years that I have in other areas. I'd forgotten that I'd already bought that particular shade of lipstick a couple of times before as a result.

I also thought I might as well have a place for my musings on some of my other interests, such as TV shows and Olympic sports (gymnastics and figure skating in particular). So combining those main three interests together, I came up with tubeoFLIPgloss (tube for TV, FLIP for Olympic sports - gymnastics/figure skating in particular, gloss - or the overall name, tubeoflipgloss - for makeup).

For anyone viewing this blog, I'd like to say thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy it or find it at least a little informative.