Final Thoughts on My Experience of Christine’s Experience
Posted on September 8, 2014
It has been a very busy and exciting 2 months with my little sister Christine in the Big Brother house. One thing I’ve always said starting right now is that it is important to reflect. Personally, I love reflection. Especially THIS reflection:
It is also important to evaluate and dwell on life experiences. I figured now was the best time to look back on my sister’s Big Brother experience over the last two months as she was recently evicted from the Big Brother house in 6th place (Not too shabby considering my best competition finish was second from last in the mile during a 6th grade track meet). Before I go on, I want to make one thing clear. I think I speak for my family when I say that I definitely do NOT speak for my family. The ensuing thoughts are mine, and mine alone.
For the first time this season, my wife Karina, myself and our 3 kids watched the eviction live via web streaming. This is different than the pretend “live” we generally watch as we get the old Mountain Standard Time repeat. So we had a real-time view as things turned south for Christine. We weren’t surprised that she was in danger as we figured either her or Frankie would be going in the second eviction. But, as Derrick won HOH and then Frankie won POV, we saw the proverbial writing on the wall.
This is a recreation of my face as the show progressed
Sure enough, Julie announced Christine was evicted. And unlike previous Houseguests, instead of politely hugging and saying goodbye to everyone who had just kicked her out of her own home, she coldly walked straight out with nary a “toodle-loo”. I am not sure what I think about this display of uber-competitiveness. On one hand, I understand this is a cut-throat game and the other Houseguests just threw out their own alliance member. On the other hand, they did have to listen to Christine snore for the last two month so a “see you later” may have been polite.
Then, upon exiting the house, she was booed by the crowd waiting her exit in the front yard (aka studio). I have to admit, as her brother, but even just as a human, I hated that. I felt bad that this was her first interaction with the outside world after two months of having no idea whether she was beloved or not. Sure, there were boos, I am not going to deny that. But the way some on Twitter have described it, it was an overwhelming chorus of boos. That’s not what I heard. Granted, there were a few boos interspersed with the cheers. But then there was one very loud, very persistent booer. No doubt a great guy to hang out with. While I hated having my children see their Aunt booed in front of millions of people, at least it provided an opportunity for me to discuss with my children the importance of treating everyone – regardless of color, creed, or nationality, even those we disagree with – with respect. Unless of course it is Arizona State University’s football team. In which case we BOOOOO them until they cry or our voices give out!
An in-studio shot of the booer
Christine confronting the mixed reaction and a really angry guy
I am proud of her for absorbing the boos and a relatively unfriendly Julie Chen interview with class and grace though. I think I would have been peeing my pants.
Now a lot of you have already made up your mind to hate Christine. And that is your prerogative. Your lame, useless-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things prerogative. But keep in mind, you are basing your judgment on game-Christine. You don’t know real Christine who is a very sweet, kind, fun person to be around. I know and love this Christine.
However, I apparently didn’t know everything about her as I learned a few things watching her on the show:
- She is a competition BEAST!! During her stay in the house she won 2 Battles of the Block, 2 Power of Veto’s, and a Head of Household. I did not realize that growing up. It could be because I was twice her age and therefore dominated any competition involving strength/knowledge or because we didn’t have any competitions involving organizing comic book covers of our likenesses.
- Her vocabulary is a bit spicier than I realized. I didn’t know she even knew half of those darn words I’ve seen her say on the show (pardon my French).
Despite the fact that I would have loved to have seen her win, there are some positives I can see from her being evicted:
- Hopefully there will be fewer reminders from the Twitter community that she touched Cody’s hair
- Her rankings on Joker’s can only go up. I’ve performed some very scientific research and extrapolation based on the most current data. As you can see in Exhibit 1, she has moved from last place to second to last place. An unstoppably upward trend.
Taking that information and extrapolating the trend linearly, you can clearly see she is headed to the number 1 (most positively viewed houseguest). Based on my calculations, this should occur around 2018. Coincidentally, that is the same year that Zingbot will no doubt develop sentient feelings.
- Now that football season has started, this prevents a very tough choice for me on Sunday nights. Kidding. I TOTALLY would have picked Big Brother over Sunday Night Football…probably
(Side note: why is there no Fantasy Big Brother league? Fun!)
This entire experience has been a great learning opportunity for me. I plan on taking the knowledge I’ve gleaned watching my sister appear on national television and applying it whenever the Wipeout producers wisen up and put me on their show. (Note to self: to avoid Twitter backlash, do not talk about how much I hate the other contestants and absolutely no caressing of my opponent’s helmets. )
Marissa O'Daniel
September 9, 2014 (10:32 am)
Hi David! I am so glad I googled your sister’s maiden name and found your blog instead. I was so excited to see you on TV by the way. I am a Big Brother super fan since ever since… just as Christine. I didn’t know she was your sister till of course the family appeared on TV. WOW! How exciting! Anyway, I always keep an open mind about all the contestants. It is national TV, get real right! LOL… But I just wanted to say that Christine played a great game. I wish the girls could’ve followed Joey’s plan for an all girls alliance, hence…the women has failed once again…anyhoo… She lasted as long as she did and fate just ended her run in that double eviction. Because after I found out she was your little sister and we had a “working” relationship once upon a time… I deleveloped some compassion for Christine. I felt bad for her when they talked about her…I wanted her to win…etc. It makes a big difference when you realize that she is a person like anyone else, my sister, your sister…an aunt, or a friend. Anyway, I really just wanted to say hello and that if she did have a fan outside of your house, it would be me. She had all the luck to rub on Cody’s hair 🙂 Take Care! I wish her and you all the best! If she get’s back with Starbucks, I will surely stalk her for a cup of coffee!
Dave
September 9, 2014 (10:49 am)
Thanks Marissa! Good to hear from you and I hope you and the family are doing well! 🙂 Thanks for the kind words. Some people have been vicious so it’s been an eye-opening experience but definitely exciting to see her live her dream. I am looking forward to seeing her when she gets back after jury. It’s definitely going to be an adjustment getting back to normal life but her and her hubby Tim are grounded so they will be fine. Thanks for checking in!!
p.s. My wife has also indicated Cody is not painful on the eyes. 🙂 Heck, I’D probably rub his hair!
Ben
September 9, 2014 (1:28 pm)
I, for one, am not particularly worried about you touching anyone’s helmet. Because if you did Karina would hand you your ____________!
Lindsey
September 13, 2014 (5:28 am)
There is a Big Brother fantasy league! I am the scorekeeper for this season! I linked in the site for you!
Great write up, really nice to see your perspective – I have a lot of empathy and compassion for Christine, I think she is a genuinely kind person. People in the Big Brother house do what they think they have to do to win and hindsight is always 20/20.
I wish you and your family all the best!
Logan
September 13, 2014 (7:58 am)
Hey Dave,
Where can we send her positive fan mail? Where can we send her love letters (not I’m-in-love-with-you letters, but letters saying despite the few people who booed at the show, you were loved by many fans, like myself)! I’m weary of you posting something on here, because haters would see that, and, well, haters hate. But as a fan of the show, as a fan of Christine, and as an overly emotional Christian, my heart is broken to see her have to deal with that!
Calanna
September 13, 2014 (9:12 am)
I was glad to read your post supporting Christine. She was my favorite when the season first started because she came across as a genuine girl who loved the game as much as I do. Maybe she slipped a little in my view as the game progressed, and I didn’t like some of her decisions, but I was never on the hate bandwagon and I felt really bad for her when she was evicted and had to face the consequences of her behavior with Cody.
Please tell Christine that not everyone wants to pile on the hate for her; I wish her well and hope that she goes on to enjoy her life. At least she got to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which no one can take away from her. Cheers, Christine!
Jason
September 13, 2014 (11:00 am)
This was a fantastic read. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Christine really seems like a nice girl outside of the house, I think the politics of playing a social game just brought out some things America didn’t like. Hopefully she is able to look back on this experience fondly! She was my initial favorite based on the intro videos.
Adam
September 13, 2014 (3:38 pm)
Dave! I’ve been a huge fan of Christine since day 1, and I never thought she did anything worse than the other house guests. I’m really sorry immature people have been trying to bring her down this way, I got super upset the night she got boo’d, and that line about your kids watching their aunt get bood like that was really hard to read. Watching that jury house clip where Christine goes in and they all make fun of her really got me boiling too, but she acted in a self-deprecating way which showed how good of a person she is in the end. In my eyes what she “did” with Cody was not wrong at all, I get close with my friends like that all the time and it doesn’t mean anything and I say shame to anyone who’s trying to bring her marriage down because it’s none of their business. I hope she knows she did nothing wrong and she has a lot of fans!!!
Cher
September 14, 2014 (2:31 am)
Dave, I appreciate a brother’s love, it is very nice of you to defend Christine. Who ever is tweeting for Christine is adding fuel to the fire. BBnews told me different, I thought it was Christine. It has all her characteristics. Complaining and speaking ill of the other house guests just makes Christine look bitter and vile. I am a Christian and I don’t care what kind of game is being played , your commitment to God comes before that. They booed Christine because of her actions, she wasn’t just running her fingers through his hair she was laying on top of him. Check out all the BB pictures. To insult twitter followers and say BB doesn’t care what the fans think, she is lashing out at BB for her mistakes. She should be apologizing to people who were here fans. I said prior with Cody, her game strategy ,
Cher
September 14, 2014 (2:39 am)
Dave, I appreciate a brother’s love, it is very nice of you to defend Christine. Who ever is tweeting for Christine is adding fuel to the fire. BBnews told me different, I thought it was Christine. It has all her characteristics. Complaining and speaking ill of the other house guests just makes Christine look bitter and vile. I am a Christian and I don’t care what kind of game is being played , your commitment to God comes before that. They booed Christine because of her actions, she wasn’t just running her fingers through his hair she was laying on top of him. Check out all the BB pictures. To insult twitter followers and say BB doesn’t care what the fans think, she is lashing out at BB for her mistakes. She should be apologizing to people who were here fans. She said game strategy , that is not how she can justify how she behaved with Cody. Not. I would tell who ever is still making comments for her they are making everyone on Twitter hate Christine.