all these people are so stupid

That was a quote from someone (Russell, I think) today.  Wonder if he realizes he's one of them.

Anyway, today was our first real chance to try to figure out what the heck is going on in there.  The jock clique seems to be falling apart quickly as Jessie/Natalie/Russell are trying to figure out how to kick clique-mate Jeff.  Apparently he's committed the cardinal sin in the World According to Jessie of talking to other people.  No real word on Jessie's reasoning for nom'ing Chima and Lydia.  There was something about how Lydia didn't come talk to him (sounds like the Jessie we know and....well, know).  Apparently Laura was a contender for a block spot but Natalie changed Jessie's mind from what I can gather, so Laura is now indebted to the new JBT alliance.

And yes, Natalie is definitely Jessie's new brain. She's practically moved into the HOH room, and she keeps assuring Chima that if the vote comes to a tie Jessie will vote to keep Chima.  And he seems pretty happy with his new brain.  They curled up together for nap time today, and he asked her why she wasn't sleeping upstairs with him.  It seems she's confessed her real age to him, for whatever that's worth.  Russell is also contributing a few cells to Jessie's Brain Trust, and the two of them spent most of the day explaining to each other how smart their game plan is.  It sounds like they want to bring in Casey or Ronnie as a "use him while you can" team member, though they can't agree on whether they can trust either of them.  I heard Natalie make a pitch for Ronnie, so I'm guessing Jessie goes with her thoughts before long.

On the nominee front, Chima is "trying to stay positive" but says the BB has broken her spirit with the "have-not thing."  She says it's not so much the slop, but the cold showers and the insane asylum room that have really hurt her.  She also said that she's lost 6 lbs in 2 days.  Ronnie's lost 10 lbs--I swear someone is going to start marketing the BB slop diet one of the days (if it hasn't been done already).  I didn't hear a weight loss comment from Michele, but she has been awfully quiet, and we may find out the slop's a factor there (remember Jessica the first week of BB8?).

For her part, Lydia has become the champion crier of the BB11 so far.  She sobs to anyone who will listen about how it's so unfaaair, she thought Jessie was her friend, didn't see this coming, etc.  This is all before veto, mind you.  And where Chima keeps worrying that she won't have the votes if it comes to that, Lydia stops crying every once in a while to say that she hopes she has "enough friends in the house" that she'll stay in the end.

They picked veto players early this morning, Jessie got Russell, Lydia got Jeff and Chima got Natalie with a HG's choice.  That last one didn't go over too well with Jessie/Russell.  They felt Chima should distance herself from JBT to avoid any alliance suspicions.  Apparently Chima's reasoning was that no one other than her would save her, so she wanted to pick someone she was sure also wouldn't save Lydia (and maybe someone who wouldn't feel pressured to use the POV).  Even Jessie had to admit that was a smart and believable explanation. It wasn't entirely clear if Russell and Jeff were random picks....I could certainly see Jessie choosing Russell, though Lydia I would have expected to pick Jordan given a choice.

I expected the comp. to start around BB's version of noon BB-time (i.e. around 3PM BBT), but they didn't trot off behind the trivia until 7PM.  They'd been on lockdown most of the day for building in the backyard, and a comp. usually takes more than 2 hours...so I'm wondering if they're just starting off on the very wrong foot of having blocked feeds during ShowtimeTime.  We'll know soon enough.  They did give us some new trivia this year, as well as a periodic message of why we're seeing trivia.  I guess that's something....

Last minute update:  Just as I was about to post, the feeds came back and the first thing we hear is BB saying "Russell, please put on your microphone." and Natalie responds, "He has the veto, he doens't have to do nothin'!"  So, there you go, just in time for ShowtimeTime.  More later.....