I'm watching you

Number one on the list of things I get most excited about during the summer is Big Brother on CBS. Big Brother is a reality show in which a number of strangers live in an isolated house and compete to win a cash prize. It is the purest form of a reality TV show in my opinion, because there is no big gimmick to draw in viewers like surviving on an island, or racing across the world - just sheer cattiness and backstabbing. Big Brother also offers something to its viewers that none of the other reality TV shows have provided and that's 24/7 access to the houseguests via livefeeds on the Internet, not to mention a special airing of the live feeds on Showtime called Big Brother After Dark. For a voyeur like me, this is a wet dream.

Perhaps it's a bit twisted, but I do gain a great level of pleasure from the entertainment voyeurism can provide. There's something about feeling as though you are spying on someone that makes even the most trivial thing like watching someone butter their toast seem like you are witnessing something forbidden. My apartment grants me with some of the best opportunities when it comes to people watching. I live in an upstairs apartment that's located downtown, right in the middle of several popular bars. If I'm sitting at my desk, I have a great view of everyone's comings and goings from these watering holes, not to mention all of my neighbors. Since I live close to a bar, it's not too uncommon to see people stumbling from them to seek refuge in my yard to take part of many different activities. Some nights I see blunts getting rolled up and smoked right beneath my window. I get teased by the smell of the herbal goodness and I'm tempted to ask if they share, but I fear of giving up my hiding spot. Other nights I watch as couples use the privacy fence next to me as a place to lean against, while they make out and dry hump each other into ecstasy. One guy in particular is a big fan of this spot since I have seen him take advantage of it on a few different nights, each with a different girl. I used to joke with a friend of mine that one of the ways I planned on making some cash on the side was to set up a secret "pee cam" out of my window to capture all of the unsuspecting men who choose to take a leak right below me. It's crazy the amount of penises I am exposed to on a nightly basis. This, of course, could get me into loads of trouble, so it will just remain wishful thinking for now.

I come by my love for peeping naturally. My mom and dad recently purchased several cameras to place in a few different spots outside of their house, and the cameras come with monitors which my parents are frequently watching.

"What made you decide to go with cameras?" I asked them when my curiosity got the best of me.

"For security purposes," my dad explained as he adjusted the brightness on the monitor.

I suppose that is a good enough reason, except for the fact that my parents live in the country, their only neighbors are my grandma, my aunt and a cousin, and should I even mention the fact that they NEVER LOCK THE DOORS. On the other hand, I guess if you are going to make it easy for someone to rob you blind, you might as well get them doing it on tape, right?

So for now the cameras are mostly used as an announcement service for guests.

"Victoria is here," my mom will announce as she watches the camera and spies my six year old cousin coming up the walk. This is the first activity the camera has captured all day, so it's almost a major event.

"This thing is useless," I tell her, and my mom scowls.

"It's for our safety!"

"No it's not, you all are just nosy," I try to exclaim, but I am too busy getting cut off by the static that busts through the room from my parents' scanner.

"Oooh, sounds like someone was in a car accident," my dad says to my mom.

"I think they found prescription meds on her too." Mom turns up the volume and my point is made, so I just give in and decide to listen in on what's going on too.

After weeks of having the camera placed near our walk, my mom and dad must have decided that seeing who comes into our house is not nearly as much entertainment as they thought it would be. So despite their camera being used for "security purposes," they have now relocated it to the pool area. I suppose it's now doubling as a security measure/stand-in lifeguard. I am only thankful that it was not there when I was living at home. The things that camera would have caught my friends and I doing are bad enough that I would have never been allowed to leave my house.

Despite my love for peeping, I have not yet subscribed to the live feeds that Big Brother offers. I spend enough time watching television as it is, so I figure that I do not need one more reason to keep me glued to the screen. It's just knowing about the availability of the option to spy on these people 24/7 that makes the show so much more appealing to me. After all, I like to indulge in my voyeuristic side, but I'm cheap.

Therefore, I would like to take this time to thank all of you that have been willing to spring an extra 15 bucks to watch the feeds, and then spend time afterwards writing transcripts of what you see, not to mention all of the videos you're supplying me with on YouTube.

It's people like you who get me.

Tashina Savage also has eyes in the back of her head. Email her at sundaysgirl@gmail.com