ep8: "Trash should not go in the Recycling Bin"

[Sam]

hey guys, do you think we could have a little more time for this round? i think the last tc results were posted yesterday morning. its kinda hard to find people on skype a lot with all the different time zones. i think we have plenty of days to finish by christmas and things aren't running behind or anything. the more time i have then i get to strategize and try and make things interesting and report back all the good stuff to you guys. =) plus, it just takes time to build friendships so that people feel comfortable sharing information. thanks.

[Sam]

Well, my fleet-footed friends, where to even begin.


Um... I'll have to go check when I last updated.

I guess after Sagar stole the express pass. So what, that was Wednesday night? god this game goes fast.


So after that I was up all night studying for an exam that I ended up not doing well on because I only studied for 8 hours instead of the needed 12. oops. i had those extra four hours too to spend lol i was just ADD'ing out and didn't want to do it.


then I had to spend the morning in clinic, the afternoon studying, and the exam at night. which was like 2.5 hrs long. ugh.

then I think I came online for 2 minutes to check if there were any important messages for me I needed to follow. cause in my last game I thought I was completely dead but someone had left a message to me on AIM when I was offline like two hours before the vote which might have saved me.

So no message so I went to sleep.

Then I woke up at went to class and then afternoon clinic.

Then I came home at like 6pm and checked the board and saw Chris was voted out. ;_; I'll have to do a eulogy later. Loved that bitch. <3 probably my favorite person i've met on ORGs this year. so amazing.

but time is short so let's move on to the IC posted IMMEDIATELY after the TC results which was already up by the time i saw it.

thankfully this time it wasn't over so I had about 45 minutes to eat and do it before I went out for the evening.

I looked at the puzzle and tried to use my math skills to figure out the best method. I don't think it's a surprise that the mathematician and the computer programmer won the Mastermind challenge haha. Although it is pretty random.

Anyways I quickly developed an algorithm to solve the puzzle. I don't think it was the most efficient algorithm but it was the best I could do in less than an hour. So I did that and got a bit lucky and solved in 5 steps so yay.

So I went out for the night and got to host a big game of mafia which was amazing. <3

Then the next day I found out I was versus Adrian.

I must admit, I do not like that I am winning all these Immunities. I hate immunity whores... so so so much, lol. I have only survived TWO tribal councils without immunity. that is shameful. ;_; (to be fair, they were some sassy tc survivals though <3.) I really didn't want to win this immunity, but due to our new plan I couldn't let Adrian win Immunity.

If Adrian won Immunity it would have been a disaster, so I had to win.

I mean Survivor is all about surviving socially... and I am just immunity whoring it up so no one has a chance to vote me out. =/ It's just so lame. I'm disappointed in myself.


So back to the challenge. I was fairly certain I could win. It was my day off.

So after 10 hours of relaxing sleep I got up and I set myself up for the challenge. Reread the rules and planned my attack. I had hoped to get about a 2-3 hour lead on Adrian before he started, so that he would become discouraged at how far behind he was, and start to feel down about it and quit.

That didn't happen I only got a 10 minute head start. =(

So it took me about AN HOUR to find a program online that would play an alarm exactly every five minutes. omg. that was the most frustrating part of the challenge, easy.

so finally I found one and got it to ring every 5 minutes on the dot. It's funny, cause my computer used to make this strange loud screeching sound for 2 seconds exactly every 5 minutes, and it took me like a month of computer work to figure out how to get it to stop. Now I WANT my computer to beep and I couldn't figure it out!

anyway after the alarm worked a few times I started to trust it and stopped being as nervous that I was going to miss the time.

So the alarm would just go off and I would already have the post prepared so I would just hit post. then I'd hit control+v, put in the #, and 15 seconds later I was done with that. otherwise i just did housework, played a video game, watched tv etc.

So the challenge really wasn't that bad.

I was very surprised it lasted what, four hours? it was a bit dull. I was just waiting around for the 5-6 hour mark where I would chat up Adrian on Skype to say hi. Thought we'd for sure hit 9-10 hours where I would start to be a little concerned. 13 hours is when I would have started to consider stopping.

overall it was disappointing.


so out of nowhere I won, yay. <3 (but also boo at me for being an immunity whore.)

[Sam]

SO, this is the part you actually care about. I wish I could post all my conversations and phone calls for y'all to read. Cause like you really have to read each conversation to get a feel of what's going on in the game. So so so so much juicy stuff. Why trust my word on reporting it back to you? lol.


But regardless I will try and do my best.


So stunning goddessa Chris (aka my one true ally) got voted out leaving me all alone without his angelic protection. 0=( . so sad. now i'm stuck with Sagar.

so I put that nasty message to Sagar to freak him out a little bit and make him think twice about lying to me in the future. i let him settle for 2 days without responding. then little by little I eased up and yesterday I skyped him and 'forgave' him for it lol. bitch should know that if he's gonna lie to me he better get me voted out w/ it! majorly not trusting his ass now!

anyway, good news from that. i get to distance myself from Sagar now. so that's good.

the problem is i'm worried. IF (and that's the biggest if in the world) this all works out, I could have a major problem with being linked with Sagar.

so I'm trying very hard to distance myself from him now.


ANYWAY, so in the final 8, Chris Sagar and I were brainstorming plans to crack the Mbochi. nothing was off limits. Telling them anything about anything was okay by me.

After a few days of discussing fake convos, and what to write in the fake convo and who to send it to, we were making progress. Then Sagar comes up with this unique way to fake Skype chats. Basically you change your skype name to the other person and take their avatar and type to yourself on another account lol.

I thought it was pretty funny.


So I gave Sagar lots of advice on what to put in the fake convo, and who to give it to. Most of which was ignored. But I think we all came up with some good ideas. We didn't think Dave would flip so we didn't want to target him. Adrian's a computer programmer and may be able to figure this out.

Ryan is very naive and gullible so we definitely wanted to target him and bring him on our side.

We didn't really know anything at all about Jose and Tomas. Except Jose "talked about flipping" (probably a lie) and was going to be hard to talk to. Tomas had not been around and had told me out of the blue that he wasn't flipping lol.

My suggestion was NOT to make up a f3 alliance because we didn't know the actual f3 alliance, and being wrong could mean failure. But I guess I was wrong, cause Sagar made one up and it seemed to have worked.


i.imgur.com/X03aW.png

[11/30/2012 11:01:20 PM] Ryan Quanz: Mbochi will be a chicken with its head cut off without Adrian


so much love.

anyway I think this will work!

Sagar made a booboo and put adrian/dave/jose in the f3 alliance which almost derailed us. (i told him to not try and flip tomas!) but anyway it seemed to have ironed itself out anyway. it is kind of suspicious that, but maybe ryan/jose were looking to flip anyways.

if they are fooling us with this vote, major props to them.

anyways multiple people started IM'ing me at this point. they didn't talk about the game until i brought it up which was WEIRD. but the fact that they came to talk to me was a good sign.


so like I wanted to talk to Ryan and Joe myself to see if it was real. I figured if they were being sincere, they would come to me and confirm it.

Joe IM'ed me but we didn't talk about the game. then i lightly brought up game and he wasn't biting. disappionted, i went to sleep.

then ryan wasn't responding to me.


so I was back in the dumps. then Joe IM's me again yesterday...


...and still doesn't talk about the game...

...and still doesn't bite when I start game-related convo...

Finally, pissed with all this, I just outright ask him about the Sagar/Ryan/me/Jose thing.

which 9 times out of 10 i think means it's not a genuine thing.

but for some reason i think this one is the one out of 10 where is still is.


anyway, that opens the floodgates.

jose starts spilling a lot of information.


later, ryan gets on and starts spilling too. at this moment i think it is going to work.


-----------------------------


So FINALLY the mbochi start opening up to me about their alliances and friendships and i'm like ahhhhhh. Information. Information about relationships is like my crack in this game lol. Feels so good now that I have it running through my veins.

I have to write it all down here so I remember this juicy onslaught of info.

adrian/tomas are close together. adrian/tomas/dave is the presumed f3, with both of them wanting to take tomas because adrian/dave are liked.

ryan/tomas not together. ryan/jose together. ryan/jose perhaps always been looking for a chance to flip, so when this came around, they jumped on it.

dave good friends with everyone (assumed. pretty sure on this one.)

adrian a bit controlling / intense. adrian a threat.

tomas very loyal, never has been around much.

hmm though, if jose is on the bottom, why did he use his idol to save tomas? investigate.

dave/adrian alliance. assumed.

ryan/jose alliance.

ryan tomas not close? must review ryan convos to see what else he said. maybe now ryan adrian distanced?



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so anyway i also wanted to write one of these up about my future plans but yet again, time is short and i am getting tired of writing and im sure you are bored of reading. maybe ill be back on later tonight to skype + report. i would like to get these people on phone to cement some relationships quickly. i feel like im at that point where we can talk on the phone now, so hopefully that will happen.

[Sam]

well, Sagar sent Jose ANOTHER made up screenshot. he thinks Jose is being wishy washy and wanted to lock him in.

I don't think Jose is being wishy washy. I already told Sagar this (against my better judgment, and after telling Jose I wouldn't say anything). I already reassured Sagar about Jose not flipping.

I already advised Sagar not to make another screenshot as that's kind of overkill, and unnecessary, and very risky.

I hope this doesn't cause any problems. I almost told off Sagar in Skype chat right now that he's a dolt but I don't see what good that would do at all for me lol. the damage is already done.

the problem is that in the screenshot Adrian uses "lol." Adrian has never said lol to me once in the chats we've had. maybe he does to others. but it didn't sound like him to me.

[Sam]

OKAY.

So where were we. We were at the point where I start another thirty paragraphs with the word "so." Or the word

anyways....

So anyways... hahaha.

I talked to Jose and Sagar right now and I just think this will work. I just do. We had a kerfluffle with some Tomas influence earlier. Sagar said he had to convince Ryan to lie to Tomas and tell him it was all fake so Tomas DIDN'T flip.

That's kind of risky. There's a psychological experiment that says if you are forced to argue in support of an opposing point, you are more likely to believe it and support it. Something about not wanting to be fake. So when you say outloud that you support something that you don't believe in, you actually start to believe it so you don't think of yourself as fake.

Making Ryan argue in support of Sagar lying is iffy and plus, why are we turning down votes for Adrian???

It's not for me to micromanage that situation though. My job is to support it and build up my strategic relationship with Jose and Ryan. And my friendship with them. It's also important that I ask questions and they confirm independently with me about it. I also used this opportunity to ask questions.

I got a lot of good information from them during this whole thing.

One thing I was worried about is that if Jose/Ryan and Tomas all wanted to flip, well then they don't need me or Sagar to do it! They'd just do it at final five.

Disaster Metropolis on that one folks, so I tried to put out that fire by emphasizing how in control Adrian was and an immunity whore and if we didn't get him out now we'd never have a chance.

I think all the screenshot business has been cleared up and explained now? Sagar made up a fake screenshot which convinced Ryan to want to flip. Ryan nixed the Tomas idea that the screenshot said and instantly suggested Jose as a friendly flipper. Jose confirmed with Sagar, and with me independently. Jose told me he wanted to "work with me against Ryan/Sagar" in the future with our new alliance. He also gave me a lot of good info. I think he's good.


Assuming all this is real, here is the part where it gets tricky.

My future game is bumpy. Have you ever tried to peel an orange and then place it flat on the table? You can't. Some part will bulge up. If you push that part down, another part will bulge up.

I feel like my future game is like that with the bulges = danger. Big bulges usually equal danger, so I shouldn't be surprised.

What I mean by this is at some point I will be in major danger and have to take a huge risk.

Here's what I'm worried about for my future:

-----------

Sagar has put himself in the "evil" role. I was kind of aiming for it but he definitely has it.

That means there will be positive pressure on taking Sagar to the Final 2 if he gets too much farther.

I kind of wanted that positive pressure to be me. I am worried that, for example, at the Final Five, they will vote me out instead of Sagar for F2 purposes. Even if they hate/distrust Sagar more, they will vote me out first.

This is massive danger. For this reason I would kind of like Sagar out before F4. Another option is to push my plan that Renee/Chris/me like Sagar and would vote for him to win.

I have been pushing that Renee hates me hardcore. I don't think I can pull anything off with Chris not liking me unfortunately. =(

If Adrian goes, I will be making up stories about how he hates me lol. I need people to think I can't win at jury.

Dave is another massive danger. I noticed no one really ever brought up his name as a controlling player or negatively during all this. That strongly suggests to me that they all like + trust him. And why the heck wouldn't they? He's super nice and friendly and good at Survivor and trustworthy and never lied. He clearly has a huge hook on these people.

Plus Dave is a massive threat to win this game, both immunity + social wise. If he gets too close to F2 and goes on an immunity run we all lose and he wins.

BUT, I mean in reality, Dave is my favorite person in this game even though we never really talked game. Actually last night we had our first Skype microphone convo. It was an hour long. I really liked it. I definitely accidentally spilled out more info about past TC's than I wanted haha. I was kind of surprised at how willing I was to say a lot of things. I don't think I did terribly, but I definitely let one or two things slip. I did however let a lot of things "slip" that I wanted Dave to know.

Dave was actually really open with me last night which I enjoyed.

I trust Dave the most based on his history and how he is really fun to talk to. So really I would like to work with him.

There has been a thought in my mind of possibly using this vote and trying to make Dave feel scared/isolated, and thus more reliant on me and our new strategic relationship. To that end I was thinking about finding him on Skype tonight and telling him the whole plan. To get his trust strategically.

I would have but Tomas has a nullify vote and Sagar could lose the tiebreaker and then all this would be for nothing, so I didn't.

I must admit now that I think about it though, I am pretty dumb for not thinking Dave already knows. I mean Sagar pm'd that convo to Tomas. And Dave is amazing. Of course he knows.

Maybe a missed opportunity? Sigh.

Regardless, I think I can still grab him soon and maybe make things work out.

But again, I don't want things between me and Dave to work out too well, or we have the Dave Problem rearing it's ugly head again.

But then again who am I supposed to trust? SAGAR?!?


Ryan who disappears randomly for hours in the middle of conversations? And who won't give me info unless I drag it out of him? Yeah that's real reliable and makes me feel like there's a trusting relationship there.

Tomas who I've talked to twice and who is on the other side??

The new relationship I'm enjoying most is with Jose. I think I've done a good job of making him feel like I am totally alone and rely on his guidance / mentorship to get through this game. I want him to use me as a pawn, bad haha. I want him to think I'm a sure thing in his corner and then I want him to tell me his future plans as I think that's key.

I don't know how I want the votes yet, but what I do NOT want is a backlash at Final Five where they vote me out instead of Sagar. So in the past few days I've been doing a few things to lessen that future possibility.

I hope this all works! <3