simplyme

Nurse practitioner requirements vary by state. I hope to God I never need medical care in yours. :O

To respond to a few things... and also... Patrick's post-game interview with Josh Wigler on THR is interesting (and hysterical in some ways) reading. He's still deluded, I'll say that. But he does mention that Devon is very quiet and it sounds like as much as he trusted Ali, he viewed himself, Ryan, and Devon as a threesome and saw the women as expendable. From http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-patrick-bolton-exit-interview-1048039:

I don't think seven people in their 30s and 40s is that far off from the usual, it's just that there's usually at least a token 50+ person in there somewhere. We didn't get that this season.

Patrick's post-game interview with Josh Wigler is up at THR: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-patrick-bolton-exit-interview-1048039 Patrick is STILL an ass and still delusional. He says several times that Lauren should have gone home, not him. He also doesn't think refusing to switch out and losing the challenge changed anything.

Eh. Don't worry about it. I'm not sure he can either.

I know many of you are sick of the challenges, but some of us like them. My father watches specifically for the challenges and the TCs. He could not care less about camp life. (Interestingly enough, he has a fairly good record at predicting who will be voted out and who will win despite taking numerous smoke breaks during the strategizing/camp footage.) For my family, this episode went a little long before it hit the challenge. Or maybe we just didn't care to spend that much time on Jessica and Cole. We get it. They like each other. Move on to Cole spilling the beans about the idol. Glad to see Patrick go. I thought Lauren did an excellent job throwing him under the bus at TC, even though I'm sure the decision was made prior to that. What I'm really curious about is where Ali stood, because I was getting the sense that she *really* wasn't happy with Patrick. I also wonder if Ryan really meant "I want to keep Pat" or if that sentence was followed by another one later on starting with "but I'm worried blah blah...if we do keep him." Either way, not sad to see him go. Honestly, I thought Alan showed a sense of humor about being unable to chop the coconut. I mean, he obviously expected to be better at it, but his remarks were self-deprecating. I appreciated that.

I think what happened is that this was the first time they had anyone get that far into the game and then quit so there was nothing in their rules that addressed the situation. Previously all other quits had been pre-jury. I think from a legal standpoint they were afraid to say Naonka and Purple Kelly couldn't be on the jury. I seem to recall Jeff making some comment (maybe during the reunion show?) about it not being a situation they'd thought to cover, but boy, was that gonna change. I can't definitively say this is why, but it's what I ended up with as my impression.

Those can be overcome, though. It somewhat depends on the rest of the cast. Historically, being an older man is less damning than being an older woman (and occasionally any woman). Samoa's Mike Borassi made it to day 5 before being medevaced despite being close to useless in challenges. He was never a target. As for "I ain't pretty," I always had a soft spot for Redemption Island's Ralph. I don't think most people would call him pretty. Hairy, yes. And you're waaaaay more articulate than Ralph.

As @Winston9-DT3 said, you misunderstood. She works for the Asian American Bar Association and advocates for greater diversity in legal fields, in her case especially for Asian Americans. Since law is one of the least diverse professions with 88% of lawyers being white* there's a reason such jobs exist. *source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/27/law-is-the-least-diverse-profession-in-the-nation-and-lawyers-arent-doing-enough-to-change-that/?utm_term=.8067514cac37

Especially if you think they're more annoying than you. I'd keep the loyal, annoying meatshield whose muscles and unpredictability may worry some folks over the not-as-loyal, annoying, "moldable" player who may be seen as a goat by others (thus possibly making ME the target instead). I mean... Camping trip? Simone over Patrick. But in Survivor, strategically for Ali and probably Ryan/Devon to some extent too, I can see choosing Patrick.* *Though God help him if he kept waking me up at night, as a former upstairs neighbor-from-hell discovered when I was an apartment-dweller. I apparently morph from easygoing church-lady muppet persona to demon-possessed Hyde complete with guttural bass voice and language that makes sailors blanche.

Desi and Roark. Gorgeous, ripped, black physical therapist with a doctorate and pagaent history (Desi) and slightly geeky, blonde, white social worker who was once a buyer for Bloomingdale's and likes the physical stuff too (Roark). We haven't seen much of them since they apparently didn't provide noteworthy enough drama or romance. I thought they both looked promising. Getting a TH or so but no drama the first two eps sounds good to me. I'm hoping I got to see Joe now because he's going soon and I'll get to see them later because they're not bloody annoying. *crosses fingers*

I can't help it. Every time you use the term fisher, I picture the animal. Any porcupines on that island are toast, man.

I thought it was interesting that in her Wigler interview (see: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-simone-nguyen-exit-interview-1045997 ), Simone mentioned that so far everone on the tribe loves Ryan: So according to Simone, Ryan is super charming.

I imagine if they're fans of the game, they know enough to play a bit to production. That means not mentioning that there's usually a tribe swap, and then when it comes pretending to be surprised. If they do talk about it, I figure production won't show it, because when it comes it's supposed to be an OMG tribe switch-up! moment! *eyeroll* Er, excuse me. I think my slightly jaded curmudgeon is showing a bit today. Sorry bout that. ;)

Yeah. The most exciting thing I got out of his interviews is that he has a dog named Thor. So far, I'm kind of wishing they'd cast the dog.

Yes to all of this. :) For me, so far he's been a less-hyper Todd. I don't really see Cochran as much because Ryan seems waaaay more socially adept than Cochran.

Eh. TPTB stuck her on a tribe. It's not like she even knew what the tribes were ahead of time. I mean, how is a diversity advocate a hustler? How was Caleb a game changer? The woman wanted to play Survivor for years. As someone who hates themes, I'd rather they cast people who don't fit the stupid theme but might be good. Granted, I'd like it even better if they killed off the themes, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm just hanging in there til they do a tribal swap and the stupid theme gets less coverage. Please, make that happen soon.

Heh. I read that differently. Given that Alan went off and made people worry that he's a loose cannon, JP seems rather dim, and Ashley is the person multiple people in pre-game interviews expressed shock at seeing a smile on her face in her photo as she apparently had resting bitch face pre-game, and JP and Ashley appear allied, I think Ben and Chrissy were just delighted to have found an ally who seemed stable. Two are better than one, and with Alan and JP/Ashley on the outs with each other, if Ben/Chrissy stay calm and not-obviously-together they can side whichever way they want. It seems good for both of them.

And here's Simone's post-game interview with Josh Wigler on THR: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-simone-nguyen-exit-interview-1045997 I really liked her in this interview. She was very gracious and good-natured, imo.

Speaking of eye candy, Patrick's eyes were gorgeous in the TC lighting. I mean, I'm sure he doesn't want to go back, but that was a good look for him, imo. I should probably put this in Simone's thread, but here's her post-game interview with Josh Wigler: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-simone-nguyen-exit-interview-1045997 Apparently she felt it was a fair edit. She didn't gel and was very open (including about where she went to school--good call on that whoever called me out on that. Bryce or Lance?) but said Patrick is hideously annoying and screaming all the time, hence why she targeted him instead of "salt-of-the-earth" Lauren. She's very gracious and good-natured in her interview, imo.

I few things I saw people ask that I saw answered in THR's pre-game interviews: Lauren may not be fishing because in her pre-game interview with Josh Wigler she said she wasn't going to tell people she was a professional fisherman. No, I don't know why. She was going to go with landscaper instead (which she does part-time). Chrissy is an actuary. She had a very successful career, quit to be a stay-at-home mom for years, and then went back to work as an actuary and again became very successful. I believe she was the head of a company's department before she resigned to play Survivor. She said she was going to use the term financial analyst because she was afraid the term actuary would scare people and make them think she was smart, whereas a financial analyst is pretty broad and can be a lot of things. It also tends to bore people and once you say that they don't ask questions. TPTB apparently think no one knows what an actuary IS, so they just went with "financial analyst" too. Also... Chrissy is a huge Survivor fan. She's been applying for years. I think she said since S2 or S3? So she was so excited to make the cast she was willing to quit her job. I don't think she cares what tribe she got shoehorned onto. She's just glad to be there.

To clarify, I don't think they cared about her Asian ancestry. :) I think they may have found more commonalities with each other, and that may have worked against Simone socially and may have contributed to her boot. It isn't anything they would necessarily be conscious of, though. She could also just be weird and annoying as hell. On another thread, I referenced an article on the name-letter effect, where people tend to prefer partners, brands, and hometowns with their first or last initial. A paragraph from that article: It's not like anyone says, "Hey, one of the reasons I married my spouse is we have the same first initial!" But it does actually tend to reflect favorably on someone. Others have said Simone didn't mesh well with her tribe. That seems to be true. When you add in a bunch of possible little ways that someone is different, including age, race, gender, accent, socioeconomic status, work ethic, etc., it can very easily lead to an unconscious bias. That said, imo being able to adapt well enough to get past that is part of the game, and Survivor isn't an even playing field. That doesn't mean I'm not going to notice and comment on possible trends, though. (Although I've talked this point to death for this episode. Anything else I'll take to the race & gender in Survivor thread.) Sorry for beating that dead horse one more time, @princelina. *skulks off*

Me too! I actually said aloud, "Wow, he has pretty writing." I... did not need that mental image. Particularly not with Patrick, as hyper as he was. Nightmares tonight. *sigh* I took what Chrissy was saying not as "I'm running the show" but more as "I'm in a waaaaaay better place than I was. The foursome broke up and is infighting but they all seem to have a good relationship with me, and if things go poorly I have a powerless idol I can bluff with." And then we saw her kind of sound everyone out and heard her thoughts on them, with her essentially sounding like Ben was probably the one she would try unobtrusively to work the closest with. It sounded reasonable to me, but ymmv. :)

Sure, although I've met a couple really stupid doctors in my life, and do not get me started on Tarzan's misuse of words. (I think Tarzan is smart. I don't know that he's as smart as he thinks he is.) But my point was that calling both of those people smart was pretty stereotypical, whether or not it is true. I admit I noticed because I'm waiting to see how many times we're shown Desi getting called smart and/or articulate vs Mike vs Jessica over the course of the season. I'm betting Desi gets articulate the most, Mike gets smart the most (followed by Desi), and Jessica will be lucky to get either. I do stuff like this to amuse myself. :P I admit I'm liking Devin more than I thought I would so far, probably because he does seem easygoing.

He didn't drown, but honestly the Hustlers tribe had the three guys do the swimming part and only Devin went down to untie/move/retrieve the puzzle piece bundles. Devin did all three. He was a beast (an aquatic one with knot-untying skills) for them. So all Patrick and Ryan did was swim out with the ring, tread water, and swim back. Oh, and the guys shouted suggestions to Aly and Simone who were stuck trying to do the puzzle. The two contributions I noticed were Patrick suggesting switching a couple signs (that was wrong), and Devin telling Simone to just stand there and let Aly do it. So really... Simone was going before the challenge ever occurred as far as I can tell.