simplyme

Also in this episode, the Asian woman and the male doctor were both called smart. The blonde nurse with a doctorate? She got called super cute. (Granted, Cole does not seem to be a mental giant. Way to tell the tribe jagoff where the idol is, Cole.) I thought Chrissy, Ben, Aly, and Ryan came off as fairly good social and strategic players this episode. We'll see if that continues. If I were on Patrick's tribe, I'd be praying he got laryngitis.

I thought that a few times about the BB contestants this season. Sometimes I wasn't sure wtf language they were mangling in there. I don't have a problem with people who are native speakers of other languages who haven't gotten English yet. Learning a second (or more) language is hard, and it takes time and energy and sometimes money. Also, whether you can produce the sounds exactly, without an accent, often depends on your age. But if it's your native language like it was for some of the houseguests? Omg. They definitely committed some bloody crimes against the English language in that house.

The way to have more people of any particular demographic last longer is to cast more of them. It's not unusual for people to unconsciously favor the familiar. (Apparently even to the point where there is something known as the name-letter effect* where people prefer mates with the same first or last initials or to live someplace with a name similar to theirs.) Since Survivor tends to cast white 20-somethings as the majority most seasons, I'm guessing white 20-somethings have a slight edge in the social game. Notice I said slight. This isn't a hard and fast rule. *Name-letter effect article in Psychologist World: https://www.psychologistworld.com/emotion/name-letter-effect-attraction

I don't think Alan is a superfan, but his interviews sound like he's seen enough of the game ro be somewhat informed. I don't know that Alan really thought this through much more than "accuse JP of having an idol and don't let it go." He may have simply got caught up in it, and the suggestion to go down to the beach could have been to give JP some possible distance from women in the tribe before dropping trou. Or he just threw it out there expecting JP to say hell no and raise suspicions.

We didn't see very much of her, so it was difficult to much of a read on her. In pre-game interviews with Josh Wigler, Simone from the hustlers tribe had Katrina pegged as a cancer survivor: She isn't a cancer survivor, but Simone wasn't that far off. Wigler writing about Katrina: So if Simone picked up on that before they were even allowed to talk, I wouldn't be surprised if others got a similar sense. Btw, link to Wigler's profile on Katrina that I pulled the above stuff from: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-player-profile-meet-katrina-radke-1035732 Also, when I suggest possible reasons for voting Katrina out, I'm not saying being an Olympian isn't really impressive, or doesn't require hard work, or that Katrina isn't a wonderful person. I am saying that every person in that tribe is ultimately playing to win (or should be), and that voting out Katrina may have been the right thing for their game, even if it sucked for Katrina. I mean, they vote out people I like all the time on Survivor. That doesn't make them bad people. It can make me frustrated, but it makes the remaining players closer to the goal and often it's a good decision.

I've come across the name Roark before, though admittedly primarily in romance novels.* I mean, no one in a romance novel is named Joe Brown. They're all named things like Roark or Murphy or Honoria or Cidra. It's Irish. Roark is usually a guy's name when it's a first name, but hey, Survivor Roark seems to be rockin' it just fine. :) Of course, I'm also the person who named a World of Warcraft character Rionnach. I guess I like Irish names. *I read other things, too.

Oh, I'm sure they did. I'm just pointing out the moment my dislike of Mike began and the trigger. It went downhill from there for me. Of course, it's the first episode. Lots of time to change my mind... or possible just be really irritated by him. Heh.

Or maybe we could still pick someone... This just means there's a chance no one will choose the eventual winner as "their" castaway.

For me, it was the words, "I'm a sex doctor!" Just freaking say you're a urologist who specializes in patients with sexual dysfunction. Don't go for the cheap thrills, Mike.

Based on how people were acting, would you team up with Patrick, who was kind of hyper-not-in-a-good-way and talking about eating a stick insect? Ali, who immediately wandered off with Patrick? We didn't really see much of Lauren or Simone this episode. I'll also pull part of a quote from Josh Wigler's pre-game profile of Ryan. This is Devon talking about his perception of Ryan pre-game: "He's nice. He's for sure nice. I might have a hard time connecting with him, but I'm going to do my best." So it could also be that Ryan went for Devon because Devon was specifically making an effort in that direction. Chrissy is "old" too by Survivor standards, as am I. I would argue that she's apparently more strategic and socially aware than Katrina. For me, I think assuming that Chrissy is mediocre because she didn't make the Olympics is rather harsh. (Thinking about aging and accomplishment and mediocrity makes me think of a Dr. Seuss quote: "I climb Mt. Everest just as often as I ever did." That's true for me! Never done that... but I've done other great stuff and don't consider that a huge loss.) IMO, Survivor has never been an even playing field. People come in with preconceptions of the kinds of people they want to work with in various stages of the game, and castaways must try to move the target to others as best they can. Katrina failed to do that.

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but there's bullying and then there's bullying. I grew up in a time when you used the term for any type of picking on someone, and since there were definitely some threatening overtones in Joe's little convo with Mike it's the term I used. How evil that is? It was a one time thing in a competition, and we all have to learn how to deal with various types of social manipulation. That's actually healthy and functional. I'm not really horribly upset by it. I consider bullying to be a consistent pattern of harassment or more extreme and hurtful than just the pressure Joe exerted. What occurred on BB was bullying in italics. But I did want to point out that I might be using the term a bit differently and more casually than some other people do.

@Tammee You mean a slide puzzle? You want to focus on getting the pieces in order in the top row first. Then do the next row down. Then the next, and so on.

If it helps, in her interviews, Katrina kept talking about what kind of "energy" people gave off. She came off as very new hippie, I guess? So she might not have fit in all that great for a number of reasons.

Ryan seems fairly astute and not like he's crushing on anyone to me. He kept his mouth shut about his advantage until he knew exactly what it was and that it was a one-time, this TC only use, then he used it both to help build a possible alliance in his tribe and to try to keep a possibly weaker player on another tribe there in the hopes that a stronger player would go home. As to picking Devon to ally with, Ryan is aware of people's perceptions of him. I don't see choosing Devon as a starry-eyed infatuated choice, but a strategic one. Ryan will want a meat shield. There are two big guys on the Hustlers tribe (and big guys tend to stick around for a couple votes), and atm Devon seems like the calmer, more easygoing option. If they can pick up a third, they're starting to look really good.

Another thing I was pondering: On the surface, Joe evokes Tony. But as much as I disliked Tony, he seemed much more socially aware than Joe seems. Tony laid low at first and focused on building alliances with people and then moved on to taking out his competition and solidifying his power. Joe is starting out by very obviously trying to throw Mike under the bus to his tribemates (Would you trust a tribemate that was clearly playing that hard on day 2?) and bullying one of them.I just can't see Joe lasting very long.

Possibly. It's also possible that Alan didn't go because Ben, Chrissy, and Katrina were all nervous about JP and Ashley, too, and this appeared to be a tribe focused on strength, so they didn't want to vote out a guy. I think they'll live with the conflict for a while so long as there are muscles at stake. :P

I'm pretty sure Ashley would have gone home as the person with the second highest number of votes. Essentially this was an immunity idol that: 1. Could be played for self or another after the votes were read, BUT 2. Was only good at the first TC So it would only confer immunity on the person it was played for (as usual for immunity idols), not nullify the vote. As for why Chrissy didn't save Katrina: Just because they're both outside the main alliance doesn't mean Chrissy felt it was in her best interest to ally with Katrina. Knowing that Alan and Ben both have issues with JP and Ashley pairing up probably made Chrissy decide to go in with them on this vote and then be the swing vote (probably on Alan/Ben's side) if they lose again.

Joe being a healer was answered in some interview Probst gave pre-show. From what I recall, Probst said he was talking to Joe about his job and Joe told him he wasn't really the parolee's opponent. He was there to try to help them during a difficult time of transition. However, that means he not only tries to give them goals and resource ideas, but he also holds them accountable for their actions. Hence... he's a weird type of healer. As to financial analysts being heroes... I think Chrissy is in there because they wanted her and that's where she fit best, but I think they're going for the angle of managing to be both a great parent and managing to be very successful in her career at the same time. Given how difficult parenting is, I don't mind the shoutout.

I enjoyed Ryan and thought he handled the advantage well. I was also impressed by Desi and Mike calming down enough to do the straight rail table maze at the end. That looked difficult. The term "power couple" annoys the bejesus out of me. They're two unified votes so they have a bit more power if they handle it right. If not, they're giant targets. So they're just a pair atm. I could see that Alan was trying to turn people against JP and Ashley, which strategically wasn't a bad move, but jeeeeez. Tone it down, buddy. Patrick looked like he would annoy the hell out of me. Poor Ali. Mike... might have potential eventually if he settles down. I can't see Joe the threatmongerer lasting very long. As to Chrissy, being a good parent and then re-entering the workforce and succeeding at a job? I think that's just as important and inspiring as being an Olympian or NFL player. Note: Neither Alan nor Trina were going to mention to people that they were an NFL player/former Olympian. So no idea what the Heroes thought Katrina did, but they probably didn't know about that. Also, I don't know that Chrissy was close to Katrina so much as they were the two odd moms out. Getting rid of Katrina means Ben and Alan are more likely to pick up Chrissy as their third since they're worried about JP & Ashley, and Chrissy may have decided Katrina was weaker than Ashley.

But to be fair, Mark is pointing out that he's being bullied and harassed for things someone else said. We have no idea if he discussed the tweets with her in person and indicated that he found them awful, and imo we have no right to demand that Mark holds some sort of public briefing to inform us what he did say to her. Or to demand that he break up with her because she posted nasty things awhile back. Elena posted it. People can take issue with Elena, but I think targeting other people in her life for her actions and demanding they act in certain ways or you'll harass them is over the line.

This is kind of harsh, but imo the thing about Gabon for me is that very few of the players were actually good at Survivor strategically or socially, and they didn't seem to be a particularly athletic bunch either. Randy, Sugar, and Corinne were all brought back because they were memorable characters, not because they were good players. Before rewatching Gabon, I had remembered Sugar more fondly. After I rewatched it a few months ago, I was appalled at what a hypocrite she was. She was kind of nasty to people she disliked and justified it by saying they were bad people. Way to take the high road, Sugar. She also was horrible at strategy and several of the physical challenges. Randy has very little social game. He's a curmudgeon in a Hawaiian shirt. Corinne is strategic and athletic and can apparently be charismatic, but anyone with two brain cells notices that she's playing hard very early. She also has a hard time swallowing her ego if she feels slighted. Ken is really the only one I wanted to see back from that season. The thing is, I'm not sure he was that great a player either or if he just looked good because omg was he playing with a bunch of morons. Now the wildlife? It was awesome.

Eh. I think it depends how he means it. Terms change over time, and the older you get the harder it seems to be to keep up with the best term. Also, sometimes people can't agree. My general rule of thumb is that if someone is trying to be decent and respectful, that's what counts. If they use a term you dislike, tell them what term you prefer and why, but don't act like they were a jackass because they didn't know. I mean, I used to know all the preferred terms for various LGBT groups back in the 90s and early 2000s. Now? God help me. So if his problem is more with people who blow up over not knowing what cisgender means, I kind of understand. I'll also add that my dad is rather elderly and keeps forgetting his PC terms. When and where he grew up, the terms "colored" and "Oriental" were used. My mother and I gently mutter the correct term (black/African American and Asian/Asian American) and he immediately corrects himself. It's not intentional, and he doesn't mean to disrespect people. His brain just isn't retaining that. (Or a lot of names...) So I think people need to try to remember that people are people, and we all err. Forgiveness, decency and respect in both directions should be the goal. Now if he's talking about the jerkwads who say things like, "I was just joking when I used the N word," then we can get out the pitchforks and torches. I'll help lead the mob in that case. ;)

Hey, I think she's pretty smokin', but given that this is a cast made up of incredibly ripped people AND the guys around her age aren't noticing her but are salivating over several of the other women, I'm saying she's apparently not a knockout in their eyes. That's why I said "not gorgeous" instead of "not attractive" or "not good-looking," because to me she clearly is attractive. I just don't know that she's hot/gorgeous in a way that will benefit her. My point was that I'm seeing her accrue some of the possibly negative Asian woman stereotype words in these comments like she's smart, she's a follower or useless, she's sneaky (or "got something up her sleeves"), and she isn't getting much real warmth back. A few women thought she was pretty, but no real guy reactions of "Whoooo!" like some of the other women. A couple people said sweet. It's really the only interview I read where I had a weird feeling in my stomach when I was done because things like "smart" kept coming up so often. Which as Liz from Russell Hantz's first season said, is nice but can be a double-edged sword. Of course, it also sounds like she's playing way too hard... but it was hard for me not to notice comments that seemed like big racial assumptions. Some of the "smart" comments gave a solid reason, like Dr. Mike, some didn't, but the comment that jumped out to me was Lauren's follower comment. Maybe that's because she's smiling at everything, but I would have phrased it differently.

Hollywood Reporter's Simone Nguyen profile: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-player-profile-meet-simone-nguyen-1042157 I'm not sure how to phrase some of the things I'm feeling after reading that. I guess this was a player profile where I read it and just overall was left with the impression that she has an uphill battle partly because she's an Asian woman (but not a gorgeous one) and there are some unconscious biases that may be in effect. Not saying it isn't partially her personality, too, mind you. :) That said, I continue to be impressed by Ryan, Alan, and Roark's comments in general. Surfer boy Devon seems like an idiot. Cole seems to mostly be assessing people on how much he wants to hang out with them or hook up with them. So far, I cannot figure out how JP got cast. He's so bland he makes beige look exciting, and his powers of observation are summed up in this comment on Simone, "Just another girl. We'll see what happens with it all."

Every time yinz use the term puppetmaster with anyone from this crew, I immediately think of this video:The Reverend: Evil League of Evil Application It's one of the fan-made supervillain Evil League of Evil application videos that was chosen to be released with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Because if the word puppetmaster is going to keep coming up, I want someone else to picture a singing reverend puppet, dammit.