simplyme

Yeah. God, I hope she doesn't work in customer service. I can't be bothered to check. The only way I can possibly excuse her ignorance of the difference between "blunt" and "demanding and threatening" is if she's employed by either a collection agency or a bookie and that's how she's been trained to refer to her style.

They also had the last few words. I heard them say "It's "Some... flame tonight." or something like that. The body part was definitely the wrench in the gear for them.

I like David's brand of emotion moreso than Ken's. It's all in how I interpret the editing, but little things about Ken have rubbed me the wrong way. I'm still half-heartedly cheering for him, but I'm wary of what has come off to me as an undercurrent of bitterness. That said, I'm usually a sucker for the underdog unless they really, really suck. So so far, I've been enjoying watching Ken help upset the apple cart, even if I'm not yet ready to issue him shining armor.

One thing I've considered is that the votes are carefully grouped within the urn and Jeff knows which group is which. That way he knows which group to pull from and how to mix up the order to get the maximum suspense no matter what goes down. Regarding the immunity challenge puzzle strategy: I'm not sure if I'd break it down to generational or male/female lines, but I saw the way the Gen Xers moved the letters more and the Millennials left them alone and counted unless they thought they had something as another example of people working independently vs people conscious of working with others. I mean, if I'm doing a puzzle like that alone, I'll shift letters all over the place. But if I'm working on it with someone else, I do more in my head and shift the letters much less because I'm aware that they may currently have a thought process going on with certain letters, and moving them may screw that process up. So unless there's a more definite spark, I would move letters less when co-solving than when solving alone. I could be projecting that, though.

I feel bad for Adam about his mom, but I was distracted when he kept referring to her as a "huge superfan." I realize that's petty of me, but the redundancy grated. Unless he was trying to tell us she's a very large woman and a superfan, she's just a superfan. That said, Adam's like a rash. I find him irritating, yet he's growing on me.

CeCe is probably thrilled Dave played his idol. At the rate these people are turning on each other and pissing each other off, she's soon going to be last on their "to vote out" list. The long arms and kegs of the guys were an advantage in the immunity challenge, but only if they can do puzzles. Otherwise, just go for the lighter people who can spell. Or maybe clone David. (Words I never thought I'd type.)

Jess wasn't stupid. She had no reason to believe Ken, the guy who has been stirring the pot, over Lucy, who has been her ally since day one. It was reasonable to be skeptical of Ken. Unfortunately, he was telling the truth, and Ken appears to be one of those people that if you slight him, he will carry a grudge. What she should have done was try and check it out with Sunday and Dave and see what vibes she got. I read Lucy as liking being in control and simply seeing this as a good time to seize control, and the way to do it was to rally people to vote Jess out while she was vulnerable. Bret had Lucy's number, too, based on one of his THs about how Lucy came right up to them and started talking... but of course, it was in Bret and Chris's best interests to go along with that plan. Ken took Jess not taking him at his word very personally and he was pissed. I figure that had as much to do with his vote for Jess as anything else. I love David, and watching him play that idol was sweet. That said, about 90% of the time that would be a dumb move. On the other hand, he appears to be the only person on the Gen X Tribe even vaguely capable at puzzles. He was getting NO help on that one. None. Talking about the immunity challenge... Gen X sent three guys to be lifted and do the puzzle. David seemed like the only good decision there. Chris weighed a freaking ton and Ken only half a ton, and neither appeared much help on the puzzle. Then again, I don't know that the women would have done any better. Meh. I like CeCe so far. She has a sense of humor and doesn't overreact. I'm hoping she can hang in there a bit longer. (That's probably the kiss of death. Sorry, CeCe.) Finally, almost everyone except Dave and Michaela annoyed me this episode. Jesus, people. Glad I'm not on an island with you.

Miley is talented and smart. The antics she gets panned for are the modern equivalent of what Madonna did in the 80s. They may not be my personal taste, but there's truth to the bumper sticker "Well-behaved women rarely make history." (The origin of that line was an purportedly an academic paper, interestingly enough.) She isn't hurting anyone, just performing in ways that garner attention. That's fine by me. As to tension on set, there's a rumor about that every season, it seems, and it's pretty much always about the (or a) female judge. *eyeroll*

A lot of it depends on who you're texting (and if you're using a flip phone or such where you have to press the same key multiple times to get a letter.) If it's your professor, for God's sake, be formal. If it's your best friend or spouse, no one cares. If he's stuck on a flip phone to his bestie, even Shakespeare is typing 2 b or not 2 b.

I don't know if it's 100% fair to paint Jay this way. Jay could very well have been conflicted about the vote: Figgy is in his alliance, but she's also his rival for the time and loyalty of Tayls. So he went immediately to Michelle to see her reaction and if she wanted to save Figgy. Michelle laid out why they should, and Jay committed. So, yes. Michelle deserves the credit for saving Figgy, but I don't know that Jay would really have been in a worse place personally if Figs went home.

Technically, Hispanic is a culture, not race, but I take your point and am properly chastised. :) Actually, one of the things I like about the Millennial tribe is that aside from the "pretty people" comments (which they seem to have drifted away from the more they've gotten to know each other), they've appeared to be pretty open to working with each other in various combos, and they work well as a team with little to no apparent judgment that we've seen. The Tri-Force reminds me of the first few weeks of college. There are people you meet and hang with initially because they're there and you have some things in common, but as you get to know others and develop deeper friendships, a lot of those initial friends become much less important.

Reread this after sleeping and realized I sounded like I had a stick in very uncomfortable places when I wrote it. Wow. I stand by the points I made, but no shade was meant for those with a differing opinion. And yes, I would not last long on Survivor. :)

Are you perhaps conflating her speaking patterns with her intelligence? Because I can assure you that's a mistake. I have a number of friends and relatives with high IQs and multiple degrees that often sound like good ole boys fresh off the farm, their speech rife with "words" *cough* like "boughten" and "heighth." That's all about their socioeconomic milieu and geographic location. IMO, Michaela has made several astute judgments and decisions, and she's certainly capable of turning a clever phrase. She's also self-aware. She knows she can't hide it if she dislikes someone. The machete may have been overkill, but if you can't hide it, embracing it so you don't come across as false may be the better option.

I have to speak up on the vinyl vs CD thing too. I'm not a music geek, but even I know there are some plusses (and minuses) to both. Does vinyl really sound better? An engineer explains http://www.oregonlive.com/music/index.ssf/2014/11/does_vinyl_really_sound_better.html

Other things that occurred to me last night when I couldn't sleep: I wonder what the Millennials thought after CeCe touted Ken as "the most humble guy ever" and then he came out with "as much as I really like catching all those fish and squid and octopus, as a tribe we decided not to give you the fishing gear." I'll be curious to see if we're shown any discussion amongst the Millennials about Paul being pointed out as a leader at the summit and then being voted out.

Actually, I kind of wonder if a lot of Paul going wasn't actually what he said, but the fact that he'd worn out his welcome with the ladies and that was a perfect thing for Jessica to use to justify flipping. I mention this because of previously-invisible Lucy! I'm pretty sure it was Paul she snapped at in the challenge when he was hectoring her to get across the beam, and she didn't really seem to hesitate after Jessica brought up what Paul said. Hey, Lucy's down with getting rid of Paul if you two want to! It made me suspect that the women have good poker faces but didn't like Paul's need for control, barking orders, and discussing with Bret and Chris and then just telling the women what the plan was. Or maybe they voted out Paul for being a Baby Boomer spy. (His inclusion on the Gen X tribe confused my mother for a while. "Wait. Are there three tribes? Why is there an older guy?")

Chris and Bret don't strike me as meathead bros. Yes, they've said some non-complimentary things about people not in their alliance, but most people do. TPTB sort of encourage that. They aren't mean to David, and Chris had a brief TH in the first episode where he said he thought David could be really nice and funny, but his paranoia was an issue. In fact, they don't appear to be that mean to anyone. They just aren't including them in their alliance. (Apparently Bret is an openly gay cop. I imagine he might understand quite well what it's like to be bullied and hopefully would avoid it. I hope.) I have to agree with @candall that I'm curious about Ken's editing. Before this episode, I thought his status was primarily due to challenging Paul and his social anxiety. Now... I'm getting some egotistical vibes and bitterness. We also have no idea how often he interrupts people to talk about the beauty of language (or something else), possibly in a slightly condescending tone. The glances that people interpreted as mocking what Ken was saying could very much have been "Oh, shit. Here he goes again." I don't know the truth. But I suspect that these people, and the tribe dynamic, is more complex than we have been shown, and the meatheads versus sensitive, independent model characters are overly simplistic projections.

I think Adam's point was that Figgy is the glue. Taylor follows Figgy. Jay sticks with Taylor. Michelle also seems to be closest to Figgy. Take Figgy out and you might be able to split the other three (presumeably by getting Michelle and the boys on opposite sites). If you take Michelle out, Taylor still follows Figgy and Jay still sticks with his bro Tayls, so you still have a solid threesome of votes. Michelle is the brains, but Figgy is the heart.

Oh, Hannah. She is one of those people who doesn't yet understand that different people have different communication styles and ways of dealing with emotions. Clearly she wants to talk about problems right now, and she doesn't grasp that other people need space to process before they can talk about things in their own time. Pushing them to talk now now now is a disaster. Them asking for space is not a rejection. Hopefully she'll learn this as she has more social experiences and get better at dealing with it, but man, that scene was awkward. *facepalm* Paul's comeuppance was beautiful. I'm enjoying how calmly Jessica handles everything and how she thinks things through before making a move. (She and Sunday both got their bags across in a reasonable time. Chris actually went three times, carrying not only his own bag, but also Lucy's and Paul's.) I like Ken with what the editing has shown so far, but as @Lamima (I think?) said, there does seem to be an undercurrent of contempt there, and I'm a little wary to see if he is one of those folks who demonizes anyone he sees as not on his side. Sunday's accent is fine for me. I have a bit of Great Lakes accent going on myself. It's the screechy quality to the tone of her voice that grates (and stopped my father in his tracks in episode one). The millennials aren't bugging me the way they are some people. A few of them seem a bit carefree and maybe not as strategic as they could be since they're in Survivor, but I found Paul more overbearing. As to Michaela's comment about "if they were our parents," that was exactly her point. She said something like, "If they were our parents, they would have given us the fishing gear, but they aren't, and they didn't want to make us stronger. Which I guess makes sense." and then shrugged. She pretty much acknowledged the Gen Xers did the strategic thing rather than treating the Millennials like their children. Somehow people seem to have missed the second part of her statement...

This never would have occurred to me, and yet it is bizarrely true. I mentioned your Gonzo thing to my mother at dinner Monday night. She greeted me Tuesday morning with, "Thanks for telling me James looked liked Gonzo. Now I can't stop seeing it. I'm just waiting for him to fling himself in front of a taxi." So, yeah. Thaaaaaanks. :P

People always come up with crap like this. If part of the rules of a game is lying and misleading are ok and everyone knows that going in, then as far as I'm concerned no one is a hypocrite if they lie. Not even scout leaders like Lil or self-proclaimed religious folk. I mean, if they have to play by different rules, I totally want to be the one playing poker against them.

I agree with @peachmangosteen on this one. Paul likes to be in control. He's said that multiple times. Ken sort of countered Paul's chest beating speech in Ep 1 by saying not to underestimate anyone, and he mentioned he could be an asset because he'd lived off the grid. I would guess that to Paul, Type A control freak, that came across like a younger wolf challenging the alpha even if it was not what was intended. In the first ep, Bret listed the voting bloc as himself, Chris, Paul, Jessica, Sunday, and Lucy. He dismissed the others (including Ken, by name) with "we don't need them." Since they were talking about splitting the vote and I can do basic math (4 outliers voting together beats 3 of your split votes) that struck me as a particularly dumb comment. I would disagree with this. One of the reasons she was able to flip Will was that he agreed that Mari was the most dangerous player on the tribe. That was what they talked about. While I think that was shortsighted of him, I think the sentiment was there even if we weren't shown it in others. I think that's one of the reasons she chose Mari as the target. Amen. Hannah got blindsided with a choice between two alliances and loyalties. She wasn't desperately seeking acceptance. She asked for a reason. She thought about it. And while viewers may be upset Figgy is still there, macking with Taylor, and Mari went home, Hannah wisely sussed out who was probably really going home and put herself in a better position than if she'd rejected Michelle's request. The puppy comment really ticked off SimplyMom, who has never watched Survivor before this season. (Boy, is she in for a treat. So far she's summed it up with, "Well, I feel like a genius after watching these idiots.")

Here's my understanding: There's an alliance if four who don't want to lose Figgy: Jay, Taylor, Figgy, and Michelle. That's four of the votes right there. Michelle was smart enough to want to keep her alliance intact, and to do that, she picked as a target the person she thought she could most easily make others paranoid/worried about going far: the woman who plays games for a living. She flipped Will by playing on that. "Who is the most dangerous, though?" (Will, stupidly, did not see that the answer is "the person who has the most votes" and instead thought "the smart, strategic gamer." Exactly what Michelle wanted.) Michaela flipped because Jay told her Zeke said she was the next out after Figgy because she was an easy decision. (Unsure if Zeke said that or not due to buzzsaw running in my kitchen when Zeke approached Jay. *muttermutter*) Hannah had ties to both Mari and Michelle. This was essentially her choosing who to trust and go with, though in the end her vote was unnecessary. It was good gameplay by Michelle and Jay. Zeke shouldn't have told Jay to begin with. Figgy and Taylor are still morons. Gen X. Meh. I'm glad to see Ken and David bonding. Go shy guys! I did notice how gentle Ken was with him last ep with the walking stick insect, so that was cool. Looking forward to the tribe mix-up. I'm kind of hoping Taylor and Paul end up on the same tribe just to watch Paul's head explode. Oh... You know how they keep referring to "the pretty people" on the Millennials tribe? The thing is, they aren't actually pretty. What they ARE is white, around the same age (not as young as Will), not Jewish, and don't fall outside certain style parameters (like Zeke). I certainly think Michaela and Mari are better looking than Michelle and possibly Figgy, but ymmv.

Two hours AND it has Florida Georgia Line! I'm so not watching anything but the last 5 minutes.

It sounds like some have been assigned, others have gotten to rank options and then been assigned, some have offered a list and gotten to do one on the list, and some got to choose for the blind auditions. So it seems to depend some on season and singer. I don't know that I would 100% believe an anonymous reddit poster claiming to be a Voice finalist with no real proof. The previously.tv thread with input from multiple people having gone through the experience seems more reliable to me as a way to see which things keep popping up, but YMMV.