Round 02 - The Puzzles

[Matt Quinlan]

Not a lot is happening this round, but I am absolutely throwing this puzzle so that I don't get the mark of a challenge threat later. Basically I'm doing these puzzles while talking to people over IM, watching TV, browsing some websites.

Sekou was only staying because he was good in the challenges. He doesn't talk to anyone --- or at least when he does, it's with one or two words and then he disappears. So he's our weak link and we can send him out first if we lose. I talked to Aras, Chels, Sandra, and Sydney about this and we're all on the same page.

Therefore the tiebreaker is no concern, but I'll let Cochran, Chels, and Sydney make themselves look like more of a threat than I am by being our main scorer.

[Matt Quinlan]

Chelsea won the tiebreaker challenge for us, so we avoided a tribal council, and that was probably a good thing. Why? A tribal council for us would be messy, and I'd be forced to show my hand a little too early. This also puts Chelsea in a more vulnerable position because along with her fun, country-girl personality, she's shown to be the top challenge strength in the game. Puzzle-solving abilities to me are indicative of IQ, so I'd say that Chelsea is perhaps the smartest player in the game outside of myself and easily the biggest threat to win overall at this point.

As I'm continuing to discover aliases and make connections about players and other players, the game is developing into a more complicated web. I'm trying to be completely alias to everyone outside of Jay, who I hope will be an asset to me as far as breaking up these webs. You have Aras, Bobby Jon, and Gregg. You have Aras and Shawna. You have Chase randomly leading the Aras, Bobby Jon, Greg, Shawna group that is likely the majority alliance over there. This group is somewhat associating with my group due to certain connections, but there will be a point when it's likely war and if there's a tribe swap and one of us or one of them ends up in the minority, then that person will go home.

Aras appears to trust me and see use for me on his side, and he showed me the idol clues and let me help him. So I think he trusts me enough and wants to keep me around. However, I've stopped openly supporting his ideas on the board because I don't want to be grouped with him and brought down if he is. So I'm basically throwing him under-the-bus as much as possible to Chelsea, Jay, and Sandra to make sure that they don't associate me with him. I think that Aras and Sydney may have a sub-alliance like I do with Aras, so I'm being more careful about what I say to her. Basically I'd like to see Aras stick around for the sole reason I think I can get him booted at any single time in the game over myself. I'm not even that concerned about him like everyone else is.

Therefore, I hope that we win. I'll certainly be safe if we did end up losing, but I'd prefer to not betray Aras, which would result in my name being sent out as a 'backstabber' to a decent chunk of the cast. I'd actually prefer taking out a wildcard like Cochran or Mike, over someone quiet and almost non-existent (Sekou's obvious strategy) and someone easy to target like Aras.

After a lot of debate and discussion that fueled the tension between Aras and Sandra (love it!) we chose Tom to get the idol clue who will supposedly give the clue to Sandra. I really think Sandra trusts me at this point, probably more than she should even though I likely have her back, so this should be good for me.