Week 02

[kaysar]

This round really caught me off guard. I've been signing on for an hour or two and talking to 2 or 3 people each day. That seemed to be how our house was in general. We just weren't very active compared to the other house because we were able to slack and still get by. The last person for me to talk to in our house was actually Nick, but I was able to catch him online enough to have a solid conversation.

However, none of that even mattered because the challenge switched houses and changed everything.

[kaysar]

I actually found the challenge rather simple. Just click buttons, copy and paste things in a repetitive fashion. I saved all the paths with possible forks in tabs, and only had one dead end where I had to backtrack. I'm wondering if people were just not very organized and fast, or if some of the paths were just really unlucky. Either way, I ended up getting the second best time overall and won HoH. I think that's a very a good thing considering that I'm not going to be available Saturday. I was a strong candidate for a possible nomination if the other original house would have been in power this week.

I don't know this house very well. Allison and Hayley were two of the less social, less active members of my original house, but I see them as possible allies and votes on my side in the future. I've always really liked Heaven and am glad she's here with me. So none of them are going on the block. I don't know much about Aaryn, Jordan, Kathy, Lane, or Memphis so that makes these nominations more difficult.

[kaysar]

Immediately after the challenge, I was approached by Aaryn, Lane, and Memphis. Aaryn and I have been talking a little throughout the game. These weren't great chats, but I think she just wanted to make sure she had my vote in case the whole house decided evictions. I think she's a little crazy, but if I keep her safe she'll be thankful maybe? At least I'm not like Kathy who originally put her up on the block which seemed to upset her and caused her to rant a lot.

I had good conversations with Lane and Memphis. Both seem to be good conversationalists and both also threw Jordan under the bus as not being very active. I talked to both of them a while and then finally told them they were safe, hoping they appreciated it and returned the favor. Jordan hasn't really been around this round and apparently that's how she's been the whole game, so it just seems like the most safe possible nomination to make everyone happy.

Now the choice comes down to Aaryn or Kathy for my second nomination. Both are entirely equal from my perspective based on our initial conversations and our cross-house conversations this past week, but there's an interesting dynamic of last week's HoH and last week's nomination. I know Aaryn campaigned like crazy when she was put up on the block. I'll keep her safe and put up the first HoH: Kathy. This may stir up a little drama, but I also think it's fair and her conversations with me just haven't been great. Even tonight we had a few lines and she just stopped responding. I don't really think she'll be a challenge threat; the first competition had a lot of luck involved in it.

Since I'm going away, I'm going to post my nominations in my DR tonight and they can be moved in the morning. I've talked to everyone except for Jordan and she was going to go up on the block either way as the one easiest choice here. I'll talk some more to Kathy tomorrow and hopefully calm her down about this since it's not unlikely that Jordan will end up leaving and Kathy will be a pawn anyway.

[kaysar]

So with all that established, my nominations are going to be Jordan and Kathy. I'll make the post in a few minutes probably just doing a simple nomination ceremony.

I also really like how my original house is still communicating and has turned into almost an "alliance" of sorts after the swap. It really helps build on my comfort level in the game in my opinion because I have more people who might actually want to keep me around and find it beneficial to do so.

[kaysar]

I ended up not being available late Friday, all day Saturday, and early in the day on Sunday. However that was my last trip until mid-July, so a situation like that shouldn't occur again. I apologize if my absence caused any kind of inconvenience for the game. Each day that goes by now, my schedule becomes more free for the game and my online activity will increase.

Heaven winning the power of veto was a relief because it meant I wasn't forced with any difficult decisions this round. I had a decent chat with Kathy where I apologized for putting her up and told her that I wanted to keep her. I wasn't sure if Jordan or Kathy leaving was my preference, but if Kathy stayed, I didn't want her to go after me. From my conversations it sounds like the preference is Jordan going since she's rarely around. Kathy still would likely use my nomination as an opportunity to put me up next round, so I'm possibly in danger because of that. With another likely house switch, I need to be prepared for anything and extremely adaptive.

I'm not sure I fully support what Keith is doing, putting up Jeremy from our original house. I've been trying to make our original house an "alliance" to help keep me safe, but that move partially destroys that strategy and forces me to make some new ties. I also personally felt like I was connecting with Jeremy and would be able to work with him. Keith was originally considering Kenny, and I wouldn't have minded that because Kenny seems well connected and tried to talk me out of putting up Kathy before I made my nominations. Keith's justification for not putting Kenny up was that Kenny's game would backfire and he'd be an easy nomination later.

I think my goal this third round will be to try and extend my game so I'm closer to more people both inside and outside of my original house. Otherwise I don't see myself making it too much further outside of being pretty good at competitions and surviving based on those.