Week 06

[kaysar]

I think it's actually beneficial that Memphis thinks I was HoH last week so that I was nominated and have a chance to play in veto and save myself again, which I think I have a great chance to do. I certainly didn't want to beg for his safety only to be backdoored without a chance. Being nominated was better.

It was obvious that Memphis is connected, especially from staying with all the votes last round. If I win veto, I'll go after him. If I don't win veto, I can use how I'm a strong competitor and can eliminate him to potentially get the votes to stay. It might work in my favor if people think I was HoH anyway. It'll be challenging to stay because I don't have strong relationships, but I have an angle to work with and I'll do my best.

[kaysar]

This isn't my normal strategy, but I'm going to try to capitalize on my vulnerable position and hope people think keeping me around will serve as a shield for them because I'm going to keep being targeted when that side of the house wins, and that's a week they'll stay safe.

I don't see veto posted unless I'm missing it, but I plan to put a lot of focus into winning it.

[kaysar]

I've been practicing for like an hour on a board I made, but let me test something here. Please ignore the next post in this thread which will be a practice/test post.

[kaysar]

The test has been completed.

[kaysar]

I feel confident that I'll do extremely well, as long as I stay focused. I'll do the challenge around 9:15.

[kaysar]

I lost a LOT more time than I expected. Perhaps because this board has more images and code than my test board, I got a few extra seconds of lag here and there. Hopefully it's enough.

[kaysar]

I don't expect any problems, but if my Internet dies tomorrow, here's my veto decision:

"My decision is to use the Power of Veto to remove myself from the block."

[kaysar]

Everyone left has made the jury now which means I need to start thinking about how to win. I can win all the competitions I want and make intelligent strategic choices, but I'm not going to win if I don't form better relationships with the rest of the house. That's the one key aspect of my game I've been neglecting.

Since the other side of the house is in power right now, I should focus on talking to the nominees and making sure to tell them how I feel bad about their position and will go after the people who took them out. Keith is a potential replacement this round due to his connection with me and his challenge skills, and I've been chatting with him the past day. He said he'd save me if he won veto, which was a possible backup plan if I didn't win. According to Keith, no one in this game has been social on AIM lately although maybe Keith is completely out of the loop like I am. Either way, I need to start talking more to the nominees and the rest of the house, possibly even earning the respect of the people I'm against rather than ignoring them.

I picked Hayley to play in veto not really because she was from my original house, although that's a good excuse, but it was because I didn't expect her to perform well in the challenge. I was correct about that.

[kaysar]

I have a lot of respect for Memphis. Despite what happened this round and what he believes happened last round (and didn't, lol), he still took the time to talk to me for a few hours and offer me some hope in the game. We're not really working together right now but acknowledged there may be a chance to work together in the future if we keep talking and comparing notes. So this is a start, but I still have work to do.

I also had a good chat with Heaven, and she believes that the guys in the house are close (not including me, obviously). I share similar suspicions, and I'm sure there has to be a strong alliance with Jon, Lane, and Memphis. One observation that Heaven made that I didn't think about was how Memphis nominated Hayley as the replacement and left the final nominations Kathy and Hayley which seems to further suggest that there could be a larger guy alliance at work.

I talked to Keith again, who may or may not be my closest ally. He's confirmed that he's playing both sides and pretending to hate me to Memphis. The question with him is will he actually stay loyal to me or will he end up flipping to that other side who he's also committed himself to working with? I think it would be logical for Keith to stay loyal to me since I'm relatively alone, I can win competitions, and I will honor the loyalty of whoever stays on my side, but I'm just a little uncertain with him because he's a wildcard.

I obviously want to keep Kathy because she's a strong player who can help me wage war against some of the guys, but the way I see it, I'm going to be alone in that. Everyone else seems to have pledged support to Memphis saying they'll target Kathy, or at least that's what I'm assuming, to keep themselves safe. So the chances of a band of five of us coming together to get Hayley out seem so unlikely. I'll keep following the vote to see if any hope comes up, but I don't expect there will be any.

[kaysar]

I completely underestimated Hayley. She's always been so nice. We're talking now, and she seems to have a good understanding of the game and is pledging support with the assumption we'll work together in the future. With the threats taking each other out, Hayley would be my prediction to make it to the finals and win at this point because I don't see any reason why she'd be sent home, and the other side won't realize how strategically involved she is in the game.

This solidifies my vote to keep Hayley and take Kathy out. There's no support to get rid of Kathy right now, and Kathy and I have more rocky of a relationship even though she should put that aside and make the logical choice if she'd win a competition.

Out of everyone here, I really keep forgetting about Nick and have since the start. I don't know where he stands. Hayley thinks he's with Jon, Lane, and Memphis so it's safest not to warn him about anything we're setting up.

[kaysar]

It's amazing how just being online a few hours can bring you back into the loop. Perhaps I can keep this up for the remainder of the game.

I'll hold out on voting for now because Kathy has brought up some great points, but I still don't foresee getting the 5 votes to keep her safe. I'll listen to what the rest of my "side" has to say before making a decision.

[kaysar]

I don't think there's any way to keep Kathy, so I'll evict her out and leave a goodbye message. If I by some chance make finals, I think justifying to her why I voted for her in there makes sense. I think everything you can do to improve jury perception and visibility is important at this stage, which is another reason why you should talk to everyone regularly.

At this point, the next HoH is my concern and it's very important that someone I'm closer to wins, but I'd rather win myself to avoid the paranoia of possibly being backdoored.