Arlie Articulates

[Arlie Shaban]

Well hello, my old friend. It seems like for all I've said about how much I dislike Battle of the Block to where I quit watching BB16 and BB17 the same week they were announced (and didn't really watch again until f4/f3-ish), my fate is to be stuck with it. I suppose I can't hate it too much and think it messes with gameplay or flow when it kinda saved me last time I encountered it.

James, Joshuah, and Sam all getting perfect on the HOH is kinda "WTF?" but I'm not gonna obsess over it now. Just gotta grit and bear things and start down this long tough road until we get through BOTB. One step at a time.

[Kat]

[ika]

Forgive quickly,
kiss slowly
Love truly
laugh uncontrollably
never regret anything
I fall for your smile
every single time.

[Arlie Shaban]

Things actually seem to be looking pretty good right now. It looks like the worries I had about Sam and James winning HOH (since they're not really all that talkative) were kind of for nothing. It's kind of weird so many of the guys are really quiet and anti-social, though. I mean shit, it's pretty much just me, Howard, and Steve that are online a lot. Joshuah's said maybe 2 words to me, I've had maybe one forced exchange with Sam, James is quiet, Ramsey's barely around and weird/quiet when he is, and even with Nick being easy to talk to when he's on, most people seem to forget he exists.

Naeha, Libra, and Cassandra are really only on sporadically too, but that doesn't worry me as much. The first 2 people I bonded with when this started were Liz and Shelli, and Becky after. That turned into a proposed foursome, which turned into a five person alliance with Howard. I'm not really sure if it'll stay that way or whatever, but I'm flexible. I mostly just don't want to make it too big so everybody knows about it. Liz winning Veto was good since I was pretty sure she wouldn't use it, and I'm not too upset over botching Veto. I'm kind of going through this expecting to not win comps.

With this whole BOTB and change to the POV format pretty much making it so you can't evict or backdoor any resident comp-whores until BOTB ends, it looks like I won't be winning too much other than maybe a BOTB if I get nominated. It's still way too early to really know who the comp-whores, or comp-threats, or whatever you want to call them are anyway. For the vote, I want Kelsey to stay, I'm evicting Joshuah, and it seems like most people are doing the same. That's fine, nobody really thinks Joshuah's here to play, and trying to keep him would be kinda dumb.

[Arlie Shaban]

To the surprise of absolutely NOBODY, I'm pretty glad with how the HOH results and nominations went. Yeah, I figured I'd probably be safe either way, and that Sam/James/Ramsey would be targeted by any non-James/Ramsey HOHs as easy targets, it's nice to be sure. I pitched the idea before HOH results went up to Liz and Shelli about trying to put up James and Sam on different nomination blocks, but I figure a bunch of people already thought it up.

Steve and Howard came to me and wanted to do up a 5 person alliance with them, me, Liz, and Shelli. Obviously I said 'yes' because why the hell not, and Liz/Shelli did the same, but it sort of has me thinking maybe Steve/Howard were aligned together before Howard was aligned with me/Liz/Shelli. I also kind of feel bad for Becky on not being thought up to be included, but I could kinda work it to an advantage later if needed. It could just mean that I'm simply viewed as being much tighter with Liz and Shelli than I am with Becky when that's not necessarily the case, and use it to get closer to Becky so she'd let me know if people are trying to turn her against me instead of joining in. Also, Kelsey's kind of been unresponsive the past few days.

What I've heard went down post-noms is truly shocking, though. Apparently not only did Sam and James talk, but James just went off on Liz about how he wasn't sure why he was nominated and it didn't make sense and all of that. He probably said more to her than he's said to everyone else so far. And supposedly Sam went and told (or pretty much demanded) James to throw the BOTB, with James naturally telling him off. I don't really know how Sam can think by not talking to anyone he's in a position to demand ANYTHING, but holy shit. Telling someone to throw away their chance at safety so you can get by when you barely talk is just such a WTF idea, I got flashbacks to Ash in AS2.

[Arlie Shaban]

Well, I think it's safe to say that after my little test of "how is my backup laptop for doing comps?", I didn't win the Veto. That should be okay though. There's always time to make a few adjustments, and I'd rather know about any troubles now, than find out about them trying to do a crucial competition that I need to win.

[Arlie Shaban]

Man, surprise out of nowhere Kathy POV win? That's actually kind of funny. At least Sam didn't win, and I don't really think Kathy'll use it.

[Arlie Shaban]

So I just get back from work and man...Steve's post in the Veto Ceremony. Lol, that was amazing.

[Arlie Shaban]

I'll do a full DR after BOTB results, but damn being nominated this early sucks. I really wasn't expecting it since I feel like Kelsey, Libra, and even Cassandra should've probably gone up before me. Oh well, James won the last BOTB and I won a BOTB by myself last time when the other person was trying to throw it. I think I've got a pretty reasonable chance at this unless Ramsey and Nick pull out some crazy out of nowhere luck/skills.

Side note, but apparently me/Shelli/Howard/Liz/Steve is now called SLASH or "Team SLASH" if you will. Shelli jokingly suggested something like "the Allied Nations" and I was all thinking "Man, that's the 2nd-worst Nation based alliance name I've ever heard", lol. Then again, I was subconsciously/sarcastically calling it "Blockbusters" because of me not liking Battle of the Block...so maybe not everyone appreciates puns and obscure references.

[Arlie Shaban]

Way to be a dumbass and make yourself look bad, Ramsey. It's great to know the person who never responds to anyone and probably waited until Kathy was HOH to talk to her says he doesn't know anything about me. You know, when you only talked to 2 people other than Kathy. Bravo.

[Arlie Shaban]

Well, it looks like maybe more twists I hate should start showing up if my results in BOTB comps is anything to go by. I bash it for being bad, messing with the flow of the game, and feel like I wouldn't go up without it, only for James and I to pull it out in the end. That doesn't mean I've forgotten about Naeha putting me up, or the dumb reason she gave me for it though. She said Kathy was dead-set on nominating Ramsey/Nick, and that "even though it wasn't for a lack of trying", she felt we connected the least out of the active people. The main problem with that, other than it being a super weak reason considering I'm more active than Libra, or even Kelsey/Cass, is that Naeha got to make her Nominations first. If she had wanted Ramsey or Nick up, Kathy couldn't actually force her to not do it.

Either way, I know if I win an HOH in the next bit, I'm putting up Naeha and Libra. I kind of have to force things with Libra, and since Naeha put me up, I'd be crazy NOT to put her up in return. I've been considering possibly abandoning the whole "align with Kelsey' thing to align with Cassandra instead so I have something on the side, but I'm not sure. Kelsey's been back lately, and Cass told me the other people she's talked game with were Libra, Naeha, and Kathy. Howard thinks there's an alliance of the "non-SLASH girls" (but if there was, I don't think Becky's really in it), Liz thinks Kathy's too positive all the time to not have something in place, and I've figured Naeha/Libra probably had something anyway. It's not unreasonable to think those 3 might have something, and if Cass is with them, that might be a bit of a conflict of interest.

With that being said though, I don't think Kelsey's as likely to have something in place, but I don't want it to be that I missed my window with her. In other news, James wants an alliance between him/me/Steve/Howard to counteract some thing he thinks is going on between Liz/Kathy/Naeha or whatever. Obviously I said "yes", but James is probably going to be put up a lot the next few rounds. Of course, he could pull off a random HOH win, so if it'd stop me from getting put up, I'm all for it. One of my main worries lately is that Liz/Shelli seem to be more focused/loyal to SLASH than they've been to Becky. Now, I'm all for SLASH going forward and working together long term, but I'd say I still feel closest to Becky, and if it comes down to choosing between Becky and one of Steve/Howard (or even Liz/Shelli)...I'm going with saving Becky.

Oh, and the vote's pretty much an obvious one for me this round. I'm going to evict Ramsey since I get along better with Nick and could probably work with him in the future if needed.

[Arlie Shaban]

DR coming later today, but damn, I'm kind of conflicted. James wants to backdoor Naeha and apparently Nick is up for throwing BOTB so that Naeha gets dethroned, but I'm REALLY unsure on whether to let Liz know he is. I don't know if she'd try to put it into high gear and win, or if she'd agree to help throw it or what.

[Arlie Shaban]

Oh, shit 7 Seconds? Damn, I just clutched it out with my 3rd RNF Battle of the Block win in a ROW!



Sorry Naeha, better luck next time.

[Arlie Shaban]

Putting this in bullet points instead because why not:

- Both Naeha and James wanted to backdoor the other this week and both wanted me to help them do it. I don't think Naeha's plan would've worked, and wouldn't have wanted to help her for obvious reasons.

- Apparently James has lost a lot of trust in Shelli since she was campaigning really really hard for Liz not to go up. As a result, James (rationally) thinks they're aligned. Hopefully it doesn't impact too much.

- After winning BOTB and all that, Libra started talking to me about possibly working together a bit. I know I would've put her up if I was HOH, but I'm sure as hell not opposed to striking up a deal if I need to.

- In the off chance that Naeha wins POV and uses it on Nick to try and screw with James, I was talking to Steve, and we figured Kathy going up would be ideal. She probably won't fully align with me, and is pretty good at comps and other things.

- My main goal right now is to get all of SLASH plus Becky to the Jury phase of this game and past the BOTB phase. I know at some point we're going to be turning on each other, but I want to have a lot of options for me, and more people other than me that would go up if someone else won HOH.

- I'm actually thinking that with how BOTB is and with the number of people I seem to have deals or potential deals with, it might not be in my absolute best interest to win HOH. However, I'll still try for it because I want try and make sure I have some sway or potential safety again. Plus, I want to lower my chances of being nominated next round.

[ika]

Hello

Internet is so overlooked