Merge-a-rama!

[Gary Hogeboom]

Holy crap, we've merged! Lol, it seems like every confessional I've been starting out being like "OMG, LOOK WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GAME!!!" Honestly, the early merge caught me off guard. And I was also pissed off by it because I thought Monterrico was a really strong tribe and I was like, finally on a tribe that was active and could dominate in the challenges. Figures I was only there for one round, lol.

Anyway, now we're a merged tribe, and the competition has turned individual. I don't know how I feel about this as far as the challenges go, so we'll just have to see. I usually see myself as a person who excels at the team challenges, but once it becomes individual I start SUCKING at all of the challenges. The only good thing is that I won't have to rely on other people to pull their weight any more, ya know? I'm just gonna be able to do my best and hope I win.

Another good thing about this merge is that it puts my dilema of my alliances on hold at the moment. My alliance with Kathy and Rudy and my alliance of Robb and Eliza aren't looking to target eachother...it's more like they are looking to take out the Miraflores tribe, especially Amber. I'm not sure how I feel about this, especially because Amber has been a person I usually get along with in previous games. However, I'm not about to get on a high horse and change the vote around...but if I get the opportunity to, I'd like to keep Amber in the game if I can.

One sad thing to note is that Sherea got voted off last round from Miraflores. She was my final two partner, and the only one I've been really sharing all my information with. Soooo, now that she's gone I'm kind of on my own at the moment. I dont' like playing on my own, I'd rather have ONE person that I can trust 100 percent. I'm not sure if I trust anyone well enough to make any kind of deal with them though where I spill all the beans to them. So, for now, I think I'm just gonna have to play by myself and hope for the best.

Well, I guess what I could do is list out the tribe and talk about them...so here's goes nothing!

Rob M.: I met Rob M. for the first time yesterday. In real life he's a lawyer from New York. Which obviously means he's smart. He and I chatted for a while, and it was nice, but I also think there's some tension there. To me, he comes off as a strong competitor who I really have no strategical ties with. So, I do think he's competition. I'll just have to see what's in store with him.

Rudy: Rudy seems like someone I can trust and work with. However, I also think he comes off as very secretive, and I'm not that much a big fan of that. I do think he's a person I can take to the finals though, so I'm tossing that over in my head and trying to see ways I could make that happen. I do think he's smart though, and I don't think in the end he'd want to take ME to the finals though. Hmm.

Amber: Amber is someone I've played a bunch of games with in the past. She has a dark reputation behind her though, and she's made a LOT of enemies. I know that Eliza and Rudy both think she's a threat based on previous experiences they've had with her. However, I do think she's someone that I can hide behind because she's such a big target. I'll just have to see how the immunity challenge goes before I try to make moves to try and keep her.

Kathy: I love Kathy! She's so fun to talk to, and so nice. She's a person I feel really guilty about lying to just because I feel like she trusts me. I do know she's kinda nervous about the merge, and wants me her and Rudy to stick together. I'm not sure how she's feeling about the whole "get rid of Amber" thing that's going on either...we talked a little about who we could potentially pull over to our side, but nothing really specific.

Robb: I feel like Robb is also someone I can trust and I feel like he trusts me. Besides Kathy, he's someone I feel like I'm strategizing the most with out here right now. I kind of told him a little lie about last round about how exactly Eliza almost got voted out...I said Susie voted for her instead of Sherea. But that was just to save face for Sherea in the event that she survived over on Miraflrores. But, sigh, that was not to be. Robb is also someone that I feel a little guilty about lying to.

Hmm, I have to go to class! I'll do the rest of this confessional later.

[Gary Hogeboom]

Mmmkay, back from class, and finishing up with my tribe assements!

Eliza: Okay, Eliza...is the person that makes me the most nervous out of everyone left in the game. Sherea had told me that Eliza was targeting me earlier in the game, but I have no evidence of that other than Sherea's word. But I still don't know for sure if I can trust her 100 percent. The only good thing I can see from all this is that while Eliza may be targetting me in the future, for right now I think she sees me as someone on her side, and she needs me to establish a clear hold for herself in the game, so I don't think she's going after me anytime soon.

Dan: Dan is a really fun person to talk to! I've had a lot of cool conversations with him over the last few days and I really like him. However...one thing that makes me kind of wary is that whenever I try to shift the talk over to actually talking about the game, he subtly shifts it back to a different topic. I'm not sure what to make of this, except that it makes me feel that he may have a different agenda going on that he doesn't want me to know about. But who knows?

Matty: I haven't talked to Matty yet, I think he's the only one I haven't met out of anyone in the game. The only thing I DO know about him is that he has PMed Eliza and told her that he would vote with us. So I guess he's on my side...but I don't really know what to do with someone who's voting on my side but yet I've never talked to. Maybe I'll send him a PM today or tomorrow.

Keith: Keith...well, I do know him from a previous game. He kind of played my a little, and it kind of makes me not want to trust him. I haven't talked to him since that game ended. I dunno...right now he seems like someone I would kind of want to target and try to get out. But I think it would be hard to shift the vote to him because there's no reason to really target him, as he doesn't seem that active socially or a threat in the challenges. Still, I'd rather have him out that Amber.

Tina: Tina is another person I know from a previious game. I love her! She's very fun to play with. Ugh, it kind of puts me in a bad situation because while I feel like I am friends with her, I also have made my alliances before this merge and they don't really include her. My goal (as of right now) is to see how far I can bring her in the game without going against my alliances...but I'm not sure how far that could be. I'm not sure if she and Kathy get along so that could put a damper on things.

Anyway, that's everyone! Right now I think I WILL be able to make the first immunity challenge, so that's really exciting. I'm excited to see how I do!

[Gary Hogeboom]

So, tribal council, she is approaching!

Sooo, we just finished the immunity challenge tonight. Kathy won by being able to post 24 hours in a row (!!!) to win the challenge. I had to work...and plus even if I had it I had slept through my alarm during the night because I love my beauty sleep, apparently.

Ha, anyway, I just got home tonight from work and found out what's up. Apparently, the vote is between Amber and Eliza (!) and have the sinking feeling that Eliza is in pretty big danger of leaving.

I'm not sure, but what I THINK happened is that Matty kind of used Eliza, then spilled the beans about her to his own tribe. So now Miraflores is targeting Eliza.

The two big swing votes in this whole sha-bang are Keith and Dan K. Both have, I feel, not very clear loyalties in the game. So I'm gonna have to talk to them tomorrow and see where their loyalties lie.

However, I don't want Amber or Eliza to go! Although they kind of scare me in their own ways, I like both of those girls and am friends with them. It looks like either one or the other is going to go, though, and I rather it be Amber because at the moment Eliza has shown more loyalty toward me. We'll just have to see what happens though. I may vote for a different person (maybe Matty?) if I think that Eliza is going to go reguardless of what I vote. We'll just have to see.