Yippee! I'm ready! There's always someone who starts out the first episode as bossy, knowing everything, telling everyone what to do. Notice how long people like that usually last? ;-) Either that person or the pollyanna who insists on singing or having an annoying laugh or something like that.

This is a cut and paste of a post on the Survivor website by someone called Hazzard77. It expresses my feelings exactly on how well Russell is playing. Russell did what he had to do, if he did not play the idol and went home with it in his pocket you all would be screaming from the mountain tops what an idot he was for not playing the idol. That idol may not have saved Russell from a vote at TC, but it saved him from BEING voted for at TC, plus he got the added mileage of turning Candice away from the heroes. The heroes were Candice, Colby, Amanda, and Rupert + Sandra flipping. This episode was all Russell, come on, like him or hate him, at least be honest and give him credit where credit is due. Russell single-handedly turned the 5 strong heroes(counting Sandra) into... TWO PEOPLE!!! Because of what Russell did, the heroes now consist of Colby and Rupert, those two now will NOT trust Candice OR Sandra. That was the beauty of Russell's strategy, he has done it time and again, get somebody to talk about betraying their alliance, and the make sure their alliance knows about it so they are outted and have no place to turn but to Russell for protection. That is why Russell went straight to Sandra, he want's to be the only one going to TC feeling comfortable so he makes sure that everyone else is nervous and unsure about what's going on, when you make people lose confidence in their alliances and decisions, they panic and do what they think will get them through one more TC. Russell does this by telling them things like he told Sandra even before he knew Sandra was flipping, he suspected it was a possibility so he preempted it by telling her that he has some heroes flipping so no matter how she voted it wouldn't matter. What does that do? It makes Sandra nervous, she told Russell "why you tryin' to scare me, I'm not scared", BULL, she was scared. Before that she was certain that her and the heroes had a slam-dunk TC to get rid of Russell, but Russell got in their heads, made them scared and unconfident. When a person feels that way they have two choices, stay the course and likely be against the majority, or vote with what they think is the majority, even if it's not what they want, just to remain in the game for three more days. Russell makes them choose the path they hate to save their own a$$, and they hate him for it. I didn't see Parvati do a damn thing this episode except disrespect Russell, "you just wated one"? I don't think so little miss smart-a$$, if Russell sat around sure of himself like Parvati then she would have been going home, not Amanda. People here say that they want a player that can vote people off and have those people saying "what a great guy", REALLY? That's what you consider a great person? Here's the difference, the person you speak of is the type of person that has the ability to be so two-faced as to make you believe they are really your friend, and that they only cut your throat because it's just a game, do you really want to have friends that are so good at this that you don't even know if they really are your friend? Russell will lie to you because it's the game, but when he cuts your throat he doesn't continue to lie to you, and continue to act like he is your friend and tell you he is sorry, no, he tells you the truth, that you just got owned and you were a fool to have believed him. That's the kind of people I respect. Unfortunately most people prefer pretentious friends.

Finally watched the 2nd half last night. I was glad to see the Godfather get blind sided... always like a good blindside! lol I think the remaining casts are a lot better physically matched now that the big guys are all out. Gabby bugs me - always crying over something stupid. Carl didn't talk to me wah wah wah. There's Christian comforting her and making sure she is ok. And the previews showing she wants to get him out? OMG! That made me so mad! What a traitor. I always like when a STRONG player wins - the ones who ride coattails and get to the end make me so mad. Gabby would be one of those. I hope her plan gets back to Christian and backfires on her!

That was crazy! Why give up your immunity idol & trust anyone near the end? Gabler is the only one who doesn't "need" the money....but....he's smart and playing a really good game. Jesse may "need" the money, for his family...but that is too villian for the jury to back him. Karla is playing hard. I watched Amazing Race. I usually fall asleep, so I've missed a lot of it. That was a good WIN!