The art of Coattail riding

Yes another Survivor post, that quick after the other one. But the previous thread got me thinking of this one. Many people don't like coattail riders, in the game and call them undeserving winners. I disagree.

While they do not make for great TV, it does however take a lot of skill, to do it right. Yes some just stumble onto the right one, others do it with specific idea's in mind.

Now the best example of this is Natalie from Somoa, clear as day she explains her strategy for the rest of the game. She is going to align with this guy who is playing this game controlling but is also a prick to everyone else, she says she knows if she goes to the end with him she will beat him. The first thing she does is recognize someone she can beat in the jury. Good jury management and we have not even gotten to the jury yet. But she is also a great player and when the tribes merge, it is her that saves the back of her "mark" getting the entire tribe to vote off one of their own instead of the obvious. Could she have won without him? Who knows, but I would think she would still be up there.

Now people have also been calling Sandra the two time winner a coattail rider, and this is just wrong. She is incredibly smart and starts the game with a simple strategy, as long as it is not me. Even when she is aligned with people she does not need anyone. She knows how to talk to people with an ease and make her point without seeming pushy. She puts herself into position to win. That is all that matters.

The Survivor Question

So I hoped the whole argument of how good a player is Russel Krantz would have died down by now. I mean it has been a a while plus a entire new season has finished airing. But people still want to compare and talk about it. So here it goes one more time. He is somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Yes he is great at getting himself to the final, but no he is terrible, at well everything else about the game. Let's break everything down here for a second. Most people use this logic, being in the top 3 or two gives you a 33.3% or 50% of winning. Versus going out somewhere before gives you a 0% chance of winning. Although the second half of the statement is true, the first is not. The most important part of the game is not getting to the end, but jury management. If you can't win you might as well have been voted off first.

Let's look at it like this, why did people vote out Boston Rob in HvV? Well besides Russell who wanted to be in charge of the tribe they all that he could win. Ok, don't believe me, two girls went this year at 6 and 4 strictly because people new they would lose to them in the end. They were taken out before people had the chance to award them with the money.

What this tells us is often people who have the best chance of winning don't make it to the final. Now when this happens for the most part it is good jury management, depending on how you vote them out. Here is the most important part of jury management, getting people you vote out to still want to vote for you.

How is this done, many ways, but it all depends on the person. Everyone you vote out will take it differently. It is up to the person who votes them out to try and figure out if they will be glad you back stabbed them, or if they went down and you stayed loyal.

If we look at that the most important part of the games, Russell was terrible at. He had no clue of how to vote people out and still get them to vote for him, or how to read a jury. It was a huge mistake of his to take Sandra with him to the finals, it gave the jury an out instead of voting for him or someone in his alliance. If he had read the jury he would know none of the people there respected his game play. They all were looking for someone, anyone else to vote for.

Harry Potter and Hermione

So I have been watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on TV, and it has been making me think of what I was thinking when I first read the books. In this book one of the big themes is the relationships between the main characters and their feeling for each other.

Now I always liked the idea of Harry and Hermione together, yes I understood the reasons for them not being together being the theme of family for Harry, as he becomes a part of the Weasley family. Something he was always missing in his life.

But for me I always liked Harry and Hermione. Maybe because it was and I guess is what I always picture a good relationship as. Two people that are great friends at the core of their relationship. You go back and you see what both was willing to do for each other, and what they said when one of them needed someone. It was whet love should be.

Another long break

So once again it has been a long time since I wrote on hear, and for that I apologize to my reader... I do have a lot to say, and it will not be written in this blog, but probably over three or four, so that is good, I have lots to work with.

so I will start with the oldest news. I live in Vancouver, and we just finished hosting the Olympics, and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Watching it really helped me with my film, and my writing, (although I do have a bit of writers block). What really captures people, and what they really want to see is Human emotions. They want to be able to feel what people are going through, and seeing that really helps. It does not matter if that is on TV, but during the Olympics, the world was captivated by all sorts of emotion from the joys of winning the agony of defeat, the tragedy of loss and the realization of a childhood dream come true. This captivates us.

What good writing is is all about a connection with audiences where they can picture themselves as the main character and can feel what they are going through. Now all of this I really already new, as I am sure most people do, but to see it live and to have people to share it with really was something special, and something I will never forget.

I am a dreamer

So, part of life is realizing who you really are, and this is not something new to me, but something I wanted to write about anyway. I am a dreamer. It is true. In all aspects of my life, I dare to dream. I dare to see myself as the Speilberg type person with the perfect family, and everything you could ever want in life.

It is why I have yet to really set a career goal in my life besides the almost unobtainable. All I want to do is make movies. If I could just make movies for the rest of my life, I would be very happy. The thought of doing something else makes me lazy and put my feet down and drag tail, like a dog being forced to go for a walk when it is raining odly enough cats and dogs. I am realizing that the best way to keep myself happy is to find something to make nough money with enough spare time I can do this.

In my personal life, I dream too, I think about the girl that I can't have and that I lust for, and litterally dream of. I picture in my head ways we could be together, and what we would say. I dream of how my life would be with this person.

In the end my entire life is a dream, and I am waiting to wake up, and still have a smile on my face from the wonderful dream I had.

I am in a hurry and don't know why

So I have been so busy over the last two months, and am happy to get a chance to finally write again. I have a lot to write about as you can all imagine, but at this time I have no real focus on what I should write about. I could write about the girl troubles I seem to be having, or how tired I am from being so busy with work. Or even the bad events in my life that made me decide to once again revaluate my life. Or the coming result of this revaluation.

I will start at the top and see where I go from there. So the first thing I mentioned was the girl trouble. I guess the main detail is I still really like this girl that does not like me the same way I like her. I am learning to deal with it, as I have had to deal with this before (really who hasn't?). But I have never... longed (not sure that is the right word) for someone like this. This is a girl I really like and I think we could be great together. She pushes me away and you think I would learn from that, but alas I haven't. It just seems as if I can't shake wanting her. I am trying now to move on a bit. I turned down a 19 year old from Germany. She was a cool girl, but too young and became clingy. She showed up at my work with no warning when I got off at midnight. It was a bit too starkerish. I am now ok with girls that young, but am looking for some maturity.

Well I spent a ton of money over the xmass holiday. I was thinking I was going to be a bit tight for the month of January. Then my car broke down on the 24th of December, and only one place was open. It was Canadian Tire (Crappy Tire as my friend Neale calls it). They bent me over and screwed me like a Vegas Call girl. So now I was deep in the whole and needed a second job so I looked up some jobs on craigslist and now am a driver for a used car broker. It is easy work and nice to make some extra cash.

Well, my Grandma is dying, she has Cancer, and she is 97. It is hard to watch now, even as I have come to terms with it. My friends have been great as I deal with this once more. This has made me think about my life, and where I want to be. The truth is I am a dreamer. I can't give up on my dream. I am going to continue to write, and try and make films. I can't give up on this. So I am going to get myself a job that can get me through and allow me to pay for what I need, so I can still make films. So i am going to become an icemaker, be a Zamboni driver.