Open Letter- About Season 11.

It’s a little early yes, but I don’t have internet at my place and if I hold off on this I shall forget it.  That’ll be awkward.

Happy 10th anniversary of Survivor: Guatemala.  I don’t know if anyone will do a special podcast, or if they’ll celebrate with any kind of blog post.  However, I will try and fill in that gap.  (Try.  I was just a small time writer for some random podcast and popular on PoS.)

Since I was introduced to the Survivor online fanbase (And is it huge!) I quickly became known for a love of a season that doesn’t seem to get a lot of it.  To be honest, I don’t even think it’s really hated even.  To be honest, it’s kinda a weird season too.  The editing, the returning players, the idol… I really don’t feel like this season is like others.  I mean, can you begin to place with early seasons?  Where does it fit in with stuff like Pearl Islands, Africa, or even Palau, the season right before it?  On the other hand, I don’t think it even fits with later seasons.  It’s really the true neutral when it comes to this nonsense of people wanting to sort things into old and new school.  Of course, when time shifts, this might be dated a bit.  Uhhh….

“But Heather, why is it your favorite season?”  You know, I get this question a lot. I usually answer with the fact that it was my first true season that I got to see front to back.  With the exception of one and a half episodes (The Brian/Margaret boot was during a Tornado warning and I was really sick during the Amy one) I saw every bit of the season.  It was an experience.  I really grew on these people.  I didn’t know anything about them sides from their first names and jobs, and yet these connections grew.  Blake went to school in Tulsa, Brian later name drops Tulsa in a confessional, Cindy loves animals and is a zookeeper… Every week I tuned in to follow just who these people are, and to me that’s a certain kind of special that I can’t even begin to explain.

But wait, there’s more!  (Pays royalties to the Billy Mayes Memorial fund) I was 11 when Guatemala first aired.  And aside from making some of you feel old for saying that, there is a reason I mentioned that.  See, my childhood was never easy.  When I got older, my mother returned to drinking and her usual routine of belittling me when it comes down to it.  For years I kept that pain bottled up until I made some truly amazing friends in high school that I felt that I can let that all out to.  That’s a story of its own, and I don’t have enough time to explain it.  The point is, when I was 11, my life was probably at its most normal.  I went to a school that was outside of my own district and I had a new baby brother (Who is ten this year.  Holy eff) but normal in my relationship with my mother who just came back from rehab and regained custody of me.  Survivor later became an anchor of sorts.  Whenever I became depressed I would remember last night’s episode, or imagine myself in Survivor, or even google searched for funny Survivor moments which led me to this one site that ultimately got me into the online Survivor based.

How is that such a big deal?  Well, my mother and stepdad didn’t want to actually hit me or anything.  That would leave marks and such, so whenever they wanted to punish me for something even small, they took away my video games, or my computer, they once even took away my sketchbook.  But they never bothered my TV with minimal cable.  So, my outlet with Survivor never went away.  It did for a while after Micronesia (I didn’t want to watch it because of the lack of Guatemala people) but Tocantins brought me fully back into the fold of things. (Which is why I adore Tocantins too despite all of its flaws that I will gladly admit)

Okay, but why Guatemala again?  Well, I was also huge on the Maya.  I tended to research (Read: Google binge) on things and the Maya was a huge one.  See, my favorite Sonic character was named Tikal (She was in the Sonic Adventure games if you didn’t know.  Get those two games they are fantastic btw) which is named after the largest Mayan Ruin.  They are amazing too.  Also as a trivia, Tikal (the city of course) got name dropped in the “coconut chop” challenge that Cindy won.  They stayed near the Tikal national park, but I believe they stayed at the lesser known Yaxha-Nakum one.  Point is, I love learning about the Maya.  We were also learning even more about them in History class.  I’m not sure what normal 11 year olds were interested in, but mine was a group of people that loved human sacrifice, starving people in the middle of a very humid jungle, and chao. (Another Sonic thing.  Look it up)

I would also love to add that a lot of people’s first season isn’t there favorite now.  For me, Guatemala remains just as fascinating.  Another thing I will point out is that was a girl (shocker) whose Grandmother helped raise.  I love my grandma and I still talk to her and such (She was just over at my house a few days back in fact) but she was one of my many religious family members that seemed to have a set on what’s for girls and what’s for boys.  I would say that, but I grew up as a total tomboy loving to climb trees and such, but I’d never forget the day where I asked my Grandma if I can someday swing from that tree as well as my male cousin (Who is like a brother to me) and she pointed out that he would always be better than me than that because, well he was a boy.
Meanwhile, Guatemala rolls around, the final five had four women in it and Rafe and each of those four women was strong in some way.  Even Lydia, whom never seemed to win any challenges, but kept moral up, danced, and became a picture of never giving up.  She was amazing.  I will also point out Amy, who was tough as nails and despite having that bad ankle also never gave up.  I don’t care that she didn’t make the merge, she is still my favorite Survivor after that.  Even though she was a bit of a whiner, there is also Stephenie, who was the poster child for survivability (even though I didn’t really know that part.  I still love her storyline in Guatemala.  Suck it “Palau Steph is so much better” people if you please) Cindy won the car challenge and was also amazing and challenges.  She also adored the experience and still talks glowingly about it and how awesome is that?  The way she talks about how amazing the experience was makes this pasty, tiny woman who spends most of her time indoors insanely jealous.  I’ll also add that this season was extremely tough with the humidity, the bugs, and the brutal challenges that technically everyone was a badass this season.

Finally, we have our winner, Danni.  A lot of the weird edit may come from her manipulating a few things to her advantage.  Okay, that might be the wrong word for that, but she refused to speak about things to the camera, she gave nonanswers to questions, and I’ve heard stories of her waiting until the cameramen run off to find something more entertaining than a few people just laying around in the heat before she talks to some of her alliance members.  I don’t ever feel like “Under the Rader” is a good term for her, more like “Becoming meta to break the radar”.  I believe she even described herself as not going under the radar, but beating the radar.  She played up anything to her advantage, her height, her allies, even an actual advantage.  I thought that she was amazingly resilient, strong, and smart, which when I grew up and entered online, I discovered those were words that described Stephenie during Palau, also known as the “villain” of Guatemala.  Like rain on your wedding day maybe?  Also she loves me.  True story.

Maybe Guatemala doesn’t fit, but maybe I can relate to that.  I’ve been called the Guatemala Historian (Pays royalties to Mario Lanza) and even the queen of Guatemala.  I’ve had jokes about Guatemalan Gods (which was a thing before the SJDS tribe names were reviled to be named after them) in Survivor Sucks fanfiction and even more.  Even though it was due to a time that I was embarrassed by a little later on down the road, I figured it was a great thing to be remembered by.  I’ve had people tell me personally that they enjoyed the season after I encouraged a second look.  I’ve had Brian thank me for keeping the season out of the dirty corners of Mark Burnet’s basement. (I love that quote) I got to talk to Amy and Jim and they were fantastic.  All in all, it is an experience to be one of Guatemala’s well known fan.

In closing, thank you so much for reading this block of text.  I hope you got to realize some of my inner workings.  If you want to rewatch the season (I hope you do!) Amazon sells the DVD for this season so go look that up.  (Or you can do Itunes as well)  I want to encourage those that only watch this season once to go through it again with the knowledge that you gain from here or from other outlets.  Even though I don’t agree with returning players, I was shocked at the fact that once again, no Guatemala players was asked back for any part of Cambodia.  They were passed over for Micro, for HvV, for BvW, for Caramoan… Maybe someday, someone originally from that season will get another chance that actually falls through.  (From what I’ve heard, Danni, Amy, Cindy, and Jamie were all considered, even asked, even more even for some of those seasons.  Please don’t quote me)  They deserve it and even if they are as invisible as Courtney in HvV I will still be happy that one of my favorites got another chance.

Love you guys, here’s to ten more years.


~Heather Nicole.

Yep, We still don't get Jenn.

Welcome to my World in this Worlds Apart write up.  Now, I lied last week when I said I’ll be watching this live.  Oops. Oh well.

Anyways, not much to say about this week, just be mindful to not hold on too tightly to past events.  It’s unhealthy. I figured that out recently.  I’ve moved on.

Anyways, spoilers everywhere coming up.

Oh, you’re still here?  Good.  Good.

Ahem, well the decimation (GAWN) of no collar keeps on with Joe.  Here’s the huge thing on guys like Joe, they tend to not last long in this game.  Physical threats that are that wide open?  Nope.  Outside of Jenn actually getting up and quitting Joe was leaving.  Sorry to everyone who thought that he was going to be the second coming of Ozzy or Malcolm. 

This is the part where I say, now this season will get interesting.  You have Jenn who wants to go home, Shirin who doesn’t want her to go home, Rodney and his actions, and what looks like the complete falling out in Blue Collar.  I’ve been calling this for a while, but this episode makes it pretty clear that Rodney doesn’t like Mike’s idea for an alliance.  They’ve been building up Blue Collar as the cocky people, Dan gloating to Shirin and Mike with the confessional about the idol.  They don’t have a grounding element, and things that don’t have grounds get bolted when they get too high.

Shirin is getting built up as the plucky underdog really.  I mean, she’s this season’s Erinn or Eliza, and they changed the fate of the ones with numbers and further their own placing just by placing their coins behind the ones that wanted to do these shake ups.  However, there is one good reason why I don’t have a good feeling with Shirin.

What did you think of Carolyn this episode?  What?  She wasn’t shown that much?  Yes.  I agree.  However, I have a strong feeling that she’s going to win this game.  Rarely do I actually make full blown winner picks.  I really don’t think that I am now in fact.  However, one think that keeps getting brought up is Flippers.  Flippers is become the Survivor’s answer to the term “Floaters” of Big Brother.  Also known as a phrase that gets thrown around so much that it really holds little weight anymore.  Truth is, that playing a game that involves turning on allies is really hard but it has paid off before.  Vecepia is probably the best example I have.  In reality, this is really a game of “Anyone but me”.  The reliable traitor. 

Why do I bring this up?  Carolyn has, by all accounts, flipped.  She flipped on the No Collars.  She has the blood on her hands just as much as Kelly did but Kelly was the one that got targeted.  She had Kelly take the heat on that.  Now, she’s flying by and is not getting uttered by a possible vote out by anyone not named “Shirin”.  Now the scene with Mike discussing a vote out on her seems iffy, but I’m not yet holding out.  The storyline is perfect for a Carolyn win.  Now, I’m hoping I’m right.

Of course, I can be wrong.  I fully expect her to get voted out next week.  That’s exactly what happened to Kelly after all.

The last thing I have to say, keep watching Shirin.  I’m willing to bet money that whatever happens next week will have her in the center of it.  I don’t think she’ll win the game exactly, but she’ll be in the middle of everything.

Everything Wrong With

Worlds Apart Episode 9

~ Jeff makes it seem like Rodney lead the original Blue Collar team, not Mike.

~ I’m now 100% convince that huge fan Dan has never watched Marquesas.

~ If I hadn’t made this clear, flippers can win.  Just because it didn’t work out for Kass doesn’t mean anything.

~ I’m sure that Jenn’s going to quit.  Wait, never mind.  I’ve watched Amazon.

~"I'm in the Passenger's seat backseat driving"  Look I’ve been told that’s a real phrase that people use but I don’t buy it.  It gives me a headache just staring at it.

~ Shirin’s super secret weapon is basic math.

~ This challenge was design by someone who loves slapstick and possible head injuries.

~ Wilhelm Scream

~ Nothing in this challenge looked as painful as what Dan and Will did to those obstacles.

~ Carolyn tries to out due Shirin’s constant Survivor references by doing a Chris Daugherty impression on that balance beam.

~ The blue team gathered up the most rings and I’m the only one that made the Sonic the Hedgehog joke.

~ People are confused to why Jenn might be disappointed on not going on a reward that involves a truckload of chocolate.

~Color coordinated M&Ms.  Seriously.  They all taste the same.

~ This is where Mike gets hired to be Snickers new Spokesperson.

~ People are confused to why Jenn might have a problem with them killing chickens.  Like, did you see what happened in the forth episode?

~ In spirit of Sierra’s involvement in this episode the editors cut out Rodney’s impression of her.

~ Joe forgets that his alliance still has Jenn for some reason.

~ They look like they were scaled by height but the “Draw for spots” comment is shown.  Um?

~ Dan almost takes out Jenn and Tyler, who turns out to be the final two people in this challenge.

~ Jeff obviously has such a huge hard on for Joe that Jenn tells him to shut up.

~ You could probably stop watching as soon as Tyler won and still would have figured out who went home that night.

~ This fake Immunity Idol has little bearing on this plot, which is disappointing because it is hella pretty.

~ Jeff implies that the No Collar way is to Quit.  Um, I would think that the No Collar way is to not give a F*ck, which correct me if I’m wrong is exactly what Jenn is doing.

~ Absolutely no one can get Jenn, which to me it’s obvious why.  She was on No Collar.

~ Jenn gets Shawna’d.  And if you don’t know what that means you should figure it out by yourself.

~ Rodney and Tyler shared my same confuse on the events that’s going on.  They’re on the show!

~ This preview is giving me high hopes for my Blue Collar crumbling prediction and that’s bad because I actually have no idea if it will actually happen.

TOTAL- 27

All in all, this episode seemed to lack really.  Obvious boot was obvious, although Jenn is still in so who knows what will happen.  Same time same place?

*sigh* “Start a web blog”, they said, “It’ll be easy” they said.

~Heather 

Insane and Off the Rails- This World

So, just a reminder half of this article is to sum up the voted out castaway, the other half is a very humorous way to sum up what happened.  Just want to get the record straight.  If you want a full episode summery, I’m sure you’ll find one over the next few days. :)

Also, if anyone out there have been self publishing their own write-ups, send me a E-mail, PM, or whatever and I’ll add a link to it.  You people are my people.

Anyways, don’t read if you don’t want spoilers.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but if you’re reading episode write ups without watching the show first you’re doing it wrong.

First off, we are going to cover Hali.  Hali was always a weird one for me.  She was the “pair” to Jenn.  A big theme this season is watch the pairs.  Mike, Carolyn, and Tyler have verbalized this, so really this shouldn’t be as big as a shock as I thought it was.  Hali was shown to be close to Jenn since episode two at the least.

Okay, I won’t blame you if you were surprised.  Hell, I was.  I thought that Kelly was what was holding Blue Collars together.  Okay, I might still be right in that for a bit.  I thought Blue Collars as a “Casaya” and Kelly as there “Aras”.  A “normal” person who on any other season would be shown as weird as can be.  You know, Kelly the one who freely admits to using Pepper Spray in her house.  However, the problem with this comparison is that this enters probably my least favorite part of Survivor discussions.  The “Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve” part.  What happens when Casaya lost Aras?  Who knows.  So for all we know, the second most “normal” person might hold on to this group until Sierra or Rodney just strays away.  And Mike, someone who doesn’t have the same sway over Rodney and Sierra as Kelly, is left to struggle over this alliance.  Mike needs a lot more than a fractured alliance and a Hidden Idol that he told no one to save his friends.

This is where I get to Hali.  Now, as bad as the attempted Jenn vote went, it was actually the best idea to target Jenn.  Just from what I’ve seen, Jenn was a lot more involved in targeting Kelly in the last episode.  Maybe I’ve giving her too much credit to say that perhaps that she’s actually the one that’s behind most of No Collar’s direction, but I strongly believe that she would be the better choice.  Of course, they didn’t, because Idols man.

Oh, and think that Joe would be the number one person to vote out… well, they’re right.  Joe’s winning stuff.  That’s easy.

The jury's out, and this law student is in.

Back to Hali, just like Kelly, a lot of people think that she would win by the fabled Ethan way.  Be the nicer second in command to someone who could take a good amount of bullets for that you.   Of course, the problem with this is ditching your first in command unless they were really that bad, which might have been something Kelly could have pulled off (I like Mike, but Kelly just seemed more well liked) but I don’t really know if Hali could.  I do know is that she seemed to have a lot of people rooting for her.  I was one of them in fact.  Said to see her go but at least she has a nice spot on Jury, which is something I couldn’t say about Kelly.  Go Merica.

As closing to this part of this write up, I urge you guys to watch these people.  Two pairs in fact.  Watch Jenn and Mike.  They have a lot more in common than you thing.  And watch Carolyn and Tyler.  They are also some sort of a pair, but they seem to be keeping it on the down low.  So far, this narrative is centered around pairs, and Jenn and Mike both lost their other half to each other.

Everything Wrong With: Survivor

Worlds Apart- Episode 8

~ The episode title is “Keep it real”. I’m not sure what needs to be kept real nor do I really want to know because they took that quote from some rant from Rodney.

~ Rodney forgets to watch every single Survivor involving rice amounts. 

~ Salami is f*cking gross and I’d only eat it if I was on Survivor

~ Rodney tried to Blue collar No collars.

~ This really shouldn’t count, but in the 30 facts for this video they called Jonathon Penner “John Penner” and no one in this history of this show has ever called him that.

~ Dan fails at balance.  Yes Hali fans the law of gravity hates Dan too.

~ Jeff says that “A lot of people” are in this game.  Jeff apparently can’t count to eleven.

~ None of the White collars made it to the final part of this challenge, instead they paid Hali to be their rep and decided to chill out in the big office instead.

~ Joe picks the White collars and Will to go with him, while smart stragicially it is also F*cking boring.

~ Jenn is clearly pissed off at being left at camp with all of the blue collars with only Hali to prevent her from actually harming anything but we get zero footage on this because IDOLS ARE AWESOME.

~ Shirin is like me when I am very bored.  That scares me.

~ Instant drama add stupidly high dangerous Ziplines.  I’m with Amy O’Hara this height stuff is for the birds.

~ Joe doesn’t eat the idol clue, which would have given us a better episode because it would have cut out the useless idol hunt afterwares.

~ Tyler becoming more important.  It’s like one of those tools for us to remember that there is probably a reason that he’s still here but we’d rather watch Blue Collar emotionally wear on each other or Vince being creepy but they didn’t show us for some reason.

~ I do question the sanity of someone who stays up until twilight to wait on an idol clue in a game where sleep is a luxury.

~ Cue what is basically a piss break.  Seriously.  I just saw an Easter egg hunt Sunday between my cousins and was bored why would I want to watch people do this on Survivor?

~ Also what is really the point of suggestion that Joe has the HII aside from you not having it?  Joe wins Immunity so soon and that’s not going to stop them from targeting him anyways and they don’t know who has the Masaya idol.  It just seems rather pointless to me, at least not with Joe.  So I’m sure this will come up later and now I have to remember this.

~ Dan.

~ Let me elaborate, Dan insults Shirin for being a puppet to Joe, despite it was Hali who was shown to interact with her on the swapped tribe.  I’m sure we’re probably missing something but for right now it’s sexist to imply that Joe is leading over three ladies.  Which, it is.

~ Of course, he has such a high opinion of himself despite Blue Collar losing probably their most pivotal person in their alliance. 

~ That he was a puppet for.  (Of course, it may have been more Mike and Kelly together, but let’s say Kelly just for the irony of it shall we?)

~ Shirin can’t count but Dan can’t remember the name of someone whom he shared a camp with for at least what, five days now?

~ Shirin is shown as annoying while being inspirational at the same time. 

~ On thing I was giving credit was that when Carolyn and Jenn found their idols it was basically “Oh hey this is cool” and done.  Not Mike.  Mike has to have a montage with trees and such because why not.

~ Also Mike’s Happy dance.

~ Because you didn’t like the Puzzle’s at the end of the challenges we’re using them in the entire challenge.

~ Joe tried to pander to me by using shenanigans in a sentence.

~ I hate slide puzzles because I suck ass at them.  I’m not even allowed to make fun of Dan’s incompetence in this because I would be worse.

~ However, I will say that I know that the words in Survivor isn’t “Outwijwat.....Oblaltay...Owtlstr” or whatever that was.

~ Joe the challenge threat wins immunity so natural the target shits to the person that was in second to dead last for the majority of the challenge.

~ This all girls alliance doesn’t happen.

~ Dan doesn’t get voted out.

~ This revolution doesn’t happen.  I wonder if Blue Collar even taxed their tea yet.

~ And Jenn probably won’t quit in the next episode and the teaser is probably lying.  Just a reminder that it was strongly hinted in the third episode one that Jenn or Hali was going to run into something that causes them to bleed and get Medivaced.  Instead Dan drops a lift on Kelly’s head.  So calm down.

FINAL TALLY- 34

Anyways, next week- Am I still wrong?  I don’t know, but I’ll be tweeting live this week (Hopefully) so come join me east coasters.

I am Heather and this is me signing off.

Kelly is the Duct Tape of Blue Collar

Hey guys, I have decided to try and get back into writing episodes so my skills stay sharp.  What better way to start than with the episode that saw the end to one of my favorite players this season.

I’m not going to gloss over a lot of stuff, but I will say- spoilers.  Duh.

Let’s start this episode with a farewell to Kelly.  This kinda hurts.  Kelly was a favorite of mine in this season.  I picked her out Preseason mostly because of her job.  Anyone who knows my Survivor likes and dislikes knows about a certain Cop from Guatemala who is my current favorite Survivor since I was eleven.  I’m 20 years old right now.

Kelly, who started on a blue tribe, got injured in a challenge that her tribe lost, lasted seven episodes and just missed an important Survivor milestone… I knew she wasn’t going to last long.  I had that feeling.  However looking back on everything, it’s easy for me to see why so many people picked her out as a winners pick after episode 4/5.  Also after the shock at everything was gone, it was easy for me to see why Kelly and not, say, Mike.  Why, yes, it probably was personal on Jenn’s end, but outside for personal interest, Kelly is the best choice to vote out to dismantle the Blue Collars.  She was their glue.

Alright, so how can we tell Kelly was the glue? Well, in all of the dysfunctional BC arguments, who was the one who kept out of it? Kelly. She compared it to the Bar fight calls the Troopers get. They hang out on it a bit, and then turn up.  She knew that it wasn’t worth getting her hands bloody in those fights, because they were going to sort themselves out.  She knew how to deal with BC’s dysfunction, and how to sweep up after it.  Also telling was the Challenge thrown, not only Mike threw the challenge, but Sierra and Rodney did too. You could argue that Rodney did so to get Joe out, but Sierra may have not shared that same interest.  As for Rodney, she was the only BC who was included in Rodney's four people group.

Kelly, the one who got hit in the Fricken head, got six stitches (one for each of us!) whom in retrospect I am surprised that she didn't have blue blood because she was that blue collar tribe, and currently I would be shocked as hell if any BC make it to the end now.  They’ll fall apart without her.  She’s also not on the jury, so they better hope that the other votes will be just as well.

Still a Trooper :)

My point, they loved Kel. They would have thrown a challenge for her. Hell, they did. Kelly would have probably even won but she made such a huge mistake and that was that she didn't try and keep appearances with the No Collars. She tipped off Jenn, and that is why she was gone.  That’s the one thing that she really messed up on. 

My final words on Kelly, her head injury… wow. I had a similar one when I was ten, but it was not nearly as bad.  It bled a lot (head injuries are really famous for bleeding a lot but not being that serious) and I had a check for concussion, but I didn’t need any stitches much less six.  Although the scar is still there, right above my left eye brow.  Also I have Hemophobia.  I have panic attacks if I see a large amount of blood.  Congrats to Kelly, who is the only Contestant I’ve ever had that reaction too.  Hopefully the last because that was a lot of blood.

Okay, now time for-

Everything Wrong with Survivor: Worlds Apart

Episode 7

- Kelly is apparently so deep undercover but couldn't fool the surfer girls of the season

- Subtlety is probably something that Kelly doesn't remember how to do because of the head trauma, but I’ll give up a point because come on. 

- Foreshadowing of the couples splitting leads to minor irony latter

- Dan peed on his own foot.  Even in the correct context it’s a stupid sentence that I don’t really want to hear.

- Jenn aggressively throws hot water on people’s feet again.  Let’s hope this time Dan doesn’t have warts.

- Shirin forgoes Jenn the Lifeguard’s suggestion that peeing on Dan’s foot was stupid to make a John Carroll shout out.

- They name the Tribe after a stereotype.

- Okay, the flag is badass, but they use no hint of the purple that's in the buff.

- Also Shirin is the one they went to on complaining about the name.  Yes, she’s justified and such but wasn’t she the one who randomly burst into singing “Merica’s” national Anthem?

- I can't even keep track of all of this, alliance stuff, but I'm sure it's all important.

- Joe's Face in this picture

- Jenn asks if Rodney is smart an episode later after hearing about him from Kelly and deciding that he's a "Tool".  Go with your gut girl.

- So, the No Collars vs Blue Collars and random White Collars doing whatever.  Ten minutes and we're back to whatever we concluded at the start of this episode?

- The Pole challenge is brought back so the internet can have a field day.  Again.

- The necklace has a compass on it.  Lady Antebellum approves.

- Jenn is assaulted by a bee in a place where Jeff is probably unaware existed.

- Also Jenn, you are still probably not a huge character in Jeff’s eyes

- What’s with this season and everyone getting hurt?  You have Mike throwing up in the first episode, Kelly, Max and the Stingray, Dan and the Jellyfish, and now Jenn?  Did they cast a bunch of Skupins or something?

- Rain where Drama needs it to be.

- Carolyn's children didn't see her win that challenge.  Nothing like saying "My mother won the pole challenge!" am I right.  Damn, now I'm doing it.

- Blue Collars want to test Will's loyalty instead of covering their asses with a safer split vote.  Like serious.  Either way if Will flips you’re screwed.

- Random alliance of Kelly, Rodney, Will, and Carolyn goes absolutely nowhere and dies in this episode

- Random alliance is made important but goes along with Mike anyways.

- We are randomly remained of Jenn's idol.  Must be important.

- Jenn blames Idol found on "Magic".  No Jenn that’s how Russell found his Idol that blindsided Kelly.  Hey wait.

- Will makes the comment that Jeff could get voted out but we all never see it.  I can only dream.

- Will makes an ass of himself by voting for Hali.  And the only one to vote for Hali.

- Jenn and her friends laughing at Kelly, while probably harmless, has a lot of internet people calling her out on poor jury management.  While I get where that’s coming from I’d think some of the jury people would understand the fact that she just narrowly missed getting voted out.  Come on.

- Also Idol plays are still rather silly and not a true substitute for a real shock vote.  Come on guys. 

- Joe draws a band aid on his Kelly vote, giving a Jenny Guzon-Bae tribute in voting for a Cop while drawing an image in reference to an injury of theirs.  Way to be a jerk Joe.

FINAL COUNT- 30

Might I remind everyone that that is for pure comical reasons only. :)  Don’t take it too seriously.  

Join me next week to see the fallout of Blue Collar’s losing their glue.

 Also Bonus, my take on this challenge.

Thank you and have a good [insert time of day here]

Confessions of an Ex Ozlet

I know I haven’t posted in my own blog for a long, long, LONG time.  But I feel like since some of the stuff I’ve written here reflected my time on Survivor Oz, it would be oddly appropriate to post this here.

Now, of course if you’ve been following this giant mess on Twitter, you’d know that host Ben Waterworth made some very controversial remarks about a Survivor contestant’s Wife.  More specifically, it was about Will’s wife and the remakes were racist.  There is no other way to slice it.  He was mocking her name and making offensive comments.

 

Want to hear something extremely amusing?  The preview podcast aired about a month ago.  It’s only now getting attention.  Why?  Because no one I know that would be able to pick this out and get offended even watch the show anymore.  I don’t have the time to even care personally.  Since I’ve left Survivor Oz I recently got a promotion at my job and I’ve since started my own project with a fellow Ex-Ozlet and really good friend, Ben Powell.  I don’t have the luxury of keeping hold of bad blood… or even good blood really.  However, I understand idiocy when I see it.  That’s a universal language there that doesn’t hold credence to the supposed cultural barriers Waterworth’s been claiming.

Oh, and from this point on, Ben Waterworth shall be called simply Waterworth.  It’s more of a confusing clear up just to make sure my good friend Ben Powell (Who I shall just call Ben) isn’t going to get nasty tweets or whatever.

 

Anyways, let’s play the story.  Ben and I joined Survivor Oz in January of 2013.  I was an eighteen year old college student that thought Survivor was just the coolest thing ever.  I love to write, and I just finished my first season of actually actively participating in the online community, Survivor Philippines.  They were looking for writers, and I was a writer.  I also already was on one of their podcasts.  I was on the Christmas Episode where I got to speak to John Carroll. 

This is where I need to stress, when I joined Oz I had nothing but respect for them.  They were able to get interviews from Guatemala contestants.  If you’ll remember I’m know as THE Guatemala fan from various people.  Even Guatemala contestants are aware on how much I love the season they were on.  I was very excited to get to write for something with as much of a readership as Oz.  I never really done anything like that since, but (again I stress) this is more to my job than anything else.  I still have saved all of my work that I’ve done for Oz because I have put my time in effort in every single article, top ten, write up, and Podcast for them.  I didn’t give them anything that I wouldn’t post on my own blog.

Waterworth’s always been agonist towards those who don’t share his opinion.  I should have seen it when he mocked Sophie for declining an interview due to her schooling.  You know, because medical school isn’t taxing on free time or anything.  When I supported her choice I was mocked.  When Waterworth made a top ten podcasts and put Historian’s up on there, Mario was honored but he pointed out that Historian’s isn’t in the same group as Rob Has a Podcast or anything due to the lack of schedule that they do.  This was met with Waterworth fuming that Mario just wouldn’t say “Thank you” and gush about being on the list.  Now, Mario is a good friend of mine (I was in the running to be a historian a while back) so I defended him like a good friend, but that didn’t matter.  Those that do bow at his feet and give in to his ego are of no use to him.

The catalyst of why I left though?  It’s a bit lesser known but I’ll do my best to explain it.  Now, it’s early January of 2014.  I haven’t actually done anything for Oz in a while, yet for some reason I’ve been kept around.  They have “fired” my good friend Ben, with only me expressing sympathy towards Ben.  They’ve just posted a top ten in Previously on Survivor (Also known in this article as PoS) of the top ten tribes written by Jimmy Kurniawan (who is also a pretty nice guy.)

Now, like most top tens, a lot of comments were had.  Most of them citing various inaccuracies (The Foa Foa four weren’t a tribe) and overall disagreement.  I myself posted in this thread (screenshots will follow) but I only expressed confusion, because for some reason I thought that practical subject of top ten was already done.  Of course, I looked it up and I was wrong, and then commented on that.  I in no way mentioned the article or the ranking.  (Oh and comments that were pure humor of the fact that people think that Korror had an advantage because they had more men)

And somehow, those comments earned this.  I will black out names besides my own or Waterworths.  Mostly because I don’t want to get in trouble for doing something similar than what they did.

Well, okay.  Maybe he had a bad day right? (I thought)  The other Ozlet he tagged is in PoS as well, so whatever.

Then, this happened.

That is pretty much what made me think “Well, fuck you too”.  I do not like getting dragged into things.  If I’m in the wrong, it’s fine but that’s not okay to me.  I kept quiet about it because I know what will happen.  I would be discredited and the reason would be a perceived bitterness due to bad blood… or whatever.

BONUS MORE THINGS-

Seriously, I have most of the thread screenshotted and if it didn’t take a lot of work trimming it down and whiting out names I’d post the whole damn thing on here.

Oh, I guess I should put my own reactions-

*cue me handing in my resignation form*

Later he did apologize for those words.  I was pissed, but I had already made up my mind.  It was bothering me that I somehow was allowed to stay but they kicked out Ben.  I was just as opposing to various comments he said in the Oz group.  I don’t know why I was spared to be blunt.  Maybe because it was my winning personality and stuff?  Naw.  Can't be.  Let's just say I don't know, but I have an idea that hasn't been proven, but there were comments.   

He had another blow up in PoS facebook group last January (too the same month a year later!) that resulted in him leaving PoS and Survivor Oz in general a target for mockery to the group.  That was when both Ben and I let loose on several tangents, each about the Group and Waterworth’s comments about Survivors that didn’t want to do interviews.  It was informational, and we changed many a minds that night but I knew that it wouldn’t be over.  After all, PoS is just a small slice of the Survivor fandom. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t provide any screen shots.  In light of recent events the Survivor Oz facebook member (which was posting these articles) appeared to be deleted when I tried to find the posts.  But it was a blood bath.  Take my word for it.

Speaking of recent events, this brings me to the present week.  Mike from Survivor: World’s Apart tweeted (to Carolyn and Jenn of his season) about Survivor Oz attacking “our family”.  Well, that brings me to the preview podcast that I mentioned at the start of this article.  When accused of mocking a Survivor family member (aka someone who didn’t sign up for that) you should quickly say sorry, remove the offending podcast, and make note that that sort of thing will never happen again.  Instead Waterworth said that “Sorry but Other podcasts have said worse” which is by no means a real apology by any stretch of imagination.

The “Other Podcast” he mentions is the Corinne Preview episode that Rob’s show has done since at least South Pacific.  Corinne is a Survivor contestant however, she never has brought family members in that podcast nor has she even brought up race in any of them.  The podcast itself is at best is Satire, like the Onion. It’s all in the name of comedy, not meant to be serious, and above all she’s in the Survivor family, an unofficial bond of being mocked on media and articles alike brings these people together.  Compare that to some random Australian guy who will never be on Survivor nor understand what they went though that foolishly thought that mocking a family member based on her race was a good idea.

This was pointed out on Sucks as well, where I was also attacked by and the attack was quickly shut down by myself and other Sucks posters.  Since then neither Waterworth nor any other known Ozlet has shown their avatars in Sucks.

On the Fackbook front, he and the Survivor Oz page was kicked out of Addicted to Survivor. (Also known as AtS)  I’m sure if he was still in PoS that would have been changed really quickly.

On the next Oztopsy, he addressed the various goings on.  Here I have a transcript that a really good friend of mine pieced together.  I’m going to pull two very specific points that I want to draw attention too. 

From our standpoint, this issue was resolved, as the conversations that we had with cast members had been settled and we were assured that there were no ill will between us and the cast of Worlds Apart. (4:47 were or was?) On behalf of Survivor Oz, I would once again like to take this opportunity to unreservedly apologize for any offense caused by comments made in this episode. Survivor Oz is by no means a hundred percent politically correct. Like most podcasts out there on the Internet, our comments and content are from a variety of people and will sometimes blur the line between humor and offense. There are times when, yes, we do step over the line and we have to put our hands up and apologize. This is one of those times. We accept that words are easy and that our actions need to reflect this going forward. We will be taking this as a learning experience for future podcasts.

We hope this apology will be taken for what it is: an honest attempt to make amends. And we hope that current and past contestants, as well as our listeners, will continue to interact with us to help provide you with great content.

Now, I do want to just address some other issues (5:38 some or a few) in relation to this, though, on a side point. This week, in terms of the issue if people aren't aware of what happened, Mike from this season tagged us in a post directed at Caroline, also from this season, claiming that we were, and I will quote, "the podcast that disrespected all of us and our families just FYI." A brief exchange was then had between myself and Mike about this issue, in which I proceeded to say that we had apologized - as I previously just mentioned - for this issue, and if there was any further clarification needed, for him to contact us directly. He then did publicly continue to shame us, claiming that a private apology was no apology and that we needed to apologize to all 18 on air, despite the fact that, again, as I just said, we already had. He then publicly called for a boycott of our podcast and refused to go into any specific details about what was said in public that had offended him. He then went on to post a separate tweet bragging, and I will quote again, that he "went off on a podcast today - if you know me, you know that I am one of the most positive people. You don't mess with my family", before retweeting and favoriting abusive tweets directed towards us. While, of course, it is his right to claim for a boycott or not to like us, it still is amusing slightly to us that he will not publicly say what was so offensive to him and to try and get this sorted, and yet still continue to publicly shame us.

I would also like to point out that there were other podcasts' preview episodes, that had nothing to do with Survivor Oz, that did say far worse, volatile, and downright offensive things about the cast of Worlds Apart that are not being targeted in the way that we are. I am aware, of course, that this is not a tit-for-tat exercise, but as the host of this show, I am also entitled to express an opinion and defend the product that we do put out. My apology, as I mentioned before, does stand, but I still find it slightly confusing and ironic that we are having a smear campaign against us when other podcasts getting away with doing worse. I also do find it ironic that people are excusing comments made on other podcasts as "humorous" and "satiric" as an excuse for abuse, whereas our comments were done in the same style and method and aren't seen in the same light. I do also find it slightly ironic that Mike does remain friends with several people involved in these other episodes yet still cannot continue to let what we said go.

Out of all of this, one thing that I really feel the need to address as well are the defamatory comments being labelled at us calling us "racist." I have had several comments and messages - abusive messages - to myself and to us publicly saying comments along those lines and have also been shown messages on forums and Facebook and other online, uh, outlets saying similar things. With no explanation given as to why Mike is so annoyed at our preview episode, people have speculated it was due to comments made about Will's wife Monifa in our episode. Since the exchange on Twitter with Mike, it has been brought to my attention what directly Mike was referring to in terms of taking offense, and this was in no way at all related to comments directed at Monifa. Despite this - and with still no public explanation from Mike - our podcast continues to be dragged through the mud with outlandish claims being labelled against us. In the preview episode, I will reiterate, there were no discriminative, racist, or offensive comments directed at Monifa or anybody in that matter. In fact, if people actually listen to the episode, they will find that it was the complete opposite and that we spent the entire episode praising Monifa and wanting to see her playing Survivor and applauding her and Will throughout the episode.

If people have taken offense to the comments in this episode, then again, I do apologize. However, I will once again reiterate that there were no racist undertones or intent with these comments. The definition of the word "racism" in modern society is constantly lost in social misgivings and viral social campaigns that blur the lines between what is racist and what is not. I've heard comments everywhere, from casual racists right through to downright accusing myself and our Ozlets of constantly being on a racist crusade in the past. There were even several comments online claiming that Australia is a racist country and that our past policies of white Australia are the reason why myself and our Australian Ozlets are of this opinion. To me, these are far more racist and offensive toward myself, the Ozlets, and our country in general. There may be a cultural divide as to what some consider the word "racist", casually racist, or not racist at all. But in claiming racism against a person or organization, it is ironic that actual racist comments are then used in a way to try and clarify comments. Let me state again that comments directed, calling us racists are misguided, false, and highly defamatory and offensive. Several of the comments have been made by people who have not listened to the episode, or who have only listened to small portions of it and have not listened to any other Survivor Oz episode in the past and are jumping on a bandwagon of hate and misguided vitriol. People have threatened to report our episode and have listened to parts of it claiming the racist parts are there. They have even reached out to Jeremy and Val, who do our power rankings, and warned them we are a racist podcast and to avoid us, and we have even been banned from selective groups online due to this perception of racism. I would look to, however, firmly stand by my claims that nothing racist was said in the episode to defend myself and my team. The episode will not be removed from any online platforms, and if people want to continue to run a smear campaign against us by contacting others or posting defamatory comments online against us, then that just speaks to the character of those individuals, given that online trolling culture is based on vile hatred, racism, homophobia, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, several of which have been directed to our show, other shows, and contestants in Survivor in the past, it is highly hypocritical that these select people continue to go on a crusade against us. As somebody who does pride himself in putting out an entertaining podcast that takes a lot of effort for no financial gain, it is highly offensive to be labeled in such a light.

Still not an apology.  Mike didn’t think so either.

Oh and one more thing- This.

Our show might not be everybody's cup of tea, we don't expect everybody to like us, but when comments and hate are spread to us in a manner that has been this week, then I have had no choice but to bring this up and speak out on it. I will defend not only myself and this show but each one of my Ozlets who work tirelessly and hard for Survivor Oz for nothing other than the passion of Survivor and no other reward. When our product we put out is getting unfairly diminished by certain corners of the Internet and the trolling culture previously mentioned, it is time to take a stand, and I would also like to point out on a separate note that this goes towards ex-Ozlets who have worked for us in the past, who, for whatever reason, cannot let go reasons why they were either fired or quit and continue to make up false allegations against us or false claims of personal entertainment or Like-bait online. These people have deep resentment towards us for their own past misgivings and can continue to shame themselves all they want, but they only make themselves look like fools, given the actual truth of the situation. I will not stand for this any longer from these people.

You got it.  He directly targeted me and Ben in this.  Well.  It is on.  You do not attack my friends like this.

Also what are you planning to do to me?  Flood my E-mail with spam?  Talk trash about me?  Dude, I survived an ice storm, various tornadoes, Earthquakes, a bad childhood, and High school I’m sure I can survive whatever a random guy with a podcast throws at me.

In closing, I’m not telling you at all that you need to actively hate Oz.  That is my job.  I just want to get a record straight.  You can do what you will with this information, but do not think that Waterworth is innocent in this.

Also notice that I have tried to keep the other Ozlets out of this.  They have actually apologized and to any that on the off chance might be reading this I beg of you to find another job.  Get off of this sinking ship before you drown because if Waterworth goes down he will take you with him. 

Finally, please don’t take this as a call to action.  All this is an informative piece.  If you are appalled by what Ben Waterworth has sad or has done I encourage you to (if applicable) unfollow him on Twitter, unfollow the show on Twitter, and/or unlike the Survivor Oz facebook page.  I want the message to come across that what he did is not okay and the refusal to actually own up to his mistake will cost him dearly, but attacking him on twitter and being an ass would make you no better than what he was.

For all of my readers, this is Heather.  Thank you for reading this.

Special thanks to my good friend Ben Powell.  I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have the bravery to even say half of this junk without your support. 

Thank you to Russ Bartlett for transcribing that Podcast for me.  Kept me from going mad trying to pull tidbits of information from it, you rock.  Also John Simons from PoS, whom stomached listing to the Preview cast to pick out what Mike was outraged about.  And for everyone on both PoS and Sucks who had my back when it mattered the most.  Also thank you.

Finally, thank you to Mike Holloway.  Worlds Apart is currently ongoing at the time of this article, but thank you for opening that floodgate so everyone else can see how horrible Waterworth really is.  On the off chance that you actually read the 3,000+ words of a crazy ass Survivor fan I personally thank you of this chance.

P.S.

Here are the links to various things that you are welcome to see for yourself.  Unfortunately this does not include any PoS things because it’s a closed group, but you can join to see for yourself and I’ll point you the way. :)

Survivor Worlds Apart Preview episode- Note: Timestamped @1:26 to where the mocking starts.

Survivor Oz Thread on PoS- Starts at relevant spot

Survivor World Apart Oztopsy episode 6-  Only need to watch the beginning for the “apology”

Max’s thread on Reddit- This is an interesting read, I couldn’t exactly fit it here without getting this longer than it needed to be, but it mentions the Oz comments and Max conforming the difference between Corinne saying the stuff she did and Waterworth’s comments.