RyeBlog

Ryan. Although Ryan had no players left for four weeks, he still managed to win. Here are the final point totals:

Ryan 140 points
Nicole 132 points
Aubrey 122 points
Marla 107 points

The finals points for each player were as follows:

Todd 44 points
Jean-Robert 35 points
Amanda 33 points
James 33 points
Frosti 30 points
Courtney 29 points
Erik 28 points
Jaime 24 points
Sherea 20 points
Ashley 18 points
Denise 17 points
Aaron 14 points
Chicken 11 points

And Aubrey came the closest to picking the winner when she picked Amanda.

Surivors and their points:

Only survivors who are on RyeBlog teams are included in this list.

RyeBlog leaderboard:

Surivors and their points:

Only survivors who are on RyeBlog teams are included in this list.

RyeBlog leaderboard:

Survivor China is here!

Survivor starts tonight, and as always RyeBlog has some competitions based on it. This year, Survivor the show will be slightly different - and understanding these differences may influence how you play the games on RyeBlog.

According to Mark Burnett:

We got rid of exile island. We still have a hidden immunity idol but it is right under their noses.

According to the wikipedia:

In lieu of Exile Island, the game gives the tribes the ability to kidnap a player from the opposing tribe as part of winning a reward challenge; the kidnapped player remains with that team through the next immunity challenge and will receive a clue to the location of an immunity idol at that camp.

Competition #1 - Pick winner based on pictures alone

How to compete:

1. Go to http://www.cbs.com/survivor/
2. Use your mouse to learn the names of the different faces on the top of the page.
3. Use your intuition to pick a winner based on their picture.
4. Post your winner here in the comments.

Tiebreaker:

• Pick the 2nd place person based on a picture alone

Competition #2 - FANTASY SURVIVOR

For this competition, you pick five people and you get points based on what happens to those five people throughout the show. You can look over the scoring categories before picking the five people, or you can just pick five random people. Sure, it might come down to 99% luck - but so does Fantasy Football and people still like playing that!

Scoring:

1. Each vote cast against a member of your team gives you 2 points.
2. If the team your survivor is on wins immunity, you receive 1 point.
3. Each week your survivor is on the show, you get 1 point.
4. If a survivor wins individual immunity, you receive 5 points.
5. If a survivor is “kidnapped” by the other tribe, you receive 1 point.
6. If a survivor goes home for a self-inflicted injury, you receive 5 points.
7. If a survivor goes home for a pre-existing medical condition, you lose 5 points.
8. If a survivor goes home because another survivor attacked him and mortally wounded him, you receive 15 points. The survivor who does the wounding receives 20 points.
9. Any survivor who takes home a car as a prize loses 2 points
10. Being in the final vote gives you 5 points
11. Each vote cast FOR your survivor in the final vote gives you 1 point
12. The overall winner of survivor receives 10 points

To Compete:

1. Pick a team of FIVE survivors.
2. Post your “team” here in the comments.

Strategy:

You should notice that votes cast against your survivor gain you points. So factor that into your team. A valuable player would be one that gets you the most points over the course of the show. Someone who gets votes against him every week but manages to hang on regardless is valuable… Also, someone who is stupid and cuts their leg off will get you a lot of points - so they will also be valuable - BUT - a fat slob who goes home because he can’t hack it will lose you a ton of point.

Your team of 5 must be unique. If someone else has already picked those 5 survivors, you MUST pick at least one different person. This will avoid any potential ties.

Make your predictions / picks now!

We’re on our way to Mexico, and are currenty in Phoenix. Traveling on a plane with a baby is certainly easier before they can move, say “dat dat dat” while pointing to things they want, and have the strength to pull the window shade out of its track.

Aubrey’s brother and his wife got bumped last night off of their flight, so they are on the same flight as us to El Paso. Party time.

I don’t even want to consider what the PayPal fees on this thing will be - but right now a 225 - acre Island is on sale on eBay. The island is part of the Fiji archipelligo, and is surrounded by a huge lagoon.

The island is valued at approximately $25 million - and apparently will be worth $40 million if someone finishes the resort that is being built on it.

From the pictures at the bottom, I learn two things. First - the roofs of the existing structures likely leak. Second - the island has been abandoned.

I was about to put in a $15 million bid, but Aubrey pointed out something important: The internet service there would probably be slow. That - I’m afraid - is a deal breaker for me.

View the island at eBay, and place your bids

Okay, it’s been a while. Time for a big update.

• Moved into a new house
• Rhett turned 1, started walking
• Got a new job, am going to start next Tuesday doing Web & Application development for a company called “You Take Control” (Porter works there now)

Since moving into the new place, we’ve done a bunch of work already:

• Replaced handles on all the cabinets
• Installed new kitchen sink / garbage disposal / kitchen faucet
• Installed under-cabinet lighting and up-lighting above cabinets
• Removed strange light above sink, installed new light above sink
• Removed the crooked and uneven tile from under the “dining room area”
• Installed laminate flooring in the upstairs area
• Picked paint colors, and started painting
• Started running a quad-shielded coax wire to get a better signal to my MythTV box
• Fixed leaking drain on one of the faucets in a bathroom
• Fixed various sprinklers

Since it’s been so long, I figured I’d better at least put something cool to watch:

[quicktime width=”320″ height=”256″]http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/bigfiles/BirdsEyeTimeLapseSmall.mov[/quicktime]

Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. As you may know from past years, this is the happiest day of the year. From noon until 8pm, you can gorge yourself on free ice cream. Those of us going to the Ben & Jerry’s in Provo, Utah get the added bonus of getting to be near the large biker gang BACA (Bikers Against Child Abuse - I kid you not). See you there!

My record is seven or eight cones, I can’t remember. I don’t think I will be going for a new record this year as I actually have a job and a family now - but if anyone here beats my record let me know. (I wont require proof - but you must be able to list off the flavors you ate and the order you ate them in.)