Ryan's DR

[ryanb34]

Hello, test testing 1-2-3 1-2-3... Okay, this works.

I'm incredibly excited to be playing in my first ever Big Brother ORG. A little backstory.
My experience with Big Brother: I first got into Big Brother by watching BB12 when it was announced Hayden would be on Survivor. Since then I've also seen BB14, the second half of BB15, BB16, BB17 and BBCan1-4. While watching the most recent season of Big Brother, I decided that I wanted to try out the game in an ORG.
My experience with ORGs: I've played 4 organized ORGs before. In chronological order, Survivor (3rd/16 in a F2 situation), Survivor (9th/21), The Genius (6th/11), The Mole (Survived 2 eliminations before the game kind of stopped happening).

At first I wasn't thrilled with the twist of the season as I was looking forward to how I would play in a regular season setup, but let's be honest, no season of Big Brother has a regular setup. So now it's up to me to adapt to this version of the game. I'm reassured to know that the end game will use the regular format as the hosts announced that the twist will come to a stop at some point. That will likely be the point that I try to step up my compete level, but we'll see when(if) I make it there.

My initial strategy is very similar to the one I was planning anyway. I'm just trying to be as social as possible. I don't want to make any deals, alliances or even talk game right away. I just want people to like me. If they like me on a personal level, I should avoid nomination in the first few weeks. This is actually more important with the given twist considering it's going to be a popular vote. It would actually be very easy for a majority alliance to form and control the nominees every week. I'm not going to be the one to put my neck out there and create an alliance just yet, but I'll be interested to see if there is a group that can figure that out and if that will break the twist.

For this first HoH it seems like a really simple challenge and an easy immunity win. But it tells more than that. These buzzwords are basically being traded amongst each other. This is a very quick test of who will give information to whom. The winner of this competition will be the person with the most social capital. If someone gets all 16 words, that is a dangerous player who has connections and influence on everyone, one way or another. That is why I intend to not win this HoH. The immunity is not worth the target of being the most social player next week.
I'm using my buzzword as a bargaining chip to gain trust in the house. I've engaged in multiple conversations with other houseguests and once they get to a level that I can convince the other player that I trust them, I tell them my buzzword. The protocol has always been to exchange their buzzword in return. I currently have six other buzzwords, but I only plan on using four. That way, when the results are announced and I have only four buzzwords, the individuals that have given me their buzzwords will think that they are one of my top three relationships. I also think four is a high enough number that people will not compare notes enough to know that I didn't use some. If I feel really nervous, I might use five.

I initiated 9 conversations last night based on something that was mentioned in their introduction. I also had two people initiate a conversation with me (Jake and Trent).
My relationships in order from best to worst:

1. Casey - I have definitely had the best conversation with so far. We clicked pretty quickly and have been talking a lot about movies. We both bonded pretty quickly (I hope) and have definitely had the most entertaining talks of the day about superhero movies and movies from last year. In particular we've talked the most about Ex Machina. He then proceeded to make his signature a gif from the movie Ex Machina so I take that as a sign that he at least values our conversation.
2. Isaac - We actually haven't had as much substance to our conversations as Casey, but we still connected pretty easily. We bonded over the fact that we're both Canadian and talked about Big Brother Canada.
3. Taylor - We had some quick conversations too that did lead to a little game talk. We got to the point where we said we'd have each other's backs so it's really nice to have said that to each other already. It's not exactly an alliance, but it's something. The only issue is that Jake told me he is a former winner, but nice guy. I'll have to be careful of how good he is.
4. Trent - We had a good conversation and he said he's new to the game. New players seem much less threatening so he is the kind of ally that I'd like.
5. Jake - He's a very aggressive player and messaged me right away asking to exchange buzzwords. It wouldn't surprise me if he has messaged everyone and might win HoH. He has given me a little info about how his past seasons have gone down and what kind of players Brendan, Jacob, Amanda, Brendan, Taylor and Brad are like. I think that he thinks that I trust him. And that makes me trust him haha. If he doesn't believe it's in his best interest to go after me then that's a player I want to keep. That being said, I'm keeping him at a distance. That's why he's ranked this low despite probably talking the most game with him.
6. Brendan - The final person that I've been talking with back and forth. We don't really connect well, but he still responds to me and puts in an effort. Jake clearly isn't a fan of his so I wouldn't be against turning on his to earn more of Jake's trust.
7. Crystal - She only responded to one of my messages, but she seemed nice and it's a start.
8. Red - I thought we'd hit it off right away because of our mutual interest in hockey. I purposely didn't mention how big of a hockey fan I was in my introduction so people wouldn't make that connection. He responded once to me and it was very brief. There's room to improve.
9. Amanda - I reached out to her but haven't gotten a response yet. I want to work with her based on the scouting report I got from Jake.
10. Liam - I also reached out to him with no response. I have these three in this spot because I think that my reaching out will make them think that I want to work with them. Therefore they're not the worst people to have around. Plus people are busy, so I'm not holding it against them.
11. Willy - I also reached out to Willy with no response. I have him at the bottom of these three because he's been active enough to post confessionals. I don't know exactly when he did so hopefully he's not ignoring my message.
12. Adam - these last four haven't spoken to me, nor I to them. Jake tells me that Adam is trustworthy to a fault.
13. Brad - He is apparently friends with Jake. I didn't talk to him because I'm not super big into football. 
14. Jay - I didn't reach out to him because as a non-basketball fan I just had nothing to say to him. I might try to talk about movies with him.
15. Jacob - He hasn't posted an introduction or reached out to me so I just know nothing about him. I'd rather play with the devil I know. He may just be an inactive player.

This was actually a very helpful exercise as it helped me realize that my relationship with Casey really is much stronger than anyone else's. It also helped me figure out what I've actually accomplished on the first day and how to differentiate between the players. It's a little overwhelming to start 15 new relationships. And I would say the bottom seven are more "neutral" than necessarily "bad".


You shouldn't expect me to post in my DR every day though. I would like to keep my DRs to a few long posts rather than many short posts. Since all you can see from the main page is how many posts people have made in their DR, it would help hide how active I am.

[ryanb34]

Okay so to sum up this past week for me, I was glad to see Liam and Jay go because they were the only two houseguests that I sent a message to without getting a response. I completely messed up by not getting my votes in on time and my votes would have been for Red/Jay so Brendan and poor Jacob would have been off the block if I didn't screw up. It all worked out in the end though, and it helps me play the middle a little bit better.

I answered most of the week 1 Diary Room questions in my last post except for my favourite high school class. My favourite class in high school was gym. I mean it's obviously fun, but I just loved how it was an organized way to get a group of people together every day and play varying sports. Rather than joining a soccer league or dodgeball league, you get it all in one. I think that also speaks to how big of a competitor I am and I hope I get to show it with challenges later on in the season. I'm still throwing the HoH competitions as I don't see a big enough benefit to their powers yet. I feel I'm not a target so I don't need immunity. My allies aren't targets and I don't need to secure a nominee on the block or use four votes. Most importantly I definitely don't want to have to name a replacement nominee at this point.

If I win HoH this week by some miracle, I would probably use the four votes. Casey used it in a way that nobody is blaming him so I would try the same. I could try to use the power to protect someone, but it could put a target on our backs. In that case I might use it on someone random like Red or Jacob citing that they don't deserve to be up again.

At this moment I think Jake might have the best shot of winning this game. People are scared to go against him even though they're obviously not in his core. There will probably be a move made against him, but it doesn't look great right now. Casey is another person that I think is playing hard and keeping relationships with a lot of people. There is a lot more than he even lets on to me.

If I could hang out with someone in real life it would definitely be Amanda. We've gotten to know each other well over this past week and I really vibe well with her. We talk a lot about our personal lives and have a lot of surprising connections too.

I kind of just had a whole day to myself. I watched some great movies/tv shows and went for a run. I like my introverted time.

I've talked to everyone except for Brad and Adam by this point. Here are my current relationships in order from best to worst:

1. Amanda - She has been an amazing person to talk to and jumped up big time this week.
2. Casey - He has dropped a bit because I think he's playing harder than he lets on to me and has a lot of social relationships. Therefore, I'm not exactly sure where I sit with him. It's probably still high, I'm just not sure if I'm still his #1 (or ever was). We also have different play styles which was evident when he turned down a potential alliance with me Brendan and Trent. I wanted to say yes to it despite not putting any value to it.
3. Carleen - We have been having a good ongoing conversation about both video games and the big brother game.
4. Isaac - He kind of went on a tyraid in public but I feel we can still talk openly.
5. Taylor - I have barely been talking to Taylor but the reason he is so high is because we're on the brink of making a three person alliance with Amanda
6. Jacob - I got to know Jacob and have some good talks with him after his first stint on the block and I also apologized for getting him up there the second time so I think we are still good.
7. Red - I think I managed to reel him in at a time when nobody was talking to him. He seemed inactive and on the block so I hope he appreciates that and values my relationship with him in the game.
8. Crystal - I'd call this neutral as we haven't talked in a while but should still be on good terms.
9. Trent - Same as Crystal. I might talk to him about that alliance with Brendan.
10. Brendan - I've actually been keeping up with Brendan but am definitely keeping him at a distance. I have no loyalty to him, but I want to keep myself as an option to him. If I had to pick I definitely prefer him to Jake.
11. Jake - Kind of the bully right now and he's getting his way. I try to talk to him but I know he doesn't value me or my relationship much. I just hope he doesn't actively target me.
12. Adam
13. Brad

[Brett]

Ryan, what are your thoughts on Brendan's eviction? What do you plan to do now going forward?

[ryanb34]

I was actually going to post a confessional about Brendan anyway, so this works out.

Brendan is such a terrible Big Brother player. This is surprisingly not about his failure to use the veto, because hey mistakes happen. Good players can still make errors. Not to necessarily call myself a good player, but I did the same thing when I missed the nomination vote in week #2. I also had an easy decision and screwed it up. So I'm not blaming him for that.
It's also not about his outbursts to the public house. While they are very annoying, unintelligent and unnecessarily vulgar (Jake and Isaac aren't much better either) I don't consider how much I like you when making game moves. I only consider position in the house. And for the record I didn't like Brendan, but we had a working relationship and I felt closer to him than to Jake.
I don't even blame him for making a group chat consisting of him, me, Jacob, Red, Casey, Taylor and Amanda out of the blue to vote for Isaac and Brad. It was a bold move and he didn't realize that Casey is very much against him, so he never had seven people in that group. But that's still okay to me. Just because you don't know someone isn't on your side doesn't make you a bad player. It was a mistake, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's a bad player.

To fully understand why, you need to realize that Taylor, Amanda and I have formed an alliance. Since we were all in Brendan's group chat, we decided that we would all either vote with or against him. While we were down in the numbers if we joined him, Amanda could have used her Pandora's Box to give us a two vote advantage. So as a group, the side we would've picked would have won. We were discussing the pros and cons of each side, we were VERY torn. Amanda was even saying how she didn't like Jake pushing his opinion on her, and felt he was bullying her. I actually lost sleep one night thinking about how we should side with Brendan and we could pull it off. It would have been a big move. But then the next morning Amanda said she was getting messages from Brendan threatening her (Casey, another one of my allies was also getting threats from Brendan). That made me livid and a little relieved that the decision was so easy. I happily voted to nominate Brendan, given his threats against my biggest ally. It was a ridiculous move on his part, and eventually cost him the game. If he just sat tight, there was a chance that we would have made the big move and gone after Jake. But he couldn't just let other people make decisions and that's what cost him the game. That is why he is a terrible Big Brother player.

Speaking of that three person alliance, we were fortunate enough to all be playing in the PoV. We were hoping to not to have to veto used so Amanda wouldn't have to name a replacement nominee. The challenge was perfect to team up on. With a group of three, as long as at least one person posted before us, we would be guaranteed the veto. We unfortunately messed up and posted too early (at 7:55) and came in as the first three. Brendan won and it was a complete disaster on our part. It fortunately worked out in the end, but honestly we really screwed up. It was probably more of my fault for sugesting 7:55 instead of 7:59 because I wanted to be safer.

I am tremendously scared of Jake's group. I think he is close with Brad and Adam. Then I also think they have Isaac and Casey as well. Who knows where Carleen and Crystal sit in terms of how good they feel with him. While Red and Jacob are the obvious enemies based on their association with Brendan, I would love to use them as nominating votes to go after the other side. The numbers could be there to get neutral/middle players with those two to nominate that Jake side. The only problem is that I don't want to orchestrate this myself and become a target, but if we don't act soon they could pick us off one by one.

My relationship rankings:

1. Amanda - #1 by a mile. We have such long personal talks about everything going on in our lives. Then we'll just add a little bit of game talk on top of that. She keeps telling me that I'm her number one, and I believe that. But a small part of me wonders if she is just so good that she is pulling this off on a few people.
2. Taylor - I do really trust him now. I think the three of us are really loyal to this alliance, but if Taylor and Amanda are both past players then maybe they have something even closer than I know about. I'm worried that I may be the third string in this alliance, but that is a worry that won't be an issue until DEEP in this game.
3. Carleen - I have some good one on one talks and feel like she is in the middle enough that she's not tied to either side.
4. Casey - I still trust him but you'll notice this slipping. I think he's much closer to Jake than he's telling me, and that mistrust is growing and growing. He'll get it back if he's willing to make a move against Jake.
5. Trent - I just had some good talks with him this week. Turns out he was writing finals which I call a valid excuse. I know what that's like. I'd say he might be in the free agent wheelhouse.
6. Crystal - I believe she's easily influenceable but also believes that we are close. She is just a TERRIBLE conversationalist so I don't feel like we can really connect on a personal or game level.
7. Isaac - We get along great, but I can't help but feel that he's closer to the Jake trio.
8. Jacob - I haven't really talked to him since I turned on Brendan. I should though. We used to be on good terms and I hope we still are.
9. Red - I had a decent relationship with him and I was terrified to find out he was a former player playing under a secret identity as Brendan was leaving the house.
10. Brad - Still no talk. I really should say hi.
11. Adam - Posts slightly more than Brad.
12. Jake - I don't care, he's at the bottom for me. He's not much better than Brendan, despite what he thinks. He's a big threat and my top target.

[ryanb34]

So just a disclaimer, the next two DR posts will be fake ones so that I can post them publically.

[ryanb34]

I'm really excited to start this game! I've done a couple Survivor ORGs before but this is my first Big Brother ORG. I guess the reason I signed up for it is that I've really been enjoying the current season of Big Brother Canada, especially the end game. If I can make it deep I'd love to see how this game compares to Survivor.

[ryanb34]

So for my birthday yesterday I thought it would be fun to post a pizza party like the real houseguest a get for their birthdays. I wasn't sure if the hosts would be okay with it in the dining room but you guys and the rest of the house guests were great while playing along. It was honestly one of the highlights of my birthday. Even when the drama gets crazy there are some good people in here and we're all just here to have fun.