Episode 2: Friendship never ceases

[Thorax]

I hope I installed the hope that I wasn't just working against Twilight the whole time on this tribe, but I feel like ignoring the fact I found A M I G O after just putting stuff up for something to talk about, like I knew I was already 3 days late when I discovered the location of those letters. (well actually at that stage I think I only had found gam)
But at least I've discovered that it was found, I'll just be kicking myself for not caring/assuming it was going to be one that required ponies to work together because of the whole clue in the confessional area as well.

That or it's still a troll.

I decided to briefly throw a mention of it to flim and flam to see if I can find anything out, but it's probably on another tribe.

Interesting though that Coco Pummel said than Sombre was one of the socialites on their original tribe, clearly they were playing way too hard, especially when they're doing things like asking to be ranked bottom of the friendship rankings. Kind of the opposite of Twilight who we deemed wasn't playing hard enough.
My hope is they somehow took the idol out with them on that tribe.

[Thorax]

I don't think I like everypony here having a preference for the word puzzle. because word searches are things I excel in, and now I'm probably going to back off.

Well at least I won't have the slowest time.

but I guess I would have chosen puzzle as first preference before the additional information about flash and image editors being required, so puzzle will probably be my expert thing.
I am very worried that it could be a logic puzzle thing though, as I'd be letting down the tribe if we choose that for my expertise.

[Thorax]

I didn't think about drop down (actually is that what fill-in means?) word things, whoops, should have stayed up late so I'd get on the puzzle, or just ignored the additional details.
Can't really complain.

I'm fairly sure the answer to my question is yes, probably should have just confirmed that experts couldn't help each other though.

[Thorax]

I think I definitely don't have trust with Pinkie, judging by the fact she's mentioned that Twilight voted for her.

I just need to work out my wording for the reply though, because she might have sent that everywhere, see if anypony is willing to tell her she's on the bottom.

[Thorax]

I'm getting worried again now, I've grown my pinkie pie conversation up to 3 paragraphs, and now I don't have any that I can't say I don't like anypony because there aren't enough paragraphs in the conversation.

I had no idea my rule for this was 3 paragraphs, but it makes me happy.

[Thorax]

okay that makes sense as a fill-in word puzzle now I've done it, I feel slow on that one compared to the other two, so probably shouldn't have been an expect in it, but I expected word search, and I do excel at word search. I have no idea why my mind never thought of that type of puzzle when hearing the words fill-in.

Probably because I don't particularly like that form of puzzle, it's even worse if you do it with numbers though.

[Princess Celestia]

it's even worse if you do it with numbers though.

brb changing FIC

[Thorax]

Thanks for the vote of confidence that you believe I'll make it to the FIC.

[Thorax]

I hope Flim Flam understand my current messages are jokes, because some of them feel like they'd be coming across as grumpy while I'm thinking my thoughts through.

Probably because Flim isn't making it easy for me to write good ones

[Thorax]

I have no idea if my thought bubble bursting in a message was a good idea, usually these types of things end up as confessional dumps. But since I think I'm trying to treat Flim and Flam as my top ally, I think it was logical that I sent it

The not reading stuff is catching, somehow I just skipped over the fact you asked me about the tribe, despite thinking to myself that was the most important part of the message I should be replying towards. How am I going to get a trio quad of us going with buried lede if I don't even mention that it's an option
plus the one with granny smith, well I guess if that's happening I actually need to talk to granny there.
But I do like everypony at the moment, so losing is not an option we should be taking.
I may decide I can't trust Pinkie, but that might be that I possibly was the influence that had twilight vote her last tribal council, although I believe there are other factors than me suggesting it at some stage. I know the fact I did mention it at all means I don't know how much I can trust pinkie, which means I think I'd still go there if we did need to vote.
I think if there is any damage I can rebuild, but it leaves the question of how do we determine who else would make a good sacrific.

Although, I think at this stage the pony I actually want as my top ally might be Coco Pummel. That makes it complicated if I have alliances with everypony else.

[Thorax]

I'm currently trying to find out if Coco is friends much with Pear because european players, but really avoiding tribal council stops everything from crashing down around me, and that I maybe have lede in my pocket, although I'm not entirely sure what is happening with that, if flimflam haven't heard from him, then things get dicey.

am I going to fail because I tried hard and am seen as a mastermind? (this is something Twilight was apparently afraid of happening to her, but in the end that backfired - I probably should have said something else back then but hearing that just gave me my wanted easy first boot choice, even though realistically she might have been a better second boot)

[Thorax]

The question however is do I actually still like Flim's style of speech to want to work with him.

Actually I'm not sure if that is the question, I just had a question I was wanting to ask, but got distracted at whatever point I was asking it, but it is a questio I am asking myself, so maybe it was the one I wanted

[Thorax]

Nah I think I was going to ask if Coco is getting the most game talk from me & Granny, is that another trio I actually need to get forming.

I think I'm slightly more behind on game talk with granny, but it's there somewhere, I know she did mention during the last tribal that she hadn't liked Pinkie all that much either, but I'm a good boy and haven't let that spread, it's my own trust that way I'm letting slip out.

[Thorax]

The good news is if I'm letting out a stream of posts here, and they're not just complaining about real life it means I'm actually enjoying the game of survivor again.

Something at the start of the game I was struggling with if I'd actually be able to do that still.

Maybe it is actually the sudden swap early in the game that will get me going, let's think. No I don't think it's that, it's just the paranoia that isn't needed when I'm actually feeling safe at a time.
It will bite me in the arse at some stage, and it could still be on this tribe, I see Pinkie as a potential easy removal from the tribe still, but I don't know if others follow.

Maybe I do actually have the leadership qualities I'm meant to have, well I do, I just get way too paranoid about being in charge of something that it backfires. Calm controlled thoughts will get me through this. Nothing to do with needing to flip anything, my plan will work as it is, don't let others boss me around, I am in charge of my own destiny.
I don't really know where this thought is going, but I'm fairly sure it isn't actually anything to do with this game, just real life failures.

but thinking of those will put me in the dumps again, so it's got to be positive https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=
I am aware that word triggers a broken link.

[Thorax]

I need to get a longer power cord for when I'm using my phone on charge at the computer.

because yes I need both devices being used at the same time, but currently my phone is having to be done upside down

still works, but I'm getting confused with my unlock patternafter I spend a bit of time typinghere.

[Thorax]

I decided 58% was enough, after I just stopped bothering to use my phone for stuff as well. not that it matters as me using my phone at the same time as the computer doesn't actually have anything to do with this game.

I am now stupidly trying to try and figure out how many different twists and swaps might be coming by studying the stats screen. (56 boards with study group 5 being number 49). I hope I forget about this information as it's stuff I shouldn't be looking at, so really putting it in writing here might not be the best idea. I won't be discussing it with anypony, it's just now in the back of my mind.
I knew I needed to stop clicking on the show more stats link, but I couldn't help myself.

[Thorax]

These three paragraph messages seem a lot bigger when I'm viewing them on the phone, well that's expected, but it just doesn't feel like it should be that much bigger looking.
But that's always when I get to those walls. The good thing is this message system is better for dealing with walls in the phone than zetaboards was

[Thorax]

It feels almost like when i log on in the morning everypony quickly sends me messages now, I had two in my inbox when I checked upon waking, I now have 6 to respond to.

Might have helped if I responded to the ones I saw earlier instead of just reading them as they came.

[Thorax]

why is the answer to not really knowing what to talk about make nonsense sentences, it doesn't help, so please stop it thorazx

[Thorax]

Well according to the data, the best challenge players on the three tribes must be DJ Pon-3, Thorax and Rainbow Dash as they all managed for their respective tribes two of the fastest times.

I think that at least makes me not the biggest challenge threat, which is good because I only ever manage to come second in challenges.

[Thorax]

The tribe probably should have had Coco Pummel as the non-expert though looking at those times, I'm glad I was wrong about my question I assumed in the thread, I had thought that once the slowest time reached either expert that was the result.

[Thorax]

If I've done the math right in seeing who should have been the experts, the two tribes that won immunity had one expert correct in each field, while sugarcube corner only had one total. Carousel was also correct with their non-expert choice.
Had they chosen their experts right and left it as that, they would have won. But based on the same math, Sweet Apple Acres was actually the worst at choosing their experts based on the time we would have saved.

I'll spare the detail because I'm just doing this in celebration of us not attending tribal council. (although I'm not going to bring it up anywhere other than here, because I don't trust my formulas that I've done. I might upload the spreadsheet just because, even though it's ugly - the choice of experts was done using mental math)

Sugarcubes experts should have been: Rarity & Fluttershy on the word, Applejack & Soarin on the timing and Rainbow Dash & Cheese Sandwich on the puzzle - Octavia Melody as the non-expert.
This would have granted them times of 20:13, 6:33, 15:38 and having totaling 42:24

Carousel should have used the expertise of  DJ Pon-3 & Big Daddy McColt on the word, Sunburst & Starlight Glimmer on the Carousel, and Derpy Hooves & Queen Chrysalis for the puzzle. They were right to not use Trixie as an expert.
This would have reduced their times to 22:09, 7:55 and 10:26 for a total of 40:30

Sweet Acres should have had Thorax & Flim and Flam as word experts, Grand Pear & Buried Lede as timing experts, and Granny Smith & Pinkie Pie on Puzzle. Coco Pommel being left out as an expert.
These choices would have given them 19:53, 9:46 and 8:16 for a total of 35:52

I'm not entirely sure this is correct, and my spreadsheet got messy, but this looks right to me. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VXvmrl2XOUQ_KO-VB9H5sjihZpfNdm4BU8vF3yH-PMs/edit?usp=sharing (I got very confused with how I was doing it when the experts time was over the next time I would have bought down.
Also done with just averaging the expert times together at the start, it worked out the same.

[Florina Tart]

Nerd

[Florina Tart]

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game tho

[Discord]

I'm not glad you're enjoying the game, nerd

[Thorax]

It seems weird to me that my declared better experts for that challenge feature none of the fastest times for the timing, but I guess that's just because it featured the least variation in times.
I did start most of them by trying to pick the fastest times in the word puzzle though, because that was clearly the hardest out of the challenges.

Sorry for the nerd talk, I just don't see there being much else I can talk about this episode, my tribe isn't at TC, it's not like you're going to be heavily watching me anyway.

I originally actually copied the data to here because I was going to compile a challenge threat status, and then include the prizes ponies earned from challenge 1.
Which I guess counts separately for what I assume sunburst and cheese sandwich got in study group 5.

[Thorax]

I guess you guys can have a current trust rating from me though

Buried Lede
Coco Pummel
Flim and Flam
Granny Smith
Grand Pear
Pinkie Pie

All the other ponies as since were never all on at the same time, the study group alliance just wasn't going to happen. and I helped vote out Twilighit, so it's not going to be fillydelphia strong either.

[Florina Tart]

do you feel like you're on neutral or negative terms with the study group?

[Thorax]

Neutral. 2nd highest score was fair game.

[Thorax]

How the heck were you so fast at everything?!

I guess I'm glad I decided to come complain about this, I was going to answer this seriously had I got to it. (currently stuck trying to unstick my word usage into something resembling a coherant story for the shit that's being made up. The easy answer is to say it's not what I meant, but if I say something I'm going to mean it! But back to why I'm posting here now, maybe once the story of the lead paragraph has developed into something even more crazy I'll post some of it here.
Or I'll change my mind already because I'm not sure where my complain was going with the above quote that I'll just pull something out of context to tease the readers of my confessional.

a growth spurt in my horn

so anyway, back to the rant on why I shouldn't have solved the puzzle that fast, and actually taken it slower, because it would have enabled the quote from Lede to not exist here and not been said before, which is the problem of just solving a jigsaw puzzle fast.
I probably would also take note if I was say with somepony that did the words in DJ Pon-3's time, although that's beleivable, I probably lost a minute of my own opening up a second paint window to cross off the words, and more time with the saddle and gallop stuff up.
I even know I mucked up on the timing challenge as well because I tried going faster than I should have after finding the spot on the apple needed going up.
But enough as I just ramble into something else random (hi have you identified me yet?)

The point being that those questions are just awkward to answer because who to do you even do as such, I haven't trained in the art of any of that, my life is just normal and I can do things fast.
like maybe I could claim practice if https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid= was a working link, but otherwise I just don't head anywhere that actually doing jigsaws is a thing, I'd fail a lot more without ghost mode. I did need to figure with the transparency settings part way through as well, as finding the right one of those makes jigsaws go fast on jigsawplanet, along with choice of background colour, although I wouldn't bother with that on a one shot only play. That puzzle would get down to 2 minutes and something if it was a just keep going, yet most ponies wouldn't even get under 5 of my first attempt.
I'm lost again in the ramble, so you get a sentence interfering because it makes me clear my thoughts, and harder to read.

I guess it's somewhat of what Felissan's problem was with how she challenge beasted as Luigi
I guess the bigger picture I need to think about is DJ Pon-3 would likely be getting the same from their tribe, and now I've got a placed a connection between these two sentences in my mind which I don't want

Somehow the end point is I should have done the puzzle slower as I knew I would be faster than the experts, but I don't have brakes when I'm doing challenges.
That is probably all I should have written here.
Obviously do the words fast fast because I was the expert there, but I could have slowed on the other two, although since I had no balance level for that timing game, that was right to be fast fast fast, but the jigsaw, that's common and there's only so few MS users that completely blaze them.
Gyazo also helped I guess.

[Thorax]

I can't even complete my thoughts when they're a bunch of nonsense, because I refuse to stop testing stuff
amistad magia

[Thorax]

I'm scared, Flam is apparently taking the night off.

and with timezones I have no idea when that is.