Episode 4 Private Confessional

This is very early, but I really can't wait to send this tomorrow. I've got too much that I've been wanting to say for a while, and well, regardless of whether or not you actually read these or not, it's still great to have an outlet, even if I'm probably just talking to myself. :)

For the bio questions that we had to fill out, one of the things you asked was if I thought this game would get under your skin. I answered "yes" just because, oh I don't know, I had to answer something, right? Little did I know just how accurate that answer was going to turn out to be. Well, actually… maybe it isn't the game. I mean, it is frustrating to not be 100% sure of who The Mole is and you can go crazy analyzing all the possible reasons why someone may have done or said something. But I think that the personalities, not the game, are actually the ones getting under my skin. I really can't keep up with them. Maybe I'm just not as witty as people like Breaux and Ginger, I don't know, but I just can't handle it. Last night, I was just getting a headache as the chat progressed, and decided to stop paying that much attention – sure, that sounds like a bad idea because in a game like this you're supposed to watch everything. But the transcript is saved, so I knew I'd get a chance to read everything slowly later. It's not like it would've been that easy to read and analyze things live anyway, considering how fast they type. So, this morning I was able to sit down and read it in peace, and it wasn't as painful, since I could take breaks and whatnot.

The only people in this game who help me in keeping my sanity are Blaise and Elise. They really are the only people I can relate to and who seem to be on the same wavelength as me as far as rationalizing things. I thought Paul would be one of the people as well, but I've gotten such a stinking feeling of smugness from him lately, that I simply I can't (more on this and Paul later). Everyone else here (besides myself and these three people) displays a personality that is, um… well, kind of immature. I've always been the type of person who takes things a little too seriously, so that may be the reason why I'm unable to appreciate them. But this is definitely THE first time that annoying personalities have been a hindrance in me being able to keep my head straight. In the past games I played, usually there were perhaps two or three annoying people… and pretty much all but one would get executed early, and the lone annoying person who made it far usually turned out to be likable once there were less people in the game. So, I don't know, we'll see, but right now, I would be happy to see ANYONE (other than me, Blaise or Elise) leave this game.

The execution certainly wasn't helpful. Both Brandon and Richard deserved to be here more than the two people who got executed most recently. Beth did nothing, and I never knew anything about her. And Kyle, jeez, everyone keeps saying that it's such a shock, and that he was a threat. A guy who is so careless to get penalties like that twice? A threat? Are you kidding? In addition to that, he had actually been VERY uninvolved in the game during his last episode. Also, during the first week, we chatted a bit, and he talked about his views on the game, and I actually thought his ideas were awfully simplistic, and that he probably wouldn't be the best person at ferreting out the true Mole. I'm not sure who he suspected, but I really hope it was me. I wasn't much a fan of him, but I hate him even more now with this whole issue of executed players contacting people. No, he hasn't contacted me (and I would tell you if he did – I don't want anything to compromise the game, and I'm extremely serious about that), but obviously the post you made means that an executed player did contact someone, and gee, I wonder who it was: Beth, the one who did nothing and hardly spoke to anyone, or Kyle, the one who, while IN the game, couldn't keep himself from getting into trouble by illegally logging on twice? I mean, hopefully the fact that you FOUND OUT about this means that he didn't help whoever he contacted. My guess is whoever he contacted informed you about it, and if Kyle had given helpful information to that player, that player may have wanted to keep it all to him/herself.

Okay, Travis, let's just, let's cut the bullshit (how I love quoting my friend Victor Ziegler)…

So far, every week I've provided really lame paragraphs on each person and haven't been too open about suspicions or about theories I have on the game. The reason for that has partly been the paranoia of The Mole reading this and using what I say against me, and also, since there were still so many players left prior to this round, I still just wasn't sure about the things I was thinking. It just wasn't narrowed down enough. I'm not sure if it's narrowed down enough now, but I guess it's as good a time as any. We are past the rounds that were luck-based, and now skill is going to come into play much more. That might mean I'm gone. Oh well. But anyway, let's get to some of the theories I have. Before getting to suspicions I have of players currently left in the game, I'd actually like to give you a theory I have on someone who is no longer with us. Someone I'm SURE we all miss dearly…

… and that is the awesome Player 15. Or as Breaux would say, Fifteesha, lol. My theory is that, well, you advertised the game and said it would consist of 15 players, but out of all the applications you got, you saw only 14 people that you thought were good enough to play (no surprise you chose this "person" to be #15, the very last number). I think this person didn't exist. It's awfully fishy that he/she did nothing EXCEPT make a blog entry that was totally posted there at the VERY beginning, and that the entry refers to this game as a "psychological adventure" (which totally smells of you and the game's theme, even more than Paris Hilton smells of cat piss). There's also the fact (and I said this in my very first private confessional) that the blog post says things like "I'm ready to start this game, and I have no idea who The Mole is," which is an incredibly generic thing to say, and it doesn't even make SENSE, because how would he/she know? Even if he/she were the most perceptive person in the world, he/she hasn't MET any of the players, so there's no way you could even have the slightest idea. Honestly, if this is the case, I'm really happy about it, and we should all thank you for it. USUALLY in ORGs there is ONE person like that: they never show up, and are the first one eliminated by default. In retrospect, no one has been FULLY inactive in this game (Beth and Ellery were meh, but they still did stuff), so you giving us that sort of free pass by having that one "person" be guaranteed to be one of the first three executed (instead of it being one of the other 12) was awesome. And that definitely makes the first execution having been a triple one totally fair, because technically it would really mean that it was actually just a double execution. But yeah, that's just my opinion on that not-so-important thing. Let's get to the good stuff now :)

The following people are my main suspects, but the order in which they're listed isn't necessarily a reflection of my suspicions. To be honest, the order changes every day, depending on my mood.

BRIAN:

I'll talk first only about the reasons why I think Brian may be The Mole, and then I'll get to the tons of other things that I have to say about him as a person. You may have gotten the impression that he was on my list when I commented last week that I suspect his poor typing skills are fake, and if they aren't, I'm sorry, but I don't know if I'll be able to tolerate staying in touch with him after the game, lol. It is completely obvious that he's tied to Ginger in some form of coalition (the most annoying aspect of the whole thing is how much they think people don't suspect it, when it's so obvious). Ginger is also quite obviously tied to Mitch. I just wonder if that means they are an actual trio or if Ginger has individual deals with each of them. If they're a trio, that's extremely dangerous, and my sole hope is that Brian is duping both of them and they'll both get executed soon. Though I guess if one of them goes the other may catch on to who The Mole is, if they've been exchanging quiz answers. I've NO doubt Ginger could easily figure out who The Mole is if one of her partners gets executed, and she would so win the game. That's why it's best that she goes soon. But anyway, back to Brian. Last episode, I made reference in my private confessional to my belief that he is allied with Ginger and that they're trying to get people to think each other is The Mole. Well, wouldn't you know it, soon after that confessional was sent to you, Brian happens to tell me in a conversation that he thinks SOMEONE convinced Cheri that he could be The Mole. Obviously, he wants me to believe that he got Ginger to convince Cheri he was The Mole, and that that's the reason why Cheri got executed. Look at how lame and unconvincing he is:

Brian: rofl i wudnt be surprised if sum1 convinced her 2 vote 4 me
9:58 PM me: Haha! Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if she voted me either, which is why it's definitely not shocking that she went home.
Brian: o of corse, were both as innocent as the day, lol
9:59 PM but yea, i didnt think cheri suspected me from the only 2 conversations we had (tho those were pretty early on, b4 the long term challenge finished)
but i did get the feeling she might be open 2 being convinced, lets say
not naive, but a bit suggestible
and maybe sum1 took advantage

Gag (though a bigger gag is coming a little later). But there's more. Lots more. There's the fact that he was one of the people who was ONE away from getting his inkblot report complete. If The Mole sees that other people are one away, he/she can go ahead and do the same and not look suspicious, since everyone did it. In round 2, he was the only one to MENTION his dinosaur's name in the comic he created, obviously showing that he wanted the guessers to know it was his. Hello? We're in a round that is luck-based and you wanna help Kyle and Mitch get exemptions? If he was The Mole and he knew everyone else was mucking up the comics, he could go ahead and look innocent. And of course, last round everyone was impressed that he pulled those answers out at the live challenge. And you'd think "WHY would The Mole add money to the pot like that?" My answer is that they would, as long as they can compensate. He won money there, but he lost MORE money by being the sole person responsible for losing the other challenge in that round (the long-term one). So, he surely compensated. Last night, when you announced you'd be saying random dollar amounts, he immediately jumps in and says "guys, we gotta go higher than $4!!" How convenient is it that amounts over $4 were never offered? He put us in that mindset (because seriously, why would we THINK $4 or above would be offered?), and so we kept looking out for it, and he effectively kept us from saying STOP. As for his success at hangman, he sort of was FORCED to get both right. It was blatantly obvious that "defenestrate" was the word, given the information Paul was looking at, and "penny" was just as obvious. Heh, with penny, he tried to hold us off by asking "Are you sure, guys?", certainly not wanting (as The Mole) to get two of the words right, but the kid was backed in a corner.

Now… I've got other things to say about Brian. I actually adored him at the start and thought he was really funny. But he has a rationale about this game that is incredibly off, and it actually makes me REALLY hope that he's The Mole and that the rationale is fake. He told me that he would've hated to get executed last round because of how he had screwed up in the last challenge. It's like he's saying it would've been bad to be eliminated after being responsible for a loss. Huh? What does that matter? If you lose a challenge and you got executed, it means you lost money that you weren't gonna win anyway, because you're getting executed and won't win the game. I'm SURE you are SO sad that whoever ends up winning won't win those $6 you cost us. But Brian takes it to an even more inept level… he claims to be shocked that Blaise, Elise and me are all still in the game despite the fact that we were the ones who "mucked up" the inkblot challenge by being ONE away from a full report. To get the full effect of this atrocious mindset, please do read:

Brian: u kno, u me blaise and elise shud have a special club
me: A special club?
Brian: becos were the 1s who just keep mucking everything up and yet keep surviving
lol im thinking of the very 1st challenge
me: I mucked something up?
Brian: were the 4 that all managed 2 get 4 or 5 inkblot quotes
when we all needed 6
me: Oooh right! lol
Brian: u, me, elise, blaise, rofl
and were all still here
me: I don't see how performance in a challenge is related to doing well on the quizzes, though.
Brian: well i dont either
but we all sucked then and were all still here, so we got 2 b doing sumthing rite, lol

As you can see, I sort of let my guard down there, and rather than being Mole-ish and agreeing with everything he says, I HAD to dissent because I just could NOT resist the urge to at least give him a glimpse at how off he is. He's viewing this as if this were some sort of other reality game like Survivor, in which performance in a challenge can get you eliminated. The most hilarious (and annoying part about it) is the very end of what I copied up there. I express my disagreement, and he seems to concede by saying "well, I don't either," yet he goes RIGHT back to his original thought in his next message. "We're all still here, so we must be doing something right." WTF? What does how you do in a challenge have to do with whether you stay in this game? You can totally suck at every challenge and be the most perceptive and observant person and great at taking the quiz. It just… GOSH, if he's actually a PLAYER, and he believes all of these things, it just feels like an atrocity that he's still allowed to be here, especially over Brandon and Richard, whom I know wouldn't have mindsets like that. The other thing that proves he's thinking as though he's in another type of reality game is what Blaise has rightly pointed out as the clique, which you'll see in one of Brian's earlier blog posts how he talked about his "group of friends" (which, again, makes me fear that Brian/Ginger/Mitch trio so freaking much – I would love it if those three were the next to go).

But it gets worse. Oh yes, it does. I spoke earlier in this confessional about how I can't understand why people think Kyle was a formidable opponent in this game. Well, after the execution, once we were all able to get back online, Brian starts chatting with me and he comes up with this truly disgusting and just plain LAUGHABLE set of ideas on how he feels about Kyle's departure. Here comes the bigger gag. You best be ready:

Brian: but srsly... it feels like a different game now kyles gone.
me: Really? Why?
He wasn't even active recently
Brian: well 4 1 thing he seems like sum1 who mightve been capable of doing little things
u kno, taking out cheri and richard, those kinds of things
me: Like, you think he was responsible for that?
Brian: and if it was him, i think a lot of ppl will be questioning there assumptions rite now
well not necessarily, i think its possible
me: Why would people be questioning their assumptions, if it was him?
Brian: becos like richard, the 1 guy whos so sure of himself gets executed
while u, me, elise, breaux and the rest stick around
me: Richard seemed sure of himself?
Brian: i thoght so
i talked 2 him a lot b4 the quiz he got executed on
not like cheri or brandon
me: I guess I don't understand how you saw Kyle as strong when he was around so little, hehe.
Brian: well gingers not around vry much either, and whod bet against her?
me: And was even lazy about doing confessionals and even logged on when he shouldn't have, twice.
Brian: well thats what bugs me, its such a damn stupid way 2 go
me: So I'm not sure if he was trying too hard to preserve his stay in the game.
It bugs you, the way he went?
Brian: yea
the boy had potential
i like 2 see ppl fulfil there potential

Oh my God. It disgusts me just to read it again, or to have to copy/paste it here. The way Kyle left BUGS him? How could the way ANYONE leaves BUG you when you are playing an INDIVIDUAL game when all you want is for YOURSELF to do better than the others? Who cares if someone leaves because of a penalty or whatever as long as YOU don't leave? And to punctuate it with more vomit-inducing material, he ends it with saying "the boy had potential" and "I like to see their potential". Both false statements. Someone who has potential isn't as careless as Kyle was about his penalties, and he/she isn't as lazy as Kyle was about the game in general in the last few days either. And how could you possibly say you LIKE seeing someone fulfill their potential in a game like this, when you're referring to people you're competing against? Sure, it's a great philosophy to have in REAL life, and I guess he could be a great motivational speaker (assuming his oral communication skills aren't as ghastly as his written ones), but in this game the only potential you're supposed to care about is your own. Mole or not, Brian ticks me off like you don't believe with this stuff. I really, really hope that it is all fake, because if the rationale is actually genuine, then the kid is dumb as hell. With all of that being said, if he is The Mole, he's doing a good, but not stellar job, and I'd imagine I'm not the only person who thinks it could be him, which is a scary thought.

BREAUX:

Now THIS is actually the person that I would be very pleased if he turns out to be The Mole. If Breaux is The Mole, the strategy he's using is fantastic, and unlike Brian, he probably doesn't have many people who suspect him, which would mean I'd perhaps be able to make it to the end if I were the sole person thinking it's him. His boisterousness and usage of caps and witticisms (particularly in chatrooms) are all things that I'd imagine will make other people dismiss him. He's also made it a point of saying "I am The Mole" on several occasions. First, in his very first e-mail he sent us, saying that even The Mole needs to take a few days off (more on that e-mail later), then in one of his first few blog posts, then in the very first chat I had with him, then in a comment he posted on Ginger's blog saying "yes, everybody look at me, I am The Mole," and then last night during the live challenge (when Ginger said "well, The Mole doesn't need an exemption," he replied "that's right, I do not"). It'd be a great strategy if he's The Mole and he's doing this. The thing is, if he is and he's reading this, he may try to stop doing it (for my benefit), but Breaux, you need to understand that 1) It's probably working on the other players, 2) If you stop doing it, I'll simply catch on to the fact that you stopped doing it, and assume you did so because you read this, and 3) I'm not 100% sure it's you, anyway… yet. :)

So, let's go all the way back to the beginning of the game with Breaux. The very first week that the game had technically "started," things hadn't REALLY started because we were sort of given a week to get organized and get to know each other. This turned out to be very convenient because of the AIM disaster, and also since we're all being identified as player numbers, it was good to get a week to memorize who each of them was before we began. So, when you think about it, The Mole didn't really NEED to show up during that first week necessarily. There weren't any impending challenges or important game events, other than the inkblot thingy. So everyone was like "well, players 6, 14 and 15 are nowhere to be seen". Beth sort of came along later, but Breaux was interesting because he sent that e-mail saying "oh, even The Mole needs a few days off," and he later sent another one wanting us to comment on his inkblot ("DO IT DO IT DO IT" is all he said, but I'm assuming that's what it was). Some may think he can't be The Mole because of how much he helped with the very first live challenge (the one with the sound files), but if you notice, his absence during that first week made him not be "able" to post a report for the inkblot, so technically he may have sabotaged that. So during episode 1, he did well at the live one, but he compensated by failing the long-term one. It's also way interesting that, despite his absence during those first few days, he managed to get the correct answer to the Mole bucks consensus question of figuring out which bio question most people gave the same answer to. AND he also somehow got an honorary mention for the blog creativity thing, even though he made his blog the morning AFTER the blogs were due, according to what you had specified in terms of deadlines. If he had earned Mole bucks, I'd dispute it, but… :)

There are also little things that have caught my attention like the "awkward" conversation you two seemed to be having in the chatroom after the "Where in DC" challenge, and then just recently, you ostensibly reprimanding him for typing up the shape of a penis on the message board. I suppose that if he is The Mole maybe you guys will stop doing stuff like that now that I pointed it out, but that doesn't mean I'll forget it. :) As you can see, I remember small details from episode 1. So, in two weeks, I'll still remember things that happened during this episode.

My ONLY complaint if Breaux is The Mole is the fact that he's hardly on gmail chat, but is on the message board so much. I just read a blog post in which he was talking about how his computer has problems and about how his times don't quite coincide with other people's (maybe he lives in a different time zone, and a lot of his message board posts HAVE been around the wee hours of the morning, but still). I mean, I've had a total of TWO conversations on gmail with him, and both have been cut short because he "has to leave" all of a sudden. Also, considering the fact that the slang he uses is so much like that of a gamer (adding z's unnecessarily and saying "moar" instead of "more"), I just CAN'T believe that the guy isn't around a computer a lot. I sincerely hope that it's not that he's chickening out and thinks he can't carry on an extended conversation because he's scared he'll slip or something. Come on, Breaux, allow yourself to match wits with me. Who knows? You may even convince me that it isn't you. :) Considering how intelligent you seem to be, I've no doubt you could pull something out of the bag. The other thing I'm VERY concerned about if it's him, though, is the fact that I apparently did very poorly on the first quiz, if he's The Mole, and the reason for that is, that I got his answers to the first episode's 4 questions from Richard, and Richard told me that Breaux's answers to "brains or beauty" was beauty, but just recently, I asked Breaux for his bio, and it indicates that his answer is brains, meaning I have one less question on him than I thought. Yes, I did select him as The Mole on that quiz, but DESPITE that, if it is him, it does seem like I still got a very low score. So, if I make it to the end and I'm up against someone who also knows it's him, and it comes down to cumulative points from previous quizzes, I may be screwed.

But I have to reiterate that I'd be very happy if it's him because it would really be a great strategy for The Mole, and it also takes colossal balls to have The Mole be player #6 in OMC 6. It's also risky to do the whole thing of having him be absent the first week, and then show up and go about things the way he has, declaring he's The Mole, etc. It's funny how in my very first private confessional I said that Breaux's e-mail (with "O HAI" as subject line, of course) was like the players sitting in tranquility in a lounge, and a mosquito suddenly buzzing in and bugging everyone. Maybe that's exactly what he was going for, though. I think that if it is him, a lot of people don't know it, and I really hope it stays that way.

PAUL:

So, on like the very first day that we were allowed to have conversations with each other, I'm chatting with Paul, and we do the whole boring, yet requisite "Hi, how are you? Good, you? Good" etc, and then out of the blue, rather than starting off with something bland like "So have you talked to any other players?" or "What do you think of that inkblot challenge?" he goes ahead and tells me something that I can't help but keep thinking about. This was back in the AIM days, but I still have it saved. Take a look. You may actually need to read it more than once because it's kind of convoluted. I had to, anyway.

omc6player12 (8:09:15 PM): i was debating for a little while to completly act like a player, no molely stuff at all, if a few people only focused on pot raising, eve tho noone would think of them as the mole the pot would be very high....but then I remembered no one else would act like that, and id be a bit of an idiot on my own :P

Still, to this day, I'm not sure what to make of that, or of the fact that he said it so randomly, when we had only just met. It's funny, though, how that's exactly what he's been doing: acting like a player who only cares about pot-raising. Why is he doing it, if he thought the strategy was idiotic? But let's get to the one thing that DID stand out a heck of a lot, in terms of Paul. It happened during the first week as well, and I still can't and won't forget about it. If you'd like evidence of what I'm about to say, you can go ahead and open up the first live challenge transcript. But here's the deal. We're asked a question to which the answer is a page number. So, naturally, people just start typing random numbers, mostly numbers between 1 and 100. Makes perfect sense, and I joined in on the random guessing, just for fun, I suppose. Paul starts out guessing 20, and then 21, 22, 23, and so on… he keeps guessing numbers consecutively, even repeating some of them (like 28). He continues going through the numbers consecutively till he gets to 40. Right when he guesses 40, yours truly just HAPPENS to guess 67, which was ONE away from 68, the correct answer (jeez, that was lucky, too, I hope other people go back to the transcript and find it suspicious that I conveniently ALMOST got the right answer). All of a sudden, Paul JUMPS from 40 to 60, even though he had been going consecutively prior to that. He then goes 60, 61, 62, etc, VERY quickly, until he gets to 68. I say "very quickly," because, as I stated, everyone was randomly guessing, but if you look at the transcript, there are two instances in his going from 60 to 68, that he posts a number right after the other, with no one else guessing anything in between him, which means he was rushing to ensure he'd get to 68. Why, pray tell, would The Mole rush like that to get a correct answer? Well, clearly, we were going to get it eventually, and my guessing the number that came RIGHT before it prompted him to do that. Perhaps his plan was to start at 20 and just keep going up till he got to 68 (which would render his correct guess totally unshady), but once I said 67, he had to jump, and indeed he did, from 40 to 60. But WHY would The Mole want to add money to the pot? Well, he clearly knew someone would win the money for that question anyway, so he might as well take the opportunity to look helpful. I indirectly brought it up to him in a conversation (without revealing at all that I found it suspicious) and he said "well, we were gonna get it eventually!". Which is true. So conveniently true.

Then we get to the URLs challenge, in which you'll notice Paul made a bunch of posts in which he asked people to make corrections because they had posted invalid URLs. Once again, WHY pray tell would The Mole want to help so much? Well… all of the corrections Paul was making were of posts that were made after Mitch posted the URL that ruined it for us. So if he already knew that we lost with that, it didn't matter how many were corrected AFTER that one. So, again, why not take the opportunity to appear helpful, when you already know the end result, anyway? Then, in the "Where in DC?" challenge, he said at one point that he was gonna make a thread to, um, STORE all the information we were gathering, lol. Conveniently enough, a few minutes later, he was like "well, I'm just not gonna bother with the thread anymore". I don't think the thread ever even existed.

The guy has been relentless in taking tons of jabs at the group, constantly saying the collective is at fault for things. The WORST of it all can be found in his blog posts. If he is The Mole, this is a very good strategy, and I imagine many people are falling for it, but if he is an actual player, then this is annoying as heck. You might recall that I said something similar about Brian earlier, how if he's actually a player I won't like him. Well, indeed, this means that as far as Brian and Paul are concerned, there's at least ONE of them that I definitely won't like after the game, because obviously at least one of them is being genuine about what they're doing. I'll concede, though, that I'll take Paul's complaints about group organization and the challenges any days over Brian's massacre of the English language or his massacre of the rationale of this game. At least Paul will probably be pleasant to chat with after the game is over and the challenges are no longer a concern.

I also can't help but think about the fact that the very first clue we were given to decode, in order to decode it, you had to multiply something by 2. And well… this is OMC 6, and if you multiple 6 times 2, you get Paul's player number. I initally thought that the "celery" clue was supposed to point to ELLERY… but that lasted all of a few days, lol. Lame, I know, and knowing what you're like, your clues are probably far more complex and I probably haven't caught a single one of them, but oh well. It's just a thought. While I'd be more impressed with Breaux, I do still think that if Paul is The Mole, he's doing a very fine job.

Paul happens to be the only person that the observant will spot a detail about his real life. He has to be from the UK, because he uses googlemail and not gmail (googlemail is used exclusively by the British). I guess it's a good thing that his alias is from Australia, in case he ever has to submit an audio file for a challenge (he just has to make sure to say "crikey" instead of "bollocks"), and I wonder if his last name is meant as a clue to his actual background. :) What I find interesting, though, is that this game is ALL about finding that one person who is different from the group, who sticks out, who doesn't belong. And Paul is the only one using googlemail… and you can't make the word "mole" from gmail, but you can from googlemail… so, I mean… okay, now I've officially gone crazy, don't mind me, lol.

ELISE:

Much as I love her, I'd actually be really miffed if it's her. Just a few days ago, she was refusing to provide her bio info, saying she didn't want to share at the moment. That is completely wrong, and I know The Mole has no guidelines on what fair is, but I do think it's unfair for The Mole not to provide that information. There's something Mitch has done in terms of his bio information that is even WORSE, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, one of the other weird things I've noticed is that the logo has the word "sabotage" and the "T" almost seems like an arrow pointing above, and it points to the 6 abocve it. Now, that could suggest Breaux of course, but it could also suggest Elise, if maybe we're meant to look at it in the direction the arrow is pointing, which would lead you to have to flip the 6. And we all know what 6 becomes when you flip it: Elise's number! The other thing which also relates to her player number is that on the very first week, there were THREE threads (introduce yourself, pawn color, and psychoanalysis) that in ALL THREE of them she was the NINTH person to post. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but I couldn't help noticing it, and this doesn't happen with any of the other players, in terms of their numbers and the positions in which they posted. Also, starting last night, and now hardcore in a blog post she just made, she talks about how she thinks the challenges are lame, even giving them star ratings. That's actually something I did as The Mole. I'd criticize the host, at times even complain really nastily and threaten to quit if the host didn't do a good job, etc. People buy that sort of thing, and if Elise is The Mole, it's a good thing to be doing, but refusing to give out her bio details certainly wasn't, and if it turns out to be her, I won't respect that decision very much. I do, however, as I've said, like her a heck of a lot and truly hope she sticks around. She's definitely the person here I can relate to the most, and I could even see us being friends after the game.

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Okay, so having 4 suspects when we're down to 8 people (and I'm one of the 8, so it's really 4 suspects out of 7) is not good at all. It really sucks, actually, and if I were smarter, I'd probably be able to narrow it down even more. I imagine others have been able to, which is why I don't have high hopes for sticking around. Let me just make a few remarks about the 3 people I haven't mentioned, though…

Let me tell you something. I've obviously spilled a bunch of theories in the last few paragraphs I've written. Clearly, there's a good chance that most (probably ALL) of them are wrong. But there is one thing that I AM absolutely right about as far as this game is concerned, and there is NO debating it. If Bitch, err, I mean Mitch, is The Mole, he is doing a HORRENDOUS job. One of the most ghastly Mole performances I've ever witnessed, and I've seen enough to know what an excellent Mole performance is and what a truly abysmal one is. Why? Let me count the ways. I'll start with the small stuff. The guy was online a fair amount the first week, but since then, he is ABSOLUTELY NEVER on gmail. Last night, when he was online for the live challenge was the first time in AGES he has been on gmail, other than the pitiful two seconds he was online for the other live challenge, which he abandoned abruptly before it even began. And trust me, I'm on gmail enough to know who's around a fair amount, and who isn't (Breaux and Mitch are really the only ones who aren't – everyone else is doing well, even Elise, who's gotten much better recently). But despite not being on gmail, he happens to conveniently sign on to the message board at the precise time to do things. I can't get over how blatant what he did for the Hackers challenge was. He takes ages to post RUN on the first two occasions, and then on the third one, Blaise decides to leave him behind, since it really did seem like he wasn't going to post, and IMMEDIATELY after Blaise posts that, he comes on the board and says "Um Run if I can?". I suspect he's on the message board frequently as a guest, checking what's going on. The worst thing is how BLATANT the statement of "Um Run if I can?" is, showing clearly that he knows he can't, seeing as he's inserting the deceptive "um" to appear confused and he's asking it as a question. If he is The Mole and he thought that would look unsuspicious, he is kidding himself. Okay, I'll admit that the post I made accusing him of posting at such a "convenient" time, I used it to appear Mole-ish. I typed it in such a way that people would think I'm trying to get them to think it's Mitch. The most disastrous thing, though, was his response: "funny you should say that, I think we both know what's up and it's not the obvious answer." If he is The Mole, I wonder if he realizes what a catastrophic thing to say that is. He obviously IS "the obvious answer," so by saying that, he's showing that he's trying to get people to think it isn't the obvious answer, and it couldn't be more clear. If he's a player, I suppose he's doing well at seeming suspicious, but I can't say he's playing too well, because his coalition with Ginger is way too blatant.

But I'm not done with Mitch yet. I formed what I guess is a coalition with Blaise, even though I'm uncertain about it (more on that later), and we were looking at bio information, and in terms of the questions given to us for episode 1, it appears that Mitch lied on not one… not two… but on THREE out of the four bio questions to EITHER Blaise or me. I have the chat transcript in which Mitch gave me his info, and Bliase told me he has the transcript in which Mitch gave it to him as well, so hard evidence is right there (just check whenever you login to our e-mails, since gmail saves all the chats). Blaise thinks it was him he lied to, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was me he lied to. Let me tell you this, if he is The Mole, that is BEYOND wrong and unfair. I mean, a player definitely shouldn't do it either, but THE MOLE doing it is just low, and NOT low in an acceptable strategic sense. I have NO problem with The Mole doing as much betraying as he/she wants to remain undetected, because I've done it. If Mitch is The Mole, I will likely be executed soon, and I'm sorry but when I attend the reunion, I'll have no choice but to point this out. He is the ONLY person out of everyone here that I would not congratulate if they turned out to be The Mole. So, I guess I'm probably not getting invited to the finale if it's him, huh? lol

As for Blaise's coalition offer… I don't really suspect Blaise much anymore, but I'm just not too sure about it. He actually seems to agree with me on my suspicions, but considering the block that Brian, Ginger and Mitch may have established, I simply don't think it'll be that easy for he and I to just be the dominant coalition. I seriously think two people from that trio will make it far and that one will win the game. As soon as one of them gets executed, the other two will likely figure things out. The only hope PERHAPS would be if Ginger got executed, because she seems like she might be the link between Brian and Mitch, so maybe they'd fracture. Blaise's removing Mitch from the challenge made sense, but can be seen as suspicious at the same time, and I DID think it was… until it was announced that Brian had actually screwed it up earlier. I don't think The Mole would try to screw something up AFTER it's already been screwed up. If he turns out to be The Mole, I guess I'll say "good job" but in some ways, it'd just be lame, because he seems to be the kind of guy who's just laid-back and doesn't really do a whole lot. I picked to be his partner AGAIN because of how easy he was to work with for the dino thing. I can come up with individual explanations for ALL of the other players for why they'd be tough to work with, and yes, I'm including Elise in that (love her, but she's hard-headed, and she's admitted that herself). And that laid-back attitude Blaise has may be ideal if we do try to see our coalition through. I'm just not confident.

Ginger… oh, Ginger. Surprisingly, I'm gonna keep this one very short (surely that's a relief if you've actually subjected yourself to reading this, lol). She's probably the person who's done the shadiest things in this game, and every time she does something that's blatantly misleading, you can so see right through it. She's done too many things that really make me think it's just impossible that she's The Mole. But here's the thing. If it's her, I won't necessarily applaud it, and that's because the fact that her deception has been so obvious, while it doesn't make me suspect her, I can't imagine other people not thinking it Mole-like, in which case I'm very likely gone soon. In fact, if it's her, I probably was the person who tied in that last quiz, heh.

At this point, I really am hoping that it's either Breaux or Paul, just because it's what would make most sense to me. At the same time, it'd be nice if it is Brian and he's totally pulling the wool over the eyes of both Ginger and Mitch. Thing is, if either Ginger or Mitch gets executed, the other person will probably catch on, ESPECIALLY if it is Ginger who stays. I have this horrible fear that Ginger's 10 million Mole bucks will somehow end up screwing everyone but her at the end, anyway. She's the kind of person who tends to win this sort of game (in fact, she reminds me of the person who won the game I was The Mole in). But it'd be nice if I could beat her. Unlike Kyle, she IS a formidable opponent. If it is neither Breaux, Brian, Elise nor Paul, I'm probably in big trouble, and I guess I'll realize that I'm really not all that good at this game (as much as I still think it would be unacceptable if it turns out to be Mitch). But well, if I do get executed (to quote my dear friend Ziegler again): Life goes on… until it doesn't. But you know that. :)