Survivor: Fiji - Ep. 2: "Snakes Are Misunderstood ... We Have An Understanding Now"

Cafe Society
41

I agree with you. I’m bewildered by the fact that these people go into a situation completely helpless.

The first thing I would do when I found out that I was in the pool of finalists is go out and buy a bunch of survival guides. I’d learn how to build fire, and what plants and animals are edible in that area, (the watersnake? Hell, that might be good eatin’!) as well as what sort of plant juices and whatnot that the locals used to soothe insect stings and sunburn. I’d learn as much as I could because you never know when a tidbit of info might come in handy.

And if I couldn’t swim, as some contestants on past shows, you’d better believe I’d be buying a membership at the Y and taking lessons.

42

I believe Earl said he was going to eat a snake, just before he left for Exile Island. He might be my new favorite.

43

Yeah, why didn’t he eat the snake? :confused:

44

I still think that, at some point, they will have some kind of huge “twist” where they switch the tribes camps. It is the only way that I see this not becoming a total massacre.

I think that there must be some kind of external something that keeps people from being successful at starting fire. Maybe since the locations tend to be tropical, they have a hard time finding dry wood? I just have a hard time believing that in all the seasons, no one has learned how to build fire before hand. It just seems like such and obvious thing, and there have been some smart people on survivor.

45

I have a hard time beliving that as well, but the simple fact is that every time I have seen somone on survivor trying to make fire (other than with matches or the magnesium fire starters that they call “flints”), they always do it wrong.

Look at the "friction" method they used.  Basicly rubbing the flat side of one piiece of wood against the flat surface of another. Even if they did produce an ember by this method, were they expecting to cary it to the tinder before it went out?

 Almost every season of survivor I have seen includes someone trying to make fire by friction, and since I actually know how to do this, I (and any good Boy Scout) could point out what they do wrong every time.

I honestly think that one of the screening questions is "can you make fire" and if they answer yes they dont get on the show.
46

Rob over at Cockeyed.com has tried several methods of fire starting without matches. To read about his attempts: http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/fire/firefirst.html

47

Just out of curiosity (as I have no idea how one really makes fire without matches) how would you do it?

48

There are several methods of doing so. The link that Shawn1767 posted above gives a good idea of how to do the “bow drill” method. When they tried this on survivor (I remember them trying it on the outback season), they put the hole in the middle of the baseboard, without a notch, and drilled until it started to smoke, and then tried to stick the end of the drill stick into the tinder that was about a foot away.

Other survivor attmpts have been flawed in similar ways. Oddly enough one thing that they often seem to do whe trying friction methods is to keep the tinder seperate from the friction operation. maybe they are afraid they might accidentaly set it on fire or something.

 I myself really try to avoid frinction methods. I did it in Scouts, and a few times since just to prove that I could. Even in the best of times it is not a quick method of starting a fire.  Normally I just use flint and steel, which is almost as fast as matches.
49

Well, according to the preview for next week, Ravu apparently finally makes fire. Whether they finally won the “flint” or figured out how to make fire without it, I don’t know.

Look, I know that the “bossy” one usually ends up voted out, but I’m in total agreement with rockle on this one. Ravu has to be the biggest bunch of dumbasses in the history of the game.

I really like Sylvia. Yeah, in the first episode, she was giving orders, but Jeebus H. Probst, she’s a freakin’ ARCHITECT! She may be the only one who actually knows how to construct something. But NOES, she’s too bossy, we need to get rid of her!

And how about Erica? IMHO, she didn’t “lose it” at the challenge–she was yelling because NO ONE WAS LISTENING TO HER! Ravu’s stubbornness lost them immunity, so what do they do? Get rid of the person who was trying to get them to pull their collective heads out of their collective rear ends!

I’ve only been watching since Pearl Islands, but I have a question: Am I correct in my perception that men get voted out early for slacking, but women get voted out early for just the opposite? I remember a couple of seasons ago when the “lumberjill” was first one out even though she was the only one who really knew anything about surviving outdoors.

Anyhoo, more random thoughts:

I agree that Dreamz is extremely annoying, especially when he kept harping on “It’s go-home day! Someone’s going home today! Don’t wanna go home today!” I look for him to be the first Moto out (if they ever get to TC).

Who I’d most like to see eaten by a sea-snake: Rocky and Michelle(think that’s her name–the Asian Ravu girl who hates Sylvia).

Lisi’s song cracked me up! Great sense of humor; hope she sticks around awhile.

Oh, and rockle : Sorry there aren’t any monkeys this time, but bats are way cool, too!

50

Yeah, I can work with that, especially since (as I pointed out last week) Ravu is literally living in the Bat Cave. That is always going to be cool.

51

You know, a lot of the players in the past have had bits of ornaments – lucky charms/amulets and such. I wonder if it would be possible to sneak a piece of real flint along that way?

If you did, would there be a penalty? I’m thinking of Colby who sneaked in a humongous tarp equivalent ‘disguised’ as a flag.