[IrishHand]

-I thought it was a good plan to extend the first episode to 1 1/2 hours - you really do need some more time to introduce most of the 16 players. In past seasons, you'd really only get a vague idea about less than 1/2. Now, it's more around 2/3rds.

The women
-Heidi is hot, cool, and desperately wants to sleep with me.
-Shawna is also hot, cool and desperately wants to sleep with me. I haven't confirmed whether they're down for the 3-way I have in mind.
-That skinny-as-hell swimsuit model chick is kinda nasty, and a whiny skank besides.
-The deaf chick will actually do well if she gets in on a 4- or 5-person alliance early. She works hard, will stay under the radar, and they'll view her as non-threatening.
-The black chick is the first black chick they've had on Survivor who actually seems interesting to me.
-The butch lawyer chick has a decent head on her shoulders, but will only last with a decent alliance - otherwise, the bossing around will kill her (it always does - you'd think they'd learn).
Overall, some decent eye candy as always - hopefully it won't get voted off real quickly like it generally does.

The guys
-stupid as hell to think they'll dominate challenges. The vast majority of the challenges have nothing to do with strength and/or stamina, the two areas the men would dominate - and there have been less and less of them as the series has gone on. Yesterday's challenge was a perfect example - it looked vaguely like a physical challenge, but the 2 things that took the most time were the puzzle (100% mental) and the balance beam (agility and balance - limited advantage to the guys).
-Butch seems like a solid citizen. It was a good call letting Roger take over bossing everyone around - he'll be able to pick up the slack once he gets voted off. (The initial "leader" generally gets axed.)
-Roger will only survive with a strong 4-person alliance. Other than that, seems like a solid citizen too.
-Alex seems a bit strange, but otherwise a solid citizen.
-Daniel is an idiot. I will enjoy watching him get voted off soon.
-Dave seems like a decent lad, but his speech was a bad idea. Bold declarations and/or speeches are a bad idea early on when your tribemates don't even know you.
-Rob is a bit of a weenie. I tend to suspect he'll go relatively early too.
Overall, I can see a strong Butch/Roger/Alex/Dave alliance rolling this group now that they're down to 7.

Anyone else's thoughts?