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Kona, I will copy what you put in riddles. We can continue that discussion there

ARTICLE! This is podcast interview from SF.Net; not copied in its entirety but the main parts that are relevant

S: Can you give us your assessment of each of the other Favourites? Let's start with Amanda.
YM: Oh, Amanda. Well, because the series was filmed during the China series was being aired, you know, by the time we left for the filming, I didn't even get to know Amanda on screen, at all. She didn't talk very much. There wasn't very much about her in the first few episodes so I didn't have any impression.
S: OK, what about Ami?
YM: Ami, I got to like her in the time we spent together. Her real persona is different than what I saw in her performance in the Vanuatu season. She's very nice, very personable and when we formed our alliance with her and Jonathan, I thought that we could actually go far together.
S: Yeah, in the preview video, she was looking forward to meeting you and working with you. OK, how about Eliza?
YM: Eliza, she turned out to be quite nice. She still talks a lot, non-stop talking. Again, she's not as nasty as they portrayed her in her Vanuatu season. I enjoyed sharing a tent with her. She tried very hard and she definitely chip in, in helping out with the camp.
S: OK, what about Parvati?
YM: Parvati, definitely a flirt. So, I can see how she can wrap James around her little finger. I was very surprised that they got coupled up so early in the game.
S: How soon did that happen? Was it, like, day one?
YM: Pretty much from day two or three. Right away, almost.
S: And how about big James? What did you think of him?
YM: Oh, I like him. He's very mellow, he's as nice as he is on screen. Definitely strong and very buff. And very soft spoken. His demeanor, you do not expect from someone who looks so big and so strong.
S: OK, how about his counterpart, Ozzy?
YM: Ozzy! Very nice guy, I'm totally impressed with Ozzy. I'm cheering for him to go a long way. He is so athletic. The guy can swim as fast in water as he can run on land. He is just completely extraordinary athlete, very impressed.
S: OK, next up, Jonathan?
YM: Jonathan, I got to know him well and I ended up forming a good alliance with him. Very nice guy, very smart guy. Definitely one of the older contestants and he had a family, like me, so we had a lot in common.
S: And, last but not least, Cirie.
YM: Cirie? Well, she surprised me. I thought that she was playing the "anybody but me" type of strategy but it turns out that she actually can turn around and take a lead, going from defense to offense and kudos to her for taking me out.
J: OK, James said in a confessional that he was using some of the rope that you got at the reward challenge, to make chicken traps. Were there a lot of chickens in the area?
YM: No, we thought there were. We heard what we thought were chickens clucking at night or roosters in the morning. But, I don't think... he thinks he saw them but I don't think we ever saw any but we definitely hear chickens or what we thought were chickens early in the morning, and roosters. So he was being very optimistic thinking that there were wild chickens running around the jungle.

S: So what do you think of the remaining relationships and how they're effecting the game this time?
YM: Well, I thought romantic relationships was always a bad idea. Right, so when two couples, James and Parvati coupled up and Ozzy and Amanda coupled up, I thought it would be a simple matter to convince my tribemates to split up those couples by voting one of them out. I thought we had a deal going and for some reason Cirie didn't go along with that. I don't know why she would join the other alliance because if she join up with the other four, she's on the outside, definitely, right? So she'd have a much better chance with us, the four of us, as we're not couple up, we're not tied together, whereas the other two couples are and, so, for example, at the first tribal council, the very first episode, where Johnny quit, or got voted out unanimously, we had wanted to vote out Parvati because by then we know that she was coupled up with James. But, when Johnny wanted us to vote for him, then, you know, Parvati got spared. So, I thought Cirie would go along with us in splitting up couples. Couples are a bad idea because once they're coupled up, it becomes a very strong and un-splitting alliance.

S: Right, so did you believe that Cirie was with you back in that first episode?
YM: Yeah, I think we were. At least in the first episode. I questioned if she was going along with us and it was until Ami came back from Exile Island and gave everybody the first three clues then Cirie must have had a change of heart. Also, after she had the arguing with Jonathan about what kind of person he is and what kind of game he played, you know, that morning in the cave. That's when I thought "Uh, oh, I'm in trouble now", because if she has problems with Jonathan, she's going to have problems with anyone that's aligned with Jonathan. Definitely, she knew that I was aligned with Jonathan.

S: Yeah. So, going back to the couples for just a second. It didn't seem like they kept you awake. Did anyone complain about your snoring?
YM: Yes, and they did in Fiji, also. (laughs) To me, it was a good thing. On the island, I keep thinking I never sleep because I can only remember the time that I'm awake and I felt like, "Oh, I'm awake all night" so when people complain that I'm snoring at least I knew that I was sleeping.

J: (laughs). So who do you think have the best chance of winning, a Fan or a Favourite?
YM: I think the Favourites would have the best chance. They certainly come with experience, especially mentally, they're a lot more ready for anything that can happen, having the experience behind them.

J: Is there anyone that you would like to see win?
YM: I would like to see Jonathan to win this. He certainly seems like a nice guy and he has physical abilities and he's a very smart guy, so I think he has all the strategy, the mental ability and the physical ability. The other person would be Ozzy; he's very athletic and if he makes the merge, he could potentially win every challenge.

J: Obviously, Cirie saw you as her biggest threat was there anyone that you saw as your biggest threat?
YM: Yeah, well, I see Cirie as my threat only in that she's playing the same game that I would. She's not physically strong so the way she would get by is from any of the mental challenges, uh, she's certainly a very smart woman and she can certainly find her way around different alliances so she is a threat. I also see Ami as a threat, she's also strong and she has Eliza from her own season. She also good at swimming(?) much better than I could so those are the people that I could be looking out for.

S: What about on the Fans side? What's everybody thinking is the biggest threat there?
YM: Well, I don't know much about the Fans at all because basically I didn't spend any time with them. The only time I would have seen them is during the Challenge, so I really don't know much about them.

S: There wasn't any talk amongst the Faves tribe as to who they thought the biggest threat was?
YM: Yeah, when we talk, we thought that James' counterpart, Joel would be a threat.

S: Right.
YM: Right, he is as big as James. Maybe even bigger. (laughs) And then, the other guy, I think is Erik, no, what's his name whose supposed to be Ozzy's counterpart?
J: Yeah, Jason.
YM: Right, we thought, wow, if he can keep up with Ozzy then he would certainly be a threat.

S: Mmhmm. So, let's talk about that reward challenge. How long did it take?
YM: Oh, that water, football over water.

S/J: Yeah.
YM: It took a long time. When it first started, it was supposed to be best two out of three rounds. But the first round took about 45 minutes and it was still not finished. So, they stopped it and said, "How about if we just finish this and call it. Does everybody agree?" and everybody agreed we're not going to do two out of three, there's no way. (laughs) Also, it was really, really brutal. The water was about a foot and a half deep but underneath the water is not sand, but broken coral so a couple people didn't wear shoes, so whenever we were holding down the pillows I was on my knees and all our knees were all cut up.

J: Oh man.
YM: Yeah. And at some point someone tried to keep my head under water. I had the pillow and I think it was Eliza screamed, "They're going to drown him, they're going to drown him." (laughs) They stopped the game and changed the rules, "OK, no drowning anybody. You can not hold people's head under water."

S: (laughs) Who was doing that to you?
Y: I don't know. I have to ask Eliza who was doing it to me, but definitely I was the victim and it was Eliza who was screaming.

S: She came to your rescue.
YM: She came to my rescue and then they changed the rules that we can not be held under water anymore. But it was really brutal and the pillows are not light either, after they're soaked up with water. And we have to go up against people like Joel and it was way, way too tough.

S: We saw you bounce off of him and then you came right back and went into the end zone. So, who helped and who didn't in that challenge? Was there anybody who was just hanging back?
YM: No, everybody went all out for it. Because the reward for that challenge, before the challenge you pick your favourite reward and whoever wins it, wins it. We pick things we really needed, a tarp and ropes and a lantern, it was so dark at night, you can not walk around at all because it's so dark and then with all the rain coming down at the time, we wanted the tarp really bad and everybody wants to win that challenge.

S: So, we noticed there was only one person at the end, who still had all her warpaint on. How did Natalie make it all the way without getting any of that washed off.
YM: Maybe nobody dunk her head in the water. (laughs)
S: OK.

J: So, Ozzy said the nice girl asked him if he had a girlfriend who was he talking about?
YM: Oh, um, it's either Natalie or Alexis. I don't remember the names because at that time, I didn't know the fans at all.

J: OK. In the Immunity Challenge, Jonathan was teasing Chet about being in a pageant. How did he know about him coaching girls for pageants?
YM: I don't know how he knew. It must be at one of the introductions someone mentioned that. I got to meet him later, you know, but we didn't know anything about the Fans so it's funny that Jonathan would have brought that up because, for example, I didn't get to meet any of the Fans at all and that's the unfair things about the series is that they know everything about us. They know how we play and we had no idea how the other guys played, their strategies or what kind of personality they are and so on.

S: Yeah. So, we saw you guys sleeping in a large cave. What was that like? How big was it?
YM: It was a huge cave. That cave was big enough for twenty people. It was a very big cave.
J: Wow.


S: How far away from the beach?
YM: Maybe about quarter mile? But the problem is getting to the cave. It's not on the ground. There's a little cliff you have to climb to get to the cave. Very steep cliff. Probably about 30 foot high off the ground. So, the problem with sleeping in the cave is it's very dark you can not get around. So, as soon as the sun's down, we have to stay put.

S: Well, maybe James will build some stairs now that you've got that ax.
YM: But it kept us dry. The weather was so horrendous. It poured every day, sometimes two or three times.

S: So, you built that great shelter but it turns out that the cave was way better than that.
YM: So, we built a great shelter and we use it to rest up when we were on the beach because we don't want to keep walking back into the cave because it's quite a walk on a very narrow and dangerous path. So we use our shelter, we keep our things in there, firewood in there.

S: Oh, so you got your day camp and your night camp.
YM: Yeah.
S: That's awesome.

J: How did your tribe decide to send Kathy to Exile Island both times?
YM: Well, we thought that since that she's probably the most delicate of them that if she get a chance to find the Immunity Idol then they're forced to keep her, so it's a good strategy for the other tribe to keep their weakest member, at least, that's how we were thinking.

S: So, you still thought she was the weakest even after seeing Chet in the previous challenge?
YM: Also, she is the one that talks the most and so Chet keeps pretty quiet. And in doing the beginning of a challenge or in doing the introductions, what they didn't show, she did a lot of talking. She say silly things, stupid things about her fellow tribe members so we thought, she must be a big target all the time. We want to keep her around.

J: (laughs) How did you decide who gets to go to Exile Island from the Faves tribe?
YM: The problem from the Favourites is that everybody wants to go so we always end up drawing rocks.
J: Oh, OK.
YM: Yeah, everybody wants to volunteer.

S: So, you mentioned Ami shared 3 clues with you. Did Cirie say anything when she came back?
YM: No, she did not. She did tell us, when she came back, because, she did spend the night on Exile Island, with Kathy, so she did tell us everything that Kathy told her. So, Kathy told her about things that happen, for example, we found out that they had problems building a shelter, we found out they had problems making a fire. So, that information we got from Cirie who got it from Kathy.

S: Did Ami have anything new to add when she got back?
YM: Basically, she confirmed everything that Cirie told us about the other tribe because she asked the same things of Kathy and Kathy told her the same things. So, Ami told us what Cirie told us through Kathy, was pretty much correct.

J: Did you try to convince James and Ozzy not to vote for you, or offer to join their alliance if they turned around and vote Cirie?
YM: I did not think of joining their alliance because by then, they were so tightly coupled together so I thought if I join up to their alliance, then I would be the fifth wheel and at the first opportunity, they'd vote me out. I was trying to convince Cirie the same thing, "Look if you join up with them, you are just the fifth person on the outside, so you'd have a much better chance joining our alliance."

J: So why didn't Ami and Eliza reach out to Cirie the way that you did?
YM: I don't know, I thought they did. But I was surprised they were almost convinced to turn on me because for awhile, we thought that we had a good alliance going. I spent a lot of time trying to convince Cirie trying to align with me and offered to share my..., if I go to Exile Island and find the Immunity Idol, I would share it with her, like I did with Earl. So, for some reason, that didn't work.

S: We were surprised that you were going to Tribal Council on Day 8 instead of Day 9. Do you know why it wasn't a normal 3 day cycle?
YM: Um, I don't know why. At the first episode, there was a missing Reward Challenge. The first episode there was no Reward, it was a combined Reward/Immunity so maybe they were missing one day? When you're there and you don't have a calendar or time, you lose track of time.
S: Sure.

J: Anything discussed at Tribal Council that we didn't get to see?
Y: The Tribal Council was actually quite long. Jonathan actually went off quite a bit more than what you saw on TV. I was very impressed he kept trying to defend my position.

J: What did you mean in your Final Words that Cirie not only aired her dirty laundry but Jonathan's as well?
YM: Yeah. They argued. In the cave where they were arguing, that argument went on and on for a long time. She pretty much laid out everything she thinks Jonathan has done wrong. What a horrible person he is, and so on. And then Jonathan, of course, struck back and said, "You're not such a saint, either and in your season, this is how you played", and so on. So, I learned a lot more about those people than I would have not listened to that argument! (laughs)

J: So, did you know, going into Tribal Council, that you were going home?
YM: I was pretty much sure, because I spent a lot of one-to-one time to talk to Cirie and towards the end I knew that she was unconvinced I make a good alliance with her so by the time we went to Tribal Council, I knew that my only chance would be if she would have a change of heart in the last minute, but by then I also thought that Eliza would still be on my side but I didn't realize that she's also been turned to the other side.
S: So, you were surprised at that?
YM: Yeah, I was surprised at that.

J: So, did Ami tell you that she was voting for Cirie?
YM: She actually did. She was supposed to vote for Parvati like we thought we were going to but in the end, she said she didn't think there was enough votes, she wants to keep in good steps with the others so she's not going to vote for Parvati.
J: Oh, OK.

S: Was there ever a plan to vote out Cirie?
YM: No, we did not. We thought we had a chance to keep her with us. One thing we talked about briefly was to team up with James and those guys, and target Cirie, but we never carried that through.

S: You said in your Final Words that the Faves tribe is going to disintegrate. Can you tell us a little more about why you felt that way?
YM: Well, going in there, we lost two out of three Immunity Challenges. I thought we were being a little too over confident in the Challenges. And the big fight over me being booted really took a toll on the tribe. Everybody had very different opinions over which way to go, and so on, so I thought that fight, especially with Jonathan and Cirie going all out with each other, that's not good for the tribe.

J: Was there anything you wish was shown about you on TV, that wasn't?
YM: Not really. I wish they showed a little more of my one-to-one with Cirie. That I try to convince her that I make a very good ally with her. I try to convince her, "Remember how I played it in Fiji with Earl and we shared an Idol and nobody knew that we were a team through the merge, so that it's a hidden alliance", I wish they showed more of that.
J: You did that really well. I watched it on a secret scene on CBS.com.
YM: Oh, I didn't watch that.
J: Yeah, so it is out there.
S: Yeah, some of it. So, was there anything you saw on TV that surprised you?
YM: Yeah, I was surprised at how much footage they caught of those lovebirds, the two pairs of lovebirds.

S: What does that mean?
YM: All those kissing at night. We sort of knew what was going on, but it was so dark, we didn't see anything and then to see it on TV, that was a surprise.
J: So, if you were asked, would you do it a third time.
YM: Sure, why not?
S: What do you plan to do now? Are you going back to Berkeley?
YM: Yeah, since I didn't win, I can not afford to retire early so I have to keep working. I have no plans to do the Hollywood circuit. (laughs)
S: Good for you.
YM: My good ol' job.
J: OK, Yau-Man. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. Good luck to you and your family.
YM: Thank you for having me on.
J: You're very welcome.