I know it's been quite a while since I updated this blog, but I've just been so busy it's been insane. I've now got my diploma, a BA in Economics, I've recovered from my dog bite, and, basically, work just sucks. So a bit of blogging about a few things that entertain me away from work.
Firstly, last night, I watched the three hour season finale of The Apprentice. I thoroughly enjoyed both seasons, but the way in which the winner is picked seemed fundamentally flawed last night. Trump is sitting there with George on his right recommending Jennifer and Carolyn on his left recommending Kelly and he can't make up his mind. So he brings out Regis Philbin to survey the audience to get a sampling of what others thought. Person after person after person was for Kelly - including his Lt. Capt. from West Point...gee...wonder if he's biased at all? Then they had the COO of Unilever who showed already after the interviews that he was a huge Kelly supporter and they just kept going extolling the virtues of Kelly and ignoring Jennifer. So, at that point, you already knew Kelly would win - there was pretty much nothing Jennifer could do.
As the show progressed, Trump brought them on stage for one last boardroom and, despite Jennifer's dominance of Kelly, Trump still went with Kelly who showed me that all he can do is lead from behind a laptop whereas Jennifer was able to control her workers, lead effectively and manage time well, and pay attention to detail. She had Trump's seat ready. She had the signs to direct people. She had everything running smoothly except for one minor hiccup with the Xbox display (which wasn't her fault as the building didn't have the power necessary). On the other hand, Kelly didn't do anything right - he let his workers take control of him, only standing up to them once when Elizabeth and Raj got in a small fight as he continued to sit behind his laptop working out yet another Excel spreadsheet. He didn't do the little things. He didn't have Trump's seat ready, he didn't have an acceptable dressing room for Tony Bennett. Sure, the polo match went off with fairly few problems - all you really have to do is get the horses out there and let them go.
Another major problem I had with the final episode was that all these people in the audience were sitting there, already having seen all of the episodes edited down to show you what the producers wanted to see. They showed you only what made good entertainment. None of the people in the audience had the experience working with either Jennifer or Kelly to form a quality opinion. And when they brought out the fired apprentices, Trump quickly talked to them, basically ignoring what they had to say, as it was obvious his mind was made up already. On Survivor, quite possibly the best reality show, the jury votes at the end without having seen the edited episodes. The jury only has what they've seen before they got voted off and what they see during the tribal council. They're not shown the heavily edited (3 days down to 1 hour) episodes to use to make an opinion about who has won. They vote immediately and they have limited information to act on.
All that being said, you can obviously tell I think Jennifer deserved to win. Throughout the whole season, she showed that she was up for anything - from going live on QVC to clipping the toenails of dogs in Central Park. She led effectively and was able to command respect from her team. I really cannot fathom the choice Donald made as it seems to be wrong on all sides, but then again, his hotels are filing for bankruptcy and he obviously has problems dealing with women - see his divorce rate. Carolyn seems to be there just to show diversity in the boardroom and while he will accept her opinion at times, other times, it's completely thrown out the window.
Moving on, the movie game continued last weekend. From 12 Monkeys, we followed Robert O'Neill to Superman and we watched the whole series - from I to IV. After Superman IV, we followed Gene Hackman to Crimson Tide in order to set up tomorrow's viewing of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Extended Edition - yes...all three extended editions, back to back to back. Almost 12 hours of LOTR goodness. I can't wait. Our list thus far (in reverse order):
Superman IV (Christopher Reeve and T.B.D.)
Superman III (Jackie Cooper and Christopher Reeve)
Superman II (Ned Beatty and Jackie Cooper)
Superman (Robert O'Neill and Ned Beatty)
Twelve Monkeys (Bruce Willis and Robert O'Neill)
Mercury Rising (Chi McBride and Bruce Willis)
The Terminal (John Williams and Chi McBride)
Star Wars: Episode VI (Anthony Daniels and John Williams))
Star Wars: Episode V (Peter Mayhew and Anthony Daniels)
Star Wars: Episode IV (James Earl Jones and Peter Mayhew)
The Hunt For Red October (Stellan Skarsgård and James Earl Jones)
Ronin (Jean Reno and Stellan Skarsgård)
Godzilla (1998) (Ben Bode and Jean Reno)
Empire Records (Liv Tyler and Ben Bode)
Armageddon (Owen Wilson and Liv Tyler)
Permanent Midnight (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson)
Keeping the Faith (Edward Norton and Ben Stiller)
Rounders (Edward Norton - Starting Film)
On another note, since I'm now done with school completely (don't ask :), I really have no idea what to do. I've got this stupid degree which I really don't want to use so right now I plan on getting another one - or at least parts of one. Next semester, I'm enrolled in CJ101 - Introduction to Criminal Justice along with CJA010, CJA021 and CJA040. The CJA classes (Criminal Justice Academies) prepare students for the Academy which can be taken through Santa Ana College in conjunction with the Orange County Sherriff's Department. Right now, my plan is to get through the CJ & CJA classes and then enroll in the Academy and go into police work which will then help me transition into the FBI. However, through a mutual friend, I do know someone who worked high up within the FBI and I will be meeting with him soon to see what he would recommend. He already has told me that I should just meet with the recruiter from the local FBI office rather than going through the academy and becoming a police officer. However, I've always had an admiration for police in society and I would love to become one and have that experience before heading into the FBI, but if I could get an FBI with options for advancement, I think that might be the best way to go right now - I know I can't take working at the bank for much longer.
So, that's about all that's going on in my life right now - it only took me 25 minutes to type this all up (including movie name research and other stuff)...I just had to vent about the Apprentice and update the movie list. Who knows where I'm going from here though.
URL: FBI Jobs.com
Firstly, last night, I watched the three hour season finale of The Apprentice. I thoroughly enjoyed both seasons, but the way in which the winner is picked seemed fundamentally flawed last night. Trump is sitting there with George on his right recommending Jennifer and Carolyn on his left recommending Kelly and he can't make up his mind. So he brings out Regis Philbin to survey the audience to get a sampling of what others thought. Person after person after person was for Kelly - including his Lt. Capt. from West Point...gee...wonder if he's biased at all? Then they had the COO of Unilever who showed already after the interviews that he was a huge Kelly supporter and they just kept going extolling the virtues of Kelly and ignoring Jennifer. So, at that point, you already knew Kelly would win - there was pretty much nothing Jennifer could do.
As the show progressed, Trump brought them on stage for one last boardroom and, despite Jennifer's dominance of Kelly, Trump still went with Kelly who showed me that all he can do is lead from behind a laptop whereas Jennifer was able to control her workers, lead effectively and manage time well, and pay attention to detail. She had Trump's seat ready. She had the signs to direct people. She had everything running smoothly except for one minor hiccup with the Xbox display (which wasn't her fault as the building didn't have the power necessary). On the other hand, Kelly didn't do anything right - he let his workers take control of him, only standing up to them once when Elizabeth and Raj got in a small fight as he continued to sit behind his laptop working out yet another Excel spreadsheet. He didn't do the little things. He didn't have Trump's seat ready, he didn't have an acceptable dressing room for Tony Bennett. Sure, the polo match went off with fairly few problems - all you really have to do is get the horses out there and let them go.
Another major problem I had with the final episode was that all these people in the audience were sitting there, already having seen all of the episodes edited down to show you what the producers wanted to see. They showed you only what made good entertainment. None of the people in the audience had the experience working with either Jennifer or Kelly to form a quality opinion. And when they brought out the fired apprentices, Trump quickly talked to them, basically ignoring what they had to say, as it was obvious his mind was made up already. On Survivor, quite possibly the best reality show, the jury votes at the end without having seen the edited episodes. The jury only has what they've seen before they got voted off and what they see during the tribal council. They're not shown the heavily edited (3 days down to 1 hour) episodes to use to make an opinion about who has won. They vote immediately and they have limited information to act on.
All that being said, you can obviously tell I think Jennifer deserved to win. Throughout the whole season, she showed that she was up for anything - from going live on QVC to clipping the toenails of dogs in Central Park. She led effectively and was able to command respect from her team. I really cannot fathom the choice Donald made as it seems to be wrong on all sides, but then again, his hotels are filing for bankruptcy and he obviously has problems dealing with women - see his divorce rate. Carolyn seems to be there just to show diversity in the boardroom and while he will accept her opinion at times, other times, it's completely thrown out the window.
Moving on, the movie game continued last weekend. From 12 Monkeys, we followed Robert O'Neill to Superman and we watched the whole series - from I to IV. After Superman IV, we followed Gene Hackman to Crimson Tide in order to set up tomorrow's viewing of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Extended Edition - yes...all three extended editions, back to back to back. Almost 12 hours of LOTR goodness. I can't wait. Our list thus far (in reverse order):
Superman IV (Christopher Reeve and T.B.D.)
Superman III (Jackie Cooper and Christopher Reeve)
Superman II (Ned Beatty and Jackie Cooper)
Superman (Robert O'Neill and Ned Beatty)
Twelve Monkeys (Bruce Willis and Robert O'Neill)
Mercury Rising (Chi McBride and Bruce Willis)
The Terminal (John Williams and Chi McBride)
Star Wars: Episode VI (Anthony Daniels and John Williams))
Star Wars: Episode V (Peter Mayhew and Anthony Daniels)
Star Wars: Episode IV (James Earl Jones and Peter Mayhew)
The Hunt For Red October (Stellan Skarsgård and James Earl Jones)
Ronin (Jean Reno and Stellan Skarsgård)
Godzilla (1998) (Ben Bode and Jean Reno)
Empire Records (Liv Tyler and Ben Bode)
Armageddon (Owen Wilson and Liv Tyler)
Permanent Midnight (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson)
Keeping the Faith (Edward Norton and Ben Stiller)
Rounders (Edward Norton - Starting Film)
On another note, since I'm now done with school completely (don't ask :), I really have no idea what to do. I've got this stupid degree which I really don't want to use so right now I plan on getting another one - or at least parts of one. Next semester, I'm enrolled in CJ101 - Introduction to Criminal Justice along with CJA010, CJA021 and CJA040. The CJA classes (Criminal Justice Academies) prepare students for the Academy which can be taken through Santa Ana College in conjunction with the Orange County Sherriff's Department. Right now, my plan is to get through the CJ & CJA classes and then enroll in the Academy and go into police work which will then help me transition into the FBI. However, through a mutual friend, I do know someone who worked high up within the FBI and I will be meeting with him soon to see what he would recommend. He already has told me that I should just meet with the recruiter from the local FBI office rather than going through the academy and becoming a police officer. However, I've always had an admiration for police in society and I would love to become one and have that experience before heading into the FBI, but if I could get an FBI with options for advancement, I think that might be the best way to go right now - I know I can't take working at the bank for much longer.
So, that's about all that's going on in my life right now - it only took me 25 minutes to type this all up (including movie name research and other stuff)...I just had to vent about the Apprentice and update the movie list. Who knows where I'm going from here though.
URL: FBI Jobs.com
posted by Blake | 07:21
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