The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for September 2004

The Apprentice

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I watched The Apprentice tonight and have a few comments to make.

A) The women do not appear to like each other and seem to be more interested in beating each other up than winning.

B) The men just have a good time and it comes out, it is just easy to see that they are having fun and that translates into good things.

As a salesman I have made a conscious effort to try and avoid negativity, it just eats up your insides and destroys you. Really. It is hokey, but in my experience walking around with a smile works wonders.

I smile all the time at people. Apparently I have one of those smiles that makes you check your wallet, look at your teeth, etc. In other words, it can make you do a little double-take. I love that mischievous look and I work it because it is fun. In negotiations it makes people second guess themselves and wonder what I have up my sleeve. The best is using during a poker game.

The second question I have is why do people feel it necessary to try and describe other by race/religion/nationality when it doesn’t add anything to the story. In tonight’s case one of the women described two people as those “old Jewish women.”

I failed to see why that was necessary. Unless they edited it out, there is no way that she could have known what their religious background was, and even if she did it didn’t add to the story. All it did was raise red flags about her.

For the purpose of her story it made perfect sense to describe these two people as being “older women.” They were and since there were many different people that she could have been talking about it was sensible to describe gender and age.

Had they been Black, Asian or Latino I would have had the same problem with a description that exceeded gender and age, it just was unnecessary.

It may be 2004, but the US still has racial issues. There are deep wounds that will take time to heal.

The Presidential Debates

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I am irritated with both sides and their terms. I want a real debate that is not so carefully crafted. I want to see them go back and forth and watch them think on their feet.

I don’t care if Kerry is taller than Bush. I don’t care if Kerry sweats. Neither of these “features” will prevent them from being able to do the job. I want to get back to issues and hear more about how they intend to do things, what are their plans etc.

And now along with all of you I get to watch bad acting accompanied by stagecraft. This is not right.

It is like finally landing that girl you had a crush on and finding out that she wears a wig, stuffs her bra, has a girdle and used to be a man. Give me some reality and cut the crap.

Profile views

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Ok, it is time for Jack to take another break from work for a moment. The topic now is “profile views.” The comment, is it just me or do they not seem to work in real time or anything close to that. My profile views were stuck at 703 for a couple of weeks and then shot up to 785 and were stuck again.

Now they are at 890 and have been there for quite some time. My gut tells me that it should be higher, but then again the dysfunctional unit has been wrong in the past. With any luck this will be my biggest problem this year.

Israel Divestiture Spurs Clash

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This really irks me for a number of reasons. A couple of selections from the article:

“Jewish-Presbyterian relations have been in turmoil since the 2.4 million-member Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly voted 431 to 62 in July to “initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel” and also decided to continue funding messianic congregations that target Jews for proselytizing.”

So they are going to make lopsided blanket judgements while trying to do whatever they can to eradicate my people. That may sound dramatic, but when your family, friends and colleagues are targeted for conversion what are you supposed to say.



“The Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative advocacy group in Washington, issued a report this week saying that mainline Protestant denominations devoted 37 percent of their human rights declarations over the past four years to criticism of Israel, far more than any other foreign country.”

I can accept criticisim, no person or country is perfect, but given the circumstances it seems awfully strange that Israel has received more than one third of the criticisms of this group. Where is the balance.

Blogavoidance

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Do you ever engage in blogging to avoid work? Do you find yourself racking your brain or scouring the web for that one perfect topic to blog about? Do you find yourself cursing outloud because you discoved that the topic you wish to discuss has already been covered by 6,354 other bloggers, and at least six of them did a better job than you.

If you answered yes to these questions you are clearly engaged in blogavoidance, also known as suffering from blogavoiditis. There is no cure, no hope and like this post, no point.

But I do have an answer for you. For little to no money down I will serve as a guest blogger for you. I will write a piece that you can place on your little slab of the net. I do not promise or guarantee that it will be educational, informational, witty or interesting, just that you will receive it.

Remember that all donations go to rebuilding Jack’s Shack and are not tax deductible. They will make you feel, just what it is that you will feel I cannot say. It could be a thigh or it could be a wing. You might even feel swindled, foolish and or silly.

If nothing else you can rest assured that I am not going to use the money on anyone but myself. I am my own favorite charity. So go ahead and consider how you can make Jack have a better day. I’ll be thinking of you. 😀

My picture

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Someone contacted me to ask about my picture. They wanted to know which one of the three men was me. Just to avoid further confusion, I am the guy with dark hair, glasses and a mustache.

You may refer to me as Captain Spaulding.