25
Apr
2005

A little while ago I complained about the evil known as Rachel Ray on The Food Network. Now even the magazine section of your local store won’t be safe from her! Hide your children…seek shelter!

“Fans of Rachael Ray, take heart. If watching her 27 times a week on one of her three Food Network television shows or reading her 11 cookbooks is not enough, you will soon be able to get another dose from the newsstand.”

27 times a week? My eyes and ears bleed at the mere thought. 11 cookbooks? Those poor trees!

“Ms. Ray has teamed up with Reader’s Digest U.S. to publish a food and lifestyle magazine called Every Day with Rachael Ray. Kitty Morgan, the editor of the magazine, said the magazine’s style and tone will reflect those of Ms. Ray.”

It will have nails-on-chalkboard laughing?

“She’s got this high-energy, down-to-earth approach. That is exactly what we will be trying to translate. It will be accessible, casual, very much fun.”

And painful….oh so painful.

22
Apr
2005

I used to love Staples, we had one in Kirksville for 3 years, and then it went away…darnit.

Anyway, this weeks Apprentice involved designing an improved product for Staples (in case you wondered why I just ranted about them) that would better organize an office. Yay…something near and dear to my heart!

So with the teams set at 3 Manga Corp members to Net Worth’s 2, they went about trying to figure out an exciting new product. Manga went to the Staples office, talked to the executives and then went to a Staples store to talk to actual consumers about what sort of items they needed.

What did Net Worth do? They tried meeting with the Staples executives via phone, which didn’t work out. They then tried cold calling office managers to talk to supply buyers via phone. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

So Manga Corps came with a lazy susan based filing system (named the “Desk Apprentice“) that I actually think is pretty darn nifty. Net Worth came up with…well…I guess you could it a desk. It was just darn silly and impracticle. So any surprise who won? Yeah, didn’t think so.

So since Net Worth only had two members left, Alex and Bren, it was a rather tame Board Room. Both of them were horrible, but it came down who took risks. Bren took no risks and showed no gumption, Alex did. So even though he made poor decesions, Alex was gutsy and Bren was fired.

So we are down to four, Alex , Craig, Kendra and Tana. Of these four, I am most impressed by Tana, but lets see what happens.

21
Apr
2005

Pretty good episode. Reward challange was nice to see them making the tribe fight each other for the reward. Always good to split up the power, make them question each other.

The real drama was in the immunity challange. Nifty will power challange with the first person out being deserted for a night on an island by themselves. That lucky person was Janu, who dropped out after only 6 minutes. Could someone tell me how this women is a Vegas Showgirl? She has NO stamina! Oh well, she went off to her little island, took 2 & 1/2 hours to make fire and did a little dance. Yay for her. Tom won immunity again, the rest of the tribe better watch out for him. He is a power to be reckoned with.

So as the tribe prepared for tribal council, it seemed like instead of voting out the original target of Janu, a lot of folks thought it would get rid of my darling Stephanie, whom they now viewed as a threat. NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not my Steph! She could sense it was coming also, and the only one seeming to fight for her was Tom.

So at tribal council Steph couldn’t hold her disgust in, she knew everyone was aiming for her, but then the Survivor Gods smiled down on our little Steph….Janu started saying she thought everyone should vote her out, she wanted to go and it was the smart call on their part. Steph took up the “Boot Janu” banner and helped lead her to say more. Finally Jeff asked her if she just wanted to lay down her torch if she felt Steph was more worth of staying. She said she felt Steph should stay, so she would walk away.

Well Steph asked for a rewording of that and Janu gave it to her. So there ya go boys and girls, Janu threw herself out of the game and saved Stephanie. The Janu fan club line starts forming to the left!

16
Apr
2005

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT :: FOX Broadcasting Company

Arrested Devolopment is in danger of being cancelled. Please take a moment to go by this site and sign the “Arrested Devolopment Loyalty Oath”. And while there, make sure to check out the Tobias video…it’s like a train wreck you can’t take your eyes off of.

15
Apr
2005

The product tie-ins just a keep-a-coming on The Apprentice. This week the teams were charged with coming up with an advertising brochure for the new Pontiac Solstice. (Which I will admit, while not a practicle vehicle choice, is sweet looking)

With Net Worth again down to only 2 members, Trump allowed them to pick someone from Manga to join Chris and Alex, they chose the bow-tie adorned Bren.

Over at Manga, Kendra volunteered to be project manager as she had a histoy of doing PR kits. Tana and Craig agreed it sounded like best choice…and then went on to argue with every choice she made.

Let’s just be blunt, Net Worth made some really poor choices in the design of their brochure. A bland cover, a blurry first photo, read to much like an owners manual, no place for a business card or cd/dvd….just oodles of mistakes. They also felt some weird need to use female models that drew your eye away from the car. Stupid guys.

My biggest bitch this week is with Tana and Craig. At 2:30 AM they decided they HAD to go back to the suite and go to bed. That they couldn’t possibly stay up and work on the brochure, even though it was far from being done. Kendra told them she appreciated their honesty, but she didn’t respect their decesion, and she stayed and finished. She didn’t get home utnil 8:30 AM. YAY KENDRA!

So why does this irk me? I have personally stayed up 1round 36 hours without sleep. I have been at the point of hallucinating and giggling uncontrollably, but you know what? There was a job to be done and by god, I would get it done! I was once handed an enormous project that I had to write and polish 20 pages of a magazine by myself in 6 days. You know what? I did it. I didn’t shower for 3 days (sorry folks), I didn’t sleep more than 4 hours a night, I didn’t shave, I barely stopped for meals, but I had accepted the task and I was not going to let the magazine down.

So you are in a deadline situation, you are tired, TOO BAD! You suck it up and you get your job done! I was almost hoping they would lose just so I could hear Trump go off on them. Instead Kenda (note I did not say the team) did such a good job, Pontiac is actually going to use her design.

When Manga lost, Alex did get railed on by Trump for taking an hour and 45 minute nap, so yay Trump! Rail on the slackers! In the end though, it was the day we had all waited for….at long last the heavens opened, the sun shone down and….ADIOS CHRIS! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

SO as he’s getting up to leave he starts….yep….he started crying. Trump tried to cheer him up and called him around the table so he could talk to him face-to-face, although, honestly, for a second I thought Trump was going to set him on his lap. “Tell me your troubles little boy.”

CREEPY!

Anyway….he’s gone….YAY!

14
Apr
2005

Poor Stephanie…all alone on the Ulong beach. Seriouslly, I know that sounded sarcastic, but I felt for her. Of anyone in her tribe, she fought the hardest. She was very deserving to be the last of her tribe.

Mark Burnett didn’t keep her byherself for too long, he had her go join Koror. They seemingly welcomed her with open arms, but the also were all fishing to get her to vote with their various alliances. The biggest whiner though had to be Coby. Can you say shut up? I knew you could.

So come immunity time it is the age old stand on a pillar in the water and let Jeff tempt you with food. Always amusing. First he tempted them with donuts…2 gave up for them. 90 minutes later he tempted them with 15 chohclate chip cookies…4 gave in. So only three people left, one of them being Steph, who if I was her, I would be very nervous about not having immunity. Well when the pizza came out, down went Steph and the other remining Survivor leaving only Fireman Tom to win immunity.

In the end though, Coby went. Forgetting one of the golden rules of Survivor…don’t EVER just bluntly reveal alliances to someone you are not sure where they stand. Stupid, stupid Coby. Welcome to the jury.

11
Apr
2005

Ya know, I have been ragging on Chris for several weeks now, but yet I never show you a picture of him. So I thought maybe I should finally share one with you. here ya go

Chris Mug Shot

Yep boys and girls, that’s his mug shot from this past weekend. I love TheSmokingGun.com. You can read all about his arrest here. The gist of though is

“…was popped following a disturbance at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, Florida. Shelton was arrested at 3:25 AM by Seminole Indian Reservation Police officers and booked into the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department lockup at 4:14 AM, according to records. After posting $250 bond on the misdemeanor rap, he was released from custody shortly after 10:00 AM. Cops allege that a “loud and inappropriate” Shelton–who, of course, was spewing profanities–got into a beef in the hotel’s lobby, and refused to pipe down at the request of officers. Shelton, who had a drink in his hand, was apparently peeved over his inability to get a wristband which would gain him access to Hard Rock bars.”

Poor, poor Chris…let us laugh in amusement shall we?

Now, let’s say by some oddball chance he is one of the final 2 on the show. Trump doesn’t make his final decesion until the live finale. Do you think this might count against our buddy Chris? Yeah…I think so.

9
Apr
2005

Why is Chris still there? Why why why???? Yes, Angie choked during the presentation, I agree.

However, this is a team that was already a person down and one of the team has to go back to Best Buy to find the credit card he lost? And not only that….he was gone 2 & 1/2 hours!

So here you are, the team lost, your Donald Trump and his cronies, you have a choice between Angie, who choked, and Chris who is a moron (Alex wasn’t even really a consideration). So do you choose the person who has flubbed up badly once or do you choose the person who has flubbed up almost every single task?

I don’t know what is going on here, but it makes no sense how Chris has survived this long…no sense!

8
Apr
2005

How? Someone just please tell me how a tribe can lose every single immunity challange. I am thrilled Stephanie survied the lame “start a fire” challange to decide which would leave, but beyond that….what a painful, painful episode.

Oh, and Tom…don’t give orders you dumbass.

5
Apr
2005

For those of you who do not know who Morgan Spurlock is, he did Super Size Me. This was the film where he ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days. Totally changed my eating habits.

Anyway, he is coming to the FX Network this summer with a show called 30 Days. I can not wait to check this show out! No clue if it will be as important as his film, but I’ll be watching!

2
Apr
2005

Net Worth was down 5 to 3, so Trump told Net Worth to choose someone from Manga Corps to join them. They decided on Alex. Alex is one of those guys you know he’s on the reality show, but he has done nothing to stand out and make himself noticed. Oh well.

Both teams had to go to work for Domino’s Pizza and come up with a new pizza style. Both with a meatball inspired pizza (gee, sure that had nothing to do with Trump saying he likes meatballs) and then they would spend 6 hours the next day selling the pizzas. Team to makes the most wins. Congrats Manga Corps.

Overall this was a sleep inducing episode except for the verbal, almost physical, fight between Chris and Alex. Yes, Chris was trying to give up chewing tobacco, but that is never an excuse to physically threaten a co-worker.

At the Boardroom, Trump did confront Alex on several subjects, but in the end he fired Stephanie for her management skills. WRONG DECESION! Chris needed to go weeks ago, he is just getting worse and worse.

Oh well…I’m tired, this week sucked…laters

1
Apr
2005

This has become in exercise in pain each week. Koror killed a shark and found the biggest clam I’ve ever seen. They are eating like kings. They also won the reward challange so they got food from that also. They are eating better than some people I know stateside with a job!

Immunity…well…immunity was just embaressing. It was solve a giant puzzle. Why in the world Ulong chose Bobby Jon to be their caller will be a mystery for ages to come. After a half hour he finally gave up and switched out with Stephanie. Amazing how much progress they made once she was the caller, but by then it was too late. So again, Ulong heads to tribal council.

At this point, the only person I care about staying is Steph because she is actually a good player. They got rid of Ibrehem, though I think Bobby Jon is the one who should have gone. Oh well…does it even really matter at this point?