We want you, but not in that way

Our two teams on the Apprentice faced the task of designing an ad campaign to get people to join the NYPD. The goal of the task was to be as emotional as possible. Mosaic ran with this. However, Apex chose a military theme (thought up by Raj) that made Elizabeth uncomfortable. She got so fed up with the miltary theme that she had Kevin work with her late at night to create something more sensitive. By the morning, this idea was gone and she plowed on with the military idea.

Mosaic, on the other hand, stayed true to form by creating an emotional package and resisting adding sex appeal. For this, they won. In the boardroom, Elizabeth's general incompetence came back to haunt her. In making his decision, Trump asked the see the advert, which he said made him feel he lived in "a police state." In the end, Trump fired Elizabeth. I thought it was time for her to go.

Going to the dogs

This weeks show was interesting to say the least. Trump switched the teams around since the process of elimination left 12 boys and 12 girls. After the switch off, Trump asked each team to design a business involving dogs. Apex chose to diversify, clipping dog's nails, giving them massages, and washes. Mosaic focused on washing dogs, but in hindsight, it seems like they never had a strong strategy. They wanted to donate to NY Fire Department, but were blocked. Mosaic had a camera that Stacy R. wanted to use to take photos of dogs in costumes. That failed. Finally they settled on washing dogs and donating a piece of their money to a cat shelter. They lost.

In the boardroom, Wes brought Andy (who had lost the team's mobile), and Stacy R.

In the end, Stacy R.'s tendency not to take responsibility cost her. She was fired.

I'm glad it wasn't me.

Bring it On or Ding-Dong the Zaurus is Dead

Sharp, the maker of the Zaurus, has decided to stop selling their product in the US.

Good riddence.

I won't missing them. In my thinking, they were like Sony's CLIÉ's. They were packed with too many features, had too many buttons (some seemed cryptic), and were too big. I feel the same way about the Zaurus.

With Sharp, Sony and Toshiba stopping sales of their PDA's, appears that palmOne, HP, Dell, and RIM are the only companies slugging it out now. To that I say: Bring it On!

Now I Know Why...

The Apprentice was delightful this week.

This week, Apex and Mosaic were asked to pick a designer and design a women's clothing line. Both teams chose a wannabe designer. The women's designs were well made, and the fact being women helped them to win. The guys were a different story, Raj got into his team's way, annoying the designer and the models. In short, the men acted more like immature dogs than businesspeople. Their clothes showed it as well. In the end they lost.

in the boardroom, John brought Kevin and Andy in with him. Trump castrated Kevin for pricing to hight. John got barbs for bringing Andy into the boardroom while Wes (who decided the price as well) got off the hook.

In the end, John paid for being a bad leader.

Now I know why men don't do well designing women's clothes.

Lights, Camera, Reform!

This week's Apprentice was the best yet! Each team had to sell a product on QVC. Mosaic sold a George Foreman like grill and the Apex team went with a set of cleaning pads. In the end, Apex lost by the narrowest margins I have seen since watching the Apprentice - less than 12.00 USD.

The whole QVC experience was a sideshow compared to the continued annihilation of Apex in ways that would make the Illinois GOP blush.

The Donald had the bright idea moving Pamela over to Apex in order to reform them. The team did not like how Pamela assigned them without picking up a finger herself. In the end, Donald found fault because of her pride and various opinions. In the end, she was fired.

Discoveries

Today a giant report was released that claimed that Iraq had no WMD. What else is new? Sadly, I feel the impact of this report will be nil. Usian voters are too dimwitted to know the difference, especially in a hillbilly town like this.

On another note...

I decided not to get an iPod Mini. They are cute. They are cool. However, I don't see myself donating 250 USD to Steve for a product that has a major glitch. I made this decision after upgrading the firmware of my Creative Labs Nomad II. It upped the amount of memory I could use to 128 MB. Good, very good! The firmware also added support for WMA. I don't know how good the format is.

Sorry iPod Mini. I hope we meet again in two years time.

Meltdown

The Apprentice got even better this week. Each team was asked to build and run a restaurant. Mosaic did the smart thing by hiring a cleaning crew to clean their restaurant. This enabled them to get a good night's rest in order work the next day. The Apex team did things differently. They picked a leader no one liked. They wasted time by cleaning up up the restaurant themselves instead of doing what Mosaic did. The tenor at their restaurant was hostile. In contrast, Mosaic's restaurant seemed friendly - like you wanted to go there. In the end, Mosaic won. After the loss, Apex descended into meltdown, blaming each other for what happened. Jennifer C. showed a pretty good lack of leadership skill by not attempting to sack those who caused the loss. Instead, she personal grudges take over. As they said, she paid the price for it.