Outwitted - for a Pepsi

This week's Apprentice was pretty good. It all started with some tention hanging over from last weeks show. It appeared that Kevin, Kelly, and Ivana were clearly tired with Jennifer M. and they clearly wanted her gone. That came when Trump asked them who to send to Mosaic. Jenifer M. was transferred. For their task, they were asked to design a bottle for Pepsi to promote the new Pepsi Edge (which is a great drink, I may add). Apex acted quickly and designed a bottle that had 'EDGE' bulit into it. It also had a slot were they could put slips of paper in. They finshed quickly, giving them a chance to rest.

Mosaic's idea was a bottle shaped like a globe. The crux of their idea was to have a contest were one could collect all the countries on a continent to win a trip to that continent. The idea stank. Pepsi executives said that people did not think geogrpahy was cool and that their design forgot what Pepsi was about. Personally I thought Andy's diatribe about the "two cola worlds" was laughable. I was left wondering, how did this kid become a debate champion? Apex focused on blending the bottle and the box into what Pepsi was about. This wowed Pepsi execs and they won.

The boardroom was brutal. Andy took responsiblity for the bottle but got barbs for failing to explain how a person could identify what was in the bottle due to the shinkwrap world map. All hell broke loose when Sandy got wind that Andy and Jennifer M. forged a pact to get her out. They argued and Andy did nothing to stop it. That got him fired. I feel Andy's immaturity and inexperience caught up with him.

Would you trust your company to someone wet behind the ears?

A Foolish Game

A new "game" (and I use that word loosely) has appeared in recent days.

The game is a recreation of the Kennedy assassination called JFK: Reloaded. The reaction to the "game" has been mostly negative, with Ted Kennedy calling it "despicable". In response to all the bad press, the developer has gone into spin mode, claiming the game is educational way to get people interested in history. I feel it's a cop-out. If the developer intends the game to be educational, then why doesn't the developer include some information on whom JFK was? On that same thought, if the "game" is educational, why is the developer offering the player 100,000 USD to (for lack of a better word) the winner. It all seems like a farce to me.

In short, this "game" is sick. Sadly, it seems like anything (including the death of an Usian hero) is fair game. What a shame.

Who's Wearing the Jeans now?

This week's Apprentice was very, very good! Our two teams were asked by Levi's to design a catalogue prototype. Apex seemed fixed after Kelly was transferred from Mosaic. They idea for the catalogue was a paper wheel which would guide people towards the proper jeans. In order to push the point their jeans were for real people, they used themselves as models. Very good idea. Moasic did a mini catalogue that would express the jeans themselves. Wes (their leader) was weak in the face of Maria, who virtually took over the task with tactics like being rude to the rest of the team, telling Wes to "back off", and expelling the rest of the team from the room during the photo design.

In the end, Mosaic lost due to the fact that they forgot regular people when doing their catalogue. They also forgot to include photos of models posting with their butts. Mosaic added insult to injury by not wearing the product in their presentation. Apex however, was not problem free. Ivana felt that Jennifer took too much credit for the product after not understanding it all. In the boardroom, everything came out. In short, it was a bloodbath for Wes, who was cited for bad leadership, and Maria, who was cited for not getting along with others in work.

In the end, Maria and Wes were fired. I'm glad they are gone.

The four who couldn't

This week's Apprentice was the best yet. Each team has to build and run a bridal store. It was clear from the get-go that Sandy would be a Mosaic asset, since this is what Sandy does outside of the Apprentice. Armed with Sandy's bridal secrets, Mosaic went to work. They made contacts with various vendors in order to get get discount wedding dresses off their hands. Mosaic send out emails in mass numbers (read: SPAM) to brides asking them to attend the sale.

Apex, on the other hand, seem to more dejected than they were before. All four of them seemed like a fish out of water with this task. In this task, they complained about it. Chris (the candidate who complained to Trump about Apex last week) seemed to give up easly. Their idea was to have show were vendors could sell their products. In order for this to occur, they had to find vendors. They approched this idea thinking the vendors would come to them. This did not work, so they went to the vendors themselves, snapping up a bridal consultant on the way who helped them out.

It was of no use. They lost 12 to 1 to Mosaic. In return, Trump gave them 50,000 USD to be buy jewelry. I thought that was a nice touch.

The boardroom was another bloodbath for Apex. Chris's outburst of last week didn't put him on a good footing with his team or Trump. Needless to say, he was fired for being a bad player all around.

Sometimes, I feel, being the conquering hero can hurt you.

Surprise, Surprise

John Ashcroft (and Commerce chief Don Evans) has resigned from the Cabinet.

Why is this such a big freaking surprise? Ashcroft had dropped hints he would resign.

I admit, I never liked Ashcroft in the first place and was pretty indifferent about Evans. In saying that, why does the media have to pump this up into something more than it is?

Bringing down the house

Last week's Apprentice was unique, not for the task (which was furnishing and renovating a house), but the technique that Trump used. He brought back the first four candidates who got sacked. Once they all reunited, all was not happy. Stacie J. called out on Ivana for lying to Trump during her firing. Jennifer C - who came back as well - was well beheaved. Both teams approched their tasks in simplar ways. In saying this, a few differences were spotted.

Apex had a contractor who was lazy. They should have sacked him. Raj had the bright idea to reduce a four bedroom house to three rooms. This was not the only bad decision Raj and Apex made. When it came time for the agents to come through the house, they left everything in a mess. Mosaic, on the other hand, did everything good. They have a contractor who worked well and the house looked great. In the end, they won.

The boardroom was more delicious. Raj did the right thing by taking responsibity for his mistakes. However, he was taken to task for gutting the rooms in his assigned house. Things got even better when Chris complained to Trump about his team and asked to be PM next week. Raj did not rebuke Chris or bring him into the boardroom. This was the last straw and Raj was fired. After getting fired, he tried to get a date with Trump's secretary.

I hope he gets it.