The current season of Lost is turning out to be pretty decent. This is definitely not the same show that started in September 2004 and I think that is rather obvious to anyone who has watched every episode. As one of my roommates said the other day, the first season of Lost has to be considered one of the best seasons of any television series ever - it was that good. Since then we’ve had the survivors from the tail end of the plane each come to the other side of the island and each die (except Bernard), a half-look into the history of the island that left more questions than anything else, and a freighter somewhere out in the ocean that is sending people onto the island. Anyway, Lost is still a decent show to watch and it has quickly become “must see TV” on Thursday nights.

I’ve also started watching The Biggest Loser on NBC. Sometimes I wonder what the deal is with the people on this show. You have folks who are literally given a golden opportunity to change their lives and some of them complain and DARE to go off of the diet? See, this is the problem with putting major weight loss on a national television network - they have to bring in a few people who may have inherently weak character to create drama for the viewers. I would rather just watch the entire starting cast stay with the workout program and lose as much weight as possible. This whole being voted off thing is weird.

One of the bad results from this set-up is what we saw last week. I forget the name of the guy, but he and his ex-wife are/were part of a team with three younger people. Well, it’s obvious to anyone watching that the younger folks have made a conscious decision to vote off the two older people whenever the opportunity comes up. And for the one guy who is in that younger group, I’m sure he knows that he’s going to be cut off when it comes down to just the two girls and him.

This added dramatic element is something that, as a viewer, I’m really not interested in watching. In fact, I’ve taken to DVRing the show so I can fast forward through the overly dramatic parts.

Smallville was back for a while and now it’s gone again. What’s the deal? I hope that we just had a one week hiatus and not a long-term vacation. For what it’s worth, the story between Clark and Lex has to pick up and begin to be something more than a teenage-level bitch fight every few weeks. I mean, how long can Clark be Superboy and continue giving up opportunities to put Lex in his place? We need something more from this show and I have a feeling that it’s on the way.

That’s been the extent of my television viewing over the last few weeks. I’ve been avoiding the political coverage on the news channels because it is completely boring at this point. All of the wrestling shows are a bore (with the exception of Jeff Hardy wrestling once in a while on RAW). There’s not been much good to watch on the regular channels these days. Maybe the end of the writer’s strike will bring some fresh shows to the boob tube!

About a week ago I celebrated my 18 month anniversary being employed by my company. If you read the post on Joe’s Journal, then you know that I wound up celebrating in rare form. And while that journal entry is more a display of a minor annoyance, there are other things going on that warrant an employee’s attention.

Sometime in January our Chief Operating Officer decided to move on to another job. She found a good job that is closer to home and - more importantly - closer to her family. As a working Mom, she needs to be close to home base. While we were all sad to see her go, it was a logical decision and she will be missed. Her last day was two weeks ago.

During her last week at the office, our Executive Director/President also announced his resignation citing that he was extremely proud of the organization and that it was time for him to move on to a new endeavor. No one is sure if he has a concrete job locked down somewhere else (he’s been at the company for the better part of the last decade). I know that he’s smart enough to make a ton of money with a financial consulting firm, if he decides to open one. We’re not entirely sure when he’s going to move on, but we know that each day that goes by we are closer to having no leadership in the office.

It is times like these that make employees reevaluate where they are in life and where they are in terms of their occupational situation. For me, the truth is that I began this reevaluation process in earnest sometime last spring. Then for family reasons, I stopped evaluating my employment for the summer and most of the fall. When I had to close a very big deal for our company in November, that pulled me back into the grind and ever since then, I’ve been thinking about this job and my future. The loss of the top leadership at my organization has sort of put this whole thing into hyper-drive.

The truth is that I really hate my commute. I drive an hour to work and an hour back each day (unless I’m working from home). The 100-mile daily commute is really a pain in the ass and for those of you that make this commute or longer, I’m not at a point where I can continue to blow $400 per month on gas so it’s a double whammy. I can’t take mass transit without adding another two hours onto the daily commute (ain’t happening). A few months ago I was really thinking about moving closer to my job, but I don’t really like Trenton area and there isn’t anything exciting going on anywhere between where I live and the office. In terms of getting to and from work, I hate it.

As for the physical place where I work, I really don’t like the building at all. We’re in a building that has got to be over 100 years old. One of our former COO’s tasks was to have the building upgraded. Well, now that she’s gone I’m confident that the building is not changing. Personally, I hate the all-white walls and the almost unmanageable parking situation in our extremely small lot. The crappy carpet and painted-over-panel walls in the offices don’t help either. Let’s just say it’s not a place that I’m comfortable bringing my clients. In terms of the physical space, it’s not a nice looking place to work.

Then there is the staff. The truth is that even though my post about the secretary showed how completely outlandish one member of the staff can be, I really like everyone (including the secretary). The staff at this place is among the best out there, period. They are good people with good hearts and that is important in the grand scheme of things. In terms of the staff, I couldn’t be in a better place!

Of course, one must consider advancement opportunities. Here is where it gets interesting. Is there a great deal of “upward mobility” in my job? No. In an organization with about 10 people, no one is more than one step removed from the top of the heap. It’s weird. The advancement opportunities at my job are more industry-wide advancement opportunities. In other words, an employee is likely never going to be “the boss” at this office, but he may find a new way to finance a particularly complex project that is duplicated by the competitors (which, in this industry, is a good thing). In terms of advancement I have to rate this position as 50/50.

One of the final things I’ve been considering is my remuneration. I get paid a decent salary, but it’s high time that it increased. I’ve only had one automatic “standard of living” raise over the last 18 months and believe me, the cost of living has gone up more than my raise! The problem is that with the top brass at the office leaving, I do not know who to ask for a raise. I was just getting ready to talk to the COO about this, but now she’s gone. Considering that it will take the new Executive Director a few months to really get the feel of the office, I may be out of a raise for a long-time to come and I’m not happy about that at all. In terms of remuneration…18 months ago I would have said that I’m very happy. Today? I’m not and it appears that there is no person to talk to about it. Not good.

All in all, my assessment tells me that I am not in the right employment situation right now. However - after all of the criticism above - I’m awkwardly content at my job. I will probably begin to look for a new place to work in the next few months, but not rigorously. If my company does actually move out of Trenton and into New Brunswick like the rumor has been for months, then I would probably move to that area of the state (or further north) and stick with it. However, I feel like something is missing at my current job and unless I can figure out what it is, then it might be time to move on.

While I was busy the last few weeks, Joe’s Journal eclipsed 100,000 spam comments captured by Askimet. Talk about pathetic, right? Not only are there losers in this world that are sitting by a computer hitting the “send” button as spam, but there are uber-losers who create software robots to do this automatically!

Talk about people who need a life. As I write this we’re at 102,000+ spam comments. And that’s my sad commentary on sad people.

Both the Republican and Democratic Presidential primaries are becoming the stuff of political science legend. You have the meteoric rise and fall of the Rudy Giuliani candidacy, the record-setting fundraising of Ron Paul, the almost unbelievable success of Mike Huckabee and his shoestring budget, the historic candidacy of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for the Democratic Party and so much more - all going on at once!

Many people have been calling the Republican campaign for John McCain since Mitt Romney bowed out last week. However, Mike Huckabee has had a strong showing in the South and other states where religious voters have major influence. At the same time, McCain has been battling for acceptance by the far right-wing of the Republican Party - especially among the conservative talk radio scene.

On the other side of the battle, the Clintons have been battered and beaten (as usual) by the press with the latest scandal being MSNBC saying that Chelsea Clinton was being pimped out by her mother’s campaign. Vile. This further proves the irrelevance of MSNBC in the news scene and in the world of current events. What a joke that station has become.

Obama, on the other hand, continues to turn heads - including Republican heads. I have a feeling that if Obama is the nominee for the Democrats that he’s going to win the national election by at least a 60/40 margin. But I guess time will tell.

In the mean time, check out New Jersey Carpet Cleaning for the best carpet cleaning in the Garden State!

After thinking about it a little bit more, I have a few more comments about the Giants in general and the SuperBowl last night. My first thought is that I always thought Jeremy Shockey was a bit of a bully to Eli and the rest of the Giants organization. He reminds me of my friends from South Jersey - you love them to death, but they get really fired up and ultra annoying at inappropriate times and during inappropriate situations.

Shockey had a so-so season this year and was injured before the playoffs. Word going around is that the only post-season game he even attended was the SuperBowl last night. And this guy is supposed to be a team player? Please. If you even saw the brief clip they showed of him last night up in his sky box, you saw the disappointment on his face. Of course the guy is going to be disappointed - his team is beating one of the best teams in NFL history and they’re winning the SuperBowl in the process! Yet, I have to believe that some of his disappointed look was attached to knowing how arrogant he had been earlier in the season and in past seasons. Somewhere in his head he had to be under tremendous torture from making Tiki-like comments questioning the team leader.

I hope that he gets his head on straight and becomes the player that he can become.

My other thought is about Tiki Barber. For everyone who has ever played on a sports team with that one guy who acts like he is bigger than the team (or even bigger than the sport), you know what the other Giants must have felt like for the last few seasons. It is absolutely amazing to see how the Giants and Tom Coughlin managed to turn their fortunes around after this egomaniac left the team. Absolutely amazing.

It would be great if other teams that are saddled with such arrogant jerks took a look at themselves in the mirror. Too often it seems that front offices are blinded by the lights of the cameras that follow around the “big star” and they miss the fact that you can put a damper on and entire team’s attitude by allowing one guy to be a prima donna.

I’m glad that Tiki is making omelettes on NBC because the Giants don’t need his crap any more.

Whoooo!!! Can you believe it? A team that started off the season 0 - 2 and a quarterback that many had written off as not ready for the big leagues managed to win the biggest game on the biggest stage we’ve seen in the NFL in years! Combine that with the fact that Tom Coughlin was on the chopping block before this season began and one of the best Giants players in history (I forget his name - Tiki something) openly criticized the team and Eli Manning’s leadership during the early weeks of this season and you have a story that is much better than Tom Brady winning a 4th SuperBowl or the Patriots going 19 - 0.

It’s been a long time since I jumped out of my seat while watching sports. The last time that I can remember was when my little brother played his last football game for Roxbury High School a few years ago. And the last time that I jumped out of my seat watching professional sports? Phew. Who knows? I can’t even remember, but watching this game tonight - I absolutely loved it! Put aside the fact that my team was playing in the SuperBowl; this low-scoring game had compelling stories on both sides of the field, was held in a Class A stadium, and showed that an underdog can still take down the league Goliath. It was everything that you want in a football game and so much more.

As for the “other” aspects of the game here are some comments.

I loved that Peyton Manning was just an all-American guy in the box while watching the game. The Manning family has a genuine character about them that you don’t find too often in many parts of this nation any more.

Is there any doubt about Tom Coughlin’s leadership ability now? What I love about Coughlin is that he seems to be a mean, grumpy guy who doesn’t want to hear any bitching. I love it.

Tom Brady handled himself brilliantly in the post-game press conference. He looked the part of a champion and showed that - even though most American males hate him (his life is too perfect) - he’s a classy guy. Bill “The Cheater” Belichek, on the other hand, looked and acted like a sore loser. He’s done this before after big losses, too. Very classless and not becoming of a team the stature of The Patriots.

Sean Salisbury was on ESPN after the game was over and said that no one needs to go out there and say that the Patriots beat themselves. He went on that the Giants beat The Patriots up and down the field and they were the better team - and that’s the truth. Again, that’s not because I’m a Giants fan - it’s because I watched the game and saw the Patriots not play their best game while the Giants played excellently.

Speaking of post-game commentators, someone really needs to get those former NFL guys classes in grammar. These guys sit on the daises on various channels and speak a refined form of Ebonics that is both horrifying and alarming at the same time! Quotes like, “The Patriots defense try to not let Giants score is a tough thing to accomplish this game,” scare the shit out of me! What’s even scarier is that you normally get three or four of these guys on one channel within the same time period! Damn it!

Anyway - go Giants!