The world is your oyster...

I actually tried these for the first time this week, interesting...

Where have ou been for the last 6 and a half months? I have been waiting for you to miss me and it just didn't happen so I decided to come back anyways. It's July 31 and it's one of the most beautiful days of 2011 so far, and we have had our fair share of them. 

It's been a long time since I shared my useless thoughts with the world, at least in writing format. I generally share useless thoughts with people on a daily basis, but this is a different medium. I said boldly that this was going to be an epic year and 7 months into this 2011, I don't think I will be wrong.  don't want to count the chickens before they hatch, but it's been a stupendous year to this point. 

Here is an update in 1000 words or less...new job is rolling at full steam, better money, been reunited with friends as colleagues, VEGAS dirty 30 baby, good friends, great family and an even better relationship...had my twin sibling tumor removed, beer, sun, great books, great sports and many other things that make even me smile. I'd say that's a damn good start anyways. I still have 5 months left and I have some pretty sweet tricks up my sleeve that have yet to be unveiled. Stay tuned. 

...

I recently visited the home base of NB and I learned a lot of things. That is after all the essence of life, to be continually learning (Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.  ~Henry Ford). So what could I possibly learn there you say...well I learned that I am from NB but I am now a person who hails from Toronto (say what you want, but you can't judge if you haven't lived here). I am also a person who learn much of what I know in NB, and that made me a better person. I am much like Blade (the odd vampire trilogy) as I am a Hybrid a day-walker. Being in NB taught me that NB is great but it's not for me, and that I also would not do as well as I am doing in Toronto if I hadn't learned what I did in NB. 

We can't just say we are this or we are that, because we are what we are and what we are is a concoction of everything we have seen and learned. If you choose to shut out a complete part of your life then you aren't what you should be and that's sad. 

Hybrids forever...

The JLS aka the feel good story of the summer

Welcome to the HOF Roberto Alomar and Deion Sanders

One of my childhood favorites and an amazing flare for second base.

A two sport star truly deserving of the Hall

"look good play good , play good pay good , pay good live good , live good eat good, eat good die good" Deion Sanders

Year 29 was good, Year 30 will be EPIC

Alcatraz: Seeing this will keep you within the law

Well, well, well, three months and I haven't written anything. I've been busy ok. It's been an eventful time and I'm not going to sit here and justify myself to you readers. (I say that that there actually are some :) If you didn't forget about me and you were wondering when I would write again, well then I'm glad you are you.

2010 has come and gone and it was a pretty damn good year really. Why was it so good you ask? Well let's see...went to Cuba with 5 great people, started a great new job, played some great sports, my niece celebrated her 1st birthday, my better (much better) half kept me around for another year, I got to go to California for the first time and saw many cool things like Alcatraz and a San Francisco 49ers game.

That's just a snapshot of the highlights and there are many more things I could add, but don't need to bore you with that. So looking at that list tells me that I definitely have things rolling in the right direction.

Speaking of going in the right direction, here we are in 2011. Now if you are a believer in the ridiculousness that is the 2012 theory, then you better made this tear very EPIC!! I am not a believer in the 2012 BS but I still plan to make it epic. I don't make New Years Resolutions, because I believe they are for weak people who ned a crutch to make a change in their lives, but I do set goals, and here are some of my 2011 goals:

1. Make this the best year I can with my family and friends. You may not get to choose your family, but you don't get to buy news ones either, so make the most of the time you have with them.

2. Be successful in my new career and work my butt off to make sure it happens. Work Smart and Hard.

3. Survive my 30th birthday party in Las Vegas, Nevada. That will be the definition of Epic folks.

4. Be fiscally responsible and pay some debt so we can buy a better place to live.

I know many of you may not care about my goals for the year, so I will say this. The point is that we have to set goals that make us work and make us value what we see as important to us. Don't make resolutions, make changes when they need made and take care of those around you. We all have to share this planet, so let's Smile and Wave.

As Dewey Cox said, "Make a little music everyday until you die."

JLS aka the czar of making it happen.

Madness, just Madness...and I'm loving every minute of it...

It’s a Mad Mad World...

Well as I sit here with my foot buried in ice cold water (story for another time, suffice it to say I am getting old)...I ponder many things. However I can’t write about them all in a timely fashion, so I will have to pick just one topic.

Earlier this week I began watching the AMC original series called Mad Men. I have been hearing about this show for a few years now, but since I don’t get AMC in HD here in the land of terrible tv selection, I never watched it. Recently Netflix became available in Canada (with a 90% absolutely terrible selection I might add, when compared to its American sister) and they offered a free month for signing up.  I’m no fool so I said sure give me a free month. Well I have had this preview for about a week and the only thing I have even looked at is Mad Men. 

Here is the imdb.com description of Mad Men:

A drama about one of New York's most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm's most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper.

Here is Joe’s take on Mad Men:

The show is for sure about admen (you will notice a play on the title...I hope) from the 1960’s, some of them are mysterious, some are just odd and some of them are just plain douchy. Don Draper is a GREAT tv character who has a lot of skeletons and I am only 7 episodes into season 1.

This show is a social commentary on fast paced office life in the big city in the 1960’s. I say that as a person who was -21 years old when 1960 rolled around. So I think I am qualified to speak on that topic. Here is what I’m talking about...

There is never a scene where at least one person isn’t smoking an unfiltered cigarette, the women are old school receptionists who have to hang up their bosses hat and jacket each morning, and are expected to keep a lid on all of the men’s indiscretions. The show is very sexist, soaked in stereotypes (such as the way the women dress, the ‘black’ man running the elevator and the constant drinks at lunch, the constant husband search), and filled with currently socially unacceptable activities (drinking and driving, smoking/drinking while pregnant, overtly treating women and minorities like trash and taking care of the wife and kids as well as your mistress).

You may read that description and say, why would I want to watch this show, it sounds like all that was bad with society, and you would be correct. However this show is not these things, the time the show is set in WAS these things and the show has to portray them to accomplish what it wants. What AMC prides itself on is, “Story Matters” and this is the most captivating show I have watched since LOST. They are not comparable in any way except one...they both create amazing characters. Don Draper isn’t just Don Draper and the men are all inept at relationships, the women seem weak on the surface but in control when you look deep, but damn is there a lot of room to grow this show. Hence why Mad Men is a 2 time defending best drama champ.

Let’s also not forget that this show is chalked full of amazing lines like:

"Draper? Who knows anything about that guy? No one’s ever lifted that rock. He could be Batman for all we know."

And

Greg: "I don't want to have a fight."
Joan: "Then stop talking."

Cloud 9?:

Now I need to talk to the other half. What is the other half you say? Well the other half are the people who read what I just wrote and said, holy crap Joe that sounds like an amazing world to work in. I would love to have women and others live to serve me at all times, I would be happier than a hillbilly at a bowling alley if I could have drinks constantly while smoking unfiltereds. If my receptionist doubled as my mistress and my wife always had supper on the table when and if I decided to come home, that would be the bees knees.

If I could be an AdMan in that environment, it would be the best life ever. I mean come on, people still thought it was completely unfounded when Readers Digest printed a report that said cigarettes kill and caused cancer. I would love to have been the guy that came up with the smoking is cool ads since they could no longer talk about the benefits of smoking.

Well to you, the other half, I say...wait, where was I going with this? That sounds pretty good from where I am sitting with a cold foot...

Ok but seriously, I look at the office environment shown in the show and all I can think is that I wouldn’t get a damn thing done. Imagine if there was constant fraternization and drinking and smoking in offices today...wait there still is...ok wrong angle again...

Hmmm...ok let’s try this one, I think it will work. If people today were constantly drinking and fooling around, everyone would know about it via webcam, twitter, facebook, email and camera phone within minutes. Back then everything travelled by mail and word of mouth, so it was a lot safer to do these things. Not to mention that alcohol mixed with social media almost always ends poorly. So at the end of the day, we have progressed because we had to, and because we didn’t want the alcohol around the computers. J (typewriters were much more durable I gather)

What does it mean?:

If you are at all paying attention you are likely saying to yourself...:why is the JLS telling us all of these things? Why do I care about a show I don’t watch and may not even like?”...well here is why I am telling you.

Some people would look at this show and others of its ilk and say, this is terrible, it immoral, it’s degrading to women/minorities, it’s not interesting. On the surface you would be right, however; to that I would say that you are looking at these things from the wrong direction 100%.

We as smart and educated people have to look at such things and say, wow we have come a long way and we really are better off now, no matter what bad things are happening. A lot of the smartest people we all work with are women, and there is not stereotypical man running the elevator. We don’t smoke and drink during pregnancy (for the most part), we don’t believe that cigarettes have health benefits and we don’t view women as maids/baby makers (or at least not any people worth giving a damn about).

So what I think I am trying to say is this. If we don’t know how things used to be, how will we ever appreciate what we have now and what we will always be working towards? How will learn to appreciate all that that nonsense created for us? Some of those things likely should never have existed, but if they didn’t then we would have what we have now. (Plus it’s a great show!)

Morale of the story = have an open mind and always look at how far we have come. There is a long ways to go, but look how far we have come in 40 years...pretty staggering when you really think about it folks.

Until next time

JLS aka today’s AdMan