So Much To Do

This whole moving across the country thing has proven to be pretty darn complicated. It’s not that it’s one giant thing to do, it’s dozens and dozens of really really small things that I’ve been struggling to keep in my head.

Maybe I should make a list. I made a list of things to do at the beginning of the month, and now I’ve crossed those all off. Unfortunately, they’ve all been replaced by more little stupid things that I need to do. It really kind of sucks that this will go on for the next 50+ years.

I got all my stuff together and packed in boxes. UPS will be picking them up tomorrow because although FedEx quoted me a cheaper rate, after 10 minutes of going all the way through their online pickup scheduling process, they finally informed me that my address isn’t in their pickup area and I would have to have the boxes picked up at another address. So Tom Hanks definitely deserved what he got, and I’m officially endorsing UPS as my official shipping company.

So my clothes and stuff are scheduled to arrive at my apartment by the close of business Wednesday, which is also when I should be showing up. So far, so good. Of course, I won’t have a bed, or a TV, or internet access. But the Phillies will be in town to play the Cubs, my guess is I’ll be able to find someplace with the game on, I head people in Chicago like the Cubs.

But what am I going to do about those three other items that won’t be in my apartment???

Good question…

Bed – I had gone to Sears to try out new mattresses, but wasn’t happy about their selection. My plan then turned to 1-800 Mattress (leave off the last S for savings!), which I used in New Jersey. But they don’t have any showrooms in Pennsylvania or Illinois, and I wasn’t too interested in buying a mattress without trying it first (even with their 15 day return period which comes with a couple hundred bucks in hidden fees)

Then I went to this company called SleepSquad. I’m pretty excited about trying them, because they’ve got a pretty cool idea. You pick out three mattresses you’d like to try, and they’ll drive their custom truck/showroom over to you. Then you try all your choices, and if you like one, they can just bring it upstairs. Sounds dangerously close to being pretty cool. It helps that they had all 5-star Yelp reviews, so I’m hopeful that I can make an appointment for Thursday and find a nice new bed for my nice new apartment.

TV – After much deliberation, I narrowed all the choices down to two LCD’s. In case you weren’t aware, I’m going to be springing for a pretty nice (and large) television. I promised myself I would if I won enough on Jeopardy, so now I’m trying to cope with having to buy something extravagant for myself. Anyway, I narrowed it to two LCD’s a 46” Samsung and a 47” Vizio. The Samsung has great reviews, and is supposed to be the best TV in that size as far as picture quality etc. goes. The Vizio, while it doesn’t have as great a picture as the Samsung, is also supposed to be very good. It’s also got a bunch of really good reviews. And despite being an inch bigger in terms of screen size, it’s at least $700 cheaper. I think I’m getting the Vizio, because honestly, my eyes kind of glaze over when I read techie reports talking about the differences in black levels and whatever else they’re talking about. It’s supposed to have a really good picture, and while it might not be a great picture, I probably won’t notice any significant difference.

Of course, since I haven’t ordered the TV yet, I still haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to deal with the Cable guy, who’s coming to the apartment on Thursday. I’m assuming he can still give me the box and everything, but he just might not be able to test whether it works. They’ll be hooking up my internet also, so my guess is if that works, the TV should be ok. So I hope anyway.

With those three things down, there are only another 50 or so on my list.

TV Recommendation

So recently there’s been this new game show on TV, and I think everyone should watch it. There seem to be tons of new game shows coming out now, which I guess is mostly because it’s the summer, game shows are cheap to produce, and every network would sell their children to find the next Deal or No Deal.

But this isn’t just any game show, it’s the WORLD SERIES

Of pop culture

VH1 has this show that sets up as a NCAA basketball-type bracket tournament pitting teams of three people against each other in questions dealing specifically in pop culture trivia stuff.

Finally, a show that actually measures real knowledge.

To understand where I’m coming from, it’s like Stephen Hawking turning on his TV and seeing the World Series of Astrophysics.

Anyway, the questions are almost all really cool…way better than Jeopardy. No French Composers. No Broadway. But if you’ve seen every Arnold action movie and remember commercial jingles, you can win $250 grand.

Unfortunately, the show is not without it’s flaws. So far, most of the contestants seem to be completely devoid of personality. To put it more bluntly, they mostly seem like losers.

I guess that’s correlated strongly with the world of trivia experts, but come on VH1, at least try to find some dynamic people. And doing a silly dance when you get introduced doesn’t count as dynamic.

But with that said, I’m eagerly waiting for the 2008 World Series tryouts. You need a team of three, so I’m welcoming any applications….

We only need a catchy name, and then it’s a guaranteed quarter million (because who are we kidding, we’d totally win).

Jared Cohen (II)

Woo-hoo, IMDB fixed their site...now I'm on a page by myself (although I'm a little miffed at being "Jared Cohen (II)"....that kind of sucks

Jared Cohen (II)

IMDB and ultimate glory

I'm officially part of the Hollywood Establishment!

Alright, so maybe it's only a tiny tiny foothold in the world, but I'm now a part of the Internet Movie Database (otherwise known as one of the coolest web sites in the world)

Finally, my appearance on Jeopardy has paid off!

The link below will take you to a listing of my television appearances (those three episodes of Jeopardy in case you didn't know)

Jared Cohen

Someday, that profile may be expanded and will hopefully include multiple credits as a background extra in major feature films or television shows. Either that or as the deadbeat loser on some reality show that involves me fighting to marry a trashy has-been celebrity.

Of course, if you click on my online profile, you might be confused as to why you never knew about my experience as an additional research for an episode of Frontline on Rwanda.

That's because it wasn't me...it was the bastard that has my name!

Now I've never met this other guy who has the exact same name as I have, but I knew all about him even before I saw the IMDB overlap. Why? Because like anyone who has spent significant time on the internet, I googled myself (in that, I searched for myself on google.com)

Unfortunately, despite all my worldly travels and adventures, I can't unseat this other guy. To make matters worse, he seems like a great human being who's accomplished so much.

Doppleganger

Degrees from Stanford and Oxford, accomplished writer, working to expose the plight of of many impoverished African nations.

Come on! It's like a have to compete for my own brand identity with some kind of altruistic superhero.

BS man, total BS

Finally, the third episode on YouTube!

It took forever (and the assistance of fellow contestant Angel Gomez) to get this third (and final episode) onto Youtube. Enjoy. But don't enjoy too much because I lose, and that shouldn't be fun

YouTube - Jared on Jeopardy - 6.15.07 - Part One

Unemployed

After a zillion posts solely relating to my experience on Jeopardy, I thought I'd finally start to broaden the tags I can use in this blog by starting to write about that little thing called the rest of my life. Contrary to popular belief, I don't just spend my time wandering around the city asking people if they watched Jeopardy in mid-June.

For example, this past Friday I officially quit my job.

I decided that finishing up in June would leave me with enough time to totally get out of working mode for the transition to grad school. Although it was sad to leave my longest tenure at any one job, it was also kind of cool to think about how I won't have to show up early in the morning at the same office every day.

I've got ~2 years off from work for now, although it's not like I won't be working in business school (but at least the dress will be a little more relaxed), but still these two years may be the last time I have without work until I retire (or marry into a mega-rich tax bracket, which I'm not opposed to)

Hopefully I'll have some fun

But leaving my job has made me think about all the jobs I've had over the years (it's not THAT many, but still). I think they've all taught me something or other.

Job 1 - Supermarket Utility Clerk - High School
Responsibilities: Bag groceries, collect carts, clean floors
Pay: Minimum Wage
Lessons learned: Don't work for minimum wage. Unions suck ($45 out of every paycheck at minimum wage, weak). Customers aren't always right. Don't get a menial job in the same town where you go to high school.

Job 2 - Telemarketer - College
Responsibilities: Sell 'business newsletters' via cold-calling
Pay: Minimum Wage (as a result of not meeting sales quotas)
Lessons learned: I'm not the type of person who can screw people out of money via a seemingly crooked newsletter scam.

Job 3 - Summer Financial Analyst - College
Responsibilities: 'Data Processing'
Pay: $10.50 an hour
Lessons learned: When you're getting paid hourly, but can do the daily jobs in less than one hour, bring a book to read or something

Job 4 - Finance Specialist, Major Coporation
Responsibilities: Learn and grow to be a future leader with a major corporation
Pay: Thankfully more than $10.50/hour
Lessons learned: Politics Definitely Matter

Job 5 - Private Equity Analyst, Small Firm
Responsibilities: Write research reports
Pay: Yes
Lessons learned: There is a lot of money out there, and I don't have most of it