Friday the 13th...oooh, I'm really scared...

It’s been a while since my last post. Sorry about that. I noticed early last week (during that first March warm up) that my bonsai trees were starting come out of dormancy and buds were forming. When this happens, they need a little bit of attention. So, my blogging time over the last week and a half has been spent getting new pots ready, getting soil ready, unpotting, trimming roots, wiring and re-potting. It looks like they’re all on their way to a healthy summer. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of “fingers crossed” for good luck; happy Friday the 13th.

When I was a kid I always laughed at the Friday the 13th movies. To be fair, I have to point out that I would also nearly pee myself when a shadow moved across the window. Then I'd laugh again at the special effects. Then pee myself when the house groaned on its foundation. Then laugh. Then pee again. And repeat. The laughing happened, not only because of the special effects, but also because of the “special” characters and the things they did for the sake of a good slasher movie. Friday the 13th is supposed to be all about bad luck, right? Okay. But, by that reasoning, you could say that the cocky teenagers who all walk into the creaky old house after hearing a few blood curdling screams, just to wind up on the wrong end of a machete, are really just victims of bad luck. The guy who goes upstairs to investigate that fleeting shadow which looked suspiciously like a man in a hockey mask, only to find himself getting lumberjacked by a chainsaw, is simply unlucky. The two young lovers who decide to head into the cemetery for a little hanky panky, despite the ominous minor-key notes in the soundtrack and the quick cuts of the nearby forest, then act surprised when the groundskeeper starts tenderizing them with a Louiville Slugger, have fallen upon ill fate.

I think we should take a little credit for bad decisions rather than laying the blame solely on luck's shoulders.

Now why would I go on for a paragraph about Friday the 13th and end up talking about bad decisions? Could it be because I may be about to make a bad decision myself? Yep. Could it be something that I’ll regret later? YEP. Could it be something that causes me pain and suffering? YEP! Could I wind up maimed or dismembered like those B-actors in those movies? C’mon, I said it could be a “bad decision”, not “stupid.”

What’s the bad decision? And, maybe more importantly, why am I making it?

I’ve decided to put you, yes You, in charge of my blog for a day. Why? Well, when I was thinking about topics for the next posting, I was also thinking about possible work assignments that are coming in. I though, why is it that employers and clients always get to have the fun of handing down a new assignment? Why not put that kind thing into the hands of someone else for a change? Why not you?

It’s been over a month since I’ve had a proper assignment to tackle. Even though I like to think of myself as an entrepreneurial soul, with a good sense of motivation, a good ol’ fashioned task could be good to sink my teeth into.

So, that’s it. The first person who replies to this post (either by making a note on this site, or by sending me an e-mail, or a text message, or a post on Facebook, or a tweet on Twitter, or a note by carrier pigeon) with a topic, gets their topic covered by me in the next post. I’ll do a fair amount of research on your topic. I’ll form an opinion, or a slant, for a story. Then I’ll write it up into an article of maybe 500 words, and post it on this site by next Friday. With any "luck", we can make it a recurring topic.

Here’s where my relationship with the Best Buy advertising legal council (while I was working in Advertising) will come in handy.

Disclaimer goes here.*

*Jake Wermerskirchen [hereafter referred to as D Werm] has full veto power over the topics sent in. D Werm is not responsible for taking the article in a direction that you, the supplier of the topic, did not anticipate. D Werm is not responsible for spelling and grammatical errors, though he will be embarrassed by them. D Werm cannot guarantee that he will offer an new, or relevant insights into your topic. D Werm’s article will remain the sole property of the Jake D Werm Unemployment blog and may not be reproduced without the expressed and written consent of Jake D Werm and Major League Baseball.

Okay. Send in your topics…I feel like I just opened the door to the rickety old farmhouse where I swore I saw the outline of masked man in the attic window. Yeah, I may come to regret this.

Cue the ominous soundtrack and quick cuts of the spooky forest.