Unlike other mobs that may be more inclined to make you an offer you can’t refuse or introduce you to the underbelly of the Russian Mafia, the JobMob run by Jacob Share wants to help you find a job in Israel. It seems a little out of the ordinary that he would order a paid review on a Canadian blog, but seeing how people have said it’s the best $40 they’ve ever spent, I can’t blame him.

No Need to Go to the Mattresses

JobMob: All Together Now is designed to tell you how to get jobs and get jobs done in Israel. Jacob isn’t going to tell you to leave the gun and take the cannoli. In fact, based on the posts that I read on his job blog, Mr. Share seems like a very open and inviting person who is more than happy to dish out job hunting tips and report on some great events.

In terms of layout and design, JobMob is very pleasing to the eye. The header image jives with the web 2.0 crowd and you’ll notice that the site is swamped with a series of elegant blues and soft yellows. This creates for an inviting and unassuming environment, unlike other job sites that may appear intimidating to first-time job hunters (or veterans for that matter).

One feature that I particularly enjoyed is the sidebar. At first glance, the layout on JobMob looks like any other two-column Wordpress blog. He’s got the main content on the left and all the pertinent information on the right. However, you’ll notice that there are three tabs at the top of the single sidebar and by clicking on any of the three, you bring up the associated content. In this way, it’s almost like having three sidebars built all into one. Very nifty and very creative.

Jacob did make sure that the key RSS subscription information remains intact regardless of which sidebar you select. This will surely help him increase his readership, because the feed is always accessible.

What About Content and Style?

Other blogs may get all cluttered with widgets and other doo-hickeys, but not JobMob. The same can be said about many of the posts, because Jacob Share (and his silent team of mob members?) write articles that are easy to approach and present the information in the simplest of manners.

Although he started out with a rather erratic posting schedule (the first post dates back somewhere in December 2006), Jacob now seems to put up a new post (almost) every weekday. He appears to take Saturdays and Sundays off, but I suggest that he keep the blog alive on the weekend as well, even if they are with shorter, more light-hearted entries.

Here are a few JobMob articles that will give you an idea what the blog is all about:

• Does Changing Jobs Effect Unemployment Benefits in Israel?
• Do Freelancers Need Unions?
• 35+ Job Fair Success Do’s and Don’ts
• Jerusalem Course Teaches You to Employ Yourself Over the Internet
• Upcoming Job Fair in Jerusalem for Young Adults

Looking at the categories, the lion’s share of articles fall under “tips”. I feel a great way that Jacob could monetize his site is through featured job postings from Israel companies. They get exposure, Jacob gets money, and readers get a job lead. Winners all around.

White Space is Good, But…

Enough is enough. When you get beyond the front page of blog posts, you’ll discover that every subsequent page features truncated blog entries. Normally, this wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but you’ll also notice that Jacob only places three posts per page, regardless of whether there’s the full post or a “read more” link. I’m assuming that this is to improve loading times, but three posts is nowhere near enough and the net result is way too much white space.

Speaking of white space, while I enjoy the overall design of JobMob, it could stand to have a little more color in its cheeks. There’s no background color to the header or the sidebar, so my best suggestion would be to do something like what I do here on Beyond the Rhetoric and place two colored bands beyond the content on either side. It need not be a very bold color; in fact, I think the baby blue color scheme would work just fine to break up all that white space. As mentioned above, I’d also increase the number of posts shown on each page, perhaps to five or six (at least).

The Mob Gets the Job Done

And boy are they professional about it. Although JobMob almost resembles a personal blog, Jacob Share has done a great deal to give a real pro appearance. Heck, when you check the footer, he’s got all the commercial underlings like a Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

If you’re looking for a job in Israel — and who isn’t?! — then JobMob is a great source of information, not only in terms of job-hunting tips, but also in helping you stay on top of job fairs in and around the Jerusalem area.

I realize that October technically isn’t over quite yet and the children are still out and about collecting their candy, but I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone (what a horrible saying) with today’s What’s Up Wednesdays post. You’ll notice that the top commentators for the month are a familiar bunch here at Beyond the Rhetoric and I totally appreciate their continued visitage and comment-age. It’s pretty crazy to think that November is less than 24 hours away, meaning that we are less than two months away from Christmas.

Topping this month’s list of top commentators is Matt Freedman. As you recall, he’s the same guy that topped last month’s list. Well, Matt is quite the net and tech savvy individual, so he was among the first to talk about Google’s plan to let us change Adsense ads without changing the code. Instead of having the colors (etc.) stored in the Javascript code, this information could be stored on the Google side of things. Neat-o!

After taking a brief hiatus from the top commentator’s list on Beyond the Rhetoric, Super Affiliate Zac Johnson has pummeled his way back into the top five for October. When Zac isn’t too busy gambling, he’s making money online as a genius affiliate marketer. Well, he wants the world to know what he does for a living (and he wants you to show off the same enthusiasm). Thus, he has created a bunch of free I Make Money Online stickers that he will gladly dish out to anyone who asks. No contest, no requirements. Just ask and ye shall receive. Too bad I live in Canada, because the only restriction is that you have to have a US address.

Dare to be entertainment with DadBalance writer Derek Semmler. He and I have a lot in common, you know, because we both seem to obsess over finding a healthy life-work balance. This week, Derek talks about choosing between purchased and home-made Halloween costumes. His oldest son has decided to be a zombie skeleton, whereas his youngest is going to be a boxer.

Rocking a new theme courtesy of Unique Blog Designs is Etienne Teo, another regular voice here at BTR. Just like so many other people these days, Etienne is bent on making money online, so he asks a very simple yet poignant question: How much money can I earn from blogging? We’ve seen crazy kooks earn $20,000 a month from blogging, but they’re the exception rather than the rule. How much can a “normal” blogger make?

Perhaps best known as the tattooed pilot from Battlestar Galactica, Leo Chiang has been spotted in several television shows and movies, including Alien vs. Predator 2, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Bionic Woman. In keeping with the science fiction, Leo is giving away a copy of Halo 3: Legendary Edition. I wonder if I can win again…

After seeing some of my personal development posts like when I talked about comparing yourself to others and the separation of work and play, my friend asked me to define success. He asked me what it took to be considered successful, both in your own mind and in the eyes of others. My brief answer consisted of a single word: happiness. I firmly believe that if you are truly happy with your lot in life and there are no deficits that plague you, then you have truly achieved success.

I could tell that he was a little disappointed with that answer, because it did not provide him with a specific direction to follow or a particular strategy to deploy. The fact of the matter is, success is different for each person. We may see someone like Steve Jobs and the rest of us will say that he has become very successful with the iPod and Apple iPhone. Somehow, though, I imagine that he won’t consider himself successful until he overtakes some of his rivals. *cough* Bill Gates *cough* I could be wrong.

In mulling over the meaning of success, I’ve come up with what I call The Five F’s of Success. To be truly successful, you need a very healthy balance to your life and this includes every facet of your existence. Only when you satisfy all five criteria can you consider yourself truly successful.

FINANCES
This is the most obvious place to look. You may not need to be a multi-millionaire, but if you’re making enough money to sustain your preferred lifestyle, then you can check this one off your list. Speaking for myself, I feel I’ve made huge strides in my career as a freelance writer. Before I embarked on this journey, I never thought that it would be possible for me to make a livable wage working from home. Whether it’s on a per annum or per hour basis, I’m making more money as a freelance writer than I made with any of my previous jobs. There’s obviously still room to grow. Where you set the bar for monetary and professional success is largely up to you. Are you happy with $50k a year? $100k? $1 million?

FAMILY
Ask most people and they’ll tell you that family always comes first. Ask any working dad or working mom why they work so hard, and most will not tell you that they’re saving for a new yacht or a hot new sports car. It’s so that they can provide a nurturing and healthy environment for their children, saving for their respective college funds. The concept of a family has changed considerably in recent years, but whatever you define as your family, I feel that is the most important aspect of anyone’s life and family is an absolutely integral component to success. I wouldn’t want to be rich if it meant that I was lonely. Friends may come and go, but family is forever.

FRIENDS
Social isolation is not a good thing, even if you’ve never been much of a social butterfly. Even if you work at home all the time, dot com moguls still need the real world. Get out there and interact with some real people! What’s the point of enjoying financial success if you’re enjoying it on your own? Two things that I look forward to every week are sitting down for the some dot com pho and playing a rousing game of poker with my buddies. It’s not the food or the money; it’s the social interaction and the feeling of being connected with the world.

FITNESS
Take care of yourself. I’m not saying that you need to survive a grueling marathon or make it to the top of Mount Everest in a single go, but you should strive to be reasonably healthy. This involves eating right (don’t live on a dot com diet) and partaking in some form of regular exercise. If you have a loving family, great friends, and a healthy financial standing, but you’re coughing and wheezing all the time, struggling to catch your breath as you take a Sunday stroll through the mall, then I don’t believe that you can call yourself truly successful. A full life consists of full balance.

FULFILLMENT
This is perhaps the hardest component to success to achieve, because it cannot really be defined. It’s the X factor; it’s that special something that makes you feel like your life is truly complete and whole. For some people, this X-factor can be found in religion, understanding your place in the grander scheme of things. For other people, it is through education and enlightenment that they find fulfillment in their lives. For others still, charity and philanthropy is where they find fulfillment. You might find it in blogging and personal expression. What completes your life?

I feel that while I am on the road to success with my freelance writing jobs, I am nowhere near where I could consider myself truly successful. I don’t think I will ever consider myself wholly successful and that’s why goals are the bane of my existence. But it won’t stop me from trying.

You know, I’m not entirely sure whether a certain root of all evil is going to love this movie or if he’s going to hate this movie, but one thing is for sure: John Chow is definitely going to have a strong emotional reaction to Kung Fu Panda, the upcoming animated feature from Dreamworks. Seeing how the main character is panda, I can just picture Mr. Chow reverting to his panda killer ways. Imagine him in front of a promotional display or, worse yet, surrounded by Kung Fu Panda memorabilia.

If you must know, Kung Fu Panda stars Jack Black as Po, the — you guessed it — kung fu panda. Accompanying him in the voice actor cast are Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, and Angelina Jolie. It all seems pretty forced and totally out of place. Mind you, I had the same initial reaction to Over the Hedge and Meet the Robinsons, so Dreamworks could totally prove me wrong with Kung Fu Panda.

Look for this film to hit the silver screen on June 6th 2008.

Source: Slashfilm

When you are dot com entrepreneur, working from your home office (or Starbucks, as the case may be), it becomes far too easy to get caught up in your own little world. Chatting with friends on an instant messenger and contacting freelance writing clients via email is one thing, but actually participating in real life is a different matter altogether. To actually see a person’s face and shake their hand is an entirely different experience than typing out a sideway smiley face.

Many will tell you that this is perhaps the greatest shortcoming or downside to having your own work-from-home business: you don’t get the same level of face-to-face interaction as you would if you had a conventional 9-to-5 office job. You don’t get to pull pranks on Dwight Shrute or get peeved about “Corporate accounts payable, Mindy speaking. One moment please.” You typically don’t hop out to lunch with a colleague, because most of your business associates could be half a globe and seven time zones away. Your so-called “connected world” has human isolation as one of its core characteristics.

Not only to prevent you from turning criminally insane, but also to remind you that there is a real world with real people behind all those LOLs and affiliate marketing campaigns, it is incredibly important to leave your computer desk from time to time and actually talk to a regular person, preferably someone who is somewhat removed from the virtual world of the intarwebs. Meet up with one of your “normal” friends for a cup of coffee. Or go eat a bowl of Vietnamese pho.

To illustrate this point, let me tell you about my interaction with Gary Ng, who many of you may know as Gdog of The Daily Kimchi. I don’t remember exactly how I came across his blog in the first place, but I came to be a regular visitor to The Daily Kimchi. I’d read about his Korean exploits, commenting on the occasional post, and he would do the same here at Beyond the Rhetoric. For the longest time, I only knew him as Gdog, not knowing his real name. I also had no idea what he looked or sounded like, other than hearing his voice in a YouTube video.

Let me tell you, when Gary came for one of our weekly pho sessions for the first time, it felt unreal. Imagine that: there’s a real person behind that website. I had a similar experience when I met a certain panda killer in real life (IRL) for the first time. For many budding dot com moguls, the root of all evil is still somewhat of a mythical creature. I know he was for me back when I was still comment whoring on his blog.

There are inherent benefits to engaging with people in real life versus interacting with them over the Internet. Whether you are a freelance writer or a web designer, go meet some real people and shake their hands. It could lead to a business referral, sure, but more importantly, it could lead to a real friendship and not just a virtual one. Not to mention a couple extra boosters to your very real sanity.

In order to do my review of the Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray Disc Player, I went out to the local Blockbuster to see what Blu-ray movies were available. I wanted to make sure that whatever movie I selected was action-packed and busting at the seams with a myriad of special effects. The actual storyline, character development, or any of that other fluff that the Oscar guys seem to care about… well, those weren’t quite as important, at least under the context of the review. And Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer fit the bill to a tee.

Sequel to the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, Rise of the Silver Surfer presents our four heroes with a new challenge. An extra-terrestial being has arrived, drilling massive holes the size of football fields at various locations on the globe. He’s causing power outages everywhere he goes and when confronted, he’s known to get violent. This being, of course, is the Silver Surfer, arguably one of the coolest characters ever to come out of the Marvel camp.

I’ve never been all that big a fan of the Fantastic Four series, being more interested in the universe of the X-Men, but there were two very key reasons to why I was interested in this particular film. First, Silver Surfer is just freaking cool-looking and it would be fun to check out how the special effects artists would handle his liquid-metallic nature. Naturally, it was handled better than T-1000 from Terminator 2 given that they’ve had, what, 15 years of further development under their belts. The second reason was I heard Galactus, the planet-swallowing mega-being, was going to be in Rise of the Silver Surfer. Even if the story development sucked (it wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t great either), seeing Galactus would make it all worth it.

Unfortunately, it never really came to fruition. Spoiler alert: Galactus is only presented as a swirling mass of clouds and nebulae (or something) and we never see his funky purple helmet or larger-than-life stature. I would have been perfectly okay with Galactus getting served up with more cheese than Velveeta, because the entire film is a big cheese-fest anyways. This was perhaps the biggest disappointment. At least I had Jessica Alba to look at… in high-def to boot!

In the end, I can say that watching a movie on Blu-ray is definitely better than watching the same movie on DVD, but the Samsung BD-P1200 is pretty freaking slow. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer booted up a lot faster on the PlayStation 3 than it did on the Samsung player, which leads me to believe that Sony could be “hiding” something to encourage people to buy their wares rather than someone else’s. In terms of the movie, Silver Surfer is pretty much what you’d expect it to be. There’s some eye candy, some explosions, and some larger-than-life battles involving a seemingly invincible intergalactic being. Suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the science fiction ride.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer gets 3.5 Stars Out of 5. Check out the review on ThinkComputers to read what I have to say on the Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray Disc Player.