Highlights from a Modern Workplace

by Steven Garrity

I have spent much of the last five years working with a fine team of like-minded people. Fools and geniuses, we have managed to accomplish quite a bit. It has been, and continues to be, an interesting ride. Here are some random highlights:

  • There was a time when our CEO IM’ed in late to work several times citing a “laundry emergency”.
  • We spare no expense of corporate shwag (we now even have business cards that can stand up to the punishment of being in my wallet – not that I ever show them to anyone).
  • We play The Final Countdown by Europe really loud when launching significant websites. We really do.
  • In the heady dot-com days, we narrowly dodged two acquisition bullets, both of which were exciting at the time, but would have seen us living in a big city working as dish-washers by now.
  • We go out for a fine curry lunch every Friday (a tradition that started with Fajitas, before our local faux-tex/mex motif restaurant was replaced with a faux-east-side-NY motif and we were forced to seek more authentic lunchables).
  • We punctuate special occasions with low-quality cakes from local grocery stores (e.g. Exhibit A, Exhibit B).
  • We spend a weekend each December playing video games, eating fine food, and planning the next year out in Cavendish.
  • We don’t do all-nighters anymore, unless there is a hurricane or something (well, most of us don’t).
  • We take pleasure in smashing obsolete electronics (example photo).
  • We have met Jakob Nielsen. Some of us have shaken his hand. (I didn’t make this trip)
  • Our current vice is Madden NFL 2004 for the XBOX on a large LCD projector. Previous (and possibly future) vices include Counter-Strike and Mario Cart for the GameCube.
 

8 thoughts on “Highlights from a Modern Workplace”

  2. For my wedding I planned to play Final Countdown when we would cut the cake, but the cd’s I mounted were playing in order and I didn’t know where the song would hit and IT DID hit the cutting the cake moment. Awesome. In Portugal, where I was born and live, we cut the cake at weddings and people get the hell out of the party in minutes.

    And I wouldn’t gloat for shaking Nielsen’s hand. For Christs sake, he’s no God or whatever. I’m sick of people idolatrization of him. Ok, he’s good, he started it first, get on with it! Geesh.

  4. When I was a kid, my sister moved to Vancouver and left me some of her records. Billie Jean disturbed me a little, but The Final Countdown made me think she was the coolest.

    XBOX, eh? Anyone up for a Halo 2 challenge when it comes out?

  6. Oh come on, show us your business card then… pretty pretty please? 🙂

  7. I am often working downstairs from silverorange and as such will be within earshot during the next unveiling of “The Final Countdown”. This is, depending on your feelings about Europe and “The Final Countdown”, the horror/forbidden pleasure I am faced with every day.

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