Auditory Anomalies

Us MindCometeers make a lot of sound effects. Maybe it's from our over-zealous caffeine intake. Maybe we're just slap-happy late in the day and need a quick laugh. More than likely we're just regressing to giddy little first graders. At any rate, here are some of the noises one may hear when entering our office... Not to worry. On days that clients visit, we spike the water cooler with Ridalin.

- The chirp of a cricket or the "Wah, wah, wah" of a sad trombone, in response to a poorly executed joke.
- "MARK! MARK! MARK!" a la the sea gulls from Finding Nemo ("MINE! MINE! MINE!")
- Various (non-emulated) burping and (emulated, thankfully) farting noises, mainly from the male-dominated production side of the office.
- Chewbacca impersonations, which once one person starts, the whole office joins in. It's like a wookie stampede.
- Discordant humming that sounds like a very out-of-tune orchestra warming up.

Fore!

Santa brought me pink golf clubs for Christmas and all of the accessories to go along with it! Let's not forget my pink & purple golf balls, pink driver covers (not sure what those things are called), pink tees and pink shoes (ok, I already had those.)

We had a MC outting last Thursday night - off to the Par 3, under the lights, come and play even if you've never golfed in your entire life course. Half of us had never played before and the other half wished they weren't with us.

I had one memory prior to the other night of swinging at the driving range as a kid, with not much luck and my dad shaking his head in my direction. Well, that's all about to change... I played golf for the first time ever on Thursday and I didn't do that bad. I had two great coaches (from the design team) and another chica that also kicked serious butt. I managed to get a few balls on the green and hit some towards the tee!

There were 3 other MC foursomes in front of us, so it wasn't exactly a quick game. However, we did enjoy each other's company and Ry made it to his favorite restaurant for wings afterwards. Who could ask for more?

I'm now the hottest pink lady to hit the local 9 hole. Watch out Tiger!

If anyone is interested in adding to my collection I've included a link to shop below:

Shop Pink Gear Here

Christmas in January

Think Christmas ends in December? WRONG! It's now Yuletide year 'round at my desk:


P.S. The official MindComet Christmas tree just got taken down a few days ago, so I guess I'm not the only one reluctant to give up the holiday spirit.

Cakeplow No. 5

The latest cakeplow is fresh out the oven and ready for your consumption! Check the Cakeplow History page to see Jarrod and Ted's video.

Who's Cooler...

Since the dawn of man, the debate has raged: just who, exactly, is cooler: pirates or ninjas? Recently the debate has shifted online. Aficionados of each side battle it out on websites and message boards. A Google search for "who's cooler pirates or ninjas" yields 95,400 results. Indeed, an employee here wearing a ninja vs. pirates shirt sparked the debate at MindComet recently. Now I will settle that debate with a completely unbiased analysis of the facts.

I started by asking people around the office which they thought was cooler. The total votes were 6 in favor of pirates, 4 in favor of ninjas, and 1 who said "I think i would rather BE a ninja, but id rather hang out with pirates." But here's something I noticed about the pro-pirate responses: most were not particularly well-reasoned and said things along the lines of "pirates are cooler, because Jonny Depp is hot!" Well, since I'm a heterosexual male, such arguments are meaningless to me. That makes the vote totals more equal. So let's examine some of the arguments from each side.

Pro-Pirate argument #1: "A ninja will kick your a**. A pirate will kick your a** and then take your booty. At least the pirates get something out of it." This is indeed the case. But ninjas are totally above such petty concerns as money and treasure. They exist only to accomplish their mission. And to look really cool.

Pro-Pirate argument #2: "Pirates ... would bring plenty of rum (to a party) and probably have some really great stories about raping and pillaging. The fun would end once they got too drunk and started impaling people with their swords." Well, OK, it's pretty hard to disagree with this argument. Pirates would be pretty fun to party with.

Pro-Pirate argument #3: "Johnny Depp is hot." Again, this argument carries no weight with me. Besides, I would wager that most pirates are not particularly attractive.

Pro-Pirate argment #4: "I prefer pirates because they wear feathers in their hats, dress in velvet and walk in high heeled boots." Um, yeah. You're not selling it to me with this argument.

Pro-Pirate argument #5: "The life of a pirate is cool, being the king of the sea." Yeah, um, you're on a ship for a really long time hanging out with a bunch of sweaty, smelly, ugly, scurvy-having dudes. Not cool. At all.

Pro-Pirate argument #6: "Pirates have parrots." Yeah, and they also have parrot poop stains on their shoulder. So not cool.

OK, now for the other side of the argument. Ninjas...

Pro-Ninja argument #1: "Ninjas train for a lifetime in the dark arts of assassination." Dude! That is COOL!

Pro-Ninja argument #2: "Ninjas could easily kill all the pirates, and take thier women, and booze." And disappear before anybody knew what happened. 'Nuff said.

Pro-Ninja argument #3: Ninjas have one of the greatest web sites in the history of the Internet: Real Ultimate Power. Way cool.

Pro-Ninja argument #4: Ninjas have much cooler weapons. Pirates have swords and muskets, but ninjas have cooler swords, throwing stars, sais, hand claws, manrikigusari, and many, many more cool weapons. Super cool.

Pro-Ninja argument #5: Ninjas can disappear. There's no denying the coolness of that.

So that's it. It should be painfully obvious to any reasonable person at this point that ninjas p0wn pirates. I mean, there's just no debate.

Still not convinced? Look, one icy cold stare from uber-ninja Sho Kosugi

would cause pretty-boy wannabe pirate Johnny Depp to poop his pantaloons and die seven times before he hit the ground. Let's face it, even ninja-cat could probably whoop Johnny Depp's butt.

The Elusive Xbox

Xbox 360, Xbox, 360, where for art thou, Xbox 360?

So... I give up. The gods are punishing me for not being a hard-core gamer. I chose not to pre-order or wait in line overnight the day it came out and now it's impossible to find one. And...I refuse to pay thousands to someone on ebay who is trying to capitalize on my ignorance. I beginning to even doubt the existence of this mythical system. No one here at MindComet has one, nor does anyone else I know.

When we were kids there were cabbage-patch kids that were impossible to find and it seems this trend has followed our generation. Does this possibly say something about us or is this indicative of a growing economy? Since I never did well in economics class, I'm just going to take the easy way out and blame it on our parents.

Veronique, Creme de la Creme: A Missive

When Danielle first asked (ok, begged) me to apply at MindComet I though, sure- why not? I had no idea what I was getting into- and honestly, I still don't. I've decided to open the portal to the first three days of my stay here as one of the many ingenious interns MindComet (free labor, I suppose).

Day the First
Immediately, I was taken aback. Colored walls and subdued lighting? Techno electronica floating out of ceiling speakers, which look like alien pods, by the way. At least the age old practice of housing employees in cubicles was in effect here- but wait; these cubicles were bursting with personality. Therefore, I've affectionately coined them You-bicles, each one is as unique as the entity that occupies it. Where was I? I was given a desk complete with Mac- let the fun begin. I met some very awesome people and enjoyed the hours I spent researching and seeking out fans for various projects. Danielle was right, this place rocks. For lunch I attacked the legendary Plain Jane loaded baked potato at Jason's Deli- quite a feat. Day one was a complete success.

Day the Second
I decided to bring my own items for my desk. Enter the Robot. He's about two feet tall, doesn't do much, but is awesome to look at. I decided to leave my stand-up talking Ash figure from Army of Darkness in the car. It's a good thing, too. My desk was no longer mine. Indeed there was someone else occupying my You-bicle. No big deal, I was moved to another section.

Day the Third
I decided to come in early to claim my seat, but to no avail. Not only had it been taken from me, ripped from my hands like a tennis ball off of those Velcro-ed hand mitts we played catch with in the early nineties. My first desk was also occupied. So here I am, third day intern, deskless- nay- homeless. To make myself feel better, I challenged Danielle to a showdown at Jason's Deli. We were to meet at high noon and see who could devour the potato in its entirety. Needless to say, I won. Here I stand, with no desk to call my own, but branded with the irreversible mark of victory. I only hope that one day; you too will lose to my awesome potato prowess. Until then, don't be so surprised if you find me sitting on a bucket in the storage closet- displaced, yet again.

Me and Chik Fil A

I like Chik Fil A because it is clean and well-decorated for a fast food place. I especially like their napkin and straw area. It's centrally located and always neat. Have you been to McDonald's and seen those horrid vertical hanging napkin dispensers? Or worse, the ones that resemble rolls of toilet paper? Ew. If I wanted to wipe my hand with toilet paper...I would.

The employees at Chik Fil A are nice as well. This afternoon they were out of decaf coffee, so they gave me a free chicken biscuit while I waited for them to brew a fresh pot. That's a nice gesture. I went to a table to wait and opened up the biscuit to add some salt. But when I opened up the biscuit there was a note. I opened the note and read this message:

"Ye who find the biscuit note
will soon have lots of dough to tote
Take your time and test your patience
And on the weekends have releations

- A Friend"

I folded the note back up and returned the biscuit, note in hand. The girl, Earl (I kid you not her name was Earl) laughed at me and told me she gave me the biscuit for free and now I was trying to get more free stuff from her. She hit the underbelly of the biscuit and it went flying up into the air and onto the counter in a flat splat.

We both just stood there: her with her head cocked looking at her nails and me holding this mysterious biscuit note. I got onto the counter (knocking the biscuit off and onto the floor, still in it's metal/paper wrapper) and climbed over into her den of food preparation. She screamed for the manager who, like a weathervane, turned around and told me to leave. I told her I would not until Earl apologized, confessed that it was she who sent me the mysterious note and gave me two more free biscuits for my hungry coworkers at work. She picked up the phone and called the police. I jumped back over the counter and ran out of the store, dropping the note. I ran back to pick it up.

I have the note.

Would you like to see it?

Back in Business

Ok, so we know we've slacked on the postings. The holidays are rough. People go on vacation. Some evil virus spread through the office like wildfire. Bad eggnog. Snowbirds. Whatever excuse we come up with ain't gonna cut it, we know. But now we're getting back in to the swing of things, and to prove it, here's our list of New Year's Resolutions...

1. Make posts less sarcastic. Yeah, right.
2. Quit drinking.
3. Stop kidding ourselves about quitting drinking.
4. Make fun of Ted's ears more often.
5. Buy ourselves the iPod Nano we didn't get for Christmas.
6. Visit Lady Raptastic's website everyday. Okaaaaayyyy!!!!???
7. Sss-ss-top-p b-brew-wing-g c-c-cof-f-fee so s-s-sst-t-ttrong-g-g.. .
8. Eat less bacon.
9. Stop IMing the person that sits at the desk next door.
10. Humiliate ourselves further by debuting the Cakeplow History page.

We are happy to report we can scratch number 10 off the list! From here on out you can keep up with our frosting-covered follies here, or use the permanent link to the left. Enjoy!