NerdALERT! In Retrospect…
Way back in November, I volunteered to host March's SUPAFRI. I didn't know the theme, or even what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that it was on my birthday, and somehow that made it my responsibility to see that it blew all other SUPAFRI out of the water.
Not being a party planner, I decided to go with what I know. I'm a nerd. I'm actually a lot of different kinds of nerds rolled into one - just like a lot of us here at MindComet. My rationale included the fact that March gave us Pi Day (3-14) as well as Square Root Day 3-3-09. Upon further investigation, I also found that 3-27-09 was actually 31-33-32. I like numbers, sue me!
...And so NerdALERT was born!
I spent far too much time bouncing from store to store, making sure that my party budget went as far as possible. Many late nights were spent planning it all out, and I was quite lucky to have some help at home to bring it all together!
I cleared out my schedule to make sure I had enough time to make it happen. It was nerdy through and through - a spectacle to behold! Games, from old-skool Nintendo, to movie trivia, to Settlers of Catan (MindComet's favorite nerd-alicious board game). Even the food went nerdy! We had a 3ft SUPER HERO sandwich, X-wings, hot pockets (or calzones pretending to be), Super Mario mushroom cupcakes, twinkies, beef jerky and... the list goes on! The drink menu could have even been nerdier - infused with JOLT Cola, BAWLS energy drink and all flavors of Mountain Dew - enough to keep a couple dozen geeks wired all night long!
As the day pushed on, only one thing was on our minds - just who was the nerdiest? And that wasn't all. Ballots or "Trouble Tickets" (as they called them back in my tech support days) were handed out and snatched back up. Decisions were made and wedgies doled out. Here were the results of our SUPAFri SUPArlatives (we had a few ties).
Smelliest Nerd - Alex Zelenak (and he was awarded with a bar of caffeinated soap)!
Most Deserving of a Wedgie - Doug White (awarded with official 31-33-32SUPAFri NerdALERT Tighty Whities)
Most Likely to Build a Robot Girlfriend - Andrew Riley and... Marcelle Turner (oh my)!
Most Epic Fail - Alex (again), Jeremy Hilton and Brittany Ward (for the lack of a costume, but she proudly put the NerdALERT Tighty Whities to use)!
Nerdiest Nerd - Joe Carafelli (awarded with a lifetime supply of cheese balls)! Congrats Joe, you're the NERD KING!
We happily celebrated Doug's tenth anniversary and honored him for his years and years (and years) of service. Read more about this over here.
Anniversaries are celebrated but don't often end well - thanks to our dastardly Wheel of Destiny. It was an interesting experience, as Doug spun DIEZ (an upgrade on MindComet's tenth anniversary retreat), and then spun it yet again, on his tenth anniversary, a 1 in 324 chance - amazing!
But ten years of service already gives you an automatic upgrade, so he spun again and a Pudding Fling was in his future!
Our fearless (and SUPER NERDY) leader, Marcelle, also celebrated her anniversary, ending in a crazy game of "shake-a-can-o-soda". There are never any winners in that game!
"Mitches" (Chris Mitchell), one of our favorite and most talented newbies of all time, brought it home as the Team Member of the month - only five months since he joined our team - quite impressive!
...now if we could just get him on Twitter (he's the last one holding out on our team, not so nerdy of him)! Update: he's now on Twitter!.
So we had our fun, we played our games and went on home. Us Nerds don't stay out too late (unless it's a LAN party), but the cool kids went out and had a good old time.
Will NerdALERT come back around next year? We'll see if it's in the numbers!
In the meantime, check out the rest of our pictures!
Not being a party planner, I decided to go with what I know. I'm a nerd. I'm actually a lot of different kinds of nerds rolled into one - just like a lot of us here at MindComet. My rationale included the fact that March gave us Pi Day (3-14) as well as Square Root Day 3-3-09. Upon further investigation, I also found that 3-27-09 was actually 31-33-32. I like numbers, sue me!
...And so NerdALERT was born!
I spent far too much time bouncing from store to store, making sure that my party budget went as far as possible. Many late nights were spent planning it all out, and I was quite lucky to have some help at home to bring it all together!
I cleared out my schedule to make sure I had enough time to make it happen. It was nerdy through and through - a spectacle to behold! Games, from old-skool Nintendo, to movie trivia, to Settlers of Catan (MindComet's favorite nerd-alicious board game). Even the food went nerdy! We had a 3ft SUPER HERO sandwich, X-wings, hot pockets (or calzones pretending to be), Super Mario mushroom cupcakes, twinkies, beef jerky and... the list goes on! The drink menu could have even been nerdier - infused with JOLT Cola, BAWLS energy drink and all flavors of Mountain Dew - enough to keep a couple dozen geeks wired all night long!
As the day pushed on, only one thing was on our minds - just who was the nerdiest? And that wasn't all. Ballots or "Trouble Tickets" (as they called them back in my tech support days) were handed out and snatched back up. Decisions were made and wedgies doled out. Here were the results of our SUPAFri SUPArlatives (we had a few ties).
Smelliest Nerd - Alex Zelenak (and he was awarded with a bar of caffeinated soap)!
Most Deserving of a Wedgie - Doug White (awarded with official 31-33-32SUPAFri NerdALERT Tighty Whities)
Most Likely to Build a Robot Girlfriend - Andrew Riley and... Marcelle Turner (oh my)!
Most Epic Fail - Alex (again), Jeremy Hilton and Brittany Ward (for the lack of a costume, but she proudly put the NerdALERT Tighty Whities to use)!
Nerdiest Nerd - Joe Carafelli (awarded with a lifetime supply of cheese balls)! Congrats Joe, you're the NERD KING!
We happily celebrated Doug's tenth anniversary and honored him for his years and years (and years) of service. Read more about this over here.
Anniversaries are celebrated but don't often end well - thanks to our dastardly Wheel of Destiny. It was an interesting experience, as Doug spun DIEZ (an upgrade on MindComet's tenth anniversary retreat), and then spun it yet again, on his tenth anniversary, a 1 in 324 chance - amazing!
But ten years of service already gives you an automatic upgrade, so he spun again and a Pudding Fling was in his future!
Our fearless (and SUPER NERDY) leader, Marcelle, also celebrated her anniversary, ending in a crazy game of "shake-a-can-o-soda". There are never any winners in that game!
"Mitches" (Chris Mitchell), one of our favorite and most talented newbies of all time, brought it home as the Team Member of the month - only five months since he joined our team - quite impressive!
...now if we could just get him on Twitter (he's the last one holding out on our team, not so nerdy of him)! Update: he's now on Twitter!.
So we had our fun, we played our games and went on home. Us Nerds don't stay out too late (unless it's a LAN party), but the cool kids went out and had a good old time.
Will NerdALERT come back around next year? We'll see if it's in the numbers!
In the meantime, check out the rest of our pictures!
Over the years I've had the privilege of traveling to Europe for work several times a year, and each trip I seem to pick up a little piece of my host country's culture that stays with me fondly. I found a new appreciation for the Celtic art styles in Norway, discovered that I actually like Herring while in Denmark, elevated my pallet for Trappist Ales in Belgium, was rendered speechless by the Crown Jewels in England, and of course became an even greater fan of my beloved "fromage" in France. 