The move is done and other stories
Posted by mcummings
Working for Thinkgeek is fun, let me start by saying that. I don't know if I've ever had a job where doing your job is fun to do, though its a little disconcerting to have people thank you for doing what you were hired to do (far cry from jobs of yore). Unfortunately, work hasn't left much room for blogging or breathing of late, though after our big pusht this week to get all of the servers moved to our new facility, time should again become something of a commodity again. To be fair, work hasn't been the only distraction - as you may have seen over on flickr, in the last week alone we've had a haircut, first day of school, and a birthday party, plus everything else.
Admittedly, blogging isn't the only thing that has suffered the last week or three. Until today, I hadn't really written anything (fictional) either, lacking both the free energy and desire to try and tell a story. Then today I sat down, powered up scrivener, and started tapping away. I thought I was writing a short story, and it might still turn out to be one, but its currently 2K strong, so it has potential. Its a fresh start, new world, new characters, new story, and it feels damned fine. But then, this is still the honeymoon phase, where the new story is the sweetest thing in the world and hasn't had a chance to get under my skin and fester and pester me. And that's completely ignoring the fact that in addition to any stories that might be bubbling beneath the surface, nanowrimo is only a few months away. I'd like to get a good outline done ahead of time this year, but that too takes time.
Meh, not sure there is much else to say. I hope to be back in the swing of things with blogging and writing this week, though its a delicate balance these days while I settle into my new life on the outside. Hope everyone else had a good weekend!
~Mike
ready for the day?
Posted by mcummings
Someone commented this week on the fact we have too much chain mail around the office. This just goes to show that's not the only artefact of our getting medieval...
The new job
Posted by mcummings
I suspect that a few of you are curious about my first week at the new job. Let me caveat anything I might say or suggest with the fact that this was a very atypical week at Thinkgeek - Monday was the launch of the new site and design for the site, a monumental effort by the code monkies and design nerds and everyone else involved, and Thursday was the tenth anniversary, with much jubilation and merriment.
Crammed into the remainder of time (with Friday technically being a day off), the code monkies and other staff have managed to deal with unexpected bug fixes, prep work, and trying to help me get acclimated to their environment.
And what is that environment? Let me tell you friends, from what I have seen, it is what we remembered the dot coms to be, without the nasty bubble bursting at the end. If you worked for a dot-com, you remember the two edged sword of these places. These folks put in the hours above and beyond what you'd expect, because they love their jobs. They work hard. Work isn't a chore, it isn't just a job - its what they do. Even in down time they're still talking the job if a topic strikes them. In return, the company tries to pamper them a little bit - a game or two here, some free drinks and snacks in the kitchen, little things to offer when the gain is much more. Happy employees that are willing to do the time to see the company do well.
I spent most of the week with the attitude and mindset of "I'm not worthy. How did I get here?" But everyone I admitted this to just laughed at me, clapped me on the back, and welcomed me to nirvana. (ok, little poetic license there.)
I expect tomorrow will be a busy, busy day. We're moving offices in a few weeks, and I have a lot of planning and prep work to do in between the stuff we couldn't get finished on Friday. But hell yeah, working at Thinkgeek is cooler than you thought it was 
Take Two of the cake
Posted by mcummings
Well, that didn't work so well yesterday (worked fine on one desktop, nowhere else apparently), so I've braved the jungles of youtube for you all to watch this poor quality cake shot The cake, btw, was very, very tasty (I sought out and got a slice from the chocolate peanut butter tier - mmmmmmm).
Thinkgeek’s 10th Anniversary Cake :)
Posted by mcummings
As promised, a brief, grainy avi of the Charm City Cakes Thinkgeek had for our tenth anniversary. Sorry for the crappy quality.