Another b5 Controversy

In Toronto, whenver Jeremy and Salim have a lunch meeting that the rest of us don’t get invited to, we retaliate by have a kick-ass lunch at a restaurant called Shanghai Cowgirl. We don’t tell them where we go, but we come back bragging of the delicious food we’ve had, and the awesome time we shared.

Yesterday was one of those days. Jeremy and Salim (and now Jon Prosser, the new VP Finance) had a lunch date. An e-mail was floated around to let all the new people know what the plan was, and that the others were not to know about it nor were they included.

Jeremy then sent out an e-mail saying that he, Salim and Jon had a lunch meeting the next day at Shanghai Cowgirl, indicating that someone had leaked the information. He then went on to blame Lee and Franca, going as far as saying that Franca had printed out a map for them.

Well, this was no good. Lee quickly defended himself saying that he would NEVER do anything like that, and he was beleived. Darcie went as far as to put together a list of those she suspected as ratting out the secret location. (Joey made top of the list).

Rachel piped up saying she knew for certain how the information was leaked. She bargained to get the much coveted “Coworker of the week” award for the entire MONTH. Anxious to find out who the mole was, Darcie let exchanged the award for the juicy information.

Turned out when Darcie innocently went to help Franca out with some work, Jeremy hacked into her securely locked computer and searched for the e-mail about the wonderfulness that is Shanghai Cowgirl.

b5media’s Toronto office is now on the lookout for a new secret spot. One that will never be described in an e-mail or any other form of new media.

Bring Your Pet to Work Day

Today was b5media’s first ever bring your pet to work day. It was a huge success.

Salim’s Siamese fighting fish, Baby Beluga, couldn’t make the subway trip downtown, so he sent Nemo in his place. Nemo ruined the jelly beans.

In keeping with the fish theme, Jon’s 546454134 year old goldfish, Bubbles didn’t make it down either, but Jon took these lovely photos so we could all meet Bubbles and his pal, Casper.

Darren brought in his pug, Portia. She was tons of fun. Apparently she get acne. No one fed her jelly beans.

Most of the other people in Toronto were lamewads and didn’t bring in anything. Jeremy has guinea pigs, but claims he no longer trusts anyone who says that a fun day is going to happen based on the tricks that were played on him in the past. You can read about those here and here. Rather disappointing Toronto representation. Even the girl who works down the hall let her dog Simba hang out with us.

Salvation to the Toronto office came when Will Pate and Beta stopped by to participate. I hope Will isn’t upset we use him for his dog.

The US folks represented really well. They all work from home, so bringing in pets was a huge deal for them.

Mark Jaquithhas 3 cats, Gavin, Beverly and Pixel. He’s trained Gavin to hate everyone but him. Beverly is male, despite the name. Apparently, it’s an aggressive cat and Mark thinks by giving it a female name, the cat will tone down a bit. Mark’s wife trained Pixel to be rude to everyone but her. Apparently, Mark spent all his money on computers and stuff so he feeds Pixel blind cords. He realised later on this was a bad idea and spent $1200 to have a vet fix the situation.

Tris’s female cat, Ben (Tris and Mark need to pick up one of those baby name books), enjoys tape. I don’t know what else to say about that except that cats are weird.

Tony has a really big New York apartment, and owns an elephant named T-Danza. He never ceases to amaze us.

CJ lives on a ranch. We were all expecting tons of pics and stories about her pets. Now, living in Canada, I may be naive to think that Texas ranches lots of animals. Apparently, CJ breeds cats and dogs. They are really cute though, so bonus points for that.

Gab swore she was going to send in pictures of her two dogs…I’m guessing that the lack of photos so far is a clear indication that dog is a code word she uses for her husband Coop because she doesn’t want people to know she is training him to shake hands.

So, whatever people say you can learn about a person based on their pet, learn it.

And another new guy…

The newest b5 hire came on board today. Anthony Tramontana, working from his home in New York, has joined b5’s sales team. Yay! Another sales guy!

Things we know about Anthony (who I am hoping we can call Tony, then, once we are comfortable, we can call him Tony Danza).

- He will let any/all b5 team members stay at his place when we go there to visit

- He likes the New York Yankees. (Message to Tony…we, the Toronto office of b5media, HATE the Yankees…almost as much as we hate the Red Sox).

- He has a sister (at least one…and she has more of a Brooklyn accent than he does

- He has only been to Canada once, that was for his interview with b5

- He considers himself anal-retentive

- He knows how to use Salesforce really well

Welcome Tony!!!

Too Many New People!!!!

We’ve expanded yet again….

 In Toronto, our new Administrative Assistant started. Franca Schulte will be taking over that role. 3 things we know about Franca:

- She WON her car. That’s right. WON….from one of those contests that we usually just chuck in the garbage off a Pepsi bottle.

- She likes dogs but doesn’t own one. If we were to have “Bring Your Pet to Work Day” she would get a goldfish.

- She went to school in London…………………….Ontario

Also starting in the Toronto office is Jon Prosser in the VP Finance roll. 3 things we know about Jon:

- He has a 7 year old gold fish

- Other than beef, lamb, poultry and fish, he sticks to a mainly vegetarian diet.

- He’s as tall as Salim.

And our newest member is a spawn of b5 founder Darren Rowse. Things we know about Henri Sebastian Rowse:

- He was born at 2am on June 15th

- He weighed 7lbs 14oz

- He has red hair

Welcome to all our newbies. Good luck with the grueling initiation process!

Welcome Darren!

b5media has a new team member. Darren O’Donaghue is filling the shoes of Director of Branded Content. He will be working closely with the rest of the content team to keep b5 as awesome as it is.

Things we know about this Darren (this is tough becaue he’s only been here for 2 hours)

#1- He lives really close to the office

#2- He’s a real keener; he got to work before everyone else today

#3- He likes Starbucks. Ew.

#4- The smell of rotten garbage doesn’t bother him.

#5- He lives next door to AJ Burnett of the Toronto Blue Jays

Welcome to b5media Darren!