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.

Something is rotten in the state of b5 Part II

We have a confession!!!! It’s always the one you least suspect. Chad confessed to the crime. When asked why, he said “cause it said something about Darcie winning”. The category of the b5 Olympics the comment of Darcie winning was that of walking the loudest, and Chad wrote it there in the first place.

It has been learned that Chad used a Wet Wipe to clean the surface, thus making the streaks. As punishment, Chad must copy down everything currently on the whiteboard and rewrite it on the walls of the new office (ps, we’re moving across the whole to where the grass is greener next Friday).

Something is Rotten in the State of b5

Weeks ago, Darcie and Laura came up with a list of fun activities to do in the b5 Olympics. They put this list on the office white board so that others could put in their suggestions as well. Someone has viciously and maliciously erased the list. It wasn’t a simple erase, it was erased with some form of unidentified liquid. We are on the lookout of who it could have been. The suspects:

Laura Keeling: She was alone in the office all day on Monday, and had plenty of opportunity. She was jealous that the list was in Darcie’s handwriting and wanted to deflect some of the praise for good ideas (motive and opportunity)

Joey: He has lists all over the whiteboards. He was upset that that space was not being used for his lists. He sits a mere 5 feet from the crime scene.

Joe: He’s new and wants to make his mark. He wanted to do something bold that would get him noticed. Salim: It’s right by his desk and he gets thrills erasing things Darcie has written. The crime scene is within reaching distance from his desk.

Jeremy: The erasing was done hastily, synonymous with Jeremy’s erasing style.

Lee: It’s always the quiet one. He has TWO erasers on his desk, which show that he has a fascination with erasing. He was left alone for some time on the morning of Tuesday.

Rachel: She wasn’t aware that she had her own whiteboard space. She’s clearly jealous of Chad’s whiteboard space (which is where the crime occurred).

Chad and Darcie are both exempt from the crime because neither of them were in the office all week.

Who do you think did it? Punishment will be laid down to the suspect with the most votes.

Tris and CJ in Toronto

The Toronto office is blessed with the pressence of CJ, our Content Manager, and Tris, our Training Manager. Not much has changed with them since the trip to Austin for SXSW in March. Tris has been writting a new blog which seems to get a lot of attention because of its often un-talked about subject. The blog, Manscaping 101, is about male grooming. Over pizza at lunch, all the guys in the office shared their personal grooming habits. Needless to say, it was an interesting conversation, and as always, I learned way too much about my co-workers.

Since I am a mannequin, I have a never-changing perfect face and don’t do anything to groom (though Chad thought it would be funny to put pink marker on my lips once).

Darcie vs Salim

In an unannounced, unplanned and unserious election, Darcie and Salim ran against each other for the position of…well…there was no position they were running for. However, against all odds, Salim Teja was the winner by a landslide. No one saw that coming, and it is entirely likely and probable that he rigged the election and bought votes. I mean come on. Salim vs Darcie. There is no way he won on his own charm and charisma.

DQ Friday at b5media

What better way to end off Healthy Eating Week at b5media than a trip to the local DQ for some delicious blizzards?!

All week the Toronto team has been fighting urges for candy store runs and pizza lunches. Those who brought greasy foods into the office were immediately shunned. We helped each other through tough times with motivating lectures. It was a tough week, but we all pulled through and feel like a million bucks (except Laura, she seems to be perpetually sick).

For our reward, Laura signed us all up to the DQ Blizzard fan club so we could get buy one get one free Blizzards. (Thanks Laura, now we will be perpetually getting junk mail). Everyone was excited about the big day, but sadly, we had a lousy turn out. Jeremy called in sick, Salim called in busy, Lee is trying to flee the country and Chad pulled hung-over. Darcie, Joey, Laura and I, the REAL team players up here, all thoroughly enjoyed our much deserved Blizzard. The rest of you…well…I don’t want to get into how disappointed I am in you.  

The New DQ

Dairy Queen opened up down the street from us. Since we moved into this space in June, there has been a sign up reading “Opening Soon”. We all have nasty sweet tooths around here, so we’ve been sending scouts regularly over there to check to see when it would be open. FINALLY, it opened. We tested it out this afternoon. Laura and Darcie, being the only single people in the office, wanted to get a cake to celebrate their singleness. They were all out. ON VALENTINES DAY!!! So they decided on Blizzards instead. Laura wanted the cookie dough. They were all out. Jeremy wanted the Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard. They told him he could only order what was on the menu. So he pointed to the big huge picture of it up on the wall. He ended up with a Skor. We assumed that because they were new, we would get heaping loads of the creamy good stuff, but none of our cups were full. Disappointing. It wont however stop us from going again tomorrow with the rest of the team.

Positive Attitude Wednesday

The real essence of b5media was on display yesterday for the first monthly Positive Attitude Wednesday. Prizes were awarded to the employee with the most positive attitude (it was a hug, given by Darcie, but no one wanted it, so no one won). And, the most negative person needs to buy Darcie a Blizzard from DQ (Skor). Chad lost (mostly by default because Lee already owes Darcie a Blizzard). So everyone was all smiles all day….pretty much like every other day. At least since I started here everyone has been happy…

Fun Friday

Ok, so b5media is the best place to work EVER!!! Late last night, Darcie sent an e-mail out asking that everyone bring in their favorite toy for show and tell. Yes, SHOW AND TELL!!! Like in kindergarten!!! Now, Jeremy assumed this was a similar prank to Hallowe’en’s, where she told everyone to dress up, but only Jeremy did, so he didn’t bring a toy. Everyone else participated though, even Jonas Brandon The winner of the toy of the day award was Laura. She brought in a dinosaur that ROARED! It was pretty awesome. Darcie tried to steal it, but that didn’t work.

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