First Day Volunteering at the Warehouse 4-30-2007

[Braden Campbell]

How filthy are the Palladium bathrooms that they require several hours worth of work?

[The Galactus Kid]

Thanks Laz. Thats awesome. I also have to agree with you that Tony is a GREAT guy. Hopefully more people will be able to shoot the breeze with ot only him, but the other Palladium guys too. Hank, Al, Jules, and everybody else there is great.

[Wayne Smith]

Thanks Laz. Thats awesome. I also have to agree with you that Tony is a GREAT guy. Hopefully more people will be able to shoot the breeze with ot only him, but the other Palladium guys too. Hank, Al, Jules, and everybody else there is great.

But not me. I'm a foul git.

(Though I'm way better than Brandon at foosball.)

Wayne Smith
Palladium Books

[Warwolf]

Thanks Laz. Thats awesome. I also have to agree with you that Tony is a GREAT guy. Hopefully more people will be able to shoot the breeze with ot only him, but the other Palladium guys too. Hank, Al, Jules, and everybody else there is great.

But not me. I'm a foul git.

(Though I'm way better than Brandon at foosball.)

I have to disagree. However, last year you seemed to appear and disappear into the office and whatever secret passage system you guys have in that place.

*points at Wayne* Like a giant-size Ooompa-loompa, that one.

Hopefully this year I won't have to corner you in your office to shoot the breeze.

BTW- Thanks for straightening out my time-slot, I am very much obliged.

[AlexM]

Who let him out? er, I mean, uh, he should have been shown to the 'special room' for Interns.....





Alex Marciniszyn

[The Galactus Kid]

whoa. just wait a minute there, Mr. Smith. If I'm not mistaken, YouI handed me myyou your hindquarters in a handbasket last time I was there. My lame excuse Its a shame I may not be able to do so again this time around will be thatsince I'm recovering from a broken left hand, but I'll do my best to not be as pathetic as usual school you in humility.

Fixed it for you, Bubbles. -- WMS

[Subjugator]

All a y'all are pathetic at foose! None of you can do the patented move, 'The Demoralizer' (of Interactive Intelligence Inc. fame)! That's where you smack the ball into your opponent's goal so hard that it goes through the bottom of the table twists around, and comes back out your own goal...and it's common where I used to work.

That place has a status for one's phone to say one is off playing fooseball. Yes - they're THAT psycho about it.

Unfortunately, I suck cold rocks when playing foose...but I have fun!



/Sub

[erc1971]

Unlike Mr. Galactus Kid I don't get my own forum to post in so I thought I would catalogue my experiences volunteering here on the Open House Forum.

I arrived at the warehouse at about 10:15am this morning and was greeted by Kevin, Hank, Wayne, Alex, Tony, and Julius. It was really great to spend about half an hour just talking to these guys.

Kevin handed me off to Tony, a really great guy to hang out with by the way, and we went out back and started prepping behind the warehouse for visitors. It is a really beautiful day here in Wayne County but it is going to rain tonight.

Next I helped move some product around in the warehouse. There is something a little humbling about being surrounded by all if those books.

After that I got into the big project. As many of you know I am a maintenance supervisor by trade, so Kevin asked me if I would give the restrooms in the warehouse a serious scrubbing. Some people may say, "hey Josh why do you want to clean restrooms on your vacation?" what I have to say to that is, it's what I do well.

I made a good dent and at 1:30pm Tony took me out to lunch and we had a blast. If anyone gets a chance to shoot the breeze with him I highly recommend it.

After lunch I continued working on the restrooms until about 3:30. I really made a good dent in things, and I should have them all done tomorrow.

Today was a real hoot, and I am looking forward to the rest of the week.

I see you inherited my job

Let me explain...

I live 30 minutes away from Palladium, so I volunteered to help out on the 25th and 26th to help them get ready for the open house.

Unfortunately Tony's plans for the 25th were rained out - he had planned to have me out back, but it was rather mushy back there, as it had been rainy here for some time. I wasn't able to get much done that day, but Alex and I did do a bit of straightening out in the warehouse (and it was great to shoot the breeze with him while we worked), and I was able to do a bit of misc. work here and there. Hank was not in the building either day I was there, but I did get to meet Kevin, Wayne, Alex, Julius and Tony. All of them were great guys, and it was obvious to me they were willing to go above and beyond to ensure Palladium hung around

I talked with Kevin for a bit when I first arrived, he even said I looked familiar - so he did vaguely remember me from the times in the past I was able to meet him After things were finished up on Wednesday, I spent some time chatting with Tony and Julius. Even though Tony is not a gamer now a days - back when he met Kevin, he was - working with him really did make all the hard work I had coming the next day much more fun. Julius is a true and blue gamer to the core. A great guy, and I really enjoyed having time to chat with him one on one.

Thursday I finally was able to get some work done. When I arrived at 8:45 AM - Kevin was the only one in the building, he had stayed overnight and had been working since 6:30 AM I wonder how many cups of coffee he drinks a day? Tony arrived about that time, and we drove the cube truck out to pick up a floor scrubber. It took me until 6PM - but, I was able to run that thing over the entire warehouse (though we didn't move the pallets or the shipping racks, and I kept it a few feet away from the books on display - spraying water all over mint books would have been bad!). The poor scrubber didn't have enough battery life for the marathon run I gave it - in the end it was barely moving, just enough to finish up. Kevin was really appreciative of the help I had provided, and made sure to thank me despite his extremely busy schedule.

It was alot of fun working with them, and surely an experience I won't ever forget. (Thanks guys for letting me be a part of this!) Everyone seemed very satisfied with the progress towards getting this year's open house ready, and from what I can tell, it is going to be even better than last year's (which was the best convention I have ever been to in my life!).

Eric