Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Blast from the Past
Yes, I still exist. Only now in a different way. My stint as a dive shop owner ended about a month ago, and I have returned to the corporate world.

My return to the corporate world got me thinking about the jobs I've had in the past. Prior to my 2 year stint at the big insurance company I worked for a smattering of dot com companies in the late 90's. One of these dot coms I had worked for was an online technology news magazine where I was in charge of producing content, and managed the development of new features of the site. Lately I've had the occasion to visit the site of my old employer while researching a topic for my new job. It brought up a host of memories, as I still recognize the names of some of the writers that still contribute to the site today.

While I was working for this dot com, there was a section of the site called "Computer Stew." Computer Stew was an online comedy TV show that aired a new episode every day. There was a handful of people whose sole responsibility was to produce this show, and they did a fabulous job at it. After somewhere near 400 episodes (basically a year and a quarter of shows) the powers that were determined that Computer Stew probably wasn't a money maker for the company, and the show was cancelled, and the producers let go. (I think, I actually cannot remember whatever happened to those people.)

In the time that Computer Stew existed, I had the occasion to appear on 2 episodes. One of my appearances was purely improvised. The host of the show was trick or treating through the office, during the Halloween episode, and happened to stop by at my cube. I promptly emptied my cup of tea into his jack-o-lantern and sent him on his way. The producers of the show liked my quick wit so much, that they asked me to appear on an episode of the show entitled "Who Wants to Beat a Millionaire." On this show I appeared as a game show contestant, competing for a chance to beat the daylights out of a dot com millionaire. Good times.

On a whim I did a google search on Computer Stew, and found an online repository of all the old episodes. I found the "Halloween in the Workplace" and the "Who Wants to Beat a Millionaire" episodes, and have linked them here. Enjoy.

Halloworkplace

How to Beat a Millionaire

Please note, these videos work on Real Player, and are work friendly.

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