The Geek and the Nerd in the Studio

For the past number of months, Annalee has been handing out 'geek points' to staff when their actions and conversations warranted it, and musing on how well certain individuals would have done should they ever have found their way onto that 'Beauty and the Geek' show.

In an effort to lay this discussion to rest, we went and found a geek test on the net (http://www.innergeek.us/geek.html) and are having staff complete it. Here are the results for some staff. THE REST OF YOU HAD BETTER SUBMIT YOUR RESULTS!

Staff member	Geek Number	Geek level
Melissa Tapawan	0.99	Poser
Giselle Nazareno	2.6	Poser
Annalee Schellenberg	3.74	Poser
Kevin Aichele	5.72	Poser
Ruth Vanstone	6.31	Poser
Nolan Balzer	11.3	Geekish Tendencies
Jesse Bell	11.83	Geekish Tendencies
Clint Skibitzky	14.99	Geekish Tendencies
Olaf Pyttlik	16.93	Geek
Olaf Pyttlik (when I filled it out for him... he lies	19.72	Geek
Jayson Kowal	22.0	Geek
Paul Bell	24.66	Geek

Jayson also recommended a Nerd Test to us (who knew there was a difference between a geek and a nerd?). These were also interesting results.... (http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nt2.php if you want to try it out and send me your results...)

Clinton Skibitzky (me!) ... what the heck is with the History/Lit Geek thing. I can't deny it however... I have maps of Constantine's Empire and the routes taken on each of the crusades on my study wall at home, as well as a timechart history of the world I found at the British Museum (it is COOL... oh heck, that is embarrassing...)


Ruth Vanstone Ruth just dreams about being as big of a History/Literature as I am... Someday Ruth, someday, perhaps!



Paul Bell you SUCK as a nerd, Paul (odd... he had the highest geek score, but a really low nerd one). Someone take his pocket protector away...



Nolan Balzer OOOH, a close race between science fiction (SCI-FI Nolan not SCIENCE!) and literature for Nolan!



Jesse Bell OK, Jesse isn't even TRYING!



Jayson Kowal No question where Jayson's tendencies lie...



Olaf Pyttlik ... Olaf has not bothered to take this test yet, but I feel qualified to do it for him. When you actually do it I will replace your results with these... super-hero-nerd-buddy!

DACAPO Stampede Day

This past summer we celebrated our new building and the OUTDOOR COURTYARD between both facilities with a Rootin' Tootin' Stampede Day! Howdy Pardner'! Nolan welcomes the cowpokes... ...and tends to the grill. Ruth and Kim hang out... Giselle and Kim do the same (LOVE the cowboy hat Giselle! Wherever DID you find it?). Olaf does what Olaf does... Paul looks dapper in his brand new blue Stetson.. Annalee looks over the beverage table... ..while Jayson takes care of important business (Kevin looks on and is unamused). AAAH, yes. And who could forget the evil cowboy in black... Jesse - quick draw - Bell!

The Skeleton in Our Closet

Hi. I'm the new guy at DACAPO. Well, not completely new - I've been here for 4 months, but I'm still the last guy in the door. I've always found that it takes some time to adjust to a new workplace and as much as you adjust to the new workplace the company adjusts to you.

This place is different.

Now, there are people who cover their office or cubicle walls with posters with sayings like: Hang in there! (accompanied by a large photo of a kitten hanging from a branch with both arms.) These people should be taken out into the street and beat about the head and neck with heavy bats. But that is a rant for another time. The reason I mention these defective rejects is that having been at DACAPO for some time I am reminded of one of these insipid posters: You don't have to be crazy to work here - but it helps!

I've learned that at DACAPO you can apply that phrase, but with some modifications. Firstly, the trailing phrase, "but it helps" is unecessary. Then we simply have to edit the first part to read: "You have to be crazy..."

Case in point...

After purchasing and moving into our new building we got straight to work on renovations. Most of this consisted of paint and some new lighting fixtures. The big project was a new "mixing studio".

To make the exisiting room more acoustically friendly, we wanted to slope the walls away from where the workstation would eventualy be. This meant installing a false wall and a false ceiling.

Contractors being who they are, the wood frame for the false wall and false ceiling were installed in quick order, but sat there uncompleted and uncovered for several weeks.

Clint and I were standing around in the room looking at the size of the new window sill, when he remarked how it would make a nice sunny resting spot for a "mixing cat". My eyes wandered to the right and noticed how much room was left in the corner by the new false wall. Room enough for a...

That's when the joking started. I joked to Clint that we should have a corpse in the wall. "Why don't we get a stuffed animal and hang it from a noose." Paul, our commercial audio engineer, added, "...with a suicide note pinned to it." Nolan, our voice director, chipped in, "When they put up the drywall, we should put scratch marks on the inside." We all had a good chuckle.

An hour later, when I returned to my office, Clint had a mid-sized stuffed dog waiting on my desk. He found it in the basement of the old building - so we had our vicitm.

A day or two later, I started prepping the dog for it's entombment. I painted "X"s over it's eyes, hogtied it's arms and legs, and put a gag in it's mouth. Then it hit me... the stuffed dog victim was cute, but one of those paper skeletons with the dangling arms that you put on your door at haloween would be even funnier.

So I headed off to Toad Hall Toys to try and find one. I found a 12" tall plastic skeleton or a box of three or four 3" tall ones. I thought the 'mass grave' of the small ones would be kind of funny, but asked if they had any of the Halloween skeletons in storage in the stockroom. One staff member asked if I was talking about the "paper skeleton in the book". So I took a stroll back to the Anatomy Aisle and found the perfect victim.

It took a weeks worth of evenings to put together - approx. 24 hours of cutting, trimming, scoring, folding, and gluing. Plus a whole s*#!load of podcasts on my iPod.

After a few disasters (one clumsy contractor broke the skeleton in four places and I had to perform some serious reconstructive surgery) "Louie" was officialy interred in the mixing room at 520 Hargrave.

With an appropriate message...

After a few weeks the drywaller came in and sealed up Louie for good.

Now, while I was putting Louie together, I took over the boardroom table in the new building at about 5:00 every evening. Several staff members came in and out of the building while I was putting the skeleton together, so lots of staff members were in on the joke.

Several times, Clint would pass by my workspace and chuckle. Making comments from time to time, most dealing with my sanity. Now remember what I said about "being crazy to work here"? Well, at any other job very quickly there would have been laughs at my effort then several rounds of "Jayson... now I think it's funny and I do have a sense of humour, but..." or "Ummm, Jayson, about this little project of yours..."

My final comment when Clint was mocking my state of mental health: "OK, I am 100% mentally disturbed to build a skeleton and bury it in a wall, but at no point over the weeks did you ever stop me, so that makes you 75% as distrubed as I am."

You do have to be crazy to work here...

Outtakes from our Holiday Photos

We had a blast doing our 'Holiday (pc) Cards' last year. Unfortunately, we only got to use ONE PHOTO on our card, and there were SO MANY GOOD ones. Here they are for you to laugh at...

DACAPO goes to the Signature Awards

DACAPO Productions attended the Signature Awards for Advertising in Winnipeg earlier this month. From left to right : Angela Derkson, Annalee Schellenberg, Paul Bell and Chris Goertzen work on their small talk repertoire. Ange and Olaf bump into Laura (of Picanté Advertising) and Alan BOY! Was Laura ever happy to see Olaf! Annalee and Chris chuckle at Olaf's expense (a common pastime at the studio...) Olaf presented an award... And I accepted one for Best Original Music used in a Communication (dame, why do I look so morose?... probably because I LOST MY SHIRT at the blackjack table that night!). The DACAPO crew all together!

DACAPO Bowels... er I mean Bowls

On Friday, DACAPO staff took a late lunch and went to hit the pins at Academy Lanes. Although we were intimidated by the bowling prowess of the school kids in the lane next to us, we frightened them with Dick's inappropriate bowling t-shirts and went on to claim bowling, er, glory? Dick models his highly inappropriate bowling t-shirts for an un-amused Kim... ..while jealous Annalee obviously wishes she was on Giselle's team! Olaf and Dick show us their bottoms (nice skin Olaf!)... ...while Giselle and Paul do THEIR thing. 'If I hold my fingers really close to my eyes, I can use my giant hands to knock over the pins...' (that only worked on Kids In the Hall Nolan!) Giselle and Annalee laugh at Nolan... ... and Dick is not amused. Giselle and Dick discuss strategy... ...while Jayson talks trash... ... and Jesse eggs him on! Olaf, Giselle... and Nolan all hit the gutter... much to the delight of Paul, Ruth and Jesse (ok, Paul does not really look delighted... more like drunk.). I laugh evilly at our opponents misfortune (I'm like that... I can't help it!)... ...while Giselle and Dick console each other. GO ALLEY CATS!