Company contests, and other fun stuff

I lost this week... Well, technically, I just forgot to fill out my football picks for the week, therefore I've lost any chance I had of winning the NFL football contest (I wasn't doing that well anyway). Each week, anyone at the company that wants to participate can go onto the internal website and fill out their picks of who will win each of the NFL football games of the week. Each Wednesday (today), winners and losers are determined, and each receive prizes. The overall winner of the company receives $20. The individual winners on each team (there are 5 or so teams) get a candy bar and a soda. Each week's biggest loser also wins a candy bar and a soda, and they get their name on the Pooh ball of losers. At the end of the regular season, the person with the highest overall score, across all weeks, wins $200.

The football contest is just one of the fun things we do at Sensory Sweep. I've participated in foosball tournaments (took second place), singles and doubles ping pong tournaments (didn't do that well), Guitar Hero competitions, and Rock Band contests, for both individuals and bands. They also play Madden occasionally, but I've never participated. The great thing is that there are always cash prizes for the winners, and you get to do all these things on company time! It's a very fun environment to work in.

Each year, we also have various company parties, with the best being the Christmas party. We usually rent a big ballroom at some fancy hotel, and take the place for the entire evening. Each year at the party, we have a talent show, where most people usually perform something related to video games. In 2006, a co-worker and I decided to form a barbershop quartet to sing at the Christmas show that year, so we found our lead and bass, and got busy practicing. We sang the Super Mario Bros. theme song, and a version of Shenandoah, with all the words rewritten to be about video games. We each got a $25 gift card to Best Buy for participating.

In summary, I love working at Sensory Sweep. Not only do I get to work on video games, and get paid for it, but I also get to participate in all of these fun activities, most of them during work hours.