The O.C.M.G.
Mar 16 '04 (Updated Jun 24 '05)
The Bottom Line Great people, good food, activities before and after - that is my final recommendation, Regis!
Where on Earth do I begin? L.A. of course…hey…why does that sign say, now entering Orange County??? Actually it all began in Fresno. Where is that you ask? Well it is 240 miles to the north of Southern California! Still don’t know? It's where that Wesson guy recently killed his entire family including seven kids of which he may be both the father and grandfather of? (Update 6/2005: the jury found this sick man GUILTY!)
Oh, now you know…
At first it seemed that I wasn’t destined to meet and greet. Just 24 hours before the San Francisco Meet and Greet I caught a bad case of the flu – bad enough that yes I went to see a doctor! Gasp!
Kristina took it a bit hard (sorry – I was hoping you could use some of your muscle to make a “business trip” out to sunny and recently hot Los Angeles, but I guess you spent too much at Despair.com).
And so I made it a point, a promise, a rite of passage through life to dedicate a weekend, two tanks of gas (at $2.17 a gallon!), and 500 miles (round trip) to trek down in my Ford Focus (to copy Criteeker) to the Los Angeles Meet and Greet.
There I would be enlightened, educated, entertained, and in nee-e-e-ed!…of a strong drink (a tape recorder was a close second).
But first, as there is in every rite of passage, there are sticks and stones that one must overcome. Before the Meet and Greet I encountered (in no particular order) a dead cell phone and a lost charger, a wife who packs for a 2 day weekend like it’s a 7 day cruise, eating at Apple Annie’s and subsequently sitting on a toilet for 45 minutes in dire pain because an upset stomach and Imodium AD - DO NOT GO TOGETHER!, my wife driving afterwards (sshhh!), the inflatable mattress pad we slept on at my brother-in-laws that had a small hole that slowly deflated and was flat by 4am, forgetting to plug in the mattress pump to charge it to re-inflate the pad, the inability of those highly educated individuals who work at Jack in the Box to put cheese on my breakfast sandwich…dot…dot…dot!
Everything felt like a punch in the groin! Oh, wait, sorry, foreshadowing to BadKittyM.
Now as for the actual L.A. Meet and Greet (or The O.C.M.G. as I like to call it) my wife and I set out at 10am to drive about 115 miles through the heart of L.A (we drove the initial 135 the night before), to get to Dave and Busters the setting for Epinions’ 4th Meet and Greet.
As expected we traveled through countless freeway interchanges (and found that 98% of the time you can survive by just sticking to the second lane from the left hand side), a seemingly endless traffic jam throughout downtown L.A., and oddly our departure from Los Angeles County into Orange County where just a wee past Disneyland we arrived at City Drive (or as we like to joke about it shittydrive! said in the spirit of a funny Chinese South Park character).
After driving around The Block at Orange (as it is detailed on the map) we found Dave and Busters, a whole hour before the Meet and Greet.
To kill time we purchased a spiffy power card for 2 bucks, added 100 credits, and set out to play a few rounds of skeet ball, then raced some Harley’s, shot some zombies, tried to protect the U.S.S. Voyager from the Borg...and then soon enough; 45 minutes had pass.
Two beers later - we walked over to the Meet and Greet area where dedicated Epinions’ staff was placing an Epi Doll in every nook and cranny and were soon approached by the lead product manager who invited us in a few minutes before the official start time of 1pm.
And so, it began.
I won’t bore you with excerpts of every bit of conversation I either participated in and/or overheard (I have good hearing at times!), but I will say it was a lot of fun to meet several people that I have only known of in a virtual sense.
What I was most surprised at was how many instantly knew each other, in fact a lot of them car-pooled to the event and keep in contact with each other via e-mail. Now, I know such a thing is more likely to happen in L.A. than say, well, Fresno…but it stood out to me. That to me this Meet and Greet was really my first opportunity ever to actually meet someone from Epinions whereas it felt like that to many this was just another opportunity to hang out.
Okay, so a little gossip. I found out what the whole MIB thing was. It was interesting to me, for there was a long time that I wanted to join! I even had names picked out. Agent Wannabe (okay maybe I need a therapist – anyone know of a good one?) or Agent Blanket Holder, Agent Thumb, Agent Peanut…unfortunately I was not blessed to be an agent, Petra wouldn’t honor me with such a gift.
Criteeker and I had a lively discussion about The Last Samurai...Divad23 and I discussed music and agreed that Dave and Buster’s have a deaf ear when it comes to good music. There were a lot of other very interesting people there but unfortunately I didn't have a chance to write their names all down and I don't have a very good memory.
I learned more about Income Share. And yes, it is..really…not that confusing. For those holed up in some think tank the equation is as follows – What Makes Epinions Money, Makes You Money! Now you may ask what makes Epinions money, well guess what, it’s not about your experience in Fresno.
I learned that the Epinions staff are really down to earth employees who may feel a bit of responsibility to attend these Meet and Greets but still don’t listen and respond to everything from a P/R perspective. Like us, they are people too. And sure, they may not want to deal with Epinions in their off time (I questioned why I don’t see employees writing any more – except for Garrett), they still enjoy what they do and enjoy telling others that they enjoy doing it – an act of employment I have seen before but haven’t seen in the past two years since moving from the Bay Area to Fresno. Sure, there are hard times, struggles, lack of and too much independence – but from what I’ve come across in the past two years here in Fresno the only representatives of a company are those the highest up in their best suits, well prepared responses to each inquiry, a smile for every frown – the most groomed to be fake.
I learned that some are looking out to change the way Epinions’ ranks the most popular reviews and writers. To not only give “s/he overall” a prominent display but to also include “s/he most popular this month” a chance to share some limelight.
I learned that when you attend a Meet and Greet and they say food will be provided that in this case it includes chips and dips, steak and chicken, a shrimp, fruit, veggie, and cheese platter. Free sodas, and as far as I know 29th_candidate was the first to find out - free booze too! (I’m waiting for my Redemption page to display – “Alcohol premium $8.00”)
I learned that although there were only 20 or so of us the Meet and Greet in the center of Hollywood, um, in an Orange – that we all could get together, spend four hours and chat it up. Nice people, good food, cool drinks, and in this case a place to hang out before and afterwards playing video games.
I learned from all who were there.
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Oh, and I also learned my wife farts a lot!
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Epinions.com ID:
lynus
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 - Top 200 |
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Location: Las Vegas, NV
Reviews written: 584
Trusted by: 169 members
About Me:
Slowly trying to get back to the thick of things.
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