.......until two crazy fools break their hands. In the picture above, you'll see two of our Zappos employees who shared a department until a month ago and who miraculously managed to break bones in their hands within hours of each other in unrelated incidents. Brett H., from our Creative Services team, learned the hard way about horseplay while out with his friend, Pat W., from our Zappos Outlet Stores.

The details are murky, but we have been told that it involved a ketchup and mustard fight and some rough-housing at Brett's birthday party at a local bar. It appears Pat must have gotten the upper hand.

Brett has a tendency to fall prey to condiments, actually..... tune into ZapposTV next week to see an additional incident involving the negligent use of Hot Sauce. Brett Gets revenge this time, make no mistake about that. (I'm looking at you, Brian K.)

Ryan A., from our FEZ team, also managed to break a bone in his hand within two days of Brett, only, the story of the event is shrouded in mystery. It's been told that he was attacked by a wild burrow while hiking at Red Rock Canyon, a local landmark here in Las Vegas. Burrows rarely attack, but when provoked, they actually fight people style.....really, not joking. They are born equipped with expertise in at least 12 different sorts of martial arts.

Ryan has been known to provoke animals.....this is why he hangs out with Brett H. in the first place.

Be careful out there, ladies and gentlemen, we are fragile.

"Fra-Gi-Le. Must be Italian."

Many moons ago, a man was born in Germany that now is a driving force for change and departmental cohesiveness that is a model for the future. So, on the anniversary of our own Alex K.'s birthday, in our desire to show tribute to this fine humanitarian, co-worker and friend, we waited until he stepped away from his desk for a moment, and then trashed it beyond repair.

Ryan A. from the FEZ team and Eric V. organized everything. (who, as you might remember, was treated on his birthday by the Alex and the fine FEZ team.) Eric ordered six 30 inch pizzas from Napoli's here in Vegas, and they were excellent! In the video below, we bring them in true Zappos parade style.

In the photo, we and our covert team of DEV and Creative Service people are "decorating" Alex's desk. Alex, we love ya! Happy 18th birthday. ;)

Every month the photo department gets a cake for everyone's birthday of that month, and to welcome the new comers to the department. There is so much cake going on in that department!

I guess the person making the cake didn't think that newbie was the right word or they thought it was a person? Either way, it's funny!

Welcome New Bies! :D

After the Las Vegas Encounter, where KY employees get to go work with Vegas employees, I realized there are far too many awesome people we work with in the warehouse that we don't know that well! I've decided to interview some people I met on the Vegas trip that are also from Kentucky! I would like to get around more of the KY warehouse/Outlet store and meet new people. I will make plans to visit the Bowling Green Outlet store as well and share that experience too!

First up is Dan C. Although Dan and I do work for Creative Services in KY, I didn't really know Dan that well until we went on this trip. I have to say, the Vegas Encounter is an awesome experience!



What Dept. Do you work in and what is your position?

My title is Photo Operations Supervisor. I work in the Photography Department and make sure that everything is photographed correctly and in a timely manner. Or goal is to get things up on site within 24 hours of their arrival in the warehouse.
Tell us a little bit about yourself: (Family, hobbies, pets, how long you've been/lived here)

I've lived in the state of Kentucky my entire life but I have done a lot of traveling when I was younger, so I can honestly say that there is no better place to live. I actually live in Louisville and am looking to buy a house within a year. My hobbies include playing Xbox, watching movies, as well as model railroading (especially as soon as I get a place with a basement). I have a pet chameleon named Dina and I used to have a saltwater reef tank until the temperature in the apartment got so high things started dying off. I hope to have that back up and running in my new house too.

What's the best thing ever about working for Zappos.com?!

Working with my friends and contributing to the amazing growth that goes on here.

Favorite food served at Zappos?

The chicken wings that we get once in a blue moon. Seriously- the second best wings I have ever had next to Spring Street.

What's your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Go to the movies.

What's something you would like to do once in your lifetime with no limits? Example- (I would like to be a Tugboat captain! Seriously, that sounds fun)

Drive a really fast car cross country in the Cannonball Run. Do they even still have that?

Can you Name 5 animals with horns?

Antelope
Cattle
Deer
Jackson Chameleon
Satan ;-)

This morning we came into our office to see Laura S. and Erin R.'s desk were..well, you could say decorated...Zappos Style!

Erin had a nice topical theme going on while Laura had an industrial plastic look. Question is...who did this?! We cant tell by the handwriting on the sticky notes, its in all caps. No one seems to know, but we'll get to the bottom of it: )

Jon, who worked night shift last night, and was the last one here, claims nothing was like this when he left. However, someone who was here bright and early said the damage was already done! (dunnn dunn dunnn duunnnnnn..) Was it Jon? Was it someone who came in early? Do you know? Who do you think?

Why does Brett – hard core rock ‘n roller, natural born Hoosier and wavy-haired God – look so sad? Look closely. Look carefully.

A rock God doesn’t wear a baby tee-sized sweatshirt. Baby tees, yes. But not a midriff-baring sweatshirt where the sleeves don’t even quite make it to his wrists.

You might be asking, “So, does Brett shop at Baby Gap?” The answer is maybe, because I don’t know Brett that well, but I do know that this sweatshirt is too small because his Mama put it in the dryer for a bit too long.

And he is sad about it. Clearly.

“I love my Mama…but I really loved that sweatshirt,” he said this morning. Lesson learned: a mother’s laundering skills fade over time.

Kris is a happy young man full of creativity, guitar knowledge, excitement and has a love of organic foods that rivals Ed Begley, Jr., and that's serious business. Kris formerly worked in our Kentucky warehouse as an image processor before moving to Las Vegas to pursue his love of grape leaves, expensive health food and organic tea. Kris focuses on the categorization of product and on reciting Adam Sandler movie quotes....constantly.

Kris is also the king of the smooth jazz guitar..he can seduce you with just a minor 7th chord or two...it takes not long, my friends. He loves Morrissey and Ween, as well. (On a side note, I think I heard him banging his head to 80's hair metal recently, when I saw an evil fire in his eyes, but it was probably just all the pesticide-free food releasing it's goodness into his bloodstream)

Kristopher is a fine individual and is insanely dedicated to Zappos...his car might be freakishly small and economical, but he has the heart the size of the fiercest lion.

Here is the interview with the man, this reporter refers to as Mr. Lippy.

Laurie and I are back in the madness that is the KYImages room again today, and things are getting even stranger. A wrestler named Bubbles Van Peterson Jr. entered the room today, and she will not leave us alone. She choked-slammed me and my shoes came off. It was terrible.

Below is her pictured when she attacked Dr. Vik while in Vegas....she came after him with the crown and a billy club shortly after this was taken. She toured the Memphis circuit for many years before being kicked out of the tag team, the Dueling Omblongadas. She actually ate an opponent alive....it was a terrible sight. She claimed that the deceased tasted like no-bake cookies....fyi. (Bubbles is pictured below)

Laurie and I continue to work with our friends out here in the beautiful state of Kentucky. Blue Skies, Allman Brothers style.....I should go, Laurie and Bubbles are grappling near Receiving. This might be bad. Real bad.

Laurie W. and I are in the land of KY this week helping our comrades
here with a few new processes....but the room is full of strangeness.

There are naked ghosts standing all about the room, and we are
frightened to the point of complete paralysis. Our imagery and photo
studios are actually located deep within the Zappos warehouse. It's a
strangely quiet room and a very tall, demon-like creature lurks about.
(who has an awful lot of Transformer toys at his desk, I might add).
His name is Max the Terrible, and this reporter knows better than to
come into his treacherous field of vision. We will be here all
week....I will keep you posted on our condition and whereabouts.

Tonight, Rico C. and I will venture out into the hills of Kentucky near
the Zappos warehouse and see what trouble awaits us. A great deal, I
would imagine.
Your friend in Indiucky, Brett.

Thursday at 3:30pm we all walked into the training room, which had been transformed into an awesome art show! Some rad people in the photo department put together our second Creative Services Art Gala. Some team members in our KY Content team put in their art masteries for all of us to see. I was truly amazed by everyone's talent. There was so much more than just photography and paintings. People also displayed sculptures, drawings, mixed media, and even fashion! They also provided delicious snacks for us. Sparkling grape juice, meats, cheeses, crackers, and desserts! The desserts ranged from chocolate covered strawberries to pineapple cake. We love food.

Quite a few people from the photo department put in their work. We did however, have one person from our very own images team submit work. I know, it's sad we didn't all participate, and we're lame.. losers.. L7 weenies..I know. We are our own worst critics, and we don't think our work is great, yadda.. yadda... except for Erin Ryan (our supervisor). Her piece was amazing and she does awesome work. Way to go Errrin! Her piece is a painting of sorts. She's been writing poems since she was little and thought she would give life to them by taking actual tangible things from the poems and putting them on canvas and using her favorite art medium, Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish. This particular piece titled, "The Woman," is based on a poem she wrote about a 1920's prostitute. She used almost all vintage pieces to construct a collage of sorts to give life to the poem. For example a few vintage portraits, a handkerchief, jewelry, and a powder case are just a few of the items that represented the life that this fictional character endured. This is just one of a series of these types of "paintings." We look forward to seeing more of Erin's work in the future and maybe work from the rest of us as well...yes.. ?

Here is Erin's work and a video of us walking around and looking at art!

Artsy We Are! -Posted May 2nd 2008

If your in the Kentucky warehouse anytime between now and May 9th, you should stop by.

Thanks to everyone who put this show together, it looked great! I cant wait until next year!

The Wolf is a Production Assistant here in on our Creative Services team. He claims to be part tomato. We fear that he is lying to us. The Wolf actually came to us from our Customer Loyalty Department almost a year ago, many moons indeed. We chose him for his quick wit, archery skills and Photoshop mastery. Upstairs in our Vegas headquarters, adorned upon a wall, is a large graffiti Zappos logo that the Wolf spray painted for our CLT friends. He is a wild beast with a spray paint can, let me tell you.

The Wolf comes from the wilderness, and he shows not his face due to the poaching threat. (He also is just having a bad hair day and forgot to wear his hat, that might have something to do with it) Jenn B. stood up for an interview with this fine man-beast to ask him of his love of Zappos, Pigs and smooth 70's arena rock.

Wolf: We salute you.

We here in CS enjoy the finer things in life: poetry, abstract art,
throwing objects at co-workers, throwing large objects at Co-Workers, the Chicken Dance, The Money Pit (or any movie Shelley Long or anyone related to Shelley Long has appeared in) and..........Sugar-less Gum.

In particular, Brett H. and Alex K., love gum like no other grown men have ever
loved gum. They are connoisseurs of the finest, the best; we have literally traveled all over the world in search of a flavor that will fill we hearts with glee. We take photos of gum in other countries and pass them along. It all began years ago when Brett decided to cease his nasty smoking habit and began collecting gums of all different flavors....seriously, it was beginning to near an illegal amount at one point. I think someone might have called the authorities. But soon it caught on and we have been spreading the good word of our sugar-less addiction.
Below is a random snapshot of our very own Laurie-Bear enjoying Brett's
new flavor discovery. Just wanted to make you all are aware.

Good Day.....

I said Good Day, Sir!

Today we handed out our 2008 Zappos.com Print Ad Creative postcards
to Vegas employees! They are a sampling of some of the visuals being
used in our print ad campaign, which hit the newsstands this week!

All employees received five cards to send anywhere to anyone in the world! (I suggested we send them all to Val Kilmer. I don't really know why. First person that popped in my head.)In true creative service/marketing style, we just wheeled them around the office in a wagon and dove headlong into the seas of madness that are the CLT and Merchandising Floors.

Our Creative Service and Marketing crazies filled the aisles in a very non-disruptive.....well, ok, rather disruptive manner to hand bundles of postcards to the un-suspecting masses. Every employee has been given free reign to do what they want with them...who knows, you may be receiving one yourself!
These cards are a part of the 2008 Zappos.com Print Ad Creative, which is also coming along the same time as our brand spankin' new television commercial that began airing a few weeks ago. It is airing on multiple networks throughout the U.S. T.V.-O-Sphere, maybe you've seen one....if not, and if you're nice, I'll post it right below. I'm considering it......I'm considering it.....alright, you won me over. But barely. : )
It's a great new direction for us and we are very excited about it!
Anyway, back to filling out postcards, I'm sending one to my favorite
New Kid on the Block! (I won't say who)

The Magical Mountain Tour
Our wonderful web production team led by valiant knight Alex K., took a
journey on Wednesday that led them to one of the most magical places on
this fine earth.The team of 8 who work on Front End Development within the Creative Service
department here at Zappos.com, chartered a van and headed to Valencia, CA to the roller coaster insanity of Magic Mountain.

"The path was treacherous and long, but we made it
in fine form," said Alex K. "But we are a strong group of mammals, make
no mistake about that".

The group made t-shirts for the event, or battle-cloth, as they would
prefer that you call it, that had each one of them visually depicted,
which gained quite a bit of attention along the way. "Everywhere we
stopped along the way, people would stare at our shirts attempting to
match our faces to the drawing," said Ray M. "I felt famous, like Ryan Seacrest or Edgar Winter or something," he said.


The journey ended up at their destination at around 11:30 AM, and the good time happy day began.Ray M. says that although he enjoyed the roller coasters a great
deal, some of his cohorts were deeply frightened.

"I really loved the ride Goliath; it made me feel like a kid again. But Ryan was scared,
too scared to move, I tell you." (Author's note, Ryan A. has declined
to comment on this accusation, but he claims to be seeking revenge by
vandalizing Ray M.'s desk, possibly knocking over his filing cabinet.)
The group spent 6 hours riding, eating and enjoying each other's
company and, after a long day, the group finally rolled back into Vegas tired,
hungry and ready for more. Alex K. was happy with the result of his
toil, and he felt that this was a great exercise for his team to grow
closer to one another.