Today’s smoothie, banana nut muffin + chocolate milk, was inspired by the abundance of muffins onsite. You see today’s catered food is “Unique All Day Breakfast.” We had bagels, croissants, Danishes, sausage, bacon, strawberries, grapes and grapefruit. Mmmmm, bacon! Oh look, sausage patties too!

Here’s the ingredient line up picture.



I actually pre-chilled the pastries and the chocolate milk. Yep, I snuck in an apple Danish and a strawberry yogurt. And an ice cream sandwich and chocolate taco fell in there somehow. <shrugs> The general verdict, myself included – this was too thick and could have been colder. I should have added some ice to the mixture. Oh well, blend and learn…

I also sent out a twitter.com alert and asked people who wanted to try a smoothie to send me a direct message. They went fairly fast. I'm johnhz or insidezappos on twitter by the way.

Last week I took the Zappos University Twitter 101 class. It was taught by the infamous DJ Jim (twitter id Zappos_JimGreen) and it went over all the basics of setting up and using twitter. For those of you not familiar with twitter.com it is a new and popular messaging service. Basically, when you sign up for a twitter account and send an update, it goes out into this giant message cloud and people who have decided to “follow you” will see these messages directly either on their computer or mobile device like a phone. Now these messages in the cloud can also be pulled by people who are not following you. For example, on our twitter.zappos.com page you can see any twitter message that has the word “Zappos” in it.

It can be a fun, interesting and powerful way to communicate with people. It can also be kind of overwhelming. I was really glad to learn about the “tracking” feature of twitter in this class. This way I can flag only messages with a keyword for either a topic or a person. We also have an intermediate level twitter class that goes into more advanced ways to use twitter – maybe next week!

Here’s a gag picture of our class – we’re all pretending to tweet on our mobile devices.



So check it out and if you want to follow me I use both

johnhz (for Vegas stuff) and insideZappos for more official blog stuff.

I was swept away with both amusement and admiration when I learned that a group of people at Zappos were going to drink their way through the entire range of beers, about 140, at a bar here in Vegas. They set the time limit at 45 days as a group and 90 days individually. They twitter everytime they make progress toward their goal. (We've got over 400 Zappos employees on twitter)

Here’s a Q&A with Amara, the leader of this fine effort. (FYI, she’s just a slip of a gal but man, can she drink!)

Q: How were you inspired to start doing this?
A: While dining at Yardhouse one night, I was impressed with the sheer number of beers on their menu and the fact that they have most of these beers on tap. I love challenges and thought this was one that I could take on and have fun with since I love beer. I named it the Yardhouse Challenge. There are two challenges: 1. A group of us need to consume all 140+ beers in 45 days, i.e. every beer needs to be tried and drunk fully within 45 days. 2. Individually, 140+ beers need to be drunk in 90 days.

Q: How many beers are there?
A:There about 140 beers on the menu. I have the list at my desk.
Q: How many have you done to date?
A: We have done 66 unique beers. I need to keep pace of 2 beers a day to complete the challenge on time.

Q: Estimated time of completion or beers per day or per week?
A: The 45 day challenge needs to be completed by June 27 and the individual challenge by Aug 11.

Q: Any other Zappos people doing this?
A: There are a handful of people contributing to the challenge in Merch. Planning, e.g. Daisy 3.14, Anand, and Emo-Sean.

Q: Is there a prize?
A: Pride

Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Sean's favorite beer: Anderson Valley Boont Amber
Anand's favorite beer: Spaten Optimator
Amara's favorite beer: Blue Moon
Daisy's favorite beer: Mint Mojito

Sean's high for the day: 3 beers
Anand's high: 8 beers
Amara's high: 7 beers
Daisy's high: 7 beers

Daisy added splenda, lime and salt to one of her beer.

Daisy hates beer

Sean is going alphabetically down the list

At the last outing we made both happy hours - the 3 to 6 and the 11 to close.

You can follow their progress on twitter.com - Zappos_Planner
I’ll update you again when they get close!

Johnhzand InsideZappos on Twitter.

So this morning Silvia (Silvialicious on twitter.com) calls me over in the lunch room and hands me a foam cup containing a thick tan fluid. She declares “Hey John, I saved you some LARD!” Now I’ve lived a pretty full and moderately unusual life, but this was a first for me. Now suet, that I’ve been offered before (and gladly accepted) in bulk quantities - oh what a lovely, resilient substance. Well hey, our 4th Core Value is “Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded”, so I accepted her kind offer. I must confess she did have a wee bit of a maniacal gleam in her eye – something I had not seen since her kite flying days – and this did make me wonder.

Of course the next thing I did was ask for fresh lard usage suggestions on the twitter.com. Next thing you know I am pouring up bacon fat shots. Gotta love that twitter! I would then ask passersby if they would care for a “bacon fat shot” or a “pig shooter” and await their responses. You know, I learned something about myself today – I really enjoy making people (especially the ladies) go “Eeeeeuuuuuuuwwwwwww!” So here’s the bacon fat shot with the wasabi side. The idea is you smear a bit of wasabi on your upper lip, take the shot and then lick the green. Don’t try this at home kids. You daring, consenting grownups out there, please send pictures and video if you do try it.



I’d like to close this lovely blog entry with a tip to my wonderful co-workers - when they are leading visitor tours near where I sit. If you softly whistle the melody from “Johnny B Good” I’ll be that Johnny for the next 5 minutes.

Ever wonder what the story is behind the basset hound that looks at you with those droopy eyes, thanking you for your order on Zappos? Wait no more! World…meet Fletch!

Name: Fletch

Birthday: September 15, 1999

Likes: filet mignon treats and long walks in the park with Ned and Andy

We at Zappos love our furry friends and since his arrival into our lives, Fletch has gained quite a following. So much so that he was one of the guests of honor at the recent 1st Annual Basset Hound Picnic.

Andy, Fletch’s owner, said that he was expectedly very excited for this function. When they received the invitation in the mail, there was a sense that he knew exactly what was in store for him. He’d get to spend some quality time with his old friends from the rescue; Gary - the brown and white droopy eyed senior citizen, Henrietta - the blind 5 year old with a plucky spirit, and Boscoe - the quiet, reserved gentleman.

“Like any reunion, the atmosphere was electric when we got there,” said Andy. “Old friends and new ones approached Fletch and I right away, I could sense fear and anxiety in Fletch.”

Fletch certainly wasn’t used to this sudden bombardment of creatures that looked like him. A few standoffs, and nervous urinations later, Fletch finally relaxed. He began gravitating to his old social circle.

Boscoe and Fletch appeared to pick up where they left off. Telepathically Fletch told Boscoe about how he became this big Internet star and how his life was never the same…constant requests for interviews, award shows and endorsement opportunities. Boscoe, not one to be impressed by this, responded by laying a ‘deuce’ next to Fletch’s feet. Un-phased by this, Fletch went on talking about himself, often referring to himself in the 3rd dog.

Fletch has quite a following and you never know…he might just join the conversation on Twitter! (twitter.com/fletch_thedog)

P.S. Check out more of our Zappos.com Critters!

Yesterday, ZU held their first Twitter class, “Twitter 101” taught by the infamous twit Zappos_JimGreen. He went over just the basics in this class and he will be holding Twitter 201, an intermediate class, next week. Here’s a pic of the class - standing room only, baby.


If you haven’t heard of Twitter.com, it is an internet social networking/communication tool. People (aka twits) who have signed up and created a free account can post short messages about what they are doing. If you are “following” a twit or viewing an aggregation page you can see their messages.

For instance, we have a couple Zappos aggregation pages. If you go to twitter.zappos.com you’ll see all the twitter posts that mention Zappos and from there you can click to see all the Zappos twits, their messages and how many followers they have. We’ve got over 300 people twittering at Zappos.

I’m signed up under 2 Twitter ids:

"InsideZappos” for the more official messages and “johnhZ” for more off the cuff and local messages. For example, I’ll be whipping up a batch ofsmoothies from time to time and then twittering something like “Choc Cake Smoothies! - First 12 people to twit back, I’ll reserve one for you!”

So yeah, I’m a twit too. And if you follow me, I’ll follow you!

Our April 2008 event took place at the Arroyo at Red Rock Golf Club in Summerlin. We had a total of 40 players and was sponsored by Taylor Made Adidas Golf - a big THANK YOU to Mike of TMaG!

A LITTLE GOLF EDUCATION

For this blog post, I felt that it would be good to give a little information about golf scoring. This will help to understand our stories for this month.

Most golf courses around the world are par 72 courses. What this means is that to play a "perfect" round, a golfer will play the 18 holes only hitting 72 strokes or shots. Most professional PGA golfers will shoot at par or below. The average amateur golfer shoots 100. When you watch a PGA golf tournament, you will see scores such as -3 (i.e. Tiger Woods -3). What this means is that the golfer is shooting at 3 below par 72. If you see a +3, this means that the golfer has shot 3 over par.

For our Zappos events, we are all amateurs and I would say that collectively, we probably average about 100. We have some golfers that shoot 120 or more and some golfers who shoot 85 or below. Our events have a really great mix of skill levels.

If you read my last blog post about our March event, you will recall that I said we play in SCRAMBLE format and that this means "team play". What I mean by "team play" is that each team records 1 score. Team members all take turns hitting from the same spot for every shot (not alcohol... ). After everyone hits, the team will then determine who had the best shot based on the position of the ball. The other team members will then pick up their balls and put it next to the ball of the best shot. Each team member will then hit from that spot one-by-one and repeat until the ball goes into the hole. The team will then count the total number of best shots from the tee box to the hole and mark that score down on the scorecard for that hole.

APRIL 2008

Now that you understand the scoring, you would think that a score of -10 for a team would be incredible and be the winning score for an event. This happened to be the team that I was on. We were playing a great round, hitting great shots, and sinking putts. All keys to a great score. Our confidence of being the winners was high but short-lived. The team that was right behind us was comprised of Oakley ballers, Paul, Mark, Kirk, and our very own Steve H (Zappos_Steve on twitter). I could tell they were on fire when I would look back during play and watch them putt. They were sinking EVERY putt and putts are the most important shots. Deep down inside, I was hoping that they would keep drinking and eventually fall apart. No such luck...

That team ended up shooting an AMAZING -11! That -11 score is a new record for a Zappos event (previous record was a -10 at a different course last year). Congratulations to Paul, Mark, Kirk, and Steve to a job well done!

STORY #2

This is an awesome story... a story that you would typically hear about from a major PGA tournament by a professional golfer. This story was told by Josh and Jim from our Zappos Rideshop at the clubhouse over drinks/shots (yes, the alcoholic ones) immediately following the event.

On the 6th hole, one of our vendors, Dave from Ocean Minded, pulled out a 9-iron to take his shot for the green. As he was getting ready to hit, the beverage cart girl pulled up (aka Booze Girl). Jim went to buy some drinks for the team. So, Dave is about to hit his shot, Jim is walking over to buy drinks, and Josh and Garrett were giving half their attention to Dave and the other half to the Booze Girl - although I'd be willing to bet it was a little more than half on the Booze Girl . Dave takes his shot and the clean sound of the club hitting the golf ball prompted everyone to turn around to watch it. They followed the ball in the air until it hit the green about 10 feet from the pin/hole. They watched as the ball rolled closer and closer to the hole and then disappear - WOW! The team ended up with a score of -2 for the hole. This means it took them 2 shots to put the ball in the hole where par for the hole was 4. In golf, this is known as an Eagle. To paint a picture, Dave hit a 1.7" golf ball from a distance longer than a football field with the end zones and dropped it into a 4.25" hole in the ground. Absolutely amazing!

My $.02... His motivation may have been the drinks about to come his way, but I'm thinkin' that it was to impress Booze Girl.

Until our May event... hit 'em long and straight!

Sean K - the Self-Proclaimed Chief Golf Officer (http://twitter.com/skimshady)

Howzit, faithful followers?!

I really hated to title this latest HR / Training pulsating post as I did, (waaaay too many ABBA references his week for some reason), but what choice did I have??? Feast your ogling ojos on this:


That’s Zappos HR’s very own ninja prom queen, Heaven “Heavenless” T. showing us what she’s got. ‘nuff said.

Oh wait, that’s not true!! I also managed to score a pic of Jamstar’s recent glittering gift from one of her joie de vivre vendors:



Perhaps coming to a Zollar Store near you!! Sweeeeeet……

Some parting notes!

Jobs@zappos! Come getcha some!

Special thanks to Tony “Gender Bender” H., Zappos CEO, for letting me post Heaven’s performance here, instead of snatching it from my archives for his own sinister purposes, and waiting ever so patiently for me to get it out. Yer the best Tony. Love ya. Mean it.

Coming Soon!
-How HR’s Monthly Outing literally rocked! (promise this one’s coming really soon)
-An update from Training! (sorry, really needed to get Heaven’s routine up!)
-Zappos.com: Powered by Hope! (and another Dancing Queen!!)
-Random Rozzy Thoughts! (building anticipation…it’ll be worth it!)
-The Benches Are Here!!!!! (or, “Why We Love Rozzy and Rebecca L.!”)
-What’s all this about Twitter, then?!!

Until we meet again, “Yes! A brain transplant!...I don’t need it; take my brain!”
~drroo
(follow me on twitter!)

Item!
Have any ideas on how this crazy, kooky thing we call a blog could evolve? They don’t even need to be good ones! Have a burning question, or a need to wax philosophical? Need some sage advice? I’m here for you, citizens of the intarweb, and my sustenance is your comments!!!

Interested in hearing what all the Tweets are about? Then check out a new little project we put together quickly: twitter.zappos.com. What is this exactly? Well, it is a little place to see all the messages people write on Twitter that mention Zappos! Oh, and if you are unfamiliar with Twitter here is how they describe it straight from their site, and I quote: "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

It's actually a cool little tool to stay informed! Needless to say people are going to Twitter about anything. We discovered that people actual Twitter a good deal about Zappos, so we figured we would share the messages with the world! At twitter.zappos.com you'll see the good, the bad, the partial, the impartial, employees, customers, enemies, Romans, countrymen, lovers, etc, etc... all mentioning Zappos for whatever reason while using Twitter!!!

There are other ways to get these messages too, if you have a Twitter account type track zappos into the message field and you'll get all the Tweets that mention Zappos delivered straight to you (might be worth tracking Zappos.com and Zappo as well, just in case). Hopefully you find it as fun as we do, and if you have any questions/comments about enhancing this please leave a comment and we'll see what we can do to accommodate!