Most of us have thought about what super powers we would want to have. We went around Zappos HQ to ask Zapponians about what super power they’d love to have...if it were possible.

What super power would YOU want? Leave a comment below!

This week’s spotlight is on Ned F. from the Direct Marketing team of Zappos Development. Ned has been with Zappos since the San Francisco days and he holds the revered title of best Richard Simmons stunt double around the Halloween season.You really have to see it to believe it. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to witness it in all its glory once again this October…?

Read on to learn more about Ned!

Pick 3 words to describe your personal style.
N: Irresistibly charming, plaid, open-toed

Who is your favorite musician or band.
N: GWAR

Name 3 things you never leave home without.
N: "Mandals" (man sandals), pens clipped to the shirt, Ocean Pacific Velcro wallet

If you could have dinner with one famous person, who would it be?
N: Elvis.  I’m convinced he’s living with John Candy and Kurt Cobain down in Argentina.

What’s the weirdest thing to ever happen to you?
N:  So I’m rappelling down Mount Vesuvius when suddenly I slip,…and I start to fall.  And I’m just falling.  And I keep falling.   I’ll never forget the terror. Never.  Suddenly I realize, “Holy crap, Ned, haven’t you been eating taco Tuesday in the bistro for six straight days, and Ned, couldn’t some of this maybe be in your head”….And it was.  I was totally fine. I’ve never been to Mount Vesuvius.

What’s your favorite part about working at Zappos HQ?
N:  The energetic atmosphere. I’ve been here for quite a while and I’ve witnessed the amazing growth of the company at Zappos along with the organic growth of our unique culture. There’s a certain amount of pride trying to explain to vendor clients on the other end of the phone line why there is a Christmas in July parade strolling through the office at 10am in the morning. The energy of the office makes it fun to wake up, strap on the morning mandals, and stroll into work.  I have to give props to Tony - back in the early days of Zappos when we were about 40 people deep company wide, he set big hairy ambitious goals to be accomplished by 2010: Making one billion dollars in revenue and being one of the top companies to work for in the US.  Thanks to the company’s hard work, many sales of mandals, and taco Tuesday,….we did it! (revisionist history included)

Back in June, a few of us decided to beat the crazy Las Vegas heat with a good ol’ fashioned water fight. Well, we decided it was time for a round two!

This time, there was even more madness, as folks from Zappos Merchandising, Zappos Development and Zappos Finance all went head to head in an all-out water war.

Will there be a round three? I guess we have a couple more weeks of summer to find out!

One of our Zappos Family Core Values is “Be adventurous, creative and open-minded”. So when ZCLT rep Pua was faced with the challenge of creating an out-of-the-box resume when applying for an internal position, she knew she had to step up to the plate.

The idea of doing a cake resume came to her in a dream, oddly enough. She contacted a friend at Jean Philippe Patisserie at the Bellagio to construct her delicious resume out of her favorite cake: red velvet. What a sweet idea indeed!

We know that doing pushups and getting strong is important to a healthy life style.  Here at Zappos HQ we don't want to just do pushups, we want to do 100 of them in a row! That may seem impossible to some, but that’s why we put out the 100 Pushups Challenge.

Three times a week for seven weeks, a handful of us Zapponians are doing the program as listed on the hundredpushups.com site. It's a fun way to push ourselves to reach a common goal of a stronger, healthier body.  

How many pushups can YOU do?

This week’s Zapponian Spotlight is on Jennifer W. from the Front End Development team of Zappos Development. Jen is a Colorado native who loves web design, interior design and baking. “I think the creative aspects balance the logical aspects of my job nicely.”, she says.

Jen is also a mean origami crane folder and has folded over 15,000 cranes since the 8^th grade!

Read on to learn more about this creative Zapponian:

Pick 3 words to describe your personal style.
J: Simple, comfortable, feminine

Who is your favorite musician or band.
J: This is hard because it changes so often, but some bands and artists I always find myself going back to are The Fray, Snow Patrol, and Katy Perry.

Name 3 things you never leave home without.
J: My iPhone, sunglasses, and chapstick

If you could have dinner with one famous person, who would it be?
J: I never know how to answer this question. Probably Steve Jobs or someone nerdy like that.

What’s the weirdest thing to ever happen to you?
J: When I was young I had a pen-pal from Oman, whom I lost touch with as I grew older. Years later, I was in a college history class and began talking with a girl who was also from Oman. Turns out she was good friends with my long lost pen pal! Small world.

What’s your favorite part about working at Zappos HQ?
J:  The people. I’ve never been around such a positive and hard-working group before. When I moved to Vegas I knew no one, but I was adopted right away and never even had a chance to feel homesick! Being able to say I work with my friends is such a privilege.

Last year's edition of the Zappos Culture Book.

We’re at it again! For last year’s 2010 Zappos.com Culture Book, we asked our customers, employees and partners to submit their photos…a way of getting unique perspectives of the world through different lenses.

This year, we want everyone’s photos to add to the 2011 Culture Book. Here are some of the requirements for the photos:

Good:

What you think of when you hear “Zappos”

-Your favorite Zappos item

-Something fun and a little weird

-Something that makes you smile

-Something you’re passionate about

-Your interpretation of one of our core values (http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values)

No Good:

-Your dirty laundry :)

-Anything inappropriate

-Anything excessively photo-edited or Photoshopped.

Feel free to add informative titles, descriptions, your name and where you took the picture (in the email, not on the picture). If you’re submitting a photo, you’re giving us the right to use it in our book and you’re verifying that it’s your original photo (and not someone else’s).

Specs:

-The higher the resolution, the better!

-JPG format only.

-300 dpi 5” x 7” or higher.

-1200 × 1600 pixels minimum.

-You must own the full copyright.

-No trademarks (e.g. logos, brands, entities with copyright or trademarked).

Please send your images and questions to: cbphotos@zappos.com by this Thursday, August ^25th!

In the spirit of our 6th Core Value: "Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication", make sure to watch the livestream of today's Zappos Family All Hands! It will be streaming LIVE today at 1 PM PST.

Our customer loyalty phone lines will be closed from 11 AM-8PM (PST) today so that everyone in the company can attend this quarterly event.

You can even watch the livestream and interact with other Zappos fans on our Facebook Zappos Fan page! We never know what's in store at these All Hands meetings, so be sure to join us to see all the fun and surprises!

Video streaming by Ustream