We received a load of TVs late last night, so some valiant, industrious SJ’ers stayed overnight to unload the shipment.

I walk in to work this morning to this…

Hello All,

I am taking Jimmy’s place this week writing the post because I failed, for a second straight week, to lose any weight. Apparently, one cannot eat (or drink) what they would like when dieting and expect to see any favorable results! With that in mind, I am recommitting myself to this challenge starting this morning. Jimmy would like me to report that there will be no discount this week, as he maintained his exact same weight of 295 lbs.  Just kidding, I think he is tipping the scales at a paltry 236 lbs. I gained a little, for a second straight week, and now hit 207 and have to admit that my pants are getting a bit tighter by the day. So, I am going to be a bit more cognizant of the “see food” diet I have been on and really kick this thing in the tail! I don’t really have any authorization to give out a discount for gaining weight, but I do feel like I should have some sort of consequence. I am open to some suggestions should I fail to lose from here on out–let me have it!!

Justin

Starring (in order of appearance):

Name: Jon

Position at ShopJimmy: Customer Service Partologist

One sentence job description: Answer phones, emails, and anything else that is thrown my way.

Favorite LCD breakage story: A lady called saying that her son’s friend threw the remote through their one-year-old 52” Plasma trying to change the channel.

TV model in your living room: Olevia LT42HVI

Family: I have two boys: Zach is 16 and Anthony is 8.

Hobbies: Tennis, Golf, Disc Golf, pretty much anything outside, music, movies, and watching any kind of sports.

Favorite restaurant: Anyone that can cook a good rare filet.

Go-to Pandora station: U2 Radio

Beverage of choice: Starbucks coffee straight up!

In-flight reading material: Skymall, do people really pay those prices??

Sports team(s) you root for: The Twins and the Yankees (except when they are playing the Twins), MN Vikings (Brett, I know you are reading this: come back for one more year, we need you).

Three things you’d bring to a deserted island: Food, SPF 1,000 sun screen, and a boat.

On a web dating service, you’d describe yourself as: Well, I just may copy and paste this questionnaire to one.

You can find me on…

Have you heard about the Lose Weight or Lose Money Challenge I am attempting?!

How come nobody wants to join? Justin threatened to, but he decided he likes his pizza a little too much. I don’t blame him. Well, this week wasn’t too bad; I managed to exercise 3 times and not eat too horribly at SESDA in Atlanta (although the food was excellent, btw).

Until next time,

Jimmy

Have you heard about the Lose Weight or Lose Money Challenge I am attempting?!

Week one was a little too easy. Week two, on the other hand, was a disaster. We’re having a sale! I exercised five times, but ate out waaaay too much again. I think I’m seeing a trend. Since you all are keeping me honest to my word, and reading boring blog posts about my weight loss, you get 10% off your purchases now through Sunday if you enter the discount code “thanksfatty” upon checkout.

I wont let this happen again so take advantage of it!

Jimmy

Name: Will Partridge

Position at ShopJimmy: Partologist/Portal Specialist/Shipping Manager

One sentence job description: I do a lot of handling: from parts, to people, situations, and shipping/receiving, I can handle it.

Favorite LCD breakage story: I don’t know, the screens are usually broken by the time they get to us.

TV model in your living room: Philips 42” LCD (42TA648BX/37)

Family: Mom, Dad, and two sisters (one older, one younger), 2 beagles, and a girlfriend I should probably mention since I mentioned the dogs.

Hobbies: Sailing, canoeing, fishing, pond hockey, softball, soccer, concerts and video games in-between.

Favorite restaurant: Fujiya in Mpls, and El Tequila’s in Owatonna (hometown).

Go-to Pandora station: The Mars Volta

Beverage of choice: Guinness, then all kinds of juice (orange, orange pineapple, and cranberry grape, being some of my favs)

In-flight reading material: The Week, and the “in case of an emergency” pictorial instructions.

Sports team(s) you root for: Twins, any team playing against a team where, if that team were to lose it would help the Twins in the standings, or pose a better playoff matchup for the Twins. Gophers, Vikings, Wild, and the CPP Softball Coalition.

Three things you’d bring to a deserted island: Swiss Army knife, flint and magnesium bar, and a canteen. (What else would you expect from an Eagle Scout?)

On a web dating service, you’d describe yourself as: I’m not a dirty cowboy, I’m not an unkempt hippie, I’m just a well groomed mountain man.

You can find me on…

This is an update to the SJ “Biggest Quitter”:

Ok, if you keep up with this blog you are aware of the biggest quitter game at ShopJimmy. Well, my consequence for giving into my bad habit was writing a blog every week for six months, so here I am! I am not nearly as humorous as Ryan and Jimmy, so you can request me to stop at any time by sending an email to jimmy@shopjimmy.com. No one is stopping you from doing so (actually it is encouraged). Until then, I will see you once a week…

Jackie

Have you heard about The Biggest Quitter? Most people at ShopJimmy have chosen a bad habit to kick and everyone is doing great at sticking to it. I am very proud of everyone, especially the smokers! Nice work team!

So last night, as I was on my way home for some wonderful sloppy joe’s, I stopped at the gas station to get buns and grabbed a Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg; the store clerk clued me in on a little secret that 1 egg is $1.00, 2 are on sale and only going to set you back $1.07 — just wait, it gets better — and she had a coupon making 2 of them only $0.50!!!!! I felt like I won the lottery! So, on the rest of my 1/2 mile journey home I downed those two wonderful, amazing, perfect and downright sexy Reese’s Eggs! While savoring the last bite, the pain set in as I realized I am not supposed to be eating candy! Now, to get technical, I set a goal of not eating candy from my mom’s desk, but the biggest quitter committee changed it to no candy ever–that’s crazy talk!

Either way, I messed up and now my head is going to suffer because my consequence is no diet coke for a month! Diet Coke drinkers don’t mess around; we drink that stuff like it’s going out of style, so this is going to be a real challenge. Not only does it taste spectacular, it also keeps me going everyday with its mocha-style shots of caffeine. This is going to be horrible.

April 6th I will be throwing a Diet Coke party!

I hope no one else has to suffer pain I am experiencing already.

Dear Friends,

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.”

Well, thy self and a few others in the office decided that we should try to quit our biggest vice. Call it a game. Call it “boosting office morale” minus the awkward, themed parties. Call it self-improvement.

Regardless of the motivation, the ShopJimmy “Biggest Quitter” game was born.

Last week, we had to choose our vice. I emphasize “choose” because some people, like thy self, might have more than one vice. No judging. We gathered the participants, wrote their name and “vice” on a whiteboard, and drew names. Depending on the name/person drawn, a consequence was created for them if they quit the Biggest Quitter. I know it sounds backwards, but just go with it.

The cool thing about the game is that most, thy self included, are trying to make some positive changes. A handful of people are quitting smoking. Others have given up the go-to candy stash at Sandy’s desk. As a specific example, Justin has decided to stop biting his nails. If he doesn’t quit, Jen and Anna get to paint his nails. We’re really hoping someone catches him gnawing on his nails.

What did thy self and Jimmy quit? Coffee and candy, respectively.

Feel free to send Jimmy Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups (his favorite candy) here. If he eats candy, he can’t drink Diet Coke for a month. He loves Diet Coke. In fact, “love” might not be a strong enough word.

Please send candy.

Thanks,

Everyone at ShopJimmy (except Jimmy)

Name: Jennifer Schepers

Position at ShopJimmy: Customer Service Extraordinaire

One sentence job description: I handle all customer inquiries, informing them about our parts and our company to ensure a correct sale, while keeping the customer’s best interest in mind and making sure they always ShopJimmy. (Is a run-on sentence still considered one sentence?)

Favorite LCD breakage story: A lady called in and was almost in tears because her two sons got into a fight, and one of them threw a water bottle at the other. He missed and hit their 52” TV. She was upset about the TV and, obviously, not her sons.

TV model in your living room: 42” Vizio

Family: Wont be starting my own anytime soon. Just a mom, a dad, and one older sister, who usually acts like the younger sister.

Hobbies: Going to concerts/music festivals, fire spinning, cake decorating, and I’m on a bowling league (which does not mean I am a good bowler).

Favorite restaurant: Las Margaritas for fajitas. Best. Hangover Cure. Ever. (Especially with a pitcher of margaritas.) :)

Go-to Pandora station: Citizen Cope, Atmosphere, Led Zeppelin

Beverage of choice: non-alcoholic: water or cran-grape juice, alcoholic: wine or tequila (not mixed–very bad holiday party mistake).

In-flight reading material: I get very bad motion sickness, so I usually stick to the trusty iPod.

Sports team(s) you root for: Twins, Vikings (always more entertaining when they are punishing the Packers), Wild, and Gophers.

Three things you’d bring to a deserted island: iPod Touch, a pillow, and Jason Mraz.

On a web dating service, you’d describe yourself as: On a scale of 1-10, I’m a Fabulous!

You can find me on:

Name: Nathan Olund

Position at ShopJimmy: Parts Manager Master (Kim is Parts Manager Slave)

One sentence job description: I try to eliminate the clutter from our website and warehouse.

Favorite LCD breakage story: Customer’s dog ran into his TV because there was another dog on the TV.

Nate and his special friend.

TV model in your living room: Samsung LN32something

Family: I have a beautiful boo. Ma and Pa live in WI. I’m the oldest and have a brother and sister.

Hobbies: Video and Board Games (I take a lot of crap for being a Rock Band dork). Cooking. Cats (more of an obsession than a hobby).

Favorite restaurant: I don’t have one, but you will find me at Chipotle quite often.

Go-to Pandora station: Mastodon

Beverage of choice: With a meal – Milk. Cocktail – Jack Daniels and Coke or Scotch.

In-flight reading material: More of a crossword guy.

Sports team(s) you root for: Packers, Badgers (Alma Mata), Twins, Brewers, Wild

Three things you’d bring to a deserted island: Kittens, games, and cheese curds

On a web dating service, you’d describe yourself as: A centaur. Half man, half horse. I’ll let you guess the horse parts ladies. (Editor’s note: this answer was too good to censor. He’s really a nice, gentlemanly guy. I swear.)

You can find me on…

Cowboys Stadium

I know I’ve been on this 3D kick lately, but did any of you watch (or go to!) the Cowboys vs. Chargers game on Sunday?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the latest happenings in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, built a mega-stadium for his beloved football team. The stadium boasts: a capacity of 111,000, it’s the largest domed stadium in the world, and it has the largest high-definition video screen for its scoreboard (60 yards wide!). This palatial stadium didn’t come cheap; it reportedly cost Jones $1.15 billion.

Anyway, there’s been a lot of chatter (and more than a few jokes) about the stadium’s jumbotron. In the preseason, Titan’s punter A.J. Trapasso repeatedly hit the scoreboard; however, it’s remained untouched during regular season games. This past Sunday, owner (probably more appropriately dubbed as a circus ringleader) Jones decided to use the stadium’s huge scoreboard and new technology to try something new: real-time 3D viewing and highlights.

Jerry Jones and his jumbotron.

It backfired. A measly six minutes and fifty seconds into the game, the 3D was turned off to loud cheers. According to Engadget, many in the crowd didn’t use their 3D glasses (and subsequently booed the blurry image–not really Jones’ fault, I suppose) and others complained of feeling a bit nauseous (this has also been a viewer complaint during the first showings of James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar, also in 3D).

In a post on December 4th, I mentioned LG’s launch of a LCD 3D HDTV. After the crowd reaction at the Cowboys game this Sunday (and Avatar reviews), should the manufacturer keep pursuing this new technology?

Maybe, though, Cowboys fans were simply booing their team. They lost 17-20 to the Chargers.

Where do I begin? Let me “set the scene” for you…

At the office on Friday afternoon, anticipation began to mount (a.k.a. casual adult beverage consumption) for our holiday party that evening. Serious productivity came to a screeching halt at about 4:30 pm (alright, maybe a little earlier). With our “dates” (well, most of us had dates…I’m not bitter, though), we made the short trek to a nearby hotel, where our wonderful HR directors, Jackie and Emily, set-up a dinner party in a conference room.

The food was delightful (thank you, Green Mill, for “forcing” many of us to meet our weekly carbohydrate count in one sitting). The conversation was better. Those two factors alone would have made it an evening to remember.

But (in typical Jimmy fashion)…

There was also a raffle for a brand new, 50-inch plasma TV! With the number of guests fairly limited (about 45 people, give or take a few dateless guests…I’m still not bitter, I swear), we all quickly developed visions of plasma-filled living rooms (sugar plums are so out-of-date). After a brief (but eloquent!) speech by Jimmy, the winner was drawn…

It was Jimmy’s mom.

Needless to say, they were both shocked (in somewhat opposite ways–I’ll let you infer the rest). Jimmy’s mood rapidly changed, however, when we presented him with his gift: a cool, personalized plaque of the recent Star Tribune article about ShopJimmy.

And if that wasn’t enough…

Jackie and Emily reserved dueling pianos as entertainment for the rest of the evening! The pianists were incredible and played everything from Bon Jovi to Backstreet Boys (I have no clue who requested the latter). A couple brave souls even did a little karaoke (look at that suit and power stance!).

As they say in journalism, I guess that’s all the news fit to print. It was truly a great evening, and I think everyone had a fun time mingling in ways other than emails and IMs. A big thanks to Jackie, Emily, and of course, Jimmy.

Until next year…

Happy Holidays!