Hot n’ spicy.  Mmmm.

Monday, June 2nd marked the first ever company wide chili cook-off here at Stream57, featuring 9 bean-stuffed, veggie-loaded, meat-packed tubs of delicious spicy goodness – enough gas power to fuel a small town.

From Ben’s multi-meat offering to Jim’s veg-friendly feast; Jeremy’s holy-hell-that’s-hot to Daniel’s Indian-influenced stew; the chili’s were quite varied yet remarkably delicious all around.

Our esteemed tasting panel was lead by graphic designer extraordinaire (and resident snack-junkie) Jesse Miksic, a prince of the palatable potencies.  Rounding out his crew of saucy spice-lovers were friends of the Mik-man, Dominic a hockey-playing world-traveling designer from Brooklyn; Anthony, a Boston-based cartoon-costumed wrestler with an appetite; and Johnny, a dumpster-diving ‘Nawleans boy who’s just happy to get a free meal without fighting a raccoon (apparently this “freegan” lifestyle of his is a legit thing…).

The 4-man scoring squad sat sequestered in our lovely conference- slash-dining-room for what seemed like at least 45 minutes before emerging with delicately deliberated scores and results, ranking each pot-o’-fire for complexity and subtlety of the flavor (including any noxious aromas), texture and consistency of the pasty and/or soupy mess, and, of course, the “kick” of the peppers and spices.

Super designer / Siberian superstar Kat once again proved her excellence-in-all-things-awesome with a resoundingly delicious Russian-style chili that utilized whole potatoes and sour cream to distinguish it from its peers.  Her presentation of carefully-design recipe cards and a full-color label only added to its appeal.

Rounding out the top tier was head honcho Ben’s beef-and-beer chili and Daniel’s curry-spiced creation.  Jeremy’s sweet-yet-f@#$ing-spicy chili (which he refused to even taste himself) won the special “hot” prize.

All in all, we were really just treated to a week’s worth of chili leftovers and a whole slew of foreign beers in our fridge.  And we’re all just about as regular as can be.

We received a contact request from our website today kindly suggesting to ‘tell Ben to swallow the gum he's chewing in his video clip’. Hmm, we’re not sure what video clip that is… wait, could it be this one?

If you don’t know him, Ben’s our president and an all around nice guy (clearly he’s got a sense of humor or we wouldn’t dare post an image so disparaging).

Note: this is not the first time that we’ve used Ben’s iconic figure in conjunction with well known Internet memes / war propaganda to elicit a warm and fuzzy feeling in those who apprehend it. This image, conspicuously posted in the developer ‘pen,’ reminds coders to do their civic duty and document their code.

Stream57 has built team spirit in myriad questionable ways... through gambling (Poker night), substance abuse (beer and wine tasting), and rock and roll (guitar hero). A couple weekends ago, we moved to a fresh, untested sin: wrath and violence.  The vehicle for this depraved team-building exercise was the infamous New Jersey outpost "Paintball Depot."

This place is in West Milford, New Jersey, a bothersome forty-five minute creepy van ride from the midtown office. We all loaded up, bright and early… earlier than many of us get up for real work, in fact.  The town is an empty sprawl of "flora" (whoever thought there were so many trees?) and "fauna" (we saw turkeys, but restrained ourselves from shooting them), as well as awesome hick-y bars where people wear lots of denim.

Once upon a time, this game might have been a scrimmage, but with our recent growth, it was nothing short of a war in the wilderness, the meeting of vast forces laying waste to the landscape. The designated teams were the noble "Phelanators" and the evil "Geiger Counters," captained by two of your dedicated bloggers, and there were around thirteen people under each standard. We were identifiable by red and white armbands, respectively, that were bright enough to inspire comraderie but subtle enough that you had to squint for a few seconds to figure out who you were shooting at. As far as stand-out players, the Geiger Counters had Jeremy, their Achilles, a seasoned paintball veteran with his very own equipment; the Phelanators had little but our warriors’ spirit.

Oh, and Kat, our well-kept secret weapon, a lithe, non-threatening graphic designer who turned out to be the physical embodiment of total destruction.

It was a cold day... a damn cold day. Luckily, we were all outfitted with baggy camo jumpsuits and goggles, which were essential, because those paintballs could definitely take out an eye. Even as it was, a few people got mouthfuls of paint, which, according to Jim, is "kind of sweet, but not in a good way." People will tell you it really hurts when you get hit with a paintball, and they do indeed travel at high speeds, but I assure you – it’s a good kind of pain.

  There were some truly brilliant key moments – Angelo’s execution and Aaron and Matt’s standoffs in the trenches, Jeremy and Steve’s elaborate approaches and Bruce’s pitched defenses. The Geiger Counters were formidable, winning their fair share of confrontations, although the Phelanators’ victorious assault on the hill before lunch will echo in history, like the Alamo or the battle of Thermopylae. The final, epic game of capture the flag, a battle of attrition and desperation, will be remembered forever, as well... it is inscribed in the marble of our corporate memory.

After the matches, and the pizza, we went to one of those bars we were talking about. "Jiggs," I think it was. Nachos and celebratory brews were shared, and the rivals reconvened as brothers and sisters to reminisce on the day’s events. We made it back by early evening, tired and satisfied.

Make no mistake... teams were built. Morale was bolstered. Great webcasting innovations were tossed around and field-tested. Pictures were taken. Lunch was eaten. Good times were had by all. 

It's common knowledge that when a coworker demands that his or her birthday remain unobserved that action must be immediately taken to the opposite effect. Today marked Andy Parker's (Stream57's Marketing Director) birthday and we needed to come up with something groundbreaking to embarrass him. We scratched our heads, stroked our goatees, and ultimately decided that the only acceptable course of action was to bring in outside talent. We procured a very talented singing and dancing chicken from Big Apple Singing Telegrams and staged a companywide meeting. It was a hoot – in the end we had a whole line of folks doing the so-called ‘chicken dance’ and we followed the whole fiasco with an impromptu all-or-nothing Nerf gun war.