In the upcoming year, our resolution is to get to know our community a little better. What you like, what you dislike, who you are. We’ve learned from talking to you, there’s a lot to enjoy by meeting our community!
A 21st birthday is magical. It’s the day you are finally and truly an adult. Except for being President and renting a car, every single opportunity that America has to offer is now unlocked and waiting. Drinking? Voting? Getting a tattoo? The world is YOURS! That’s why we were very impressed with Link9064, also known as Jared. Out of all those options, he chose to celebrate… with our monkeys!
Of course he didn’t invite us, but at least our furry pals had some fun. After the jump, we’ve got Ten Questions with Jared about his exciting 21st birthday cake. Did it at least have rum?
1) Really, that cake looks amazing. What did it taste like? What flavor was it? Did you get banana ice cream too? How many pieces did the birthday boy get?
The cake tasted excellent! It was just about as good as it looked. It was a yellow butter cake with almond butter cream frosting. Unfortunately no banana ice cream…which I didn’t even know existed. I ate two pieces at the office and took the rest home.
2) How did your boss know to get the cake? Was she already a Wooter, or did you just annoy her by shooting monkeys into her very important meetings?
She is a Wooter herself, though I do wear Woot shirts quite often, so it’s usually hard to miss. The Woot lights and monkey in the picture are actually what we keep at the office. The monkey has surprised unsuspecting people many times. I work as a student with the Web Group at Michigan Technological University in the frozen winter wasteland wonderland of Houghton, MI. Despite constant delays due to weather, the monkey usually has a few daily flights.
3) Do other people get cake on their birthdays? Is that why your name is on the bottom? Was there someone else having a 21st birthday who would otherwise have stolen your lovely cake?
Yes, it has become a sort of tradition now that people get a cake and decorations based on their interests or jokes that have developed at the office. One person, let’s call him “Canada”, was listening and praising ‘Party in the USA’ by Miley Cyrus…so when his birthday rolled around, he got a Hannah Montana themed table cloth, plates, forks, stuffed guitar, and cake. Luckily for myself, my interests are restrained outside the realm of creepy, such that I’d happily attach my name to stake my claim of the cake.
4) Your office seems like a nice place to work. Tell us one of your favorite work stories!
I do love my job; it’s a great atmosphere that is both fun and productive. Though it isn’t one particular story, the fact that we have a small arsenal of Nerf guns and frequently have spontaneous, epic battles is pretty awesome. We even had a Wii-fund set up and purchased a Wii for the office with the money collected from returning pop cans over the course of many months.
5) Has your boss ever caught you surfing our blog when you should be working? Or do you and she cover each other during Woot-Offs?
Haha, I do visit the site quite often and when I asked her about it she replied “All the time. I assume Woot will always be open in a tab.” I know many of us in the office have Woot-off trackers installed as to relieve the F5 syndrome a bit, though we still call out any great deals.
6) Did you throw a piece of the cake to see if it would actually scream? Did you regret doing that almost instantly? Did you have to pay anyone’s cleaning bills?
Fortunately for my wallet I didn’t actually try throwing it… though… now that I think of it, there may have been muffled screams as it went down. My only regret was literally defacing and eating the monkey.
7) How many different colors of monkey do you own? What about your boss?
I only own two currently, a purple (female) and orange (male), but I am hoping that they’ll start reproducing soon so that the entire family can cause some havoc. Aside from my two screaming primates, I believe I currently own around 15 Woot shirts. I’ve gifted a few as well as received some. Being that I fulfill the poor college stereotype, I have to be slightly selective on my Woots, but can’t always resist, especially random shirts. My first Woot, a refurbished HP Photosmart 3210 printer has been going strong since 2007.
Will being in a blog post win you points during your annual review?
Being that I am just a mere student worker, I do not have an annual review, but according to Brandy, were I to have one, yes.
9) Is your boss mad that she did all the work getting the cake and we’re giving you all the attention? Does she have anything she’d like to say?
She said, “Nope, not mad at all. I did screw the cake up though. You’ll notice the curve next to the monkey’s head? Yeah, that’s because the sheet cake stuck to the pan and I didn’t have time to make another sheet cake.”
10) Finally, do you feel our market penetration has increased among your co-workers due to this party? Would you advise we continue cake-based marketing strategies, or should we continue working with “old media”?
I don’t believe it’s possible to penetrate such a saturated market any further, unless you feel like sending out some Woot Monkeys 
. I do think that cakes reach a greater demographic of ‘hungry people’ than Twitter or Facebook ever will. I would strongly suggest that you take it a step further than just cake-based marketing. I think cake.woot.com is a viable option. Users can submit their cake designs a ‘la weekly contest, Woot staff can proceed to bake our cakes and promptly ship them out within 5-7 days. To sweeten the deal, you can occasionally have Bag of Cake, in which you rid yourself of any extra cakes you have around the office/warehouse.
Thanks to Link9064 for not even offering to let us have a piece of cake, even after we made him famous. Seriously, what happened to a little thing called “good manners”? That’s what’s wrong with young people today, they only think of themselves. But we don’t just think of ourselves. We want to learn more about you! Done something great? Something ridiculous? Something woot-related? Let us know! Maybe you’ll be the one answering the next ten questions!