How much would you give to see certain commenters bond as they try shoveling dirt or driving a bulldozer? It could happen, during a three-hour corporate exercise called the Backhoe Challenge.
Program founders John Bachmann and Kathy Unger create small teams, give them a heads up on safety, pass out gear and then let participants try their hand at:
Dozer Dump: use a bulldozer to scoop up dirt & dump it over an 8-foot wall. Points for style and not loosing any of the load.
Dozer Slalom: how easy is it to push a 200 lb boulder?
Jackhammer Demolition: Just for demolishing fun
Excavator Boulder Basketball: are you any good?
Excavator Pole Bury: dig, dump, dig, dump to bury the pole
Time Out New York gave them a nod here.
From their catalog:
“On day two, we will build seven luxury townhouses on a Montclair lot large enough to hold two or three regular residences.”
Who wouldn’t love to play with construction equipment? That would rock!
Better yet, could we all just pitch in and buy a “Baristanet Bulldozer”. Public outrage over some new ill-advised construction? Now it’s flat! Try again, this time with taste!
Captain V: I am there like shareware!
Some posters around here already do a pretty good job of shoveling……
This type of team-building exercise might prove counter-productive with this group, because I think one or two of our regular posters might actually end up under said boulder, or pile of dirt…
I think (as I’ve sort of noted before) that a more positive use of posters’ energy would be to assemble some of those who sputtered most against both Plofker and Christopher Court, have them put together gift baskets, then send them out a-caroling to “Crisco” and Plofker’s house. Perhaps someone will even invite them in for hot chocolate and cookies. Or simply pour boiling oil on them.
Really, another outfit that offers corporate bonding experiences? I used to have to cover a few of these things, found them a bit silly, kind of aimed at people who’d never been in a gang, on a team or in the armed forces. They’re harmless enough, akin to the “Confidence Course” in basic but compressed into a very short-term experience, but I think they generally represent a waste of corporate money.
But then, producers at CBS also never bought my suggestion that they should sometime try “Survivor: The Taliban” or “Survivor: Hamas,” either.
Name the time and place, and I’ll be there.
“Or simply pour boiling oil on them.”
A little harsh, dontcha think?
Yes, Cathar, but this one has a bulldozer! Can we, can we, pleasepleaseplease?
Captain Vegetable, if you can drive the damn thing, okay, fine, I’ll be there. I’ve always wanted to recreate that scene in “The Fighting Seabees” with John Wayne riding the bulldozer and firing his Thompson. And walleroo can take the William Frawley role, and also pay for at least us three, since it costs $129 per person to share this experience.
Miss Martta, I thought I was being relatively merciful with the boiling oil. Would you rather I’d suggested water-boarding?
Up a little later than your usual bedtime and filled with delusions of grandeur(folie de grandeur), cathar.
Or is it just the result of too many brewskis?
You may wish to be my constant antagonist, dear HidingIn…. It’s just that you’re such a sorry excuse for one, posting away as night knuckles under to dawn, at an hour when you should still be nestling next to at least a dog, if not someone of your own species (whatever that proves to be).
But no, in a vain search for community, here you are, as desperate as usual. And the weekends are only worse. Oh well. Have you tried intruding into a 24-hour diner?
cathar
You’d be surprised at how many of us are up at 6am and getting ready to go to work.
You might try it sometime.
ps- my dogs sleep in
The mere prospect of your “dogs” sleeping in, HidingIn…, never mind where, is appalling to contemplate.
The best ‘team building’ exercise I ever participated in was a whitewater raft trip through the upper Hudson river gorge.
There is nothing quite like plunging through class III and IV rapids in early April to inculcate ‘team spirit’. We didn’t stop talking about that trip for months.
Maybe some of you Barista folks out there would be interested in such a trip. Early April is the best time for ‘big water’. Summer is fun too.
the fact that you would contemplate my dogs whether sleeping or otherwise apalls me.
Please stop thinking about them they only need/deserve good karma.
Not what you’re putting out there!