Memos From the Cube

This last week has been rather quiet for me, owing to my boss being called out to attend meetings overseas. Because of this, I’ve been plodding along finishing my assigned projects and working on cleaning up and porting some new product’s source code to fit the latest frameworks and coding styles – nothing too strenuous.

It’s been a week since I attended the Atmel New Years Christmas party, so I’m a little behind in reporting back on it. It was a blast – but much more controlled than the previous Atmel office party. Part of me thinks that’s due to lots of ball and chains wives, girlfriends and otherly significant (significantly other?) members being present. That said, everyone seemed to have a great time, which is what one looks for in a party.

I was very impressed by the range of costumes being present; the theme for this one was “Rockabilly”, 1950’s style complete with the overly ridiculous hairdos and leather everything. I and a few others went as a time traveling formal-casual people from the future (read: I didn’t have a costume, and I’m not buying a leather jacket for a few hours) and observed all the others with great amusement. There were a range of costume styles; some dressed looking like a main character from Greese, while others got out the Elvis wigs and gigantic sunglasses.

Arriving was a challenge in itself; in the building planner’s great wisdom, the main entrance is rather close to the bar and cloakroom. I ended up splitting a Taxi with my workmate and his partner, and we had to fight our way through a thick line of people just to get in the door.

I’m not quite certain what the building is by day; it appeared to be retro-styled already, but some of the decorations clearly indicated that they were added by the Atmel party organizational team (the giant styled “Atmel” sign over the 1950’s style “diner” kitchen, for one). The place itself was divided into two, with a small reception area where everyone started off the night, and a large inner room where the tables and stage were located.

After the usual pre-dinner drinks and awkward mingling (on my part) we were all gradually ushered into the inner sanctum where we could take our seats. I liked the food and drink system they adopted; everyone got a set of “Atmel Money” tokens which were good for a meal, dessert and drinks – I just wish I kept my unused dessert one as a souvenier (since it was Ice Cream, and poor little old me is lactose intollerant). The main meal of a classy Burger and Wedges was on the “edible” side of the food enjoyment spectrum; it looked great, tasted fine, but was cold. Still, it’s always about the people at the party, and after six weeks any burger is a good burger.

And so the night progressed. We were all treated to a few songs by the “Atmel Band”, made of up a few Atmel employees which were rather good; I’ve been given special permission to post one photo (and only one) from the night of none other than AVRFreaks’ Eivind, as long as I – and I quote – “mention my ripping organ solo”. So there you are, here he is up on stage rocking it out:

Later on we got a speech – in Norwegian, of course – from the other founder of Atmel Norway I hadn’t seen before, Vegard Wollen. I was able to make out the years of service for each employee being awarded, so at least I can say my basic Norwegian skills are improving. I also nearly got to say that the night ended with everyone wearing more clothing than last time, but around here it seemed half the guys took their shirts off and danced for a rock song – exit Dean to the bar.

I’m proud to say that I remained mostly sober for this party, having learned my lesson about the strength of the local beer at the last few gatherings I stumbled around, and also having run out of funds from both the bank of Norway and the bank of Atmel. It was great to have another opportunity to talk to everyone outside the context of the work environment, and even meet some people I hadn’t met before owing to their employment in a different department within Atmel.