The Planet Blog

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the kitchen … we’ve got a new installment of our adventures in microwaveable cuisine.

Given the lapse in vending-free content since Clayton Spivey’s cheeseburger, you may have feared the worst, but all is well … Clayton is still working hard in development for our managed hosting group, and we still have plenty of cheeseburgers in the vending machine.

In this episode, you’ll meet Arnold Ybanez and his meal of choice: hot wings. Arnold is a senior manager in our call center, and he’s been very involved in improving our customer-facing departments. We discuss our support organization’s desire for continuous improvement, and he explains several of the ways we’ve built and changed processes to improve The Planet’s customer experience .

Because the introduction to this video would not be complete without a ridiculous pun, I’d like you to observe that the video is split into two bite-sized portions to best satiate your hunger to learn. You may notice a few anachronisms in our discussion because this video was actually recorded around six months ago … archaeologists recently recovered the original footage, and it has been faithfully restored to its initial glory for your viewing pleasure.

-Kevin

After a long summer break, your favorite television shows are finally starting new seasons, and you are prepared: You have a 15-gallon bucket full of Kettle Corn ready for your prime time couch-potato enjoyment; you’ve made space on your Tivo by deleting old episodes since you’ve got them neatly stored on the last season’s DVDs you just bought; and you’ve set recurring calendar appointments to remind you of your “commitments” (Yes, we know that “Go to the gym” means “Call in an order at Domino’s and watch the pizza tracker like a hawk.”).

As your incessant withdrawal symptoms are approaching unbearable levels, I’ve got a treat for you that will temporarily satiate your desire for entertaining content: The Return of This Week* in Vending.

It’s been almost six months since you joined Christian and I on our taste-test of the vending machine chili cheese dogs, so your mouth is either watering for more or your stomach has finally settled … either way, you’ll enjoy this installment.

This week’s victim participant is Planet Northstar’s Development Manager Clayton Spivey, and he is forced gets to try a vending machine cheeseburger. Making a cameo in the episode: our first vending survivor, Todd Mitchell. (Editor’s Note: Make sure you watch Todd’s reaction when Clayton takes the burger out of the wrapper.)

When we finally get down to the meat of the interview (very punny, I know), you’ll have a chance to learn about Planet Northstar — The Planet’s Managed Hosting division — and the development work required to create systems to accommodate the division’s ambitious goals.

Given the phenomenal success of Todd’s “This Month in Vending” interview last week, along with his survival, we decided to post a new episode for your viewing pleasure. With this quick turnaround, we changed the name of the segment to “This Week* in Vending” with the asterisk doubling as an attention grabber for the word change … and as an excuse in case we aren’t able to keep up the pace.

In this interview, I enjoy a vending machine chili-cheese hot dog with Christian Plunkett, The Planet’s Manager of Technical Support. A new addition to the episode is the welcome music track pulled from a song performed by our very own Brandon Holbrook … Hopefully he accepts this shout-out as a substitute for the royalties an artist would typically receive.

If you’ve worked with anyone here at The Planet and you’re interested in hearing from them in a segment of “This Week* in Vending,” please let us know. If you work at The Planet and you want to embarrass one of your co-workers, feel free to nominate them as well.

-Kevin

The YouTube link: This Week in Vending: Christian Plunkett

Sometimes inspiration can come from the strangest of places. Thoreau found his muse on Walden Pond in Concord, MA. Rosa Parks helped spark the civil rights movement on a crowded bus in Montgomery, AL. The catalyst for this post was far more ordinary: the vending machine area in our Houston headquarters.

We wanted to host a series of interviews on the blog to let you meet some of the people behind the scenes here at The Planet, but we needed a hook … A subject that was both intriguing enough to capture interest and fun enough to make the series worth watching. Our first interviewee, Todd Mitchell, came up with the idea of “This Month in Vending” after I adventurously chose a florescent-colored Blue Cream Soda from our vending machines and subsequently shared the product’s ridiculousness with all of my coworkers. Upon further investigation, we found several questionable products that were begging for taste-tests. So, we plunked down some coin for a package of Riblets, and the rest is history:

-Kevin

The YouTube link: This Week in Vending: Todd Mitchell