Fun fact: Despite appearing in many videos and in many pictures, this man is actually camera shy!

Last week we started a dangerous social experiment by introducing you to our CS Monkey Jimmy (AKA JimJam). We figured that as the holiday season becomes more cheerful, you'll need to contact our CS Monkeys for advice. So we decided to interview them for you. This may or may not have been a mistake, what with the sheer force of personality that's contained within our customer service team.

This week's victim is Dave. He's a movie fanatic, an amateur filmaker, a bit of a mutant and slightly undead but that only makes him fit right in here at ThinkGeek HQ.

Our totally new, not at all familiar interview:

What Dave didn't tell you is that he's also helping train up a whole new batch of seasonal CS Monkeys. Yep. We put this man in charge of the newbies. (Whoops?)

In a way it's a trial-by-fire. Can they withstand the wit? Will they get the obscure movie references!? All that we know for sure is that they'll leave that training room highly caffeinated and ready to take on your most arcane questions, able to recommend the most perfect gift for your great-great-grand uncle twice removed, and willing to quote most of the Monty Python movies at you should the situation arise.

Perhaps we should interview one of them, next time. What do you think?

Speaking of interviews, after two rounds of the same list of questions, we need some new ideas. Let us know in the comments what you'd like us to ask our next CS Monkey victims! If it's work safe and at all interesting we'll inflict your wit on these guys next time.

Happy holidays, you crazy kids. When you call or chat and get Jimmy or Dave, remember that eyebrow... and those tentacle fingers.

That raised brow either means a hug is going to happen, or he's about to shoot you. We suspect the latter here.

With the holiday season fast upon us, we know that lots of folks are going to contact our CS Monkeys for advice and with questions. We thought that you might want to get to know them a little. Put a face to the voice. A personality to the name in chat. So we whipped up a few deeply revealing interview questions, picked a "willing" participant and snapped some pictures for you.

Our first victim is Jimmy (aka JimJam). You might know him from such films as Portable Laundry Pod and Fridgeezoo and such images as Tribbles and Bits.

Our insightful interview:

Isn't he stunningly charismatic? We think so. This is why he was the obvious first choice for this dangerous social experiment.

We're done with Jimmy (for now) but we're not done with the experiment. Stay tuned, because next week we'll interview Dave. He's only a little undead, promise.

Is it bigger on the inside?

The links we've shared this week past have been mostly videos. This may speak of a deep moviemaking desire, but we think it may actually mean that we've been needing some de-stressing time in front of the tube. What we know as an irrefutable truth, however, is that there's a lot of interesting viewing in those links below. So make some bacon pop and settle in for a little while.

Links from the Twitter, Google +, and Facebook 'verse:

Ernie: Engage hyperdrive! Bert: hyperdrive!? (YouTube)

Valve confirms a Steam hack. Your information might not be compromised, but there's a chance, so change your passwords and keep an eye on your account! (ArsTechnica)

Wampug. The cutest creature in all of existance. (YouTube)

If you're a real fan of the muppets, you'll eat their delicious heads. (Bakerella)

So, you say an egg stays whole and retains it's shape under wate...OMFNOMFNOMF. (YouTube)

We'll take ten pairs, thanks! (YouTube)

It's a herd of turrets! (Google +)

A Doctor Who MOVIE? Well. If you insist. (The Mary Sue)

Scariest pylons EVER. (telegraph.co.uk)

This is a really bad ideas. It is also EPIC. (TC Engineering)

Facebank wants you money. Also, your soul. (YouTube)

Mix together one part day of the dead, one part hypangogic hallucination and one part touching tale and you get...this. (Vimeo)

Pogo remixes A.I. Then we need a tissue. *Sniffle* (YouTube)

Are there fish fingers and custard in there? (Tumblr)

A fan-made remake of the NASA recruitment video. Awesome. (YouTube)

Wait for "Farting cat" (YouTube)

The most delicious hunk of junk in the galaxy. (Jims Pancakes)

Need a little inspiration? (YouTube)

You need a new desktop background. We can tell. (Gereth.net)

What a way to pay homage to old books. (Magic World Image)

Wait, there's work to do!? Uh oh. We...uh...we've gotta go. See ya next time, Space Cowboys!

Creepy Leia attempts to be comforting. She fails.

We know that you are all huge fans of the weirdness that hangs from the walls at ThinkGeek HQ. So when we decided to spruce up the joint with more witty signs, we realized that we had to take photos for you. These are just too good to keep to ourselves.

Please join us for this (only slightly surreal) photo tour. Keep your hands and arms inside the tram at all times. There are wild Chwats roaming these halls.

Who runs Bartertown? Ceiling cat runs Bartertown!

This fact seems to not actually bother any of the merchant monkeys sitting in Bartertown. We suspect that Ceiling Cat's all-seeing gaze might be influencing their lack of complaint.

Bonus: You can also haz Ceiling Cat!

Please note the last strip.

The Boredroom of doom. This is where we play D&D, watch movies, and plot to take over the world.

A vase full of dice. It is the only logical decoration for a boardroom.

Ignore the grown man hugging the Wookie.

Kuato is actually a tiny conference room right next to the giant Boardroom of Doom. (This makes sense, yes?) Kuato contains not only a table and chairs, but our Virtua-on machines and the libary. Kuato lives.

Our door frames are magnetically attractive. Therefore, buckyweb.

EAT ALL THE THINGS!

Can anyone guess what you'll find at the end of that hall?

Do not touch Willie, for he is an unpredictable and mercurial beast!

Okay, not really. He might be ticklish, though.

Not enough, you say? Well then! There are LOTS more from where these came from. Click the picture above to continue your spine-tingling ThinkGeek adventure. Remember: Images on screen may be more awesome than they appear.

Wanna see even more of ThinkGeek HQ? Tell us what we should take photos of, and we'll consider posting any work safe suggestions in a future Blurgh post. (I heard you snicker. Quit that.)

NaNoWrimoers, enjoy the inspiration.

The majority of the links we've found this week can be summed up in one sentence: Nature is awesome.

Links from the Twitter, Google+, and Facebook 'verse:

R2-2-2, anyone? (Flickr)

Scrat was real! (Boing Boing)

Han Solo, P.I. (YouTube)

This isn't trippy at ALL. Nope. (YouTube)

Free Ego Leonard! (Boing Boing)

We keep on expecting them to move with a creaky flutter. (mullaniumbyjimandtori)

We're back! Circle us! (Google+)

That's some awe-inspiring dam removal! Sorry about the dam ad. (YouTube)

Big Dog and Petman in: Staying Alive. (YouTube)

This cyborg yeast gives us hope of a cybornetic future! (BBC)

Nature. Is AWESOME. (Greek Sky)

Awesome nature: Now in desktop wallpaper size! (APOD)

Occupy the Mushroom Kingdom! (Google+)

This tattoo is bigger on the inside. (@highlyaMUSEing on Twitter)

More geeky tattoos! (NY Times)

Movie spies in 1982 went the distance to get their information, but it was worth it! (Propstore)

Ceiling cat iz papercraft nao! (Tubby Paws)

Luckiest. Kids. Ever. (YouTube)

A treat, from us, to you! (YouTube)

Siri is actually a guy? (Telegraph)

Murmuration: A group of starlings. (Vimeo)

Painting underwater: A new hobby? (Oddity Central)

Fezzes are cool. (Spindles and Spices)

Turning your brown eyes blue. Not at all creepy. (The Atlantic)

Settlers of Catan tiles. IRL. These exist. (BoingBoing)

You just danced along to an emergency broadcast system jingle. (YouTube)

Happy (late) birthday, Carl Sagan! (YouTube)

All of that and you didn't even have to go outside! We feel accomplished.

The holidays are creeping up on us. Santas are lurking in store windows. Strings of lights have begun to blink from the shadows. Candy canes and chocolate coins sit by registers, ready for an impulse grab.

You know what all of this means. The early birds have begun their shopping. Odds are that some of these early birds are among your nearest and dearest. That begs the question: if they're shopping already, and you haven't had a chance to email everyone your ThinkGeek wishlist, who is going to buy you that lightsaber you've always wanted? Or the Tauntaun!?

Not your aunt Selma; she's already got your holiday socks wrapped.

Let us (potentially) save you from this sock-filled holiday. We want to give you a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree. Yes. You read that right. One thousand bucks to spend on caffeine and Star Wars loot.

Drastically increase your odds of holiday awesomefication by entering our contest. Just click the "Enter Now" button and clickety-clack your contact information into the form so we can let you know if you've won.

Remember, you'll need to submit it by 11:59pm ET on November 25, 2011. We'll announce our random $1,000 winner (you? maybe!) in our email newsletter on November 28, 2011.

Good luck, everybody! We're crossing our collective fingers for you!

Mercury amuses the Prince of Darkness.

The monkeys here at ThinkGeek HQ get busy sometimes. So busy that watching our podcasts sometimes falls by the wayside until the geeky commotion slows down and we can catch up with all of our missed episodes in one long marathon of awesomeness.

We were mid-awesomeness-marathon one day recently when we noticed a very familiar shirt on Chris Hardwick (AKA The Nerdist) as he interviewed musical legend and probable demigod Ozzy Ozbourne for the crowdsourced Digg Dialog podcast (which you must watch, by the way).

Chris was wearing our Heavy Metal t-shirt in the most fantastically appropriate context ever. The Prince of Darkness himself even approved with a smile. That was before attempting to choke Chris, granted, but that's just Ozzy being Ozzy. Right?

Anyhow, regardless of the awesome shirt worn in an amazing context, the interview is worth a watch. Ozzy answers questions from Digg readers on his opinions of the music industry today, goes on about who inspires him and why, and tells us what it was like to be part of the birth of metal. It's fantastic and well worth the half hour.

Thank you for sharing this incredible interview with us, Chris!

Willy Yonkers has a secret. It's 4 feet tall, 3-legged, and took 8 months to complete.

He's been toiling away in the GeekLabs workroom most of this year on a personal project. At first we thought it was the usual--casting Han Solo in carbonite, modelling an Enterprise Pizza Cutter, or painting a miniature HAL in fine detail.

But no, it was even more awesome, and we've been sworn to secrecy this whole time.

So it is with great pride we present ThinkGeek's very own life-size Portal turret, complete with guns and a laser eye, fabricated with love at ThinkGeek HQ by GeekLabs' own Willy Yonkers.

Witness the behind-the-scenes birth of a turret:

See its full evolution in our turret Flickr album.

Willy writes,

So by now you might be wondering how you can get your hands on this puppy. The answer is an unequivocal OMG did you eat conversion gel 'cause you must be CRAZY! The turret is not for sale; it will stay here at our Fairfax, Virginia HQ to guard us--or kill us, whichever comes first.

And we might be in danger sooner than later; Willy plans to implant this turret with the guts from one of our Plush Turrets. The upgrade would make this life-size turret very chatty, though it would haven't real guns. After seeing Willy's handiwork on this model we're afraid to push our luck, though.

We love you, Willy! Don't go GLaDOS on us!

Adrienne and her geeky lovematch demonstrating the dizzying effect of Narwhal Mints.

We get lots of emails. Emails with t-shirt ideas, emails with action shots, emails requesting we make the Dharma alarm clock for reals (can't, sorry!), and even emails from Nigerian bankers. Many of these emails are a delight to read--except for the bankers, who are very pushy and don't reply back. Weird.

Last week we heard from Adrienne, and we liked her email so much we wanted to share it with you! Fair warning, though: This story includes potentially unsafe levels of d'awwww.

Glad we could play cupid in your lovestory, Adrienne! You're both lucky we were out of arrows at the time.

This explains so much.

If you're still recovering from the sugar coma goodness of Hallowe'en, you probably need something to stimulate your now-sleepy braaains. We've gathered some still slightly Hallowe'en-y links from last weeks Twittering and Facebooking for you, which will hopefully be just interesting enough to get you back on your mental feet. Enjoy!

Links from the Twitter and Facebook 'verse:

Oh Hey! Ken Jennings has a sign! (And a blog!) (Ken-Jennings)

We're wondering what's in the bottles, actually. (Between the pages blog)

The importance of video games in our culture (YouTube)

The art of video games (Smithsonian)

Complex organic matter, everywhere? (Science Daily)

PRETTY. (Komo News)

GLaDOS fascinator (tiredbutwired.com)

Flexible screens? The future is now! (CNet)

Have a Hallowe'en Flickr set full of monkeys! (Flickr)

The anatomy of a pumpkin. (Skull a day)

Glowing candy!? That HAS to be good for you. (Craftzine)

I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the corg from me! (Flickr)

So many people shared their pumpkins and costumes with us on Hallowe'en! Here's half of them! (Bit.ly)

And the second half of all of the shared costumes and pumkins from Hallowe'en! (Bit.ly)

A bright spot on Uranus? Whatever could it be? (Skymania)

Nature is disgusting ftw (YouTube)

Coolest. Teacher. Ever. (YouTube)

Here, have a dragon! (Flickr)

Daily Stormtrooper. You're welcome! (Flickr)

The Terminator, pre-motorcycle (YouTube)

What a jerk! (YouTube)

Warm, cozy brains. (Google+)

An electric multicopter? Yes please! (YouTube)

NaNoWriMo kicked off November 1! (nanowrimo.org)

It gives you social energy! (Amazon)

Blech. We can still sort of taste the candy corn, and it's been three days!

Am I in Heaven?

Said the little boy, upon seeing his wish granted.

It's not every day that you come home after a week away to find a huge crowd of smiling people, trucks, stormtroopers and a Wookiee. We suppose that's why Lane thought that he might be in heaven. That and the Endorian bunker clubhouse he always wanted.

How did this wonder come into being? Lane made a wish. You see, Lane has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and is wheelchair bound. He can't go out and play with his friends, so he wished for a place where his friends could come in and play with him. (How awesome is he?)

He is a HUGE Star Wars fan. Specifically, he loves everything Endorian.

Make A Wish Midatlantic heard his wish, like they do. They immediately conspired with artists, architects, contractors and volunteers to make this accurate, comfy and awesome bunker. They filled it with LCD TVs, Playstations, air conditioned and heated it, and painted exacting blaster marks on its doors. They created customized buttons, placed rails at just the right height...then they realized something. They needed more Star Wars loot. Somebody passed them our number and they called us.

Of course we jumped at the chance. Making a kid's wish come true is one of the more exciting things we monkeys get to do (aside from dodging flying NERF darts or evading floods). We went though our massive catalog of Star Wars goodness, found the best of the best and sent Make A Wish Midatlantic a box of awesome that included a wampa rug, a Tauntaun, and lots of other amazing things.

They used it all wisely: lightsabers hung ready on walls, a Wampa skin draped on the floor. Everywhere you turned, there was something from a galaxy far, far away.

Lane has never been happier. Now he not only has a clubhouse for his friends to play with him in, but he knows that there are many other geeks like him out there. Geeks that care about him, and groups like Make a Wish ready to make dreams happen.

Have fun in there, young padawan!

There are many more pictures over here! Check 'em out!

But wait, there's more!

We're also donating $500 to Muscular Dystrophy Association in honor of Lane. MDA is a nonprofit health agency dedicated to curing muscular dystropy, ALS and related diseases by funding worldwide research. They also provide health care, support, advocacy and pretty much everything anyone with a muscular disease would ever need. They've been doing this awesome work since 1950. Remember Jerry's kids? Yep, these are the same folks. They're still going strong.

Thanks for making a difference, folks!