When you are on summer break from school you have lots of free time, who better to spend your time with than a bunch of geeks and dweebs with the same love for a little purple lunchbox? As Carl stated in his portion, I started on the tumultuous and rather humorous road back in the days of GCRev. Carl and Marcus specifically bade me to join them in their small venture that was a Tripod site. To hear a slightly more in-depth tale of GCRev read Carl’s little bit on this whole thing. The long and short of GCRev was “Crap….crap….crap….little news….crap…crap….collapse like a flan in a cupboard.” All the while we were planning our own little business behind the backs of everyone (namely Carl and Silver). CubeFreaks became an idea and partial reality. After much ado, many delays, Andrew being a buffoon, and lots of BS, we planned to tell Andrew we quit and start a site with someone competent and we felt deserving of, being on par of such an elitist group of a-holes that we are. Being the biggest of the a-holes, and the busiest little bastard around, I told Andrew I had had enough of his delays and crap so I quit CubeFreaks. Needless to say, the hilarity ensued when everyone else quit (except for Carl) and Andrew crawled under a rock (which was later h4><0rz3d). After the quitting of the Freaks, Myself, Matthew Haven, and Joe Whitman came together in a secret meeting and discussed making a new site. This was the birth of WiiCafé. Myself, Joe, and Matt tossed all kinds of ideas around and then we opted to let Carl in on the whole plan. He informed us that he and Silver were already working on an idea for a new site, so our prep time to launch was severely reduced. Slowly we told all of the staff about the idea and people really seemed to like it. Then came the first drama of the site....Electing the leaders. Whitman proposed that he become the president and there be a small 5 person “Board of Directors” and I proposed that Carl and Silver be joint owner/presidents and they vote and decide on things. If there had been a tie between the two of them the decision would then be made by the Editor In Chief (which at the time was Matthew Haven). I set up an email account and everyone sent in their vote stating “I vote for Joe’s Plan” or “I vote for Kevin’s Plan.” The plan I proposed won and only Haven, Carl, and myself knew the final tally on the voting. After that was decided, the work began. The nuts and bolts of this little society began to fall into place. And on July 20, 2002 WiiCafé launched. Since then, we have become the fastest growing Nintendo website ever. Hooray for us.

In my time with these folk I have learned many things about them, many of whom I would even consider close friends. I have never met them (well, sans one person- a certain Mike Twomey…who got his job here partly because of me, but mostly because he really, really deserves it), though I will someday. I have come to know all of them pretty well, or so I would think. As the resident Café Therapist people have come to me with their problems and what is going on through their minds and I try to help them out the best I can. I’ve had my disagreements with the site and staff, but it never really has meant much. Things always turn back to normal shortly thereafter. We have had some shaky times, but we’ve come through them all. We have developed some great relations with companies like Capcom, THQ, and Simon & Schuster Interactive. From the bottom of our collective hearts we thank all the companies for all the generosity and work they’ve put into us.

In a discussion with Carl one evening he said something to me that seemed very important. He said that he had never thanked me for all the work I had done for all the sites and for being the only mainstay for them all, and for being a rather big reason he’s in the position he has today. He described me as being “a rock” since the start of the whole thing. He then gave me a belted “Thank you” and then, in Carl fashion, watched a Bond movie and went to bed.

Over the six months that this site has existed many have come and gone, and many are still here. As the Editor in Chief I give advice to all but a few (Thank God Dannielle works here and doesn’t need any help), and it would seem as though I am a voice of reason every now and then. In my time I’ve been here I’ve got to speak with the heads of Boston Animations and Hypnotix, broken news before some of the big dogs (i.e. news about music at E3 before even the biggest and best knew), and becoming one of the more well known people around these days. I think I’ve done pretty well for myself and I think I’ve helped the Café in even the most immodest of ways.

Do I ever regret getting involved with this bunch of lunatics? Not really. In fact, I’m proud to call these bastards my friends and co-workers. As I said, we’ve had our arguments before, but it’s never anything serious. The site is still young, but we are growing. Constantly expanding and it’s all thanks to you, the fans and readers. Without all of you, the site would have failed long ago. I thank you, and I thank the wonderful staff for all of their hard work and determination. I feel as though even as a smaller site, we still get our points across, and we are pretty well respected. It’s been a wild ride, and things will only get better. Now in the words of Carl, get back to your work. Wait, no, don’t. You’re all fired.