Training at Yahoo!

A couple of weeks before the actual competition began, Yahoo! invited everyone to Sunnyvale for a mandatory training session (while Yahoo! had to pay hundreds of dollars for each person's airfare, Mark and I just drove for 20 minutes). We each got a free hotel room at the Sunnyvale Sheraton that Sunday night. Monday morning, bright and early, we headed over to Yahoo! headquarters for a photo shoot, video shoot, and training in how the competition was to work. Here are some photos from that day.

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Cousins Tamia and Quentin - also known as T and Q. They are from the DC area. They were the very first other finalists we met. After an initially strong showing, word is their popularity dropped as they alienated their church-going fanbase with more provocative fare.
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Stephanie and Jake - they got the "alternative" vote.
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Andrew and Holly of Oklahoma. I would have much rather seen Holly in a bikini than Christine. I would not like to see Andrew in a bikini.
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Amir of beingfamous.com. We sat down with Court and Amir the first night in the hotel's restaurant. Looking at each other across the table we said, "This is the Final Four." We were wrong. Probably should have been, but wasn't.
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Court of pointsincase.com. He writes college humor, but he's out of college. Go figure!
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Mark getting all prettied up for the photo shoot. The make-up lady was very, err, efficient.
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An example of the funky furniture at Yahoo! Made you feel like you were in a Dr. Seuss book. Notice the half full cup of orange juice in the foreground, symbolic of our hopes to win the competition.
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What is Mark trying to imply? Whom is Mark trying to fool?
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Mark taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. Or something like that.

Vanessa, one of the two alternates. I think they could have given us a good run for our money - 2 attractive young ladies.

The other alternate - Jenn. If unluckily we had somehow met our demise prior to the competition, they would have taken our place. Thus, we were sure to keep an eye on these two!
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The curly haired blond was the videographer - and a surfer. She shot us all chatting. "Just don't look at the camera!" she ordered. We sure didn't!
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A pretend cubicle. This was the set they made to shoot video for a contest advertisement. I don't think it ever saw the light of day.
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Mark caught unawares.

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Mark caught unawares again. Mark lives his life in constant surprise.
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