This is a guest post by Jake Newby. Jake is the nephew of the owners of AVATAR and will be majoring in Computer Science at Ball State this Fall. He came to observe the office for the week and see what we do everyday.

It’s my third day in Toledo and I’ve experienced an atmosphere at AVATAR that can only be described as the genuine small business experience. On one end, you have an engaged business, but given the opportunity for playtime, the gang will not hesitate to poke fun at each other and engage in office shenanigans all in the name of fun. For example, today I decided to eavesdrop on a conversation between Robert and Damon with Damon accusing Robert of eating his last dinosaur Silly Bandz bracelet. Watching this exchange I was reminded of similar situations on the hit TV series “The Office.” This exchange was certainly something that you wouldn’t want to miss! But what’s great is how work still gets done in this atmosphere. One end of the office could be in the middle of a rubber band war while I am sitting across from Kristin and Stephanie who are meeting to discuss AVATAR’s next big step in the social media arena. Moments of raucous fun are quickly followed by the sounds of feverish typing and clicking with everyone hard at work. In short, AVATAR is a small business atmosphere upheld by close-knit friends seldom seen at your typical nine to five job.

Reflecting on my visit so far, I’d say that two very valuable things have come of it to this point. First, I’ve learned quite a bit about web development. Second, don’t try something  just because someone tells you that it tastes good — you may regret it the following morning.