You can't read the text, but it says "Most M1 TM's Reviewed & Rejected - Larry Osterman".  You also can't see it, but the hind end of the horse is a bobblehead :).

I'm not sure if getting the award is really good thing though - the award was given because of all the threat model reviewers in the WX division, I rejected the highest percentage of the threat models I reviewed.  My dilemma is that I don't know if it's because I was being such a tough reviewer (personally I don't think I was) or if it's because the threat models I reviewed were were crappy :).  Given that I only reviewed threat models from my group, and since I helped most the teams in my group create those threat models, the latter possibility concerns me a great deal :).

But heck, ultimately it doesn't matter - the threat models I reviewed have all been fixed and are now of high quality, but I'm still trying to figure out if I was rewarded for my effort or my team was diss'ed :)

For those that obsess about other stuff that can be seen on people's desks, you can see my trusty HP 16C calculator, my Sensa pen, some random audio cables, my "Microsoft Tiger '94" pin (from my short stint in research) and my spiral bound notebook.

Not surprisingly, Valorie and I both do some of our holiday season shopping at ThinkGeek.  But no longer.  Valorie recently placed a substantial order with them, but Instead of processing her order, they sent the following email:

From: ThinkGeek Customer Service [mailto:custserv@thinkgeek.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 4:28 AM
To: <Valorie's Email Address>
Subject: URGENT - Information Needed to Complete Your ThinkGeek Order

Hi Valorie,

Thank you for your recent order with ThinkGeek, <order number>. We would like to process your order as soon as possible, but we need some additional information in order to complete your order.

To complete your order, we must do a manual billing address verification check.

If you paid for your order via Paypal, please send us a phone bill or other utility bill showing the same billing address that was entered on your order.

If you paid for your order via credit card, please send us one of the following:

- A phone bill or other utility bill showing the same billing address that was entered on your order

- A credit card statement with your billing address and last four digits of your credit card displayed

- A copy of your credit card with last four digits displayed AND a copy of a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license or passport.

To send these via e-mail (a scan or legible digital photo) please reply to custserv@thinkgeek.com or via fax (703-839-8611) at your earliest convenience. If you send your documentation as digital images via email, please make sure they total less than 500kb in size or we may not receive your email. We ask that you send this verification within the next two weeks, or your order may be canceled. Also, we are unable to accept billing address verification from customers over the phone. We must receive the requested documentation before your order can be processed and shipped out.

For the security-minded among you, we are able to accept PGP-encrypted emails. It is not mandatory to encrypt your response, so if you have no idea what we're talking about, don't sweat it. Further information, including our public key and fingerprint, can be found at the following

link: