The Travelling SMB Wallpaper

Posted by radoon on Dec 12, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments

In 2009 I worked at Research In Motion (RIM; aka “the BlackBerry people”) on an engineering internship. I had a desk job that had me sitting in a cubicle for the majority of my work. To personalize it a bit and reduce the grey monotony that was the fabric surrounding me on three sides, I decorated. It started simply with a bamboo plant, which I can’t remember what I did with it when I left at the end of my work term. Then I expanded into a full wallpaper background for the rear wall.

I didn’t properly track the amount of time I used but I think it was somewhere around 6+ hours to compile the image, print all the pages, and assemble the full composite. For those who cannot tell, it is the start-to-finish of Super Mario Bros. (from NES). For those of you who are even keener, you will notice one “level” is missing. This was only due to the fact I ran out of space based on the dimensions of my cubicle wall. I enjoyed it and it stopped more than a number of people when they passed by my desk. To go along with it, I also created this:

Creating your own pixelized scene is definitely a fun little thing to do.

This isn’t where the story ends though. When I finished my term at RIM, I left the main (physical) wallpaper I created in my cubicle for my team to fight over or to just leave for the next student coming in. Little did I know there were other plans for this paper-and-ink collage.

Around February or March, 2010, something appeared in our engineering student society office. On the back of it, there were a number of things written, the primary being “Property of Wayne. If found return to SESS office, eng. building. Sask.” I recognized it immediately and on flipping it over, found that it was indeed the wallpaper I left in Waterloo.

This took me aback. On my team/in my department at RIM, I was the only person from Saskatoon. From what I am told by those who were in the office when it was dropped off there, someone in the Arts & Science building found it and brought it over (A&S is on the opposite side of campus from Engineering). On top of that, there were a number of other messages written on it:

The “first aid kit” and “our hearts beat only for you” imply it had something to do with the office admirers I had 2 summers ago (similar messages written on the office white board). I appreciate all the messages and would issue a proper thank you… If I could figure out who wrote them and/or who returned it to Saskatoon.

Today I hung it up in my current office (for the Western Engineering Competition) and thought I would share my story with you. To this day, I still have NO IDEA how it got back here and who did it.

PS: If you’re interested in an un-watermarked copy of the original digital file, let me know. I put a lot of time into assembling it so I don’t want random internet people stealing it. For my friends, I can make an exception.