Your Friendly Mallrats

Name: Charles
Age: 24
Role on tour: Tour Coordinator / brings unity, "grunt," and muscle
Favorite thing to do on his computer: Order pizza on the Internet
This man met Fabio in person. What else do we need to say? Okay, he also still owns his first computer: an Atari 2600. While he still has a fondness for Pong and Space Invaders, Charles has mastered Internet Explorer 5.5.

Name: Melinda
Age: 23
Role on tour: Portable DJ
Favorite store at the mall: Sanrio / Auntie Anne's
Fueled by irony, wit, and fresh-baked pretzels, this "Sea-town" hipster digs public-access TV shows and dance-friendly electronic music. If she's not busy buying Bad Badtz-Maru stickers at Sanrio, Melinda will show you how to crank some drum 'n bass with Windows Media Player.

Name: Tammy Lynn
Age: 23
Role on tour: Cheerleader
Worst job: Cigarette girl at a drag race
Introduced to computing with the Atari 2600 gaming console, Tammy Lynn now likes using computers to e-mail digital video and photos to her friends. When the tour comes to your town, make a pit stop at her booth and get your picture taken. Tammy insists she won't be wearing her cigarette girl uniform: an "evil and lame" micromini.

Name: Jennifer
Age: 24
Role on tour: "If we were a gaming team, I'd be the sniper."
What she thinks may be inside the Meet Me truck: Massage therapists (yeah, right)
Like several of our Meet Me mavens, Jennifer got her start on a Commodore 64, and hasn't looked back since. In fact, computers take up so much of her time, she doesn’t watch TV—not even Survivor! That said, she would elect to vote her own leather pants off of the tour.

Name: Shane
Age: 21
Role on tour: Bats cleanup / plays left field
Main thing he uses his computer for: Keeping in touch with friends and family
Shane hails from a town affectionately known to locals as "the Palm Springs of Washington." That’s Yakima to you greenhorns, where the good apples come from. This good apple is a digital media guy, so if you want to see Windows Media Player or Windows Movie Maker in action, track down Shane for a first-hand demonstration.

Name: Stephanie
Age: 23
Role on tour: Tour Coordinator / chief sightseer
Favorite store: Wal-Mart
Born and reared in Pittsburgh, Stephanie has a keen ability to remember dates. She once had to dress up as a turtle and walk around a mall, so just keep that in mind if you need to ask her a "stupid" question. If her computer credibility is ever on the line, take note of this: Her first computer was a Commodore 64. Old school!

Name: Tanya
Age: 26
Role on tour: Assistant Tour Manager
What she thinks may be inside the Meet Me truck: Jimmy Hoffa!
Tanya gained notoriety in grade school after accidentally erasing the data on every computer in her school. Trust us, she's come a long way since then. If you have "newbie" questions, look her up—she'll understand! You might find her on a break from the booth, perusing computer titles at Barnes & Noble.

Name: Heather
Age: 23
Role on tour: Assistant Tour Manager
Strangest job: Showing cows
Heather loves Holsteins, the stylish black-and-white cow that adorns chocolate milk cartons and computer boxes. She also loves Windows Media Player, which she uses to stuff her favorite songs into her Diamond Rio portable player. If you meet her on the tour, she'll be more than happy to show you how to do the same. Stick around and she might even show you her favorite Holstein Web sites.

Name: Jimmy
Age: 25
Role on tour: Middle relief
First computer: Speak & Spell
Jimmy's brand of Seattle sarcasm has propelled him to the East Coast leg of the Mall Tour, where he'll expand his "knowledge of useless things." If he's not directing digital films with Windows Movie Maker, you might catch him in front of Victoria's Secret—recruiting raw talent.

Name: Stewart
Age: 40
Role on tour: Tech Manager
Favorite store: Sharper Image
Stewart once worked as a casino shift manager in Las Vegas, but that's nothing compared to the gamble he took when he received the Bill Gates chain e-mail. Trusting his instincts, he deleted the message—risking the possible $1000 and the complimentary copy of Windows 98 he might receive for forwarding it along. Lucky for Stewart, the message turned out to be bogus.