jPod: 'microserfs, updated for the age of google'

i laughed out loud at this excerpt from Douglas Coupland's upcoming novel jPod. the story revolves around the lives of six coworkers at a video-game design firm in Vancouver:

I slunk into the BoardX meeting where Steve, Gord-O, and staff from the loftiest perches of the food chain were still trying to nail the essence of Jeff the Charismatic Turtle. Prototype turtle sketches were pinned onto a massive cork wall, all of them goofy and teensploitational: sunglasses, baggy pants and (dear God) a terry-cloth sweatband.

“Does Jeff the Turtle follow players around the entire time they manipulate their third person?”
“Almost. Like Watson is to Sherlock Holmes.”
“Can you imagine how annoying that would be?”
“Maybe the buddy isn’t such a good idea.”
Steve squashed that hope. “It’s going to be a buddy. Players will love it.”
“It’s really Poochie-Joins-Itchy-and-Scratchy.”
“How am I ever going to look somebody who plays Tony Hawk games in the face again?”
“Isn’t our turtle supposed to be a bit more studly?”
“Turtles aren’t studly by nature.”
“What about the turtle they used in the 1950s to pimp the atomic weapons program? He was kind of studly.”
“No he wasn’t and, besides, he’s dead.”
“What?”
“Dead. Hanged himself from the side of his posh midtown Manhattan terrarium. Left a note saying he couldn’t handle the shame of what he’d done. Wrote it on a piece of Bibb lettuce.”