California – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

San Francisco – Saturday

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Saturday I made my way in to San Francisco.
The plan was to meet my friend Kevin who had recently taken a job with McAfee and moved to the Bay Area.

Kevin guided me in via cell phone with some help from his heterosexual life partner, Glen.

We set off in search of food and I got a quick tour of the city.

Got brakes?

Let’s build a city on the side of a mountain in an earthquake prone region!

This has drawbacks I will discuss in a bit.

We ended up down at Fisherman’s Wharf where we ate seafood at a place called Tanatino’s which had a nice scenic view of the marina.

From there we trucked around and saw a few things and then headed over to Ghiradelli’s for ice cream.

Yum!

It was time to get Kevin and Glen home so we headed back toward the apartment.
Kevin mentioned that we should go to the top of this scenic overlook so I could get some pictures.

I was thinking “Sure, let’s drive up there.”

It turns out you can only drive so far. Then you climb.

Glen said he had to get on back and he would drop us off. Kevin said it was only a few blocks away from the apartment so I sucked it up and went for it.

Turns out the view WAS worth the sound of my own heart beat pounding in my ear.

Click these to REALLY see the magnificence

You could see from downtown on to the ocean. It was breath taking.

It turns out that Kevin’s idea of a “few blocks” was, in reality, about 12 downhill blocks and 3 really steep uphill blocks. I was pretty beat when it was all said and done.

I did take time to cross The Golden Gate Bridge before heading back to my hotel in San Jose to crash.

Truly this was a day in which I benefited greatly from knowing the way to and from San Jose.

San Jose – Friday

Still marvelling at the geek landmarks. Dwight Silverman remarked on me being such a tourist. Bah! Who cares? I embrace my dorkitude!

Look! It’s Earthlink!

That whole building must be filled to overflowing with Internets!

Friday night I opted to shed my nerd skin and cruise into downtown to check out the nightlife.
I found a place called The Blank Club.

It’s very similar to the Austin Continental Club in size. Had I been there a few days earlier I could have seen The Reverend Horton Heat in about as intimate a venue as you could imagine…with none other than Throw Rag opening.

On this night the touring act on stage was a very old school type ska band called the The Aggrolites. Very enjoyable!

I doubt I’ll find myself in San Jose again in the near future but if I do, this is a good venue to know about.

California uber alles

I have arrived, safe and sound, in San Jose.
Yup, there’s a nerd loose in the silicon valley.

It’s amazing to see all the geek institutions. The office I am here to work in is housed in the Quantum building. They don’t make hard drives anymore, they sold that off to Maxtor. But still! I had a Quantum Fireball hard drive in my old machine back in the day!

Driving around I had to stop and snap this picture:

I can’t explain it but it just struck me as so very cool to see this.

Maybe tomorrow I can get a picture of the Intel building.

New job, same as the old job

It’s official. All the paperwork has been signed.
The merger/acquisition is complete.
With no effort on my part I now work for a different company than I did last week.

Of course there will be changes. Some I know about, others I don’t. No announcements have been made regarding any of this so the waiting game continues and the rumors are flying.

This is my fourth merger so I pretty much know what’s coming. And, to a certain degree, I know where I stand which is comforting. My co-workers who have not yet experienced a global reorganization are understandably nervous and apprehensive.

It’s hard to believe that I have been here for 5 years. This is the longest paying job I have ever held.

I’m off to our California office tomorrow to assist with some things there. I get the weekend to myself so I will head off to San Francisco for clam chowder and a chance to see the sea lions at Pier 39.

Oh yea, and Ghiradelli Chocolate.