Author: Sean

I’ve been working in the web industry for nine years, but I had never been to Silicon Valley until last week. The trip was brief, but I did see Google and drive by the massive eBay and Yahoo offices. I also walked around downtown Palo Alto for a bit. Today’s shot is my favorite thing about Silicon Valley, a store that reminded me of New York. Having seen the Bay area I was able to now look positively on my choice to spend my life on the East Coast. I prefer the Alley. There’s not a mini-mall within 10 miles of my office and I walk everywhere.
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Site of the Day: I want to build an HTPC, because I am a nerd.

I flew to San Jose last week to visit Google for business. We got the nickel tour and their campus lived up to the extreme amount of press it gets (see links below). Highlights included a full service gym with two infinite lap pools and satellite TV to every treadmill. There are 12 different cafeterias, all complimentary. We had lunch in the main one, called Charle’s, and I ate tuna steak, coconut shrimp, and a ball-park frank. Our contacts told us about the Google Fifteen, the pounds all new hires put on after pigging out on all the free food.
The campus serves about 4000 employees and the cafeteria was packed at noon. Various techies buzzed around the place on scooters and I felt like I was walking through a bee hive wear the workers were all casually dressed and slightly geeky (I can say that, look at my picture.) The vibe is just like walking around Carnegie Melon, MIT, or any other ranked tech school. It seems like a good place to work if you like talking shop. If you like talking shopping with hot girls or talking at all to attractive women…well, there is always after work.

The shiny new buildings had quite a few trophies scattered, including Space Ship One and a giant HD screen with a spinning globe showing world search activity. My favorite was the real t-rex skeleton just plopped in next to the volleyball court.

Google was voted by Fortune as the best place to work in 2007, and I definitely saw a lot of smiles. Our contacts were sharp, down to earth, and very pleased with their positions. I can see the attraction to working there, but I still like being a part of a much smaller team.

Links:
– Fortune’s “Why Google is No. 1”
– Google’s description of their culture.
– Blogger calls Google environement “infantilizing,” with counter-arguments in the comments.

Work is biz-ay, as I would type but probably never say out loud. The wtb was out of town this weekend and I spent the free time playing video games until my brain trickled out of my ears. This was good (or very bad) for my soul, but not so swell for blog fodder.
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On a side note, one of my current hobbies is re-vamping the software I use to generate this site. If your want some new features or know of some bugs, please add to the comments. One suggestion I am expecting is TURTLE CAM. All turtles, all day.

I got Gawkered yesterday (for the second time, first was rat poo):

“A testament to how shocked and envious we are when presented with photographic evidence that real people live in real apartments like this one with great furniture and skyline views and not, you know, views of brick walls and “quaint courtyards” ( i.e. weed ravished heaps of dilapidated concrete sprinkled with cigarette butts). [seantconrad]”

The wtb picked the place. I’m just a captured stallion placed into a fancy barn, still feral on the edges…I almost, almost typed that with a straight face.

When they were once very cruel to my friend Andy, I consoled him with the fact that like publicity, all traffic is good traffic. And boy does Gawker deliver traffic. The counter over there -> has been spinning like the Griswald’s electric meter at Christmas.

For V-Day the wtb and I decided to forgo fancy restaurants for a quiet, impromptu night at home watching the wind tear up the trees. She cooked Rachel Ray’s Chicken Marvalasala and Pappardelle with Rosemary Gravy. Man I hate Rachel Ray (“Marvalasala ?!”), but that pasta was amazing. I contributed Jaque Torres chocolates and a nice Montepulciano vino rosso.
Site of the Day: Jerry’s college band, The Amazing Larrys, are now on MySpace. Man, those songs take me back. I had a good time in 1994, even though I was dishwasher. A virtual beer to the person who can identify the origin of the band name.

I love you! I made this heart for you in Adobe Photoshop. Let’s drink some red wine and watch the dog show. And to others, that sadly is not what the kids are calling it these days. Tonight is the Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show.
UPDATE: The dog show was last night. D’oh! A springer spaniel won. Maybe we will rent Best in show.

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Site of the Day: Speaking of love, old friend of STC.com and guest on my never aired reality show, Beth Ostrosky got engaged last night. There should be a name for the position that allows the woman to stare at the ring.

Disproving the long held myth that Conrad men only carry Y chromosomes, Jerry and his wife had a lovely baby girl this morning. Welcome to Elizabeth! Baby has the right number of toes and fingers. Mom is feeling as good as expected, looking cute as a daisy. I’m now an uncle, twice over. This make me Super Uncle. Dan is Grouchy Uncle in Texas.
Elizabeth’s two-year older brother is not yet grasping the change to the household. I can’t wait to watch. The boy has been, let’s say, well catered to during his first two years. He currently holds the remote for the TV. But soon there will be noisy fights over whether its Raffi or Barney and I can’t wait to enjoy. My money is on the little girl.

Other famous Elizabeth’s:
– The greatest queen of England, Elizabeth I
– Practical inventor of stardom, both of screen and tabloids, AND the voice of Maggie Simpson, Elizabeth Taylor. See A Place in the Sun first if you have never seen her in a picture, which is possible if you were born in 2007.
– Special friend and manager to the Macho Man, the Lovely Elizabeth
– Elizabeth Dole, Senator and former head of the Red Cross

Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge Overpasses are industrial dark canyons making a neighborhood known as Dumbo. Once mostly storage and machine shops, it’s long since turned into expensive lofts that lift above the shadows. This brought a very arty feel to the gritty streets and the warehouses are peppered with performance spaces and just a touch of shopping and restaurants. It’s sort of a dark, Soho light. All this is about 400 meters down the hill from our place and a fun location to tour on a boring Sunday.

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Last night I didn’t watch even one millisecond of the Grammies. And, yes, I am pretentiously proud of that. Award shows are to culture what TV diners are to cuisine. The Grammies would be the salsbury steak, as in the worst.

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Site of the Day: Marty Z is my favorite video podcaster.

I’m giving a mandatory two hour lecture today to our non-technical team members explaining web engineering process. I wanted to share that to cheer up any readers out there who were feeling bad for themselves.

“Cats” for this generation, as in the cliché musical for tourists, The Lion King is surprisingly entertaining. Massive production values and eye-stunning puppetry create a jaw-dropping spectacle to wow even this cynic. Stand out performances by Jeff Binder as Zazu, Danny Rutigliano as Timon, and the scene stealing villain Patrick Page as Scar carry the day. The obligation to give you nearly three hours for your money contradicts being targeted towards children and there are some restless tykes in the middle, but overall parents, kids, and even New Yorkers can exit with a smile. I liked it better than Cats.
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Site of the Day:I’ve linked to these people before, now I visit once a week, Lost City, a blog capturing old NYC storefronts before they are all gone.