03.07.06
Posted in life, friends, miscellaneous stuff, drama, linus, mary j. blige, work at 8:06 am by admin
Oh, drama.
Mary J. Blige wants no more of it. I, in contrast, assert that the idea of being drama-free may in fact be misguided, and quite frankly a little bit stupid. Honestly, what is this “drama” that so many people claim to be free of in their online personal ads?
In order to answer this perplexing question, I have to gather some of the more dramatic incidents in my life that have occurred over the past few months. So, it’s time to make a list!
- Running out of gas on the freeway.
- Working tons and tons of hours trying to complete a really complicated project for work to meet a really important deadline
- Having my bicycle stolen from the garage
- Linus, my kitten, jumping off the balcony and nearly killing himself
- Ending a 5-year relationship and moving across the country
- Being abandoned by someone I was dating on New Year’s Eve
Wow! That’s a lot of drama. But for some reason, when I look back at that list, I don’t really see those things as drama. They’re just things that have happened to me. So, how does that list translate into drama? I think I’ve found the key. Drama isn’t perpetuated by the things that happen to you, but how you deal with them.
Certain people claim to have the ability to avoid drama, but it seems to me that this is just a bad attempt at abstinence. Running away from life experiences to avoid dealing with them is just plain stupid. The secret to not being overwhelmed by drama is knowing how to handle it, and take it in controlled doses.
I’m not always good at that, but I’m working on it. Some of my friends might say that I thrive on drama, and maybe I do, but that’s because I don’t want my life to be boring. Would people watch Desperate Housewives if nothing interesting happened on the show? How can I be interested in my own life if nothing ever happens in it? I realize that there are no ratings at stake, and that I need to be careful not to blur the fantasy/reality line, but there is a lot to be said for a little variety.
Drama is created when you get involved with people who are … different. Drama is created when you take risks. Drama is created when you do something outside the norm. To the dismay of many of my friends and acquaintances, that pretty much is a textbook definition of my life, and there really isn’t any escaping it. Even if there was, I doubt I would ever even try.
As long as I can keep my head on straight, and I remember to reflect on rather than obsesss about the things that happen to me, I suppose there’s no harm in having a maneagable dose of drama in my life.
I like hanging out with the crazy people. I thrive on having a challenging job. Linus enjoys taking death-defying leaps from the balcony, and it certainly makes for a good story to tell. Having my bike stolen sucks, but there has to be a lesson to be learned from it.
So I say, bring it on.
Tags: drama, friends, life, linus, mary j. blige, work
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02.15.06
Posted in yahoo, work, web development, ajax, calendar, css, flickr, javascript, web at 1:29 am by admin
All I can say is wow.
When I came to Yahoo! to work on the platform team, I knew that the things I’d be building would be used by sites all over the Yahoo! network, and that kind of exposure was something that both excited me and scared me a little. I’ve built things for people to use before, but never to be consumed by an audience as large as Yahoo!’s.
When I started development on the Calendar component, I had no idea that we were moving in the direction of open-sourcing our platform library. The idea of giving back to the community in this way is something that is personally very satisfying to me, and I think that it will probably help me become a better developer as people begin implementing the things we’ve been working on, and making suggestions that will help us improve them.
It still feels a little strange to me to be able to blog so openly about what I’ve been working on for the few months I’ve been at Yahoo! and reading the incredibly positive feedback that we’ve received from various bloggers is a really exciting and validating experience.
I’m so proud to be working with a team of geniuses that consistently and easily solve complex client-side development problems like they’re nothing. I knew when I came to Yahoo! that I’d be around a lot of really smart folks, but I’m still amazed every day by the people sitting in the cubicles around me, and I would like to take a moment to thank them publicly for continually working so hard to see this vision through.
Those fabulous people are Eric Miraglia, Thomas Sha, Nate Koechley, Matt Sweeney, Adam Moore, Jenny Han, and Todd Kloots — and while their combined knowledge overwhelms me on a regular basis, I don’t think there’s a single day that I don’t learn something from these gurus. Thanks also to Bill Scott, the coolest evangelist since Tammy Faye (with much less makeup).
I’ve posted my first Calendar example here on the site, using the Connection and Event utilities, the Calendar component, and the flickr api. You can check it out here.
Here’s to lots more great stuff to come! 
Tags: ajax, calendar, css, flickr, javascript, web, web development, work, yahoo
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02.01.06
Posted in gay, movies, yahoo, miscellaneous stuff, work, brokeback mountain at 12:47 am by admin
I’m excited that Yahoo! is going to be offering a free employee screening of Brokeback Mountain on Thursday in our company cafeteria. I imagine that they’ll roll out the big screen, and that the chances of getting my feet stuck to the floor on my way to my seat are extremely decreased.
The cost of the movie ticket? $0.
The cost of the snacks? $0.
Seeing which coworker cries first during a gay cowboy movie? Priceless.
Tags: brokeback mountain, gay, movies, work, yahoo, yahoo!
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01.28.06
Posted in life, yahoo, miscellaneous stuff, work, caffeine, coffee at 3:12 am by admin
I’ve had a lot of crappy jobs in the past. Moving to California at the end of last July to come to work for Yahoo! was a dream come true for me because I always thought that a job at one of the “big names” in Silicon Valley would be the “holy grail” of web development positions. I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for.
This company really takes special care of its employees, and the industry is taking notice. Yahoo! has, for the first time, made Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, coming in at #73.
In honor of the special recognition Yahoo! received as being a great place to work, I thought I might, as an insider, share some of my favorite things about working here.
- All the espresso and lattes you can drink. How many shots do you want? One? Two? Eighteen? NO PROBLEM! They’re free, people. Not from some crappy machine that the office manager has to clean out every night, but from real baristas, like Starbucks, but organic (the coffee, not the baristas). And they have polystyrene cups! If you’ve never experienced polystyrene cups, let me tell you — they ROCK. Your hands never get hot, they’re more eco-friendly, and you don’t need those stupid corrugated java-jacket sleeves, so you have less moving parts with your coffee!
- Free valet parking. You can have someone park your car for you for free every single day, and the valet company doesn’t accept tips, so it really is free.
- Onsite haircuts available every Tuesday. And they’re decent haircuts! They’re affordable, and only 500 feet from my building, which is a big plus.
- A kick-ass free 24-hour gym. Sure, corporate gyms are plentiful. But the one at Yahoo! is open 24 hours daily, and it’s free! They have tons of equipment, much of which rivals the stuff at expensive gyms to which I’ve paid absurd amounts of money.
- An incredible holiday party. The Yahoo! 2005 Year End Party was amazing. Ice martini bars, a cajun buffet, and Earth, Wind & Fire. The most entertainment I’ve ever had at a holiday party at other jobs usually involved the boss’s Aunt Betty playing “Jingle Bells” on the piano.
- Tons of other perks. We have a whole directory of great things we get discounts on, from Apple, Dell, Office Depot, and we can also buy discount movie tickets! There’s onsite dental care, oil change & car wash, great health benefits, a subsidized public transit program, and a whole bunch more.
So, you may be asking, how can I work at Yahoo!? The answer is simple! Just check out careers.yahoo.com!
Link: 100 Best Companies to Work For: Yahoo!
Tags: caffeine, coffee, life, work, yahoo, yahoo!
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