jfb | (no subject)

Some things I did today:

Donated a computer and a bunch of computer stuff to Computer Recycling Center, a nonprofit that reassembles components into working systems that it sells cheap to schools, and disassembles other components to their recyclable parts.
Went next door to Weird Stuff, an institution that could exist only in Silicon Valley, a store whose inventory consists mostly of stuff no one wants--and yet, someone does! Mainframe cabinets, 1G hard drives, keyboards for Sun workstations from the 80s, a big bin of detached laptop touchpads ($3 apiece), manuals for forgotten Microsoft networking software.
Missed brunch at Country Gourmet for the second time, because on Saturdays brunch ends at 1, not 2.
Went to Turmerik for a buffet that included the first gulab jamun I've ever had that tasted like dessert instead of a menu obligation.

Something I love about this area is the sheer variety of languages I can hear just going out for an afternoon. I don't know for sure what most of them are, but for the sake of argument let's say I heard a young couple teasing each other in Russian, someone being worried in Cantonese, something from the subcontinent at lunch, a kid pestering his mom for cookies in French, always some Spanish here and there, and many more in the background.

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Have you ever read Jeff Goodell's book "Sunnyvale"? It's his story about growing up there and then coming back years later to see what's happened to the area - kind of a growing up in the computer biz thing - his mom worked for apple at the outset as a secretary.) anyway, it's hard to make it sound interesting, but it's really good, and by way of disclosure, he is a good friend of mine, but, it was the first non fiction book my mom ever read, and it made her read about 100 more. (she was converted from being a deever mystery/grisham kind of reader.)

Yes I have! And it was interesting! I also liked the piece he did in... the NYT Magazine? that accompanied its publication, about going back to his childhood home.

yay!

I think you typoed, that was supposed to be "XTC" not "Mandy Moore."

I think I have that version somewhere.

Pure Software was across the street from Country Gourmet, and we had an account there that we were allowed to charge dinners to if we were working late. I ate there so incredibly much. Also that Chinese place, and the pizza place was pretty good too (for a California pizza place). And the deli in the supermarket on the other corner made great sandwiches.

I kind of miss food being within walking distance. We drive somewhere every day at lunch and it's seeming really weird to me.

Oh, and, Sun workstation keyboards were cool. I miss the L1-L12 keys.

Country Gourmet in Mountain View or Sunnyvale? I've been to the MV one, but the Sunnyvale one I've been failing to get to is supposed to be pretty different.

My new job is in some Sun part of Sunnyvale, across the street from a little strip mall, which doesn't have very good food, but it does have food, which is nice. I've still driven to lunch the last three days.

Best job ever, lunchwise, was Liquid Audio in downtown Redwood City. Good times.

Sunnyvale. I didn't realize there was more than one. It wasn't really all that great a place, but I managed to find enough things on their menu I enjoyed.

I did finally hear back from that woman at the school. So I'm probably going to drop my aged Celeron off next week. We'll see how that goes. It'll be the first machine I didn't eventually give to CRC since moving here. And it's the only machine I still have from before I moved out to California.

I should've asked if she could use my old machine too. Oh well.

I can hear those on a good day in Portland, too.

Heck, on a really good day, I can hear that on my front porch.

Cool, I bet you love that too.

I do!