San Diego

At Net Optics trips come up fast. Some you know are coming up others seem to come out of the blue. For me this hasn't been the case but for Aron his experience and value to the company makes him one of the go to guys when the company needs a good technician to help out the big customers.

This last trip he had was to one of the largest cell phone providers in Europe, a company called Orange.

Well his sudden trip to Vienna Austria meant that his another customer he was working with fell into my lap. This company is Genoptix and is located just North of San Diego in a town called Carlsbad.

In order to get there in time. I was up at 4:45 to catch a 6:45 flight. I probably could have gone a little later but I didn't know where long-term parking was and how long it would take me to check one of Net Optics devices as luggage onto the plane.

Well I was pretty tired when I finally got on the plane so for the first time ever I fell asleep on a plane.

It was beautiful when I landed blue sky and sunny warm weather.  I know why people like Southern California so much!

I got a rental car, a Mazda 5 it's like small mini-van so not very exciting.  It would have been fun to get a convertible but no such luck :)

On the freeway I came up a hill and around a turn and all of a sudden the San Diego temple was right there!  It was really cool to see and I wanted to get a photo so I took this one while driving past the temple.

Once I got into Carlsbad I went right to the customer's site but I past a place called the flower gardens so when I was done I had to drive back there and get some pictures.  It's hard to really show how many flowers there were, but there were a ton.

Well now I had about an hour before I had to turn my car back in and get through security so I could hurry up and wait another hour.  So with an hour to grab some food and look around I couldn't go to far.  So I looked to see where this place was that I saw on TV to try for dinner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtYj5KjUzCM

This place was just across the highway from the airport so I thought it would work out great. That and I love mexican food. I got a steak burrito and it was filled with salsa and guacamole. It was really good!




And then after dinner with only about 30 minutes before I had to turn the car in and get to the airport so I went just down the road to see the ships. This is where I called my kids from and showed them on skype. Sorry kids I know you saw this on Skype but I thought I'd take another picture.

Then it was back to the airport to turn in the car and check in. The rental car place is like out by long term parking so you have to take a small bus to and from the airport. Once I was off the shuttle and back at the airport I checked the computer equipment back onto the plane as luggage and realized I left my phone back in the rental car.

So it was back on the bus for the long drive back to the rental car place. The bus driver got on his radio and called the office. They got my phone out the car and someone was waiting for me once I got on the bus. So I got off one bus and onto another for the long ride back to the airport. Then through security where I got to hurry up and wait to get on the plane.

It was a long day but I learned a lot!

Mostly that San Diego was really pretty ;)

Celebration Gala

The party just seems to continue. Today was the big company party and there was a lot of mystery as to who would be the special speaker. The popular guesses were silicon valley's royalty guys like Steve Wozniak or even Steve Jobs, though many thought that would be a pretty tough get.

The party was at the computer history museum.


Once inside we were not allowed to look around, we had to wait for them to set up the room. But after couple of minutes we were allowed into the auditorium where the we would have a chance to hear from the founder and CEO. Then the guest speaker would have his turn. Aron waited patiently...



The speaker was Kevin Cole, he had a great story about the importance of play. And how he was able to use sports to get through a tough childhood. After he was finished speaking Aron and I went up to introduce ourselves, we all had something in common; he was from Oregon. It turns he lives in Portland in the Hollywood District (Sharon's old neighborhood) just off 47th.

I don't know if people were upset since it wasn't a computer person but I thought he did a great job and was a great speaker. Then it was time to clear out of the auditorium for a while and wait for the next person.

Turns out the next person was some type of circus act...


And he only fell once! This act was impressive because at any moment you knew he could have fallen. It was really impressive. In the pictures you can see that that there are cylinders on their side in two different directions which means he could roll backward and side to side. The balancing was really impressive.

Then there was this... (and Aron and I had the best seats in the house literally)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYhMOOcwZUs
(try and copy and paste if the link doesn't work)

After the party there was a chance to walk around the museum and look at how much computers have changed. But then in this corner there was a little table with people that made license plates, I got some...



Some of the circus performers stayed at the party to allow us to take pictures with them. There was this one girl who was really bendy, I thought I'd take a picture of me being bendy too...


I am looking forward to this weekend where I'll finally get a chance to finding a place to live, move to a different hotel with free breakfast and chat with my kids on the internet!!!

So today wasn't that interesting. Pretty much the same as the previous days; start in the office and then off to "hot stage" to finish working on our equipment for Las Vegas. It was good because we got everything done that we needed to.

Then Aron and I were going to meet Dennis (our boss) for dinner in San Jose. On the way to dinner Aron mentioned that we were close to the Winchester mansion so we decided to take a couple of extra minutes and look at it.

Here's a picture from the front. It's not a great picture because the sun was right behind it but you can see that it was big...





So here's the story of this mansion.

When Sarah Winchester moved to San Jose way back in the 1884. Her husband invented a famous gun and named it after the family name "Winchester". The gun was used by many people to protect themselves from wild animals but bad guys used it to kill other people.

The wife of the inventor felt bad that this gun was used to kill people and believed that the ghosts of the people killed by the gun her husband created were haunting her house. Well perhaps she was a little crazy because she thought that if she built her house bigger by adding more rooms the construction work would keep the ghosts away.

When she moved into the mansion it had 13 rooms!! That's a lot of rooms but because of her belief that building more rooms kept ghosts away she built rooms onto that house for 38 years! By the time she died There were 160 rooms on her house!!!!

I'll take you guys to see it sometime. Love you
Dad

Day 3: Fireside Luncheon

Today I had meetings early with the CEO and then I started to set up my computer and cubicle area. But then at 11:30 there was a luncheon as part of the 15 year Net Optics celebration. But the first thing I did this morning was to grab my camera and start taking pictures. I know my kids want to see as much as possible so here are some of the pictures...

first one was outside our hotel




And then once I got to the office I took a couple for of the desk so the kids can see where I'll be working.












As you can see there is a lot of potential here. I just need some pictures of my kids, maybe some pictures they can draw for me and a plant or something and it will be REALLY NICE! For now it's just nice.









Then there was the luncheon itself. Everyone got to have lunch in a big tent just outside in the parking lot.

And here is my new boss, his name is Dennis...



So those are the pictures that I have from the luncheon but I also took some pictures of the hotel and the car.

Day 2: tour the warehouse

Hey everyone! So I miss everyone but both days I've been here it's been 75 degrees and clear skies, I think I could get used to this! But I would live in Canada if it means I get to be with my family every day (yes that was a cheap shot at Canada).

So today I was in the office and started to meet people in the office. It was great to get to see who I would be working with and what I could do to help out around the office. I also got to move into my cubicle (pictures coming) and get my computer. Yup I'm typing on my Mac right now. So far I've only had to reboot it twice (I miss my PC).

Then after being in the office all morning it was back off to the warehouse to do some more work. The work in the warehouse is building a network from the ground up. I mentioned it the last post but all the vendors there volunteer time and resources to be a part of this.

The following videos are actually one video that I had to cut into two.

Part 1


Part 2


So I know it wasn't that much but I'll try to get some more pictures tomorrow. As you can see it's not super fancy but it was actually pretty fun. I didn't think work could be this fun, who knew?

Salem to San Jose

 

The flight in was pretty uneventful (nothing really good happened)  But as we came up to the San Francisco area I leaned over the lady sitting in the window seat and snapped a photo.

Not much to see when you are up so high.  The bridge there is the Bay Bridge that leads to Oakland.  Kristian, Aron said that your bakery was somewhere in the middle.  Way over to the left in the middle you can kind of see Alcatraz, not so scary from up here.

Once at the airport I got all my big bags and loaded them into the car to go to the office.  I had to fill out some papers (I had to prove I was a US citizen).  And then I joined a tour of the company to learn about the 15 year history.  It was really a good way to start.  It’s great to see where the company has been and to see them appreciate where they are. 

Part of the tour included a trip outside to see the fleet of mini coopers and a fire truck that was once purchased for a trade show.

Sorry for the poor quality the sun was so bright in here California it was hard to take a good photo.  I’ll have to adjust to all this sunshine when taking pictures.  I’m so used to the overcast weather in Oregon. 

After that it was off to a warehouse outside of San Francisco to work on a the Interop network.  On the way up I got to see where they keep the Goodyear blimp when not visiting the many sporting events.

Aron told me that this building is so large that it can create it’s own weather.  Clouds have formed and it has rained in this building!

Once in the warehouse there are a bunch of people working to build a network that will host the traffic for all the booths at a trade show.

Most of these people come from all different companies and supply hardware from their companies.  The companies supply the people and equipment in exchange for advertisement.

Here is some of the equipment. 

I don’t know what will happen after we get done here.  It’ll be nice to get back to the hotel and get unpacked, all of my bags are packed inside of a mini cooper parked illegally outside.  I sure hope the car doesn’t get towed away :-/