Updates (and/or pictures to inspire your jealousy)

Well here I am in California. It's been 2.5 weeks already so definitely time for an update.

The job is going well, I have a spot on the website now!

I'm just going to post a few of the pictures that are already on facebook off of my phone. I know some will but many won't have seen them. Scroll down for new ones as well.

This is not *my* office but a nearby flashy office park for Oracle, where we often walk for lunch (They have good quality in-house eateries, whereas my company of 4 people doesn't have a coffee machine!)

All pictures from picasa album: Stephen's photos

This is my new car, a 2010 Honda Fit. I park it next to a presumably 2009 Honda Fit most days at work. At first it was because it was the most convenient spot, but lately I think we're both doing it somewhat on purpose. Easier to find the car later if you know you parked it right next to the other bright and identical car. Haven't met the other owner yet..


I moved into a sublet room in a condo. My landlord is friendly, the place is nice, and it's less than 1 mile from my house. I had some issues decorating (once I got to the store every time I realized I had not taken any measurements, didn't know what any sizes meant, and couldn't make up my mind on color or style or type. I don't think my mind is cut out for interior decorating.)



I had to travel to Portland, OR for work. (so I don't know whether I should write this blog for a typical Brit "Portland is a magical city in the state just north of California" or an American "yeah... first time in Portland, eh".. or maybe that's to a canadian..) Anyway here are some photos of Portland:








While getting settled in, I've been taking it easy these past two weeks. Not too many frantic tourist trips yet, though I have some stuff scheduled this coming weekend. Instead I had some lazy days hanging around in the beautiful silicon valley weather going on walks by the bay and reading a book (just finished one about an anticapitalist serial killer, as one does). Here are some views of what is basically the SF bay, I think the body of water is technically called the 'Steinberger Slough', it's really close to my house. (Portland pictures were admittedly pretty, but cold, the weather below was 65 degrees and sunny, or 18 degrees celsius and sunny..).
















Whew. I don't remember taking nearly this many photos in London, but I'm a sucker for a beautiful landscape, which there's a lot of in my backyard now.

Good night!

The beginning

Welcome to my new blog!

I am moving out to the San Francisco area to have a new job and a new life. I decided to continue the tradition of using a blog to communicate to friends and family back home (London / DC / PA, wherever that might be). I'll keep it open for now but eventually I'll probably make a rule that only people who don't live in California can read this, that way I don't have to censor my opinions too much about what's going on here.

I've been in California for 5 days now. It's been a very busy week. I arrived in Saturday night and drove a rental car to my friend's house in Mountain View. We went to a party with Microsoft employees (she was a Microsoft X-box employee up until today, when she quit, will now be working at Apple instead). Over the course of Sunday-Tuesday I bought a car!, a new Honda 2010 Fit. First new car I've bought and I really like it. On Monday I started my job. There's a lot I don't know yet and a lot I think I'm doing pretty well at. They seem to be giving me a lot of leeway anyway which is good. The coworkers are really friendly and the work is new and challenging. They were very interested to hear about my expertise in PAVA / electroacoustic system design for speech intelligibility, as it's something they say they don't do often or well, so maybe that will actually come in handy here (but not be as inescapable the way it was at Arup).

Anyway, I have to get way across town early for a meeting tomorrow, so I'm getting to bed. Just wanted to have a first stab at this and let people know a bit about how things are going! Talk to you soon,

Stephen