Difference between pages "COVID-19 Testing SF" and "Most badass moments"

From NoskeWiki
(Difference between pages)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
 
 
Line 1: Line 1:
 
==About==
 
==About==
  
{{DaughterPage|mother=[[COVID-19]]}}
+
I feel like there is an amazing question we never ask each other: <b>"what is the most badass moment of your life"</b>.
  
So this is just a tiny little page to help my friends who want to get COVID-19 tested in San Francisco (or the wider bay area). There's many different options, but certain providers have the huge drawback that it can take <b>over a week to send you your results</b>. If it takes a week or two to get results, they are effectively useless, therefore your highest priority is to find a place with quick turnaround time.
+
Which translates to:
  
My experience and the consensus among my friends: the best place to get tested for quick turn around time is the free "color" testing at SOMA or Embarcadero. I prefer Embarcadero because they have a walk in option + drive in option... SOMA I think has drive in only. Even if you have to book a week ahead, there's an easy trick where you hit "Change Appointment" afterwards, and you can keep hitting refresh and someone is likely to cancel... meaning you will get an appointment same day.
+
* "<b>Have you ever had one of those days you felt like a baller? A day when everything just went right and you felt like the king or queen of the world. A day of incredible luck or skill that makes you smile. Tell me about your most baller moment in life</b>".
  
I've used this approach about 5 times already (between April and September) and it's been great each time.... I've usually been able to book same day and get my results in <24 hours.
+
What I love about this question is that most people have never heard it.. they'll have to think about it. Honestly, you might just say "<b>tell you what, that's your homework to think of an answer, because I bet you have a good one</b>". It's a really great dating question, but works with friends too.
  
==How to Book Your Appointment for Best Turn-Around Time==
+
Let me share my own examples and you'll see the beauty of remembering these moments. They don't happen often but they make life happier.
  
# Go to: [https://sf.gov/find-out-about-your-covid-19-testing-options https://sf.gov/find-out-about-your-covid-19-testing-options]
 
# Click the "<b>City-run, open by appointment only</b>" option > and pick [https://home.color.com/covid/sign-up/start?partner=sfdph Embarcadero] or [https://home.color.com/covid/sign-up/start?partner=sfdph SOMA].
 
# Go through the 5 step process.. it might take ~3 minutes, to fill in the details, but it will be worthwhile and if you do it again Chrome should help you autocomplete the next time.
 
# Select Embarcadero drive in or walk in at the last step. You'll probably have to book a week ahead, BUT what you do is then click "change appointment" on your email and then hit refresh and often one will appear the same day.
 
# Show up on your designated day with your drivers license and let them awkwardly put that swab up your nose. They don't got crazy deep into your nose like some (like the early tests), but they still need to make you uncomfortable and do both nostrils for a while to get enough snot for a sample - once they didn't get enough with me and it gave me an "Inconclusive").
 
# At then end they'll give you a piece of paper with a code that you enter to get your results when they text you. Take a photo of it right away and then hopefully they'll get back in 24 hours.
 
  
<i>NOTE: It really doesn't matter what time you book, it only matters you pick the right day. You can book for the morning and show up in the afternoon or vice versa, and they don't mind.</i>
+
==Badass Moments==
  
  
[[Image:Covid_booking_last_step_900w.png|600px|center|thumb|Last step of booking is to select apopintment time... this screnshot if from Sep 13, so most appoinments were a week ahead... *BUT* notice a slot open on Sunday - a result of cancellation.. that's why the "change appointment" and refresh approach works.]]
+
=== Operation Shoe Rescue ===
  
 +
I took my first ever girlfriend to my hometown of Cairns and I was having a lovely day showing her the rainforest tablelands, we went up by train and we were coming back by '''[https://g.page/skyrail-cairns?share Skyrail Rainforest Cableway]''' - the longest cableway in the southern hemisphere. Along the way, there is this amazing stop where you walk along a rainforest boardwalk and out over a waterfall vista that looks over the ocean way below. I noticed a family and the kid in the family accidentally dropped one of his sandals over the edge of the railing near the waterfall. It wasn't just my girlfriend and I that noticed this happen... everyone standing around say it. The family (or rather the dad) was making a big deal about it - as if they couldn't possibly continue their trip without a sandal - and I was thinking I could help, but it was too far to reach and would be both illegal and dangerous to jump over. Then I noticed the poor grandpa get on his wobbly hands and knees to reach down - even though is was obvious he could never have reached it. My girlfriend felt really bad and said "oh no, grandpa is trying to reach it". In perhaps the most intense moment of clarity and spatial awareness in my life I saw a long branch like root coming off a rainforest tree just on the edge of the boardwalk. In one swift movement, I grabbed the root, everyone watching, broke it off and it was exactly long enough to swoop down from where I was standing, hook this kids' sandal, and lift it up right next to grandpa. The family was crazy grateful, and my girlfriend grabbed my arm and mentioned that she wanted to tear my clothes off. That moment felt incredible.
  
==Should you get Tested Frequently?==
 
  
Should you get tested frequently? That's personal preference.
 
  
Why tested so many times? My best friend's mom is immunocompromised, so he insisted that to hang out with him I should get tested - and I missed hanging with my best friend, it was a very easy decision for me. Along the way I decide it's good practice to get tested for most of us.... let's be honest - we're at the stage now when we're not all isolated at home, we want *some* social time with friends to avoid getting depressed. You could catch COVID from a friend or at the groceries at any moment... regardless of how good you are with masks. Then suddenly you might pass it to a friend. The analog is people who have never been STD tested.
+
=== The Ex Girlfriend At a Wedding ===
  
I've heard the argument that you shouldn't get tested unless you very highly suspect you have COVID (fever etc), to allow spots for people who really need it, but the Embarcadero is good at prioritizing people with symptoms and essential works <i>(they ask lots of questions about this)</i> and I was quite surprised that they usually don't have a line. Actually a couple of times I see two testing booths and the people there (in white suits) are just lazing around. I'm really grateful the city provides with free service and I feel like it's good to take advantage. Many people who catch COVID-19 don't get symptoms, hence I try to get tested at least once a month. You can make your own decision, but I would recommend to everyone to try at least once... because then if you do actually experience symptoms you'll know where to go quickly the next time.... and if you do show up positive - well then thank me for the tip! :)
+
One of my favorite days of my life was the wedding of my best friend Lyubov. I met Lyubov dancing, we briefly dated, and somehow ended up as deeply authentic friends and when she met a guy and decided to get married, she asked me to be maid of honor. The whole month leading up to her wedding was amazing - I got to organize the bachelorette party, which I'm sure is a once in a lifetime thing for me. And the wedding was the most amazing wedding I've even been to. They did it as a potluck, so the food was amazing and it didn't cost them a cent! Lyubov was working in quality assurance for a porn company called kink.com which was, at the time, headquartered in a castle in San Francisco called '''[https://g.page/ArmoryMN?share The Armory]''', and that's where she wanted to get married - in this beautiful huge Edwardian room that had all the trimmings, but if you looked closely, the renaissance paintings on the wall were actually all highly porngraphic, and there were rings hanging from the ceiling which were clearly used for sex swings in their porn videos!
  
Stay safe out there. Keep wearing that mask!
 
  
<i>Disclaimer: You should already know this, but the test itself... while required for traveling to lots of countries... well it't far from 100% accurate. There are false positive (it says you have it, but you don't) and true negatives (it says you are negative, but you actually have it) all the time - so keep that in mind. The test for antibodies are even less reliable. I had some flu symptoms in February 2020 (before COVID-19 was on the radar in SF) which was probably a normal flu, but could easily have been COVID-19.... I will probably never know.</i>
+
The only thing that was kind of nervous for me, was that my favorite ex-girlfriend, Taylor, was going to be at the wedding. Originally she was going to be my date, but she had started dating someone seriously so he was her date and I'd never met him, but he definitely knew Taylor and I had history. The wedding was amazing... I got to give a [[Wedding_speech_-_Maid_of_Honor_for_Lyubov_and_Bryan|maid of honor speech]] that made everyone cry. I was feeling amazing, and had finished all my maid of honor duties when the dancing started. I assumed there wouldn't be any single girls there, but there was this beautiful blonde girl covered in tattoos on the dance floor and we had a magnificent dance. That's when I noticed Taylor and her new boyfriend Hank in the corner. And that's when I did my "baller move". I could see Taylor was a bit nervous and Hank was eying me off a little bit, trying to see if I any kind of threat, and I hadn't really had a chance to interact with him yet. I also was hitting it off with this girl... so I strode up to them both and said "<b>Hank, it's so great to meet you at last... and this is cheeky, but I might need to borrow Taylor for wingwoman duty! I just met Courtney over there, and I think she's super cute and I need you to talk to her and find out if she's single</b>".
  
{{Acknowledgement|people=<b>Adam Morrison</b> for inspiring me in different ways to move from a '''3''' (in the early days for the US in my defense) to a '''7''', which then gave me the idea of this graphic. Ironically I didn't want to be one of the many people blogging about coronavirus, but here's me doing just that! :) }}
 
  
 +
So in case it's not obvious... in that one move, basically two birds with one stone. Hank would no longer see me as any kind of threat... and Taylor was going to be my wingwoman, because hey - guys like to get lucky sometimes. Taylor didn't waste any time walking straight up to Courtney to tell her that I thought she was cute and wanted to know if she was single. I mean I would have eventually said that myself, but it just looks cute coming from a friend. Social validation I guess. Luckily she was single, and it wasn't long before the too of us run off into the dungeon to make out for a while, before I had to get back to Lyubov. Courtney invited me over to her place that night and let me just say... when you are a best man, you have a very good chance of getting lucky... so long as you give a good speech that focuses on your love for the wedding couple. If you are a maid of honor.... and you don't stuff up the speech... short of being famous, that's gotta be a guys best chance to get lucky!
  
==See Also==
 
  
* '''[[COVID-19]]''' - My wider article about COVID-19.
+
Even if Courtney wasn't single and I didn't get to hook up... that moment of approaching Taylor and Hank to release their nervousness just felt like this moment of brilliance I will never forget.
  
  
  
==Links==
+
=== Operation Turtle Rescue (almost) and Cattle Egret ===
 +
 
 +
My first trip to Hawaii was November 2021 where I arrived in Maui I very quickly bought a snorkel and googles. I was told one of the best snorkeling spots on Maui was a pretty touristy beach called "<b>[https://goo.gl/maps/nKv62Ab3K1Jp3AqF7 Kapalua Bay Beach]</b>". I dove in and I saw a beautiful juvenile green sea turtle (maybe 3 feet), which was magical, except that it had fishing line wrapped around its back and neck. Touching turtles is very illegal, but I figured this was an exception - this fishing line will probably kill the turtle as it grows. So I chased it, and I got a hand to it, but then it took off... slower than I expected, but I can't help but feel that if I'd only bought flippers too I would have caught him, lifted him above water, and removed the fishing line. Saving a turtle just felt like it would be the most badass thing..... so I went back a different day, but no luck in finding him again. What I did do is phone it in - most places will have hotline for animals in trouble. I never got called back, but I hope they found and saved him. I know this story isn't quite badass, but I still got that rush just thinking about saving the day.
 +
 
 +
Fast forward a few months and I'm living in Oahu, with a lovely view out over the Ala Wai canal.. not the cleanest canal, but one day I saw a white fluttering at the base of a beautiful huge tree in the water. It was just a white speck, but it was definitely a cattle egret and it was definitely stuck in the mud, maybe on a piece of trash, I couldn't see. I ran down and I'm on the wrong side of the canal, but I shouted out to a passing rowboat - one of the fast ones, and this guy was the real hero I guess - he risked tipping over to fetch the bird, and bring it to me. I put it in a box, gave the bird a name (Gary) and called the same number for them to pick it up. The bird looked in really bad shape at first - like he wouldn't make it - but by the time they arrived, Gary looked way better, so I feel like collectively this wonderful rower and I saved Gary. I posted his picture. My folks are bird watchers, and back in Darwin Australia we were given many injured birds - enough to know that the birds often don't make it. Gary made it though, so I felt fantastic !  :)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
=== Romance at the Airport ===
 +
 
 +
It was around 2015 I believe, I was working for Google but visiting Australia. I would work a week in the Sydney Google office then visit my dad and then mum. On my second last day I saw a beautiful girl in a beautiful dress sitting in the park, and had the courage to compliment her dress and talk to her. I asked her out and she said yes. I showed her the Google office and we had a magical day exploring Darling harbor together. She was from Peru, but sadly this was my second last day. On my last day we did some breakfast where I learned it was the day before her birthday, then I had to leave to the airport. On the train to the airport I realized it was a shame I didn't get one more day to celebrate her birthday and just enjoy each other. So I get to the airport, and cancelling a flight seemed like one of those things from the movies, but there was no line and I told the woman at the airport check in my predicament, and that I might cancel my flight, or maybe she could book me into a later flight! So turns out the girl at the counter was a former model who grew up in the same small town in Peru as the girl I was dating. They didn't know each other, but this woman was a total sweetheart, she said she believed in love and handed me a plane ticket for the next day.
 +
 
 +
Now I had no hotel booked, and wasn't entirely sure if this girl was going to want to stay overnight with me, but I called and she was excited. It was a passionate and lovely night together. She left in the morning because she had plans with a friend, which was a surprise, but she texted me really sweet pictures with her friend and I'll never forget her! My dad was a bit mad at first that I had one less day with him, but he forgave me when he saw how beautiful the girl was. Years later dad and I did a South America trip, and even went through Peru. I should have looked her up, but I figure it was just one of those fleeting things. Maybe if she'd stayed with me the whole day it would be a little different, but I still won't forget two magical dates, her beautiful dress, and the lady at the airport who bent the rules for me!  :)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
=== Cleanup Challenge ===
 +
 
 +
Early in my Google Career, I had a crazy plan to change the world by starting a "cleanup challenge". Challenging every school in America to pickup trash around World Environment day. Participating schools would be sent packages with pickup tools (tongs and gloves), bags, and swag (t-shirts etc) for winning teams. I worked out the whole thing could be done scrappy and cost only a couple of million (tiny money for Google), great publicity, and I was pretty confident it would work because Australia has a "Cleanup Australia Day" which our primary school participated in. Nobody sent our school packages, but many schools would organize the day for certain grades to get into the neighborhood and pickup litter. It teaches humility. Sadly that dream wasn't realized, but I did make a video and somehow scored a meeting with Google's CFO at the time, who I think liked the idea, but quit 5 days later. We didn't realize the bigger goal, *but* it spawned a Google cleanup with O(100) people showed up on the weekend - most of them part time Googlers (the one without job security or insurance) - and we picked up 400 pounds of trash - JUST around our campus. The point was to show that even a place that you don't think of as dirty - well there's litter everywhere because people are just lazy. Following that day we had weekly meetings, many fun little initiatives, and I met the head of recycling at Google, Jeff Carloni, who 100% supported our efforts and become one of my best friends and the guy who took me to burning man. So yes, sad that it didn't realize it's potential, but the whole experience was amazing. It was also interesting to see that the employees that Google doesn't treat quite as generously were the ones who were most passionate about making a difference in making Google campus green, and hoping we might change the world. Fortunately we all change the world in our own little ways.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
=== I know the DJ - Let Me Get You In ===
 +
 
 +
July 2021 I met three amazing people at a "Lunar Vibes" fire spinning campout. The amazing Nico, the beautiful Brittney, and wonderful Josh. I had them crash a couple of nights at my place when there accommodation feel through, but my bestie Taylor and I invited them to a huge salsa night with hundreds of fun people dancing, and sadly they got delayed and arrived 3 minutes later. The bouncer said he wouldn't let them in. I walked outside to ask what happened, and they were clearly a little upset. No wristbands for them. But then I said "you know what, no promises, I know the organizer of this party, Ricky - let me talk to him, and I think I can get you in". I didn't think it would work, Ricky was really busy on stage, but he saw me, we fist bumped, and I quickly said I had 3 friends stranded outside. In a flash he gave word to the bouncer to let me three friends in, and soon after I was walking out with the bouncer and got them in! I mean, they still had to pay, but I felt crazy badass...... Ricky is really cool - I met him when he was just getting back into the salsa scene in Oahu, at a small event.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
What a force of nature that a few months after that he was booking out venues, spread the word and had hundreds of people coming to his parties! I had no idea he'd had experience as a DJ and even organizer that he had that kind of pulling power. When he's not DJ, he's an incredible salsa dancer that all the ladies love to dance with. He's also just a crazy nice guy.  :)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
I've never had an "I know the DJ" before... although I will say that in SF my boy Adam and I made friends with some incredible bouncers that would let us cut the line - a power that is usually only wielded by really attractive girls, but we genuinely just really loved talking to these bouncers.
 +
 
 +
 
  
 
[[Category:Personal]]
 
[[Category:Personal]]
[[Category:Images]]
 

Revision as of 04:23, 6 July 2021

About

I feel like there is an amazing question we never ask each other: "what is the most badass moment of your life".

Which translates to:

  • "Have you ever had one of those days you felt like a baller? A day when everything just went right and you felt like the king or queen of the world. A day of incredible luck or skill that makes you smile. Tell me about your most baller moment in life".

What I love about this question is that most people have never heard it.. they'll have to think about it. Honestly, you might just say "tell you what, that's your homework to think of an answer, because I bet you have a good one". It's a really great dating question, but works with friends too.

Let me share my own examples and you'll see the beauty of remembering these moments. They don't happen often but they make life happier.


Badass Moments

Operation Shoe Rescue

I took my first ever girlfriend to my hometown of Cairns and I was having a lovely day showing her the rainforest tablelands, we went up by train and we were coming back by Skyrail Rainforest Cableway - the longest cableway in the southern hemisphere. Along the way, there is this amazing stop where you walk along a rainforest boardwalk and out over a waterfall vista that looks over the ocean way below. I noticed a family and the kid in the family accidentally dropped one of his sandals over the edge of the railing near the waterfall. It wasn't just my girlfriend and I that noticed this happen... everyone standing around say it. The family (or rather the dad) was making a big deal about it - as if they couldn't possibly continue their trip without a sandal - and I was thinking I could help, but it was too far to reach and would be both illegal and dangerous to jump over. Then I noticed the poor grandpa get on his wobbly hands and knees to reach down - even though is was obvious he could never have reached it. My girlfriend felt really bad and said "oh no, grandpa is trying to reach it". In perhaps the most intense moment of clarity and spatial awareness in my life I saw a long branch like root coming off a rainforest tree just on the edge of the boardwalk. In one swift movement, I grabbed the root, everyone watching, broke it off and it was exactly long enough to swoop down from where I was standing, hook this kids' sandal, and lift it up right next to grandpa. The family was crazy grateful, and my girlfriend grabbed my arm and mentioned that she wanted to tear my clothes off. That moment felt incredible.


The Ex Girlfriend At a Wedding

One of my favorite days of my life was the wedding of my best friend Lyubov. I met Lyubov dancing, we briefly dated, and somehow ended up as deeply authentic friends and when she met a guy and decided to get married, she asked me to be maid of honor. The whole month leading up to her wedding was amazing - I got to organize the bachelorette party, which I'm sure is a once in a lifetime thing for me. And the wedding was the most amazing wedding I've even been to. They did it as a potluck, so the food was amazing and it didn't cost them a cent! Lyubov was working in quality assurance for a porn company called kink.com which was, at the time, headquartered in a castle in San Francisco called The Armory, and that's where she wanted to get married - in this beautiful huge Edwardian room that had all the trimmings, but if you looked closely, the renaissance paintings on the wall were actually all highly porngraphic, and there were rings hanging from the ceiling which were clearly used for sex swings in their porn videos!


The only thing that was kind of nervous for me, was that my favorite ex-girlfriend, Taylor, was going to be at the wedding. Originally she was going to be my date, but she had started dating someone seriously so he was her date and I'd never met him, but he definitely knew Taylor and I had history. The wedding was amazing... I got to give a maid of honor speech that made everyone cry. I was feeling amazing, and had finished all my maid of honor duties when the dancing started. I assumed there wouldn't be any single girls there, but there was this beautiful blonde girl covered in tattoos on the dance floor and we had a magnificent dance. That's when I noticed Taylor and her new boyfriend Hank in the corner. And that's when I did my "baller move". I could see Taylor was a bit nervous and Hank was eying me off a little bit, trying to see if I any kind of threat, and I hadn't really had a chance to interact with him yet. I also was hitting it off with this girl... so I strode up to them both and said "Hank, it's so great to meet you at last... and this is cheeky, but I might need to borrow Taylor for wingwoman duty! I just met Courtney over there, and I think she's super cute and I need you to talk to her and find out if she's single".


So in case it's not obvious... in that one move, basically two birds with one stone. Hank would no longer see me as any kind of threat... and Taylor was going to be my wingwoman, because hey - guys like to get lucky sometimes. Taylor didn't waste any time walking straight up to Courtney to tell her that I thought she was cute and wanted to know if she was single. I mean I would have eventually said that myself, but it just looks cute coming from a friend. Social validation I guess. Luckily she was single, and it wasn't long before the too of us run off into the dungeon to make out for a while, before I had to get back to Lyubov. Courtney invited me over to her place that night and let me just say... when you are a best man, you have a very good chance of getting lucky... so long as you give a good speech that focuses on your love for the wedding couple. If you are a maid of honor.... and you don't stuff up the speech... short of being famous, that's gotta be a guys best chance to get lucky!


Even if Courtney wasn't single and I didn't get to hook up... that moment of approaching Taylor and Hank to release their nervousness just felt like this moment of brilliance I will never forget.


Operation Turtle Rescue (almost) and Cattle Egret

My first trip to Hawaii was November 2021 where I arrived in Maui I very quickly bought a snorkel and googles. I was told one of the best snorkeling spots on Maui was a pretty touristy beach called "Kapalua Bay Beach". I dove in and I saw a beautiful juvenile green sea turtle (maybe 3 feet), which was magical, except that it had fishing line wrapped around its back and neck. Touching turtles is very illegal, but I figured this was an exception - this fishing line will probably kill the turtle as it grows. So I chased it, and I got a hand to it, but then it took off... slower than I expected, but I can't help but feel that if I'd only bought flippers too I would have caught him, lifted him above water, and removed the fishing line. Saving a turtle just felt like it would be the most badass thing..... so I went back a different day, but no luck in finding him again. What I did do is phone it in - most places will have hotline for animals in trouble. I never got called back, but I hope they found and saved him. I know this story isn't quite badass, but I still got that rush just thinking about saving the day.

Fast forward a few months and I'm living in Oahu, with a lovely view out over the Ala Wai canal.. not the cleanest canal, but one day I saw a white fluttering at the base of a beautiful huge tree in the water. It was just a white speck, but it was definitely a cattle egret and it was definitely stuck in the mud, maybe on a piece of trash, I couldn't see. I ran down and I'm on the wrong side of the canal, but I shouted out to a passing rowboat - one of the fast ones, and this guy was the real hero I guess - he risked tipping over to fetch the bird, and bring it to me. I put it in a box, gave the bird a name (Gary) and called the same number for them to pick it up. The bird looked in really bad shape at first - like he wouldn't make it - but by the time they arrived, Gary looked way better, so I feel like collectively this wonderful rower and I saved Gary. I posted his picture. My folks are bird watchers, and back in Darwin Australia we were given many injured birds - enough to know that the birds often don't make it. Gary made it though, so I felt fantastic ! :)


Romance at the Airport

It was around 2015 I believe, I was working for Google but visiting Australia. I would work a week in the Sydney Google office then visit my dad and then mum. On my second last day I saw a beautiful girl in a beautiful dress sitting in the park, and had the courage to compliment her dress and talk to her. I asked her out and she said yes. I showed her the Google office and we had a magical day exploring Darling harbor together. She was from Peru, but sadly this was my second last day. On my last day we did some breakfast where I learned it was the day before her birthday, then I had to leave to the airport. On the train to the airport I realized it was a shame I didn't get one more day to celebrate her birthday and just enjoy each other. So I get to the airport, and cancelling a flight seemed like one of those things from the movies, but there was no line and I told the woman at the airport check in my predicament, and that I might cancel my flight, or maybe she could book me into a later flight! So turns out the girl at the counter was a former model who grew up in the same small town in Peru as the girl I was dating. They didn't know each other, but this woman was a total sweetheart, she said she believed in love and handed me a plane ticket for the next day.

Now I had no hotel booked, and wasn't entirely sure if this girl was going to want to stay overnight with me, but I called and she was excited. It was a passionate and lovely night together. She left in the morning because she had plans with a friend, which was a surprise, but she texted me really sweet pictures with her friend and I'll never forget her! My dad was a bit mad at first that I had one less day with him, but he forgave me when he saw how beautiful the girl was. Years later dad and I did a South America trip, and even went through Peru. I should have looked her up, but I figure it was just one of those fleeting things. Maybe if she'd stayed with me the whole day it would be a little different, but I still won't forget two magical dates, her beautiful dress, and the lady at the airport who bent the rules for me! :)


Cleanup Challenge

Early in my Google Career, I had a crazy plan to change the world by starting a "cleanup challenge". Challenging every school in America to pickup trash around World Environment day. Participating schools would be sent packages with pickup tools (tongs and gloves), bags, and swag (t-shirts etc) for winning teams. I worked out the whole thing could be done scrappy and cost only a couple of million (tiny money for Google), great publicity, and I was pretty confident it would work because Australia has a "Cleanup Australia Day" which our primary school participated in. Nobody sent our school packages, but many schools would organize the day for certain grades to get into the neighborhood and pickup litter. It teaches humility. Sadly that dream wasn't realized, but I did make a video and somehow scored a meeting with Google's CFO at the time, who I think liked the idea, but quit 5 days later. We didn't realize the bigger goal, *but* it spawned a Google cleanup with O(100) people showed up on the weekend - most of them part time Googlers (the one without job security or insurance) - and we picked up 400 pounds of trash - JUST around our campus. The point was to show that even a place that you don't think of as dirty - well there's litter everywhere because people are just lazy. Following that day we had weekly meetings, many fun little initiatives, and I met the head of recycling at Google, Jeff Carloni, who 100% supported our efforts and become one of my best friends and the guy who took me to burning man. So yes, sad that it didn't realize it's potential, but the whole experience was amazing. It was also interesting to see that the employees that Google doesn't treat quite as generously were the ones who were most passionate about making a difference in making Google campus green, and hoping we might change the world. Fortunately we all change the world in our own little ways.


I know the DJ - Let Me Get You In

July 2021 I met three amazing people at a "Lunar Vibes" fire spinning campout. The amazing Nico, the beautiful Brittney, and wonderful Josh. I had them crash a couple of nights at my place when there accommodation feel through, but my bestie Taylor and I invited them to a huge salsa night with hundreds of fun people dancing, and sadly they got delayed and arrived 3 minutes later. The bouncer said he wouldn't let them in. I walked outside to ask what happened, and they were clearly a little upset. No wristbands for them. But then I said "you know what, no promises, I know the organizer of this party, Ricky - let me talk to him, and I think I can get you in". I didn't think it would work, Ricky was really busy on stage, but he saw me, we fist bumped, and I quickly said I had 3 friends stranded outside. In a flash he gave word to the bouncer to let me three friends in, and soon after I was walking out with the bouncer and got them in! I mean, they still had to pay, but I felt crazy badass...... Ricky is really cool - I met him when he was just getting back into the salsa scene in Oahu, at a small event.


What a force of nature that a few months after that he was booking out venues, spread the word and had hundreds of people coming to his parties! I had no idea he'd had experience as a DJ and even organizer that he had that kind of pulling power. When he's not DJ, he's an incredible salsa dancer that all the ladies love to dance with. He's also just a crazy nice guy. :)


I've never had an "I know the DJ" before... although I will say that in SF my boy Adam and I made friends with some incredible bouncers that would let us cut the line - a power that is usually only wielded by really attractive girls, but we genuinely just really loved talking to these bouncers.