Tuyen’s Blog

It's a slow but nice President's day. Weather is perfect here in Oakland. About mid-60's, sunny, very light breeze.

Loading mentions Retweet

Christine at Peet's was nice enough to make me a special latte in light of my recent bad luck. This just put a huge smile on my face. :-)

Loading mentions Retweet

Or I should say disconnected from regular office type folks...

I'm sitting at Peet's, doing the usual afternoon coffee thing. I'm wedged at a table between two other tables filled with what seems like regular office folks (some have Clorox badges). Maybe I've been out of the regular work force for a while now (over 7 years and counting) but I can't believe the conversations these people are having. One table is discussing little diversion activities for their next strategy meeting - from human tetris to dressing up like super heroes for a skit to doing an air band performance. The other table is two ladies complaining about proper and improper ways their direct reports bring up overtime pay. WTF? Mind you, I'm not capping on any of these folks. If I think hard enough, I can remember a time when I was having the same conversations. It just goes to prove how unemployable I've become. Not that I'm complaining...

Loading mentions Retweet

I've mentioned before that Centrro uses shared office space. It's great because it's month to month, relatively cheap, and allows us to make use of conference rooms, a reception desk, a kitchen, and free internet access. Well today, you can scratch one of those off the list. Internet access has been down all morning so I packed up and headed to Peet's. It's actually a great day outside so I don't mind.
 
The one other benefit of shared office space is that you get to meet some really interesting people outside your company. For instance, one of our cube mates is a lawyer for the adult entertainment industry. How cool is that? For that reason, I think places like JellyDesk are great. If we didn't have partner/board meetings, I'd be fine working in that environment.

Loading mentions Retweet

I've parked myself outside of Peet's for a brew. Also snapped a shot from our balcony earlier today - you can see Marin County across the water! A beautiful day today - slightly on the warm side; just the way I like it.

   

Click here to download:

Nice_day.zip (234 KB)

It's a great way to start what will be a hectic week. We're starting our big fundraising push tomorrow and while Ike is on the road, I'll be pushing out some interesting improvements to some of our core products. Good news is that January is shaping out to be a blockbuster month for us (best month of our existence!). The right combination of the post holiday credit card rush (always happens - people max out their cards and need more) plus news that the Fed lowered interest rates a few weeks back have opened up the floodgates for mortgage apps. Let's hope the remaining 19 days of the month are just as good as the first 12.

Loading mentions Retweet

Back at Peet's. Here's a shot from another angle outside the store. The building that Peet's is at the bottom of is the American Presidents Line building in downtown Oakland. One of the nicer tall buildings around here. Check the facade out on Google Street View some time.

Loading mentions Retweet

Sitting at Peet's on 12th and Broadway. Beautiful day. On days like this I wonder why more businesses don't move to Oakland. Excellent public transportation, 15 minutes to a major airport, 15 minutes to San Francisco, cheap real estate, and on and on.

On second thought, I'd prefer people stay away. Keeps my rent lower.

Tuyen

Loading mentions Retweet