| Google war stories |
[May. 23rd, 2006|03:04 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | absurd, google | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Hefner - "Chocolate Beauty" | ] |
... so I am visiting a couple of good friends at Google. Sampling the food, so to say. We are trying to select a least crowded table in their mecca-of-a-cafeteria. Finally we end up at a table with five other people, when I notice that one of them is Udi_Manber, who until recently was a CEO of Amazon's A9 before being hired by Google a couple of months ago. So I tell my friend "do you know who is sitting at this table?". "Of course I do" answers my friend. Right after this, a guy on my right turns around and then conversation proceeds as follows
Guy: Hi guys! What do you do around here?
Friend1: I am doing ...
Friend2: And I am doing ....
Me: And I am just visiting here, and I must say the food is really good!
Guy: And what do you do?
Me: Oh, I am a software engineer in a startup near by.
Friend1: "..and a pretty good one"
Guy: Why don't you come work for Google?
Me: Maybe I should apply, the food is excellent here [trying to be funny]. And what do you do around here?
Guy: [after a brief pause]... Well, I just do different odd jobs.
Conversation ends here, the guy turns around to continue his conversation with Udi and others, while my friend explains to me that I have just asked Larry Page "what he is doing around here". As I now think about it, this was probably the single most absurd question one could ask Google co-founder in Google cafeteria, and I must admit the answer was right on the mark for this situation... |
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| China - Signs |
[Dec. 30th, 2005|10:39 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | MADREDEUS - Fado Do Mindelo | ] |
It might come as a surprise, but even at such touristy places as museums and observation decks, one sees absurdist translations of some Chinese phrase word for word into English. Some are translations of "Ispolkom" type terms, and some have unknown origins. Enjoy The Chinese Sign Collection: 
Click here for more
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| Souzhou - Garden City |
[Dec. 22nd, 2005|11:25 am] |
Founded in 514 BC as a capital of Wu Kingdom, Souzhou is home to the most exquisite Classic Chinese Gardens. Unlike Imperial gardens of Hangzhou, Souzhou gardens are laid out within a limited area by the house. A classical garden of Suzhou is a microcosm of the world made of the basic elements of water, stones, plants and different kinds of buildings with literary allusions.
This album contains photos of three Souzhou gardens: The Humble Administrator's Garden, Lion Forest Garden and The Lingering Garden. Suzhou is now a quiet small (by Chinese standards) city of 600,0000 and the gardens are UNESCO protected World Heritage Site
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| #1 Silk Factory in China (no joke, this is the official name) |
[Dec. 20th, 2005|12:05 pm] |
This photo-trip to the #1 Silk Factory of China (seriously, this is its official name) will uncover the ancient mystery of silk warm life cycle for you, as well as provide with images of exemplary, yet so 1950s factory floor that is similar to what one would find at some Soviet Era shoe manufacturer in Siberia.
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| China: Water Village |
[Dec. 15th, 2005|09:49 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | P.J. Harvey - Hair | ] |
Ancient Chinese water village Zhouzhuang has become a toursit attraction fairly recently, after a famous Chinese artist made a painting of one of its charming stone bridges. Now it is full of Chinese style gondolas, complete with romantic singers. Main canal has a row of small restaurants that provide you with a fishing poll, so you can catch your own lunch in the murky waters. All tourists arelocal here and there are no English menus. One can see toursit money at work on outskirts of this village (by Chinese standards) where construciton of a modern tech college and a hospital are almost complete
See more photos here
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| Shanghai at night |
[Dec. 8th, 2005|12:31 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | P.J. Harvey - Hair | ] |
 First Chinese Photos are up. Most of Shanghai I was exploring during the night. The city is very safe and vibrant at night with more places open then in New York or Paris.
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| Shnaghai Report 4- Random Notes on cars |
[Nov. 22nd, 2005|11:59 am] |
Buick seems to be a very prestigious car in China. It is popular with party officials, and competes with Mercedes 600 in the rich businessman circles. Buick also seems to have cornered the police car market here, while Volswagen got the taxis. Both have huge plants in China.
***
There exists an Italian designed Chinese car called Chery. The same guy who introduced Yugo to US wants to bring it to US market as a cheapest car in town. So far he is fighting with GM, who threaten to sue because the name "Chery" is too close to "Chevy", so Kia and Huyndai may have a couple more years of dominating US low end car market.
***
Less then two in a thousand own cars in China. Worldwide average is ninety. |
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| Shaghai Report 3 - Random notes |
[Nov. 21st, 2005|05:11 pm] |
***
Drivers here a predatory. Not like NYC drivers who are impolite and aggressive, not like Rome drivers who are random in their behavior yet not malevolent. Shanghai drivers are out to get you. Even if your light is green, and you are a cripple on a wheelchair, it means nothing to them. They drive fast and hard, and point their cars in the middle of pedestrian crowd. They NEVER stop.
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I just realized - it is not possible to make a spelling error in Chinese. This concept does not exist here. In US schools countless number of hours are spent on spelling practice, I wonder how Chinese use all the extra time.
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Hangzhou - an ancient city on the West Lake famous for its Dragon Well tea has been mostly restored since few things were left after it was burned two times by rival factions, and the rest of artifacts "cleaned up" by the cultural revolution. It also hosts the most important buddhist Temple in China (Ling Yin Temple) miraculouslypreserved during the cultural revolution. Near the entrance there is a famous cliff with carved buddhas. Only one is original, which according to the legend was saved by putting the statue of Mao in the niche.
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XINTIANDI is a European pedestrian mini-town of a few blocks with almost no Chinese people in sight. All of a sudden you are in the middle of European street with chic stores, elegant restaurants with Western names and Western food. Most of it is highly overpriced, yet has a couple of nice places especially the interior design. T8 restaurant serves smoked salmon ice cream and other experimental things, and are probably one of the top restaurants out there, giving solid competition to "M on the Bund"
***
All barber shops in Shanghai seem to convert into small bordellos during the night. They also have a characteristic spinning spiral in front. |
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| Shanghai Update II |
[Nov. 17th, 2005|02:22 am] |
"People 7" is a place that is hard to find even when you know where exactly it is located. Once you there, you are faced with two steel walls, without handles, locks or any other hint at an entry point. Between them is a matrix of horizonal cylindrical holes, glowing from within. Once you come up with an idea to stick a hand into one of them, a steel doors open, alas behind it is a mirror. Active hand sticking ensues, with similarly disappointing results, until the right sequence of actions is found a la a mid thirties level of Nemesis Factor. Finally the left steel wall slides open and you are inside a neo-bauhaus multi-storied space with a central square atrium and tables that are set in the caves in the walls around it. The space is very well designed with attention to detail, including furniture, silverware and the dishes themselves. And everything is made to absurdly defy your expectations: doors do not open on the side of the knobs, beautiful coffee cups are fused with no less beatiful cup plates, and getting into the restroom (after the task of finding the right door is complete) is an extra credit problem.
"People 7" is apparently a art-franchise with its Shanghai sister estabilishment "People 6" as well as few oter in Taiwan and Tokyo.
Next to it is a very different, yet equally hard to locate outfit "Shintory 2". This is where I am headed for dinner today.
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| Shanghai Report I |
[Nov. 16th, 2005|02:49 am] |
My exposure to large Asian cities prior to Shanghai was very limited. When I was flying to Shanghai, I expected to see something akin to Bangkok with more skyscrapers (dirty, polluted, architecturally uninteresting) minus backpackers. What I really saw was a clean cosmopolitan cityf( cleaner then New York) with a mix of european buildings with unimaginably large number of skyscrapers of very unique design. The city layout itself is very original due to its colonial past. The most famous part of the city - The Bund is a well preserved european style embankment with classical buildings facing a wide river. Old hotels, restaurants and people strolling along for an evening walk are in sharp contrast to the other bank of the river. Right across from the Bund is a futuristic city out of science fiction movie with space syringe like Oriental Pearl building dominating its skyline. The name of new city is Pudong - it is the future Shanghai. Pudong already hosts one of the tallest buildings in the world and the tallest hotel in Jingmao Tower and the high tech parks hosted in its scyscrapers where many of Silicon Valley jobs get outsourced. Jingmao tower is a jewel of an asian Art Deco variation, unmatched by its design inside and outside. Grand Hayat hotel that features tallest atrium spanning 35+ flloors starts (!) on 53rd floor. What looks like a cathedral out of "Blade Runner" is an inner space with hotel rooms perched around the walls, each one having a view to die for. The last floor is at the height of about 500 meteres, from where other skyscrapers look a little taller then colonial five story buildings in the french concession area. The city also has an old town with casbah-like narrow streets with drying clothes hanging from the windows and antique shops with hidden rooms that sell fake Rolexes to everpresent tourists. The old town also hosts two large mosques as well as a Taosit temple with the sculpture of the man himself. Worth mentioning is a former jewish quarter, with one functioning synagogue, but this deserves a separate post. The Shanghai Development Pavilion among other interesting things hosts a 10,000 square meter large model of Shanghai in five years that includes every(!) single building. It blows one's mind especially taking into account that most of it was built in the last ten years. |
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| Urban Exploring |
[Oct. 2nd, 2005|05:53 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Kusturica - "Unza Time" | ] |
We all know how internet allows people with fringe interests find each other in a way they could not even imagine fifteen years ago. One such clique are urban explorers - people who get high from climbing into abandoned buildings, photographing dilapidated urban landscapes and textures or simply getting into places in the city where few people have ever been. ( Read more... ) |
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