Chan's Personal Blog

Well, yesterday I renewed my lease on my apartment for another year. So, to dispel any speculation, there will be no fast withdrawal from Silicon Valley in the near term. Looking back, it's kind of shocking how fast this year in California has gone by. The tempo and pace of Silicon Valley is definitely a lot faster.

One of the surprising things I find with Silicon Valley is the rate at which people come and go. I think my close group of friends here has already completely turned over once. People jumping from one company to another isn't all that rare down here. One of my friends worked only six months before jumping ship. Anyway, it's breathe taking how fast people come and go; however, I guess I prefer constants as opposed to variables.

The honeymoon period for Yahoo had definitely ended a lot sooner than I thought. I felt like I was getting thrown into deep-end when Microsoft announced they were trying to buy us out on January 31st(ish). If I had to give a single word to describe 2008 so far, I would use the word, "uncertainty." The public soap opera which was the Microsoft-Yahoo deal was definitely an emotional roller coaster. We had some big defeats, but also some stunning victories.

Through this period, I eventually shrugged off the uncertainty, and my maxim became, "Worry about the things that you can influence and change. Pray about the things that you cannot change."

Here's to another year.

Today I decided to wear my Canada t-shirt to work. During lunch, I noticed that there were other Canadians sporting Canada t-shirts as well. I found it most amusing as we Canadians walk amongst the Americans, and they're completely unaware of that there are Canadians in their midsts, and that it was Canada Day. My boss thought it was odd that I was sitting with someone who was also wearing a Canada t-shirt, so he finally asked what the deal was.

In either case, to celebrate Canada Day today, I broke out the good Maple Butter, and setup a Maple Butter tasting event in my cube at work. I fired off an e-mail to a bunch of people, telling them to drop by to celebrate Canada Day. I thought it was amusing that some people thought I made the day up. Anyway, easiest way to make new friends.... feed them some Maple Butter. It's delicious!

I also sent around this video to educate my American counterparts.


One of the guys at work is French, and he said, "Oh, I didn't know you were from Canada. Do you know any French?" He then said something in French to see if I understood. He said something like, long live Quebec independence. I responded with, "absolument pas!" Laughter ensued.

Happy Canada Day!