It's the most wonderful time

- of the year!

Noone does suburban Christmas lights like 'Murica!  This year I upped the anti with a buddy who offered to drive us around Chestnut street in South San Francisco, which has a famous lit up strip:

So pretty!  The detail is amazing - even all the windows have little lit up scenes set up for when you peer in.

Deer!  Snowmen!  Inflatable Santa with a husky sled!  You can't see but the deer on the right was nodding.

We made a special stop to snap this one of me and my buddy HK.  I love how she dressed for the occasion, she has a wardrobe for every holiday.

Again.  Rituals make a home.  SF, you're killing me here.

True to the ritual, I'm off to the Philippines tomorrow.  To all a good night!

The power of empathy

I love the RSA shorts, this latest one on the power of empathy is simultaneously hilarious and thought provoking.  Take a moment to watch it, won't you?

"Empathy is a choice, and it's a vulnerable choice because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something within myself that knows that feeling."

I've written about how I have been thinking about kindness a lot lately, I think empathy is its buddy that it goes hand in hand with.

Nesting, Part 7

I think it has officially been the longest time ever between posts.  You may speculate on what's been keeping me busy, but in reality this is just how long it took me to replace my mac which died last month *tear*.  I was thinking about whether these 'nesting' posts should stop as I've effectively been here a year now, so am I now 'nested'?

Then I decided no, because it's a perpetual act for so long as having a home is important.  I will never stop anymore than I will ever stop going to Paper Source.  And with that, some snaps:

The 49ers vs the Seahawks - so, so much fun and what a win!  I'm not really a big sports person, but just like my first ball game this was a ton of fun and I wish I'd gone to one sooner.  Bonus: we even tailgated and made chili dogs in the carpark beforehand - best Sunday ever!

A most beautiful lettuce (?) at Contraband Coffee Bar.  Mental note of keeping lettuces instead of flowers around the house more.  Bonus is that I'll be able to say things to it like "lettuce turn on the heater", or "lettuce get some dinner" around my house and it will be puntastically relevant.

New obsession: Roasted brussel sprouts.  Dust with paprika to give them a little kick - tip via a buddy.

New holiday: new peeps (see last nesting).  You could keep your calendar by these marshmallows.

Feels so good to be coming into Christmas - hoping y'all are enjoying the lead up to the holidays too!

San Francisco: Year One

The print I hanging up at home, love this guy.

Last week marked my one year anniversary in San Francisco, and what a wonderful year it's been! People who've known me over the years might be familiar with the fact that I sometimes like to roundup a year or experience with a collection of quotes, Maggie Alderson style (for those Australians out there who used to read Style Notes in the weekend paper).  With that, here's my first year in SF - summarised by a sampling of encounters from the last 12 months, enjoy!

Me: Would it be too weird if I wore thongs to work?
American colleague: Why… are you asking me this?
Me: Flip flops!  I mean flip flops!

Me: (At work) I know, I’m cleaning my laptop with beer and a post-it note because I can’t be bothered to get wipes.  What’s wrong with me?
Googler buddy: It’s ok, I saw someone washing a peach with sparkling water the other day.

Cashier at Plant Cafe: So just checking I’ve got your order right: there’s two poached eggs, subbing in a fruit salad on the side, a banana smoothie with a protein shot, then another set of poached eggs, with greens instead of potatoes and green smoothie subbing in coconut water instead of almond milk.
Me: Yep that’s right
Aussie expat buddy: When did we become like this?

(Meeting Silicon Valley overachievers)
New buddy: Do you have any hobbies?
Me: Um, sure - I guess I like to go running sometimes
New buddy: Oh great, like ultramarathons?
Me: No, no… more like regular run-down-the-block-and-back… style of… running.

(Meeting Silicon Valley overachievers - Take 2)
Me: I don’t really have a special skill to be honest.
New buddy 1: You’re a cute girl in tech - that’s rare?
Me: I’m not convinced that’s a skill.  Also, that “skill” has an expiry date.
New buddy 2: Well, so do mine.  I mean, I was only the Rubik’s cube world champion for 2011.

(At Dolores Park)
Hipster: Anybody want some (hash) cookies?
Me: *Looking blankly at him*
Hipster: Oh, don’t worry - they’re 100% organic.
Me: That’s not why I’m hesitating.

Our Director reviewing a chart I put together: So, if we change the date ranges, the curve will just go straight up right?
An actual BA in the room: I’m… not sure that’s true.
Me: So, that’s not actually a regression line… I just sort of drew it up using the curve tool…
Director: …
Me: I went to art school, ok!

SF cab driver: Whenever I want to meet women, I go to Whole Foods. Forget the bars, forget the clubs - you meet a girl at Whole Foods and you jus' *know* she's into organic, and daaamn! Them organic women are good!

Googler buddy: Should we do the slide now?
Me: What presentation is this for?
Googler buddy: No, I’m talking about the actual slide.  Like, in the foyer.

New hero

Yeah, just wow.  Just discovered this incredible interview by Elle Luna via this little piece.

Hang with the unknown.

Artist, designer and startup something wonder woman.  She painted a wall.  She uses hashtags like #mindfulness.  She's done things like this:

I walked up to him and said, “I use Uber all the time and I absolutely hate the app. I think you should bring me in to fix it.” He replied, “Oh, yeah? What are the three things you’d fix about it?” I said, “I’d redo the logo, redo the entire app, and change the rating system.” I think there was something about being in a dress that empowered me to say such things (laughing). And do you know what he said? He said, “Be at the Uber office at 9am on Monday.”

She says great things like this that make me think:

I think back to the different phases of a project at IDEO—it’s not so different from life, really—I’m in the exploratory, divergent phase. The part where you brainstorm a lot and encourage wild ideas and defer judgement. I believe that the longer you can hang with that ambiguity or unknown, the greater the results will be at the end. This was true for IDEO projects, it was true for Mailbox, and now it is becoming true for my life.

Most people won't.  What meaty thoughts for the weekend.