The Blogo’Shawn

Well I’m back…have had my head to the ground making fundamental changes. After an extended, listless search, I have landed an apartment in Menlo Park. Yes, I succumbed to the horrors of daily commuting back-and-forth from SF to the South Bay and I have slagged over three hours daily on trains, shuttles, and automobiles. Not worth it at all! I had yearned to get this done sooner but reality was that the rental market is beyond insane at the moment. That I got a decent apartment at a reasonable price exactly where I wanted it is a bit of a coup too, especially since I had to go through Craigslist, which is definitely *not* the channel of choice right now during summertime in a brisk economy when folks are choosing to rent in droves rather than buy. Every showing I went to was mobbed with people. Cue the dot-com flashbacks! Anyway, it’s still sinking in that I don’t need to reflexively hunt like a bird-of-prey anymore. The plan is to make the moving trek no later than the coming Monday. Lots of packing *sigh*. But the shorter commute to work will ultimately be gained. And I may actually regain a social life on week nights - hurrah!

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More exciting news is that I participated in my first internal hack day for the Local LMC division! I had been itching to do this since I first joined Yahoo. Best of all, besides the fulfillment of a great effort made, my team wound up as a finalist…and then we proceeded to win! I am thrilled because it really did take concerted effort to pull together and coordinate. I had a dedicated project to lead in short-order and I had an enjoyable time hammering out the requirements, interaction, and priorities with the two engineers over the course of the hack and finals days. I bestowed the name “NewsDrive” on the hack, and derived the messaging for it. I also had the pleasure of delivering the presentation for finals judging. Compacting the essentials into an effective four-minute presentation certainly took some preparation, but it came off well in the end. I see now how addictive and all-consuming hack days can be, and good thing - they really got my creative juices flowing and I anticipate the next one which isn’t all that far away.

One more thing of note: I attended the Women 2.0 mixer in Atherton at Minti founder Rachel Cook’s abode. It was a fantastic occasion and I have to hand it to Rachel for hosting so soon after moving to live in America! Now that’s dedication to forwarding entrepreneurism. Want to mention that Katherine Barr gave an insightful presentation on negotiation and really got me thinking about it more consciously. Also the founders of Women 2.0 are wonderful as well and I am amazed by how they have forwarded the organization in such short order. I look forward to seeing what’s brewing up for August. I hope there are more events on the Peninsula in relaxed settings such as this last one - so much easier to talk lucidly outside of bar venues where so many professional mixers wind up.