little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

AWOL

So here’s what has happened in the past couple of days:

• I recently transferred to another group within Yahoo!. As per some of the other groups I’ve previously worked on, the group is top secret, and we’ve all learned our lesson on what happens when you blog about work, right? Right. My solution? To lie like a motherfucker.

  Friend: What project are you working on now, Ernie?
  Ernie: Ooh, I can’t tell you.
  Friend: Bullshit.
  Ernie: Okay. I’m working on Yahoo! Assasins.
  Friend: …
  Ernie: Yahoo! is working on a B2C project that involves for-hire killing machines. I’m actually working on the “Ninja” component of the project.
  
  Friend: …
  Ernie: Because I’m Asian.
  Friend: You know, you should write something about selling babies on the Internet.
  Ernie: Blogged about it already.

• The biggest change about transferring teams is the fact that I’ve now gone from a cubicle to sharing a conference room with three to four other people. There’s something fantastically 1999 dot-com bubble about it - hardware, papers, schematic diagrams and empty cups of espresso lying about. All we need is a commercial involving a sock poppet and a couple lines of cocaine and we’re all set. Like this actual instant message conversation:

  co-worker: smoke?
  Ernie: ha ha ha. very nice
  Ernie: this is what we’re devolved to [IM’ing each other instead of actually talking]
  Ernie: even though you are…

  [Ernie steps back, stares at him]

  Ernie: 3 feet away

• This weekend, I went to LA to attend Gay Days with friends. Lesson learned: All the Bears smoke at the smoking patio by Tom Sawyer island. I don’t know why - probably because of its proximity to the Hungry Bear. (Get it? Because they’re Bears!) It was even fun when half of our group was getting acquainted to new people - some of whom were getting more, uhm, “acquainted” than others.

  Belinda: We should probably start heading over to Splash Mountain soon, but [our friend] is making out with someone and it presents a bit of a… uhmm…
  Chris: a roadblock?
  Belinda: Yeah.

  [pause]

  Ernie: [doing his best Phil Keoghan impersonation] A roadblock is a choice of two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. In this tasks, teams will have to choose between “Smoke and Blow” and “Ride and Slide…”
  Everyone: nice.

  And yes, I realize now it’s a Detour and not a Roadblock. Forgive me on my inaccuracies on pop culture.

Hey ernie..My sis and I were there this weekend too. Too bad we didn’t meet up. Anyways..glad to hear things are going well with you.

Ok, that’s hilarious. I’ve gotten pretty much the same reaction when doing that Phil Keoghan line in front of friends. Of course, I usually can’t make it past “in this task, teams must choose” without either a hand upside my head or “Shut up already, it’s not funny”.

But where were you at Folsom? I so wanted to hear witty comments from you about men in zebra outfits and leather panties.

we were there this weekend too! we didn’t realize it was gay day and i even wore red randomly.

The part about you working on a ninja project? Hilarious!!

dig. The lack of smoking areas at disneyland was driving me nuts when I was there last month. I mean, I totally understand the need to have smoking “areas” in which parents drag their kids so they may appreciate the second-hand lung liquor. anyhow, so i think i spent at least 10% of my time at the smoking area next to tom sawyer’s island, sitting atop the large crate that houses some kind of pump. Then I’d get a churro. I miss California.

Too bad they took out Bear COuntry Jamboree… that would probably made a much funnier Bear hookup location.

Eek. I thought I had to be careful about blogging about work. Well, I do, but what the other blog referenced as the offending posts seemed so harmless. Sheesh.

kc!, that happened at Gay Days in Orlando. Nuff said.

What is REALLY funny is when you are having an IM conversation with someone 3 feet away, decide to go out and smoke and then without saying a word both of you get up and walk out of the door at the same time. What sad, sad times we live in, LOL

a new team, huh?

before we get new yahoo stuff could we get yahoo photo uploading working with safari? could we?

grumble.

(sorry. yer the only person i know who works at yahoo.)

Hey… at least we stopped to watch the fireworks! Or were the fireworks before we got started…?

Blogging about work while at work IMing co-workers. That sentence doesn’t even make sense to anyone over 40.

JJ