Oracle Gym and clever invitations

Our gym's weekly newsletter uses clever ways of keeping the reader entertained and interested in their events. Here is one from today that I found hilarious:

You'll need this info if you cheat on your taxes and have to run from the IRS:
Are you Wearing the Right Running or Walking Shoe?
Wednesday, April 22nd
11:00am - 1:00pm
Club Oracle 1st Floor Weight Room

Referrals

Oh, but I come up with these fantastic referrals. It is like the candidate was made for the position. Or, the position was made to fit the candidate's resume.

The elegance of it all is stunning. Wah.

Join me for a walk after lunch ?

My daily after lunch walk around Oracle campus.

Every now and then, a bagpiper plays his ware by the seats in the picture. Y can hear the pleasing sound a long way away. He usually turns up in full gear, with the bagpipes glinting in the sun. Just to the left is another trail, where walkers, joggers, dog walkers, bikers (and occasionally rollerbladers like I) enjoy the outdoors. If you are lucky, you can catch a fight between long necked ducks fighting for territory along the way.

If there is anything wrong with this, it is urge to not get back to work. It is truly heavenly.

Surprise, surprise !

As usual, the delivery guy walked by in the morning with his loadful of packages. He stopped by my desk in the corridor, checking which packages he had to deliver, took a large box that could easily contain a printer in it and said Harish ?

Yes, I said, with a couple of thoughts racing in the head. Recently, I had ordered a set of Gevalia coffee packets (which came with a complimentary coffee maker, travel mug and other goodies for 20 $). Could this be it ? No, I most definitely did not use the office address.
Or, could it just be someone else's package ? I have been asked to sign for packets for nearby folks since I was the lone early bird.

Harish ?
I came back to earth, duly signed his electronic recorder device and quickly opened up the package. It seemed to be empty first, I kept removing more and more wrapping paper. And finally, compliments of Oracle Volunteers, I got a laptop bag, a colorful umbrella and a hiking water bottle, with a letter thanking me for volunteering in this project.



A most pleasant surprise, especially considering that the umbrella is a perfect gift back home, I didn't have a bag for my laptop and go hiking every so often. Thanks, Oracle !

That evening, I came home and saw another package waiting, this time from UPS. It was from Gevalia !

Look forward to another post on the coffee.

Rollerblading

At 3 in the noon today, Nandu called to see if I was up for some skating today. It has been a while, and I was more than up for it. We decided to tackle a section of the bay trail near Oracle I have been raving about..

The trail starts just across the bridge from Oracle, hugs the bay and goes all the way till the 92' bridge (possibly even further ?). It was freshly asphalted most of thew way, ped and bike traffic was just right, and there were a few other skaters as well.

We went all the way till the bridge and then turned back. It was an awesome experience, and the longest I skated so far. Getting into long strides and rolling effortlessly. The sun in your face and the wind on your back. The soft sounds of the wheels rolling along. Small kids looking on it wonder as we skate by. It was nice to see the expressions on people walking/running on the trails. I think everyone likes to see a skater, it is such a good sight!

Thanks to the Gmaps pedometer, we could calculate exactly how long we skated.
Turns out, we did 6.5 miles !

Next weekend, we plan to go north of 92, and see how much further can we go on the trail.

oracle volunteers

And with today's training at noon, I am well on my way to being a project leader for the up and coming Oracle global volunteers days. Stay tuned for more information.

Hopefully, I will get to work with a home building project like we did a couple of weeks back.

And all the free T shirts don't hurt either. :)

What do you want to read today ?

Since moving to Palo Alto, I have picked up my long forgotten interest reading. Reading books, newspapers and comics. Last week, I finished reading two books on Oracle and Larry Ellison: Softwar and The difference between God and Larry Ellison. Both were well written, and were exciting to me particularly. So many incidents, references and rumors that I had heard of were in the books. A nice insight into Oracle's growth, Larry's personality, strategies and tactics, the different people who contributed to making Oracle as big as it is today.

And today, I went and got a few more books. Tintin comics, Pervez Musharaf's memoirs, a couple of novels, Carly Fiorina's book and a book by an Islam convert. A good potpouri, it appears... Can't wait to get my hands on them now.

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Yahoo Mail!

So, I sit quite close to the office of the veepee of our own collaboration suite, whose office I pass by everytime I get out of my cube. (the product is quite good, btw, comparable to yahoo/gmail in terms of its features). He has a bold new printout on his door today...

Apparently, he tried logging in to yahoo mail today, and encountered a problem. It gave him a non-descript message " we are sorry we are unable to process your request, but if you are seeing this screen, it means we already know about your problem. You dont have to do a thing, just try refreshing the page" or something to that effect !

And on the side was his gleeful editoral comment: Apparently, yahoo mail can fail too!

Oracle Rocks !

We have this massive area in our gym with pool, ping pong and foozball tables, along with a wall mounted, huuuuuuge TV. Thanks to the good people at the gym (you guys rock), we will now have live telecast of cricket world cup ! Would be cool to watch, especially on that large screen.

I just hope we don't flood the hall....

You know when you are early to work, if:

You know if you are early to work, if:
- The alarm radio is still on when you leave home. It means its not yet 8.
- You need to turn on the headlights, even though its not raining.
- You see several 18 wheelers carrying two bulldozers each on 101-North - the workers are just getting ready.
- You get a parking space close to the entrace of the parking lot. Never have I come so early that the ground floor parking slots are still empty.
- The security guy makes an extra effort to wish you. Obviously, I am earlier than the median arrival hour. He can sit and wish individual jana as they stream in.
- The lights in my floor go on as I walk in. God said, let there be light... and there was I !
- The coffee pot is empty and I will make the first pot for the day. Soon, the fine smell of Italian roast will waft through the corridor.

Its great to come early. Oracle looks splendid as ever, what with the fall colors visible on the trees and the pavements around campus. I especially love the totally yellow leaved tree next to our parking lot.
Awesome !

How much air did you save today ?

Today was "save the air day" in the bay area, and all major transport services were free.
Being a sucker for free stuff, I ventured into the adventure of the free Caltrain ( and in part to do my part ), early in the morning...

The first thought on reaching the station ? Distance from home to the nearest Caltrain station is not as close as it seems. I took about 20 minutes with brisk walking, inspite of having taken a shortcut ! And I was just in time for my train - The Baby Bullet.

It really travels like a bullet. No, it really does. It felt awesome to eat up miles so quickly, sitting in the comfortable air conditioning ( better than in my car, by the way ). There was a pretty Bongali girl who came and sat in front of me, so that probably made the ambience seem even better. It was fun to listen to her talking to her mom in India, I could barely hold my smile... I suppose I can smile all I want now,thinking back (smile smile)

My stop came soon after, or so I thought. Redwood city. I got down and was surprised since it was not the familiar Ralston Ave station that I remembered driving by. Figuring that I was somewhere in the previous street or so, I began walking roughly north east. And I walked. And walked till I hit 101 on Broadway. That was when the Motorola Razr came in handy and my dear roomy announced that I had got down two stops too soon!
But the baby bullet, it had stopped in Redwood city. And Oracle is in Redwood city. Elementary, wouldn't you think ? But no, the closest caltrain station to Oracle happens to be in Belmont. Anyway, back to the trin station it was, and another wait for 20 minutes or so. By then, it was 10. The sun was scortching, and I felt my skin burn. Boy, was I glad walk to office in the last leg of the journey and get into the air conditioned building! The things we take for granted in the US !

Evening was fairly pleasant to walk back. While waiting in Belmont station on the way back, a north bound Bullet whizzed past us. It blew me away ( literally and figuratively ). Some speed, that thing! Felt like I would be plucked out of the ground any moment and thrown away. All of us at the station were taken aback, and a small baby I was playing with got a mega fright.

The journey back was quite uneventful, except for one scene in mountainview which I will remember for a while. This girl ( woman? ) got down from our box and was greeted by a leaping labrador, followed by a crushing hug from the boyfriend who was waiting for her. You should have seen how she lit up! It was a scene fit for that advertisement (where they show people greeting each other in many different ways, I forget what they were promoting).

It was refreshing, taking the train. So many people, so many things to see, so much time to think.. Driving to work, 'tseems quite bland now.

Software industry's KRS

The last three days have been great! I love this place. It's amazing how much of a morale booster it is to move to HQ, it should be called Jannat parkway, not Oracle Parkway! So, with my 640/480 camera phone, I have been clicking photos left and right. Thought I will download a few of them to my blog as well. So, here goes:

Picture 1: A post box on campus, just outside my building. Hurray, now if I forget to post the netflix DVD, I can always do it at work.


















Picture 2: A view of my building, 400.


















Picture 3: The tallest building, 500, with the board. The blue against the blue sky is heavenly.



















Picture 4: A click of Oracle campus in my rearview mirror, on the way to 101.



















Picture 5: A view from the lobby of one of the buildings.



















It finally seems time to buy a camera. I nomenclate this place as the KRS of the software industry! As always, many thanks to Venky.

Ah, what joy!

So, today is the second day in my new office. And what joy.

Lighting and space issues that we were afraid of vanished into thin air when we moved. Food is great, subsidized, lots and lots of choice and you get to sit next to a large lake with a fountain and eat in the warm sunshine. And, post-lunch walks around campus are so refreshing, its like a visit to a park.

Going down for a break is easy. The lifts are very fast. Step out of the building and you are right next to the lake. Cool breeze. Ducks. Sound of flowing water. Lots of green open space. Rich, rich surroundings. Huge swimming pool, volleyball courts, large gym, badminton courts are all within a stone's throw from my building.

I doubt if there is any software company campus in the world which is this good. Seriously.
Oracle rocks!

Oracle!

Ask me about your future. The new Oracle shall reveal all...


It was a short wait to get my pataal taken. The receptionist didn't wait for us to ask the question, she just pointed us to the security office .. two more badges added to fifty five thousand. She must be tired of five thousand new employees asking the same question..

Oracle-ji

Is good to be welcomed to the big happy Oracle family.
Being out of the country, is surely a relief to see it on paper. :)
Yay!

Homesick

I have not been this homesick in a long time. I want to go home right now.

What is it about the holiday season, that breaks up your routine, makes you step back and take appraising looks at life and feel sad/sentimental for being away from family for a long time.

Why, O why does this holiday season happen ? And why did Oracle decide to buy Siebel just when my vacation hours were peaking, making my life more difficult ?