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.

Graffiti, here we come !

The big day is here. It is hoped SFO's mayor will show up.

Tomorrow, I will finally wear the bright red Oracle volunteer project leader t-shirt and the black cap, and head to SFO to cleanup the graffiti downtown. Close to 20 people have signed up, including my good friends Karun and Archana and my hiking friend Javed. And my manager will be there too with his wife, he just called.

Hehe, for once, maybe I can tell him what to do ? 'make clean' (ya, a bad one, I know)

Whatever happens, I can never drive by 8th street and Harrison in SFO the same way again.

Graffiti cleanup in San Francisco

I am volunteering in a project to cleanup graffiti on the streets of San Francisco, come September. We will work with SF Connect. Sounds like fun, painting and cleaning up friends..

Friends and guests are welcome, so let me know if you would like to join in. Free lunch, free T-Shirt, loads of fun. I might not want to part with the paint brush, so bring your apples along to bribe me.

PS: Let's hope we don't have to cleanup some particularly pleasing art work. Would hate to cleanup beautifully done graffiti.

Software Graffiti

"Select * from EMP"
Just outside the parking lot at work, I chanced upon this, carved into the concrete.

How often do you see engineering graffitti ?