Phew, and what a crazy month it has been!  My initial plan to post every week was obviously not followed.  But now that my beloved Canucks are out of the playoffs, and the greatest TV show ever has finally come to a close, I’m hoping to have more time to provide updates via blogging.

Moving In

Not long after I arrived in SF, I was lucky enough to snag an awesome apartment in the Glen Park area.  This is a tad south of the city, but close enough to make it to the center of San Francisco in about 30 minutes by walking/BART.  The area is rich in culture, a blend of Hispanic and Chinese really shows the diversity of this city.  The apartment itself is not far from Mission Street, which has an amazing array of food markets, restaurants and bars.  I’m about a 10 minute walk from the grocery store which is really handy, and there are plenty of shops within 2-5 minutes that will sell a cold case of beer for cheap.

Over the weekend I came across the Broken Record, which is a local pub about 15 minutes away.  While it does seem like a dive (heck, the Yelp listing names it as a dive bar), the people were very friendly and the food was delicious.  This is a whiskey bar, and while I’m not a big whiskey drinker the locals told me I will be shortly.  Pretty cool stuff!

Transportation

As mentioned above my new place is quite close to the Glen Park BART station, which makes it easy to explore the city.  However, my main mode of transport these days is by bicycle.  I invested a few hundred dollars in some commuter bike gear (portable pump, night lights, bag, etc.) and so long as you stay away from the hills, San Francisco is an easy city to navigate.  I can usually get to work in about 15 minutes.  In addition, over the weekend I did a bike ride to Golden Gate Park in about 45 minutes.  From there it’s an amazing ride back home long Ocean Beach on the west coast of the city, following the Pacific Ocean.

There are times that a vehicle would be handy though, like making a trip out to IKEA in Oakland to load up on some funiture.  Enter Zipcar!  Zipcar is an awesome car-sharing program with many locations in San Francisco.  Basically, you go online to reserve a vehicle for a set amount of time, and pay about $9/hour.  This covers the car rental, gas and insurance.  I paid about $25 total to rent a car for a few hours, head out to IKEA, load it up and bring it back.  I don’t plan to use the service that often but it’s really handy to have in case you need to drive somewhere.

Life @ Atlassian

It’s been a busy first month working for Atlassian and getting ramped up with the team.  I love our office located in the Mission District, it’s easy to get to and there’s an unlimited supply of restaurants to check out during lunch time.  The team has been amazingly supportive and it’s been exciting to meet new people and hear their stories.

We’ve also had some amazing events, from Kayaking in Sausalito to a company picnic on Dolores Park.  Too much fun I tell ya!

June is going to be a busy month for us, as the 2nd Annual Atlassian Summit will be taking place on June 9 - June 11.  Last year I attended as a customer, this year I’ll be attending as an employee.  I’m booked to work Starter Day, as well as the AtlasBar which will be an awesome experience.  What more, there will be lots of good times had with the Welcome Reception, Firewater After-party and Summit Bash.  And the best news of all is that this years event is sold-out.  I’m excited to have a blast with our awesome customers and get a better understanding of how they use our products!

Events

Of course there’s lots of do in San Francisco.  As mentioned in my previous post I’m a big concert fan so I’ve been trying to get to as many live events as I could.  A quick recap of what I’ve seen so far:

• Jakob Dylan at the Regency Ballroom - An amazing venue with some awesome tunes.
• Jeff Garlin at Cobb’s Comedy Club - My first real comedy show, Jeff was hilarious!
• San Francisco Giants vs. Arizona Diamond Backs - Explored AT&T Park and got to see the Giants come out with a win!
• Mardi Gras - An awesome display of culture in the Mission District with food, music and dancing

Next up on the plate is Thrice this week back at the Regency Ballroom.  I’ve also got The Black Keys lined up for the fall, as well I’ll be heading back to Cobb’s to see Tracy Morgan later in the summer.

That’s all for now!

Dylan

The End

Absolutely amazing - that’s basically how I describe the final chapter of LOST.  An emotional closure to the most amazing TV series ever was exactly what I was looking for.  I laughed.  I cried.  I was completely satisfied with the ending, yet the show will live on and open to interpretation as to what exactly happened.  And that is what makes this TV show just so damn special.

In the end, Lost taught is that it is not the destination, but the journey of life and the people that you enjoy it with along the way.  This was particularly hard for me to digest on Sunday, being away from many of my family and friends.  But that being said, it made me realize how lucky I am to have such awesome people in my life.

What I was really excited about was that the show ended on it’s own accord.  The producers ended Lost exactly the way they wanted, and not because the network thought it was necessary to end the show.  Because of this, I’m happy with the final outcome.

I won’t go into a full diagnosis and recap of this episode, simply because it can’t be dissected with only one viewing.  The amount of content in The End was simply mind boggling.  And while it didn’t touch on much of the mythology of the show as many had hoped, it was the most character-driven episode in 6 years.  In the end, Lost wasn’t about some silly island.  It was about the characters and how they bonded through their journey.

I think this quote from Christian Shephard basically sums up the series:

This is a place that you all made together so you could find one another. The most important time of your life was when you were with these people. That’s why you are all here. No one does it alone Jack. You needed all of them and they needed you.

There’s a lot of criticism for the finale, if the producers simply patched something together.  I call bullshit, but I do like this quote from Miles Straum that they may have thrown in just to address that:

I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I believe in duct tape.

And now as I try to find something to fill the void that is Tuesday night, I look back on this epic story and how it has changed me and brought me closer to the people I care about.  How many TV shows can you say that have done that?

Thank you LOST!

Dylan

As I sit down to do my laundry at a wireless-enabled laundromat (awesome!), I thought I’d whip up a blog post on my first week in the good ol’ US-of-A.  Starting with my journey from Canada.

TN Visa - No Problems

One thing I was really stressing out about on my way out of Canada was getting my TN Visa.  I had all my proper documentation, but I’ve heard horror stories of people getting to their point-of-entry and being denied.  If you do this, basically all your stuff gets flown down to the US but you have to stay in Canada.

Thankfully, I had lawyers take care of most of my documents.  I was through secondary screening in about 30 minutes, which is pretty short compared to the 2-3 hours I was expecting.  As a bonus, the Vancouver Canucks were en-route to Chicago as I was clearing customs, so getting to chat with a bunch of them was a very surreal experience.  At that point, I hit up the airport bar, had one last caesar and (temporarily) said good-bye to Canada!

If anyone is going to be applying for their TN Visa in the future, be sure to ping me and I’ll give you more details.

San Francisco

I’ve been staying in our corporate housing, which is located on the corner of Turk and Fillmore.  Pretty easy access to groceries, laundry, etc. which makes my life easy.  Especially considering I don’t have a vehicle (not even a bike!) down here.  Public transit is super easy in San Fran, the bus system (Muni) and rapid transit (BART) is very easy to navigate.  I found myself showing up early to view apartments and appointments, as I’d give myself an hour to get somewhere and I’d be there in 20 minutes.

The city itself is very beautiful, for a big city.  I would compare it more to Victoria than Vancouver in terms of culture.  Very laid back atmosphere.  Most of the people are super friendly and are willing to give you directions and opinions on places to eat, etc.

US-only Websites

Two sites that I’ve really utilized here that aren’t available in Canada are Hulu and Mint.  Hulu is an online TV site that allows you to legally watch many shows from NBC, ABC, and other major networks.  This has been a life-saver when it comes to catching up on the final season of LOST, as well as episodes of The Office and 30 Rock.

Mint is a financial tracking software that I’ve started using.  It’s similar to Yodlee (which is available in Canada), but has a much nicer interface and is more feature-rich.  Only time will tell if this is a tool that I will continue using, depending on how much money it saves me!

Cellular Connectivity

I took my Fido iPhone 3G down with me, as I knew I’d be receiving phone calls to my Canada number as I closed out all my services out there.  I was also able to get a travel pack that allowed me to do some voice and data roaming in the US.  For about $45 CAD, I was able to get 70 minutes and a pro-rated data rate of $1/MB (trust me, that’s cheap).  I’m still very frugal when using my 3G data, and trying my best to find wireless networks where possible.

My initial plan was to keep my iPhone 3G until the new iPhone is released next month and switch to AT&T.  However, the AT&T network is very saturated in the Bay Area, with many dropped calls and slow connections.  Because of this, I’ve switched to the brand spankin’ new HTC Incredible from Verizon.  This is an Android powered phone which is something I’m really excited about.  As well, Verizon was the ONLY carrier that would do a Canadian credit check when opening a new account.  Because of this, I didn’t have to put a $500 deposit down on a new phone.  How sweet is that?  Suck it, AT&T!

I’ve also been hooked up with a Google Voice account, which I’m stoked to try out.  I’m planning on only having one phone line, but I’m hoping I can use the account to text message people in Canada without having to pay 20 cents per message.  We’ll see how that goes.

Food

Well I haven’t really had time to check out any restaurants in San Francisco yet, I’ve got a couple of food experiences to share.

First, the KFC Double Down.  I had countless messages on Facebook, text messages, etc. from my Canadian pals to try out this monstrosity of a sandwich.  Basically, it’s a chicken sandwich, where the bread is replaced by two deep-fried chicken breasts.  I’ve got a Flickr set created with my pictures, and I must say that after this beast once, I’ll never have it again!

Also, as this was my first week working for Atlassian, we went out for a welcome lunch yesterday with the support team.  We went to an amazing mexican restaurant called Puerto Alegre, in the heart of the Mission District.  Awesome chips, amazing fajitas and margaritas by the pitcher.  It’s going to be tough to beat that place!

Concerts

As I’m a huge fan of live music, I couldn’t go my first week in San Francisco without going to a live show.  I was lucky enough to catch The Hold Steady at The Fillmore.  The band was louder and harder than I expected, and also played quite a bit more old stuff than I was planning on.  Still an awesome first show to bring me into the city.

The Fillmore is an amazing venue with tons of history.  Very similar to the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver.  They have photos all over the lobby of bands that have played in the past, including Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Cypress Hill.  The venue only held a few thousand people, so these bands played this place before they were very popular.  I’m really looking forward to the next show I get to attend there.

The shear magnitude of acts that come through San Francisco is amazing.  Later this month I’m hoping to get to Nas/Damien Marley, as well as Thrice.

Well, my laundry is done so it’s time to split.  Hopefully I’ll be keeping this blog updated with my adventures through this amazing city!

dilly