Today I actually found somewhere to live. Couldn’t have come any later, my rent was up in the last place first thing tomorrow morning. I’ve moved to the Vantaggio on O’Farrell and Leavenworth. It’s an interesting neighbourhood - right in between the Tenderloin homeless area and the porn stores. I just got moved in this morning and headed out to work. First impressions are that it’s a bit of a dump. I’m sharing a room with someone else, who I’ve yet to meet but judging by his ÄŒesky - Anglicky dictionary is Czech. I’ve got a bunk bed, hallway bathroom, TV and not much else. Compared to my last place it’s not great but coming home tonight it seems like a livelier place than the last. And I guess I can’t be pick since I was desperate. Still costs a bomb, one months rent is like $600.

I was out for a guys birthday party tonight at the bowling alley at Yerba Buena Gardens. It was nice, I barely know the guy - he’s best friends with a girl I work with. They’re all Filipino, and I totally sucked at bowling. Think my highest was 63.

I have a day off tomorrow and I’m trying to decide whether I should spend some money and got to Marine World in Vallejo. I can get the ferry to Vallejo which would be nice but Marine World is expensive and it’s Labour Day weekend so the place’ll be packed! I’ll see what happens. Bye for now.

If I don’t find a place by Saturday I am officially homeless. The place I’m in at the moment is only available until the end of the month and after that I’m on my own. I’ve been sitting here on Craigslist all day responding to everything. I’m not sure I’ll miss this place all the same, I have to get off work early tomorrow to come here to have my room and stuff sprayed for bedbug infestation. America sucks…

It’s 3:53am and I’ve been woken up by a crawling sensation. I knew I had bedbugs but I turned on the lights to be greeted by these fellas:

The picture quality is pretty poor, but I’m done apologizing for my camera. That’s four different bugs, and they’re not the biggest. There’s a few larger ones that scurried off when I got up. I’ve got bites all over me and they itch pretty bad, but now I can’t even get to sleep because I can’t stand the thought of these dudes crawling all over me. I’ve changed the sheets a few times but clearly they’ve infested the matress!

I’ve reported the problem but the only help I was given is that the cleaners will look at it tomorrow. Not much use considering Wikipedia tells me they hide during daylight hours. Gross.

SES Conference

Today I went down to San Jose with my boss Rodrigo and Colin. We were going to the Search Engine Strategies conference to get tips on how to increase our company websites’ searchability on the major search engines. It was a good conference and I picked up loads of great advice, not to mention a bag load of free stuff like tshirts, alarms clocks and sweets. Probably the best part of the conference was the free AOL lunch. Full three course meal at the expense of AOL, the only catch being we had to sit through some boring guy’s presentation on mobile devices. They also gave away three iPhones which was nice of them. To be honest, I was enjoying my cheesecake too much to even notice what was going on.

Google Dance

Undoubtedly the best part of the day was the Google Dance. It’s held every year at the Googleplex in Mountain View which is a short drive from San Jose. It was probably the best party I’ve ever been to.

Google spare absolutely no expense. We’re talking many millions of dollars to pay for this party. There were thousands at, all enjoying the free food, candy, drinks, ice cream…EVERYTHING was free! Even the party itself is 100% free. They even provided a shuttle from the conference to the Googleplex. For a start the Googleplex itself is an awesome place. Google are probably the best employer in the world. Employees work hard but they are very handsomely rewarded. Among the perks of working at Google are: massages, 12 cafeterias, pool tables, a gym, haircuts, two swimming pools, beach volleyball…the list goes on and needless to say that everything is free. Including all the food you can eat. They’ve also got cool bicycles and motorized scooters for the employees to get about. It’s awesome!

The party itself was brilliant. They had free dinner, pick n mix, snow cones and karaoke on bluescreen. There was a massive party inside and out with some brilliant DJ’s. I normally get irritated by dance music but these guys were fantastic. What a place. Plus I thought it would be a huge party for nerds but it turns out that most of the good looking girls in California work in Silicon Valley. It really was some party. And best of all I got another free tshirt out of it. So a whole day out, two slap up meals, industry expertise and a mad party. And it didn’t cost a penny. Nice.

Who’s the other guy in the photo you’re thinking. Well, he’s one of the greatest guitarists on the planet. And the other guy is Joe Satriani. He’s pretty good too. Two great guitarists side by side.

Yeah, ok. Maybe Satriani is slightly better than me but really we’re splitting hairs here. I managed to get off work a few minutes early so me and Ralph burned rubber and got to Hyde Street Studio. It’s in one of the worst areas of town, middle of the Tenderloin - couldn’t believe it! Turns out it’s the same studio where Joe recorded his Surfing with the Alien album 20 years ago. So after being about half an hour late at turning up we’re taken upstairs to Studio C where there’s about 30 people hanging out. Free drinks and snacks on the go which is a nice touch. Then we headed in to the studio, which is pretty small. Then Satriani comes out.

He’s looking pretty good for a guy in his 50’s. Trademark sunglasses on. After a brief introduction it’s straight in to Surfing. It’s pretty loud in the room, and roasting too. I filmed a load of it so maybe I’ll get it all thrown together and upload it.

He played for about two hours with his band. He was quite simply fantastic. I’m never touching my guitar again! Because the group was small there was a lot of banter between him and the crowd so it was a cool atmosphere. I took loads of photos but as usual they turned out really bad. Once again, complaints can be forwarded to this guy. At least I managed a non-blurred photo with me and Satch at the end. He’s a nice guy. Free t-shirt on the way out too. Good night out for a Ballymena man, didn’t have to open the wallet once.

Got a rather nice phone call today from local radio station 107.7 The Bone. It went along the lines of “Congratulations, you and a friend are going to see Joe Satriani at the Hyde Street Studios on Saturday. It’s a private gig for an audience of 20 where he’ll play his 1988 album ‘Surfing with the Alien’ in it’s entirety.”

Nice. I’m actually considering selling the other ticket, considering how much it’s worth.