Facebook Friends

A few weeks ago, during our 8-day jaunt through Norcal, Amos and I had the pleasure of touring the Facebook facilities. Now just a note, the Facebook offices are not generally open to the public, but if you know someone then it is pretty simple to get a little lunch time tour. Luckily, a friend of mine's dad works there and hooked us up! (Thanks Petra and Terry).

Our tour began in the lobby of one of the buildings, of which there are many. When you go in there is a desk with iPads. You sign in, telling them who you are and who you are there to see, and it is connected directly to the literal social network! They also have screens all over the campus, also hooked up to Facebook, where you can search for employees to see where on campus they are located. Talk about linked-in! Once we met with Terry, he took us to eat in one of the multiple cafeteria-style eateries. I know the word "cafeteria" has some nasty connotations, but those do not apply to the Facebook cafe's. There are 2 general ones, one BBQ eatery, one Pizza eatery, and lots of snack stations and grocery-store-style fridges full of beverages (Vitamin Water, iced teas, Smart Water, you name it) throughout the other buildings.
After eating delicious food, we walked around the rest of the campus. They call these places "campuses" because they consist of lots of different buildings with people doing various types of things. The name is pretty accurate at Facebook. There are lots of fresh-out-of-college programmers and engineers riding bikes (provided by Facebook) around the facilities, hanging out, inviting friends to lunch, etc. They even have intramural sports! There are lots of murals and art drawn on the walls. All of the buildings are very industrial; few walls, concrete floors, and work stations are just set up at communal tables. There are no cubicles and I think that is just lovely. A photo-op and signing of the famous "Facebook Wall", a look into a few programming offices (they call themselves the "Hackers"), a stop by a snack station for complimentary candy, and that was pretty much it.

This post ended up being longer than I anticipated, so look out for the Google post next!

CA Photo Diary

As I said before, Amos and I went to California and it was amazing. We did the classics like crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, hiked in the redwoods, ate In n Out burger, and went to a Giants' game. Showing someone else your home (especially when it is as beautiful as mine) gives you a really special feeling. I could go on for days about all of the amazing things* we did, but luckily I have around 1,200 beautiful photos instead! Take a peek.

*We did a little DIY tour of Silicon Valley, Being the nerd that I am, I plan on blogging about that in more detail in a later post. So look out for that!

Photo-less Musings: California

Yesterday I got back from an 8 day tour of Northern California, the land that I was born and raised in and the land that I absolutely love. I jokingly told Amos that my heart was locked away in a box at the bottom of the San Francisco Bay, but it really feels like that is true. As I hiked up and down the hills of the city, gazed across the bay as I walked along the bridge, and navigated my way through tourists on the pier my heart couldn't stop smiling. We spent just over 24 hours in Sacramento and, according to Amos' observation, that was all I needed to immediately click into a more comfortable mode. It's silly how quickly my moods can change from certain things, but home had that effect on me.  From the beautiful forests of the redwoods, through the bustling streets of the city, and even to the suburban neighborhoods of Sacramento, I currently cannot truthfully say I love any place more.


Photos from the trip and a more fun post to come (when Amos gets them to me!).