West Coast Wolf

• McLaren Park

Went for a walk in a park this afternoon. San Francisco does have trees, you just have to hunt for them!

An airy path through some tall trees, with the sun shining through the canopy.
A dirt path among some vines, through an arch made of tree branches.
A clearing in some pine trees.
Ducks swimming in a pond.

Watching a Chinese toddler using chopsticks to feed her parents chunks of watermelon. So cute!

• Salt & Straw, San Francisco

Today the team I’m on did “Mob Programming,” which was described to me as “Pair Programming only more so.” We continued the mob approach for my welcome lunch, when we picked the restaurant (a very fancy pizza place, not pictured) and menu selections by means of everyone shouting suggestions until we somehow reached a consensus.

Afterwards we went for dessert at an ice cream parlor with a rather novel method for finding new recipes (and fresh-baked waffle cones!)

Ice cream parlor menu, featuring the “Student Inventor series—Ice creams only 4th graders could dream up” such as “The art of Ice Cream,” which starts off “TOP SECRET: DO NOT LOOK” and ends “Last but not least, you need a paint brush spoon.”
• Hazel Bar, San Francisco

Went out with some co-workers to dinner at a Southern food place. (Pictured: the restaurant’s mascot, Prof. Al Lee Gator.) I can now confirm that fried alligator does, in fact, taste remarkably like chicken.

A dimly lit photo of a grinning alligator in a tuxedo, with very poofy hair, holding a noticeboard.
• Downtown San Francisco

First day at Common went very well! I met my fellow team members and got my laptop set up, so I’m all ready to start writing code tomorrow.

Common’s offices are right on Market Street (along with nearly every other tech company in SF), with a great view of the city. That's Twitter’s headquarters across the street to the right, and Uber is right next to them, out of shot.

View along the street from the 12th floor, with lots of skyscrapers.

All of Common’s meeting rooms are named after different forms of communication. (I’ve also seen Pony Express, Morse Code, and Tin Can and String.)

Picture of a meeting room, with a sign next to the door that says “message in a bottle”

“Make sure you stay hydrated—it’s hot out today!”

Current conditions at San Francisco Downtown (SFOC1): 68°F/20°C, humidity 70%