12/16/06

Pink is the prefect place to end the night after going to a few other bars in the mission. it’s open late, there’s fun music, and the drinks are pretty strong. the all pink decor is a little cheesy, but it works her for some reason. i may have ended up spilling more drinks than i actually drank, but it was definitely a good time.

Pink is at 2925 16th Street in San Francisco

12/16/06

cassanova is a fun dive bar in the heart of the mission that gets pretty crowded on weekends. sadly, after fernet shots and a bunch of vodka sodas, the other details about this place are deleted from my memory banks…

Cassanova is at 527 Valencia Street in San Francisco

12/16/06

this is a cool shwanky bar in hayes valley. slick decor yet doesnt feel overly pretentious. the drinks we got were super good. pretty pricey at 8$ a piece, but pretty much everything i tasted was hella delicious. this place’ll be a nice to place to get a drink when i want a change from going to place pigalle all the time.

Sugar Lounge is at 377 Hayes Street in San Francisco

11/25/06

the knockout used to be the Odeon, a smallish bar in the outer mission right near where mission and valencia cross. the odeon used to host all these burning man events and other artsy fringe weird bizarre interesting events. but now it’s gone, and in it’s place is the knockout, a chill hipster-ish dive-ish bar that has that typical mission bar feel. it’s a pretty cool place to kick back and have a drink, but it’s pretty far out there, and definitley not as original or interesting as the bar it replaced…

the Knockout is at 3223 Mission Street in San Francisco

10/27/06

my memory of this place is pretty vague. we had already spent most of the night at the Hemlock. we were wearing our Halloween costumes that night, but even though it was Halloween weekend, pretty much no one else was dressed up. hanging out in a bar while wearing a pink bunny costume was pretty random. i *think* that i remember the bartenders there being pretty nice… but maybe i’m just making that up. hrm, ok, maybe there really is nothing that i remember about this place… but at least the location is good… i’ll have to give it that!

10/21/06 (dayum, i’m really writing this late!)

why did we end up here? i have no clue. there’s so many other bars to choose from. hell, whiskey thieves which is one of my favorites is just down the street. we had actually just been drinking at geary club down the street, and should have just stayed there. oh well. the bartenders here were all asian women who tried flirting w/ the customers to get them to buy drinks. apparently it actually worked on some people. the drinks here were also pretty pricey for a total dive. the one cool thing about our night there was that we got another group of people to sing along with us to the jukebox hella loud. yeah.. i doubt i’d go back.

Hanaro is at 939 Geary Street in San Francisco

a couple weeks back, out of the blue, someone who used to be my boss emailed me and asked me if i was interested in switching jobs. he was creating a new startup and wanted to know if i was down to work there. he told me a little bit about the plan for the website etc, and it really sounded like it could take off. i was definitely interested…

…but should i take the job? on one hand, i loved my current job at consumerreview. working as a contractor, i had ultimate freedom, could take as much vacation as i ever wanted, worked as many or as few hours as i pleased, the people i worked with were hella cool, and the salary was damn good. if i took the job offer, i would end up working more hours since startups are always really hectic and also, after doing the math, it turned out that i would be taking a steep paycut. hrmmmm, the typical startup life… working more hours for less money… sounds good, right? but still… the thought of trying something new was really intriguing to me. starting a new company and new website from the ground up sounded really exciting. i struggled w/ the decision for a while… but the more i thought about it, the more i was tempted to go for it.

taking this job seemed like quite a risk… so many startups just dont make it. at the same time, their idea did seem like one that could really be successful. plus, if there’s ever a time to take risks, it’s when you’re younger. i wouldn’t necessarily be able to jump into an opportunity like this when i’m say 40 years old and have to worry about mortgages etc etc. finally after a little negotiating, i decided to go for it. i just couldnt pass this up.

so, here i go… off into the unknown. i’ve been working at the same company for the last 7 years or so, and i’ve become very comfortable w/ everything there… it’s time to push my limits and see what i can do in a totally brand new environment. wish me luck!

*v