@Lab Holiday Spectacular

@Lab – holiday edition:

 

The Place

The Highline Room at the Standard Hotel definitely has spectacular views with its floor to very high ceiling windows on both sides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting there I guess is supposed to be half the fun and the entrance was full of unusual textures and passageways:

 

The elevators were a trip, dark, with black walls and ceiling and crazy videos on both sides.

 

 

 

 

Upon leaving our group was totally disoriented by the crystal ceiling art and maze like elevator lobby ambience.  An attendant was there to point us in the right direction though.

 

The Food

The food was excellent though in smaller portions than last year.  The only appetizer I saw during the cocktail hour was a mini burger thingamabob.  But on the bright side, I wasn’t overstuffed before dinner started.  I heard mixed reviews on the food, but I thought both the fish and the meat (hey, as the chronicler I have to sample everything ) were excellent.  I’m not a generally a fish person aside from sashimi, but maybe I like bass or it was just really good.  And both desserts (again chronicling )hit my sweet tooth just right.  The bar was a bit limited since it was just a corner bar station and not a full bar, but the free flowing champagne ably relieved me of my quest for the perfect drink.

Oh and don’t forget the parmesan.  Parmesan chunks at the table were delicious and are likely to find a place in my latest crazy diet (Atkins).  Such a fantastic salty cheese.

 

 

Converse

Fearless leader’s speech was short and sweet.  I saw lots of familiar faces and met a few new people.  Lots of significant others in attendance toned down the geek speak just a little.  My topic of the day is skiing, but I heard about tornadoes, kids and schools (and skiing), travelling, movies, and of course DLR, Ruby, MacBooks, etc. etc (and skiing).

My guesstimate puts 3/4 of the company there.

For those of you who didn’t come, you’re in good company since Luke was out.  Get well soon Luke.

Next year, no excuses for the rest of you.

 

The Gift –  Apple TV

Its Apple, its TV.  So the rainbows & unicorns are free.

My initial thought was that it needs to be jailbroken, but it seems to do everything I’d want to do with it out of the box.  I expect to be streaming Netflix and off my PC any minute now.

Very cool for cable cord cutters.

Thanks guys.

 

After Party

I’m all for additional drinking and mingling, but I think I was born too old for this place.  I’m looking for twice the space and half the decibels.  Lots of folks seemed to be having a good time in our SRO area and I can’t imagine when it broke up.  Knowing some of the revelers, I bet there was an after-after party.

Weeks @Lab

Here’s a wrapup of the past few weeks @Lab.

Party

The Party at Slate was a blast.

Featuring:

Feats of strength.

Demonstrations of skill.

Plenty of talk of tech and life.

And great drinks.

Springtime @Lab

There’s something to be said for older buildings and I’m saying it.  The windows open and the light in the kitchen is great.  The kitchen is filled with nutritious (and other) snacks.

UX Team Moves Out

The cool kids have left the floor, but they’re still in the building.  Most of the UX team can be found downstairs in their own space now.  The main office is regularly oscillating between empty and full.

Seminars

Alex Kirtland presented on Prediction markets.  I was snowed in and missed this one.

Peter Sokol-Hessner presented on the intersection of psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience.  Very interesting.  It reminded me of Predictably Irrational.

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Semester’s Over – Final Exam

Everyone at the last Markets class was focused on the final exam.  I saw some cramming before the test and I’m sure it was quite challenging for some Labbers without a finance background.

I’m glad I took the class, but I’ll be happy to get one night a week back.  Hopefully I can find time to finish Haskell.

Fun Stuff

How to innovate in comics.

Happy Holidays @Lab 12/4/09

PAR-T! The highlight of the week was probably a highlight of the year.  An awesome Holiday party.  It looked like most of the NY office was there along with many spouses and significants. Lots of tech talk and geek speak.  I would wager Futurama is a company favorite.  I heard something unexpected: a female expounding on the humor of Zoidberg. The liquor was flowing so my wife was happy too (not a Futurama fan). I had as many as possible myself, which unfortunately is only 2.  Mojito was the preferred drink.  It’s too bad there’s no mixed drink sampler.  Most people, myself being the prime example, don’t know what’s out there or what they like…  Even this list wasn’t really much help.

Craft Bar is great. The food was excellent.  I was surprised how much I liked the salmon.  Its not your regular salmon, it was more like a cross between lox and sashimi. Even after eating a ton of appetizers – fantastic.

The appetizers were interesting and plentiful – every time I turned around there was something to try or retry. The bar was free flowing and as far as I could tell a good time was had by all.

All that and iPod Nanos too.  The dinner was really awesome, so I was blown away by the gift.  Thanks Lab. This is a beautiful device.  It plays and records audio, video and stills.  What’s not to love? My wife and son keep asking for mine, but after playing with it a little, I want it.

Regular Stuff It seems not everyone is aware there are four Futurama movies.  They’re all awesome.  You should watch them. It’s news to me that new Futurama episodes are coming in 2010.  Woo-Hoo!

Regular Stuff — Really We’re still talking about testing.  Its getting very instructive with use cases and scenarios being hashed out. Great laugh here. Some idiot sent a support request to the whole company – more laughs ensued. Lots of interest in (pivot) Grids for WPF.  I didn’t follow it too closely, but I got an honorable mention for my charting work as the subject expanded. This post on diverse Software Engineering  topics seems to underpin everything we do and everything we’re talking about. Soda Days are Toast I just noticed that there’s an order of magnitude (probably 2) larger portion of water being drunk at Lab49 than soda.  I personally rarely drink soda.  I recommend the sparkling water which is always cold and refreshing in the fridge.  Wow, we’re just so health conscious.  Regular Stuff