Finals: 26-0. 7-1 record.
Tag Archives: ilmn
Malaga – La Ciudad Bella
Malaga – Biz Class
“Paging Mr. H”
“Sir, we’re terribly sorry, would it be okay to bump you up to business class?
Cancun – Where Work Meets the Sea
Bangkok – Glances
Patpong
Bangkok – Gaggan
This was one memorable fine dining experience. Thanks to TJ for handling the planning and all the explanations of the dishes in context to their origins. Fantastic food, great company and a funny, fascinatingly idiosyncratic chef.
The 10 Most Exclusive Michelin Starred Restaurants In The World
Photobombing the News
photo from Times of San Diego
http://timesofsandiego.com/business/2014/07/15/top-biotech-illumina-plans-major-expansion-city-help/
Press conference at work today announcing our new future building. PR tapped a few of us to represent. Nice break in the middle of the day. Oh and I met San Diego’s mayor Kevin Faulconer.
fun fact: they were very adamant that we turn off all cell phones so nothing would disrupt our CEO or the SD mayor’s press conference speech. in the middle of their speech…BOOM…BOOM. sounds of dropped weights from upstairs weight room. guess no one told them there was a gym above us. that’s us laughing about it in the photo at the top.
Company Shutdown: Intense week!
A recent company employee survey indicated people were struggling with work/life balance, senior management decided the answer was to give everyone a week off and have us spend it recuperating, spending time with families, and gearing up for the second half of the year. Plus with people taking time off for July 4th weekend, there’d be reduced productivity anyways. GREAT idea!
The thought was to take the week easy, do some easy reading and rest. Most of it was really chill, but man there were intense moments. USMNT soccer’s down to the wire world cup game vs Belgium. Watching that at the San Diego Del Mar fair was quite a memorable experience.
Brazil vs. Columbia World Cup Quarterfinals: goooooooooooooooooooool!
Watching Brazil vs. Columbia in a house full of Brazilians is a whole ‘nother thing! Every save and penalty was pandemonium and this was an amazing picture capture by one of K’s uncles. Neymar’s injury at the end really put a damper on the mood but their in the semi’s with a shot at the finals. These people love their seleção brasileira futbol. 
Giants vs Padres: This was insane.
Eugene’s wife got him Giant’s tix for father’s day because he’s a bay area nut. They have a 3rd kid on the way and it was a really sweet gift to let him relax his mind before the new one arrives (g’luck E!).
The original seats were great, the lowest I’ve ever been at a baseball game. We went to get garlic fries in the bottom of the 2nd and when we came back a couple was in our seats and it looked like they were talking to their friends. The guy asked us if we’d be willing to switch seats and he pointed to seats a few rows lower. We agreed and he showed us his ticket and they’re row 11…that’s 4 rows from the dugout!!!
It is seriously a whole new experience when you sit so close to the dugout the players can actually hear you. Combine that with an extra innings win for the Giants to stop a long losing and offensive slump and it was FUN!! thanks Eugene!
On that note, I start a new job tomorrow (same company). more updates on that later maybe. what a week!
April Fools: office cabinet shuffle
It’s been a while hasn’t it? The idea for this came about almost a year ago when we moved into our new offices. We have these little padded cabinets that double over as little seats for people who come around and need to talk. (yes, i misspelled pedestal).
They’re supposed to encourage collaboration and they’re extremely mobile. They’re also begging to be swapped. So I did it!
What I did:
- swapped 30+ coworker’s cabinets. (only people I knew personally.)
- only swapped individuals so that person A got person B’s and person B got person A’s. No random swapping so that if someone really needed to find their own they could return it quickly.
- left a name card of the original owner in the cabinet so it could be quickly returned if necessary.
- left a small post it note on each cabinet to remind myself whose I’d moved
- avoided upper management and people who I wasn’t sure would laugh*
What I DIDN’T do…and would have been more mean:
- could have not left a name card and made everyone figure out whose was whose.
- could have moved all 30 cabinets into a large conference room and made a sea of cabinets
- could have moved them all into the male and female bathrooms.
I actually work on a different floor from my department coworkers so I didn’t get to see everyone’s reaction in the morning.
You can click here to see my other pranks at the office: link
The Aftermath: Responses
*I made 1 mistake. Misread the name plates and that caused some confusion when people were returning their desk. I apologized to her. Thought I was taking someone else’s. so close.
SG Eats: Mellben Seafood (Lunar New Year Edition)
This was a very special meal for me. A few nights prior I was eating at a chinese restaurant in China town, Singapore when I noticed this unique dish that was on advertisements everywhere. It was called “Yu Sheng” and it’s a Lunar New Year dish that was created by a group of Singapore/Malaysian chefs looking to make something new. It’s a really fun and loud twist to the traditional get-together dinners. I can’t really explain it other than link a video.
I was so intrigued at dinner that I considered ordering it myself until I realized that’d seem really lame. everyone who was doing it was with family and here I was eating alone. So the next monday, I ring my ilmn coworkers and ask them to come to dinner with me. They chose Mellben and what a treat!
This is called a “coffee shop” which Singaporeans essentially call an open air restaurant. The food was amazing and much more affordable than the seafood restaurants downtown (like Jimbo). We had the butter crab which pairs beautifully with fried mantou, salted egg crab, but the one that stood out the most was the famous Crab Bee Hon Soup. Just thinking about this still makes me salivate. a cannot miss la!
links: HungryGoWhere, Yelp
