Thursday, March 03, 2005

I, just wanna fly!

The Yahoo! 10th birthday party was charmingly nostalgic and just enough fun to handle on a worknight.

[more pics from the party]
[Also pics taken by another coworker]

First we watched a funny video of Yahoo! with photos and interviews with Yahoo! founders, Jerry and David, and also with Yahoos who have been here since the beginning. They showed photos of the founders as children, teens, and college kids. Plus there was a reel of celebs wishing Yahoo! a happy birthday, including such supastars (hehe) like Chris O'Donnell and Paula Abdul.

Highlights and Fun Facts revealed from festivities:

Jerry and Dave met when Dave was Jerry's T.A. in a computer science class. Dave had no sympathy when Jerry objected to his poor grade in the class.

They showed David Filo barefoot in his slovenly bachelor mess in the initial Stanford-based trailer where Yahoo! began. He was known to only wear shirts that were given to him, especially competitor t-shirts.

Our corporate color, purple, came out of an accident. When they opened their first office in Mountain View (on Pioneer Street), Dave picked a gray paint for their walls. They painted a whole wall, looked up and realized that it was actually lavender. They were too cheap to fix it, so it ended up being the trademark office color.

People love Yahoo!

Jonathan (a Yahoo! designer for Mobile) said he got pulled over by a cop, but when the cop discovered that Jonathan worked for Yahoo, he said, "Oh yeah? How's the business going? Ya think it'll do better? I'll let you go (without a ticket) because I want your stock to do well this year."

Some Yahoo! users came to our campus to thank Yahoo! for enriching their lives:

Two middle-aged/older women were playing Yahoo! Games when they saw an online message from a woman who needed help. They called the authorities and saved this person's life.

There were two moms who had children with debilitating and fatal diseases, and used Yahoo! Groups for information and support from others in the same situation.

There was a couple who met on Yahoo! Personals. She started with a Yahoo! Personals "Icebreaker" to meet him. They shared their dating story, and then the guy proposed to her right there on campus.


Finally, Sugar Ray put on an energetic little show in the fancy tent (despite sound system problems). We had free booze and food (sandwiches, sushi, etc.). That Mark McGrath is one hyper guy. He was jumping around onstage so much, most of my pics came out blurry.

At one point, Mark McGrath pulled a couple Yahoos out of the audience to play a karaoke game. One of them was a designer that we know. Mark asked him his name, but for some reason he had trouble answering!?!?

I don't know if he was drunk off his ass or took too long to think of something clever to say. So Mark decided to call him "Sven." Bear in mind, this person looked nothing like a Nordic person (he's Asian, with long black hair and facial hair). I don't think we'll ever call him by his real name again.

So anyway, Sugar Ray played their 4 reliable hits, with a few covers (including the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" and other songs in between. Mark McGrath had the crowd hopping up like mad through the last song ("Fly"). It's not everyday that I leave work with my ears ringing!

Diana, Jenny, Karen, Alice, Valerie, Chris, Justin, JWong, Brian B, Armando, Christian, Irene, and other ex-Yahoos and Yahoos in other locales -- you were all missed! Yahoooo-ooo!

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

awww- sniff sniff! I still think they should have hired me as the Yahoo! Badge to work the crowd. :)

4:56 PM  
Blogger tatertot said...

i read things like this and i get major yahoo withdrawal. sniff. sniff. oh, the memories. the way i talk about the company around here, you'd think i still work for them. :)

9:06 PM  

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