Ernest goes to Apple

Ernest Prabhakar (ernest@apple.com)
Tue, 30 Sep 97 12:10:19 -0700


Hello everyone,

Well, I'm here. First, the contact information. The home address =
is only good for a month or so (it is safest to forward via my LA =
address for now).

999 W/ Hamilton Ave. Suite 49
Campbell CA 95008
H: (408) 370-7832, ernest@alumni.caltech.edu
W: (408) 974-3075, ernest@apple.com
F: (408) 777-0751

Life at Apple is pretty wild, as always. I am thinking that =
perhaps I should just stay in transitional housing -- and keep my =
place in LA -- until we get a new CEO. That should be sometime =
around December, I think.

The place I am staying at is a pretty nice furnished apartment. =
One-bedroom, huge walk-in closet, nice dinner table and couch. =
Actually, it is nicer than it should be.

They included a VCR to compensate for the fact that they initially =
gave me the wrong address. I show up at the place in Sunnyvale, =
only to discover the key wasn't in the lockbox. I left a message =
at the emergency number, and moved my stuff up to the third floor =
- to discover a polite Japanese guy opening the door of my =
(presumed) apartment!
He had apparently been there a week!

I called back, and waited by the phone until they called me back. =
Apparently they'd moved me without telling me. I wasn't sure =
where the new place was, or if it was another mistake, so I =
arranged to stay at the Marriot for the weekend (at their =
expense!), then sort things out on Monday.

Monday they called and apologized nicely, and explained the new =
place (The Greenery, as it is called) was actually closer to =
Apple. But they'd put me in the other place in a few days if it =
didn't work out. Fair enough. So I went there last night.=20

Well, I tried to. One thing after another kept going wrong. =
They gave me directions from South instead of North (without =
indicating the fact). The largest major street was unlabeled =
from the direction I was going in, causing a fifteen minute detour =
trying to circle around. I finally gave up and called the =
emergency number from my car, and after a couple of false starts =
had the nice lady (who had arranged the hotel room last time) stay =
on the phone with me while I drove around.

Then we discovered that the directions said left instead of right. =
Unfortunately, it was too late to do a U turn, so we went back =
along a parallel street. But we overshot, going to 900 E insteaed =
of 900 W Hamilton. By then it was so dark that I couldn't see =
street signs, so I overshot another block and had to loop around =
again. I finally found it, and managed to find the right =
building (they didn't mention the building code on the directions) =
and opened the dropbox (there was just barely enough light).

Whew. I called up, and she apologized again, and they're bringing =
in a stereo in addition to the VCR. The whole episode was more =
amusing than annoying, in the "Gosh, I can't wait to see what goes =
wrong next?" sort of way you enjoy Steve Martin movies. And they =
did their best to make up for their mistakes, so I don't hold it =
against them. It actually is a nice place, and I may even try to =
stay here during the rest of my transition.

Actually, learning to enjoy chaos and mistakes is definitely an =
essential surivival skills. Similiarly, Apple gave me a signing =
bonus specifically so I could stay in transitional housing a =
couple extra months, because of all the uncertainty. So I can't =
complain that they're being unfair.

I'm having fun visiting churches and getting reacquainted with the =
area and people I know. Hope you're all doing well. Talk to you =
later,

Love,
-- Ernie P.=