Genentech and home, the early days

Even though I've been in SF for two months, I haven't said or shown much. Sorry!

I actually live not in San Francisco but in Daly City. (Pronounced like "Daily.") I rent a room-plus in a house with a very kind Christian family. Genentech, where I work, is in the city of South San Francisco. They're all only a short drive from each other.

On this map, I've circled SF, Daly City, and South San Francisco in red. My house is near the cyan circle. Genentech is near the green circle. My alma mater, Cal, is in blue.



I live very close to this shopping center, which has a Ranch 99! (Ranch 99 is a Chinese supermarket. They usually have live fish in tanks!) If only I could read/speak/cook in Chinese! I will try to boil dumplings again, at least. I took this picture the first day I arrived. Isn't the sky beautiful?

At Genentech, everyone's first day is on Monday, because they have orientation only every Monday. On my first day, about thirty other people were also starting. That's about 1500 new employees this year! (There are currently ~13,000 employees in all of Genentech.) It's practically impossible for any one person in the company to know everyone else, but we're still on the same team. :-)



What do we do at Genentech?

Genentech's mission is to develop drugs to address significant unmet medical needs.

That's short but consistent with what I've seen here so far. Later, I hope to talk more about Genentech's products and my research.


On my first real day at work, I was walking down from one of the parking lots and took this picture. A glass hallway separates two research buildings; I work in the left building. But do you see what's behind the glass hallway? IT'S THE OCEAN!!!

Some more pictures I never got to . . .

Here are some pictures (pre-Genentech) that I wanted to share.

This was our beloved family cat, the late Furry Hom.



Tyson and I playing frisbee golf!









A peanut-butter smoothie from P.B. loco, in the Mall of America. It was okay . . .










My friend Kurt at the Mall of America. Kurt works at the "Your Body Repair Shop." It's owned by Kurt's Christian mentor.




Jordan Thomas and I at Arby's. Jordan is starting a new church in Tennessee! Jordan was really great about talking to me about his faith. I'll try to read that book soon, Jordan!



The Japanese garden at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena. And a pretty flower from there.










Go to this park near my house, in the winter. Look across the grass, toward the setting sun, and you will see that spider webs fill the entire lawn. Woah.







I usually insist on pictures being in focus; I need to let go of that. Here are Caltech friends at an anime convention many years ago. They're reacting to the way an audience member asked a question: it was a bit over-the-top. This out-of-focus picture always makes me smile.

Last but not least, it's my sister, Mary! She's studying at the University of Cambridge in England.

Geoff's trip (part 4 of 4): Seattle -> Sacramento

Tip: First read this previous post and try to guess the story behind the pictures. Once the truth has been revealed the truth, there's no going back!

So, Glenn and I left Seattle before dawn. Even though I'm not a morning person, I love driving during sunrise. The scenery was often breaktaking.





Soon we passed into Oregon.







We visited two old family friends: Chinh and Jeri. Chinh and my dad went to school together.





Chinh and Jeri live in Corvallis, home of the Oregon State Beavers. The four of us, plus two other friends, visited the campus. Here, I am imagining myself as a student. :-)



We also walked around Corvallis. That's where this statue is, as seen from the back. Imagine walking from behind, and then seeing what's really under that hat!







After a lovely time with Chinh and the others, Glenn and I headed for the Oregon coast. It seemed like there was a beach every five miles! We finally stopped here.



Ona Beach State Park was a gem! There was a river to canoe in, a large picnic area, a hidden mossy forest that reminded me of the movie Princess Mononoke, and a beach that totally made me think of the game Final Fantasy X! I even got a good picture of my new orange shoes, which I got on sale at a mall in Minneapolis.

















I was fascinated by the play of the water on the beach. See the "V" trails caused by the pebbles?






Glenn and I played Aerobie (frisbee) in the picnic area. Unfortunately (inevitably?), we lost the frisbee in the bushes. But we took a picture to remind us where to look next time. It should be right . . . there!









We also visited a beach with a famous lighthouse. We could see the beach really well on the walk up to the lighthouse. Sure was gorgeous.



Look! It's the crystal from Final Fantasy!






That night, Glenn and I ate at a nice seafood restaurant. Then, we found a campsite right at the base of the Oregon sand dunes. It was really cool walking around the sand dunes at night (but I don't have any good pictures of that).

We didn't want to put up the tent, so I slept on the table.






At the sand dunes, we took a tour on a huge sand rover. This was a lot of fun. I really felt like we were in the movie "Dune." Next time, I want to ride on a sand rail!










We were sad to leave the Oregon coast, but I had to get home. Our last tourist stop was the "Oregon Vortex and House of Mystery." Oooohhhh . . . even the sign looks a little creepy, doesn't it?



What I liked about the vortex was how simple it was. And it wasn't spooky; it was just a little strange. People would seem to shrink or grow slightly, depending on where they stood. It was fun talking to Glenn about what might be the cause.




As the sun set, Glenn and I crossed into California. Later that night, we arrived safely at home in Sacramento.

Geoff's trip (part 3 of 4): Seattle!

Tip: First read this previous post and try to guess the story behind the pictures. Once the truth has been revealed the truth, there's no going back!

My mom was born in Seattle, and I have many relatives there. The last time I was there was August 1999: I had graduated from Cal, and my friends Glenn, Sanshiro and I drove across the country because of a road sign in Sacramento. However, that's another story. :-) Anyway, on the drive back from Maryland we had stopped in Seattle for about a week.

This July (seven years later), I was glad to visit Seattle again. The main reason was that my cousin Chris was getting married!

I arrived on a Friday; the wedding rehearsal would be that night, and the wedding would be on Saturday. I was an usher! I really like this picture from the rehearsal; everything seems so simple and intimate. The bride is Olivia Cheng, my new cousin!




The wedding was nice, of course. Grandma read some Scripture from the Bible. Two young people sang the duet "The Prayer," by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion. I had never heard it before, and I really liked it. (The girl had an especially beautiful voice.) And of course, Olivia wore an elegant dress. After the wedding, there was a special tea ceremony. Here, Auntie Nancy welcomes her new daughter.

Olivia really likes Hello Kitty. The pastor even mentioned it. "Why doesn't Hello Kitty have a mouth?" he asked. "It is because she speaks from her heart." Awwwwwww.


For the reception, Olivia changed into a Chinese dress.






The next day, I visited some old friends. This picture is of me, Possu Huang, and John J. Love: We worked together in the Mayo lab. John now runs a lab at SDSU. Yes, technically it's called "The Love Lab." Nice picture, John!

I went to the wedding with my friend Angela Hillier. We met at the GDC, a conference for video-game developers. Angela now works for Microsoft: that's where we took this picture of her and the Master Chief from "Halo."





I had dinner with my cousin Jason, Chris's younger brother. Then, my friend Glenn flew in from Sacramento! I had recruited Glenn to drive with me from Seattle to Sacramento. But there was still lots of time before leaving Seattle.

Possu, Glenn, and I visited my friend Marc Facciotti, who is a postdoc in Leroy Hood's lab. Marc's from Davis, and he was my grad mentor when I worked in Bob Glaeser's lab at Cal. In hindsight, Marc and Bob were extremely gracious and kind to me while I was working there.



My relatives treated me to a lot of wonderful, free food. One morning we had waffles! Here's my Uncle Paul, who is Chris and Jason's dad. Uncle Ron was also there. I'm very, very lucky to have so many faithful relatives.





The night before Glenn and I drove back to Sacramento, my cousins Brian and Michelle hosted a family dinner. It was fun, and we got to relive one of the wedding's highlights: the video!

The video came on during the wedding reception. It was Chris and Olivia re-enacting their courtship, with some creative editing included. I don't have any video pictures, but some memorable moments were:

• Chris asking Olivia to be his girlfriend by rapping to her
• Chris's quadruple-take when Olivia said, "I'm glad we can be such good friends"
• the flower from church that Chris gave Olivia
• Chris thanking God for creating Olivia (aww!)
• the song "I Will Be Here," by Steven Curtis Chapman, that they used while showing their photos together.

Incidentally, I really like "I Will Be Here." It's the second Chapman song I've learned. (My friends Gretchen Lee and Jenn Hibst introduced me to "The Great Adventure," aka "Saddle Up Your Horses!") It was strange how I interpreted the song, though. I guess it's a man promising to always be there for his wife. However, I didn't hear those parts of the song when I first heard it; I thought it was God promising, "I Will Be Here." In any case, I was happy to be reminded of that promise. I hope I can believe it . . .

We must have watched that video fifteen times; just thinking of it makes me smile. :-)

The next morning, before dawn, Glenn and I left Seattle . . .

Next up:

Seattle to Sacramento: What adventures await?