You Know You Are From Silicon Valley When...
- You make $100,000 a year, yet still can't find a place to live.
- Your commute time is 45 minutes and you live 8 miles away from work.
- Stop asking how much things cost but, ask "How long will it take?"
- Two-Thirds of the people you know are from Boston or New York, but you are living in PST.
- Know vast differences difference between Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese, and Korean food.
- Your home computer contains mostly hardware/software that is not on the consumer market yet.
- Go to "The City" on weekends but don't live there because you like your car.
- Think that "I'm going to Fry's." is an acceptable excuse to leave the office for a while, and your boss does too.
- Lost your alarm clock. You'll get to work when you get there.
- Go to an industrial-heavy-metal bar and see two guys get into a fight over what flavor of Unix is better.
- Own more than 10 articles of clothing that have hardware/software companies printed on them. Bonus for embroidered stuff.
- "Your best buys..." you know the rest.
- You know where Woz Way, Resistor Ave, and Floppy Dr are located.
- You know who Woz is.
- You know 280 North runs west, and 680 N runs East.
- Even though Microsoft employs quite a few programmers in the Bay Area, they only work on Powerpoint, and the company is still the embodiment of Satan.
- Even if their stock IS worth more than yours.
- You see a billboard that says "FPGA2ASIC" and aren't phased.
- When you need the updated Diamond Monster 3D drivers, you just walk across the street.
- You have more bandwidth in your apartment or condo than most major universities.
- You have to hire security to keep the panhandlers off your terrace (Oakland/Berkeley).
- None of the people you work with are bible thumpers.
- You scan yard sales for back issues of "Dr. Dobbs."
- Your favorite computer reseller speaks only Cantonese.
- Your work place vending machines dispense "100% natural twig-bars" right next to Jolt cola and Instant Espresso mix.
- No one brings radio's into work - they just use RealAudio and listen to thedj.com, rebelradio.com, or other out of state stations.
- You have a personal relationship with a master vintner in Napa.
- Your friends just bought a $500,000 fixer-upper.
- When your work station crashes you wave crystals over it to help it heal.
- You had a personal web site long before IBM, Apple or Microsoft ever even heard of the internet.
- The most successful relationship of your life is with someone you have never met in person.
- When you see a guy wearing a propeller beanie walking on the beach at Santa Cruz, you don't laugh, your stop and pay homage, because you know he's a rich programmer who's stock just went public.
- You give someone your E-mail address BEFORE you give them your phone number.
- You know how to pronounce over a dozen Indian (not Native American) surnames.
- You can't find any ties when your wife wants to go to the one restaurant within a hundred miles that requires one.
- You consider charity to be investing in a risky startup.
- You consider rose' wine drinkers to be poor white trash.
- Your European vacation consisted of a week of meetings in a windowless room in Scotland, and an hour of shopping at the duty-free in Heathrow.