The trip to the Himachal (my second) was epic. We rented Enfield 500's (WWII style motorcycles) and did a 800 Km loop from Kullu (on the wet side of the Himalaya) to Spiti (on the dry side) and back. Here's a link to the photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/damien626/spitimagic

Our flight from Delhi to Kullu was cancelled due to heavy rains, so we spent a day wandering around Delhi and visiting the National Museum which had some excellent sculptures. We ended up taking the 13 hour bus ride to Kullu instead, which would not have been complete without an emergency roadside diarrhea attack.

As we pulled out of Ankit's compound on our massive bikes in the rain, Steffen let off the clutch too fast and nearly crashed. I'm sure Ankit and his brother Panki thought we had no chance of making it back in one piece. The first day was the roughest. Steffen crashed twice (once on a steep hairpin turn and once crossing a creek) and I got drenched in muck after slipping out in a huge, foot-deep mud puddle. 9 hours of riding later, we were in bed knowing we had 9 more days of this ahead of us.

Despite numerous landslides and the most precipitous roads (highest in the world) I've ever seen, we made it back to Kullu with nothing more than a scraped toe and a sunburn. We teamed up with a couple of girls from Alaska touring on mountain bikes, a Belgian named Bavo (the Bavo Lama) and Amir, just out of a 4 year tour in the Israeli army.

Once we made it into Spiti (once part of Tibet) the clouds disappeared. We visited the highest village in the world (Kibbher) and played with children, ducked our heads into 10th century monasteries where the Dali Lama goes to get away and took turns playing a drum in a prayer room that overhangs the village of Dankhar. The highest pass we crossed was 4500 meters and we camped at a lake nearby called Chandertaal.

Before the trip I had a wicked cough and I felt healthy by the end. When back in the monsoon-denched subcontinent, we had a farewell lunch with the Persistent team, bought gifts for family and ate tandoori chicken at Palm Shades in Majorda every night (usually with an Old Monk and Coke). It was a great experience, but I am definitely glad to be home in sunny CA.

The ocean has become too rough to swim in and the deserted beaches are now littered with miles of garbage that has washed up. 

New plants and animals are coming to life. After the first pre-monsoon showers there was a butterfly hatch one evening and hundreds of thousands of blue and black butterflies were floating up the beach on a northerly breeze as the sun set. Now that it is so wet outside, all kinds of critters are coming into my house, like this praying mantis. 

I've also been playing a game of cat and mouse with a couple of rats. Of course there are the spiders, too. 

At least the weather has cooled off, but now when you hang your clothes to dry, they don't. I have to admit, I miss the sun and I wish I were in California for the summer. At least my brother is coming on Saturday and we'll be taking off for the deserts on the northern side of the Himalaya to escape the rain.

Jason had just spent two and a half days in the hospital in Jaipur with typhoid and it showed when I first laid eyes on him in Paharganj. He was emaciated, pale and greasy and the shithole that is Paharganj wasn't helping. He's a pic of the dirty Delhi alleyway outside our hotel.

Our 9 days in the Himalaya was just what he needed. We breathed fresh forest air, swam in clean clear rivers, climbed snow-dusted peaks and made friends. By the end of the trip, both of us felt healthy and restored.

There is so much to say about this trip that I would have to write for hours to share it all. We hunted for yellow berries along the river Tirthan with Audaz, ate Cendrella's organically grown strawberry Jam, heard Lobu sing traditional Pahari songs, waded through fields of wild marijuana, and wandered through remote villages that see only a few outsiders in a year and still grind their own flour using watermills.

The wildlife of the Great Himalayan National Park did not disappoint. As we climbed the forested slopes, pairs of bright blue monal pheasants would take off and glide down the valleys while hoots echoed off the rocks and trees. Pine martens scampered across the fields. Herds of friendly goats munched on the mountainsides as enormous griffon vultures soared above and below us.

At first we had planned to just rent equipment, but our uber-guide, Ankit, informed us that you need a guide to enter the GHNP. Somehow we ended up with a guide (Ses Ram), a cook (Dilip), and two porters (Lobu and Prathap). They showed us things we never would have found, cooked us insanely good meals (they actually hauled around a pressure cooker) and just generally spoiled us. By the end of our trek, we had laughed and played music with them around the campfire and were so glad we didn't go it alone.

The local villagers were extremely friendly and offered us chai whenever we arrived at their village. We sat among carved wooden houses with slate roofs and attempted to talk with them (with Ses Ram as our translator) and promised to send the pictures we took back to them. We even witnessed a yearly celebration of the departure of the godess Galadurga from the village of Karongcha complete with bugles, drums and singing.

Most of our trip was spent trekking, but we did have a little time at the end to explore the area by bus and ride bikes from Manali to Kullu. The Kullu valley is filled with wheat fields and apple orchards and surrounded by snowy mountains. Of course there is the omnipresent Indian garbage problem, but here it is easy to be distracted by more beautiful things.

Since I don't have the time to tell all the stories, definitely check out the photo set that I have put on Flickr for the trip here:

http://flickr.com/photos/damienf/sets/72157605048198066/

Click here to download it (right click -> "save target as" works well).

If the surrounding industrial estate isn't exactly the picture of cleanliness, at least the inner courtyard of the office offers sanctuary from the surrounding heat and pollution. It has a lovely garden (a snake was spotted the other day) and pantries where you can make tea and toast any time.

People typically take one of the many shuttles and coaches operated by Persistent to transport the employees from the surrounding towns to Verna. The morning shuttles arrive at 9am and there are departing shuttles at 6:15pm and 8:30pm. It's not uncommon for people to be at the office from 9am to 8:3pm, but people do take frequent breaks and play table tennis (TT), and other games. Two of the people who are often here until the last coach are Nandhin and Sunit (as seen from my desk).

They both commute from Margao. Except on special occasions, everyone eats at the free cafeteria on the 1st floor which serves vegetarian Goan and Indian food. It's not bad. Overall, its a pretty damn nice place to work. The offices are air-conditioned (often too much) and there is a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. I usually eat lunch with a crew of Goans, and the conversation often leads to recommendations of where I should go the next weekend, differences between India, Goa, and the US, or how much I overpaid for something. I'm getting to know the PHP team pretty well since I interact with them a lot, but the .NET team has been heads-down working on the San Francisco Symphony website that just launched (http://www.sfsymphony.org/) and the EFI Partner Portal, so I haven't gotten to know them as well yet. Here is a picture of the entire SolutionSet Goa team (click for higher resolution) . 

At 6:30 pm the caterers put out snacks for us. Typically its South Indian stuff like samosas or batata vada (fried potatoes). A mixture of Konkani, Hindi and English is spoken around the office. The environment is a LOT different from downtown San Francisco at 2nd and Mission, with the bustling business people and various lunch eateries, but the work itself isn't. Writing a spec, zoning into a tricky piece of code, or sitting on a hour-long conference call is the same wherever you are.

I was talked into renting a hut for $9/night by a friendly kid which was cool because I could put my helmet in my hut and not have to carry it around as I wandered the beach. There is a point on the south end of the beach where I took a lot of pictures (or "snaps" as they call them here). I find these flowers especially beautiful (you can click on the image to get a higher resolution image). 

This next image is actually 3 snaps combined to form a panorama from the point (again, you can click the image for a higher res version). 

While swimming in a little cove, I met a group of travellers that consisted of 2 Israeli guys, an Israeli girl and an Australian girl. They invited me to wander around with them so we walked south to a beach called Patnem and had lunch at a place called Cuba (a local goan chain which isn't bad). Here are the Israeli dudes chillaxin. 

"Dub Side of the Moon" was playing on the sound system. We joked around, went for another swim, played with puppies and watched the sunset as we walked back to Palolem. 

There was an outdoor dance party going on that night on the point called "silent noise". Since there are strict noise regulations after 11pm, the promoters sell headphones and broadcast 2 channels of electronic music for everyone to dance to. If you aren't wearing the headphones, its a trip to see everyone dancing in unison in complete silence (except for an occasional hoot or scream). 

The headphones cost 1000 Rs but you get 500 back when you return them, so when I got tired I sold mine to a guy who was just arriving for 750. Back in my hut, I slept well until I was awoken by a rodent (probly a rat) "investigating" me. After the third investigation event, I decided I wasn't going to be able to sleep in that hut and went and passed out in the back of a bar filled with drunken English people until dawn. By that time the rodent was gone, I slept for a few hours, had a great breakfast of meusli and curds with honey and a pineapple juice, and explored the north end of the beach. There's an island on the north side called Monkey island which was perfect for a circumnavigational swim. The water temp here is wonderful, but the visiblity isn't that great.

After eating lunch on metal plates for about a dollar, we headed for the beach. The "beaches" of South Goa are primarily one 25 Kilometer long stretch of soft, white sand with different parts given different names. We found an out-of-the-way section of beach and had a dip in the sea and bodysurfed a bit. As usual, there were many Russians around and signs on the beach huts were in Cyrillic characters. I noticed some kitesurfers off in the distance to the south so we decided to go talk to them. Turns out they were from England and were quite nice. Eric and Jane are their names, and the winds had been perfect lately and they were in a jolly good mood because of it. They even offered to teach me for free, so I got their phone number and email (they live here 6 months out of the year) and I plan to take them up on their offer. They told me I should check out Majorda beach for a place to live since it's one of the closest beaches to my office, so I did just that. We drove to the nicest little part of Majorda and asked the first shopkeeper we saw if she knew of any places for rent. She told us to follow her on her scooter to her sister-in-law's shop which is where I met Veronica Carvalho. She had a super sweet way about her and she showed me a flat that was above their family home which I have dubbed "Casa Carvalho". The flat was very nice and we arrived at an agreement on the spot...that was easy! Now for the pics Below is a picture of the street in front of my house. The beach is just down the road and a good restaurant, the Crab Key, is across the street at the Shangrila hotel. 

This is Casa Carvalho. I occupy the top-right section of the house with the right balcony. From left to right, the windows go: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen. 

This is my bedroom. I sleep in the larger of the two beds. The smaller bed can be put in the living room with its counterpart to form one large bed for guests. 

This is the living room where I hang out most of the time and where I am sitting right now as I type. I have this little wireless USB modem from Tata Indicom which works OK (I can't get broadband here in Majorda). 

The kitchen. 

The neighbor who I see from my kitchen heating a pot on a fire of palm fronds. 

This is a dog I've named "one-ear" since he only has one ear...creative, I know. According to Mr. Carvalho, someone in Marjorda cut it off because the dog was caught stealing. What a shame. Here's one-ear passed out in a heap of ashes in my neighbor's yard. I really like my neighbor's house. 

In general, I really like living here. At 15,000 rupees ($375) per month its expensive by Goan standards but its less than half of what I was paying in California for rent. A similar place in the states near work and the beach would cost 8 to 10 times as much I'm guessing. A tailor, ayurvedic doctor and masseur, "super" market, travel agent, gym (believe it or not) and many restaurants are all within walking distance. It's kind of noisy at times with cars and bikes driving by and honking their horns. The worst is when the local dogs start barking. But I've yet to have trouble sleeping. I thought about decorating it, but the Carvalho's aren't cool with me nailing into the walls so I'm keeping it simple for now. Right now I can hear a train in the distance and the fan in the living room is blowing a cool-ish breeze on my skin as I sit in my underwear at midnight with the door open.

Anjuna beach itself not the widest or softest stretch of sand (it's got occasional rock outcroppings jutting into the surf), but it is lined with cool restaurant/bars and filled with young and old party hipsters and usually blasting electronic music. There are a TON of Isrealis here fresh off of military duty. Frank and I settled at a place called Lilliput where they were playing some reggae and took a dip in the Arabian Sea for the first time. Here's a pic of Anjuna beach from Lilliput. 

As the sun was setting, emboldened by my recent rabies immunization, I played with some of the friendly beach dogs that most people won't come anywhere near. 

It was getting dark, and both Sunit from work and Vijay (our driver) had told us to go to the Saturday night market in Arpora, so we did. As we were leaving Anjuna, it seemed like everyone was heading toward Anjuna and we were wondering if we were missing the big party, but once we got to the Saturday Night Bazaar we were not disappointed. After making our way through a traffic jam and parking our motorbikes, we found ourselves walking into the most enormous, colorful agglomeration of stalls, food, and music either of us had ever seen. I was such a terrible bargainer that I received change for my sandals and shirt that I bought. I'm getting better now, but I don't really like bargaining. It seems insincere to act like you are insisting on a price that you know is not fair, only to cave in later. Here's a picture of a jewelry seller near the entrance. 

I'll upload a video of this crazy dancer from work sometime. Driving home in the dark with the bugs flying in your eyes was no fun, but we made it.

Our taxi driver Vijay, pulled over on the way to our hotel in Juhu because Frank spotted a paan vendor. Vijay confirmed this was a popular place, so Frank ordered a couple. I had been warned against eating Indian street food (especially the kind that wasn't steaming hot), but I guess I was about to throw caution to the wind within an hour of setting food in the country. The paan we ordered were not the traditional betelnut or tobacco variety, but instead was the sweet kind with so many things in it that I can't remember wrapped in a betel leaf (cocunut, honey and coriander to name a few) . I stuffed it into my cheek as instructed...it wasn't bad. Tasted like potpourri.

After putting our things in our hotel room at the Best Western Emerald, we went out for a walk and ended up taking a rickshaw back to Juhu beach where there was a vegetarian restaurant open late. I ordered my food spicy and was pleased that I could handle it...must be the years of Mexican food. Frank and I wandered around a collection of stalls by the beach and ordered a fresh squeezed pomegranate juice which was delicious.

After a mediocre night's sleep, I awoke fairly early and decided to go for a run on Juhu beach. I was pleasantly surprised to find many people walking and running on the beach. I headed south on the firm sand and was even contemplating taking a dip until I saw a guy squatting and taking a crap in the gentle surf. I decided to just keep running instead, which was a good call because as I passed a rocky jetty, there was marsh and a slum on my left and at least 50 people popping a squat on the beach and relieving themselves of their curry-laden cargo on my right. Once I noticed that I was in the communal slum latrine, I did an about-face and headed back toward the hotel, dodging land mines and trying not to breathe through my nose.

After a quick 1 hour Jet Airways flight, we were in Goa, where another driver named Vijay picked us up and took us to our home for the next 2 weeks, the Sun n Sand Hotel in Panjim (also frequently called Panaji). Panjim is a bustling little city with a lot of Portuguese charm. I took a photo of the sunrise over Panjim from my room the next day. 

Skilled software engineer with proven management, training, business development experience

Technical Expertise

Professional Experience

Fluide, San Francisco, CA        

Principal, 2001 – Present

• Web development consulting
  
• Talented team of PHP, MySQL, CSS, JS, HTML, Java and QA engineers
• Projects Include: KaiserQuotes, LiveSurface, Country-Gourmet
  

SolutionSet, San Francisco, CA                                                                       

Head of PHP development, July 2009 – Present

• Manage team of ~10 developers in San Francisco and remote locations
• Work with co-sourced development and QA teams in India and Argentina to supplement the internal group
• Train developers on general best practices and the symfony framework
• Staff, oversee and contribute to documentation and implementation of large client projects

Technical Director, December 2007 – June 2009

• Worked in India for 5 months with co-sourced development team in Goa, India.

Technology Manager, December 2006 – December 2007

Senior Developer, June 2006 – December 2006

Projects (most recent on top):

ennovationz.com

SolutionSet.com

Revinate

Trunity

Gensler

Wells Fargo vSafe Multifile Upload Tool

Adobe Acrobat User Community

SympathyTree

StratPlace

Autodesk Manufacturing Community

Education.com

Kaboose

Autodesk University

The Area

SolutionSet Community Services Platform (CSP)

ScrumDog, San Francisco, CA                                                                   

Founder, December 2009 – Present

• Online project management software built on symfony 1.2.7
• Designed and implemented scrum-based tool based on personal experience
• ScrumDog is now being used by SolutionSet for project management

Mediatrope, San Francisco, CA

Senior Engineer, June 2005 – May 2006

• Lead classic ASP development team in a demanding, fast-paced environment
• Transformed functional specifications and graphic designs into working websites
• Maintained and expanded proprietary content management system: Sitebots
• Projects Included: Carnegie Foundation, SHN, MCN

Evite, Inc., San Francisco, CA                                                              

District Sales Manager, May 2000 – December 2000

• Prospected new business using trade publications, directories, and personal relationships
• Developed and designed customized marketing proposals tailored to the needs of the client
• Created and implemented effective advertising products
• Worked with DART to deliver advertising campaigns on evite.com

CNET Networks, Inc., San Francisco, CA                                                          

Account Coordinator, May 1999 – May 2000

• Created proposals and implemented advertising campaigns across the CNET Network
• Worked with Accipiter AdManager and proprietary software to place ad creative on CNET web properties such as CNET.com, News.com, Download.com and Builder.com
• Managed online advertising campaign delivery and client relationships
• Accounts: Handspring, Microsoft, Egghead/OnSale, eMusic, Hewlett-Packard

Education

• BS in Computer Science at San Jose State University (3.6 GPA)
• Minor in Mathematics, San Jose State University
• BA in Geography from UC Berkeley (graduated with honors 3.5 GPA)
• Year abroad at Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble, France)
• Semester at Gump South Pacific Biological Research Station (Moorea, French Polynesia)
• Completed Spanish immersion program at Escuela Idiomas d'Amore (Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica)
• Semester abroad at University of Technology, Sydney (Sydney, Australia)
  

Links

• LinkedIn profile
  

References available upon request.