Sachin Agarwal: June 2008

On Saturday night Kate and I had dinner at Central Kitchen. Monika recommended it to us and it was amazing! The restaurant is beautiful. We had a plate of goat cheese for appetizer. Kate had a great piece of halibut. And I had steak frites. The plate was huge. It was on of the best steaks I've ever had in my life. It was perfectly cooked rare/medium rare but still hot all the way through. There was almost no fat on the meat and it was soft and juicy. Yum.

For dessert we had a fallen Belgian chocolate cake. It takes 25 minutes to make so we had to ordered it when our entrees arrived. Wow. It was steaming hot and all melted in the middle. Possibly the best chocolate cake I've ever had.

Highly recommended.

Last weekend I was in New York for Monika's birthday. We had a great dinner at Kion followed by drinks at Arlo and Esme. At dinner they started us out with fried sliced banana and fried corn. Then Kate and I had Zucchini stuffed with goat cheese, and then an amazing (HUGE) piece of salmon. Manhattans were consumed by all. Yum.

How cool is this?

One of my favorite New York stories...

CITY PERILS
THE FIFTY-NINE-STORY CRISIS
THE NEW YORKER, MAY 29, 1995, pp 45-53
What's an engineer's worst nightmare? To realize that the supports he designed for a skyscraper like Citicorp Center are flawed---and hurricane season is approaching.

BY JOE MORGENSTERN

In review, I have to think that miatas may provide the most fun/$ this side of a motorcycle. Some points of brilliance:

* Making 80 feel like 140
* Teeth
* Comic arrivals
* 8 gallons of gas total in 4 days (not being driven lightly)
* Unparalleled turning radius
* Personal responsibility (as enforced by the anti-roll protection of 'don't')

Overall quite the inventory. And overall the car's in quite good shape, honestly. Tires actually have enough tread - well beyond the wear bars. Clutch feels perfect. Motor didn't sound to be low on oil or have any such obvious issues. Brakes are totally fine, the only possible issue being low-grade pads. But regardless of their initial bite (or lack thereof), they showed very little fade, and the rear calipers appeared to work correctly (as evidenced by both the hand brake and visible rotor wear). It sounds very much like there's a leak somewhere in the exhaust, but that's way minor all things considered.

Anyway, thanks so much for the ride!!

Shall I mail you the key?

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It's hard to believe I almost didn't take my job on Final Cut Pro; I was strongly considering working for Amazon in Seattle. But I chose Apple. I remember the last conversation I had with my first manager before accepting the job was when he told me ProApps went to Vegas every year. Sign me up!

Not only did I stay at Apple for six years, but I stayed on Final Cut Pro the whole time. Yes, it was that good. My time on FCP saw it go from the application that was pulling ahead of Premiere for the first time, to becoming the de facto editor for everything except film (we are in that market also, but not the leader).

The past six years included 4 large releases and countless minor updates. There were six amazing trips to Las Vegas, some for as long as 10 days (not a good idea!). I worked with people who are now some of my closest friends. We did a photo slideshow on Thursday at my going away party. So many great memories.

Being on Final Cut Pro also allowed me to work remotely from New York, something that I probably wouldn't have been able to do if I worked anywhere else. I thought I would explore New York for a year and head back. But instead I found a city I fell in love with and where I really fit in. New York City makes me happy, and I owe that to Apple as well.

It's definitely a weird feeling to not be an Apple employee. Apple has been such a huge part of my life, I'm sure many people never thought I would leave the company. But there are bigger things ahead! It's sad to not be associated with this company anymore. But even if I'm not an employee, I'll always be a fan boy :).

I got a lot of shit from people for using a Mac through middle school and high school. Apple never got any respect for what they did, but I always stood behind the company. The way I evangelize Apple today, imagine how hard that was 10 years ago.

It's been incredible to be at Apple the past six years and see them on their way up. Since the iPod was announced in October 2001 (I was in the audience in Town Hall where Steve announced the first iPod), Apple has become incredibly well respected for all the products they produce. Mac market share is way up, Vista is thought to be dead, anyone buying a new computer who can afford a Mac is considering it.

It really is a dream come true to see where Apple is today. Apple may not have even 20% market share yet, but that's fine. The way I see it, Apple has succeeded in becoming the BMW of computers. Not everyone wants one, and not everyone can afford one. But everyone respects them and sees them as high quality computers, with attention to detail, great software, great design. Everyone aspires to be like Apple.

My last day at Apple felt very surreal. And it was a little bittersweet. I don't know what I expected, but at the end I couldn't believe it was over.

Thanks Steve. Thanks Final Cut Pro.

My dad decided to buy a CPO Lexus GX470. At first he wanted a Mercedes ML350 since he's wanted a Mercedes his whole life. I told him to at least drive the Lexus and BMW first. The Lexus blew the Mercedes away, no question about it.

My dad jumped on Lexus.com and searched their CPO inventory. He found the perfect car he wanted but it was in Georgia. The one drawback of CPO is since the car is still fairly new, there aren't a lot of them for sale.

He called the dealer in Georgia, made an offer, haggled a bit, and now it's on a truck to California. He bought the car without seeing it. But why not? There's no body damage at all, it has low miles, and everything is covered by the warranty.

We'll see how it goes, but it seems like a great way to buy the perfect newish car you want.