So yeah, the rumors, if you haven't heard already, are true - I'm back at Yahoo!. And because some people may or may not be curious - I'm not working at Yahoo! 360. Nothing against the crew at Yahoo! 360, of course - even when all the job drama I've been going through regarding the Canadian company was going down, I would still swing by the old stomping grounds, saying hello and such. (I can't really say much more additionally regarding 360; just know they are NOT sitting at their desks bored, filing their nails or playing solitaire or Minesweeper. Not that I was aware of, anyway.)

Where I AM is at this group called Brickhouse, located in San Francisco - about a 45 minute drive north of the Sunnyvale offices. Yep, I'm in the city. I'm reminded that I'm in the city, because I just heard 15 cars honking at each other and homeless people talking to themselves on the way to getting some coffee. All I need is a vintage t-shirt for $250.

So what's Brickhouse - hmmm. The easiest way to explain is that it's a group that is trying to create new stuff; stuff you wouldn't necessarily expect from Yahoo!. In the Bay Area, there are a lot of tech-startups; the idea is that being in an environment that is more friendly to creating new stuff, you'll actually get to do so. And sure, a couple of the ideas that our group comes up with may or may not be for everyone, and some of them might not even do too well, but the hope is that we'll be thinking of new, different, cutting-edge stuff. It's an experimental, risky endeavour, but seriously - I just spent the last three months at a food start-up in CANADA, of all places. Somehow, I think I'll be okay.

1. I've learned that working at a 14,000 person corporation that has cool perks and free coffee and free haircuts and free oil changes and Christmas parties where Chris Daughtery and the Flaming Lips perform... still makes it a 14,000 person company.
   
   
2. I've always felt a little awkward as an engineer. I always thought I was trying to be humble; "Oh, I'm an adequate engineer, but only that." And I realize now that there is a line between humility and honestly selling yourself short. I'll leave it at that.
   
   
3. That being said, I know more about this stuff [engineering, community, myself] than I did two or three years ago.
   
   
4. When people scream at you and drop F-bombs because something is wrong, they're not yelling at you, they're yelling because they're frustrated. (Seriously, I had to learn that. I'm kind of... [cough]... sensitive.) That being said, it feels REALLY good to go down for a cigarette and talk trash about them to co-workers. (So long as no one else hears. Or gossips about it. And no, I would never talk trash about you, of course.)
   
   
5. I've learned to be hypersensitive as a Product Blogger, ESPECIALLY a company like Yahoo!, where every single type of person - YES, EVERY SINGLE TYPE OF PERSON - reads the blog. In 360's early days I got into a flame war with a user because I made of MySpace and I linked his page as an example of what not to do. The result wasn't pretty. I've learned my lesson from that.
   
   
6. Working with any product in this "Web 2.0" era, there's going to be two audiences; the early adopters that come in, see the bells and whistles and leave, and the real community that comes in a bit later, and stay around. The first crowd is the most vocal, especially to managers and executives. The second crowd is who you should pay attention to.
   
   
7. Know you're audience, really well. Even if you're an engineer and not a designer.

So I gave up and let a computer choose for me.

Let me explain. This year, I did something a little different and used a service called Last.fm. They offer a plug-in for iTunes and Yahoo! Music Jukebox which keeps track of every single song I ever played at work or home. A couple of months ago, they started offering dynamic charts; a rolling list of every song you’ve listened in a set period of time. Which means I have a chart of the songs I’ve heard in the past year! Perfect.

Obviously, the chart isn’t perfect, because I listen to a lot of music in the car, but it’s good enough for me. And now, the list:

BONUS: Have Yahoo! Music Unlimited? Listen to the playlist now!

1. Restless - Alison Krauss [video]
   Surprising music fact: I kinda like bluegrass. I don’t know a LOT about bluegrass, and let’s casually ignore the fact that I heard this song for the first time on the Grammies when it was winning an award. Oh well.
   
   
2. In The Rough - Anna Nalick [video]
   Surprising music fact #2: If you knew that this is my most played music track, you would think I am a broken-hearted 20 year old sorority girl. Eh, why fight it? This is track is especially good when you’re in the car on the way home from work, stuck in traffic. The best is when you sing the line “I got your love letters, and I threw them all away… I hear you think that I’m crazy” at the top of your lungs, and when you get to the word crazy, contort your face like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and turn your neck to stare at the mother of three in the car next to you. Makes for great entertainment.
   
   
3. Soul Meets Body - Death Cab For Cutie [video]
   I’m such a conformist non-conformist. At least I can admit that to myself.
   
   
4. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley [video]
   Remember when this song wasn’t payed to death? No? Me neither. I wasn’t going to put it in the playlist, but I realized it was #3 on the my “most played of the year” chart, so it’s here more for self-reference. They also had a fantastic performance at Coachella.
   
   
5. U + Ur Hand - Pink [video]
   Hands down, this year’s “Since U Been Gone.” SO catchy, and it’s blasphemous that this song isn’t more popular. I’ll have you know though, that I’m NOT impressed by the video that came out for this song. It’s Pink! She’s angry! The video shouldn’t be sultry, it should be her beating a pretty male model with a baseball bat.
   
   
6. Let Go - Frou Frou [video]
   God, I love Imogen Heap. I especially like this song from the Garden State soundtrack. You know that scene in the movie where Zach Braff, fully-clothed and shellshocked from depression is sitting on the living room couch while there’s an orgy happening around him? Replace the horny co-eds with bears, and that’s what it was like spending the summer living in San Francisco.
   
   
7. Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray [video]
   Okay, so I watch a lot of VH-1. It’s a good song, and I’m a sucker for good piano. What.
   
   
8. Kirakuni - Crystal Kay [video]
   Crystal Kay is a half-Black, half-Korean teenager living in Japan. She usually sings Japanese R&B, but this track produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis totally deserved to be on American radio. But it’s not, because American radio, for the most part, sucks.
   
   
9. Steppin’ Out - Kaskade [video]
   I’ve been having less electronica music over the years, but San Francisco DJ Producer Kaskade makes the list for a lot of reasons: I LOVE San Francisco house music, he did a set at Coachella, and listening to this track reminds me of all the times I did go out dancing this year.
   
   
10. Sola Bossa (Vissionary 2005 Remix) - Sol Azul
    Admission time: I first heard this song on the cheesy all-music stations you get when you pay too much for extended cable. I heard this track, hunted for a piece of paper to write the song down, and then did a search on the Internet to download the song. My hunt proved successful, obviously.
    
    
11. Map Of The Problematique - Muse [video]
    I love Muse. Their songs have awesome riffs, their vocals are over-dramatic, every song on their album makes you feel like it’s for a movie soundtrack, if the movie had you on a cliff-top, staring off in the distance while nuclear bombs fell around you.
    
    
12. No More - Roni Size [video]
    “Brown Paper Bag” used to be one of my favorite songs, and takes me back to the old raver days. So I don’t really go to raves anymore, but I can appreciate a good beat with solid R&B vocals. And the song is about urban violence? Perfect, I lived in Oakland!
    
    
13. The Mating Game - Bitter:Sweet [video]
    If I had to give an award to the coolest Yahoo! co-worker who I’ve only met in person once, that would be Mick Orlosky. Mick is the former Chill-out DJ for Launchcast who I met while I was doing development work for Yahoo! 360. Mick would blog about great music artists, and being the music fiend I am, listened to everything he blogged about. He because his music tastes are awesome, has yet to do me wrong.
    
    
14. Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse [video]
    I’ve written about my complete adoration of Amy Winehouse on my more work-focused Yahoo! 360 blog; this track in particular I played over and over again because of the throwback to 60’s Soul Music.
    
    
15. Wouldn’t It Be Good (Acoustic version) - Nik Kershaw
    My friend Steven has a great taste in music, and was playing the original 80’s version of this song in his iPod one day. Then he turned me on to the modern acoustic version of the song, and hey, it was pretty good. And that’s why it’s on the list.
    
    
16. Move Along - The All-American Rejects [video]
    “When all you gotta keep is strong, move along, move along like I know you do. And even when your hope is gone, move along, move along just to make it through.” I’ve listened to this song more than I would like to admit this year.

• We've noted the bugs about the spacing issues and blog formatting. I've noticed two: 1) If you edit your blog entry and you previously had two blank lines, those two blank lines convert to one. 2) If you post or preview an entry with HTML, both carriage returns AND <br> tags covert to <br> tags. (Carriage returns in HTML mode shouldn't give an extra space.) I have a fix for this two bugs, and it should be on the way.
• Regarding the multiple spaces only counting as one space in a blog post - I'll get on that. Ironically, I added code to convert it because multiple spaces seem to mess up the spell check.