Flash back to 1999

[susandennis]

I just saw this on Twitter and recognized it instantly.



I'm pretty sure the date is wrong. I think it's probably from 1995-ish. But I remember that room very well.

I was trying to help a guy get his commercial real estate website on the air. He actually had hired me to help him get the info onto a DVD that he would then sell. But when I explained websites to him, the DVD bit died instantly.

All I knew was hard coded HTML and for sure this was bigger than that. I had no idea how to do it. BUT I had heard of this guy who was building a bookstore website and a serious one. He must have it figured out. So I got a job interview with him. My plan to was to find out how they were going to do it and then just replace books with real estate.

I interviewed with Jeff in the office in that picture! Yep. His desk was a door and he had no white board at all. And it was over a paint store about a half mile from here. The building it still there but the paint store is long gone.

I first talked to a kid who had no clue how he site would be run. His job was just to find bodies. So he quickly walked me down the hall to Jeff.

Jeff was a crazy man even then and so nice and very fun. It took him no time to figure me out. "You don't really want to work here, do you? So why are you here?" So I came clean and told him exactly what I was trying to do. He told me that what I needed for the real estate site was Cold Fusion. It was a great, fun interview.

So we built Officespace.com on Cold Fusion. It was sold years ago, but I'm pretty sure they still used Cold Fusion then and maybe even now.

Seeing that photo this morning was just fun.

Comments

[jwg.livejournal.com]

very cool.

[meowmensteen]

I swear you're like the Forest Gump of Seattle.

[susandennis]

Hahaha. I am! Remember the old Rodda paint store there on 1st just down from Sears? It was over Rodda Paints.

[meowmensteen]

I had to think about it for a while, but now I remember it. That was a long time ago. I used to ride the bus past it when I would go to West Seattle.

[susandennis]

yep!

[nattalie-m.livejournal.com]

nice story! :)

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

I remember you writing about this, when you did the series of posts surveying your life. It was an amazing story then, and again now with the photo added.

It’s astonishing how much has changed so quickly, to have these waymarkers to link stuff together...well, you’re part of a larger cultural memory.

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Such a cool story!

[rosegardenfae.livejournal.com]

I love this.

[shutterbug.livejournal.com]

Okay, what a cool story!

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's really cool!

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should ask you for your autograph. :)

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious! :)

[tilia-tomentosa.livejournal.com]

Wow, your life was so full of adventures indeed! :)

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Oh, very cool!! And pretty funny that he sussed you out so quickly.

I kinda miss the days of being about to build sites just by knowing HTML.. it just got to complicated for me a few years ago and I wound up not being able to keep up with it.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

That's quite a story.

My desk is a door too, but it looks a lot better than that desk