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Ask HN: Are you alone in San Francisco on Thanksgiving?
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
If you're in San Francisco and alone on this special day, drop me a line. We'd love to have you!
Twitter: @MattMireles
Email: iwantbeer@swigme.com
My girlfriend is making cranberry sauce, stuffing and sweet potatoes to go along with our gigantic turkey. GautamSivakumar (http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gautamsivakumar) of MediSaS (who I first met through HN) will be joining us from England for his first ever American Thanksgiving.
I've been helped by strangers and friends and strangers who became friends. When I was 20, it was the people who picked me up on my cycling/hitchhiking mis-adventure down the California coast and let me stay in their homes on Xmas. When I was 25, it was the New Yorkers who welcomed me into a new city and taught me how to stay safe in my job as a paramedic. When I was 29, it was the entrepreneurs who introduced me to Silicon Valley and showed me how to get from Zero to 1.
And now, I feel compelled to return these favors in some way, small or large.
So...if you're in San Francisco and you need a place to call home for Thanksgiving, let me know. We saved you a seat at the table.
-Matt Mireles
CEO, Swig!
SwigMe.com: The Liquor Store in Your Pocket. Get Beer, Wine & Booze Delivered To Your Door in Under an Hour
- kloncks 14y agoThis is beautiful and shows one of the coolest parts of a great community like Silicon Valley. Thanks for giving back, Matt. I sincerely hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving!
- MediaSquirrel 14y agoThanks man. I count myself one of the lucky ones.
- rgrieselhuber 14y agoMatt is one of the coolest people in the Bay Area and it is definitely worth spending the day with him if you're on your own today.
- acoyfellow 14y agoYou are awesome. Cheers from Pennsylvania!
- blhack 14y agoIt's only a 12 hour drive from Phoenix! I can make it! (I'm kidding, that would put me in SF around 1:00am -- hanging out in the hackerspace with my girlfriend making stuff instead :) )
- MediaSquirrel 14y agoDo it man! We're in North Beach, near Coit Tower. See: http://www.staysf.com/upload/attraction/20080519180416_coit%20tower.jpg http://www.staysf.com/upload/attraction/20080519180416_coit%...
- cicloid 14y agoThis is by far a great gesture! Kudos Matt!
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Credit_Swarm 14y agoThat is super cool. Matt Mireles you have a big heart. You just earned a new customer for Swig
- louwhopley 14y agoI'm not in America, but would really like to know how many people actually asked to join you? Happy Thanksgiving!
- joshaidan 14y agoLet us know how many people show up!
- dmor 14y agoAwww Matt, happy thanksgiving - hope get to celebrate with you sometime!
- sown 14y agoToo bad it takes caltrain 1.5 hours to get up there from SJ. oh well. Thanksfor the offer and happy thanksgiving
- MediaSquirrel 14y agoWe haven't started eating yet. You can make it! If you want, I can pick you up from the Caltrain.
- simonebrunozzi 14y agoSown, you should go! Matt, you rock!!!!
- sown 14y agoI'd like to but it'll be 4 or 5 by the time I could get there. i'd probably just break their toilet or something on accident, as I'm prone to do at parties. edit: And yes, Mr. Matt rocks. He even offered to pick me up at caltrain.
- imran 14y agoAlthough im not in san fransisco this post alone made my day!
- mailshanx 14y agoAn awesome gesture. Happy thanksgiving from Singapore!:)
- prohan 14y agoDon't be lazzy make a language like Guido did
- Goranek 14y agowhat? xD
- tinco 14y agoProbably a reference to Van Rossum developing python during a lonely christmas.
- Goranek 14y agoOh, nice :) Thanks mate
- simonebrunozzi 14y agoLOL!
- Goranek 14y agonice marketing..but still remarkable offer one big PLUS
- jeduan 14y agoThis is beautiful. I had a short gig in SF earlier this year and finding this kindness would have definitely helped me make my stay there a more enjoyable experience. Abrazos from Mexico City.
- viraj_shah 14y agoSuper cool man. Have a great holiday!
- maxwin 14y agoI am alone but not in SF. It is really nice of you. You are truly having a great Thanksgiving day.
- shanelja 14y agoIt's a shame this isn't the UK - I'm going to be alone for christmas this year and it would have been cool to spend it with like minded, kind people such as yourself and Gautam.
- nulluk 14y agoGeekup (blackpool) generally have a christmas meal. It isn't the same but it's as close as your going to get. Good bunch of guys that go from the NW, most of @wearefarm will be there which are based around the corner from you
- shanelja 14y agoBlackpool is 45 minutes away on the bus - thanks for this, I was really dreading sitting alone at christmas!
- nulluk 14y agoGive us a follow on twitter @nullUk There is a preston Geekup to but i'm not involved with it as much as the blackpool one as I work with a few of the people who help organise & run it even though we all work in Chorley.
- shanelja 14y agoThats a humongous coincidence, I work at the end of Cowling road just by the Spinners! The world is such a small place.
- sixQuarks 14y agoVery nice of you! on a related note, I'm curious. SwigMe.com seems very interesting, but I would think there are a lot of legal loopholes you need to jump through, no? What happens when teenagers try to order and present a good fake ID at the door?
- Goranek 14y agoI always thought that you can see fake IDs only on TV.. Do kids in USA really have "fake ids"? I mean cmon ..this is hilarious
- lbotos 14y ago100% Yes. I know of 3 ways to get a Fake: 1) Online "Novelty IDs" 2) local "ID Trucks" Philly has a few. 3) An older friend that you may look like. It's almost a right of passage in the US depending on your social circle.
- Goranek 14y agoHaha, no need for fake ids in Europe :) :)
- citricsquid 14y agoNot sure where in Europe you're located, but in England (with a drinking age of 18) the usage of fake IDs by 16 and 17 year olds is pretty frequent.
- Goranek 14y agoCroatia, funny thing I was in England few weeks ago.. I just can't imagine seeing a kid with a fake Id xD People would make fun of him in Croatia
- elemeno 14y agoAdmittedly my experience is a good more than a 13 years ago, but I've never known anyone in London who used a fake id to drink. While the age at which one can buy alcohol is 18 (there's no prohibitions against drinking it, just buying it) it's so loosely enforced that it's generally just a matter of going to an off licence down the road if the first one asks for ID, so there's almost no point at all in getting a fake ID. Added to that is that there isn't any form of ID other than passports or driving licences which would have a data of birth on them, and an under 21 yr old not having either wouldn't be particularly unusual anyway.
- bravura 14y agoWell done, Matt. We haven't hung out in a while. Let's get together when I come to SF in January.
- axyjo 14y agoI'm in Santa Clara, (so I won't be able to come up) but I'd like to help out. Any way I can chip in to the meal?
- jason_slack 14y agodo you have a place to eat dinner?
- axyjo 14y agoThankfully, I ended up finding a place just less than an hour ago. :)
- jason_slack 14y agoah, great. We are stil cooking, not ready for about 2 more hours I think.
- leemor13 14y agoWould take you up if I were down there! All the way up in Vancouver, BC but I'll take a raincheck :).
- stevewillows 14y agoI wish I had done this for our Thanksgiving.
- hjay 14y agoThat's very nice of you, Matt. Wish I was near San Fran! Have a great time nevertheless.
- Jngai1297 14y agoIf only I am in San Francisco..... Have a great thanksgiving!
- arschles 14y agoGreat gesture dude. Thanks for giving back.
- simonebrunozzi 14y agoYou're so nice Matt. Big hugs to you! Sometimes I see random acts of kindness (like yours), and they still surprise me. I bet every one of us did a few, and received a few.
- codex_irl 14y agoAn especially happy Thanksgiving to anyone here from out of town or away from friends & family!
- VonGuard 14y agoDood, go to a hackerspace. lots of people having Thanksgiving at Noisebridge and Hacker Dojo, I am sure. I know it sucks being alone on a holiday, but you know, yer only there by choice. Lots of friendly people here inviting you over. If yer still depressed Saturday, come to the MADE (Oakland's videogame museum) and play your heart out. http://www.themade.org http://www.themade.org
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- blhack 14y agoWhat city?
- vlokshin 14y agoThis is awesome. Kudos to you for posting, Matt. I just moved to the city (it'll be 1 month tomorrow), but luckily I had great friends waiting for me who I'll be enjoying the evening with. But the awesomeness of this post almost makes me want to join you regardless haha
- macey 14y agoAwesome! That's really cool, Matt. Cheers to helping everyone get a little higher on Maslow's pyramid today. On that note... Here's a link to donate to the SF food bank's holiday food drive. https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5420/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=808 https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5420/shop/custom.jsp?do... Happy Thanksgiving all!
- Xorlev 14y agoThis is incredible. Great thing you're doing! How about that hospitality. :)
- schrodinger 14y agoYou've gotta bring swig me to NYC! I'd use it!
- freshbrewedmike 14y agoHey Matt- I just shot you an email- I'm staying near Height and Clayton, and this is my first Thanksgiving alone- How far is it to North Beach ?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mistrQ 14y agoWow! I wish I was in SF. Hopefully someone as friendly as you will be doing this in London (UK) next year.
- onedev 14y agoThank you so much for being an awesome human being. People like you are my motivation.
- jmedwards 14y agoThis is just plain nice. It's not often you get to say than on HN :)
- malandrew 14y agoBummer. I kind of wish I hadn't agree to go to my gf's family's house. I would rather be nerding out.
- anandkulkarni 14y agoClassy move, Matt! Happy Thanksgiving.
- zensavona 14y agoThis is truly awesome, it's so nice to see that (although there is at times bickering) the HN community still is alive at heart.
- MediaSquirrel 14y agoAmazed by the turnout. What an awesome thanksgiving! http://instagr.am/p/SWvz6dOENk/ http://instagr.am/p/SWvz6dOENk/
- israelyc 14y agoSaw it too late. Awesome!!
- caseysoftware 14y agoThat is fantastic. I hope you guys had a blast. :)
- mladenkovacevic 14y agoHappy thanksgiving to you Yanks from the south. What I find cool is that you say you started your entrepreneurial jaunt at 29. I'm 30 and just taking step 0.23 in my self-employment scheme but I often feel like I'm maybe too old to be trying out for this particular team. It's encouraging that it seems it's never too late to just try building something. So thanks for that :)
- dcope 14y agoThis doesn't apply to me but this is absolutely fantastic. It's great to see people with kind souls doing nice things. Happy Thanksgiving.
- chrisyeh 14y agoMatt is a mensch! Great to see you're continuing to fly the entrepreneurial flag.
- MediaSquirrel 14y agoThanks Chris. Happy Thanksgiving to you, TK and all the little Yehs.
- richo 14y agoThis is such an outrageously awesome thing that you have done. Thankyou.
- SiVal 14y agoOne more thing to give thanks for is people like you, Matt.
- hakaaak 14y agoWay to go! Good turnout, too! It makes me sad that all the HN stuff typically appears to revolve around SF and SV area, though. I feel left out. I think the problem is that PG and YC are on that side of the world, and the rest of us get screwed. I'd like to see a map of IPs geoplotted for the last hour, last day, last week, month, year, all time for those hitting HN, those commenting, those with the most karma points, etc. I'd like to feel like it isn't all west coast U.S., NYC, and India.
- inspiredworlds 14y agoawesome idea! wish i could have made it (even though i'm in another part of the world)
- betadreamer 14y agoWow how nice of you. This is why I like HN especially after being pushed around in Walmart :P I would've ping if I was around SF.
- gabriels 14y agoMatt, thanks for the invite! Although I wasn't there this is really heartwarming :)
- jmd_akbar 14y agoI think it's people like you who give me hope about the future of humanity! :) Thanks and Happy thanksgiving. PS: I would totally drop by, if i wasn't living about 8000miles away! :D
- flyingFlyer 14y agoHope someday, when I visit Silicon Valley, you would host Thanksgiving too. Would love to join you then. For Now, Happy Thanksgiving from Nepal :)
- messel 14y agogood show Matt, way to celebrate the holiday
- jeremy_k 14y agoThis was an awesome event! Just wanted to give a shutout to Matt for hosting all of us. It was great to meet tons of people from around the world who were all in the same position. It really made my day to know this community supports each other so much.
- isacult 14y agoThis is amazing. Kudos to you kind sir.