

Ask HN: Are you alone in San Francisco on Thanksgiving? - MediaSquirrel

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!<p>If you're in San Francisco and alone on this special day, drop me a line. We'd love to have you!<p>Twitter: @MattMireles
Email: iwantbeer@swigme.com<p>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.<p>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.<p>And now, I feel compelled to return these favors in some way, small or large.<p>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.<p>-Matt Mireles
CEO, Swig!<p>SwigMe.com: The Liquor Store in Your Pocket. Get Beer, Wine &#38; Booze Delivered To Your Door in Under an Hour
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MediaSquirrel
Amazed by the turnout. What an awesome thanksgiving!

<http://instagr.am/p/SWvz6dOENk/>

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caseysoftware
That is fantastic. I hope you guys had a blast. :)

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kloncks
This 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!

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MediaSquirrel
Thanks man. I count myself one of the lucky ones.

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rgrieselhuber
Matt 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.

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louwhopley
I'm not in America, but would really like to know how many people actually
asked to join you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

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blhack
It'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 :) )

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MediaSquirrel
Do it man! We're in North Beach, near Coit Tower.

See:
[http://www.staysf.com/upload/attraction/20080519180416_coit%...](http://www.staysf.com/upload/attraction/20080519180416_coit%20tower.jpg)

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malandrew
Bummer. I kind of wish I hadn't agree to go to my gf's family's house. I would
rather be nerding out.

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sixQuarks
Very 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?

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Goranek
I 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

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jhuckestein
Yes, absolutely, and not only in the US.

In Germany the legal drinking age is 16, but you need to be 18 to get into
most clubs. When you're 16, you get an ID card in Germany. It's relatively
easy to change the birth date on those using small, thin stickers that exactly
match the font and background on the card.

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Cass
Wow, is that common where you are? It's been five years since I was a teenager
in Germany, but while tons of my American friends had fake ideas, I never even
heard of faking your birth date that way. Now, using someone else's ID card
was very common.

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zensavona
This is truly awesome, it's so nice to see that (although there is at times
bickering) the HN community still is alive at heart.

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hakaaak
Way 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.

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macey
Awesome! 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?do...](https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5420/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=808)

Happy Thanksgiving all!

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axyjo
I'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?

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jason_slack
do you have a place to eat dinner?

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axyjo
Thankfully, I ended up finding a place just less than an hour ago. :)

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jason_slack
ah, great. We are stil cooking, not ready for about 2 more hours I think.

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imran
Although im not in san fransisco this post alone made my day!

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vlokshin
This 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

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Credit_Swarm
That is super cool. Matt Mireles you have a big heart. You just earned a new
customer for Swig

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chrisyeh
Matt is a mensch! Great to see you're continuing to fly the entrepreneurial
flag.

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MediaSquirrel
Thanks Chris. Happy Thanksgiving to you, TK and all the little Yehs.

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dmor
Awww Matt, happy thanksgiving - hope get to celebrate with you sometime!

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shanelja
It'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.

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nulluk
Geekup (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

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shanelja
Blackpool is 45 minutes away on the bus - thanks for this, I was really
dreading sitting alone at christmas!

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nulluk
Give 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.

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shanelja
Thats a humongous coincidence, I work at the end of Cowling road just by the
Spinners!

The world is such a small place.

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simonebrunozzi
You'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.

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flyingFlyer
Hope someday, when I visit Silicon Valley, you would host Thanksgiving too.
Would love to join you then.

For Now, Happy Thanksgiving from Nepal :)

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freshbrewedmike
Hey 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 ?

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mladenkovacevic
Happy 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 :)

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acoyfellow
You are awesome. Cheers from Pennsylvania!

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leemor13
Would take you up if I were down there! All the way up in Vancouver, BC but
I'll take a raincheck :).

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stevewillows
I wish I had done this for our Thanksgiving.

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codex_irl
An especially happy Thanksgiving to anyone here from out of town or away from
friends & family!

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VonGuard
Dood, 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>

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bravura
Well done, Matt.

We haven't hung out in a while. Let's get together when I come to SF in
January.

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maxwin
I am alone but not in SF. It is really nice of you. You are truly having a
great Thanksgiving day.

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jeremy_k
This 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.

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onedev
Thank you so much for being an awesome human being. People like you are my
motivation.

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richo
This is such an outrageously awesome thing that you have done.

Thankyou.

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jeduan
This 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.

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jmd_akbar
I 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

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jmedwards
This is just plain nice. It's not often you get to say than on HN :)

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dcope
This doesn't apply to me but this is absolutely fantastic. It's great to see
people with kind souls doing nice things.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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betadreamer
Wow 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.

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schrodinger
You've gotta bring swig me to NYC! I'd use it!

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sown
Too bad it takes caltrain 1.5 hours to get up there from SJ. oh well.
Thanksfor the offer and happy thanksgiving

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MediaSquirrel
We haven't started eating yet. You can make it! If you want, I can pick you up
from the Caltrain.

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simonebrunozzi
Sown, you should go! Matt, you rock!!!!

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sown
I'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.

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mistrQ
Wow! I wish I was in SF. Hopefully someone as friendly as you will be doing
this in London (UK) next year.

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joshaidan
Let us know how many people show up!

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hjay
That's very nice of you, Matt. Wish I was near San Fran! Have a great time
nevertheless.

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gabriels
Matt, thanks for the invite! Although I wasn't there this is really
heartwarming :)

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Xorlev
This is incredible. Great thing you're doing! How about that hospitality. :)

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Jngai1297
If only I am in San Francisco..... Have a great thanksgiving!

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SiVal
One more thing to give thanks for is people like you, Matt.

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mailshanx
An awesome gesture. Happy thanksgiving from Singapore!:)

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prohan
Don't be lazzy make a language like Guido did

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Goranek
what? xD

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tinco
Probably a reference to Van Rossum developing python during a lonely
christmas.

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Goranek
Oh, nice :) Thanks mate

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simonebrunozzi
LOL!

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cicloid
This is by far a great gesture!

Kudos Matt!

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arschles
Great gesture dude. Thanks for giving back.

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isacult
This is amazing. Kudos to you kind sir.

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anandkulkarni
Classy move, Matt! Happy Thanksgiving.

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viraj_shah
Super cool man. Have a great holiday!

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inspiredworlds
awesome idea! wish i could have made it (even though i'm in another part of
the world)

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messel
good show Matt, way to celebrate the holiday

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Goranek
nice marketing..but still remarkable offer one big PLUS

