Googleplex, Apple, and Sun Microsystems

So going on about the kingly class of CEOs, something other than all of the regal literary portraits that distinguishes them from us ordinary Janes, are their places of work. Red Bull London, for example, has quite the posh and happening office. There's a high-tech stainless steel slide right in the middle of it for those CEOs who have mastered the art of the grand entrance. Maybe it seems a little off track to begin to discuss the interior of some of the A-list company buildings, but in many ways, the posh—or downright carnivalistic—office buildings the likes of which have made Google famous are just a natural extension of the CEO fiefdom. One certainly hopes given their hefty salaries that they spend a good deal of time in their office in between jet-setting around the globe and managing their multi-acre home enterprises.

Which eases us naturally to the subject of Google. One simply cannot talk about state of the art office arrangements until they have given a heartfelt nod to Google's phenomenal campus. We took the tour, here's what we found:

  1. A ball room, much like those at Chuck E Cheese's, where employees (and hopefully more often their kids) can have a ball.
  2. A fine, fine concert grand piano in one of the main lobbies.
  3. Toys and games galore.
  4. A swimming-lap pool
  5. A massage room
  6. A doctor's office
  7. A weekly traveling barber shop and hair salon with reduced-rate haircuts (can't vouch for style, though)
  8. A moonwalk....you know, the bouncy carnival jumping stations...with a slide
  9. Cappuccino machines and the most wholesome, fantastic snacks like yogurts and organic flax bars everywhere.........free of charge!!
  10. Segways for easier movement about the holodek
  11. Food, glorious food. Oh, the beautiful food. First, we treated ourselves to some homemade sushi, and then went to the nature lover's cafe (can't remember the name) for some organic couscous with avocado and currents topped with a marvelous apricot chutney. Desert was vegan, low fat and sumptuous. We left with many door prizes in the form of fancy juice drinks and trail mix, and were escorted out on Segways. And, we each had our own, personal, sexy Segway chauffeur (okay, that part is not true, but in the fantastical Googleplex, there is little that is not possible).

Oh, and before we depart and leave you lusting after a job at Google if not a cushy seat of a VP somewhere, we promised to tell you about the major tech industry leader who is now a builder of Large Synoptic Survey Telescopes and lunar corner reflectors that survey the color wavelength emission lines of the southern galaxy. Somewhere in between major appointments with Google, Apple, and Sun Microsystems, Wayne Rosing found time to build microscopes as a hobby!! Today, he sits on the faculty of mathematical and physical sciences at the University of California, Davis.

His skills garnered and honed in the high tech industry are expected to prove invaluable for interpreting the results to be collected from the telescopes in the near future. Now that's a killer career!