Next Ev

Jason Shellen
19 years ago · 1 min read

 
Ev in a moment of inspiration during our first week at Google. - February 2003

On Christmas Day in 2001, I received a text message on my phone from one of our more dedicated users saying that Blogger was down. Then a voicemail message from a friend of Pyra Labs saying the same. I was about 75 miles from home in Santa Cruz enjoying a nice dinner and no real way to check email or the web. Unfortunately, one or two of the Blogger servers were in bad shape. Evan had taken off on Christmas Eve for a quick visit with family in Iowa and Nebraska.

It wasn't fun to call Ev on Christmas Day, but he was a trooper and found a Kinko's with web access and started to put everything back in shape remotely. It wasn't the worst thing to ever happen to Blogger, Pyra or even Ev but it was just the sort of thing that happened regularly enough that it might make one want to throw in the towel. But he didn't and Ev was able to hang in there until he felt like Blogger could go on without him and with resources and people to keep it going strong. A lot happened in between the highs and lows of Pyra and Blogger but all said - it's been a pleasure having him as a boss, a co-worker and friend. Congratulations on the end of the beginning and here is to whatever is next. I expect great things.