Posts from — May 2006

Don’t worry, Mom, I’m not going

This is an interesting juxtaposition I saw in Google Desktop:

It’s supposed to warm up after that. Several of us are going to San Francisco tonight to see Frank Caliendo (he does impressions on Mad TV… some good clips on google video). We can’t take the train since it doesn’t run late on Sunday night, so I’ll drive in. Hopefully we’ll make it.

I ate my third new animal of the week for lunch today: duck. It’s been something I’ve wanted to try for a while, and it did not disappoint. I hope to continue eating my way through Noah’s Ark, but it’s unlikely I’ll have another week with three new animals eaten.

I saw X3 tonight with a bunch of other interns. It’s worth seeing for those who liked the first two. I’m too tired to write more about it now, but one note for anyone who sees the movie soon: In the part with the golden gate bridge, notice how it’s daytime when the initial event happens, but then it suddenly becomes night time when they reach their destination. This explanation might not make sense since I didn’t want to give any spoilers, but maybe you’ll catch it when you see it.

I had wild boar for lunch today. I’ve now tried 4 of the 6 company cafes, and they’ve all been quite good.

Not much else to report… today was the first day where I really felt like I had accomplished a fair amount at work. I caught myself actually being disappointed that tomorrow is Friday since I had wanted to accomplish more this week. Scary.

I rode an electric scooter at work today… it was a lot of fun. The acceleration is quite good. I found a segway in one of the buildings but have yet to ride it. I will post as progress is made.

This daily show clip is pretty good. It’s with John Hodgman talking about the gap between rich and poor a little while ago.

Everything is going well here. I’m done training and actually starting to write some code at work, which is good. My project is becoming more difficult the more we investigate the problem, but hopefully that will only make the results more interesting.

I’m taking a step back and I’m not going to finish the ongoing posts of my story in getting here. It’s not terribly interesting.

Google has been great so far. I have about a week an a half with a focus on training. I spend about half my day in training sessions, learning about Google’s technology, business and tools. The rest of the time I spend setting up accounts, exploring the intranet (internal web sites). I have a computer at my desk now. It’s a P4 3.5 GHz with 3GB of RAM and two wide 24″ monitors. The monitors are so large that when I look at one I can’t really see anything on the other… it’s pretty ridiculous.

My work is going to be pretty interesting… I’m on the same project (Book Search) but with a different assignment than what I initially thought. I can’t talk about what I’m actually doing, but that might change later. Confidentiality is really big here. I wish it weren’t, but it’s not my choice. On the other hand, I do get to learn about a lot of things that aren’t public knowledge, so that’s been pretty fun. I’ll write more on this later in the week, I hope.

I found out about Tuesday/Thursday games of pickup ultimate frisbee, so I’m going to try to make that tomorrow. I’m excited, it’s been a while since I’ve played and I hope to play all summer.

(Tangent)

I was saddened to hear of the death of Armer Burkart, an alum of Lehigh and the Marching 97. He died in Iraq this week (article). I never knew Armer, but I only heard good things, and I had hoped to meet him someday. Chris Klump wrote an excellent letter to the band about Armer, but I won’t post it without his permission.

10:00 – I’m on the plane from Detroit to Houston now. The flight is going smoothly. The weather was miserable at LVI and Detroit, but I’m hoping things will clear up farther South. Not that it matters… the view is better, though. I ate a cheeseburger before boarding the plane: I think it’s the first time I’ve eaten a cheeseburger at 8am, but I was really hungry. I didn’t sleep that much on the last flight (it was only about an hour) and I didn’t want to sleep in the airport. Once I got on the plane, I was ready to sleep, and I’m pretty sure I slept through takeoff.

The plane vibrates too much for me to watch video… the disk stops when it bumps, so it can’t keep up well enough. I’ve been watching stuff in the airport, anyway, so it’s not a big deal.

2:50 – My flight from Houston to San Jose was delayed by a couple of hours, which was boring but it doesn’t really matter. The guy sitting next to me in the airport reminded me of “vegetable lasagna” from Seinfeld a bit, so that was cool. It’s apparently warm out here, but I haven’t been outside, so it doesn’t matter. I got to see Houston from the air during the descent… Tim wasn’t exaggerating about how expansive the city is. This airport seemed to be in Houston as much as Avon is in Hartford.

Next… the stunning conclusion!

5:00 AM – I’m now waiting at the terminal for my flight, which leaves in about an hour. Almost nobody is here… I arrived before the check-in counter even opened. Check-in went smoothly, though I was worried that I wouldn’t have the right code for my E-Ticket.

I wonder what the problem with airports and wireless is. LVI has free wireless but the other two airports I’ll be at charge for it. Why is it that ever tiny coffee shop can provide free wireless internet but airports charge as much as it costs for a month of broadband? The answer is economics, of course, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. They really like to hide the outlets at a lot of airports, too, to evade laptop users. There’s a website that documents wireless and power outlet conditions at different airports, but I forget where I saw it. Too late.

There are some wooden rocking chairs in the waiting area, perhaps I’ll try to sit in one of those to liven things up. I’m too tired to read but too wired to go to sleep.

This music is unbearable… too bad my noise-cancelling headphones were shipped with my car.

5:25 – Found an outlet, luckily I saved all of last week’s Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes, so I’ll be watching those on the planes and in airports.

I’ll post again next time I’m connected.

I’m finally packed and almost ready to go. It’s amazing how much junk I have… when I get back I need to donate and throw out a bunch of things.

I’m writing this itinerary mostly to get my thoughts together, but perhaps this will be of interest to those who are bored over the summer.

Monday
1am – Go to sleep
3:45 – Wake up
4:15 – Leave for the airport
6:00 – Depart LVI for Detroit
7:45 – Arrive in Detroit
8:45 – Depart Detroit for Houston
10:45 CDT – Arrive in Houston
11:35 CDT – Depart Houston for San Jose
1:40 PDT – Arrive in San Jose
3:30 PDT – Check-in at apartment

Tuesday
10am – Begin orientation

I’m pretty confident that I’ll have little trouble falling asleep tomorrow night… provided that I actually make it to the apartment complex.