Uikend(28-29) part 1

Sunday.....

We went to the beachhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
There is a small amusement park there ( Santa Clara ). We rode on several "things": a roller coaster, then the tall thingie u will see in the following pictures, and another thing which resembled a pendulum but which rotated in more than one plane.
The former was the most amusing though the tall thingie was nice,especially when it pushed you downwards with 1-2 G.

Then we all went to the beach and some of us took a swim in the ocean. I couldn't because my stupid leg ain't healed ...yet. But i touched the water and the sand so for all intents and purposes /me was at the ocean.

The night ended with a fusion dinner( indian-chinese ) which was absolutely delicious. GG us.
Pictures:

Uikend(28-29) part 1

This weekend was the first weekend spent mostly outdoors. Untill now we usually spent our time installing linux distros and doing other geekish stuff.

Saturday.

In the morning( 12 o'clock...:D ) we went to the Computer History Museum. For a person who is interested in IT this was a walk down memory lane.
We saw computers from all ages...starting from the abacus and ending with the CRAY.
We saw parts of computers that filled entire rooms, hard disk drives that had a 10MB storing capacity and had a diameter of 1m.
We saw things wired with hundreds of meters of wires.
We had the luck of having as a tour guide a very passionate person who spent 1.5 hours talking about everything in the museum.
I would post some of the pictures that we took but they said that we shouldn't post them on the internet and they were too nice to us not to do as they've asked.

Instead you can take a look at some of the pictures me and mircea shot outside:








The night ended with "The simpsons movie". Although we had some laughs, we didn't find the movie as funny as the other guys in the cinema. :D

Friday ( let the happy weekend begin)

Friday started out with an orientation meeting that should have taken place just after our arrival in the US(not 4 weeks after :).
But that's not relevant.
What is relevant is that after the orientation the Google Picnic started. This was my first picnic in a big company and I must say that I found the idea and the "mise-en-scene" absolutely wonderful.
More that that I was fortunate enough to be selected for the Google Poker tournament(Texas hold'em 230 players) ;)).
I wasn't fortunate enough to advance very far but it was a great experience and I must say that playing poker at real pool tables with real dealers and some good players is a very pleasant experience and I've learnt a couple of things.
The host of the tournament was Phil Gordon. The guy is astonishing: he was computing odds in his head, while making fun of the players, but i guess that's normal coming from one of the greatest players in the world. It was great fun for everybody involved and at the end some lucky sob got to go home with the table at which the final was playes.

After that we went to see the Google idol show were 10 talented individuals/bands/groups performed in front of a large crowd of google employees. That was also funny .....sometimes in a geekish way ( there were 1-2 guys who made songs about the google life and stuff).

I'll upload some of the photos I took but let's get one thing straight: I don't want to know about the wrong WB,bad framing, and other stuff. Be gentle.

Here goes nothing:


The Shoreway amphitheatre were the Google Idol took place




Cute girl with an ice-cream








Google Idol guys and gals





Google Poker tournament(the lady with glasses was the runner-up in the tournament and the man in the green t-shirt was the winner. GG DUDE.







Phil Gordon and 2 romanian guys.


Beware of the T-Rex

2 weeks in america

2 weeks have passed since i've arrived in america.
there are a lot of things that worth mentioning so I'll try to talk about them in an organized manner. here goes nothing :

Regarding Mountain View:
1) there are palm trees and pine trees and "brazi" mixed in this city. it's really crazy.
2) mountain view is the cleanest city i have ever seen. for example each day there are guys that will pick up all the leaves that have fallen on the streets using cars with vacuums attached. the difference between Bucharest and mv from this point of view is huge.
3) the city is small but it has a lot of different restaurants with various types of foods. there are Japanese,Chinese,Indian,Vietnamese,Thailandese,American,french,Italian,Mediterranean and so on. I've saw a lot of fusion restaurants ( restaurants that mix 2-3 cuisines to form another type of food). Tonight I ate in an Indian-Chinese fusion restaurant and the food was great. BTW if you ever come to MV you must eat the delicious ice cream which can be found in "Gelateria .... something ".
4) as a lot of you have asked :"what are the girls like around there ?". Let's say that if you spend 2 weeks here you will be changed forever. :D
5) moving around is kind of a problem because if you don't have a car you must rely solely on the public transport but this isn't enough. if you want to go sightseeing the only viable options is to rent/buy a car. I guess this means that i won't be able to see as much of America as I would want to.
6) the people here are somewhat different from the people back home. here they seem more friendly, they are a lot more polite and nice to strangers and they sometimes act in a manner that is somewhat unusual for a romanian.
For example while biking with one of my roommates we stopped because she had a little problem. Some guy passing by stopped to see if he could help.
Whem I had my little bicycle accident a woman stopped her car to see if everything is ok and if I didn't smash my empty head. And I could tell you more stories like this.
Let's not even mention the way people act at google where you can talk to interns from different countries and all happens in a very friendly and pleasant way.

Regarding work:
1) google rocks.
2) google rocks.
3) google rocks.
4) confidential.

Regarding other stuff:

1) i played with an iphone. it's pretty cool but i wouldn't buy one. as the joke goes: with the iphone you must do as with any other apple product: WAIT for the next version :D.
2) i played with a nintendo WII. after the initial funny moments while tyring to use the motion sensors and the fun i had punching the hell out of a colleague it gets kinda' dull.
3) i played resistance fall of men on the new PS3 and it didn't really impress me. so i don't think i'll get one in the following year.
4) i really have to try the xbox 360. maybe the next week if everything goes well.
5) i've bought myself a copy of "Hunters of dune" by the son of frank herbert and i've read it in about 6 days which is really a record as i'm spending most of my time at work.
6) i got this really cute hat from google:

The propeller is spinning....it's really spinning. A real chick magnet this hat. Goes pretty well with my "I've turned to the dork side" t-shirt. BTW somebody remind me to buy a couple of funny t-shirts for the guys/gals back home.
7) i can't wait to get my ssn and my first paycheck so I could buy myself a camera and go sightseeing. Don't worry you'll get to see a lot of pictures pretty soon(hopefully).

I'll write more as i remember more things that have made somekind of impression on me these 2 weeks.
good night and good luck.
a lot of hugs for you all. :D

select * me from SS_DB;

failed.
that means that i'll have to wait another 2-3 weeks untill i get my ssn and my first paycheck.
damn it. and i really wanted to take photos at the poker tournament next friday.
did i mention i'm going to a poker tournament? :D

Bikes+me= trouble

Yesterday I had my first bike accident in the last 10 years. The funny thing is that it happened in the USA.
Now I can barely walk, my knee is messed up pretty badly and I'm mad as hell. Mad @ me for being an idiot and pushing that damn bike too hard.
The funny thing is that moments before crashing I was explaining to somebody the magical equation : Girls=Money*Time.time=money => Girls=money^2. money = sqrt(all_evil). => girlz=evil. I think i was cursed.
I'll be back.

PS: we went to Target(shopping center or whatever it is) and got ourselves a nice little wireless router. And now I have an internet connection @ home. GG us.

After a hard day @ work

The best thing you can do after a long day of coding is to enter the spa in your back yard, set the pumps to max and enjoy the bubbly jets of hot(and i really mean hot) water.

Floating in the pool and watching the stars (it's 10.20 here ) you realise that you are inches away from the perfect evening. By inches I mean a cold bottle of champagne and 2 beautiful girls :P.

But as a good little geek i'll settle for the Apple Mac Book Pro (15 inches) my room mate just bought. We're sitting near a fountain and using some poor guys wireless network.

I'm a little jealous because of the cute little apple thingie but I find some comfort in the idea that in a couple of days I'll be seeing the world TTL(google it ;) ).

PS: this was a quick test entry. I'll be back.

Foreword

Welcome.
This is my personal blog. A blog that will help me keep in touch with the folks back home. Also it will be the place where I will record the unique and interesting things that I will come across in the 3 months that I shall spend in America.
Don't expect it to be a tehnical blog or one that will give you insights to Google Inc. After all you didn't sign a confidentiality agreement. I did :P.

It's 0.40 AM here and I have finished packing my bags and I'm doing the final check-up. In 13 hours and 15 minutes my journey begins.

I hope the next 3 months will help me develop from a professional point of view but also from a personal pov.
After all it's the chance of a life time.
This is were it all begins.

Song of the day:


PS:( I almost picked Sweet Home Alabama but I'd rather not push my luck :D ).