Day 5 – We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

I managed to make it through week #1. Here are some things I’ve learned this week that I can mention without getting fired:

1. Riding bikes in flip flops can be tricky and dangerous.
2. I’m gonna need more massage credits.
3. U-turns are illegal in Canada.

Also of note are the Toto toilets:

It’s essentially a personal, upside down carwash. The buttons on the bottom let you control water temp, seat temp, and dryer speed (depends on the model). As as semi-germaphobe, I try to minimize how much I actually interact with the panel, which means accepting whatever temp settings are configured there. I’m ok with warm water, but not when someone has cranked up the seat heater. A warm seat gives me the impression that someone was just there, which is creepy.

Presumably, that pink Front Cleansing button doesn’t get a whole lot of use over in the guy’s bathroom. This sort of makes me want to press it, but I suppose that could end tragically.

The next version of this thing should have bluetooth so I can dial in my desired settings from my phone. Then it can just remember my preferences and re-send them for subsequent uses so I won’t have to touch anything. Add wifi and there could be some interesting stats collection. You could then write a pretty sweet dashboard on that data by aggregating average water temp, peak usage times, power consumption, cost per use, cost per user, etc.

Day 4 – ¡Andalé!

At some point Pacific Cafe was turned into an Andalé! Delicious made to order burritos, tacos, and even horchata, just like at a regular franchise location, except for the not-paying part. Supremo burrito with carne asada was pretty delicious.

I also got a smoothie at Slice, which is kinda like a Jamba Juice, but isn’t an actual franchise like Andalé.

Although the cafe scene seems to have been consitently growing, the legendary micro kitchens are not quite as good as they used to be 😦 Gone are the days of Bawls soda, Smartwater, M&M’s, and mini Ben & Jerry’s. The remaining items include healthy snacks, cereal, milk, soy milk (yay), string cheese, yogurt, teas, sparkling and/or flavored water, bottled root beer, soda cans, Propel, maybe a RedBull, and the occasional Starbucks iced coffee. Ok sure, nobody’s starving, but I can’t help but remember the first time I saw one of these things back in their days of caloric glory. Thankfully, you can still get Naked juice in the main lobbies.

Update: I found M&M’s, IT’S-ITs, and beef jerkey. Hurray!

Day 3 – End of an Era

For the past few years I’ve had a sticky note on the door out to the garage reminding me to bring my lunch to work. This morning I realized it was no longer applicable and threw it away.

At Charlie’s Cafe today, I had two kinds of tuna shashimi, miso soup, soy sauce chicken, pan-fried noodles, and peppermint ice cream from No Name. Yum.

More importantly, I finally got my workstation setup and ended up staying until a bit after 11  (must be coding withdrawal).

Day 2 – Grey Shirt Day – Round 1

Khom FTW! Although, jchang’s jetlag from his adventures in China is a semi-reasonable excuse. Sorry, no picture. I think I’ll try to use PhotoBooth for next week’s “proof”.

Day 1

Google new hire orientation is at 8AM. Wait srsly? That’s about the time I’ve been going to sleep during this past week. Hope this is just a first day deal.

Update: Yeah, getting up early was well worth it. I felt like Po in Kung Fu Panda when he got dropped into the Sacred Hall of Warriors as I gawked at the various ammenities. And also felt equally unworthy as the warriors of the Furious Five coded kung fu circles around me. There is now a level zero.

I also learned that everything is confidential, and so since I love it here (despite being at level zero), I will not be talking about projects, plans, dates, or basically numbers in general. This leaves food, socialness, and Grey Shirt Day as topics for discussion.

For example, I have discovered a tool called TastyMeats which scores lunch menus from the various Google eateries and emails you which ones have the most meat that day. Excellent.

Hello and Goodbye

Hi. I’m khom. For a few reasons, I’ve decided to leave my ridiculously awesome friends at Intuit, and move to Google. Without violating an NDA, I’m going to report on my expierinces at the Googleplex as I attempt to stand out in a sea of brilliant people. And yes, I realize that I’m already a traitor by using WordPress over Blogger, but “khom” was already taken there, which is totally unnaceptable.

As an added bonus, I’ll also be playing Grey Shirt Day here on Tuesdays by posting a picture of myself holding a current newspaper or other means of verifying the date. Grey Shirt Day is a game played exclusively by myself and my good friend jchang. It used to be much easier when our desks were adjacent, but now I’ll be playing remotely. The rules are simple: Every Tuesday, you wear a grey shirt, preferably the grey shirt (I lost mine a few rounds ago, and so I’ve been playing with my backup). If you remember and the other person forgets, you win. Else, it’s a tie. To summarize, you need the XOR to be true FTW. Good luck.