Wednesday, July 30, 2003

There's an internal mailing list here for interns and for some reason there was a discussion today on the topic of education and success. Here are some quotes that I liked.

"I think it is very important not to let school get in the way of your education."

"To truly be happy, you must be happy with your life today. For if you are not happy with your life today, then you will not be happy with your life tomorrow."

And along those lines, a story some of you may have heard already:

The rich American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while.

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, señor."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then, señor?"

The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions, señor? Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Monday, July 28, 2003

A pic from the MS picnic:

Sunday, July 27, 2003

This week.. let's see. The Saturday a week ago was the Puzzle Safari which was a sort of puzzle scavenger hunt thing. It was fun although our team didn't quite place above the median. Heh heh. In our defense it was our first time playing and we did pretty bad in the first round since we didn't know what to expect or what kind of strategy to use. There is incriminating video somewhere of me singing a Britney Spears song for bonus points.

Wednesday was Michigan interns night where we went to Gameworks in Seattle for 2 hours of unlimited free games. Not bad. Have you seen the one where you're in a chair and your goal is to fly a hot-air balloon around and pop your enemies' balloons? It's pretty fun. The chairs actually rise and fall with your balloon through a range of about 2 stories.

Friday was intern game night, meaning Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, and Hold 'em. Fun but not quite as fun as LA game night.

Yesterday I went to the MS company picnic which is this huge fair-type thing with free food, drinks, beer, music, activities, etc. It was pretty cool.. My roommate took some pictures so I'll post them eventually. To give you an idea of scale, I heard one of the security guys say there were 60,000 people, and I think that sounds about right. Parking was much like how it is when you go to the Rose Bowl.

Had some more good steak with Brian, Roy, and AJ. Good steak is good stuff.

I've been buying CD's lately since my rental car has a CD player. The latest one is Flaming Lips. It's pretty good.

Next week: Jenny visiting!

Friday, July 18, 2003

This week has been interesting. Wednesday I went to shoot pool with some interns. Thursday our group had a party to celebrate a milestone. It was at our manager's house, and he has some jet skis so I got to drive one of them around for a while. It was fun! Except it was pretty windy yesterday so the lake was choppy.. so I couldn't go really fast without getting a faceful of water and being unable to see where I was going.

This weekend there's a scavenger hunt type thing on Saturday which could be fun. My roommate, officemate, and another intern are going to be on a team.

At the end of next week Shirley may come visit and Brian too. Cool.

I got paid today. Woo!

Here's a picture from last weekend's Tiger Mountain hike:

Sunday, July 13, 2003

It looks like I'll be updating this page on a weekly-ish basis this summer, which isn't too bad.

This weekend was interesting. We went hiking at Tiger Mountain, which has a 2,500 foot peak. It was quite tiring since I don't usually do stuff like that. The trail itself was 2.5 miles long, almost all uphill. But I made it! And I wasn't one of the last ones, either.

My legs will probably be sore until at least Tuesday. Ha ha. Also I got a couple of mosquito bites while I was on the mountain. Doh.

What else did I do this weekend? Got a haircut, did my laundry, etc. I got a new pair of Adidas to replace the falling-apart pair that I left in Ann Arbor. They're not exactly the same, though .. these have black rather than navy stripes, and they're more like Jenny or Katie's Adidas because they don't have the metal eyelets or metal Adidas badge like my old pair did.

How do you pluralize Adidas? Adidases?

Enough about shoes.

I'm getting close to finishing reading Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Bought Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card which I will start reading when I'm done with that. Apparently Mike is a big fan, as he is threatening to kill people until I read it.

Also I finally finished using up a disposable camera I bought many months ago. To give you an idea, this camera has photos with snow in them. It's funny that you digital camera people take 50 pictures a day and it takes me 6 months to take 27.

Anyway, until next week ..

Sunday, July 6, 2003

Hello! I am typing this from Roy's computer. It's not very comfortable because he has no furniture so I'm laying down on the floor.

For July 4 we (Roy, Sean, Emily) went to Alki Beach from where we could see two fireworks shows. So that was kind of cool. We also saw T3 which was much better than I expected.

Working at Microsoft has so far been pretty cool. It takes a little adjusting since I'm not used to working in a Windows environment.. so I have to remember all my Windows power-user stuff from a past life. Plus of course I have to learn the innards of a whole new compiler system.

Making things more difficult was the fact that due to a miscommunication I flew in on the day of the New Employee Orientation, therefore missing it. Oh well, no big deal.

It's quite nice in Seattle.

Roy and Emily are back with food which will soon be cooked into a pricey and foreboding meal! (Adjectives chosen by Emily.)

**

Update: the food was yummy, though cooking it was .. eventful. =)