While we were out on the town exploring as much of New York as we could in a few short hours, Isa, Cat and Stephanie (And maybe some others, I'm not entirely sure) had completely transformed Tech Talk where we had been having classes and where we were going to spend the entire night programming.
There was a banner that read "Camp Hack" at the entrance to the room and they kept with the theme perfectly. Off to the right side of the room there were 4 tents set up with sleeping bags inside in case anyone needed a nap. Right out in front of that were a few couch things surrounding the smore stations. I think they had 4 of them set up on top of gnome tables, which were cool looking.
The rest of the room was filled with beanbags, and super comfy chairs, and bouncy balls, and leaves scattered around the ground. Cat had even set up a moon, and a machine that was supposed to be showing the night sky, but it wasn't really working.. =/
Everyone got in their groups and started working on programming their app, which was supposed to be a social networking app. This was all before Dusan showed up, so I felt horrible about it, and kept checking with Isa and them to see if anything came up. They couldn't get any of his numbers to work, and his emergency number was based in Serbia, which only made me freak out even more.
Emily had to keep telling me that everything was going to be alright, because I was on the verge of breaking down. I went over to my group, and tried my best to be productive, which, compared to Namita, was pretty hard. Earlier in the day she had been working on our two main pages, and already had it where you could click the add button to go the add event page.
I went and put my glasses on, and came back to try and find something I could do, still out of it, but I went to talk to Emily about it first, and about that time I looked up and Dusan walked in. It was the greatest feeling ever, I was so relieved. If you read this Dusan, sorry I didn't go with you, and I'm super glad you made it back safely.
Emily smiled and said, "I told you everything would be fine." Special thanks to Emily for keeping me together during that.
I went back to my group and started cracking. Shachaf and I worked on writing up a To Do (if we have time) list and drawing what we want the screens to look like. Namita was working on the Mobile app, Faye worked on some drawings for our app, like the introduction for our app, Victoria worked on our presentation, and Anna was working on setting up the web app.
Honestly, I feel like I helped the least. I popped around throughout the night and took pictures, and talked to other groups, and drank coke from a GLASS BOTTLE! At one point in the night Beth came out and was just like, "William, guess what I have?" I looked over and the moment I saw the drink in her hand I jumped up and asked where she got it, after apologizing to my group for getting distracted. I ran out to the hall, and there were two packs of these cokes so I snatched one up, and savored every last drop of it.
They had set up the sound system to play naturey music, and at one point there was a thunderstorm. After the thunderstorm there was a bear attack. It scared a few people, but for everyone else it was just awesome. Isa had dressed up as a bear and stormed the camp. Someone ended up throwing a net over her, and effectively taming the bear enough for a few photo ops. I got a few pictures on Lynn's camera, so I don't have them handy to put up in this post. In fact, I plan on creating a post with a bunch of pictures at some point. Not sure when, but sometime.
The night actually flew by really fast, and I didn't even sleep during the night. I guess we never really looked at the time until we hit a spot where we couldn't make something work. A few times I was able to jump in and help Namita and Shachaf debug the code to make it work, but lots of times it was stuff none of us had any idea about. There were several interns there, who were helping us if we asked for it, and so we went to them. Since we were working with Android SDK nobody really knew how to help us, except for Cooper. He reminded me of myself more and more as the night went on, because you could tell he was tired, but he couldn't resist helping someone when they asked.
My group alone asked for help at least 3 times, and it really is thanks to him that some of our features actually ended up working. There was this one time, it was like 4 or 5, so we were really tired and loopy, and our program wouldn't work at all, so we were kind of freaking out. Shachaf and Namita were like, "Remember that time we wanted to have a search feature?" and so after we stopped laughing I said, "Remember that time we had a program?"
That was the be all end all, and we couldn't restrain ourselves. We were laughing so hard, and I'm pretty sure some of the other groups were just looking at us like we were crazy. Haha. Definitely one of the more memorable moments of the night. We then decided that if we couldn't get our app to work we would make it look like it did, by engineering the right screens and then when presenting it would just look like it did the right thing. Sam ended up making his way over, and we found out his group had the same idea, since their program couldn't work.
In the end, with the help of Cooper, we actually had a functioning mobile and web app. After he helped us for the final time, I went and laid on a bean bag, which was probably a bad idea, because I passed out instantly pretty much.
The next blog will be from when I woke up to when we left Google. The one after that is our time in New York on our own. Then I get back to Amarillo posts.
I can't remember if I left anything out of this... I'm kind of tired, haha. Night guys!
Love ya!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Picture in 3, 2, 1. *Pose* *Snap*
Thursday started off awesomely, with us having to pack everything up and check out of the hotel. We then had to make the trek to Google. It wasn't normal, in that we had to carry all our luggage, and luckily it was early in the day so it wasn't too unbearable.
We got to Google, and put all of our luggage in Tech Talk then headed off to Five BB for breakfast again. There wasn't enough room in the dining area, so we decided we would go eat out in the mini kitchen. It was nice, and we ate and talked about all things Googley. While we were eating, Demian, one of the speakers from CSSI laster year, walked by, and we started talking to him.
He told us about the BOLD immersion program, and a bit more about the specifics of the different programs. We then got a picture with him, and he went to go catch up with his students. Shortly afterwards a security guy came around, and asked too see all of our name tags. We showed them to him and he proceeded to ask us why we were there. We told him we were part of FUSE and we were eating breakfast. He walked off, and shortly after he left Cat came out and told us that they got mad at them, telling them we weren't allowed to be outside the classroom unaccompanied. She apologized, and we walked back with her to Tech Talk.
I don't exactly know how to describe it, but I don't like the fact the NYC Google is more uptight than Cali Google. I understand that having security is kind of important, but that being said, this year, when we're a bit more matured and grown up we were treated like little kids compared to last year. Only downside, and it wasn't even that big of one. =P
So we got back to Tech Talk, and the first thing on the list was a class in App Inventor. It was really neat, and I started playing with it and managed to throw together a cheap little app that allowed me to text someone. It was fun, and could probably be used be people who didn't even know a lot about programming specifics.
After that, we had lunch at the usual, this time with no security interference. I probably had some awesome conversations, but I don't recall because it has been several days since then with an all nighter somewhere in there. We got back to Tech Talk, and had a class about presentation skills. It was nice, and we got a ton of pointers to help with our presentations in the morning. After that, we got to watch a live stream of a video conference that the VP of the European Offices was holding, where he talked about managing. It was definitely interesting hearing what he had to say on the matters.
They then set us free, telling us that we had 4 hours to do whatever we wanted. A group of us got together, and ran to the Met at Central Park. We got there, and were on the opposite side of Central Park so we walked through Central Park. It was beautiful!! We had several photo ops while in the park, one of which, was probably my favorite. While we were walking Shachaf (See, Awesome) shouted out, "Photo in 3, 2, 1." and we all spun around and posed as she took the picture.
It was an amazing picture, as were the tons of other pictures we took. We arrived at the Met, and several of us had ended up showing up a bit later than the first part of our group, so our small group went to see the photography section first. It was more than amazing watching Lynn's face as she looked at all the pictures on the walls. It was one of the best things to watch as she was completely in awe of the photos. She's amazing, and I truly don't doubt that she could one day have a photo in a museum. She's that awesome.
We then tried to make our way to the Asian Art, but got distracted for a moment. In that moment Lynn got roped into a conversation by this guy who I thought was nice, at first, but as the conversation went on I kind of worried about her. We stayed in the room with her, until the guy left, then we ran to the Asian Art part of the building. We got there as everything was closing, so most of the exhibits were already closed off.
We met up with the entirety of our group outside and started to discuss what we wanted to do next. I think all the guys wanted to go to Nintendo World, so we all decided to make the trek 40 blocks to find the store. On the way we walked through Central Park, and took an amazing picture on an Alice in Wonderland statue, as well as a few more great pictures. After we had gone 20 something blocks we decided to catch a bus. It took us right up to the Nintendo store basically.
Our first stop was a Five Guys that happened to be right there. It was great, and we scarfed it down pretty quickly since we had to head back soon. A few of us still needed to go to the Nintendo store, so we ran over there and did some shopping. Dusan really wanted to hit up a Best Buy, so he went to go find one. After we did our shopping we started to make our way back to Google. Everyone else was already gone, and Dusan hadn't returned so I kind of freaked out and started calling anyone I could to see if they could get a hold of him.
We walked through Times Square, and I knew exactly where to go to get us back. I found it strange how we ended up back in Times Square unexpectedly. Haha. So we were hurrying to get back, and I was super worried about getting in touch with Dusan. We finally ended up back at Google, and hurried upstairs. The first thing I did when I got in was talk to some people to see if they had heard anything before going to talk to Stephanie about the inability to contact him. We tried the number they had, but it wasn't working, and so she told me they would work on finding him.
After that I actually looked around the room, which had been redecorated in the most awesome of ways. I'll explain it to ya in the next post. =D
Since I'm not connecting all the days I'm behind on I'll go ahead and tell you he's safe. Thankfully. I was super worried, and feel really bad about not going with him to Best Buy.
Love you guys, miss New York and FUSE and all of you, but I'm glad to be home with everyone here too.
Night! =D
We got to Google, and put all of our luggage in Tech Talk then headed off to Five BB for breakfast again. There wasn't enough room in the dining area, so we decided we would go eat out in the mini kitchen. It was nice, and we ate and talked about all things Googley. While we were eating, Demian, one of the speakers from CSSI laster year, walked by, and we started talking to him.
He told us about the BOLD immersion program, and a bit more about the specifics of the different programs. We then got a picture with him, and he went to go catch up with his students. Shortly afterwards a security guy came around, and asked too see all of our name tags. We showed them to him and he proceeded to ask us why we were there. We told him we were part of FUSE and we were eating breakfast. He walked off, and shortly after he left Cat came out and told us that they got mad at them, telling them we weren't allowed to be outside the classroom unaccompanied. She apologized, and we walked back with her to Tech Talk.
I don't exactly know how to describe it, but I don't like the fact the NYC Google is more uptight than Cali Google. I understand that having security is kind of important, but that being said, this year, when we're a bit more matured and grown up we were treated like little kids compared to last year. Only downside, and it wasn't even that big of one. =P
So we got back to Tech Talk, and the first thing on the list was a class in App Inventor. It was really neat, and I started playing with it and managed to throw together a cheap little app that allowed me to text someone. It was fun, and could probably be used be people who didn't even know a lot about programming specifics.
After that, we had lunch at the usual, this time with no security interference. I probably had some awesome conversations, but I don't recall because it has been several days since then with an all nighter somewhere in there. We got back to Tech Talk, and had a class about presentation skills. It was nice, and we got a ton of pointers to help with our presentations in the morning. After that, we got to watch a live stream of a video conference that the VP of the European Offices was holding, where he talked about managing. It was definitely interesting hearing what he had to say on the matters.
They then set us free, telling us that we had 4 hours to do whatever we wanted. A group of us got together, and ran to the Met at Central Park. We got there, and were on the opposite side of Central Park so we walked through Central Park. It was beautiful!! We had several photo ops while in the park, one of which, was probably my favorite. While we were walking Shachaf (See, Awesome) shouted out, "Photo in 3, 2, 1." and we all spun around and posed as she took the picture.
It was an amazing picture, as were the tons of other pictures we took. We arrived at the Met, and several of us had ended up showing up a bit later than the first part of our group, so our small group went to see the photography section first. It was more than amazing watching Lynn's face as she looked at all the pictures on the walls. It was one of the best things to watch as she was completely in awe of the photos. She's amazing, and I truly don't doubt that she could one day have a photo in a museum. She's that awesome.
We then tried to make our way to the Asian Art, but got distracted for a moment. In that moment Lynn got roped into a conversation by this guy who I thought was nice, at first, but as the conversation went on I kind of worried about her. We stayed in the room with her, until the guy left, then we ran to the Asian Art part of the building. We got there as everything was closing, so most of the exhibits were already closed off.
We met up with the entirety of our group outside and started to discuss what we wanted to do next. I think all the guys wanted to go to Nintendo World, so we all decided to make the trek 40 blocks to find the store. On the way we walked through Central Park, and took an amazing picture on an Alice in Wonderland statue, as well as a few more great pictures. After we had gone 20 something blocks we decided to catch a bus. It took us right up to the Nintendo store basically.
Our first stop was a Five Guys that happened to be right there. It was great, and we scarfed it down pretty quickly since we had to head back soon. A few of us still needed to go to the Nintendo store, so we ran over there and did some shopping. Dusan really wanted to hit up a Best Buy, so he went to go find one. After we did our shopping we started to make our way back to Google. Everyone else was already gone, and Dusan hadn't returned so I kind of freaked out and started calling anyone I could to see if they could get a hold of him.
We walked through Times Square, and I knew exactly where to go to get us back. I found it strange how we ended up back in Times Square unexpectedly. Haha. So we were hurrying to get back, and I was super worried about getting in touch with Dusan. We finally ended up back at Google, and hurried upstairs. The first thing I did when I got in was talk to some people to see if they had heard anything before going to talk to Stephanie about the inability to contact him. We tried the number they had, but it wasn't working, and so she told me they would work on finding him.
After that I actually looked around the room, which had been redecorated in the most awesome of ways. I'll explain it to ya in the next post. =D
Since I'm not connecting all the days I'm behind on I'll go ahead and tell you he's safe. Thankfully. I was super worried, and feel really bad about not going with him to Best Buy.
Love you guys, miss New York and FUSE and all of you, but I'm glad to be home with everyone here too.
Night! =D
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Paparazzi at the Bowling Alley
Wednesday started off like a normal day... As normal as waking up in the morning in New York to head to Google is.
Seriously though, nothing really happened on the way to Google. We got to Google, and they took us to the same cafe to eat, which is cool because I like the breakfast at 5 Borough Bistro. I usually have a bagel, some eggs, and Strawberries if they have any, which they do. Haha.
When we got done, we went to Tech Talk, and had a class about Appengine. Our instructor was really cool, and had a guestbook app running online where people could sign in. It was cool being able to write something, and see it pop up on the screen while she was presenting. Someone managed to hack the website by making a comment that redirected the page to Google. She got it fixed, and no one did it again, but it's being blamed on Christian who is the only person who had signed in on the site.
At the end of the presentation, Isa and them led us upstairs to Hemispheres for lunch. It was great, there were a ton of options, and some of us ate outside on the patio type area. On the way in, this guy was asking for everyone's name tag, which I had left at the hotel, so he just told me to make sure to bring it the next day, but he was super adamant about it, even though I had the tag from the front desk with me. That was just a kink though, because everything else went smoothly.
After we ate, we tried playing a game of Bananagrams, but it got interrupted when they told us we could either go to the High Line or the gameroom. Everyone went to the High Line. It was really cool (just not temperature wise). It's the old railway that got turned into a nice walkway/garden thing. It's really pretty, and Lynn whipped her super awesome camera out. After a while, Izzy got a hold of it and he started taking pictures of everything. Emily threw her hat on me, and apparently I look good wearing a hat backwards. Who knew?
We got back to Google, and went back up to Hemispheres. We started to play a game of bananagrams, and Lynn won. Gah! First full game, and she wins.We started another game, and head to move to get ready for the Panel. I didn't end up sitting by them, but I tried to get another game going. We didn't finish that one either, because the panel started talking to us.
It was made up of a few interns, a BOLDer, and a few software engineers. It was fun listening to them talk about where they came from and how they got there. It was pretty cool, and we learned a lot about the inside point of view on things.
When that was finished, we came back to Tech Talk, and did more group brainstorming. We had some software engineers who came and helped us iron out what we wanted to do. It was really useful, and we now have a project that we feel would be useful and something we could do. We played with the idea, and tried to make something as far as what our app would look like.
When we left from here for the night we headed to Chelsea Piers I think, where there was this awesome bowling alley. At said bowling Alley it was Izzy, Kwesi, Isa, Linda, Sara, Christian and Devin versus Lynn, Emily, Kofi, Sam, Cat, Kyle and myself. Isa had the overall best score followed by Sara who got 3 Strikes in the tenth frame, and then myself and Lynn came in 3rd and 4th respectively.
I got to take a ton of pictures with Lynn's camera, which was super awesome. I was awesome paparazzi, and managed to keep catching Kwesi when he was eating. Sorry, didn't mean to. =D
I got a lot of action shots of people while they were bowling. It was super duper fun, and I think I, personally, had more fun at the bowling alley than I did on the boat cruise last year. It may be different fun, but I think I was all around more relaxed than I was last year.
After bowling, we went to Times Square and shopped, and just went around. Emily and I didn't make the first subway, so we had to catch the next one and then find Lynn and the gang. We went to the Disney store, and I bought a Captain America shirt, and a Mickey Mouse shirt. We then went to the M&M store and the Hershey store, and then started making our way back to the hotel. I'm leaving a lot out, but if it's anything big I'll add it later.
We got back to the hotel and planned our next few days, then slept.
I'll be back later to talk about Thursday, however I might mix Thursday/Friday. not sure yet. Haha.
Love ya guys,
Adios! =D
Seriously though, nothing really happened on the way to Google. We got to Google, and they took us to the same cafe to eat, which is cool because I like the breakfast at 5 Borough Bistro. I usually have a bagel, some eggs, and Strawberries if they have any, which they do. Haha.
When we got done, we went to Tech Talk, and had a class about Appengine. Our instructor was really cool, and had a guestbook app running online where people could sign in. It was cool being able to write something, and see it pop up on the screen while she was presenting. Someone managed to hack the website by making a comment that redirected the page to Google. She got it fixed, and no one did it again, but it's being blamed on Christian who is the only person who had signed in on the site.
At the end of the presentation, Isa and them led us upstairs to Hemispheres for lunch. It was great, there were a ton of options, and some of us ate outside on the patio type area. On the way in, this guy was asking for everyone's name tag, which I had left at the hotel, so he just told me to make sure to bring it the next day, but he was super adamant about it, even though I had the tag from the front desk with me. That was just a kink though, because everything else went smoothly.
After we ate, we tried playing a game of Bananagrams, but it got interrupted when they told us we could either go to the High Line or the gameroom. Everyone went to the High Line. It was really cool (just not temperature wise). It's the old railway that got turned into a nice walkway/garden thing. It's really pretty, and Lynn whipped her super awesome camera out. After a while, Izzy got a hold of it and he started taking pictures of everything. Emily threw her hat on me, and apparently I look good wearing a hat backwards. Who knew?
We got back to Google, and went back up to Hemispheres. We started to play a game of bananagrams, and Lynn won. Gah! First full game, and she wins.We started another game, and head to move to get ready for the Panel. I didn't end up sitting by them, but I tried to get another game going. We didn't finish that one either, because the panel started talking to us.
It was made up of a few interns, a BOLDer, and a few software engineers. It was fun listening to them talk about where they came from and how they got there. It was pretty cool, and we learned a lot about the inside point of view on things.
When that was finished, we came back to Tech Talk, and did more group brainstorming. We had some software engineers who came and helped us iron out what we wanted to do. It was really useful, and we now have a project that we feel would be useful and something we could do. We played with the idea, and tried to make something as far as what our app would look like.
When we left from here for the night we headed to Chelsea Piers I think, where there was this awesome bowling alley. At said bowling Alley it was Izzy, Kwesi, Isa, Linda, Sara, Christian and Devin versus Lynn, Emily, Kofi, Sam, Cat, Kyle and myself. Isa had the overall best score followed by Sara who got 3 Strikes in the tenth frame, and then myself and Lynn came in 3rd and 4th respectively.
I got to take a ton of pictures with Lynn's camera, which was super awesome. I was awesome paparazzi, and managed to keep catching Kwesi when he was eating. Sorry, didn't mean to. =D
I got a lot of action shots of people while they were bowling. It was super duper fun, and I think I, personally, had more fun at the bowling alley than I did on the boat cruise last year. It may be different fun, but I think I was all around more relaxed than I was last year.
After bowling, we went to Times Square and shopped, and just went around. Emily and I didn't make the first subway, so we had to catch the next one and then find Lynn and the gang. We went to the Disney store, and I bought a Captain America shirt, and a Mickey Mouse shirt. We then went to the M&M store and the Hershey store, and then started making our way back to the hotel. I'm leaving a lot out, but if it's anything big I'll add it later.
We got back to the hotel and planned our next few days, then slept.
I'll be back later to talk about Thursday, however I might mix Thursday/Friday. not sure yet. Haha.
Love ya guys,
Adios! =D
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Times Square Wave
Sorry, I meant to blog this last night so when you woke up this bright morning you could read it. Things got awesome, and then we were tired, since it was 2 AM so we just went to sleep. Shhh...
I left a few things out of the last post. Mainly the gifts I received for my birthday. Lynn made me strawberries, so I would always have some, and Emily got me an awesome Marvel shirt and a copy of Nintendo Power.
I think that's the biggest thing I left out of Monday's post.
Tuesday was a loooong day as well. I didn't want to get out of bed, because the beds at our hotel are super nice, but the allure of Google and everyone there pulled me out of my bed. The walk was fun and such, but the real fun took place at Google itself. We had breakfast, which was super great (Google food is always good). =D
We had a supppper duppper awesssome class on Tuesday! We got to listen to this guy from Poland teach us about HTML5. It was one of the coolest slideshows ever. If I get the chance I'll show you, I just don't want to post a link without knowing I have permission first. Haha, I learned something from last year. =D
We ran over, which most of us were ok with, and ran to lunch when he got done. It was fun, and I got to talk to Isa and Cat a lot more. I always like getting to talk to people about what they do, and what they like about it. They're really awesome people too, which is sweet! =D
Then we got split up into groups. I have a really great group, Shachaf, Faye, Anna, Namita, and Victoria. We did some icebreakers with our group, we were stuck on an island and everyone had to bring one thing that best represented them. I went with a superhero, because I was a nerd. Then we had to create a story that used all our items. Our story was as follows:
Our ship mysteriously crashed on this island that was inhabited by some cannibalistic natives. Anna was a kite-charmer, and Namita brought a kite, so Anna played her flute to control the kite. My superhero loved kites so he was following it, and he pulled the Pegasus which we were all on, and Faye sat on the back with her knife protecting us.
It was interesting, and I really like my group. We then had to start to brainstorming for our group project while they handed out Xooms. They only had 2/3 of them, so I haven't gotten mine yet, but it's alright. I'm interested to see what our final project becomes, because we didn't really have much to go on during our brainstorming session.
We then got to listen to Adam (Another Googler) talk to us about the interview process, and give us tips for resumes and how to go about the interviews. He was easy to listen to, and a lot of what he said made the process seem less daunting, but the idea of getting asked a question and having to write out an answer is still scary. They then took us out to do mock interviews in our groups, which gave us an idea of what it would feel like. The guy asked us 3 questions, which he had us answer like we were in an interview, and then just walked through how to optimize the problems we had. He was super awesome, and actually knew Isa back in Australia.
We came back, and there was a lot of pizza, and most everyone was already eating so we got some food and drinks and sat around and hung out while eating. They waited for a bit before telling us to get back with our groups because we were about to start the scavenger hunt. The lady in charge got up in front, and told us all to grab a lunchbox. Inside was a phone, a camera, an envelope and instructions. She walked us through the different types of missions, and then told us to start.
We had to run to Times Square, and on the way get someone to trust us. We ended up getting a picture on some guy's motorcycle. He was nice enough to trust us on there. Haha. We then made our way to Times Square pretty seamlessly, which was good. Haha. Once there we had to run around and do things, one of which included talking to this guy who was doing the cup game. It took us a bit to realize there was a ball under each cup, but once we got that we got it. We asked the guy if he was a Googler, and then got a picture with him before running off. My favorite thing we did was this one mission where we had to get as many people as possible doing a synchronized dance of some kind.
I saw all the people on the steps in Times Square and thought, "We should try to get them to all do the wave." Everyone decided that since I suggested it I should ask. 5 of our member went and sat in the crowd, and Shachaf had the camera ready.
*Slowly stand up on the back of the statue in front of the steps.*
"HEY EVERYONE!! WE'RE HERE WITH GOOGLE DOING A SCAVENGER HUNT!! WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HELP US OUT BY DOING THE WAVE AND LETTING US RECORD IT??"
"YES!"
"THANK YOU! OK, WE'RE GOING TO START ON THE LEFT AND THEN GO TO THE RIGHT AND BACK!" *Turn to Shachaf* "Ready?"
"Ready!"
"ALRIGHT! LET'S START!" *Point to the left side, and slowly move to the right as people do the wave. Then go back to the left.* "OK, ONE MORE TIME!" *Motion from the left to the right one more time.*
It was crazy, and I'm pretty sure I'll never forget it. I'm not that outgoing, so yelling at a bunch of people is way out of the ordinary for me.
We had a ton of fun running around Times Square and taking pictures and videos, and I'm looking forward to heading back so I can spend more time at the Disney store and several other places. It's going to be so epic, and I'm probably going to spend way too much money there. =D
We ran into Lynn and Beth's group on our way back to Google, and went into the subway to come back. There was a mom getting mad at her daughter for coming back out of the station, so I offered to pay for her daughter since I got the card for free, but she just looked at me like I was stupid, so I apologized and walked off. Inside the station there were a ton of Harry Potter posters, and I tried to take as many pictures as possible.
We got back, and did some voting on the pictures/videos. It was fun, and there were great pictures/videos. I think everyone did a really awesome job. Lynn's team won first overall, and there was much rejoicing and picture taking and such, haha.
Seriously, there have been a ton of pictures, and I plan on getting my hands on as many as possible. Haha.We left after that to go back to the hotel because it was like... 10 or so. After we got back, Lynn, Emily, Tanay, and I went to CVS and then we came back to the hotel.
Emily started a hangout with Tasha, Ashley, and Enrique. It was probably the most exciting thing ever. We got 7 people on Emily's side of the hangout. We were loud, but Ashley and Tasha could barely hear us... Haha. We spent several hours talking, and it was around 1:45 when we stopped talking with everyone and called it a night.
Wednesday has been just as fun, and we went bowling and shopping in Times Square. I'll tell you more about it in a post that isn't already a mile long.
Love you guys, and...
Adios. =D
I left a few things out of the last post. Mainly the gifts I received for my birthday. Lynn made me strawberries, so I would always have some, and Emily got me an awesome Marvel shirt and a copy of Nintendo Power.
I think that's the biggest thing I left out of Monday's post.
Tuesday was a loooong day as well. I didn't want to get out of bed, because the beds at our hotel are super nice, but the allure of Google and everyone there pulled me out of my bed. The walk was fun and such, but the real fun took place at Google itself. We had breakfast, which was super great (Google food is always good). =D
We had a supppper duppper awesssome class on Tuesday! We got to listen to this guy from Poland teach us about HTML5. It was one of the coolest slideshows ever. If I get the chance I'll show you, I just don't want to post a link without knowing I have permission first. Haha, I learned something from last year. =D
We ran over, which most of us were ok with, and ran to lunch when he got done. It was fun, and I got to talk to Isa and Cat a lot more. I always like getting to talk to people about what they do, and what they like about it. They're really awesome people too, which is sweet! =D
Then we got split up into groups. I have a really great group, Shachaf, Faye, Anna, Namita, and Victoria. We did some icebreakers with our group, we were stuck on an island and everyone had to bring one thing that best represented them. I went with a superhero, because I was a nerd. Then we had to create a story that used all our items. Our story was as follows:
Our ship mysteriously crashed on this island that was inhabited by some cannibalistic natives. Anna was a kite-charmer, and Namita brought a kite, so Anna played her flute to control the kite. My superhero loved kites so he was following it, and he pulled the Pegasus which we were all on, and Faye sat on the back with her knife protecting us.
It was interesting, and I really like my group. We then had to start to brainstorming for our group project while they handed out Xooms. They only had 2/3 of them, so I haven't gotten mine yet, but it's alright. I'm interested to see what our final project becomes, because we didn't really have much to go on during our brainstorming session.
We then got to listen to Adam (Another Googler) talk to us about the interview process, and give us tips for resumes and how to go about the interviews. He was easy to listen to, and a lot of what he said made the process seem less daunting, but the idea of getting asked a question and having to write out an answer is still scary. They then took us out to do mock interviews in our groups, which gave us an idea of what it would feel like. The guy asked us 3 questions, which he had us answer like we were in an interview, and then just walked through how to optimize the problems we had. He was super awesome, and actually knew Isa back in Australia.
We came back, and there was a lot of pizza, and most everyone was already eating so we got some food and drinks and sat around and hung out while eating. They waited for a bit before telling us to get back with our groups because we were about to start the scavenger hunt. The lady in charge got up in front, and told us all to grab a lunchbox. Inside was a phone, a camera, an envelope and instructions. She walked us through the different types of missions, and then told us to start.
We had to run to Times Square, and on the way get someone to trust us. We ended up getting a picture on some guy's motorcycle. He was nice enough to trust us on there. Haha. We then made our way to Times Square pretty seamlessly, which was good. Haha. Once there we had to run around and do things, one of which included talking to this guy who was doing the cup game. It took us a bit to realize there was a ball under each cup, but once we got that we got it. We asked the guy if he was a Googler, and then got a picture with him before running off. My favorite thing we did was this one mission where we had to get as many people as possible doing a synchronized dance of some kind.
I saw all the people on the steps in Times Square and thought, "We should try to get them to all do the wave." Everyone decided that since I suggested it I should ask. 5 of our member went and sat in the crowd, and Shachaf had the camera ready.
*Slowly stand up on the back of the statue in front of the steps.*
"HEY EVERYONE!! WE'RE HERE WITH GOOGLE DOING A SCAVENGER HUNT!! WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HELP US OUT BY DOING THE WAVE AND LETTING US RECORD IT??"
"YES!"
"THANK YOU! OK, WE'RE GOING TO START ON THE LEFT AND THEN GO TO THE RIGHT AND BACK!" *Turn to Shachaf* "Ready?"
"Ready!"
"ALRIGHT! LET'S START!" *Point to the left side, and slowly move to the right as people do the wave. Then go back to the left.* "OK, ONE MORE TIME!" *Motion from the left to the right one more time.*
It was crazy, and I'm pretty sure I'll never forget it. I'm not that outgoing, so yelling at a bunch of people is way out of the ordinary for me.
We had a ton of fun running around Times Square and taking pictures and videos, and I'm looking forward to heading back so I can spend more time at the Disney store and several other places. It's going to be so epic, and I'm probably going to spend way too much money there. =D
We ran into Lynn and Beth's group on our way back to Google, and went into the subway to come back. There was a mom getting mad at her daughter for coming back out of the station, so I offered to pay for her daughter since I got the card for free, but she just looked at me like I was stupid, so I apologized and walked off. Inside the station there were a ton of Harry Potter posters, and I tried to take as many pictures as possible.
We got back, and did some voting on the pictures/videos. It was fun, and there were great pictures/videos. I think everyone did a really awesome job. Lynn's team won first overall, and there was much rejoicing and picture taking and such, haha.
Seriously, there have been a ton of pictures, and I plan on getting my hands on as many as possible. Haha.We left after that to go back to the hotel because it was like... 10 or so. After we got back, Lynn, Emily, Tanay, and I went to CVS and then we came back to the hotel.
Emily started a hangout with Tasha, Ashley, and Enrique. It was probably the most exciting thing ever. We got 7 people on Emily's side of the hangout. We were loud, but Ashley and Tasha could barely hear us... Haha. We spent several hours talking, and it was around 1:45 when we stopped talking with everyone and called it a night.
Wednesday has been just as fun, and we went bowling and shopping in Times Square. I'll tell you more about it in a post that isn't already a mile long.
Love you guys, and...
Adios. =D
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Google Birthday? Oh yeah!
My day started at midnight, when I got home, and rushed around the house making sure I had everything packed. Procrastinators for the win. =D
I then tried to get a few hours of sleep. I managed to see my phone at 2:15ish, and then was promptly woke up by my mother at 4:45. I must have passed out at some point, but I'm not exactly sure. I woke up smoothly though, and it was crazy packing last minute stuff and electronics.
I got into the airport, and boarded the plane smoothly, this time no high school English teacher to keep me company on the flight. I was going to take a nap, but decided to wait on the drinks before napping. Before I could finish my drink my nose started bleeding. Woohoo, right? Next thing I hear, the flight is ending in 15 minutes. Yay for not sleeping on flights.
When I got out of the plane at DFW I texted Sara and Mario, so I could meet up with them, and found out I was the first one to arrive. They got there shortly after I did, and we got some food then boarded our flight. The flight was uneventful, but I used my laptop to charge my phone, which was dying because of all of the birthday texts. Ridiculous!
At LaGuardia we went to get our luggage, and Jhan (one of the FUSEers) ran around trying to find us. He finally did, and we met up with 3 other FUSEers. We got 2 more, and then waited for Lynn, the final arrival. They had me call this Limo company, with a decent price, and work on setting up a ride. That was a hassle.
I called several times with the guy telling me, "25 minutes! We'll call you." (25 minutes later) "Are you almost here?" "5 minutes! We'll call you!" (5 minutes later) "1 Minute. Head upstairs."
...
A few calls later we finally got in the limo, and managed to shove 20 of us in the limo, which was better than having to wait on a second one.
Walking into Google was crazy. It's in the building, but not the entire building, so we had to go up to the fourth floor to get the greeting table. We met Isa, Stephanie, and Cathie (I think on the names, sorry if it's wrong), who gave us all our introduction stuff. While talking to them we were ambushed by Emily Stumme, who ran out and hugged us. It was awesome!!
We then walked into the room where the intro was taking place, and it was like an awesome family reunion where I got to say hi to a ton of the CSSIers from last year. Truly and honestly, I felt like I was home. It was beautiful. =D
We got the introduction speech, and a little talk from an engineer, and then they started a few icebreakers. We felt like we were cheating, because our group was 4 CSSIers and one new person. It was fun though, and I got to meet Faye.
After our icebreakers, we took a tour of the offices. There are some super sweet places in these offices, and I'm sure enough time will make me love them more, but I'm still more attached to the Mountain View office. Beth found me some strawberries and it was heavenly. We finished the tour at a new cafeteria, which opened specifically for us. =D
I got to meet Joseph, Mike, and another Googler while I ate. It was a fun meal, and I got to learn a lot from the three of them. After the meal we were cleared to go, and Emily and Lynn and them almost broke out into Happy Birthday, but I hid so they didn't. After we finally got back, and got checked in I tagged along with Izzy and Beth to a pizza place.
It started raining when we decided to leave, so we went back to the hotel, where I then met up with Emily and Lynn. They wanted to go to CVS so I tagged along with them. Then we returned to their room where I started to tackle thanking all of the birthday wishes. While that was happening we tried to Hangout with Michelle, Kasra, and Jessica. Then we got to Hangout with Kat for a bit. I finally finished the thank yous, and then finally got to start blogging.
This is where you come in, and now I sleep...
Long day... Great birthday...
I love Google, and I love all the CSSIers, and I really do feel like this is exactly where I belong.
I do miss everyone from Amarillo and UT though...
Love ya guys,
Stay tuned,
William Combs
I then tried to get a few hours of sleep. I managed to see my phone at 2:15ish, and then was promptly woke up by my mother at 4:45. I must have passed out at some point, but I'm not exactly sure. I woke up smoothly though, and it was crazy packing last minute stuff and electronics.
I got into the airport, and boarded the plane smoothly, this time no high school English teacher to keep me company on the flight. I was going to take a nap, but decided to wait on the drinks before napping. Before I could finish my drink my nose started bleeding. Woohoo, right? Next thing I hear, the flight is ending in 15 minutes. Yay for not sleeping on flights.
When I got out of the plane at DFW I texted Sara and Mario, so I could meet up with them, and found out I was the first one to arrive. They got there shortly after I did, and we got some food then boarded our flight. The flight was uneventful, but I used my laptop to charge my phone, which was dying because of all of the birthday texts. Ridiculous!
At LaGuardia we went to get our luggage, and Jhan (one of the FUSEers) ran around trying to find us. He finally did, and we met up with 3 other FUSEers. We got 2 more, and then waited for Lynn, the final arrival. They had me call this Limo company, with a decent price, and work on setting up a ride. That was a hassle.
I called several times with the guy telling me, "25 minutes! We'll call you." (25 minutes later) "Are you almost here?" "5 minutes! We'll call you!" (5 minutes later) "1 Minute. Head upstairs."
...
A few calls later we finally got in the limo, and managed to shove 20 of us in the limo, which was better than having to wait on a second one.
Walking into Google was crazy. It's in the building, but not the entire building, so we had to go up to the fourth floor to get the greeting table. We met Isa, Stephanie, and Cathie (I think on the names, sorry if it's wrong), who gave us all our introduction stuff. While talking to them we were ambushed by Emily Stumme, who ran out and hugged us. It was awesome!!
We then walked into the room where the intro was taking place, and it was like an awesome family reunion where I got to say hi to a ton of the CSSIers from last year. Truly and honestly, I felt like I was home. It was beautiful. =D
We got the introduction speech, and a little talk from an engineer, and then they started a few icebreakers. We felt like we were cheating, because our group was 4 CSSIers and one new person. It was fun though, and I got to meet Faye.
After our icebreakers, we took a tour of the offices. There are some super sweet places in these offices, and I'm sure enough time will make me love them more, but I'm still more attached to the Mountain View office. Beth found me some strawberries and it was heavenly. We finished the tour at a new cafeteria, which opened specifically for us. =D
I got to meet Joseph, Mike, and another Googler while I ate. It was a fun meal, and I got to learn a lot from the three of them. After the meal we were cleared to go, and Emily and Lynn and them almost broke out into Happy Birthday, but I hid so they didn't. After we finally got back, and got checked in I tagged along with Izzy and Beth to a pizza place.
It started raining when we decided to leave, so we went back to the hotel, where I then met up with Emily and Lynn. They wanted to go to CVS so I tagged along with them. Then we returned to their room where I started to tackle thanking all of the birthday wishes. While that was happening we tried to Hangout with Michelle, Kasra, and Jessica. Then we got to Hangout with Kat for a bit. I finally finished the thank yous, and then finally got to start blogging.
This is where you come in, and now I sleep...
Long day... Great birthday...
I love Google, and I love all the CSSIers, and I really do feel like this is exactly where I belong.
I do miss everyone from Amarillo and UT though...
Love ya guys,
Stay tuned,
William Combs
Friday, July 15, 2011
Hogwarts, Hufflepuffs, and Hermononucleosis
So I saw Harry Potter at the midnight release. I even "dressed up" as a random Ravenclaw student and went with 4 friends (1 Hufflepuff, 1 Gryffindor, 1 Slytherin, and 1 cool guy).
It was a great movie. I never read the books, so I only had a few whispers to go off of as far as what happened, and in a way I'm glad I didn't because I could watch it without judging it too much. I mean, it would be awesome to have read all the books as they came out, and grown with the characters, and shared in the magic of the Harry Potter fandom. I feel bad that I missed out, but I can still appreciate the series and the story.
Anyway, I drove 5 and a half hours to Fort Worth to watch it with my friends Cathy, Eric, Corey, and Katie. I don't think I've been that happy in a while (Even if a while is a week or so). I've honestly felt off for a while now, and it doesn't help that Chelsea's been out of town, and then everyone else works all the time, because then I just feel more and more distant from everyone in Amarillo, and more and more guilty about loving every minute with friends from college, and looking forward to a week with everyone from Google.
I understand that they work a lot, and that sometimes schedules can't line up, but I've even got to see the newest friend, who I met through one of the friends who I feel like I'm getting further away from, more than I get to see the original friends. I hope that was followable, because it made my head spin.
It's just that seeing my friends from UT made me so happy, and then I see my friends from Amarillo and I feel like there's something missing. I can't stand it, because I know it's something on my end that's going wrong. =/
The premiere was great though, and some kids had us high five them for dressing up, because they thought our nerdiness should be rewarded with a high five. I teared up a few times at the movie, and before the movie, watching pieces of Part 1 on several people's Ipads/laptops that they had scattered around the theater.
Today is Emily Stumme's super awesome birthday. Hope it's a good one!
In 2 days it'll be my birthday, but more importantly I'll be heading out to New York with Google!
Love ya guys, I'm off to sleep after 11 ish hours of driving in two days.
=D
P.S. I've been listening to the Wicked album, and I love it, but I could tell who played Glinda and Elphaba by their voices. Your boy is that good, thank you. =P
It was a great movie. I never read the books, so I only had a few whispers to go off of as far as what happened, and in a way I'm glad I didn't because I could watch it without judging it too much. I mean, it would be awesome to have read all the books as they came out, and grown with the characters, and shared in the magic of the Harry Potter fandom. I feel bad that I missed out, but I can still appreciate the series and the story.
Anyway, I drove 5 and a half hours to Fort Worth to watch it with my friends Cathy, Eric, Corey, and Katie. I don't think I've been that happy in a while (Even if a while is a week or so). I've honestly felt off for a while now, and it doesn't help that Chelsea's been out of town, and then everyone else works all the time, because then I just feel more and more distant from everyone in Amarillo, and more and more guilty about loving every minute with friends from college, and looking forward to a week with everyone from Google.
I understand that they work a lot, and that sometimes schedules can't line up, but I've even got to see the newest friend, who I met through one of the friends who I feel like I'm getting further away from, more than I get to see the original friends. I hope that was followable, because it made my head spin.
It's just that seeing my friends from UT made me so happy, and then I see my friends from Amarillo and I feel like there's something missing. I can't stand it, because I know it's something on my end that's going wrong. =/
The premiere was great though, and some kids had us high five them for dressing up, because they thought our nerdiness should be rewarded with a high five. I teared up a few times at the movie, and before the movie, watching pieces of Part 1 on several people's Ipads/laptops that they had scattered around the theater.
Today is Emily Stumme's super awesome birthday. Hope it's a good one!
In 2 days it'll be my birthday, but more importantly I'll be heading out to New York with Google!
Love ya guys, I'm off to sleep after 11 ish hours of driving in two days.
=D
P.S. I've been listening to the Wicked album, and I love it, but I could tell who played Glinda and Elphaba by their voices. Your boy is that good, thank you. =P
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Optimism
So, I've started and stopped several posts in the past couple of weeks because I start them at a bad time and get ridiculously tired in the middle or I just lose my train of thought on whatever it was I was talking about, which happens to me a lot.
I'm pretty positive I'd make one of the world's best pessimists. When I see the glass with milk in it it really depends on the mood that I'm in at the moment as to whether I say it's half full or half empty. However, every single time I find myself saying the glass is half empty I immediately follow it up with the following thought, "No, don't say that. You can't lose that faith, even in the most ridiculous of ideas or the most insignificant ones."
I mean, in the end all anyone really has is faith. If I let myself lose faith in people, things or the world in general then I don't really have much. It's like that friend that changes for the worse and everyone else sees it and start doing what they need to to distance themselves. After someone points it out to me, because I don't see things like that sometimes, I try to take the steps needed to make sure any distance isn't caused by me. If I lose faith in anyone then it's only a matter of time until I allow myself to lose faith in another person. The more I allow myself to lose faith the easier it'll become, and one day I'll look back and realize I don't have anything.
On a much brighter note, in less than 2 days I will be heading to Dallas to hang out with some friends from college to watch the Harry Potter midnight premiere. It's going to be super duper epic!!
Also, in less than 6 days I turn 19, but more importantly I head to New York thanks to Google. My ticket to go see Wicked on Broadway, while I'm there, came in yesterday, and that was really exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of the people I haven't seen in a year. It feels like it's been ages though.
I'm pumped about the upcoming week (and a half ish)! I feel bad every time I say this, because I try to not live too much in the future, but I want these in between days to fly by super fast so I can cut to having the uber fun times in Dallas/New York.
Hope you are having a wonderful Summer, and that it continues.
Love ya, and stay Optimistic! =D
I'm pretty positive I'd make one of the world's best pessimists. When I see the glass with milk in it it really depends on the mood that I'm in at the moment as to whether I say it's half full or half empty. However, every single time I find myself saying the glass is half empty I immediately follow it up with the following thought, "No, don't say that. You can't lose that faith, even in the most ridiculous of ideas or the most insignificant ones."
I mean, in the end all anyone really has is faith. If I let myself lose faith in people, things or the world in general then I don't really have much. It's like that friend that changes for the worse and everyone else sees it and start doing what they need to to distance themselves. After someone points it out to me, because I don't see things like that sometimes, I try to take the steps needed to make sure any distance isn't caused by me. If I lose faith in anyone then it's only a matter of time until I allow myself to lose faith in another person. The more I allow myself to lose faith the easier it'll become, and one day I'll look back and realize I don't have anything.
On a much brighter note, in less than 2 days I will be heading to Dallas to hang out with some friends from college to watch the Harry Potter midnight premiere. It's going to be super duper epic!!
Also, in less than 6 days I turn 19, but more importantly I head to New York thanks to Google. My ticket to go see Wicked on Broadway, while I'm there, came in yesterday, and that was really exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of the people I haven't seen in a year. It feels like it's been ages though.
I'm pumped about the upcoming week (and a half ish)! I feel bad every time I say this, because I try to not live too much in the future, but I want these in between days to fly by super fast so I can cut to having the uber fun times in Dallas/New York.
Hope you are having a wonderful Summer, and that it continues.
Love ya, and stay Optimistic! =D
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