/life/Goodbye Canada!
My bags are packed, I'm ready to go.
My bike is in a box, my garlic press, cheese slicer and favourite bowl are nestled amongst clothes and other things. I've copied my important documents, and double checked my flights. My swiss army knife is tucked into my checked baggage, and many boxes have been shipped.
I had a great time bumping gently across Ontario. I saw many people in Waterloo, and missed a few. (Sorry Simon, Leanne, JP, and probably others.) I was surprised how many people I saw that I knew, and I invited many people to come visit me in Dublin.
I went to a Q&A forum with David Suzuki, which was neat. I liked him; I didn't find him intellectually satisfying, but rather intuitively satisfying. He refered to hydrogen as an "energy source" rather than a transmission mechanism, which was frustrating. He also conflated "peak oil" (when we can no longer keep up with oil production) and air pollution, which is also frustrating. (It is common to see this as related, but they aren't. It could be that we run out of oil well before the atmosphere is unrecoverably polluted with carbon dioxide, or it could be that we destructively pollute the earth well before we run out of oil. Many environmentalists imply that these two things will transpire at around the same time, but while that might be elegant and tidy, there's no reason to believe it will be the case. These arguments should not be mixed; one is directly environmental, the other is economic.)
I said I'd write about New York, and I never really did. I never really figured out what to say, except that I was astounded how much I liked the city. In fact, it gave me a sense of what a city should be: good transportation, lots of arts, friendly people, strange little stories and histories visible everywhere. The stereotypical grumpy New Yorker was nowhere to be found; people were helpful, even if you were just looking slightly lost. It felt safe.
I had a great time with Clare's relatives — her cousins each had their chance to show us their favourite bits, it seemed. The Gugenheim was a neat building, though the Aztec art exhibit lacked practical connection for me; art disconnected from the tools and techniques didn't hold my interest well.
I'd like to go back some day, and maybe even work there.
In two weeks, I start at Google. I'm very excited about it; I hope it lives up to its reputation.
I've decided to put the entries for Ireland in the travel category, even though that belies the nature of this journey. I'll be settling there, with a longer horizon than I've had since I was 15.
As always, my thanks for all the little favours that have made the preparation and visits successful, especially to my parents, Josh, Andrew and Ian & Joy, who each gave me a place to rest my head.
Goodbye Canada, I'll be back soon enough. I hope many of you have a chance to come visit me in Ireland, or meet me anywhere nearby in Europe.
/life/Visiting Waterloo
I'll be in Waterloo either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning until sometime on Friday.
The driving reason is that I have to get grad photos taken or my mother will have me summarily guillotined.
I hope to see you KWers soon. If you're in KW, please drop me an email or a comment or something.
Comments
Tony wrote
I'll be in Waterloo for dinner & on Fri. Will you still be there then?
Andrew wrote
Today I booked my appointment for grad photos; I was given choices from either monday or tuesday of next week. This week may be booked up. Hopefully they'll be able to fit you in.
/life/Wrapping Up and Random Encounters
I'm packing and leaving Ottawa tomorrow, to bump around southern Ontario and then fly to Dublin via New York.
Last night was my last piano lesson. I've had about a dozen this term, fairly randomly distributed, since both my teacher and I were flexible (read: unreliable) about dates.
My piano teacher arranged a keyboard for me to borrow, a Yamaha DX-11. Last night I went in early, keyboard under my arm, to run some errands.
In the end, I had some time to spare, and it was a brisk -31 with the windchill, so I headed towards the mall. I sat down on a bench, keyboard on my lap.
As though he had been waiting for me, a friendly looking guy in a long, army-green trenchcoat walked up, and asked if I played music. I explained that I was just starting to learn piano, since I had been too stubborn to let my mother force me into piano lessons when I was young.
He had long, thin braids, and a somewhat thinned, dark-skinned face. He carried a guitar in a case held together by duct tape. For a moment I was eager to get rid of him to make the cell phone call that I had sat down to make, but then I tucked my phone in my pocket.
He was from Vancouver, recently moved here with his wife and kids. They came in a van, but despite an agreement he insisted was clear, it had been towed from wherever he had parked it, and he couldn't afford the fines.
He was living at the Salvation Army. "On the third floor," he said, as though I should know. It was the better floor; people had respect, and nobody took your stuff. It was clean, and mostly older people lived there.
He earned his living primarily from busking, apparently, and didn't ever ask for money from people except by playing his music. Hadn't had a drink in 28 years, he said. We were sitting accross from an Orange Julius. "I was thinking about offering you a drink before you said that, but now it looks fake. But that's fine, do you want a drink?" He said he'd really like a sandwich or something, but didn't know the mall.
There's a little place nearby that was selling sandwiches, so we went there. He asked if any of them had meat; I asked if he was vegetarian. "No," he said. I started reading off the labels; it became clear to me that he couldn't read.
It was near closing time, so they were two for one. "Well, I don't want one," I said, missing the obvious. "I'll take it!" he piped up eagerly, and went to grab another sandwich.
I talked about how I was glad to buy him a sandwich, and how I often hesitated about giving money to people that I thought would just spend it on alcohol.
He insisted that we should stay in touch. I told him I was going to Dublin, Ireland. He asked where it was: "So where is that, exactly? I'm not messin' around." I waved out a map of Canada, and then hopped over the ocean. And anyway, how were we to do that? Should I give him my cell phone number? My email address? Maybe he could start reading my blog, or I could beam my contact information from my phone to his PDA.
He showed me his guitar. He was incredibly proud of it. "Your instrument becomes a part of you," he had said near the beginning. The guitar in perfect condition. "You have to take care of it like it's a piece of yourself." He played blues and jazz music , but was not interested in locking himself into anything.
We were from different worlds in the same country. He didn't put up any barrier because of the fact that I had been blessed with a good lot. He was honest, open, direct, and seemed quite happy with his life.
It was the best $6.74 I've spent in a long time.
/life/Google Success!
I've been offered a position as a Site Reliability Engineer in Google's Dublin office, and they've made accomodations for all of my requests with respect to timelines.
The outcome is far better than I was expecting, mostly in that there was very little tension to arrive at a conclusion suitable to all.
I'm delighted.
Comments
jesse wrote
Congrats, dude. Super-duper cool and well deserved.
jim wrote
Hooray! I'm glad they gave you what you wanted. I'm SO keeping "I asked my friend at Google" as an argument-winner.
So you're an engineer then? You know that's not like research, right? ;)
Will wrote
Congrats ! You've defeated the end level and have been hansomly rewarded.
Julia wrote
It's googlicious.
Ilkka wrote
Onneksi olkoon!
Tony wrote
That's awesome! Looks like everything worked out well then :-)
/life/Moving Sale and Plans
I have a whole bunch of stuff for sale/free. Preferential prices for people I know. Highlights: shelves, chair, mattress, camera, CDs. If you're in Kingston/KW/Toronto/GGTA, I can bring small stuff. Tell your friends.
I'm leaving Ottawa this Saturday or Sunday I hope. I'll be in KW sometime next week, for some drop-offs and stuff. On January 31st I fly to JFK, then to Dublin, arriving in the wee hours of the morning.
I find out whether Google offers me a job today.
I'll write about New York real soon now.
Comments
Tony wrote
So you're moving whether you get the job or not?
Rob wrote
Yes, that was always the plan.
/travel/usa/Going South
I'm going to break up my travel summaries into two entries.
On December 29th, Clare and I caught a bus from my parents' place into Toronto. We wandered around, through the Kensington Market and Chinatown. I haggled $1 off some $5 faux-Thinsulate gloves. The haggling went like this: "How much?" "Five dollars." "Four?" "Okay."
We then met Chris and his friend Cory and hung out some more. We went to a faux-Italian restaurant, and the food had a distinctive Chinese style and flavour to it. None of us were impressed..it was actually some of the worst restaurant food I've ever had.
Chris then drove us all to Niagara Falls,
which Clare was happy to see. It was dark, so the falls were lit up. The
lights are simultaneously pretty and incredibly tacky. The mist causes a big
thick layer of ice on everything, in some places three or four inches. It was
constantly cracked off certain things, so there were funny ice-molds
everywhere. One of them ended up as a helmet, which we tried on in turn.
We then took off, and crossed the border. This was my first time in the US since my family went to Florida when I was 17. With two Americans, an Irish and a Canadian in the car, we expected something interesting with the border guards, but the fellow just seemed happy to have a car that wasn't completely mundane, and only asked a few basic questions. We hit Buffalo, and crashed at Chris' place.
Buffalo is a strange place. There's still
lots of people there, but it has a sense of abandonment. We met Elizabeth at
a local mall, which had a sign (at left) indicating that minors had to be
accompanied by someone over 21 after 4pm on weekends. It lent a sense of
inner-city troubles to this outer-city mall.
We were driven around town, then we walked around the harbour, and then Elizabeth, who studies anthropology, brought us to her campus, where some of her peers were practicing making stone tools. One of the guys was very skilled, and it was fascinating to see how much trouble these people had making "simple" stone tools, sitting in a modern college room, with a big sheet of plastic under them to catch the chippings.
Chris, Clare and I then went to Dana's place in Geneva. Her family are fun to hang out with. They have very different political views from me. They play lots of board games. One was a DVD-based game, which was fun, but felt sort of strange to bring TV and technology into something (playing boardgames) that I like in part for its simplicity and lack of screens.
We (plus Dana's sister) went on a winery tour. I think I've started liking wine. The experience was neat. The first place was very generous with the servings, and didn't charge anyone anything since a few of us bought bottles. The second place was stingier and less friendly, but still nice.
One of Dana's friends has a nice party-basement, with air hockey, fussball, etc. That's where we spent New Year's eve. We were actually in the hot-tub for the roll-over, which was fun.
The next day Clare and I caught a bus to New York City.
Comments
Tony wrote
Why on earth did you go to an Italian joint in Chinatown!? That's just asking for a bad experience ;-)
If you'd had somebody who wasn't white in the car with you, you'd probably have a more interesting time getting through the border.
You should let me know the next time you're going to be in TO. I haven't seen you in forever!
patty wrote
You could also have me in the car - a beacon for bad U.S. border luck (if you are wanting a strip searche
, refused entry, special interviews, etc.) despite the white skin..
/life/Google Interview Day
Yesterday morning I got up at about 8:15. I had slept fitfully, as I do before an early flight or exam.
After breakfast, I caught a tax. The receptionist said it would take 15 minutes to get there, so I gave 30 minutes. He was about 8 minutes late, and then there was a traffic jam. Everything cleared up in time, and I made it with a few minutes to spare.
I met my recruiter, Sue, in the lobby of one of the four buildings in the main "Googleplex". We found my interview room, talked about the day, and then the interviews began. I hadn't really brought anything -- a clipboard and a pen would have been nice.
I had two 45-minute interviews, lunch, then four more interview. The algorithms-related ones went very well. Only one, which focused on IP-layer network stuff, went quite badly. If the "veto-system" rumours are true, that may have killed my chances. It wasn't just that I didn't know things, but that I didn't figure them out well, and made some bad, unstated assumptions.
The lunch was phenomenal. All organic, tons of veggie and vegan choices, very healthy, dozens (hundreds?) of bottled drink choices. It was extravagant, but not in a foie-gras and filet-mignon way.
I'm happy with the day in general. I don't think I messed up too many things that I feel like I should have done better.
Last night I caught a bus into "downtown Mountainview", a single strip of restaurants and bad Irish pubs. I ate at a cheap Thai place, despite my per diem allowance from Google. I was considering cancelling my last night at the hotel here and going to San Fran and staying in a hostel, but I'm not very motivated to do that kind of travel right now, and I lack the equipment for it.
Tonight, I'm meeting my friend Paul, and we're either going to hang out here, or perhaps head to San Francisco, about an hour away.
Comments
jesse wrote
You might be interested in this article (via Goyer).
jesse wrote
http://news.com.com/Google+riches+outed+on+the+Web/2100-1030_3-5514016.html?part=rss&tag=5514016&subj=news.1030.5
How do I post hypertext?
/life/My Mom Oughta Be Proud
So I'm in Mountain View, California. I'm wearing a suit, and my taxi is arriving shortly to take me to the big day. I even ironed my shirt. (My family had a lively discussion about what I should wear at Chrismtas. In the end, I think there's something less formal that I'd rather wear, but I don't own it, so I went up rather than down. I grudgingly admit their possible influence over my attire.)
I'm in this crazy corporate land of credit cards and free internet and breakfast -- only slightly better than the StayOkay Hostels in Amsterdam, but those were very good breakfasts -- and networking with the people on my plane. One guy was a Monsanto guy that I chatted to in line, and my seatmate was a Motorola guy steeped in cellphone industry jargon that wasn't used in Finland.
The flight from Chicago to San Jose was very clear. I could see all these cities dotting the landscape. They looked very organic, and reminded me of some discussion of cities as being alive in Lila by Robert Pirsig. I started jotting down a cellular-automata-like system for trying to model it and produce pretty, organic-ish pictures. I'm such a geek.
Gotta run -- taxi's on its way. Very much enjoying myself. I don't know how this is going to go, and I don't know how many people they will be flying down for a spot. Somehow this lack of knowledge makes me less nervous -- I'll be who I am, and let the chips fall where they may.
/life/Thirty Three Hours In Ottawa
Last night at 22:45, I caught a bus from New York to Ottawa, via Syracuse. I
arrived at 07:40, to minor cultural and climactic shocks.
Since last we spoke, I've been to Orillia, Toronto, Buffalo, Geneva (NY), and the Big Apple. It's been busy, fun, and intense. In 14 hours, weather permitting, I'm flying to LA via Chicago. My interview is Friday morning.
I hope to write a bunch about New York and other stuff, but for now I've thrown up a bunch of photos. The new ones have bolded dates in the gallery list. I'll get that list sorted by date sometime soon.
