brian's blog

Relatively busy weekend. First, we went sailing yesterday on Lake Washington. The weather was perfect, though there was almost no wind. One of the places we went by was Bill Gates' house (link via Matt), which was a non-sight -- he's recently (or so I'm told) had trees installed that completely block the view from the water. (It must ruin his view of the lake, in turn...unless they're expensive one-way trees!)

Next, we went to a housewarming party. It was fun, though it left me with the uneasy feeling-slash-reminder that all us kids raised in suburbia will hear its call one day and return to the fold.

Saw Citizen Kane in the evening. Great movie, even if the Rosebud mystery had been spoiled for me long ago (the movie is over twice my age, after all).

And today was the Microsoft company picnic. With somewhere around 30,000 employees in the Seattle area alone, it's a big deal. We grabbed plenty of bites from the 200 meter long counter of free food & drink (including booze, of course), played in the lengthy volleyball competition (did well, but didn't win), rode a mechanical bull (15 seconds, baby), and generally relaxed. Most of it is geared towards families (inflatable play areas, oversized basketballs & hoops, pony rides, a life-sized "board game," etc), but it was still fun for everyone. No sightings of any bigwigs, incidentally.

I'll post some pictures tomorrowTuesday.

From the Seattle PI, 4,400 recruits join Microsoft; hiring likely to keep up pace:

The addition of 4,400 people worldwide represents a boost of 68 percent in the company's annual hiring rate. Microsoft had added about 2,600 employees in the previous year. The company says it plans to add a net total of 4,000 to 5000 new employees worldwide in the coming year.

(Correction: 4399 new employees, plus one recruit who really just eats the free candy all day long.)

There are many new people, yet we're having trouble finding enough talented people to fill the open positions in our group. It's holding us back in many ways.

Know anyone?

Fun sight of the day: On the way home, a trumpet player was loudly practising while stopped at a red light, trumpet propped outside his driver side window.

The Saturday before last, I was one of the 1.5 million people who received the latest Harry Potter novel in the mail from Amazon (see Amazon's special box, right). I happened to be leaving the building at the moment the mail lady arrived (okay, I was hiding in the bushes out front) and got my copy before anyone else. She had at least 15 other boxes for our building alone.

So, box in hand, I rushed upstairs back to my apartment. Barely able to hide my anticipation, I opened the box, took the book out, and...stowed it away safely on the shelf. You see, I foolishly decided a few weeks back that I would re-read the fifth book before reading the sixth, and the pace at work kept me from finishing it in time.

Man, did I ever look stupid on the bus last week! While everyone else was busy reading the sixth book, I was sitting there like a chump reading the fifth book! I was mortified, and did my best to hide the cover from anyone who looked my way.

Now, I'm finally on the sixth book, and can show my face again.

Microsoft today released a Google Maps competitor, Virtual Earth.

It's pretty snappy; I'm impressed by it. There aren't many Microsoft products I prefer over a Google equivalent, but I think this may be the first. The zooming transition prevents me from losing my bearings. My only gripe is the poor driving directions integration.

And already, there's scandal! From Forbes, Did Microsoft Wipe Apple Off the Map?

Internet sleuths discovered that anyone using Microsoft's new "Virtual Earth" Web site for a bird's-eye view of Apple's corporate headquarters saw only a grainy overhead photograph of what appears to be a single, nondescript warehouse and a deserted parking lot - not Apple's sprawling campus, with 11 modern buildings surrounding a plush courtyard.

Funny stuff. But I bet if it were deliberate, it would have been Google's headquarters that was erased; after all, that was the creating team's chief competitor.

I haven't posted much lately, and I've posted even fewer personal details. So, time to quickly catch up on the past month!

• The Mathematics convocation ceremony in Waterloo was amazingly boring. I was dreaming of a cool convocation speech from somone like Jon Stewart or Steve Jobs or Will Ferrell, or someone. I would have even taken Oprah. We had a professor receiving an honourary doctorate give the speech instead. Nice guy, but terribly dull speech. (Yes, I feel guilty and selfish writing this.)
• Heather's back in Seattle, and is on the job hunt.
• I've been working at Microsoft for over 5 months now. This is longer than any co-op term. It's strange having omissions or bad decisions from February or March come back to haunt me! Before, I could leave comfortably knowing someone else would have to clean up after my slipshod work.
• Went Ikea furniture shopping on Saturday. I'm still resisting the jump up to a fancier furniture store for at least a few years (which should be about the same time the Ikea stuff falls apart).
• Did the 27 mile Burke Gilman bike trail (from Seattle, around Lake Washington, and all the way to Redmond) with Leo and a few other guys from work on Sunday:
• Great trail. Flat, large variety of scenery, and few very road crossings.
• Was offered free chocolate chip cookies from a lady in a park. We accepted.
• While we passed a drifter on a rickety bike on the trail, he shouted "Have a great day, at least until the earthquake hits!" Does he know something we don't? In movies, crazy people tell the prophecies that come true.
• The rest has been work. Busy, busy work. To all those I haven't spoken with in a while: Sorry! Will soon.

Finally, the last of the Europe pictures!

Rome was exciting; we saw the ancient sites of the Pantheon, the Coloseum, and the Roman Forum, the latter of which was very interesting thanks to a walking tour in our guidebook which actually explained what the many rocky ruins around us were. Compare that to the last time I was in Rome, where I mostly wandered around randomly and vaguely marvelled about how the Forum was the birthplace of the Roman Empire. How amateurish. This time we had Rick Steves, baby.

Rome also had the most unique restaurant we visited on our trip. Since we were somewhat awkward at ordering from a menu we could barely read, we went to a place where there was no menu, or choice of any kind: every course (and there were many) was dictated by the whim of the kitchen on that particular day. And it was good. Pastas, meats, cheeses, wine, vegetables; each was delicious and served as a separate course.

The Vatican City, within Rome, was interesting to see so soon after Pope John Paul II's passing. Many of the street vendors had a few postcards and trinkets devoted to the new Pope, but these seemed to be there merely out of deferential respect; the rest of their inventory was overwhelmed by tributes and merchandise covered with the outgoing Pope likeness. By the time we arrived, the line to John Paul II's crypt had shortened considerably from the recent marathon waits, but the donations in the bowls in front of his tomb were still regularly refreshed with large bills.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog posts, I hope. (I've been swamped with work lately, but it's levelling off.)

Okay. Second last stop on the trip (which actually ended about a month ago now, but let's ignore that): Pompeii, and its sister resort seaside town, Herculaneum.

We actually enjoyed Herculaneum more than the famous Pompeii, though that was probably due to its much smaller size. Pompeii is massive, a large city (for the time) that's almost impossible for a visitor to explore in a day. We did Herculaneum in the morning and left Pompeii for the second half of the day. We were only able to stay a few hours; if we had stayed any longer, we would have been locked in. We'll have to return another time to see sights like the stadium, the theater, and more.

We went out to see the 4th of July fireworks last night at Gas Works Park, supposedly the best place in Seattle to see fireworks (and easy walking distance from Fremont). We got there early, setting up shop (blanket, books, food, etc) at about 4 o'clock (it was already getting a bit cramped for space), and waited through the afternoon as helicopters, police sea-doos, dancing girls on boats, the fire department, and strange people in the crowd distracted and entertained us.

Finally, at dusk, the show started with a Chinook military helicopter ("back from a tour of duty in Iraq") flying around the lake while spotlights shone on the giant American flag suspended on a wire platform underneath it. The military association with the country's birthday felt a bit politicized...

A choir sung the national anthem before the fireworks began. The fireworks were great. Every year I see fireworks, there seem to be one or more new amazing tricks (green cubes, rising and falling rockets, rings, etc). The show lasted for a full half hour, and was well-coordinated with a musical soundtrack.

All in all, a great evening. Check out some pictures here.