Jeff Stuart - Memoirs of a CPUNERD

So does that mean that all great things have to come to a crashing halt and just die? With how wonderful my summer was, it seems to have ended on a (understandably) low note. Virtually everyone from my group of summer friends already left. The only person still around was Falcon, and he being the constant workaholic was subpar in the “Entertain Jeff” department. This did very little for my final impression of Google, as I spent most of it by myself not doing anything truly fun.

Luckily Andrew and Tracy are full-timers. I had lunch at Charlie’s with them and two of Tracy’s friends on Monday. For dinner, Salim, Javi, and Lindsay stopped by the Googleplex on their way back from Santa Cruz. We ate at Charlie’s and No Name, and then I gave them an hour tour or so. Lindsay had no real idea what Google was like, so it was a big eye-opener for her. Javi and Salim both loved it as well. We ended the tour at The Hub.

On Tuesday, I was actually concerned that I might have my first solo lunch. I was at my desk until 1245, when I noticed that Jeff LeFevre was still at his desk as well. We ended up going to 5ive together. In the early afternoon, I had my first Google massage. It was great! I think I almost fell asleep twice because it was so nice. After work, I went to salsa lessons. As is the usual for Tuesdays, not many girls showed up. Due to that, I didn’t get to practice anything, and thus I already forgot what we learned by the time I got home.

The GAPA group took a trip to downtown San Jose on Wednesday. We started at the IMAX Tech Museum, though unfortunately we were a day too early for the Body World’s exhibit. After the museum, we went to the Gordon Biersch brewery. I had a maerzen burger, and felt like crap afterwards, so I didn’t really eat much for dinner.

Mark, Jeff, Erik, and I decided to brave the business world on Thursday. We had lunch at fourteen. There was a live band performing outside, so after we were done eating we sat and watched for fifteen minutes or so. After work, I had my last rueda lesson. It was a lot of fun. We learned the Vasela, Sombrero, and Siete.

Friday was my last day at Google. Not much of a work day really. I just finished my documentation, gave a quick presentation, made sure all my code was checked in, and then went for one last massage = ) After the exit paperwork, I went to TGIF. I ran into a fellow former NVIDIA intern who was also on his last day. After TGIF, I didn’t bother waiting for dinner, I just drove back. I got back around 2000, unloaded my car, and then met up with Abhi, Javi, Miles, and Charlotte. We went to Jay’s for a few hours, then I just headed home and went to sleep.

Love Fest! Can you guess what I did on my Saturday morning? I met Shakeh and her aunt at the Farmer’s Market early in the morning (dropping off some Starbucks for them), then filling up on gas and waiting for Aude, Laurence, Charlotte, and Lindsay to get ready. We took off from Davis around 10:00 and got into Daly City a little before noon. We got off the BART at the Civic Center, and walked down to third street, where we met up with Lee, Ciderman, and Chief Justice.

We walked further towards Embarcadero, enjoying the parade and looking for a restaurant at which to eat. After watching several floats go by, we proceeded to a small deli on the other side of the street and we all got a little something to appease our hungers. After we were done eating, we went back to the other side of the street and starting walking back to the Civic Center. We saw more fun people along the way. We stopped right outside the Civic Center for a bit to get some pictures.

Once we got into the main event, we just wandered around, checked out the floats, and danced for awhile. We saw some cool floats, and met some interesting people. In particular, two random guys who were from UCLA came up and started hitting on Aude and Laurence. We let them talk for awhile, then rescued them when Aude starting getting the “Oh God, someone get these guys away” look.

Around 1500, we decided to take off and go check out the Golden Gate Bridge and get some dinner. Aude, Laurence, Lindsay, Charlotte, and I headed back to my car at Daly City, then drove to the recreation area. We arrived there around 1600, then proceeded to walk around and take some pictures. After a few more pictures, we headed to where Lee and the gang were waiting, then walked across the bridge. After people got some more pictures, we headed back to our cars and then proceeded to Sausolito.

We walked around downtown Sausolito for an hour or so while waiting for our table to open up. We finally sat down to dinner around 1830. We ordered our food, talked for awhile, and got out of the place around 2100. I went back to my car, then drove to the restaurant to pick up the girls. We left immediately, and headed north to 580 (don’t ask, I don’t know), eventually getting back into Davis around 2230. After I dropped everyone off, I headed to Jay’s for an hour or so, and then I went home and slept.

I went over to Shakeh’s and Verena’s place Sunday afternoon. I finished setting up their TV, and I got their router working (which took some time, might I add). Afterwards, Shakeh and I went to lunch at Pluto’s and then to IKEA. I got my car washed as well. After IKEA, we wanted to go to Old Town Sacramento, but we didn’t know the way. We tried to remember, but just ended up taking a drive along the river. Once we got back to Davis, Shakeh took me out to dinner at Kathmandu Kitchen, which was awesome.

Moving just sucks, period. It doesn’t really matter how small the move is, it’s still just a pain in the butt. And it doesn’t even have to just be moving! Even if all one is doing is rearranging a room, the process can still take a long time.

On Monday, five of us went to Euro for lunch. We found out that their micro-kitchen has a few cool things. I worked on MGI some. F***ing Cortex is giving me problems with my account whenever someone is running NCS. It’s essentially blocking me from making any progress.

I think I overdid it on the exercise bike on Tuesday. I went for fifty minutes pretty hard. For lunch, I went to 1400 with Tracy, Laurynas, and Tibbits. Daniel was going to come but he didn’t want to bike and thus went to Plymouth with Falcon and Ghassan. The lessons were great today! I still suck, but I’m having fun none the less. I went to No Name with Daniel afterwards, then went home and worked on MGI some more.

I ended up going to a late lunch at MOMA with Andrew. We discussed some of C++’s shortcomings. After work, I went home and worked on MGI some more. I found out that GNUmake likes to use absolute paths instead of symlinks. If it’s not one thing, it’s another >\

All of us took scooters to Seven for lunch. I hit a MAJOR milestone for my intern project! yay! I went to lesson’s and dragged Inga with me. We both really enjoyed it, though Inga had to go early. The instructor was different this time, but still very good with his explanations. After saying goodbye to Inga, I ran and grabbed a burrito for me and Falcon. I dropped Inga off at her car, then went to get Falcon and we headed to D&B. We got lost for half an hour because I thought The Great Mall was west of 880 (wrong!). I got a small bite to eat there (you could get a full entree and a twenty-dollar game card for twenty-five dollars). Juan, BJ, Falcon, Justin, Carol and I were the ones who showed up. We played some games for a while. Justin and I broke even at air hockey. We played some racing games and basketball games, then watched Falcon play House of the Dead before finally taking off. We got home around midnight or so. Needless to say, getting back was much easier =T

I went to lunch with Juan and Justin at PIC on Friday. We had a really entertaining TGIF. I got dinner with Inga and Laurynas, then went back to my place and started packing. Tony showed up around 2100. Daniel and I finished loading up with Tony’s help and took off around 2200. I got in to Davis around 2330, finished moving stuff in, and went to bed at 0100.

Shakeh and I planned on rearranging my room early in the morning, then we were going to go the Farmer’s Market, and then maybe see a movie and relax before going to the BBQ. Of course… that didn’t happen. We started rearranging my room around 09:00. By 11:00, we had just finished moving all the loose stuff out, so we realized the process would take much longer than we expected. We didn’t finish until almost 17:00. Afterwards, we cleaned up, showered off, and then rested for an hour before heading to Elena’s and Marilena’s place. If anyone wants a recommendation for a roommate, go with internationals who know how to cook! Everything there was great. Besides the good food and old friends, I also met a few new people. We stayed at the BBQ until 22:30, enjoyed the best Baklava I’ve ever had, then went home and slept.

Sunday morning, I had grand plans. Part of those plans including avenging my previous loss in tennis to Mr. Kulkarni. I met up with him at 09:00. We warmed up for a bit, then proceeded to play. I started out really well, grabbing the first 6-2. The second set I let up a little though and lost 4-6. I thought I was going to lose the tie breaker again, but I pulled through and clinched it, 10-8. After the match, I went to the ARC to go work out. Turns out the damn thing was closed… For the best I guess. I went home and showered, then Shakeh and I watched The Number 23. It was pretty good, and I really like seeing Jim Carrey in a non-comedic role. After we were done with the movie, we met up with Abhi and more new internationals at Borders. We stayed there and chatted for a few hours, then Shakeh and I went to Pastaq for dinner. When we got home, I messed around for an hour or so and found out that my stupid laptop can’t handle Blu-Ray quality DVD rips, so I had to use my work laptop to watch an HD version of Reign On Me.

You know it’s coming, you hope it won’t be that bad, but then it happens. It’s worse = \ Virtually everyone I know at Google is gone. The only one’s left are me, Daniel, Falcon, and Inga. The world just got significantly more lonely. And to make matters worse, Inga and Daniel are leaving in two weeks.

On Monday morning, I woke up, went to gym, and found no one there (obviously). I worked for a while to make up for missing Friday. Tony and Ciderman came over to my place in the afternoon. We played Wii for a bit, then went to Google to play ping pong (stole a game from Tony!). After that, we went home and watched Die Hard 4 with Brian. Andrew was right, I was seriously offended to my core as an engineer.

On Tuesday, Shakeh and I went to Nola’s for our nine-month anniversary. I actually went out of my way to order a fish dish. The food was really good, though the fish was really oily. After dinner, we went back to my place and watched a movie, then I took Shakeh back to her aunt’s place. I didn’t end up getting home until after 23:00.
The gym was exceptionally difficult on Wednesday, and that was probably due to lack of sleep. I went to lunch with Philip, Daniel, and Falcon. We ran into Matt Damon and Tracy. After lunch, I worked for a few hours, then headed to the EngEDU fair. I got my free shirt, said hi to a few people, then took off. I stopped at The Hub for half an hour or so, then went back to work and got my new loaner laptop. I went to dinner at No Name with Daniel, Falcon, and Laurynas. After that, I went back to The Hub with my new laptop and worked while I watched the first one and a half sets of the Roddick-Federer match.

The power went out in our building on Thursday. Tracy, Tibbets, Daniel, and I took a conference bike and rode to the Crittendon campus. We ate at PIC, grabbed some gummy bears, then Tibbits and I went upstairs to go play Wii tennis for a few sets. We rode back, then I scrambled to finish my intern-presentation poster on time. I went to lessons from 1800 until 1930, then ran into Daniel as he was heading to dinner. We ate at No Name, then met Falcon and Tony in the game room back at Crittendon for some Guitar Hero and more tennis. After games, I went back to my place with Tony, Falcon, and Brian. We watched Scanners, a rather awful C-movie from Canada that was made before we were born.

On Friday, I had lunch at Pacific with a bunch of people, including two of Daniels friends. I went to the social TGIF with Tibbits and Tracy, but it wasn’t that exciting. Daniel and I played ping-pong for half an hour or so. Shakeh and Vahe showed up. We grabbed some food, walked around the place for a bit, then headed up to Malibu. Tony met us up there after we were done in the batting cages. Tony and I did four laps on the Grand Prix, then Shakeh, Vahe, and I did some laps on the turbo cars (Vahe doesn’t have a U.S. license). Falcon showed up, so I took Shakeh as a passenger on the Grand Prix and Falcon took Vahe. After two laps, Shakeh and Vahe got out and drove the turbo cars some more while Tony, Falcon, and I did two more laps on the Grand Prix. Once we were done, Tony, Falcon, and I headed to Redwood City to get some food. We walked around for awhile and settled on this place called Citrine. On the way there, we noticed that a fire alarm had been set off, and the entire strip mall (which included a movie theatre) was forced to evacuate and wait outside while the fire department checked it out. On the way back from dinner, Falcon and I got lost and didn’t get back until almost midnight.

I went to a Subaru dealership on Steven’s Creek (which was somewhat confusing to find) to get my alarm battery replaced on Saturday morning. Once that was taken care of, I went to the Hub and watched the U.S. Open and worked for six hours. Falcon showed up somewhere in the middle so I went from The Hub to his working area. Lee met up with me around 1700, so I joined him in gathering some food. Once our bellies were silenced, we went to the AT&T store in Palo Alto so Lee could buy a RAZR2. Once he completed his purchase (I still think he should have bought a 4GB iPhone) we went back down to Mountain View to get dinner with Tony. We went to a Mediterranean place right by the theatre. We saw Shoot ‘em Up, which was great. It was completely satirical and unapologetic. After the movie, Tony went home and Lee and I were going to do the same, then decided to go play some Wii sports. We finished up around Midnight (with me thoroughly spanking Mr. Hendrickson, and him issuing a slew of profanity so constant and obscene it would make a sailor proud), then went home.

I met up with Tony Sunday morning to go to Google for some ping-pong and laundry. Once Tony was done decimating me, we went to the classic arcade by one of the cafes and played some games on the ultracade machine. We spent an hour playing competitive Puzzle-Bobble-4. I believe the final score was Tony-3, Jeff-17. Better luck next time my Haitian friend.

I’m very proud to say that my brother just received his B.A. degree. I’d be lying if I said I was sure it would happen. Anyone who has met my brother knows how smart he is, how determined he can be, and also how easy he can lose sight of what is important. This time though, he was able to focus and just get done what needed to be done. So now, it’s a race between me and him over who can get their Doctorate degree first. I want a Ph.D., he’s going for his J.D. Ready… Set… Go!

I went to PIC with Daniel and his cube-mates on Monday. For dinner, the Canadians showed up and did their usually scheming. After they left, I played volleyball for a bit, then went home and worked on my GMail notifier. Before I went to sleep, I checked out our Eurographics paper… yikes, it needs some major work.

On Tuesday, I went to lunch with Katie, Rachel, and Chris at Moma. I’m beginning to work with someone else’s code, and no, I’m not really liking it = \ I had a late dinner at Pintxo with Ray, Philip, Daniel, Falcon, and Chris. I watched the B5 movie A Call to Arms, and now I’m pissed that the series about The Rangers didn’t last. I would’ve liked to see the story roll out.

Eleven weeks. It took me eleven weeks to realize that I had a near unlimited supply of CDs via the Mountain View Librarie’s bookmobile. I went looking there on Wednesday for some Euro-pop because I remembered how popular it was at the international parties. I couldn’t find any, but I did get a bunch of foreign CDs. I had dinner with Usman, Chris, Falcon, Daniel, and Chief Justice. After that, we all went to see Balls of Fury. The first half was really good, though throughout the entire first half, in-between my laughter, I was yelling “Reno isn’t really like that!”

On Thursday, I had lunch with Chris, Tibbets (Maaatt… Damon), Philip, and Ray at PIC. We got to ride on the conference bike! I went back to work after that until 1500, then ran home real quick to grab my stuff and drop off my car. After I got back to work, I finished some stuff, then went to dinner with Rachel, Falcon, Daniel, and Chris. I said my good-bye to Rachel (Katie decided not to come), got a ride to the airport from Falcon, and then flew home to Reno.

Mother-dearest and I went shopping for a bit on Friday morning. I got dropped off at UNR around 11:30 and met up with Kenyon and Chad. We talked for a bit, then headed to Claim Jumper. We ate lunch with Dr. Harris and Bill, then Kenyon gave me a ride home. When I got back, I worked on a new Pidgin-plugin for a while, and went shopping with my Mom for some supplies for the party.
Saturday was Mike’s graduation party. There were a ton of people there. I saw Jack and Brian again, two friends of Mike with whom I used to be acquainted. I talked with a lot of my family and ate like a pig. Later that night, once the party died down, I continued working on the Pidgin-plugin and began screwing around with the Google-calendar API.

On Sunday, Frank, Mother, Grandmother, and I went to Bully’s for lunch. I had the wings of course. On the plane, I sat next to this rather attractive Chinese girl. The problem you ask? Until she spoke at the end of the flight, I couldn’t tell if she was sixteen or thirty. Falcon picked me up from the airport. I went home, grabbed laundry, then headed to Google. I played ping-pong with Ciderman (won a game!). After I got home, the wings I ate started making me feel really bad. Shakeh drove down and took care of me for a bit. After she left, I watched The Legend of the Rangers. It was alright. The story was good, but there were certain parts that could’ve been done much better.

It’s funny, until you actually try something, you never really have the right opinion about it. Well, at least that’s what I thought. Funny enough, after my first experience in the Castro, I don’t really believe that. It was A TON of fun, and it played out almost exactly as I thought it would.

Probably the nicest part about being straight in a gay bar or club is that there is no artificial pressure to do anything but have fun. It was a really refreshing feeling to be out and about and just hanging around with friends, and having no obligations. And the funny part was of course that every guy there got his ass grabbed at least once, whether they’ll admit it or not… you know who you are = )p

Tuesday was the Google Dance! I was pleasantly surprised by how cool it was. I kept thinking all the way up to it that it would be pretty lame and I would just leave after I got a shirt. Turns out I was wrong. There was the usual Google hospitality which included free shirts, booze, and food. Then there was more. The courtyard of the complex was completely rigged with club lighting. There were two karaoke booths, a bunch of couches and pool tables, four Wiis, and much, much more. Then, inside of Charlie’s, there were tons of multi-player racing games and a DJ. Around 20:00, a lot of my friends moved indoors and most of us danced until 21:30, at which point I took off to go home. I dropped Chris off at Ames first, then went back to my place and watched an episode of The Sopranos before going to bed.

A bunch of us went to go see Superbad on Wednesday. The movie was pretty good, and very funny. It was way more adult-friendly than the trailer made it out to be (hard to imagine, I know). However, throughout the entire movie, I kept getting the feeling that I was just slightly older than the target age-group. As it would turn out, the screenplay was written when the writer was just graduating from high school.

Inga, Chris, Falcon, Daniel, Dale, Andrew, and I went up to Malibu on Thursday night for go-karting and miniature golf. The go-karts were a lot of fun. Normal go-karts don’t have anywhere near as much power as these did, so it was great. I was almost the fastest person on the course. I blame the weight difference between me and Dale his win ; )

On Friday night, for Andrew and Michael’s last day, we went out to the Castro. Chris, Inga, Daniel and I drove up ourselves and went to The Metro. The place was nice, and was basically exactly like a chill-bar anywhere else, except guys were hitting on other guys instead of girls. Daniel got offered a drink buy this man who was at least fifty years of age. Daniel accepted though, and ended up talking to the guy for another hour and a half. Michael showed up with more people around 23:10 (they were late getting to BART). We hung out at the bar until a little before midnight, then headed over to the Cafe. Daniel actually stayed a while longer to talk to the guy, meeting up with us around 00:30. We got the place and were immediately confronted with the most packed club I had ever seen. It seemed pretty normal, and by that I mean ninety-five percent guys… Hey, at least this time most of the guys were getting some action while there instead of hanging around waiting for some potential to show up. The club was a lot of fun, especially once the Go-Go dancers came out and Inga seemed very embarrassed. We tried to get her to put a dollar note in one of the dancer’s G-strings, but she wouldn’t. Michael had no qualms though… The dance floor was insanely busy. You couldn’t move one way or the other without hitting someone. We eventually left the place around 1:45, then Michael told us we should all go get pizza. So we went to a drunken pizza place down on Castro. We ended up leaving around 2:45. Michael and his friends took cabs home. Andrew, Dale, and Dave drunkenly stumbled back to Dave’s place in SF, and Chris, Inga, Daniel, and I walked back to my car and headed home. I don’t understand why, but there was traffic at 03:00 on a Saturday morning on the 101. WTF?! I didn’t end up getting into my bed until five minutes to 04:00.

I woke up fairly late on Saturday, I think around 09:30. I went into Google to meet with Chris. We then met the Canadians at the Shoreline theatre and saw War. It wasn’t really that great. Afterwards, I was going to go to dinner, but instead just went home and watched the start of The 25th Hour. I left in the middle though, to go to Redwood City and see Shakeh and her cousins for a bit. After that, I went back down to the South Bay, picked up Chris, then went mini-golfing with him and a guy named Arjin (who it turns out I met at my one of my neighbor’s parties in Davis, small freaking world).

On Sunday, I finished watching The 25th Hour. Rusiniak and I met up in Sunnyvale and played squash for a while. After squash, I went home, showered, and then headed to Google to play ping-pong and do some laundry. After laundry, I went home and watched The Chronicles of Narnia, surfed the net, and then went to bed.