Wednesday, August 1, 2012

[Intel Update]: The Final Stretch and Interesting People

It's Olympic time. The time of the year where even when Romney insults the UK, the UK displays the wrong flag for the North Korean soccer team, and the committee dq's the Chinese badminton players for trying too hard to lose, we celebrate the people who do things right from the beginning to the very end. In other words; the ones who play to the final stretch to excel in the final stretch. I would normally go on about how Michael Phelps only won his 19th medal because of his endeavor and fight in the final stretch of the 4x200m relay and blah blah blah but that's beside the point. I don't need a segway into my next point, I just need a <br />

Bringing it back to my stay in California, this is the final stretch: June [  ]. July [  ]. The next couple of weeks are all that remain between my last month at Intel and (oh joy!) my first week as a sophomore at UW.  Hopefully I can make the most of it and hopefully the world can keep it entertaining. If these next weeks are anything like weeks past, then I should only expect more of this (just some general observations):

*For the sake of ambiguity, whenever I use the word "interesting", the definition is up to you.
  • In the office, the culture is interesting
    • Our clean rooms aren't like your clean rooms. As you can see, the fabrication room on the bottom is far superior to the eccentric pink bedroom. It's a shame no one's told the girl she isn't a princess.

    • Our vending machines aren't like your vending machines. Exhibit A: the IT vending machine. We won't be winning anybody over with the best stock of vending machine ruffles any time soon. But honestly, who cares when you have all of the world's bluetooth headsets, VGA cables, and AC power adapters are at your vendable mercy! 

    • Our chocolate isn't like your chocolate. It is worth noting that though they taste exactly the same, they are shaped like SSD's!!! Game - Set - Match.  




  • Outside the office, it's still interesting
    • We play ultimate frisbee. Lots of it. Normally I would say this isn't interesting but this article made me change my mind... ultimate is the sport of interesting people. 
    • We watch too many movies
      • For the record, $5 movie nights are evil. Call me deprived, but I have never watched more than 2 movies at a theater a month in my life. Now a week without a movie is called anti-social. If that's not bad enough, the entire office rents out the local theater for a "day at the movies". At least batman, spiderman, and brave were quality movies. My personal favorite though is abraham lincoln vampire hunter (let me be clear, it was not a quality movie).

              • -----

    • Trips to the mall are never normal (Update 11:05PM)
      • "Went to Roseville mall with peeps. Waited 21 hours for girls to find right clothes at forever 21. Spilled salsa on lap at mexican restaurant shortly after." - Peter Hu
              • -----
    • The local music store is interesting. Behold, the $1 million fender body.

(in case you actually thought the tag is legit, it's not)

  • Problem: Everything is interesting in or outside the office. Solution? LEAVE. Leave for San Francisco. 
    • There is nothing like leaving Folsom on a road trip knowing that dim sum, mild weather, and actual things to do await you at your destination. We thought happy thoughts and never looked back. 
    • On our way to SF we found this gem. YOLO county. No I didn't pull over to take this picture of the sign. I didn't want to die on the side of a road being THAT GUY taking a picture of the Yolo county sign. So I got the picture from google. #YOLO
    • We also stopped by a "bubble tea" shop that didn't really sell bubble tea as much as smoothies with tapioca. BUT they had C++ flavor so that makes them a winner in my book. Fact of the day: C++ is not a language but actually a combination of strawberry, pineapple, and orange that tastes really good.
    • As for the dim sum and other things we did in San Fran, it was all awesome. I have no photos to show for it but there may have been some Berkeley shenanigans and Mahjong tiles involved.
So, inevitably, my last weeks at Intel will no doubt be "interesting". But I look forward to them and finishing out the final stretch not only by watching $5 movies but even perhaps continuing to *cough* work hard,  *wheeze* learn new skills, and *gasp* make my internship worthwhile to me and mighty Intel. In the meantime, enjoy what remains of your summer, follow the olympics, and go USA! Ciao. 

P.S. You made it to the bottom, in which case I sincerely apologize for wasting your valuable life on my spontaneous blog post, also the product of wasted valuable life. Thank you and come again =]