Google: Week 3

First I would like to acknowledge my mother’s coworkers who started reading following last week’s bidet story. I hate to set the bar low, however I do not think I will be able to keep up to par with that level of humor. Anyway thanks for reading and please feel free to leave comments, as that’s one thing this site is lacking in.

Week 3 was not as eventful as the previous weeks, however the highlight of the week was lunch with Cheri on Monday. Cheri, who I think of as a second mother, was in the Bay visiting her eldest daughter Kristen and Kristen’s boyfriend Adam. When she arrived at Google I presented her with my Stole of Gratitude for all that she has done to aid in my college success which started when she pushed me to apply to colleges during my senior year of high school. For that and the countless other ways she has helped me, I owe her my deepest gratitude. So once again, thank you Cheri.

As I mentioned previously each of the Google lobbies have a Naked Juice shelf with seemingly all 28 varieties of the drink. Starting last week I made it my goal to drink every flavor, one each morning. I shared this information with the receptionist in my lobby who thought it was an excellent idea which I think is because she may have already conquered this feat. Anyway she’s quite cute, so every morning following breakfast I go into the lobby to grab a naked juice and chat with her. Such a great way to start the day.

Following Monday’s lunch with Cheri nothing worth mentioning happened until Friday. Friday I attended a talk given by a fellow Ph.D intern, and later in the day we had a T.G.I.F. social in which there was free wine and beer, as well as various hors d’Å“uvre. An intern who also is a DJ provided the music for the social. I had a buzzing amount of beer and then went and checked out Sergey and Larry’s office with some other interns followed by a game of cutthroat.

Saturday I went to the Computer History Museum with other UCSB graduate students. The Museum was quite interesting though only two percent of their collection is currently on display. The free tour (admission was free too) covered various stages of computing from punch cards to vacuum tubes to integrated circuits to super computers and finally to personal computers.

Saturday evening I had a delicious dinner at Victor’s, courtesy of his mom, and then he and I went to Berkeley to meet up and drink with our friends Mira and Molly. Since I had just received my first paycheck on Friday, the first round of Patron shots were on me.

Anyway that was the week. I am still greatly enjoying my summer. To end this (and hopefully provoke comments) I want to spice it up by commenting on a video clip I saw on the news last week. Unfortunately I cannot find the clip online, nonetheless the context was two Southern people were asked how they would feel about having an African American president. One lady’s cut response was “I think he’s a Muslim”, and another man’s response was something along the lines of “there aren’t many black people around here. The only black people I see asking for change are holding out a cup.”

I comment to this in the form of the following questions:
Does having a middle name of Hussein really imply that someone is Muslim? And more importantly, what would it matter if Obama was? Are the parents of children not teaching their kids to be accepting of everyone despite their skin color, religious beliefs and sexual preference? What message are our nation’s citizens sending their kids about acceptance when they are openly opposed to a candidate solely on the basis of race or religion. And finally, why are we still considering religion when making political decisions?

I hope everyone has a great week!