I initially anticipated this weekend to be laid-back and relaxed. After my first week of work, I just wanted to decompress and do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Despite my best efforts, I didn't quite turn out like that, but I think things ended up even better that way.
After a long night's sleep, I woke up on Saturday with only one thing in mind: buying a TV. My roommates and I have been doing lots of research about what TV to get, but ultimately I was going to buy it and so it came down to my decision. After reading lots of reviews and even going to look at some in person, I finally decided which one to get. It would be my very first plasma TV (as opposed to LCD) and also the largest at 55". The Best Buy in Bellevue (just South of Redmond) had it in stock at a good price, and so I decided to spend some time in Bellevue since I would be out there. The weather forecast predicted 80's and sunny all weekend.
One adventure I would attempt would be to located the company headquarters of Valve, a video game company. They make a lot of good stuff for only have a couple hundred employees, but also apparently have one of the coolest offices to visit. I even sent their CEO an email asking if I could stop by because I've heard of that working for other people. I haven't heard back from him yet, but it is a nice weekend so perhaps he wasn't checking his email. Regardless, I decided to stop by anyway and see if I could just snap a picture or two.
I wasn't exactly sure where to park once I found the building, but I did see a sign for Microsoft employee parking. Since I technically fit into that group, and had registered my rental car, I figured to try it. My ID badge let me into the garage, and so I had a free place to park out of the sun. The building I parked in was right next to where Valve purportedly was, so it was a quick walk over. Unfortunately, you needed badge access to get into that building. I saw a couple people going in and out, but couldn't muster up the courage to just follow someone inside. It reminded me of that time my mom & I did something similar to get into the computer science and engineering building at the University of Washington. I wasn't technically allowed to be in there, and figured that maybe the building is open during the week and so I could try then. We'll have to wait and see...
Another thing I was aware of was Seafair happening in the Pudget Sound area all weekend. It's an annual summer festival featuring a bunch of events you can read about if you want. One I was acutely aware of was the Blue Angels' performance. All week, the local government had been advertising that due to safety regulations, the I-90 bridge that I usually take to and from work would be closed at various points for practices and performances. I had some time to kill since I didn't make it to Valve, so I went to the top of the Microsoft building - the 26th floor to be precise. This gave me a great view of Lake Washington and the performance:
The building on the right is what I was on top of.
View from the top.
ZOOM. Lots of boats getting ready to watch.
View of Mt. Rainier
Begin lots of pictures. I got lazy.
There were a bunch of other people up there with me, so I got to do a bit of bonding. When the show was over, though, I set out to get my TV. To make a long story short, the TV wouldn't fit in the rental car I brought with me. Not wanting to wait for delivery, and risk that they try to deliver it while I'm at work, I decided to drive back to Seattle. From there, I managed to secure a large ZipCar that I got to and from on the bus. After lugging the TV into my apartment safe and sound, I returned the car with just minutes to spare. I spent some time around the big shopping area downtown where the car was, which I didn't realize was there until I had to navigate through all the pedestrian traffic.
Sunday was another fun day. In the afternoon I hopped on the bus North to an area called Green Lake. This suburb outside of the city surrounds a swamp-turned-lake that seems to be a popular destination, especially when the weather is nice as it was this weekend. There's a walking and bike path that goes around the entire lake, almost 3 miles altogether. As soon as I got off the bus, I knew this would become one of my favorite destinations. There are tons of great places to eat near there too, as well as some frozen yogurt places. Some more pictures:
Lots to do.
The view from my spot.
Doggy paddle.
Also plenty of open field space
So I got to read, relax, explore, get some sun, basically anything you could ask for on a sunny Sunday afternoon. After taking the bus back to my apartment, I went to see some furniture and stuff that people were selling just 2 floors down from my apartment. They are moving to Australia in a week and a half, so it's an "everything must go" thing. They were really nice, and gave me some recommendations about stuff to do in the area.
I was glad to have my TV set up so that I could spend Sunday night watching NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity, make a clean landing. It was an amazing accomplishment for the JPL (Jet-Propulsion Laboratory). I literally spent like 2.5 hours watching the feed and news coverage as Curiosity attempted to complete its 7 Minutes of Terror:
Eventually, the people in the control room were celebrating as they confirmed the rover had successfully made the landing. The first results were new pictures of Mars:
Left: front camera showing the shadow of the rover. Right: wheel and Mars horizon
While it may not be on the same level as putting a man on the moon, it's quite a feat. One that I (and many others) hope renews interest and excitement in technology and engineering. Who knows, maybe NASA lies in my future somewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment