A Day in the Life (Part 1)

Yes, I've neglected this blog for far too long. No, I don't really have a good excuse for doing so. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to it:

First, I'll briefly recap what I've missed. 2 weeks ago, work was really busy but also a lot of fun. We had a big milestone coming up, so people were pretty much "heads down", meaning intently focussed on getting everything done. While that might sound stressful, I actually enjoyed the time. People wanted to make sure we hit the milestone with a high level of quality, so nobody had a problem staying late to ensure that. I would have found it frustrating if 5pm rolled around and some of the team felt like the workday was over so it was no longer any of their concern. Quite the contrary, actually - people wanted to be satisfied with the work we did before we went home at the end of the day. Not only is that the type of place I love to work, but it's great that everyone also feels that way.

This week was a little more difficult. I hit some roadblocks when I kept running into things I didn't know how to do. It wasn't necessarily a problem I couldn't solve, more that I just wasn't sure of the protocol when I was asked to do certain things. Eventually, I could help from more colleagues and mentor who were extremely helpful and got me out of the rut. I felt I ended the week on a high note with some meaningful contributions. There were even points where people came to ask me questions and I knew the answer! I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's really the little things that start to make the difference, that make me feel like a valued member of my team.

This weekend was also pretty fun. Friday night, my friend from school had some people over to celebrate her birthday. There aren't many people from Tufts out here, so it was really good to see people from there again, even if it was really only 1 person. Saturday turned out to be quite a long day. In the afternoon, my roommates and I went to a nearby park to play some soccer. There was you youth game going on when we got there, so we killed time until it was over. While we were there, some other guys came up and asked if we wanted to play. We ended up have a 5-on-5 game for a couple hours which was a lot of fun. I can't remember the last time I seriously played soccer, so it was great to finally do it again. These guys were from Colombia and Saudi Arabia, and were pretty decent at the game. We held our own, though, at least until our stamina gave out. I am horribly out of shape, and this was a stark reminder of that. We said we'd meet them there at the same time next Saturday, so I'll have to start working out. People at work are also talking about making a team to compete in company leagues where there are games on the weekend. Yup, definitely gonna have to start making time for the gym. Sunday we went and saw "Looper" which was a pretty good movie. A really interesting concept, with one of my favorite actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

And now to the main point of this post. I'll be using pictures to take you through what a usual day looks like for me. To make sure I don't ramble of for too long, this will just be the first part. I'm not sure how many parts there will be, so I'll keep you in suspense to keep you checking back. Without further adieu:

My day starts here with some morning SportsCenter and cereal. This was taken at night, so just imagine it light outside

On my way to the bus stop.

The Connector! A shuttle with wifi just for employees. I work in Redmond, but this one goes to Bellevue.

View from the 520 bridge.

Some people out on Lake Washington.

Some day, it would be awesome to have a house there. 

Who says Seattle doesn't have clear skies?

This house wouldn't be bad either...

A small cove where it would also be awesome to live.

People like to have fun with their office windows.

Off the bus, I walk through half of campus.

One of many cafeterias with outdoor seating.

My favorite part of morning where I basically walk through a mini forest to get to my building.

Some days I take another shuttle from where the Connector drops off that goes straight to my building.

This is just too awesome to pass up, though.

My building!

Master Chief greets me in the lobby every day.

I took these pictures a few weeks ago, but the weather still looks like that. My commute takes about 45 minutes from when I leave my apartment to when I walk into my office, and a good portion of that I'm checking email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. At some point I'll have more pictures to take you through the rest of the day.