...here safely - and starting my blog again

Nothing new today, just took me like 2 hours to get this blog back, I didn't remember which account I had it under.

BUT today we toured an apartment in South San Francisco, then went to Moovweb - which was fun! I get a Macbook Air!! And then went over to north Oakland and looked at more apartments.

We'll be looking at a few more apartments tomorrow, so wish me luck!!

...i'm amazed by the technologies.

So, I was pretty excited today to head over to Facebook this morning. And as I thought it would be, it was pretty neat. We talked with Dave Fetterman, a very energetic, enthusiastic manager of the mobile Facebook team. He filled us in on what has been happening with mobile technology and how it relates to Facebook, and also, partly filled us in on where Facebook is going with mobile technology. He touched on how interns at Facebook have created features that have been part of the Facebook interface and stuff. Cool, and very inspiring.

Then, after lunch at Chipotle, we headed over to Microsoft. We met with vice president, and former co-creater (I think) of the Mac, Dan'l Lewin. I definitely will try to stay in contact with him. How amazing is his story? Wow. Just listening to his advice was great, my favorite points from him were, "Your career is your responsibility, the company provides tools for you." I totally agree, and I can't wait to be responsible for where I'm headed. I also really liked his advice of finding your goal in life, and after you know your goal, figure out what experiences that you will need to attain to meet your goal. I know I'm probably going to bore you with all his advice, BUT I also liked the mission of the 900 Phd researchers at Microsoft to "Further the state of the art: Ensure Microsoft has a future." This encourages the researchers to focus on research, and because they are not told what to do, they really can focus on improving the art of Computer Science. Then we got a sweet demo and tour of all the technologies that Microsoft is researching and thinking possible for our future. We were able to see this sweet screen table thing that you could touch and it just showed us the most amazing, advanced technology I've ever experienced. Wow. Amazing!

After that, we headed out to Intel, where Neal showed us around and explained what he does and a little of how Intel works. He comes from quite the background with experience from start-ups, to Sun Microsystems, to Intel. He explained the differences between the Start-ups (that are all about beer and skittles) and Intel. When we left, it was pouring.

Then we had our last group dinner at La Strada, where we girls were able to dress up all nice, which was fun. I had a delicious steak and souffle! After dinner, Aaron, Pyz, Kiflu, Brad and I headed out to Oak City for some last night drinks!

...GOOGLE.

Ok, so today was cool. We got up early and headed over to Google to meet Craig Cornelius again. We got our Google name tags and were off to see the Google-plex. It was pouring out, but we managed to grab some snacks and make it to our conference room. First we met with Davidson Young, from University Relations. Now, pre sure everyone knows, but I REALLY want that internship, so this was pretty exciting for me. However, he started describing what they look for in interns, or on resumes, and...yea, I'll probably have to make a new one and send it to him, no big deal, ha! Anyway, then we met with Michael Braderman, from Google Enterprise. This was pretty cool because we use Norse Apps at Luther, which is a product of Google Enterprise. After that, we met with Xuefu Wang of Google Books. This was also neat because it was similar to yesterday's meeting with Benetech with what they actually did. Next, Jessica Pfund met with us, from Google Maps. She showed us a product released in third world countries to help make maps. It was SO cool, and such a good idea! They have been using it in Haiti to better help people around the country since after the earthquake. After Jessica, we met with Rick Klau, who is part of the Blogger team. It was cool because we were able to tell him about what we all thought about Blogger since we started using it this past week. Something I really came away with from his conversation was when he corrected a comment we had. The comment was phrased as Google staying "...one step ahead of your competition..." and he corrected it that "...we stay one step ahead of ourselves." I really, REALLY liked this quote because so many people hate the fact that I'm so competitive, but I've always told them I don't think it's bad, because competition is what drives me, and I would never have the drive to be successful if I wasn't competing. The truth is, though, that I'm not competing with others, its always a competition with myself. When I tell myself I can't do something, it gives me more determination to prove that I can do it. See, Google would be a great fit ;).

Afterwards we took the big Google tour then headed to have lunch at Charlie's Cafe in Google. It was SOO good, with a sweet ice cream sandwich for dessert. Pre sure I gained the Google 15 in one day, so...no big deal. Then we went to the Google store where I bought everyone's souvenirs.

After Google, we headed over to the Computer History Museum. We got to watch a demo of the Babbage Computer, which pre sure no one who's reading this knows what that is, except Brad, but...cool for me, cause I learned about it in Computer Architecture. The museum was fun, because I actually knew somethings and recognized somethings...which is rare for me, because often times things at museums are too boring for me and WAY over my head, and sometimes computers too, so it was cool to know stuff.

THEN we went to the Apple Store, I played I Spy in the "Under 6" games :). I found everything, but the chimney...then some kid wanted a turn, and it was time to go, so I couldn't keep looking.

After that, we met with Luther Grad and CPA, Al Brudos, at the Menlo Circus Club. We had some snacks and learned a lot about life after Luther, from Al's perspective, which was pretty neat. A lot about grasping opportunities and things. Really, this all makes me excited for the real world, but kind of scared. It should be exciting if these awesome opportunities present themselves, my fear doesn't lie with not taking them, but more-so with not seeing when they are presented to me, and missing them. But adventures aren't fun without any risk, right?

...there are many options out there.

Today was kind of a neat day for me. We started out at Benetech, a nonprofit company improving technology for humanity. It was kind of eye opening for me, because, well, my friends all know just how materialistic I am, however, I've always had that drive in me to do something with my life that's actually beneficial to people. This whole wanting to work in the healthcare industry or in education in particular. In the past I've always pushed away nonprofit because I figured I wouldn't make enough, but I learned today that there are successful nonprofit organizations that help people with what they actually need, and still make plenty of money to survive. I mean, obviously it's no Google, but, still, whatever.

Then we ate lunch at Mediterranean Wraps where I tried a falafel (sp?) wrap, which was delicioso! Um, then we got in the van and headed over to Sierra Ventures. We talked with Robert about some investment stuff. I found it particularly interesting how Sierra Ventures invested in companies overseas. It was kind of something I didn't really give much thought to before, but cool. Then he talked about LEDs and how cool they are, and how they work, and that went right over my head really, but still, cool.

THEN, we went back into Palo Alto, walked to the Stanford Bookstore and shopped a little, before we got lost on our way to Darbar. We met up with Craig Cornelius from Google, real cool guy. We all had some sweet appetizers and I had some chicken basalini or something, it was also AMAZING!! And then we had some Kulfi for dessert (because it looked like Kiflu, or ifluK, haha!).

...i'll show you the way.

I was the navigator today! Yea, I don't get lost. But we started out or whatever, and we're waiting at this stoplight and CRAZY tree fell onto the car in front of us! Broke the lady's windshield! So, that was quite the start to our day. Some guy got out and moved it for us so we could get through. That was nice.

We were on our way to this state park to see the redwoods. Brought me back to the good days of 4th grade geography. It was so much fun, we were just puddle hopping, catching raindrops and all...but then I got all muddy and my feet got wet. Whatever though, it was fun and super cool...we saw two banana slugs!

Then we were off to Monterey Bay. We watched the penguins being fed and then the otters and then just walked around and chilled. We saw seahorses and a hammerhead shark.

So all-in-all a fun day, but it didn't go without education. I learned that the artichoke capital of the world was...down there somewhere. And that Tolare has the most cows per square foot in the nation (thank you Ryan, and Dad??). I also collected a list of artists from Brad's iPod, because I learned of a bunch of new groups I like :). Then, when we got back, we went out to eat at Applewood Pizza, where I got my favorite pepperoni and pineapple pizza with Kaitlin. Delish.

...we're moving on!

NBD, we moved on today. Got up this morning, watched the Vikings DOMINATE the Cowboys :D...then we headed out here to Menlo Park Inn. We did some laundry then went out for supper at this Turkish restaurant. I tried lamb :S...it was absolutely DELICIOUS though! Crazy, Laura will probably freak out, because I'd never eat it for her, but...well, whatevs I guess.

Then we came back and played Up and Down. I got second in both games, but I was SOO close to beating Kiflu in the last game...SO CLOSE! It was a split second decision to bid 1 instead of 2...wrong choice, I took 2 :(. Next time though!

Then we came back and watched Shawshank, but I fell asleep like 3 times in the first hour, so I came down to go to bed. Then I decided to blog and respond to those who facebooked me. I procrastinate, NBD.

...biking must not be my thing.

We woke up Saturday morning to a bike ride across the Golden Gate! Kaitlin and I rented a tandem. We wanted to head out to Point Bonita or whatever, but...we only made it up the mountain to decide we weren't going down it...because we wanted to be alive for the rest of the trip. We walked around on top and then decided we'd head back. On our way back, Kiflu, Bryan and I stopped on the bridge to watch the dolphins. This is where we met up with Aaron, Brad and Pyz. We came back to the hotel and met for lunch at In-N-Out.

Then we got ready to head out to Alcatraz. We got on the boat and took the night tour around the island. It was an audio tour and I learned a lot! A lot of it reminded me of The Shawshank Redemption, so we watched that when we got back. I fell asleep, then went to bed.