One of the main reasons I decided to start this blog was so that I could stay more in touch with some of my friends that I've had to leave behind.
But where did they go Lawnguy?! That's an excellent question. They actually didn't go anywhere. I am the one that went somewhere. You see, I recently finished my PhD. Unfortunately (and nobody told me this), after you finish, you have to go and get a job.
When I had finished my PhD, I hadn't got a job. This was not to worrisome, as my thesis advisor offered to let me stay for a semester and find a job. Yay and kudos to you Mr Thesis Advisor.
I was definitely worried that I would go the whole semester without getting a single job offer. Luckily, several month into the semester, I ended up having two job offers. How fantastic!!
But how are you going to work at two different places Lawnguy?! Another excellent and poignant question, you really are smart! Thanks. The answer is cloning. By the way, the writing style where you have some dialog between two people (whether they are imaginary or not), is referred to as the... humm, I can't remember. It's called the Socratic method. Thanks!
So, a funny thing happened to me on the way to the cloning center. Google apparently found me. I don't recall ever letting them know I exist. However, my curriculum vita was online (that's academia talk for a resume), and apparently Google knows something about searching for things on the web. Ya, funny that.
So, after making my deposit at the cloning center, I promptly told them to cancel my order. I decided to have an interview with Google. Long story short, forget it... you're hearing the long story. I got the job. (The short version is simply the letter b and a period.)
Yes, we're all super impressed with you Mr Big-Shot-I-work-at-Google-now, but how does that relate to wanting to keep in touch with your friends? Well, even though Google apparently wanted to hire me, they didn't want to hire me so badly that they were willing to open a new office in my home state. Yes, I agree, that is quite selfish of them.
So I decided to pack up and move to California. Unfortunately, this meant I was leaving my entire life behind. All of my friends. All of my family. And most importantly, my beautiful wife. She is not staying behind for good (I hope!), but just for a while. We wanted to make sure everything would work out in California before she left her job and relocated with me.
Unfortunately, living without one's wife after being with her for 10 years is a drastic and thoroughly unpleasant experience. Especially if you don't have any of your friends or family to help you through it.
How are you possibly coping? You must have a will of iron! Well, I am quite excited about my work at Google, which does help. Plus, I get to fly out and see my wife on Friday (3 more days!). We'll each take turns visiting each other every 2 or so weeks. Further, I still talk with my wife every day and she quite patiently puts up with all of my blathering about how lonely I am and how much I miss her.
Enough of my iron will though.
At the end of today, I've completed two entire days at Google. I am now what some would call, a Google expert. However, the set that encompasses those people consists of 3 people. Two of them are split personalities of mine and the other one is a dust bunny.
Wow! A bunny! That's great! Well, I know that sounds cool, but a dust bunny is actually just lint. It's not a bunny at all. Oh.
Well, that's all for now. I'll check in tomorrow and write about my current experiences at Google. One little teaser snippet: the food is amazing. Unbelievably amazing. Absurdly amazing. I seriously cannot believe some of the things Google does for its employees.
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10 comments:
One cool thing Google could also do for you is let you hire a few of your friends and/or family members. Or brother-in-laws, whichever group those fall into. :)
Congrats on finishing your PhD! If only you had slowed down a bit you would not have finished so quickly!
It appears we are in a similar boat. Both without our better halves. Yours, however, appears to be temporary, while mine is a more permanent situation. So after you complete the nightly ritual comiseration with your wife, you might want to have your ass handed to you in a friendly game of chess. I have not played you since we were going to the chess club on base, and after the countless poundings you have given me, I figure I owe ya! If you are up for it I will email you and we can setup a time.
Look forward to chatting with you, it has been a long time!
Chris
Wow! Actual people have read my blog. That's amazing. Hello actual people, you are much more interesting than the unactual people I've become accosumed to speaking with now that I'm out here by myself ;)
I did finally figure out where it is I need to go to refer to people. I'm happy to put in a good word for you mat ;) I'm not sure if I need a resume to refer soemone, but if you have one, it certainly can't hurt to give it to me and I'll post it.
Hydrashok! It has been a long time! So long, in fact, that I'm having somewhat a hard time remembering you. Did we know each other from some BBSs in Abq? The name hydroshok is so familiar. But I don't know how it would relate to chess at the base (I'm assuming you mean Sandia). I don't recall knowing anyone at the chess club who I also knew from BBSs.
I'm sorry to hear that your s/o is away from you on a more permanent level. I greatly miss my wife, but eventually she should be back with me which makes it certinaly more bearable.
But yes! Send me an email. Are you also at Google? Or are you in the Bay area? If you're at Google, I'm also Lawnguy at google, so just send me some mail!
Ignore hydrashok, that is just my gaming name I put everywhere. If you look at the bottom of my post I put my actual name, ring any bells?
Ah yes, I know who you are now... Mr Saunders. I also recalled that Kim mentioned you and your wife were separating. I'm sorry to hear that it didn't work out. :(
I am, however, up for killing you at Chess any time ;) Do you know of a site called redhotpawn.com? It's a site Eric and I have used to play games. Basically, it will set up a game for you to play and then you can just come make your moves any time you want. It's a really good way to play a game. Let me know if you want to play a game on it as I've gotten out of the habit of playing games on there (but even as recently as 1 month ago, I would have like 10-15 games open at any given time that I was playing--you play at whatever pace you want. So just make a move here or there and come back later to see which of your opponents have made moves).
John, becareful Chris has been studying up on (dum ta dum) the HEDGEHOG opening! yeah I dunno, he showed it to me, and well, I failed to see the power in it, but hey...
So did I scare ya off on RHP? We haven't played in a while. not to mention you probably got tired of kicking my ass all the time.
Naw, I'm decided to stop playing games on redhotpawn for a little while, or at least until I get used to things up here at Google. I don't seem to quite have the extra time I did before as a grad student ;)
Though I do hope to start up some games again soon. I do enjoy making chess moves here and there...
Well RHP will be there when you get back. I'm sooo glad we paid for it initially, so we never have to buy into it again. I mean it's nice, but I'm not sure it's monthly subscription nice...
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