Random Ramblings - Trip to Seattle Apr 2012

Plane Trip

There is always this point in time on a plane trip when one thinks to oneself this whole flying thing isn't all that bad. This will usually occur just after one has finished watching the first movie. Then you realise you are only an hour and half into a 15 hour flight and have another 13 odd hours left. 

I didn't sleep much on my trip. In the range of 1-2 hours for the flight to LA and around half and hour for the flight to Seattle. And forget about sleeping while you waiting at the airport less your stuff magically disappears. 

What I watched on the long haul flight: 'Rio', 'Pocahontas' and new episodes of 'Big Bang Theory' and 'How I met your mother'. I actually quite liked 'Rio'. When I originally watched the ads for that film I thought the film was just going to be a really awful animated chick flick with a really awesome evil bad guy song (the producers posted the full version of the song on youtube as an ad). While the macro storyline was quite predictable there was enjoyment to be found in the (some of the) details. I watched 'Pocahontas' primarily because it was one of the few Disney classics that I didn't remember much of.

Apartment

Unlike for Interns, Microsoft likes putting full time employees into nice temporary accommodation. I assume they originally assigned me a 1 bedroom apartment. However the managers of the apartment complex wanted to paint that room. So instead I am now in a 2 bedroom apartment. Its certainly weird having so much space to oneself. Though I am pretty much going to leave the main bathroom and second bedroom alone so the cleaners have less work to do (I am assuming Microsoft is only paying for the 1 bedroom price). 

The apartment has a balcony that looks out over a very small reserve (I can see the apartments on the other side). But its definitely nicer to see trees instead of roads or buildings. Though I have no outside chair (yet) so I can only enjoy the view by sitting inside or standing outside. 

The one bad thing about the apartment is that it is a lot further from the shops than I was previously. There is actually a bus I can take this time that will shave off a significant portion of that distance, so its not all bad. However I don't have the company public transport card yet and I don't have enough $1 notes. So my first couple of trips to the shops, which are the heaviest, I have to do by foot. That is, PAIN!

Both TVs in the apartment have cable with a proper range of channels so I will be able to watch "The Legend of Korra" as it airs. Yay! I should in theory also have access to reruns of popular TV shows though the trick will be finding which channel(s) they air on. 

The first working week report

Probably the best way to describe my first week working at Microsoft is with a simple equation: Productivity = k / Security. Long story short, there were some pretty serious leaks in regards to Windows 8 and hence forth receiving access to various resources one requires to one ones work becme a lot harder. That being said there were some other issues that also prevented me from recieving access. Mainly the fact that when a bunch of new employees enters an organisation as big as Microsoft it can take a while for the new network profiles to propogate throughout the servers. And a non propogated profile can't be given access to things.

My first day after new employee orientation (NEO) had a rather "interesting" start. For starters I almost throw out my temporary name from NEO, that had who I was to report to on my first day and which building + office they were in. Fortunatley I was too lazy to find a bin and instead it ended up in my backpack. Then it turns they mistakenly (or otherwise) put my manager's manager on the name tag, not my manager. So I ended up walking around aimlessly for like 45 minutes going back between what I thought was the right office and the foyer area. In hind-sight I probably should have stayed in the foyer area as we might of found each other faster that way. So what should have been a hours meeting turned in a 15 minute meeting.

Also on my first day (the tuesday) I had to set up and then completley whipe the computer I was using. Fortunatley Microsoft has disk images one can load from the network that install the OS and a bunch of other useful tools. So it only took like 2-3 hours to get it into a working state.

The wednesday morning I took off to apply for my social security number (the office only opens in normal business hours). There was some annoyance in regards to the scissors I had in my pencil case being too long. I had to get rid of them and as I took public transport there was to car to place them in. I ended up throwing them in a public trash can at the bus stop (throwing something into a bush would have looked suspecious). Then I found myself at the back of the line. Yay! I managed to get the scissors back though. I have had those scissors since year 2, so I didn't care if they had a little grime on them.

The rest of the week was spent waiting to get access to stuff, more computer setup, highly irritating online courses made by those HR people and reading specs and the like that I could access to. On the Friday I eventually got access to the source code and was finally able to build a copy of the latest developer version of Windows Phone. Yes I know things not in the public domain and yes I value my job too much to tell you them.

The weekend basically coinsisted of a little bit of shopping and a lot of TV. I really ought to look at doing touristy things but that would require effort and ideally someone other people to go with.

Post First Day

On Saturday I spent the morning finding the shops. Google Maps to the rescue! There is a fairly large outdoor shopping centre that isn't a ridiculously long distance to walk but it isn't short walk either. They is a slightly smaller (more expensive and more organic) supermarket about half way so I suspect I will likely use that a bit as well.

Not much happened on Sunday as it was raining. So I just stayed in, watched TV (including online) and did a bit of programming. Didn't get much sleep Sunday night. No idea why, my body just decided it didn't want to go to sleep. Got to sleep at around 12am from exhaustion and only slept to 4am and didn't get back to sleep.

New Employee Orientation was for the most part boring. I had to walk there but it didn't take too long, slightly shorter than getting to the shopping centre. The first hour was all the administrative stuff. A few small forms, getting your picture taking etc. It takes a while because of the number of people needing to do it. Then the rest of the day was spent listening to talks (and having breaks). Yay! However it is now done and now I have my Microsoft employee badge. Yay!

At the apartment

So the flight to seattle was significantly less comformatable then the international flight due to it being a domestic flight and me travelling in economy as apposed to premium economy. As I was on the window seat with two seats next to me (equals no chance of getting out without a good cause) and had nothing to do, I found it less objectional to talk to the person next to me. I met a person called Kelly Walshe. She was\is a dance teacher that owns her own dance studio which caters for all ages. Though because I am not very good at small talk the conversation did tend more towards my internship at microsoft.

Moving on, seattle airport is wierd. Instead of connecting terminals with walkways they had an underground train. The taxi trip from the airport to the apartment was a little annoying. Firstly the sheet of paper told me to go to a location in the city to pick up the keys, which I didn't need to do. Secodly I forgot to ask for a receipt from the taxi driver, which means no reimbursement. Yay.

The apartment is small but a group of one doesn't particularly need much space and I have internet access. Yay!

Waiting for connecting flight to Seattle

So the head-ache turned into a splitting headache and prevented me from sleeping for a long time. Fortunately due to my my body clock eventually kicking in and pure exhaustion I finally got some sleep, though I believe it was only 1-2 hours. Then came breakfast and I also decided to watch Red Dog. Not the greatest film in the world but not completely boring. Didn't get to finish it due to the plane beginning to land.

Moving on, I hereby hate American airports. First I didn't realise I needed to retrieve and fill out a particular form before going through border protection. So I stood in the same line twice. Getting out of the international terminal was easy enough from then on including re-checking in my baggage. But then boom, I end up outside the terminal on American soil with no easy signs pointing in the right direction. For example, the fact that departures are a level up. Anyway I ended up walking around for ages going the wrong direction multiple times. Eventually, with a little help, I ended up at the correct terminal and at the back of a really long line.

Americans seem to be completely obsessed with airport security, even on domestic flights. Everyone in the line has to strip down to one layer of clothes. This includes taking off your shoes and removing everything from ones clothing. Then you get a choice between an x-ray or a pat down. X-ray is faster so I choose that. This obviously takes a while. Oh and no liquids period, not that I had any anyway. At-least the security people were friendlier here then at border protection.

On the plane to LA, bored and tired

My check-in was a little stressful. The check-in staff has to verify that the US will allow me to enter the country before they will give me the tickets. So they ask for my passport and where I will be staying. However the addresses I gave them weren't being accepted by the US computer systems. Turns out I was suppose to mention that I had actually already been given a visa, whereas they just assumed I would be on a tourist visa. Anyway they entered the visa details and everything went through okay.

The baggage checks and the customs were long, the lines were moving but they were long. Even though the actual rooms used are relatively small because one has to zig-zag through them you end up walking a long distance. Then after that you are forced to walk through a long line of duty-free shops and there is no shortcut even though they could have built one. Then the gate I was going to was one of the furthest away from the end of the line of shops. So much so that they put moving walk ways in. All this walking was compounded by the fact that I had quite a heavy bag on my back with most of the weight coming from the laptop I am currently typing on.

Getting onto the plane wasn't too much of a hassle because on this flight I am flying premium economy and so the line was nice and short. Yay! However the plane ended up being delayed by too obnoxious customers who must of gotten lost or something because we ended up setting off 30+ minutes from the scheduled departure time. Alas I suspect this type of thing isn't as uncommon as it should be.

We had turbulence for a large portion of the beginning of the flight. We weren't allowed to take our seatbelts off during the first half hour due to it being particularly bad. I am not talking about the few little shakes at the start of the flight due to going through the main cloud layer, I am talking about major jerks at cruising height. We were served lunch with the turbulence still going. Towards the end of lunch it did get to the point were you couldn't have a full cup of liquid without it spilling. Though that eventually died down. They did put seatbelt sign back on shortly after all the lunch had been packed up but that ended up only being a pre-cautionary measure.

During the turbulence and lunch I was watching Captain America. Not a bad film really. I would recommend watching it if you haven't. It was only at the end of the film did the turbulence eventually die down. After that I started watching the social network. Not the greatest film in the world but it was decent. I actually watched it in two parts. Half way through they closed all the windows. This might have been because were were moving into darkness though I don't actually know. At any rate the cabin was dark, my eyes were sore and I so I decided to try and get some sleep. Key word here was try as I didn't actually manage but I started getting a head-ache so it was probably no bad thing that I had my eyes closed. As I write this, around 8 hours into the flight, the head-ache is coming back so I guess I am going to try and get some sleep again.