Wednesday 6/4: Today I attended an all-day training session which taught us how to use and program in one of the company's home-grown computer languages. The instruction was so exciting that at multiple times throughout the day I needed to test my caffeine tolerance by drinking coffee. The instructor seemed to know the material very well, but frankly I was not enthused.
Thursday 6/5: This day is technically my first real day of work since I had been in orientation and training the 3 days before. I was set up with a desktop computer with double screen monitors. Though I had thoughts of taking advantage of this setup by perhaps running PC games on it, I was discouraged by the fact that my desk is located almost immediately in front of the offices of three very important people in my department. My monitors directly face the corner of the room where the managing director of my department sits as well as two other high-level managers. I guess this ensures that I will be as productive as possible at work.
At night, I attended an intern social event whose purpose was to allow us to network with the other interns and managers. Though I did meet a good number of people, I felt my most interesting conversation was with a student from MIT who was explaining a research project involving WiFi electricity and how its proof of concept exists. Apparently pretty soon (probably more like in several years) we won't need to carry stupid chargers for our phones or laptops but instead just need to be in range of some WiFi electricity outlet.
After the event, some Berkeley people headed over to Greenwich Village to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Panchitos. The main topic of discussion revolved around a philosophical discussion about whether an original exists if something or someone is cloned even though every single atom exists in both things.
Friday 6/6: I am getting up to speed on my project and the underlying framework of the systems I will be working with.
My friend Andrew from school suggested that I shouldn't miss out on this highly acclaimed hot dog place called Gray's Papaya. Tonight Gheric, Marco, and I decided to try it out for once. To analyze, I must say I've had better hot dogs elsewhere though the price was cheap and the papaya drink I ordered was highly diluted. My conclusion is that Gray's Papaya was overrated. We were not satisfied, so we decided to hunt for another hot dog place - Papaya Dog. Here I ordered a hot dog and corn dog, but must say that I was just as unsatisfied with their goods.
We were unsure how the night would unfold, but decided to walk towards Times Square. On the way, we encountered what I believe to be some kind of cult. These people on the four corners of the street were chanting while performing a ritual of some sort. These four guys that you see below would raise their arms, yell loudly, and then bow down as if to some imaginary god in the middle of the intersection. Then four other guys on the adjacent corner would follow suit and do the same thing. This would continue around the entire intersection for 5 more minutes. I, along with other passers-by, was utterly confused and amused at this seemingly satanic ritual. For a few seconds I thought this was a flash mob, but then I was informed that crazy shit like this happens in NY all the time. Here's a pic:
Not your everyday night time activity.
Following this, we made our way to Times Square stopping to take pictures at Madison Square Garden and some television studio which you could see from the outside.
Finally the three of us arrived in Times Square after our mini-trek from West Village.
The crowd at around 11 PM.Then we decided to check out the Marriott Marquis which towers 45 floors high. Though we didn't get to see the observation deck, we decided to crash a Puerto Rican party on the way down. Apparently this weekend marks the annual Puerto Rican Pride Parade. Though Gheric was wearing a suit still from work while Marco had some kind of semi-formal jacket on, I stood out in the crowd like a sore thumb sporting my t-shirt and jeans with my favorite track jacket. We decided it would be best to leave before the bouncers came to kick us out.
6/7-6/11 shall be covered in later posts. Stay tuned.
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