Angel Island Offsite

So its been a pretty crazy week here.

Tuesday after work there was a nice farewell to all the UER interns

• Very well done, with good food in Mountain View
• Thanks to all the UER full timers
  

Wednesday after work there was an Intern open house.

• Not a bad event
• The food was not at a good google level, not very impressive at all
  

Thursday all the UI Designers, UERs and the Web Group went to Angel Island.

• This... was really cool.
  
• Talked with the famous Dennis Hwang
• Got some really awesome pictures (in the web album)
  
• Didn't have to work
• Went on a tram ride around the island

Pictures!

The extended Weber Family
Sean, me, Dad, Mom, Amy, Jake, Julie, Andrew

Jake and Amy

(actually from yesterday but whatever)


More pictures will be available in my web album soon.

Wedding Weekend

Currently on the flight back to SFO and just playing around on my computer. I’m learning how to type with my new nails that I had done for the wedding. It’s not going well so far but I think this is going to be a long post so I should be better by the end.

Highlights

- Business class on Air Canada

- Flights to Canada

- The rehearsal party

- The wedding

Firstly, the business class on Air Canada flights are treated extremely well. I’m currently sitting in the first row behind the first class passengers. My foot is technically in first class… but no one is rubbing it yet. Anyways, they are getting a full warm meal tonight, big comfy chairs and nice pillows. It wouldn’t be that bad or much different except I can smell the food here and the soup smells really nice.

The fights on the way to TO were pretty good, a little turbulence on landing but nothing that was that bad. The air in Toronto was thick with humidity and grossness. My Sister was there right away and it was pretty great to see her. Her boyfriend was soon there to pick us all up in the rented PT Cruiser. Pretty funky car, there is a analog clock in the dash… weird. Thursday night was spent at Jake and Amy’s house, chilling and talking with everyone. Cousin Jason, showed up a little late (4 hours) cause of traffic.

Friday was set for the rehearsal and of course the rehearsal party. Mom and Dad showed up about 12ish after Jake and Amy served a great breakfast. …First class is currently being served warm towels … anyway, Amy and I got our nails done and it still feels weird. I actually broke one which is pretty sad, I was going to try to keep them even tho they scare me. Party after went great, everyone got drunk and I learned all new things about my parents and their friends.

The wedding was great, really well done. It did rain as we were getting ready and unfortunately we couldn’t get any pictures outside before the wedding. Wedding went really well, everyone looked great, pictures will follow when I get some from family. (I didn’t have my camera) The party after was awesome, Food was good, speeches went well, and the dancing was awesome. I think we shocked some of Amy’s family. Particularly when we were singing the “wrong” words to MonyMony. Or when Jake was floating around during Home for a Rest. We had a special rendition of Friends in Low Places for the Weber and Riddell children that Julie once again put together. Can’t wait for pictures.

That’s all for now. Think I am going to nap or watch the movie. Can’t wait to check my millions of emails, I’ve been disconnected for too long.

I gave the family some t-shirts

The System Works!

I got my ring back.... Yay...

If you could see me right now you'd know I'm totally dancing!

Random Thoughts

Sometimes I feel like I need to carry a tape recorder with me, particulary in the car. I aways have these ideas about things I should look up and stuff I need to do but they are at the wrong time. Usually if its important I still remember to do them and the thought comes back to me, for the smaller things I just plain forget. I had a lot of these moments today.

For example... I forgot about my laundry that I started at 9:30 in the morning... I finally remember about 1:30 in the afternoon. I'm sure I pissed someone off and my clothes never really did get dry.

So I'm pretty sad and feeling pretty low right now. I think I've lost my ring. Sean gave me two rings for christmas and today the one that goes on my pinky seems to have disappeared. I feel so bad cause I have a feeling that while I was wiping my hands off in the washroom it may have slipped off my finger with the paper towel and into the trash can. Once I discovered that it was missing I retraced all my steps and even looked in the trash cans in the washroom. The ring had very high sentamental value to me and when I finally had to tell Sean about it he looked so crushed. Makes me really sad to think that its gone.

Lots of work to do before the weekend. And I only have tomorrow left.

Suggestions

So it's all most the last weekend in July and that means I have about a month of work and califorina left. It also means I have a big work term report to work on. Work term report is a technical report based on the work I have been doing usually 15 to 25 pages with a good chunk of theory if possible. This of course has to be relavent and something non confidential to Google. So that means mostly methods and no products. So... I need to think this through but I need to find my starting point. I've narrowed it down to two options and if anyone thinks one will work better than the other please let me know.

1. Overview of many types of usability testing methods, some employed at Google, some not. Would include decriptions and some details but nothing with products. Easy to do reasearch hard to do recommendations.

2. In depth review of talk aloud testing. procedures, pros and cons. Focus of many talks at Google, do more research on the topic and be able to present some recommendations.

Hopefully when I go home next weekend I'll spend sometime on the plans writing out a plan.

------------------- instead of two posts -------------------

So this is part two of my Saturday and instead of making another post I thought I would just add on to this one. Let me tell you it is FREAKING HOT here today. I spent a lot of the day in the apartment just not moving it was too hot to even play video games at one point.

So this morning I did a little bit of shopping, and at one point I picked up some nail polish for myself just so I could have something shiny on my nails for the wedding. Well... let me tell you, on a day like today do not put nail polish in the car for over an hour... ... ... It got a little too hot and actually busted the bottle and got all over all my other purchases.

They weren't very impressed when I took it back. But I got my money back anyways.

Current Temps
Windsor: 20
Minneapolis: 80
Mountain View: 87
San Jose: 96

Some Links

Here's two links that I have been meaning to share with everyone:

The Science and Art of User Experience at Google (REALLY cool)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6459171443654125383

Today is World Jump Day (did you feel it?)
http://www.worldjumpday.org

Check out Ok/Cancel's Recent Comic (probably not for everyone)
http://www.ok-cancel.com

Also:
I've been comment spammed.... a lot... Apperently like 20 comments randomly in my website in like 2 minutes. WTF!