Bearly Made It

In a completely unexpected twist of fate, I received a call from the Boalt Hall Director of Admissions Monday morning, and he let me know that I had gotten off the waitlist.

In all honesty, I had forgotten that I was even on the waitlist. They had told me back in May that I wasn't in the top quartile, so I was under the impression that it wasn't plausible for me to get off of it. And at this point, it was so close to the start of the school year, and I had already gone down to Los Angeles to pick out a place to live, sent in my paperwork for parking and health insurance, taken pictures for my student ID... the last thing on my mind was the possibility that Boalt would come calling.

After the initial shock wore off, I realized that a decision would be hard to come by. The environmental factors were difficult to evaluate because they were so clouded with emotion, though it helped that my dad unequivocally favored Boalt, which pretty much mitigated the whole "If I go to UCLA, I'll be near my parents" factor. They just wanted me to go to the better school.

Ultimately, that's what I decided to do, and the disparity between the two schools did play a significant role, though it wasn't simply a matter of rankings. I sought the input of all my lawyer friends to get a better perspective on the two schools, and I got some especially helpful insight from Katherine's brother Howard, a Boalt Hall alumnus who had a great experience there. It was reassuring to hear him say that the culture was not cutthroat at all, the grading system was friendly, and in his experience, the Boalt name opened a lot of doors. It also has a class size almost half the size of UCLA's. In the end, most of the signs pointed to Boalt the school, if not the Berkeley area in general.

So now I'm starting over with the housing search and paperwork (you'd think that stuff would be transferable between UC schools) and coming to grips with the idea of being a dirty golden bear. Priscilla called me this morning with a hearty "Go Bears," which was almost enough to make me change my mind. God I hope the four-game Big Game win streak for the school I attend comes to an end.

So Close

The Champ Car schedule brought the series to San Jose this weekend, and I had great seats for the race, right along pit row and the finish line. But mostly, I was there to see Alan, and boy could I see him. This is a picture of him in the pit, from my seat in the grandstand. He looks ready for space travel, no?


Alan's an engineer for Oriol Servia, the #7 car for Forsythe Racing. Oriol qualified well and started the race in row 2:





Here's Alan analyzing his car's fuel consumption (his primary role during races):



This was my view of the home stretch in downtown San Jose:



So Oriol led much of the race, but then there was a late caution, and on the big screen, I could see a car identical to Oriol's that had run out of gas. Alan, what did you do?! But to my great relief, it was Oriol's teammate, Paul Tracy, who was stuck on the track. Whew!

Unfortunately, as the cars pitted during the subsequent yellow, Oriol dropped from 1st to 3rd (don't worry, Alan's not involved with that stuff), and that's where he finished. A solid finish nonetheless, and his first on the podium since the last time I watched him race, in Long Beach. I guess that makes me his lucky charm.

Alan must have done a good job, because he got lots of handshakes afterwards:



I really wanted to be there for Alan's first win, but I'll have to settle for watching it on television as he travels to Belgium, Holland, and Mexico. And I'll have to wait until Long Beach next year to see another race in person. Till then, watch the fuel, Lo! It was fun hanging out with you, even if we did lose 10 straight Super Bowls to Gerald and Andrew.

Deathly Hallows

Way too much potential for spoilers, so I'll just say that this final installment does a comprehensive job of tying up all the loose ends, and it's hard to imagine a resumption of the series at any point in time, for which many fans held out hope. I can't really think of any major unanswered questions. The Sopranos this was not.

It was written that back when JK Rowling first started the series, she always knew what the final word of the final book would be. There were two endings, so I'm not sure to which she referred, but neither struck me as particularly memorable (the words, not the endings). Did she make a course change?

Now that I'm done, I feel like I did after watching Return of the King. I had so much anticipation for the concluding chapter, and it more than satisfied, but then it was over. Like, really over. The letdown's unavoidable.

Oh well, at least there are two more movies to look forward to. And I guess I won't be doing much reading of novels in the next three years anyway.

Potter Mania

For the final installment of the Harry Potter series, Lisa, Annaka, and I decided to pick up our copies at midnight, at the Menlo Park Kepler's. It was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. This is, after all, the biggest book release of our lives, and Kepler's was putting on a show to match.

After dinner at Palermo's with TJ, we dove head first into the chaos, fully prepared with our claim tickets.





The crowd was enormous, and there were some really good costumes on display, like Hagrid, Dumbledore, and Volde... er, He Who Must Not Be Named.





Even the Stanford Band showed up to perform a set. They were a big hit, though I was the only one to jump during All Right Now.



The neighboring Cafe Borrone also got into the spirit, complete with a wizard tending bar.



Finally around 11:30pm, it was time to get in line, which wound around multiple buildings. We managed to get a decent spot around the first building.



Finally, at around 12:15am, we got our hands on the prize.



Time to start reading. We'll see how long I manage to stay awake. I usually breeze through quickly, then follow up with a more thorough reading, but seeing as how this is the last installment, I'm planning to take my time and savor it. Though the suspense may keep me going.

Now, let's see if Harry survives...

A Change is Bruin

This week marks a significant turning point in my life. Last Thursday, I officially confirmed my intent to enroll at UCLA Law School for the upcoming school year, almost five years after taking the LSAT, and this week will be my last at Google, after an incredibly rewarding four years. No more search advertising crises, free lunches, or coworker high jinks. In their place: case briefs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and study groups.

A large part of me is still coming to grips with the fact that I'm leaving Google, the number one workplace in America. That means it doesn't get any better than this, right? The emotions will undoubtedly hit me hard come Friday. I'm grateful to have been here during the company's meteoric rise, with an insider's view of the most acclaimed and scrutinized company of the decade, and I'll regret no longer being a part of this environment. But more than anything, I'll miss the camaraderie I've enjoyed with my coworkers, both local and remote. I struggle with the thought of hearing workplace war stories from them second hand; I won't be able to help but feel left out. It's the hardest part about leaving.


It's been a joy hanging out with you guys

Ultimately, I suppose I should be happy that it's hard to leave; far better than the alternative. And perhaps my decision to go back to school is validated by it, if it needs any validation. It obviously wasn't made lightly, nor was it made out of a sense of having nothing else worth doing. Ultimately, it came down to what made the most sense for me career-wise, and as much as I love the culture and cachet of Google, I am not going to find my career here. At least not without a JD. :) Perhaps I'll return some day as a lawyer. I'm confident Google will still be number one.

In the meantime, I'll have plenty of stories to share here as I navigate my way through the next three years in Westwood, in pursuit of my JD and my passion. I approach this next chapter in life with some trepidation and a great deal of excitement, the kind only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion... whoops, sorry about that.

Thank You, Come Again!

Back in '91, every Sunglass Hut in the country featured Arnold's mug with his T2 Ray Bans. Head over to any GM dealership today to see Bumblebee and Jazz (aka Camaro and Pontiac Solstice) from Transformers. Cross promotions are nothing new, but this one tops the list:



In advance of the upcoming and long-awaited The Simpsons Movie, a dozen 7-Elevens around the country were converted into Kwik-E-Marts, including the one down the street from Google! Ours even came complete with a dude named Raju:


And it wouldn't be a Kwik-E-Mart without Squishees, Buzz soda, Krusty Os, and pink-frosted donuts with sprinkles (though strangely, no Duff beer):





Check local listings for a Kwik-E-Mart near you.

My hopes are sky high for The Simpsons Movie, after what has been just an okay theater-going experience thus far in '07. For the script, Matt Groening brought back all the best writers from the incomparable first decade of the show (except for Conan, unfortunately), before it became a pale imitation of The Family Guy imitating The Simpsons.

So far this year, I've seen eight movies in theater, and I'd rank them as follows:

1. Hot Fuzz - Even better than Shaun of the Dead.
   
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - I enjoyed it plenty, and I like it even better now that I've seen the last scene.
   
3. Ratatouille - Compares favorably to past Pixar winners, though I thought the lead rat was a bit grating and unsympathetic when with the other rats (he was great with the humans).
   
4. Sicko - Thought-provoking and entertaining, with all its predictable flaws. And it was free!
   
5. 300 - Pretty flimsy story, but it looked really cool.
   
6. Transformers - I nodded off near the end, but mostly because I went in tired, not because it was terrible. Then again, it did fail to keep me awake. It didn't help when they shifted the focus from Megan Fox to the machines. Oh well, at least it was free.
   
7. Ocean's 13 - I fell asleep during the boring first half. The second half unfolded nicely, but the net effect was lackluster.
   
8. Spider-Man 3 - My feelings on this movie are by now well known. At least it was free, but I still wanted my money back.

Three more summer flicks that I'll be adding to this list, hopefully near the top:

1. Bourne Ultimatum - The first two were great. I can't imagine it pulling a Spider-Man 3, given the grittiness of the series.
   
2. The Simpsons Movie - See above.
   
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - This is a tough movie to pull off, with a lot of exposition required to set up the final two installments, but I enjoy watching the series continue to get darker.

At this point, I'll probably catch Live Free or Die Hard and Knocked Up on DVD. I've heard solid things about Knocked Up, but has anyone actually seen Live Free or Die Hard? I haven't heard a peep about it.

The Rest of Gina's "Summer"

In addition to hiking Castle Rock, we spent Gina's trip meeting up with many old friends.

On Monday, we ate dinner with DanFran at Pluto's, and we saw Josh Childress and Chris Hernandez there! In fact, that's Chris' head between Gina and Dan.

On Tuesday, we ate dinner with Lis at Tamarine.



On Wednesday, we ate lunch at Google with Won and Leslie, then we had dinner with Gina's Iolani pals, including Matt, Jackie, and Laurel.



On Thursday, Gina had dinner with her sisters Roz, Suzy, and Yolanda, and on Friday, we had dinner with Nicole, Rob, and their adorable daughter.



Saturday was Ruth and Hubert's big day, and on our 3-year engagement anniversary! The ceremony was beautifully done at MemChu, and the reception was at Palo Alto Hills. Congratulations, guys!





The highlight was the photo booth, which was so fun we went twice! This was the page that Gerald, groomsman Andrew, Eric, Gina, and I created, with a close-up of my personal favorite, when we collectively attacked Gerald's shirt.





Afterwards, we saw Ratatouille with Annaka, TJ, Lis, Andrew, and Gerald, and it got seven thumbs up, though some were more enthusiastic than others. If you can accept a rat as a chef, you'll have a good time. :)

And it wouldn't be a Gina trip without some video games. Last time was Guitar Hero, and this time was Wii Play and Mario Party 8. We also spent some time building Miis for me, Gina, Gerald, and Andrew. How'd we do? (The one with the goatee is my buddy Tomas)



No more Wii for Gina. Fourth year has already started!

Castle Rock

Gina had a whopping two weeks off for the summer before the start of year four (year FOUR!), and she was able to spend the second one out here to see the gang and attend the Lo Pan wedding (more on all that in the next entry).

We spent Thursday morning hiking in Castle Rock State Park, in Los Gatos. It's mostly known for the interesting rock formations throughout the park, but also has plenty of nice views, including the Santa Cruz mountains stretching out to the bay, and the colorful madrone trees shedding their bark:





The best feature of the hike was the collection of funky trees and craggly rocks littered throughout. I was a kid in a candy store, climbing around on everything I came across.





One of the popular sites is Goat Rock, which has a sheer face resembling the inside of an English muffin, providing a great spot for climbing. I messed around on it and wanted to go higher, but Gina wasn't too keen on the idea, so we took the stairs to the top:





At the end of the hike, we finally reached the titular rock, where TJ once dislocated his ankle while climbing...yuck. I once again messed around at the base before calling it quits.



The total hike was just under six miles. If you enjoy climbing, this is your playground. Check out the rest of it in the slideshow below: