First, I'd like to start off with this gem...it's freezing here in Durham! For anyone who is too lazy to click on the picture, it says 21 F! That's freezing cold, especially for my Florida bones.

I feel guilty for not posting here very often, and I've decided to try again. In fact, I was reading over some of my previous posts and I noticed a promise from myself to be more consistent. So much for that! Well, as I promised before, I will try to be more consistent in my posting. Feeling kind of tired now (and rightly so, since it's 2 AM) so I'm going to call it a night.

Hello from the Oakland, CA airport. On a whim, I decided to fly down to see Mike Arndt, one of my AEPi brothers, for the weekend. I have just finished an incredible weekend in Pleasanton, CA, surrounded by gorgeous California scenery. Wineries everywhere, grass and hills, blue skies, and warm weather. It has been indescribably relaxing and incredible! Pictures will go up on facebook depicting the beauty of the countryside and documenting the fact that I was actually there.

Friday night Mike had some friends over so we hung out at his house and I got to meet everyone. Saturday we woke up at 10 or so because Mike had to go to a family friend's Bar Mitzvah service. While he was gone, I got a little bit of work done (writing this on the work laptop) and talked with Mike's friend. When he got back, we lounged around for a bit and then went to Berkeley. I got to see the famous hippie village, centered on Telegraph Ave, around the campus and ate at the famous Blondie's Pizza.

After that, Mike and I went to the Greek Amphitheater on UC Berkeley's campus to see Death Cab for Cutie with Rogue Wave as the opener. Both bands were incredible. The sadness and melancholy of Death Cab is utterly annihilated by their presence and energy on the stage. I was blown away.

To refuel after the concert, we stopped at the legendary In-N-Out Burger. It was delicious! I had a double double (double meat, double cheese) with animal style fries (thousand island dressing & cheese). After that, Mike and I went to his house and slept.

I was woken up Sunday morning by his friendly cat, Sugar. Mike and I got up and went to a local diner in Pleasanton called Vic's that has high school sports pics, including some of Mike, on the wall. After that, we went for a long, leisurely drive through the wine country around Mike's neighborhood. It was so relaxing and incredibly beautiful. I now have a row of vines as my iPhone background!

After the wine tour, Mike and I lounged around his house and ate turkey burger BBQ for lunch. We then got a call from Nick Solis from Duke who lives nearby. We then headed to the Great Mall to meet up with Nick. We walked, talked, and enjoyed Thai Boba (Bubble) tea. Once Nick had to leave, Mike and I left, only to discover that my flight was delayed until 11:30 PM. With that happy discovery, I enjoyed a slow, leisurely meal with Mike and his family of BBQ beef ribs. I even got a whiff of some local-grown wine!

We then went upstairs to watch some of the movie Sideways, which gave me a video tour of Southern California (I was in Northern California). After an hour, we had to leave. And now, here I am in the Oakland Airport waiting for my flight. It feels like a dream-but what an incredible one!

Although the delay will put me back in Seattle later than intended, I really don't mind as I had such a wonderful time! :)

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This post brought to you by ATT's Partnership with Boingo - giving me free wireless in the Oakland Airport since 10:30 PM

Today is a big day for me. Today I cooked myself a real chicken dinner for the first time. As in, not chicken nuggets! It tasted pretty good :-D
I've included the recipe for my readers who are also timid cooks. Its basically a mashup of this recipe (courtsey of live.com -- Microsoft Intern, remember?) and some cooking time advice from Rachel Ray. The end result was some delicious chicken strips.

Let's hope I didn't get salmonella! :-P
~Alex

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Ingredients

Serves 1, maybe 2 with a side dish. If you double the chicken, you may not need to double the sauce, as there was some left over.

• 1/2 cup Soy Vay sauce
• 5.5 fl oz grace juice
• 4 tbsp water
• 2 frozen chicken breasts

Instructions

1. Put the two frozen chicken breasts in the
   microwave
1. Set the microwave to thaw 2 lbs of chicken (about
   8 minutes)
2. Meanwhile, pour all liquids into a skillet and
   put the stove on medium heat.
3. When the chicken is ready, take it out and slice
   into ½ inch strips.
4. Place strips into the sauce (which is probably
   bubbling now)
5. Cover pan and allow chicken to cook for 3
   minutes
6. Do each side for 3 minutes, three times.
7. Eat and enjoy!

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    So, I turn 20 today. And Mich & Nicole both felt it necessary to point out that I'm old now. :-p Don't really feel old. I must say, it was very nice to come home for my birthday. My first week at Microsoft was both incredibly busy and incredibly awesome. Its such a cool culture and such a cool place. I should be working out what my project is in the next few days. I spent my first week getting up to speed, meeting people on my team, getting setup, etc. Fun and very exhausting!
    I'm working in Microsoft Office, specifically for Office Communicator. In a few words, its basically Windows Messenger (MSN Messenger) on super steroids. It integrates IM, phone, webcam, and email. The team is really cool, and the product is a lot of fun to use.
    I don't really have all that much to say but I wanted to post something.

~Alex

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Hi all!

    Done with my first day at Microsoft! Today was NEO, New Employee Orientation, and it started at 8 AM with filling out paperwork. Once the paperwork was done, the free shirts handed out, and the free breakfast eaten, it was time to begin. We had a 3:30 lecture about non-disclosure, company organization, benefits, resources, etc. Near the end of the lecture, I received a call from my recruiting contact telling me that my team was out for a morale event and I was welcome to come.
    I left the lecture early and met up with my manager who drove me to see Iron Man with my team! It was very cool to meet everyone in such a relaxed setting. Seeing the movie a second time, I saw it in Myrtle the first time, was pretty cool too. Got a bit more out of it. After the movie we headed back to campus where I was given a welcome basket, shown my office, and given a brand-spanking-new Dell laptop as my main PC while at Microsoft. I then sat down to set it up and begin to familiarize myself with the job. Miru, my fellow intern, started 2 weeks before me and was very helpful getting me up to speed.
    After a while, my manager came in and started quizzing me on acronyms and basics, which I knew because he had asked me to do some research. He was pleasantly surprised by my knowledge, and when I told him I had done my homework and sent the report to him, he was surprised. Turns out he never got that email. Anyway, once he saw I was ready, he gave me a high level overview of the network that the product works in. That took about 30 minutes, during which the laptop setup barely progressed.
    My manger then left , and Miru and I decided to go get dinner while the laptop continued to work. We ate at Qdoba, which was quite good. I got a naked chicken burrito, which has everything but the burrito. Miru and I ate back at campus and the laptop finished soon after. We progressed through the next setup steps, until we hit a road block. We needed my manager to progress any further, but he had gone home for the evening. Since it was 7:30 PM, I thanked Miru profusely for staying so late and headed out.
    Back in my room, I've watched the first half of the 2 hour season finale of House MD. The second half should be ready soon. As soon as that's done, I'm going to sleep. I'm getting into work around 9 AM tomorrow. Miru and my manager should both be arriving around then as well. I will then spend the next few days getting settled in, entered into Microsoft's network, and getting up to speed.
   
It was quite the first day and I am so tired now. Until tomorrow.

PS - I'm being vague for NDA reasons.

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    Sorry for the long delay in updates. This will be quick as I'm tired.
    So the processor processed (& cracked code), the light dimmer dimmed, the SMS TV controller counted votes and displayed the winner. In short, all the projects ended up coming together.
    Grades came out very nicely and my finals, overall, were not bad. Packing went very smoothly and I spent my last few days at Duke in a hotel.
    The day after my last final, I headed to Myrtle with one of the new brothers. It was a nice drive and a great Myrtle. Lots of the usual fratty insanity. I had a great time and a very pleasant drive back.
    Since I've been home, its been lots of chilling. With the family, with the friends, with Nicole. We celebrated four years May 8th, but did the dinner and all that on May 13th when we were both back in SoFla.
    Its been really nice to be home with everyone in the sun. The sun and warmth have really been recharging, actually. Now I'll enjoy my last fews days before heading out to Seattle for my summer internship with Microsoft. I'm very excited to start!
    Sorry for neglecting this. I hope to be more consistent in the coming months.

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Long, productive day. Learned more about the communication glitches we've been having with the SMS-TV project. Hit another milestone in the "make-the-processor-go-fast" stage of the design.

But...I can't find rest. My mind keeps turning. So, I grabbed my laptop and sent out some emails that were waiting in my head to be written.

Hopefully I can stop floating around the web & facebook so I can sleep... 8:30 AM class...

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