It's been almost two weeks since the last update, so I guess I'm going to bundle a whole bunch of things into one disorganized post.

Work has been picking up nicely. The initial learning curve is pretty steep - the codebase is massive, it's a new build environment, there are lots of tools that you learn to use, and it often takes time to find out who the right person to talk to is when you have questions about something in particular. But I'm getting a hang of things, and enjoying it all.

Besides working, I've been attending lots of tech talks on campus; I try to go to at least one every week. Sometimes, the speakers are other Googlers talking about the work they're doing, and sometimes they're people from outside the company who have been invited to present something new and interesting.

Last week, for example, I went to check out a presentation by Rick Woodbury, the President of CommuterCars, a company based in Spokane, WA. Rick's team builds this fully electric car called the Tango, that can go from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds and fits in half a freeway lane. They actually managed to bring the car to the second floor of the building. It's a neat little vehicle, although you're going to have to shell out over $100K for one until it starts being mass-produced. George Clooney was apparently their first customer. And speaking of electric cars, the Tesla Roadster was also unveiled this week. Gorgeous car that uses Lithium-ion batteries to run 250 miles on a full charge. Is the electric car finally on its way towards making a comeback?

Other than that, we've been watching lots of movies here in the apartment at night after work. One of my housemates, Aaron, has a projector that we use, so it's a mini-theater like experience. I've also started watching episodes of Entourage from the beginning. It's just an entertaining, laidback show that's fun to watch at the end of the day.

So that's the update for now. More later, hopefully without the two week gap this time around... :)