The end.

CAUTION: This is NOT a Hallway

Please do not knock on the glass
it scares the sea monkeys

Friday was my last day.

The picture above is of my cubicle, or should I say, was my cubicle. It used to be a hallway, but about a month and a half ago, I got e-mails saying that I was in the "Vibe Zone" and that they were going to reduce the vibrations in the area. And apparently their solution to reducing the vibration (from people walking in the hallway, which I never felt) was to eliminate the hallway and fit more people in the cubes. So, in the end, I was actually sitting IN the hallway (not on the side taking pictures). People were very confused, as it all happened over one weekend and would stare at my cubicle, often peering over and staring down at me, sometimes being surprised when I was stared back at them when they peered over. That's also a very high traffic area (outside one of the big meeting rooms where there are several talks a day), which made things worse. I decided, upon Mark's suggestion, to make a humorous sign :). I could hear people laugh as they passed.

If you look through the wall in the picture and over a set of cubicles, you can see the billionaires' office.

It was a pretty chill last day. I saw a "talk" by Leslie Jordan, aka, Beverley Leslie from Will & Grace. It was hilarious. Then, I watched Will Wright (the guy who created Sim City and the Sims) talk about and demo his upcoming game, Spore. Ya, there are some cool (and fun) talks at Google.

The whole exit interview thing was anticlimactic. Any questions or comments? No, I wrote them all down on the sheet. Ok. At least I got a sweatshirt and it's nicer than the one I got from MSR.

I hung around for a while afterwards b/c of the social TGIF. When I finally left, I almost forgot to return my badge. I did so, and got escorted to the parking garage (b/c I needed someone to open the door for me). That was that.

Michele just put these pictures up, and I felt nostalgic.

Typical lunch at Google

Adam and I had a hot dinner date and went for some Pho in MV. I then joined Michele, Jenny (and friends), and Jon in SF at an Asian club. Hadn't been to one of those since Toronto. It's still a novel thing to me. They don't have them in Winnipeg. The first time I had seen one was in Calgary I think when Becky, Alvin, Florence, Ching, and I bussed it over there and somehow stumbled into one. I remember being rather shocked as I wasn't aware that there could be so many Asians in Canada.

2002 Flashback: Alvin, Ching, Vince, Florence, and Becky on our Alberta trip

Last night was AsiaSF, where the "waitresses" are "gender illusionists". It was an experience. It was scary in that the waitresses were HOT. If you saw some of them on the street, you would have no idea. They did some shows on the bar. Periodically the lights would dim and one or more would go on the bar and dance, while lip syncing. I'll never forget the look on Jon's face. Huge props to them for being able to run, dance, and jump on massive stilettos. Mike keeps talking about being flashed from one of the waitresses/dancers on the bar and being teased with a pink feather boa. Oddly enough, I found a pink blob of fluff in the passenger seat today :p. I promised Mike that I wouldn't reveal all the details of what happened to spare Anna ;)

AsiaSF's menu

We hit the bar/club downstairs afterwards. Oddly enough, it was livelier at 9:30 when we were down there waiting for our table than at midnight after our meal.

Thanks to everyone that came out!


Oh, so I don't leave until the 10th. So, I'm not sure if these celebrations were "Vince's last day at Google", "Vince isn't working at Google anymore, so he's dead to us and here's his funeral", or "Vince, leave already". Regardless, these next two weeks will be a continous and sad goodbye. By far, what I will miss most from this summer won't be the free food, the beach, or the warm (?) weather, but rather, all the good friends I made.

I'll now answer the question that everyone keeps asking me (What are you going to do until then???). I'm going to relax and do things that I wanted to do here, but didn't get a chance to. Also, Florence (see above) is coming to visit for a week starting Wednesday, so I'll have company in my explorations.