Hung in a Bad Place

Hello all. Can't it be - more than one entry per month. What has the world has gone too. But there are some things I've been wanting to say. Mainly continuation from last entry but here are some updates.

First off, I am typing this entry from my new MacBook Pro that I got last week. Let's just say: color me impressed. It is is superfast, superslick, and a much welcomed improvement over my old Dell. The only thing annoying is that I can transfer over all my music from my Ipod onto it because of Apple's crappy DRM. Plus it is super light. In other news, I had a low-key Halloween. I went to a co-worker's Halloween party. My costume was the Liberal Media, which unless you are a delusional Republican, doesn't actually exist. Workwise, things are going as usual. Last week, I ran an in-lab usability study, which happened to be my first for quite a while since I basically spend the past few months mostly doing field work. Speaking of work, tI was watching PBS just now and I saw a documentary about the place that I work at. It is sorta funny and surreal to watch it. I mean, I had never seen a documentary about any of the other places I have worked at. While it is my job to think on behalf of users, it is always enlightening to see the impressions of Google by outside people. So here is my running commentary that I took while watching the documentary, The World According to Google:

Hey Marissa Mayer! She looks much tanner than in real life.
I know Frederick. I have been in a couple meetings with him
Volleyball - yes i have played the court on several times. Including once where I saw a guy severely dislocated his toe. By the way two of those guys playing play nearly all the time.
London office! I've been there
Good description of Google life Frederick. I have said almost the exact same thing
Nice shot of the jet-pool lifeguard asleep with his Powerbook
Oh the billboard equation sign - I heard that actually didn't turn up very good candidates.
Yeah don't remind how popular Google is with MBAs. I have a very low opinion of them.
Oh gawd - Vint Cerf - damn strait , critical thinking by the user does come into play. Google doesn't make dumbasses any smarter
Brewster Kahle - oh gawd - I heard he is a real asshole in real life. And that comes from somebody who works at the Internet Archive.
I know that whiteboard!
Yes Googlers do say "Don't be evil" probably too much internally.
Franz Och - ummm heard of him.......
Smart water! Yes we get free smart water - Och is drinking smart water - therefore he must be smart.
I guess they put that bottle in front of his computer to obscure the mac logo
That shot of London is taken right in front of the office.
Its gmail dumbass! Not Google Mail.
I've never heard wind chimes at Google - where the hell are those?
Now he says Gmail.... Yeah don't mention that we fought the US government when they wanted the data. How now Ian Brown!
Wow the book scanner thing. Wow when I asked the Google Books guy about it he was super secret but they let a film crew in. Bah you!
Boo Stanford Library shout out. Where's the University of Michigan mention?
Brewster Kahle - crazy eyebrows man crazy
Wow, "There are others...." Did Kahle just admit to being an "Other." Lost reference
Yeah Todd sitting on the floor!
If I had time to do 20 percent time than I would do it. Yeah, it is really hard to find 20 percent of your time to devote to anything besides your projects.
Wait a minute, I only used Encyclopedia Britianica in my elementary school library because it was the only encyclopedia available. Do I lack critical thinking skills because of that?
Long Tail reference! I was wondering when someone would say that.
Very mumbled non-answer to the Google Earth security issue.
"I'm sorry but that's my perspective" Marissa Mayer - WOW that was a nice way of saying f-u asshole.
New job title for me based on Ian Brown's comments: David Choi, User Experience Researcher, Ministry of Truth
Two Googlers chatting at a table - no wait! They aren't because they are wearing visitor badges.

Getting to the major point of this entry, is that I wanted to talk about getting older and living life, which were major themes of last entry. I saw Into the Wild a few weeks ago. As some of you know, I am a big fan of the book written by Jon Krakauer, more known for this other book Into Thin Air. For those who don't know, Into The Wild chronicles the tale of Chris McCandless, who deliberately gave up all his possessions, donated all his money, and cut himself off from this family to travel the road and become immersed in nature. He ended up dying in Alaska. There are two camps of people when it comes to judging his life. The conflict is documented well in this Men's Journal article. His supporters admire him for his desire, zeal, and passion for trying to live his life with nature. His spirit represents a desire to throw off the artificial barriers of society and to live something more meaningful. The other camp says he was an overly idealistic and naive greenhorn who stupidly got himself killed and is only famous because somebody wrote a book about him. Well when I first read the book several years ago, I deeply appreciated and admired McCandless for what he was trying to do. Maybe it was because I was still in college, working too many jobs for too little money, taking too many classes, for a goal that seemed too far away. I suppose I wanted to find meaning in my own life that seemed only to be filled with unclear obligations. But I have reread the book many times since then, and I have to say that I am more and more falling into the other camp. I read some of McCandless's writings and they come off as an arrogant, wildly faux erudite idealist who preaches to others about the evils of modern society when he quite honestly didn't spend that much time in it. I sometimes look back at my old previous blog entries from 5 or 6 six years ago and I cringe how much of a know-it-all I sound like. Or how I often blew things way out of proportion and how preachy I got. I suppose growing older makes you wiser and also humbler. Which is a good combination in my opinion. For myself, I like the opportunity to increase what i do know but also be more aware of what I don't know.

I said when "I suppose growing older makes you wiser" and really should have emphasized "suppose." I was bored a few nights ago so I went back to the a couple of online forums I used to frequent a couple years ago. You know, just to check if they were still around and were other people still going to them. Much to my surprise, there were more than a few members still around from back when I was there. And they are still arguing about the same thing. Still arguing the same points. The deluded right-wing Christian. The angry Asian guy who is mad at the world. The trolls who are merely there to piss everyone off. Still spouting their half-truths, unsubstantiated claims, un-provable or statistically invalid "facts" to show how the other side is so stupid and wrong. Quite honestly, it just made me sad. I moved on and while I still strongly believe in many things, I no longer feel the desire to debate them online. As the cliche, I found better things to do with my life - like going to and graduating from grad school, keeping in shape, working at a great company, and spending fulfilling time with my friends and family. I would like to think that I have made some forward progress in my life. But looking at those forum members who are still there, still sniping at every point, still posting dozens of messages per day, every day, makes me think that no everyone wants to or is capable of moving on from that. As much as contributing to an online forum have the potential to be intellectually stimulating, there is a whole world out there that could use some help. So in that vein, I am volunteering for the first time in a long time this upcoming weekend. So yeah when I gripe at least I can justifiably say that I am actually trying to make the world better rather than sitting at a computer screen and complaining.

That's all from me. Until next time, peace.