Getting Started at Microsoft

Looks like it's been about ten days, and I have to tell you, quite a bit has happened in the last week and a half. Where to start?

We've moved to Redmond, for one thing. It smells like evergreens.
We'd made a couple of trips over before to look at things and interview and all, but now we actually live here. We're living in a place called Reflections at Marymoor, and that's Marymoor Park they're talking about. We went through the park today to have a look at it and see what all the fuss is about. It's really great! There's a Subway and a bagel shop inside the park (!), as well as a dozen baseball fields, a cricket field, soccer fields galore, a model airplane field, and an amphitheater, but one thing that I thought was awesome was the big, big public garden. You can rent a 10' x 40' plot for 45 dollars per year and plant anything you want. There are lots of nice flowers, and some people grow vegibbles that they harvest every so often. It's really neat.

Our apartment is a nice blend of amenities, location, and low rent. We're really happy with it. It's very new and clean, and the people that run the place are very friendly. It's apartment living, so that means taking the trash bags across the courtyard to the trash room and getting a key for a little mailbox, but it also means activity. People around, doing things, going here and there. There's also a nice fitness room, a big hot tub, a pool that's heated all year long, and a movie theater that we can use for TV shows or movies or games or whatever. It has free popcorn, too. I'll have pictures soon, but Kirsten and I agreed that we should be allowed to finish unpacking and putting pictures up and everything first, so you'll have to wait just a little longer (And besides, it's just an apartment, seriously.)

Right across the street is a wide gravel jogging/biking trail that goes about a quarter mile and ends up in a shopping center with a Whole Foods Market and a Chipotle, so that's just fantastic. Whole Foods sells the little leftover chunks of their fancy cheeses, too. They're the bits that are left when they're done cutting the nice looking wedges and stuff, and they're the perfect way to sample the freaky-looking and freaky-smelling cheeses without having to buy a large amount. They call it the Petites Fromages Programme. We've decided to try a new cheese at regular intervals and keep notes on the good ones. My brother Scott did something similar a few years ago, and I'm sure he is a much wiser and better rounded person for it, just the way we will be. The first two were Cotswold and Cahill Porter (rated 8 out of 10 and 6 out of 10, respectively), and we'll get another the next time we're over there at the cheese counter.

So we're learning our way around and getting to appreciate the things that are close by. For me, though, the biggest change, obviously, is my new job! I've only been at it for two days, but it's been pretty cool so far.

I had an orientation yesterday morning and then went on over to my office building. My manager had me do the ID card paperwork early, so my key card was ready when I got to work the first day. Most people do the paperwork on the first day and get their ID card, MS e-mail address, etc. a few days later. I had to go over to Building 8 to get my ID, though. My office, the Millennium D building, is a few miles away from the main campus of Microsoft, so the receptionist picked up the phone, punched a number, requested a shuttle pickup, and then told me to watch for shuttle #104 in three to five minutes. Sure enough, about five minutes later, a white Priusshowed up, and I had a nice conversation with the driver about Washington weather and the differences between this side of the country and the other (particularly, The South) while we rode over to Building 8. Then I said thanks, she said to have a good day, and I went downstairs to get my picture taken and pick up my ID. It took about five minutes, and the Building 8 receptionist got me another shuttle back to my building, only this one showed up in about one minute. That's pretty awesome! They even have valets to park everyone's cars in the morning. Everyone. Not just the head honchos. What a nice place to work! (I hear they also have a chopper or two to whisk people back and forth from SeaTac airport. Sweeeeeet.)

When I got back, I got the grand tour from Richard, the other tech writer, who's more knowledgeable than me by every measure, and probably nicer. He and I will be working together, and he's a really cool guy, so it will be a nice working environment. We get along nicely. After the tour, I read a bunch of documents through most of the afternoon to get up to speed with all of the technical stuff I have to deal with, did a network install of Windows and Office on the laptop they gave me, came home, and was asleep by 8:15. I think it was a combination of getting up at working man time, narrowly missing catching a cold the last couple of days, and trying to wrap my head around difficult concepts for a lot of the day. I got up once to dispatch a stowaway spider for Kirsten (It was living in Silverdale and had heard Redmond was nice. It wanted piece of the action as well.) and then went back to sleep until 7 this morning. I felt very rested this morning!

Today was finishing setting up my computer with all of the network stuff and then reading more information on the programs I'll be using and the concepts and technologies I'll be working with. I also had kimchi and rice in the cafeteria, and it was really really tasty. I owe my Korean students big time for turning me on to the goodness.

I guess that's about it. We really like it here, the job is nice, and the office is cool. I get to swipe a card to get through secured doors, drink all the tea or juice or whatever I want to for free, grab a shower when I jog or bike to work, and spend a little of my work time playing video games. Not a bad situation. I know this was kind of a just-the-facts post from the title on down, but I'll have some pictures and hopefully some good stories for you soon.
Stay tuned.

Kent