Sorry it’s late!
It’s now week two here in Redmond! It’s commonly known that going back to work after a fun weekend is not exactly something you look forward to- I spent my Saturday rock climbing and going on a run through Bellevue, and had dinner with some family friends right on Puget Sound after seeing the new Mad Max movie (seriously awesome) on Sunday. However, I for one was excited to get back in the office.
Monday and Tuesday were fairly relaxed for me. I had some free time I used to research a few concepts I was unfamiliar with, including basic SQL authentication and “geofencing” using location services, both of which should help me complete my city’s park informational app. I managed to finish the course structure and outline for my Minecraft modding course for Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA), meaning I’m in the home stretch to presenting it to the Minecraft team! I also ended up meeting with a group of college interns about an IoT project we plan on starting next week; I don’t know much, but from what I heard we get to mess around with Raspberry Pis and other goodies which sounds good to me. On Tuesday I also ventured out to Cafe 34 for lunch to try some Indian- I was not disappointed!
Wednesday was definitely a more packed day – after getting to work, I had just over an hour to check my emails and make sure everything was in order before I took a shuttle to Building 92 to help the Learning Experiences team out with the Hour of Code event (specially for Microsoft’s annual Bring Your Kids to Work Day). We ended up working through three consecutive sessions with 30 minutes rest in between (most of which was spent cleaning up after the last group and resetting the computers), it was definitely hard work. After replacing some broken hardware it was onto answering the many questions the participants had – most of which just required quick clarifications, but several requiring a bit more thought. I was asked at least five times about an issue relating to the way lives were removed in the game the students were editing; luckily my coworker Jayden ended up come up with a workaround. In the end, though, it was lots of fun to watch as the students messed around with the programming tools- you could tell that they were really learning and having fun while doing so.
Thursday was jam-packed with tasks and events, but I have the long weekend to look forward to once I’m finished (no work Friday)! Due to my general clumsiness I lost my ID towards the end of the day Wednesday, which meant a trip to Global Security Access Management (GSAM) early in the morning – the office that manages the fancy Microsoft ID cards. Right after getting my shiny new card, I had to scurry to my office to check my email and submit my hours before meeting with the IoT group for a day-long kickoff. After a quick run-through of the program, we were each handed bags filled with parts for what would end up becoming awesome little self-aware rovers after a little bit of assembly. Sadly, I had to depart early to make it to my LeX video shoot, which should last right up until the end of my shift.
In other news, someone in my shared office space moved out, meaning I moved up to a bigger desk – yay! See you in a week!