Mini Louvre (Part 2)

A few days ago I contracted the skills of a fellow Noogler to write a brief blurb about my recently completed artistic foray. Here it is:

Ménage à Trois, 2007

Matt Hudson and [Roommate].

Acrylic on stretched canvas, (width 18" height 36").

Pioneer acrylic artists Matt Hudson and [Roommate] have stunned American critics from Ann Arbor to Los Altos with the depth and complexity of their their brilliant debut work, Ménage à Trois. Employing the non-objective style of abstract legend Mark Rothko and the dynamic palette of minimalist Barnett Newman, Ménage à Trois serves as a poignant commentary on human existence in the uncertain world of today.

Each of the three canvases stands powerfully - with its own monochromatic splendor, its own inimitable brush strokes, its own emotive message - alone. Composed with neither a definite foreground nor a definite background, each canvas presents a space that is simultaneously both completely negative and completely positive. Brilliantly, that space reveals nothing. And that space reveals everything.

So it is with us as human beings: Alone, in the absence of human connection, our lives are negative space, insignificant, nothing; and yet, such loneliness is also what inspires the creation of a truest, fullest self, a positive space, a self that is everything. Each of the canvases - Bleu, Rouge, and Vert consecutively - reflects that individual struggle, the effort to balance the negative with the positive, growth with consistency, togetherness with detachment, light with dark.

But despite the evocative success of the isolated canvases, Ménage à Trois is above all else an homage to gestalt, for the work as a whole is, indeed, much greater than the sum of its parts. Without Bleu by its side, we realize, Rouge would throb with less emotive intensity. Without Rouge, Vert would hardly touch the contemplative grace that it achieves as its accomplice. The canvases work in symbiosis and in conflict, as nemeses and as friends.

A meditation on love and life, a commentary on the challenge and necessity of connecting with others, Ménage à Trois reveals - through its virtuous chromatic simplicity, its elegant compositional restraint, its unification of the seemingly disparate - that alone we are strong, but together we are stronger.

Mini Louvre

Last weekend my roommate and I decided it was time to decorate our embarrassingly barren condo. Somehow we needed to get away from the offensively white and inexorably boring 2 bedroom/2 bath dwelling that we have left unchanged since moving in. Even though both of us have absolutely no artistic ability whatsoever, we convinced ourselves to buy a few canvases and allow the creative side of our personalities to express itself.

After conversing with a few knowledgeable art store workers and exploring various technique tutorials online, we stocked up on an array of acrylic paints, some GAC 100, and a pair of fancy brushes astutely named Isabey. After a few short hours - a masterpiece... sort of. We hedged our bet by not mixing any colors and not doing anything overtly challenging.

Regardless, they are functional.

Taxes...

I recently took a quick look into my personal finances to see of the money that I did spend, where it was going. I was startled to find out that taxes were responsible for nearly 60% of my personal expenses (and that doesn't even include sales tax!).

Household expenses were next (mainly rent), but at a measly 30%.

And the final tidbit I noticed was that I spend nearly twice as much money on social activities (read: movies, alcohol, etc.) as I do on food - an interesting way to satisfy my basic needs.

Socially liberal. Fiscally conservative. Hudson '08.

Supercuts Woes

After moving to San Francisco Supercuts became my go-to place for hair grooming needs. It basically takes 10 minutes and little-to-no skill to keep me looking as stylish as I do (I know my sister will scoff at that). So I really have no need to go somewhere offering sophisticated services.

However, I have been there twice now and both times I walked away with a disappointing haircut. Today I sat down with an Asian women who spoke very little English. I gave her my hair style schpeel and promptly zoned out for the following 15 minutes contemplating how I might give myself a haircut and what the payback period would be for any tools that I bought.

When I finally came out of my haze, I realized she just buzzed my head and I was out $20.

Shit happens.

My "Introduction" To Google

Typical of any organization, when a new member joins it is customary to issue a statement informing everybody of their new teammate’s background and position within the group. In the 21st century, this is most likely done through email and Google is no exception.

A little over a week ago I was asked for a brief bio summarizing my activities at Michigan. Feeling Googley, I decided to submit it in the form of a news flash diverting from the usual three paragraph hoopla that everybody is accustomed to. Little did I know, my editor made a few pre-print changes and then sent it out not just to my team, but to the entire finance organization. Fantastic.

[I’ve excluded a few names for privacy]

“MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (Reuters) – In Noogler News, Matt Hudson, a recent U of Michigan grad and life long Rice-A-Roni aficionado, has moved to San Francisco and joined the Contract Administration team in Mountain View, CA. This position will be one of three that Hudson will take during the next 27 months as he completes the newly formed Finance Rotation Program headed by [manager A].

Hudson, who couldn't be reached for comment, issued a statement earlier to the parties involved that he was ready to start working and was looking forward to his new desk with the Contract Administration Team at [building A]. Contract Admin veteran [teammate A] was pleased to have the young blood on the team. "For nearly a year now I've been reluctant to wear flip-flops to the office. But on his second day, this new kid shows up wearing them and nobody said a word. Even though many others have sported the exposed toe, this was a green light in my book."

Not all parties were quite as enthused. [Enemy A], archrival and long time nemesis of Hudson, commented "Mudson ran a business while at Michigan fleecing classmates out of their hard earned student loan money by selling them lumber & hardware to build dorm room lofts, a clear violation of the university's housing policy. Then he tried to polish his image by being captain of the lacrosse team – how lame is that?" [Enemy A], a Michigan classmate of Hudson who is also starting in the FRP this August, appears to have a dim view of Matt's assimilation of the California culture & cuisine as well. "When he was interviewing at Google, he tried eating the shell of a tamale because he thought it was like a hot dog," he added.

Currently holding a bachelor's in Business Administration with an oxymoronic minor in Modern History, Hudson has suggested the future possibility of graduate level education, but no further details were available at the time of publication. [Ending truncated]”

This went out late tonight. I can already tell that tomorrow will be a good day.

The Wheatgrass Diet

A seldom discussed but extremely beneficial perk of working at Google is that everyday between noon and 2:30 a few of the cafes serve up freshly poured shots of wheatgrass. I am by no means a health nut, but I do try and compensate for some of the junk food that I fill my body with (interestingly, I am eating a donut as I write this post).

Shortly after I found out that Google had wheatgrass shots available, I immediately started pushing other Googlers to try it and join me. Almost every time that I approached someone, they asked me what the benefits were.... I frankly didn't know the specifics. So I did a little research and here are the basics:

• People started consuming wheatgrass in the 1930s.
• Having too many shots can make you nauseous. (Duh!)
• Consuming it as a powder is much more nutritional
  
• Proponents of wheatgrass claim regular ingestion:
• Gives you more energy
• Alkalizes the body
• Improves the digestive system
• Helps prevent cancer, diabetes, and heart disease
• Cures constipation (phew....)
• Detoxifies heavy metals from the bloodstream
• Cleanses the liver
• Prevents hair loss (Webb?)
• And makes menopause more manageable (I'm sold.)

A little more reading revealed that most of the health claims that surround wheatgrass are not scientifically proven and are greatly disputed. I think I'm going to ignore most of this research and continue feeling extremely good about myself each time I take one of these shots.

The Office

Within the last three weeks I have devoured all three seasons of NBC’s The Office. I initially started watching it because of a stern recommendation given by a good friend from Libertyville (kudos) and it is fantastic. However, the timing for me to start watching it could not have been worse; in the few days leading up to my start date I considered and reconsidered whether or not my experience in the workforce would be at all similar. The night before I started I had mini panic attack as I tried to fall asleep. Luckily, Google is not like Dunder-Mifflin at all.

Anyhow, this series, bundled with Entourage and John From Cincinnati, are not enough to change my stance on cable. My condo does not have a functional TV and I, nor my roommate, are around enough to need one.* It’s just not economical.

Since The Office is still running (unlike my previous domination of The West Wing), I’ll probably take a little break until season four is released on iTunes. Until then, back to reading.

As a scary side note, in my first few days at Google I caught myself from blurting out inappropriate comments typical of Steve Carell just because I was so used to seeing and hearing them. Yikes. I’m glad that didn’t happen.

*You might ask, “If you don’t have a TV, how did you watch The Office?” – On my phone. Yeah, that’s weird.

Damn It Facebook!

Yesterday I logged into my Facebook account and found a completely unexpected ad for Vivid Pictures. While I have to compliment Facebook for delivering an ad-targeting system that gets the demographics right, I really do not want to see a bunch of porn ads while I browse through my account. I think there's a time and a place for that kind of advertisement - and a relatively closed social networking site is not it!

Moreover, I'm surprised that Facebook's editorial guidelines permit this kind of ad. Even though it's not explicit nudity, it's still kinda sleazy. I hope someone over there rethinks this strategy if it was a conscious decision.

First Week Musings

I've been at work for a full week now and I've got a pretty good idea of how the next 9 months are going to shape up. For the most part, I am going to have real work to do but I'll also spend a good portion of my time taking Google sponsored classes and training modules. All of them are optional and not necessarily related to my line of work, but I'm interested.

I've also considered signing up for graduate level courses at a nearby university as an evening student, but I'll probably wait a few months before I make that decision so I can explore and understand all of the on-campus opportunities that Google has to offer.

A Pleasant Surprise
Google always seems to out do itself. During the inaugural tour of my floor, I peaked inside the bathroom only to find the most remarkable and practical invention of this generation: the Toto Washlet E200 SW844. Originally, I was slightly intimidated by this important piece of capital equipment, but I've learned to love and cherish it. Not only is it effective and stylish, it purges the unease associated with (lack of a polite verb) pooping in a public setting.

Related, this week someone put up a sign on the inside door in all of the stalls - a little awkward.

(And yes, I had to wear that hat along with a sign hanging from my neck)

The Workforce

After anxiously waiting all summer, I finally started work at Google yesterday. It has already been quite an incredible ride and I'm psyched to be with such a large group of exciting and brilliant people. The food is fantastic, the perks seem endless, and the people are still what make it remarkable.

I know that this is all exactly what you could read in a Fortune article and you might be hoping to get a little more detail from me, but frankly I'm not comfortable enough yet with where I stand legally (concerning disclosure) to be any more open than that. Too bad!

To give you a perspective of how much I've liked it: I spent over 30 hours there in the past two days (obviously not all working) getting to know the grounds and all of the intriguing applications (read: toys).

On a related topic, I probably won't be posting much over the next week or so since I have so many new applications toys and 'things' to experiment with and get used to. But, I'll be sure to step it up a notch after I get my feet a little wet.

Joost

I recently became a beta tester for Joost and have had a pretty pleasant experience with it so far. My biggest complaint is that there still isn't nearly enough selection, but I know that as the time rolls on more content providers will sign up and make their copyrighted content available.

A brief synopsis of what I think so far:

• For starters, Joost runs on a desktop client. Given the fact that it's playing streamed videos, I'm surprised at how little resources it uses. I've been running it as I type this post, chat with friends, and run a few miscellaneous programs and have not seen a slow down in my computer whatsoever.
  
• It is entirely free - so it is coated with ads. I haven't watched it long enough to pick up on any rhyme or reason, but I have seen brief (5 second) ads between shows and there are pop-up ads in the corner throughout the program. It's kind of annoying, but I'd rather have that than pay anything for this service.
• This is nothing like YouTube. You can't upload your own videos and the 'social' aspect is purely in rating or talking about the other programs. It does have a Google Talk compatible chat program built in, so that's nice.
  
• The selection sucks. Even though Viacom is on board with this, the Daily Show, South Park, or really anything worth watching is not available. I'm really bummed that NBC didn't join, but as a shareholder of GE I fully intend to send Jeffery a disapproving letter. Hopefully they are working on this now.
• On quality, one problem I noticed was that if the frame moves a lot or is shaky (action movies, quick panning, etc), the quality becomes really bad.
  
• My favorite channel so far: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models on Demand. Come on, what did you expect?

Overall, I think this is going to be great (as long as more content providers sign on and they keep ads to a minimum......so they have a long way to go).

Really Bad Artwork

Over the past few days I've let the creative side of my personality explore a few ways to fill up the white walls that encompass our condo. Since I have never actively pursued any real artistic abilities, the number of creative pieces I could come up with on my own was somewhat limited to digital cameras and Photoshop. And since I'm cheap and have plenty of time on my hands (until Monday), this is what I came up with...

[The first photo is the original and the second is what I made it]

[Facebook viewers need to view the original post in order to see the pictures]