童话

5.45am - get up
5.56am - out the door
6.01am - get to train station
6.16am - board the train
6.52am - get off at Cherry Hill (done eating breakfast)
7.01am - arrive at the Lockheed Martin building in my picture from Day 0.
******************
DAY 1 BEGAN:
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Although I told my 'buddy' that i would call him at 7.50am to ask him come downstairs to sign me in, I looked at this buidling in front of me for a minute, recalling that I briefly heard he mentioned he would come down from 6th floor. But the building in front of me right now appears to be 4 storey high. It's a good thing that I'm not of those guys that feel ashamed about asking for directions. And this time, it saved my a$$ for a big time.
Turns out that the buidling I saw from yesterday's recon mission wasn't actually the one I'm supposed to be reporting to today. CRAP! well, the good news is the REAL one is that far from it. So after running across the 8-lane highway, I still managed to get to the right building at 7.16am, all thanks to the effort the day before so I know my north very well in this area.
After waiting for about half an hour, I decided to call M***. But he's not picking up either his office phone or cell. So I had to call J****. She took the elevator down right away. A beautiful hispanic girl, she's helped me quite a lot up to this point.
She took me to the top floor. I noticed that she has to flash her badge against a scanner in the elevator before she could push the button. After I was given a temporary badge, I was shown around by her in the south wing on the 6th floor and was introduced to my lifesavor -- a 24 hr coffee machine. What's more was that every wing on that floor has their own kitchen. Several coffee maker, fridge, microwave, all the standard set you would expect from a big company.
Right after she dumped a bunch of orientation stuff in front of me, we went to see T*** who took a pic of my 8-o'clock face and gave me a badge in no time. horray, now I have my own magic card that gets me everywhere -- well, not exactly. There are all these doors with color patches and keypads on the side that I shall never even attempt to get into.
With the upgrading of a real badge, I was taken to meet J**, facilities security officer. My first powerpoint pesentation of the day -- basically: wear badge at all times while on site and take it off once offsite, don't do anything funny and report anything suspicious.
My first cup of coffee in between. Then it's off to D**, intellectual property counsel, the person that deals with all legal stuff of this Advanced Technology Lab. After being given a complete lecture on proprietory information and its whole nine yards, I had to sign something that says I would be bounded by such and such agreement forEVER -- yeah, even after the intern is over. It's just like whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. You get the point.
Next stop, a previous reporter S****. He gave me another ppt presentation on ethics. Basically, do what I think is right and don't act stupid. Don't even curse when I get frustrated cuz someone might just report that to him. Don't ever talk to the press as a LM employee. ... The bottom line is to speak up. Talk to someone if I don't feel good about something. They really go extra miles to make sure everyone is perfectly healthy mentally and encourage communication. Loners and weirdos are unwelcomed here. The ATL has almost 300 employees and almost everyone konws everyone else's name and it's all first-name basis from boss down to security guards. NICE! I seriously think our stats dept should have that rule as well.
Next, Ms. M. She's the HR manager. Another ppt, this time I was surprised to learn that though I'm not eligible to their employee benifits, I will however get PAID HOLIDAYS during this intern. Hell ya, Independence Day and Labor Day never made me feel this happy before. I get paid to walk downtown Philly taking pictures, watching Transformers and fireworks. But I do have to give the senior staff here an exit presentation -- a little scarryyy.
Finally, I got to meet my buddy M. But let's skip that part for now. He showed me around and greeted like 20-30 people. Although about only 20% of the hires here are phds and 45% masters, everyone looks sufficiently smart and i bet they are all experts in whatever they do. My computer account wasn't set up yet for some reason. But I ran into my first phone-interviewer, also the main person I will be working with in the beginning of the summer, J*******. We grabbed one of many many empty conference rooms and talked about this project for like an hour easily.
After that, lunch. Buddy M took me to a nearby Indian buffet restaurant. Very quick lunch. Speaking of efficiency, I've never seen anyone better before. As soon as we got back, it's all business again. Got my picture taken, Lady G***** also gave me a free LM mug. Everyone gets one cuz we are gonna need it. The quarterly "all hands meeting" will take place in 2 weeks. Everyone will go to that meeting, EVERYONE. Apparently, they will even announce all new hires like me or other undergrad summer co-ops in that meeting and our pictures are shown in the big screen monitor in the lobby. Big deal, eh? well, that's what they are trying to make everyone feel. 'Ohana means family'.
well, the rest of the afternoon, I spent most of it talking to buddy M and my boss R***, and sitting around drinking more and more fancy flavoured coffee. The kitchen down in the 5th floor has like 50 different flavor and a very fancy coffeemaker as well as a free video arcade. Figuring this is the ATL of LM, they loaded the arcade with tons of classic games backed by a PC and a keyboard so you can choose games. Also in the kitchen is a pingpong table. There are regular games here where the employees took off some pressure off work. The gym down on the 3rd floor is open from 5.30am to 7.30pm and LM subsidizes its employees substantially on membership -- they will take off $4/week from my paycheck. Yeah, it's pretty decent facility considering the building is called 'Executive Campus'!
There's more: Apparently there's Friday free brunch besides the usual casualness. But you have to get there early since there are only 40 servings of bagels, cheese, fruits, yogurts, ... working hours are flexible. (Thank god, so I don't need to get up at 5.45am everyday!) The guideline is that I am fine as long as I work 80 hours every nine days for 2 weeks. This means someone can take every other Friday off as long as they have enough hours on the timesheet. But everyday 9am-3.30pm is sort of the 'core hours'. The bosses usually expect everyone to make the best effort to show themselves during these times.
Did I mention timesheets? Yeah, ok. It's all about work ethics. "You put down what you consider as your working time". I was reminded by multiple people a gazzilion times. At the end of everyday, I need to log on to the computer and type in hours worked under each project type. Everything you do for work has a "shop order", i.e. a code. You type under the code the corresponding hours you work under that particular project. If I have to attend a meeting or a training, I will be given such codes as well. Since this Wed is a holiday, yes, another code for that and then I follow up by typing 8 hours of work for this Wed (4th of July) and 'save'. HA, that made you envious yet? But mischarging work time is a big big deal. So yeah again, honesty and professionalism. At the end of today, I typed 6 hours for HR orientation and 3 for my first project (for just talking to boss and reading some paper).
I have to admit that the first day really burned me out. I almost passed out in the afternoon regardless of the caffine effect. But it was exciting as well. Everyone is extremely friendly -- well, some more open than others -- and efficient. Right, I totally admire their strong mind and ability to really focus on one thing to get it done. If they don't think about their project during lunch (and hence have to take out the lunch time when they charge the labor), they will all keep their then casual lunch under 30 min, including the driving time if they dine outside the building. So I stand corrected for my previous views on the 'east-coast people'. If those people I saw today can represent the majority of the big east, I seriously won't mind moving here for jobs -- if the weather is more friendly.
...
got back...
dinner...
typing 2/3 of this stuff and then I thought about going out for a jogging. Remember that nice turf field on Drexel campus I saw yesterday? I went there and ...
sidenote:
I forgot to mention that I saw the TV airing Brasil and Chile playing in Copa America yesterday when I picked up some stuff from that grocery store one block away. My hispanic soccer brothers, let's play.
end of sidenote.
...
well, the field is nicely lit!!! and there were lots of people playing. Black, white, asian, ... don't matter. At this time, I was gonna cry when I saw soooo many people playing. So I observed on the sidelines. It looks like there's one competitive group playing on the bigger portion of the field. But there were people waiting on the sidelines. Apparently they are switching for the first goal. I joined a bunch of black guys right away. They were not as good as Razar's group since some of them really dribble too much, but they weren't bad either. After two hours, those guys asked for my number and wanted me to play for their tournament this Wed.
lol
Too much happening today. And it's 11.50pm. I gotta stop here. I'm afriad I might not be able to continue typing this anymore. If XM radio and gmail are banded at my network at work, chances are there won't be youtubes, tv links or any p2p thingies. But the first day really exceeded my expectation -- in a good sense. So long everyone, we will keep in touch one way or another.

cheerz,
j.

Thanks to those old ladies sitting in the last row on my overnight flight, I naturally did not get much rest as expected. Arriving at the philly airport, I can tell I'm at the east coast by looking around and notocing the change in ethnic makeup. (well, coming from Hawaii, California is a pretty diversed place. It was a change for good, btw.)

After about 10 min cab ride, I got to my sublet place. Well, I don't know how to put it. This is a three-storey high house with living room and kitchen on the first floor, 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom each on the second and the thrid, plus the washer/dryer in the basement. All these costs less than 1000/month. Well, there are a lot of kids around and they make quite a bit of noise, and it's comparable with those from the frats house in Westwood. But still, for that kind of price, I don't know if I can find anything better than a 'bachelor's unit' near UCLA.

My room is on the second floor, with a bed, desk, and two floor lamps. Oh yeh, it's internet-ready. (Actually so far I've been amazed by the speed of the net.) No more, but also no less than what I was expecting. I only need this place for about 2/5 of the time. Nothing seems to be too big of a deal as long as I get good 6-hr sleeps.

The downtown Philly looks kinda like downtown LA. I doubt if their Chinatown is gonna be any cleaner than ours. I spent the afternoon walking to the train station, getting donuts fro my first lunch here knowing that there will be plenty to come by this summer and waiting in the Amtrak station after I spent almost 100 bucks on a monthly train pass.

Train goes pretty slow for 30 mins, but the good thing is the company site is quite close by the cherry hill station. That is, after I got myself lost for half an hour while talking on the phone. Upon succesfully accomplishing the recon mission, I returned to Phila and started typng this note.

For some reason, I'm starting to grow attachment to LA alot today. Maybe Phila is too much different from Hawaii and I can't really relate the two. But everywhere I go now, i try to compare this and that with whatever back in the SoCal. I guess somehow LA feels more and more like my home now with growing number of friends.

All in all, it was an eventful first day. I didn't get to see the beauty side of the city, but I'm sure I will have plenty of chances later. I gotta wrap this up soon and start taking a much-needed shower sicne tmr it will be my first day. Waking up at 5.45am, catching the 6.20am train in downtown philly,... Yea, the 'fun' is just about to start.
Read on if you like. Hopefully I can keep up with the uploading of pix and notes/blogs as well. Guys, enjoy your summer in LA.