Memoirs of an Intern

Today my internship was supposed to end, and the possibility (or lack) of a full-time position was to be discussed.

5:00 PM

"So I guess I keep coming in until someone asks me what I'm still doing here?" I asked my manager. A moment of laughter followed. Then, a pause.

"Yes," she replied.


New York International Auto Show 2008

The place was hot and cramped like a nightclub, just without the drunk people.
I did manage to get some pictures and they can be seen here.

It's true.

It's been a while since I last read theonion.com, but I find it is better than what it was when I started. Back in my father's lab, I'd spend some of my morning and lunch reading it and it was hilarious. After that, I kind of forgot about it until this morning. Why, you ask? I guess I had a case of the Mondays and needed to entertain myself.

This story in particular made me suppress large amounts of laughter.

First restaurant semi-review.

Today at work we had an all-day strategy meeting, which for me wasn't so bad. As an intern, I have almost no responsibility and basically just sat and sponged in info. As much as I'd like to have more responsibility, it wasn't bad considering some of the heated discussion. Anyways, that's not what I'm here to talk about.

I was delegated the task to make reservations at the restaurant Sweetwaters in Hauppauge, which was simple enough, and quite possibly the most important part of the team meeting. Anyways, on to the restaurant. The atmosphere was nice, with well dimmed lights that weren't too dim nor too bright and the servers were very friendly and quick. The entrees, on the other hand, left a little to be desired. Six or 7 people ordered steak, and I don't think they got a single order correct. Most people medium or medium rare steaks and received medium well, and the one guy who ordered well done got it nearly straight from the cow to the plate. Maybe it was just an off night for the chefs, but boy that does not leave a good impression. Luckily, the servers were very understanding and did their best to make things right. The people who ordered other stuff, like fish, had no complaints. I ordered medium rare and about 4/5 of the steak was medium well with the last fifth being just right. I also had 2 glasses of Guinness from their tap, but felt it was a little watery (especially for something thick and dark like Guinness). Usually I find that beer on tap is better than from the bottle, but this time I think I should have asked for their bottled beers. For dessert I had their Tiramisu, which was good but not spectacular. Maybe a little better than the stuff you can buy in a supermarket, but not as good as homemade that I've had. For the prices (steak was $36) I expected an accurate order at the very least.

Unless you want to chat with their friendly wait staff, I can't recommend the place.

Leap

Apparently there was some publicity stunt gone wrong in the city on Leap day. I found it amusing and figured I would share:
http://consumerist.com/362689/worst-promotion-ever-causes-riot-in-union-square-as-hipsters-fight-for-cash+wrapped-tomatoes
It's too bad I couldn't have been there myself, knocking things over for up to $29.

I've also sort of figured out an annoying solution to my PS3 controller problem. I'm guessing there's dust in the joystick that's interfering with the contacts or something, because blowing into the joystick seems to fix the issue. It reminds me of blowing into old NES cartridges.