Illumina Dodgeball Week Recap
most photos courtesy of ILMN’s awesome photographers
What a way to start off the summer! To celebrate the opening of the new sports arena, work decided to throw the first ever dodgeball tournament. 16 teams, 11 people each, each team hand drafted and headed by a VP or senior VP. Dodgeball mania caught fire across the campus. A single elimination tournament starting on monday with the first round best out of 3, the playoffs best of 5, with the winner having a chance to take on Illumina’s senior management in an winner takes all on Friday at a company happy hour.
Each day more and more people came out to check out the games at lunch and everybody was treated to quite a hilarious sight. The costumes and dance intros provided the humor but once the whistle blew the competition really picked up. Our team name was “Barnyard Dogs” , named after our captain S.Barnard and well, here were our costumes…
To clarify, that ain’t me and the costumes were decided by the captains, and when your captain is a VP in the company it’s wise to sometimes just follow along. With a face mask we could barely breath through, and absolutely could not see through (let alone dodge a ball), it was pretty evident early on we were not going to be in it to win it.
Now I haven’t seen Dodgeball starring Ben Stiller, but I hear the rules of the tournament were the same as the ones in the movie. Each team started with 6 players on the court (at least 1 girl). If you caught an opponent’s ball, the opponent who threw it was out and you get to bring in a guy off the bench.
Actually, funny side story here. The last time I got slightly competitive at dodgeball I got a concussion and temporary amnesia. I forgot some pretty important facts. That happened a good 6 years ago but I swear my memory’s steadily deteriorated ever since.
Back to the present.
Match 1 (best of 3): Someone recorded it on their iPhone here. It was incredible, down 3 people to 1 in the pivotal and deciding 3rd game, our team had 2 miracle catches that resulted in a mano a mano duel with me and the senior VP of development. After getting knocked out early in game 1, I got a chance to redeem myself by hitting the SVP square in the chest to squeak by a game 3 victory.
Playoffs (best of 5): Our team did not have great throwers but everyone on our team could catch which we found out to be the golden strategy. Catching a ball is a 2 person swing because the other team loses a player and you gain a player. Somehow we blew through our next opponent in 3 straight games which set up a duel with my boss’ boss’ boss’ team. Fun times.
In the semi-finals we played the big, bad, neon color coordinated Hit’n Run team. In a best of 5 games, again it came down to a elimination game 5 to determine the outcome. Boundaries came to our aid as the other team continually shot themselves in the foot by stepping over the lines, thereby disqualifying themselves. In each round we were heavy underdogs (fitting with our team name and costume), but here we were, miraculously heading to the finals!
Finals: Exhilarating…company happy hour and almost the entire company’s out here to watch the finale. Palms are sweaty and nerves get the better of me. After putting on the one piece spandex suit I trudge out of the bathroom, only to realize I gotta go pee! Perhaps that’s TMI but man it took forever to get off.
I don’t really remember what happened in the finals except that it again it was a total team effort. Timely catches and a few lucky bounces here and there and before we knew it we were up 2-1. In the final frame our catching again saved us. Who’d have thought…underdogs to champs.
Illuminati: The opportunity everyone in the company was aiming for. A chance to peg our SVP’s and CEO. We couldn’t believe when our CEO came out in a Captain America costume and gave an impassioned speech about Illumina’s best having to step in to save the sanctity of dodgeball from the “evil” (and newly minted) champions.
Apparently they hadn’t been watching us too closely, cause as exhausted as we were after throwing out our arms for 2 best of 5 series earlier that day, we gave them a doggone whooping! DeMarco’s 1 vs 4 comeback to beat the executives was a highlight to remember.
Before the first game, I got tired of waiting for the senior execs to finish scheming so I grabbed a ball and pegged a SVP in the behind. That makes it 4 SVP’s I’ve tagged over the course of the tournament. If my team and I receive pink slips on Monday…it was well worth it!
Claudeo: Demo EP Release
Photoshoot date: Dec, 2011
Equipment: Canon T2i. Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8
second shooter: J.Yee
A few things excite me…this is definitely one of them. When I see people go after their dreams I want to be there to see it happen. I collaborated with Chris on one of my very first music videos when I picked up the T2i and I’ve had a ton of joy seeing his evolution over the last year.
It takes a lot of guts to put down securities in life to go after your heart’s wishes and that’s exactly how Claudeo was born. Here are two guys, Ivan and Chris, who really love music and want to contribute to the music scene and I wish them the best as they embark on this musical journey.
Pursuing HK: And That’s The End of That
How it all started: “Kids…This is The Story of How I Pursued Her”
Welp. Guess this one gets filed under the “crashed and burned” category. No, not really.
No official word, but through the grape vine, looks like they went with someone else. This pursuit ends here. For now. A week ago the HR lady came back and said they were interviewing a few more candidates and it’s a telling sign I wasn’t their ideal candidate. So the dream to live in HK remains just that a while longer…a dream.
Through it all, this little adventure reinforced that I’m willing to try something different. I’ve had so many great conversations over the past two months about living out our dreams and passions. This is but a minor bump on a long journey! Even though we don’t know where the path goes, I’ll take it one step at a time.
On the flip side. Things at work here have been picking up!
Over the last few months as I was confiding in my boss about where I saw myself going, we had some really good discussions. Being affirmed and wanted here goes a long way towards wanting to stay and work harder. I’ve been transitioning out of my robotics/liquid handling engineering role and into project management/systems analyst role which suits my personality more.
It’s funny. Sitting in front of working robots really isn’t my thing, I learned that over the last year. But here I was applying to a role in HK where I’d be doing exactly that; sitting in front of broken robots 40 hrs a week. In hindsight this might be a dodged bullet. I think more people nod their heads at that one that I’m willing to admit.
So yup. Looks like I’ll be in SD for a little while longer…and that my friends is an awesome thing.
On an unrelated note, weddings are a great place to meet people. Just an observation..
Dr.Simon & Angie Wedding
An interesting take on “seeing double”. Congratulations Simon & Angie!
Modern techniques for a modern era? Older/wiser couples in attendance weren’t particularly fond of what they’d call the “deterioration of the courting method”. This simpler rendition of an internet meme found its way to a radiant bridesmaid. Call him, maybe?
(I sat at table 12…that ain’t my name card)
When the Sun Meets the Moon
A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of the Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. – Wikipedia
Eclipse seen from San Diego, CA USA. Seen with J.Wu, A.Chen, J.Lee
Project Resonate’s Chiyori.A returns Home
A dear friend of mine spent the past year abroad working with orphans and local churches. I had the opportunity to support her and visit for a few days last year as we filmed a few video segments and a creative peace. It seemed like just last month that we had collaborated on our video “Trust“before she left and now in less than 8 days she’s coming back!
Check out her blog as she chronicles her experiences over the past year. It’s incredible the work she’s done over there and as she spends her last few days and prepares to come home, she contemplates on the real meaning of “home”.
We also had the opportunity to catch up and through her sharing her experiences it really painted a picture of both her struggles and her triumphs. Below are a the web episodes we filmed over the course of 3 days.
Episode 1: Welcome!
Episode 2: Cooking
Episode 3: Living
Episode 4: My lil Friend!
Episode 5: Orphanage
Mother’s Day: Flowers for Mom
Made with Josh C, under the supervision and tutelage of Jessaly L. These suckers take forever to make! Glad they made them home in time. My sister’s putting on some fancy schmancy dinner for mom so hopefully mom’ll feel the full blast of loving on this day.
Happy Mother’s Day Mom!
A Quick Study in Film: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol
It seems more and more action movies are being filmed using quick/shaky-cam techniques. Like the last Quantum of Solace Bond film or Hunger Games. It is refreshing to watch a movie with established framing again. I was struck by some opening scenes and decided to log them for future reference.
Pursuing HK: And Then There Were Two
Quick recap of the last 2 weeks on the HK front.
4/22/12: Round 2 with the FSE team
After the first round of interviews with the hiring manager I got to sit in on a call and meet the team. Over the next 60 minutes I got asked a series of questions, ranging from technical to behavior. Most of which I was able to answer to some degree and in general express my ability to pick things up quickly.
The team specifically asked me to answer the following question, “why do you want to work and live in Hong Kong, could you please answer in cantonese?”
I heard the team crack up in the background. I guess I deserved it. If you put “fluent in conversational cantonese” on your resume you better be able to back it up. So I drew a big breath and let it rip…
Even if I don’t get the job it was super awesome validation to hear from a HK-er, “your cantonese is good“. Yeah-yuh.
5/3/12: Round 3 with HR APAC
This is when I started getting a little nervous. Up until this point I still had not mentally allowed myself to get too excited. In doing so, it was still more of a pipe dream than a possible reality. Interviewing with HR from the asia pacific region though, it started to get quite real.
It sounds like we’re down to the last 2 candidates and both of us are from SD. They’re not allowed to tell me who the other candidate is. HR lady’s flying back this coming week and will phone in with the hiring manager. If they can’t make a decision there’ll be a tie-break interview, but if not…an offer decision may be made by next week.
A move could potentially be as soon as late June. Crazy.
Dr. Kitty & Dr. Ted Tie the Knot
Ceremony: First United Methodist Church of San Diego, CA
Reception: Pearl Restaurant, San Diego