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August 7, 2002
Pool Shark
One of the many perks Microsoft offers its employees is a wide variety of recreational activities at the office, in case one needs to blow of some steam. On campus there are volleyball courts, soccer fields and baseball diamonds. In the office we have pool tables, foosball tables and even an arcade game. Over the term I've played my share of pool, improving my skills by 1000% (I was never that good to begin with). But my coworker and fellow intern Wan Li has taken the love of pool to a whole new level.
Everyday, at least twice a day, Wan Li pops his head into my office and asks, in his own particular enunciating manner-of-speech: "Dude! Can I interest you... in a quick game... of pool?" Since I've been really busy this past week, I've had to decline, but that didn't discourage Wan Li. He would play by himself if he had to (and has on numerous occasions).
As a result, Wan Li has gone from a piss-poor pool player (now that's alliteration) to a sure-shooting shark (ok, I'll stop). Since our product became Test-Complete as of last night, I had some free time to play. During the week I didn't play, Wan Li has was putting in 4-hour-a-day pool sessions, and it showed. He beat me 3 out of 3 games without breaking a sweat. I blame my failure on the lack of chalk.
Now I know what you're all thinking, "Does Microsoft pay Wan Li to play pool all day?" The answer seems to be yes. He's a Program Manager (PM), and apparently it's in the job description. I was this close to applying for that job. If only I had known.