Interesting Stuff

This evening, I had dinner with 5 other Googlers at a wonderful Indian restaurant. We all work on separate projects, have no directly work-related interaction, and each of us met at least 2 of the others just this evening. However, we had a surprising amount in common:

• 3 work at the Irvine office (the other 3 work in Santa Monica)
• 3 were born in the eastern hemisphere
• 3 have cooked in a tandoori oven (only one of which can claim any semblance of Indian heritage/past)
• 3 have lived in Boulder, Colorado
• 3 have bumped into the same Romanian dude up in the Mountain View office (1000+ employees), even though none of us have been there for more than a week at a time
• 3 were Mudders (classes of ’85, ’99, and ’06, respectively)

All of this came up in normal conversation, without purposely trying to find weird stuff we have in common. How cool is that!?

Another interesting tidbit from tonight: “tikka masala” means “spiced patty,” and is typically a vegetarian dish. The chicken variety, despite its popularity, is unlike any traditional tikka masala, and was invented less than 50 years ago.