Boston, Swimming, Job [Google!!], etc.

Dear Friends -
During the past couple months, I've been enjoying being back in the Boston area and the US in general. It's good to see old friends and meet the new freshmen that will be taking over the reins from us seniors in only a few years :) I'm really encouraged by the number of strong Christians I see rising up in the Boston area. The people that go through this city will change the world, and I figure the world will be better off if they've at least had a chance to hear and make an educated decision on Christianity.

The swim season ended last weekend. I swam under our new coach Bill Smyth for about one month, and came in with about three weeks of my own training. Somehow, during that month in our new pool, I brought my times down to personal record levels in the 50, 100, and 200 free. In all three events (which I swam at conferences last weekend), I dropped time, breaking 1:50 in the 200 free (1: 49.22), breaking :50 in the 100 free (:49.92), and breaking 24s in the 50 free (23.14). It was a hugely encouraging weekend, and a great way to leave on a high note. I'm very grateful Bill let me swim with the team.

I interviewed frantically across the country for a couple weeks in late Jan/early February, eventually getting offers at Raytheon, Fidelity, Microsoft, and Google. I watched the super bowl from the Univ of Washington campus. We were disappointed with the calls during the game on that day, but I was very happy with the results of my interview the next day at Microsoft. After some waffling back and forth between Google and Microsoft, I found the best of both worlds and will be accepting a position in Google's Kirkland office, which is only 2.5 hours driving from home for me. I'll be working on such exciting projects as Google Earth, Google Talk, Google Pack, and more. [Google Pack, by the way, is a really easy way to get a new computer ready to roll.]

Granted, it will rain more and give me more overcast days, living in Washington state. However, I think the tradeoff of being much closer to home and still having a new city (Seattle to discover) will keep me more than busy and happy for the next couple years. Please pray for my decision as I consider a summer project in Central or East Asia before I begin, probably in early September.

As before, I welcome any updates you want to send my way.

Sincerely,
Brian Patton