I'm still very much a newbie at work.

My job is complicated enough that I'm just beginning to understands bits and pieces of it. Whenever I want to get something done I have to search for documentation or ask questions.

They've hired a new person who will be on my team in Dublin and he's here in Mountain View for training, like me. Except he's all new and stuff. I can answer his questions and give him advice.

I spent the whole day feeling somewhat dumb and then in the evening I found myself explaining things and giving advice.

Funny thing, that.

Encouraging, too, which is good.

Another sure sign that I'm learning a lot: I'm exhausted every night after work even though I don't really have the feeling that I got much done during the day.

That feeling of uselessness has me working long hours, hoping to finish something, anything. I know it's a bad habit to get into, but I'm only here for another month and I might as well make the most of it. I also know that the reason I'm slow is because I keep tackling new things so I can learn how they're done. Which is the right thing to do, of course, but as a result I'm not exactly productive.

I have to remind myself that lack of productivity doesn't mean I'm doing a bad job. Learning how Google works is fun and rewarding, but it's also hard work.

In fact, thinking back, I'm not sure I've ever worked this hard in my life. I've certainly never studied this hard before; I was always pretty lazy at school. Being motivated like this is pretty cool.

I'd be overjoyed if I wasn't so tired. ;-)

Unfortunately, I have a long list of non-work things I want to do; e-mail to read and write, code to fix, projects to work on, blogs to blog. And yet in the evenings I mostly just sit here reading webcomics until it's time to go to bed.

I'll get to them eventually.

Annie was here all last week, which was totally awesome. But now she's gone again I miss her desperately. I also miss not having my friends to hang out with or just chat with in the evenings after work. The internet isn't much help, since due to the f*#@ing time difference, they're all fast asleep when I'm winding down after work.

So... the tired newbie is really looking forward to coming home for Christmas!

I'll only be home for a week, and I'll be jet-lagged and ragged around the edges, but it's going to be great to see you guys again and spend some time in Reykjavík.