choices, choices

I'm so conflicted. When I get negative vibes from Google I start scheming for how I could make my application better, I start envisioning just how cool it would be to work there in these pre-IPO days, along such luminaries as Rob Pike himself... But then — I am so weird — the positive vibes scare me even more, and suddenly I have pre-emptive nostalgia for lazy days is Berkeley, taking courses, working at LBL, living in the co-op, hanging out at the 88" cyclotron. (Honestly right now the latter alternative sounds so much more attractive, but tomorrow my view will probably change again...) Sometimes I'm glad these things aren't entirely up to me.

Oh yes, I should add that the U.C. Berkeley "letter of recommendation" form for graduate school has checkboxes with the following options:

Best student this year.
Best student in five years.
Best student in ten years.
Best student in ___ years.

That's what we're up against.