I just had a first round interview for a gig with a nonprofit. The method of the interview was interesting, they were using an application called Sonru. You use your phone to record video answers to questions. A text question appears (eg: “Why do you want to work for this company”) you have 30 seconds to read the question, and think of an answer and then your camera turns on and a timer starts and you have to complete your answer in 3 mins after which point I assume the camera gets cut off, you can stop the camera sooner, if you’re finished. Then the next question pops up. There were 20 questions so I spent a little over an hour going through the process. You can’t stop the process once you start. There were some practice question to familiarize yourself with the platform and format. In addition to the general interview skills we all need, and the 2020 skills we’ve had to learn about presenting to camera, lighting, the best angle to be at on camera, this required a few new skills:

• The ability to use as much as of that 3 minutes without going over. Before I got into the interview, I didn’t know the expected length of the answers, I think if I did I would’ve grabbed that list of common interview questions and crafted responses that I could do in 2:30. Not a script, but an outline. I mean I have answers for those questions, most of us do, but I haven’t timed them out. If I can answer it in a minute and half, I never looked to pad the answer with more information to get closer to 3:00. Also if something is a strength so I spend 3:30 mins answering it, I never looked to trim it.
• How to use the clock but not let it freak you out. In my head I broke up the 3 mins into a few sections: In the first minute I tried to answer the question at a high level. The next minute I’d site a specific example from my career. I used the last bit of time to try and sum up. On some of the questions, I had he sensation that I was Keanu in Speed defusing the bomb which was ticking down. I had to keep that in check so it didn’t alter my speech patterns.
• The ability not to rely on the interviewer. Whenever I interview, I watch the interviewer for hints. (Did what I say strike a note with him, so I should emphasize it? Is that skill I mentioned something they don’t need so I shouldn’t mention it again., etc). When asked a technical question I'll try to answer as simply as possible and ask If they'd like more detail. I try to find a way to get the interviewers to discuss the problems then need solved. This way I can tell them how I solved similar problems at other organizations.

It felt like I was on the British Game Show, “Just A Minute”. For those who don’t know Just a minute is a game show where a contestant needs to talk for a minute on a topic without without hesitation, repetition or deviation. It’s actually very hard, especially to people who aren’t seasoned public speakers. The questions should have been phrased “Without hesitation, repetition or deviation tell me why you want to work for this organization and your 3 minutes begin….. now”.

Thankfully I had a hand on my stammering and stuttering... a few umms and ahhs but nothing that you wouldn't expect from the format. I think it went OK. Just … different but a sign of things to come.

I had covid early on. At the beginning of the year I was working with a NY based nonprofit which is in the US / China relations space. I had frequent contact with Chinese Nationals. By the end of February I had the disease. To be clear I do not blame the Chinese People, nor the organization I was working with, diseases happen. I only mention it to give context to my story.

I was never tested. Although I had the full gamut of symptoms (breathing problems, high fever, loss of taste and smell), I didn’t meet the guidelines for testing here in NY and quite frankly, I wasn’t leaving my home to get tested for a disease I already knew I had. I felt weak and tired constantly.

I treated it like any other URI (at the time so little was known). The odd part, to me is that I had little congestion. I didn't feel weight on my chest.  It was like there was no air in the room, like I had the bends or was at basecamp on Mount Kilimanjaro.

I had decided earlier on that I wasn’t going to be put on a respirator and made that wish known to people close to me. It’s not that I wanted to die. At the time the rate of people dying on the respirators was so high that I felt it was a death sentence (as memory serves at that people less than 5% of patients were coming off the respirators at that point). I’d have a different opinion now because we know so much more and have adapted better protocols.

For first few weeks my fever would yoyo but after 2 weeks it settled down. By the end of March my taste and smell returned. My breathing issues slowly got better but to this day I still have issues. Walking up 2 flights of stairs knocks me out as does walking distances more than a mile. Prior to covid walking 2 to 3 miles at a clip was not uncommon.

I am more likely to get tired now. I'll be doing something and "hit a wall" and need to take a nap. It's not debilitating but a change. I don't know how much of that is covid and how much is that I'm on the other side of 50 now.

I’ve been uncomfortable sharing that I had covid. At the beginning people had so much fear and doubt. Since I was probably infected via the Chinese, I didn’t want to feed into those stereotypes. Once we moved past the Chinese blaming, we stated shaming people (you must have been breaking the rules).  I didn't have the straight or desire to deal with it.

I’m slowly getting better but it’s a long path.

As I’m about getting ready to send my annual holiday message it occurs to me, it’s 2020.   We need to take a good look although there’s been heartache and pain there is still a lot to celebrate even if we need to make an effort to find those reasons.   I think it’s the year to celebrate as many holidays as possible.

I posted this first around 10 years ago.  A friend suggested I post it annually.  A few years later I added the “half way out of the dark” and began posting on Solstice.  Share and enjoy!

As a New Yorker I have been wished the following as some point or another:

- Happy Hanukkah
- Joyous Kwanzaa
- An Easy Fast at Yom Kippur
- A Blessed Ramadan
- Solstice Wishes
- Happy Yule
.... among many others

When I'm offered these wishes my answer is a simple, "Thank You, and the same to you". Unless the person is a close friend, I don't try and point out that these are not my holidays. I assume that the person is offering me positive wishes of joy, peace and happiness.  Why would I want to  offend the wisher or want them to believe that they are not welcome? I don't know about you but I'm a rather flawed human being and could use all the blessings, peace and positive wishes I can get.

So, over the next week or so, if I wish you a Merry Christmas, please understand that I am wishing you Joy and Peace, Serenity and Happiness. Please do not be offended by my wishes if I don't realize you are not celebrating Christmas, it is not my intention to offend.

Let me say to all:  No matter what you celebrate may it be the Merriest, Happiest, most Joyous and Blessed one yet. I also wish that the ones to come outshine this year's holidays.

And to a certain group of my friends (you know who you are): Well Done! Half way out of the dark.

I come from a time when the average person who used the internet did so from a command  line via a *nix shell.   Although that's less common these days, it always amazes me how much "new technologies" are just a more modern take on what we did on there.

• There are a variety of messenger apps  all of them are  just implementations of the msg command.
• Slack and Discord are just prettier versions of IRC.
• Heck, the Web is just a prettier cleaner version of GOPHER.

And as time has gone on I find myself adding functionality that emulates unix shell functionality.

• *nix shells have a feature that when you log into them a "Message of the Day" is displayed.  These messages often had news about the site as well as whatever greetings the admins what to display.  The little icon on the lower left of all the pages on this site is my version of this.  In the short time it's been on my site, I've used it for Holliday greetings, encouraging people to wear a mask or to vote and to announce new features of this site.
• If you're on a unix shell there was a command, finger which would display a user's project and plan files.  A user would put info in those files describing where they are and what they were working on.  My now page, has the same purpose.  You can visit there to get a snapshot of what I'm working on.