Apartment Building Monthly Dues

Our apartment building here has monthly maintenance fees that everyone pays into every month to handle the common, shared expenses.  The standard formula is one based on the size of the apartment, which at first glance might sound fair.  But it's not...

The architecture of the building is that the largest apartments are lower down and they taper to smaller sizes as the building gets higher, this way everyone gets an uncovered balcony.  That means, of course, those of us lower in the building have the highest monthly payments.

However, thinking about it differently, I can see one alternative formula that would most likely be more fair, basing the monthly payment on the floor of the apartment, the higher up you go, the more expensive.

Two of the major expenses are the elevator and pumping water.

Those of us lower down in the building, especially the family on the ground floor, benefit less from the elevator than those higher up.  Similarly, it costs more to pump the water higher up, so again, the distance the water has to go is based on giving water to the higher up apartments and doesn't do much for those of us lower in the building.  If the building was lower we wouldn't need to pump the water so high.

So, those higher up in the building get more benefits for less money, get better views, more quiet as they're farther away from the parking, and to top it all off (pun intended) they get to throw their trash down on our balconies.

Final Follow-up with the Neurophysician

A couple of weeks ago we followed up with the neurophysician about how the medication-based treatment of my headaches has been going. I quickly found on previous visits that when he'd ask me how things were going he wouldn't let me really talk and say what I felt I needed to say, before cutting me off and him talking. So, I got in the habit of writing the details.

This visit was the first one after we got the printer, so I was able to elaborate even more by typing instead of hand-writing, and include a picture, found using Google, to demonstrate what I was trying to say.

With the last visit you increased the dosage of Amitone from 10mg per day to 25mg per day. But we still had a strip of unused 10mg pills, so you said to take two a day, or 20mg, until they ran out, then get the 25mg pills.

The first week, using 20mg a day, I had no headaches whatsoever.

When switching to 25mg per day, I started with the same headaches I had on 10mg per day. After a week of that I went back to 20mg per day, but no change, still had the same headaches, and then after a couple of weeks went back to the prescribed 25mg per day.

Overall I'm still getting headaches a couple of times most weeks. Usually they're not as severe as they were before the month-long one that prompted us to go to you, and the Suminat 50 almost always halts them.

With the increase of Amitone from 10mg to 25mg, the unpleasant side effects are also noticeably worse:

• The confusion and disorientation when waking up after dawn in the mornings is much worse than when taking 10mg, and that was much worse than not taking anything. If I happen to see myself in a mirror at those times, I don't recognize myself and think there's a stranger in the room.
• The ringing sound in my ears is louder and more persistent. My ears were ringing pretty steadily for some months before we visited you the first time, but as the dosage has increased, so is the ringing.
• I've gotten very fat… Despite actually cutting down my meal portions and eating a lot less junk food (e.g. potato chips, Kur Kure, etc.) I'm gaining weight and getting fatter and fatter.
• When I'm tired and the lights are dim I'm getting more and more hallucinations. These include seeing insects and spiders crawling all over the bed and my arms, though I know they're not real so I don't panic, or seeing things, birds, bats, butterflies, some look real, some look like glass, floating up and into the ceiling.
• When I look at many things that are brightly colored, they sparkle at those times, too, shimmering like they were covered in glitter, looking a bit like this photo:

At first he started answering me about the hallucinations, that they were absolutely normal and everyone experiences them, and write the medical term on the sheet, something including the root "som" which I know has to do with sleep.

But then he said "this is really well written" and handed it to an assistant (or intern or whatever) and said "insert this into his file, I'd like to keep it on record".

After discussing with him I asked if we could work on eliminating the medications altogether and he put together a plan, one week on 20mg a day of Amitone, then down to 10mg a day for a month and then stop it. He recommended keeping on with the Betacap, which he'd actually forgotten he prescribed until we asked about it, as well as recommending I keep using the Suminat when I get a migraine.

He wrote down what he thought were some of the brand names for the same drugs in the U.S. but didn't know which were prescription-only and which might be over-the-counter. He also gave me an address to email him if I need any advice while I'm in the U.S.

How I Lost My Faith in God

At one time I know I believed in God, but I don't any more. Sometimes I wonder what happened.

I guess the first part of it is when I was 9 and we moved away from New Jersey. In New Jersey we used to go to Etz Ahaim synagogue on a regular basis. I went to Hebrew school there every week and we attended all the high holy day services there.

But then when we moved to Waldport, with the nearest synagogue being well over 100 miles away, in Portland, we no longer went to services at all. My parents got me several tutors over time to help prepare me for my bar mitzvah, which we also had at Etz Ahaim in the summer when I turned 13, for which we flew across the country and stayed with my grandparents.

Looking back on the tutoring, though, it was focused solely on my being able to read my Torah portion. During that time I didn't learn any more about Judaism, being a Jew or even Hebrew vocabulary, only what I need to read my part, without understanding it. And to keep from taking it appropriately seriously, my father used to time me with a stopwatch when I was reading it, always pushing for faster and faster times as the goal, rather than the usual, normal sing-song rhythm.

Sometime around then, too, my parents started making me earn my TV time by reading "approved" books. For that I had to read 45 minutes for every half hour of TV I wanted to watch, in advance. Most of the books my mother picked were about the Holocaust.

And there, I think was another major reason I lost my faith. How can a youth read all those books about death and murder, with little or no guidance, and still think there really is a God?

As I became a teenager, while not consciously thinking about not believing, I was also reading a lot of swords & sorcery literature and some horror. For quite some time I felt H.P. Lovecraft had the perfect description of what I thought in the story Herbert West -- Reanimator, in which he states 'that all life is a chemical and physical process, and that the so-called "soul" is a myth.'

There's times when I think about what I believe and I really hope I'm wrong, that there is a God, heaven and all that stuff, as the idea of absolutely nothing after death is kind of full. But there's quite a difference between hope and actually believing, and I simply don't believe.

And seemingly at odds with that, I do enjoy some of the rituals of Judaism, and symbolism. That's in some ways part of my identity, as I grew up with my family celebrating the Jewish holidays and going to services, at least before we moved to Oregon. In that regard, one of my favorite stories is about Hillel the Elder, who was challenged to teach the Torah while standing on one foot, and he did, saying "The whole of the Torah is to treat others as you would be treated, the rest is just commentary" (there are quite a few variations on the story, whether it was him or his student who stood on one foot, and slight changes to his actual quote, although they all have the basic idea.)

With further thought I've come to decide that I believe in God as a symbol, but not as an entity.

Cross Cultural Training

At work when my project first started preparing to be working in a distributed fashion, some of us put together a page on our team's wiki about cross cultural difference to help each side communicate with the other... I just thought I'd share it... I'm the author of much of the language part (but it definitely wasn't me who wrote about the shorts... (if it was it would've been miniskirts...))

Cross Cultural Training

IS IT ALL ABOUT JOHNSONS TANNING LOTIONS IN THE UK???

OR IS IT ALL ABOUT THE FAIR & LOVELY CREAMS IN INDIA???

OUR GUIDE TO MOVING BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES!!

	Moving to the UK
1	Dress-Code in the TE-UK office is Business Attire. Friday's is dress down day, so you can wear casual once a week
2	Football is the sport that the British are crazy about
3	Most high street shops will close in the UK at 5pm. Shopping Centres usually on the outskirts of the cities will stay open till 8pm/9pm.
4	You will most often have to call for a Taxi in the UK, unless you are in the city centre. You cannot flag them down anywhere like in India
5	10 Downing Street is the prime minister's residence and office.
6	The British say 'Holiday' not Vacation.
7	The english do not use heavy spice or masala in foods, so people from India will often find it very bland.

	Moving to India
1	Dress-Code in the TE-India office is Casual. If you are lucky, you will even see guys in shorts
2	It is common for people to have a dependancy on others, Drivers, Maids, Service People
3	Cricket is a religion for people in India
4	"Two minutes" doesn't really mean two minutes, it's just an expression.
5	10 Downing Street is one of the prime nightclubs in Pune
6	In Pune, the rickshaws will only use their meter for charging for longer distances. You will have to agree a price for short distances, out of town or night time. The meter formula is to multiply the meter amount by 6 and add 2 to get the fare in rupees.
7	You Don't have tip anyone unless you feel like. Unlike America where Tipping is mandatory!
8	Don't assume "Yes" means "Yes."

	General Business Rules Cross-Site
1	Time – Everyone should be on time both for physical & non physical meetings
2	Bank Holidays in India differ to those in the UK

Other Useful Hints

Certainly another sort of cross-cultural thing is English word usage… Indians often use English translated almost straight from their mother tongues, Hindi or Marathi (or others from different regions) which to a native English speaker sometimes doesn't make sense, or makes sense but isn't quite right.

An example, was when one guy was not feeling well and came late, someone said "he would be in later". In U.S. English, that would properly be phrased as "he will be in later" with "would" leaving some doubt, like "he would be in later, however…". Indians use "would" the way we'd use "will".

Indian English is also a lot more passive than the more active American and U.K. English seems to be… Like someone might say "this computer is having 2 MB of RAM" compared with American or U.K. English where it's "this computer has 2 MB of RAM".

In India "there" means "here", while present and future tense are intermixed. For instance, if someone in the office wants to tell people they will be out of the office the next day, they say "I am not there tomorrow" rather than the English or American, "I will not be here tomorrow".

In India the word "doubt" is often used to indicate a question, such as "I have a doubt about story XXX". English and Americans interpret "doubt" not as a question but a concern, saying you have a doubt about something means you think it is not right.

The word "some" is used differently in different types of English. In American and U.K. English "some" often means something is unknown. For example, if the ICT fellow writes "users cannot connect to the system for some reason" then that means they don't know the reason. In Indian English, "some" often means the writer knows but isn't saying, such as "the meeting is canceled for some reason" means there is a definite reason the meeting is canceled, but the writer isn't telling you.

The word "keep" can also be used differently. In American and U.K. English, keep means not to give something back. Saying "I kept the phone" means you did not return the phone and it stayed in your possession, while in Indian English, "I kept the phone" means you hung up the call and physically put it back where it belongs (e.g. the receiver on the cradle, or back on the charging unit).

When discussing multiplication in arithmetic, English and Americans say "times", while Indians say "into". So, in India, to calculate the rickshaw fare when the meter says 5.00, an Indian would say "5 into 6 plus 2" to get 32, but English or Americans would say "5 times 6 plus 2" to arrive at the same answer... The confusion comes in that for Americans and English, "into" would indicate division more than multiplication (e.g. 5 goes into 30 6 times, that is, how many 5's are in 30).

Don't assume "Yes" means "Yes."

"We'll try," is the "diplomatic way of saying, ‘We really can't, but we don't want to tell you.' Indians have a certain aversion to saying, "No."

Americans/British want a direct "Yes" or "No. For Indians, the tendency will be to say, "Yes," and try to make it happen at all costs. That can create wide miscommunication and variances in expectations.

iPad - What's in a name?

I recently read a friend's blog post in which he found the "shape" used in a number of hoardings around the city to be "offensive". And bearing that shape in mind, it got me to thinking about the early issue of the iPad's name.

I read a few things at the time of the iPad's announcement in which people compared the name to the simple short form "pad" for a something completely unrelated, and why the iPad was likened to that, while things such as notepads weren't.

What I think it comes down to is something like a notepad has a significant first part, note, and when we think of that, it's "note" that has more prominence in our minds than "pad" so it's a pad for taking notes. Similar with a legal pad. The "pad" part is less important what type of pad it is, and "pad" simply completes the name.

A launchpad is focused more on the launch than it is on the pad. It's a place to launch something, rather than a pad being launched.

But when it comes to the iPad, the "i" simply isn't significant enough, it's not a word or a concept in its own right. While there's "I" for ourselves, we know that's not what that "i" is, so it doesn't stand alone, basically leaving just a pad.

Useless Dwarves in The Hobbit

Rereading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien earlier last year, for the umpteenth time (and having listened to the audio tapes of it hundreds of times) it occurred to me for the first time that most of the dwarves are useless and are only there to fill out the numbers, without actually doing much of anything else. Maybe it's been discussed in other criticism, but I've never really read any.

By the end of the story I noticed that there are only four distinct, dwarven roles in the story.

• Balin and Dwalin are interchangeable in the role of the oldest dwarf, and the ones who take the best care of Bilbo.
• Fili and Kili are interchangeable in the role of the youngest dwarf, and the most active and quickest moving.
• Thorin is obviously the leader, the King Under the Mountain.
• Old fat Bombur is the bungler, the one who's appetite and clumsiness get them into situations that only Bilbo can get them out of.

The rest are just filler to get the number thirteen.

Sure, they're used in places, like to make the unexpected party amusing and fun and show us more about Bilbo as a host, or later to get Beorn to accept them. And of course, how would the goblins' song sound "six birds in five fir-trees..." it definitely wouldn't ring as well as fifteen.

Nor would Smaug's observation "why not say 'us five' and be done with it" be nearly as impressive as his distinguishing the smell of fourteen distinct entities. And that would eliminate the title "Mr. Lucky Number" which I suppose is what makes Bilbo, Bilbo.

Still, it's one of my favorite stories anyway...

Food Poison on Thursday

Ug, really rotten day yesterday, Thursday. Food poison from breakfast. I was cutting up tomatos and some of them were kind of black inside and I threw them out, but one only had a little black stuff, so I trimmed around it. Big mistake...

After getting to work I had a headache, by late morning I was shivering and sweating, the headache got worse and a bit of nausea... My computer mouse was disgusting to touch, slimy from my sweating hands...

I called Leena to pick me up and take me home shortly after noon, then sat out in the sunshine near the entrance to the office building. She picked me up a few minutes later, dropped me at home and went out to run errands (she offered to stay home, but I said I was just going to sleep, so there was no need).

Once in bed I couldn't sleep, just tossed and turned, feeling absolutely rotten and uncomfortable. I was freezing cold, shivering violently at times, while sweat was running off my body in rivers, soaking the sheet and the blanket on top of me.

What I really wanted was a nice, hot shower, just sit under the hot water. When I don't feel well, that almost always helps, the water beating on my aching head helps relieve it, when my stomach's upset, the hot shower eases that off. I guess it just relaxes me. Unfortunately, it was Thursday, which is Pune's day for long power outages, so there was no hot water all day.

Eventually my burps had the flavor of the cantaloupe I ate before work, but as though it was rotten, a sure sign my digestive system wasn't working right. And a bit after that the vomiting started... Each time I vomited I felt a little bit better afterwards.

After the third time, around 4:30pm, the worst seemed to ease off and I felt more calm, and less cold, less sweat. Leena came home shortly after that from running errands.

I got up from bed around 6pm when the power came back on (it'd been off since around 8am), hallucinating a bunch of glass hummingbirds floating around the room. I got a nice, hot shower for a while, and that lasted till the power went out again and I used up all the hot water in that bathroom...

Then a cold coconut cut open to drink the water inside, followed by a three hour or so nap. By 10:30pm I was able to eat a little bit, nothing with powerful flavor, of course. And I drank a big glass of water and Electrol to replenish the salt and sugar I lost from throwing up. I stayed up reading a while till I thought I could go to bed without getting up to use the bathroom a number of times after the drink.

Now it's Friday and I feel a lot better. Not altogether well. Still a bit of a headache, and Leena said I'm warmer than usual, so the fever's not completely gone. She called the doctor who recommended I take paracetamol twice a day to bring the fever down, but wants to stay away from strong medicines if I can shake it off more naturally.

However, she didn't ask him my burning question... What about single malt Scotch whisky?

Total Recall of the Future

I recently watched the movie, Total Recall again for the first time in eight or nine years. I've enjoyed that movie since the first time I saw it at the theatre near the college campus. But this time I was struck most by some of the director, Paul Verhoeven's 1990 vision of the future.

What made me think to watch the movie with this in mind is the London Underground from my last few trips to the U.K. In Total Recall there's video advertisements all over the subway station, with monitors and video instead of the old paper advertisements. The same things were alongside the escalators in some of the London Underground stations. Many of the real ones were timed so that as you move up or down, each monitor you pass is just a little farther in the advertisement than the previous one.

Near the beginning Arnold Schwarzenegger as Doug, and Sharon Stone as Lori, have breakfast in front a wall that's a TV. Doug keeps turning it to a news channel to find out what's happening on Mars and Lori keeps changing it back to a pastoral scene of a lake in the mountains. While science-fiction back then is a reality now (though maybe not cheap).

Throughout the movie the characters all talk to each other via video phones. While most of our stand-alone telephone units don't have video yet, we're on our way there. At work we have video conference units that are kind of similar, and for my recent job search I used Skype with video sharing.

Then in the movie there's the scene with Lori practising her tennis swing, following along with the hologram. There isn't much detail there, but somehow that makes me think of the Nintendo Wii. I've seen photos and read descriptions of the Wii, but haven't actually seen one yet. But it looks like fun with its controller that you wave around to control the games.

At one point when Doug checks into the Hilton on Mars the clerk says there's something of his in the vault. Both of them put their thumbs on a small scanner and the drawer opens. I don't know if they had biometric stuff like that in the 80's, but now in 2010 I get into the office door using a thumb scanner.

Of course, some of the futuristic stuff is kind of corny. The cars in particular look silly and look like a cheap shell put on top of a real car. The guns the agency operatives use look silly, too.

Sports

While not much of a sports fan myself, having been away from the United States for an extended time, I've recently realized why the sports that most of the world love just aren't popular in America.

We Americans like our sports much faster paced than everyone else.

For instance, take the recent FIFA World Cup football (soccer to Americans...). Two hours for one, single goal? That's nuts. That's boring! And that's hardly unusual in terms of soccer games, which are usually relatively low scoring.

The nearest equivalent to soccer we have in the U.S. is ice hockey, with typically low scores and it probably ranks last in terms of popularity among professional sports. If it didn't have regular fights, it'd probably be less popular.

Compare soccer to basketballs, another near equivalent in terms of game play. Both have the ball in almost constant movement as the teams move it up and down the playing field to get it into a goal, with the game's duration based on a clock. In basketball they update the rules on a regular basis to make it more exciting for spectators, including a 24 second shot clock, requiring a team that gets possession of the ball to make a goal attempt within 24 seconds or risk losing the ball. And looking at the FIFA world cup again, with 31 goal attempts, in two hours? Yawn!

Baseball vs. cricket, again two sort of similar sports, with bats and balls and similar ideas in terms of offense and defense.

Cricket has two main variants, test matches and one day international matches. Test matches take several days, while one day ones take, well, one day... From my experience watching them, they're slow and dull.

With one day matches, first one side does all of its offensive play while the other does all its defensive play, then they swap, with each "innings" taking roughly 3 to 4 hours. So, even if one team is much worse than the other, it still takes almost the full day to see them lose, especially if they're second at bat, when they may use the whole set of overs to chase the better team. By the end of the game both teams are tired and not playing at their best, so we never see a more even match up between them.

Compared with baseball, in which each team alternates offensive and defensive play, swapping each time there's three outs. Most games take between two and three hours, only going longer if they're pretty evenly matched.

With baseball we get to see each team play both offense and defense when they're fresh at the beginning all the way till they're tired at the end, so it seems like a more even and fair match between them.

So, overall, it just seems that American sports are geared towards a faster pace and more exciting entertainment. But then, I guess we're more accustomed to instant gratification...

The Job Choice

At the beginning of the past week I had two job offers in hand from New York and I had to pick one. The two were:

1. A mortgage lender in Long Island, Reliance First Capital.

2. Kashrus, a Brooklyn company providing software to help kosher food manufacturers

I was really interested in the Brooklyn one, Kashrus, for a few reasons:

1. Kashrus is a small company, and after some thought I've realized I like the working environment of a small company more than a big company.
2. It's in New York City.
   • Most of my career I've worked in the suburbs or the edges of cities, while wishing I was in the city proper. The mortgage lender is in Melville, NY, outside of New York City, while the kosher food company is in Brooklyn. It's not Manhattan, with its skyscrapers, but it's still within the city.
   • That reminds me of when I worked at Maynard Rigby, which was in Portland rather than Hillsboro or Beaverton and I liked the location better.
   • And in comparison with my business trips to the U.K. where the office and places I stayed were in Dunstable, which was just too inconvenient to ever go into London on the workdays due to the distance and expense of train tickets.
   • So, being in New York City itself will make it easier to get around, for instance if the Brain Surgeons have a show on a worknight, I could go.
3. Reliance has some of the team scattered around the world. And while that doesn't mean they're bad developers, but I've spent the last ten years doing distributed work, from the remote sites, and I think having the whole team in one place will be a pleasant change for me again, eliminating that particular challenge.
4. Reliance is doing the same thing I've been doing for the last three years, the exact same kind of software, mortgage origination. Kashrus is something completely new to me, and I found that appealing. Never before in my career have I had two jobs in the same business domain.
5. Doing a Google search for Reliance turned up mostly job ads, and about the only exceptions to that were blog and news articles about them being a "predatory lender" founded by some people who caused mortgage lending problems at their previous company, and I had to wonder how that would make me feel.
6. Last but definitely not least, the interviewers simply impressed me more. When it talked to a couple of guys at Reliance they asked me what things I worked with, what kind of software and what-not, but those interviews were easy to breeze through. When I interviewed with the Kashrus people they challenged me. I had to read online documentation while we shared my desktop in order to solve programming problems they gave me, live... By the end of the interview process I felt like I'd already put a lot of myself into this job application.

So, with all of those, I got the idea that on a day-to-day basis I'd be more satisfied working at Kashrus instead of Reliance.

The Kashrus offer came a little later and at first it was $15,000 less than Reliance's offer, and even including the $5,000 they'll pay towards insurance is still quite a lot lower. Money isn't my prime motivating factor, but that was just too large a difference, especially in New York City where things are really expensive and it might be a difference between living comfortably and struggling with monthly payments on things.

I wrote to the Kashrus fellow and told him that, and within about 20 minutes he came back with an offer that was $10,000 higher than the first one, so that was good and I wrote back to accept it.

Chat - Going back in time

I hate chatting on instant messaging system. Sure, they're fine for light stuff:

Kevin: Can I bum a ride home?

Vehicle Owner: Sure, I'm leaving in 5 minutes

Kevin: Perfect.

But when you get longer things and you see something like:

Other Person: Thank you

With a message at the bottom "Other Person is typing a message" and you wonder, "are they still typing? That 'thank you' seems the end. Do I wait? Do I type?" What do I do?

Maybe with the new, modern technology we should go back to "over" and "out" to indicate when someone's finished, sort of like on radio communication. It works there, and chat really is structured like two-way radio, only typing instead of talking.

This would be useful, too, when someone's fired a complex or multipart or series of technical questions at me via instant messaging. Sometimes I can't tell if they're done or still adding more on. And then when it looks like they're done and I begin typing a reply, my replies are usually long and detailed, they start off quickly with "r u there?" because I don't send back an instant, fast but wrong or incomplete answer.

Or they ask one question, I begin typing the answer and then they start sending more before I'm done. How do I then keep my answers tied with the specific, unnumbered, unstructured questions?

At least an "over" and "out" would clarify who's turn it is to talk. Or maybe we need instant message programs to use a token, whoever has the token can talk, and when they're done they pass it. This can keep the conversation structured for easy reading of questions and answers.

On the other hand, I prefer email. For just those reasons. For things with complex answers, email is just a lot easier to keep structured. Questions can be bulleted or numbered, answers along with them. Text can be formatted and doesn't have to fit some arbitrarily small number of characters.

Yeah, much prefer email over chat.

Shopping with Leena in Dream City

Had an interesting variation of a regularly recurring dream this morning, between the first time I woke up and when I finally woke up and got up… For years I've dreamt of a city, a bit like Portland, Oregon, but not exactly, but many of my dreams take place there. And they're mostly about shopping (being that the dream city is mine, there's a disproportionate number of bookstores, of course).

This one had Leena joining me…

We began somewhere out in the suburbs, each on our own scooter. Leena, of course, had no trouble negotiating the freeway (for those familiar with Portland, this would be like coming from Hillsboro into Portland on 26) on hers, while I struggled, getting confused over driving on the left side or the right side. Every so often I'd realize I was on the wrong side of the road, and facing oncoming buses and cars, forcing everyone to screech to a halt, or me to swerve off the road. And then confusion again about which side of the road to go on…

Leena got into downtown Portland way ahead of me, and was already in the small, classy mall by the time I parked and want in. I caught up with her in a store selling miscellaneous stuff, but where I've usually bought toys in past dreams, including a kitty cat stuffed animal (which in the real world I actually bought at the Oregon Historical Society museum gift shop, which looks realistic enough that kittens who've wandered into my Beaverton apartment in the past when the door was open have seen it and started crouching down and moving towards it slowly). She bought a white hat there and was just paying for it when I arrived, so she handed it to me and I stuffed it in my white backpack.

From there we went to one of the other stores, a store selling lots of feminine sorts of things, lacy tablecloths, candles, scarves and what-not, with dark, antique-style wooden display cases and matching benches and framed mirrors all around. I'd been in there before, but mainly just to walk through on my way somewhere else.

This time, however, the store was closing and most of the display cases were empty. Leena was enjoying browsing around and picking things up, while I just watched, more or less thinking about the bookstore in the mall.

My 1997 Job Hunt

After the company I worked for in 1993-1996 went out of business I relaxed for half a year before I began looking for work... This is my job search from that year. Unfortunately, I don't have my written diaries handy for me to get the exact dates of each of the interviews. Most of these are copy/pasted out of emails I wrote after each one of the interviews, but I compiled this as one document so long ago I don't have those emails handy, either...

Doing a little editing, and getting to the bottom, the last few interviews aren't here...

By the time it was all finished I ended up at First Insight where I stayed for nearly a decade...

---

Well, on Thursday, July 24th I got the first interview, with Telemark, over, done with and gone... It took around 2 hours to travel there (NE part of Milwaukee, a totally dead area, boring), and three to come back! I got there about twenty minutes early, and the guy interviewing me was running about half an hour late due to emergency stuff to do...

I had plenty of time to observe the reception area and compare it to PC-Kwik. What I noticed is it was more formal than PC-Kwik's as far as decor and stuff. Everyone was dressed more professionally than most people at PC-Kwik. But, the receptionists (there were three) horsed around a lot more, even while there were "outsiders" in the office. When not on the phone they would talk babytalk and really, really silly, and most of the time cut it out on the phone, but often when one was on the phone, the other two would loudly horse around...

Anyway, the interview didn't go great, but it didn't last long (guess that was my fault). The guy wasn't the one who wrote the questions, and didn't seem too comfortable asking them, and they were ones I wanted to answer. I don't really want to expound on where I want to be in five years (like I know... and I think "I'd like to be reading sci-fi books on the couch full time" isn't a correct answer). One question was "what sort of people do you enjoy most, and don't say 'everyone'?". Dumb, dumb questions.

The job turned out to be different than I was expecting. It was mostly running reports and converting data (like from mainframe to Excel) and distributing the reports to others in the office and to clients, etc... It was a night job, from 5:00pm till 1:00am most nights, which would include about 5 hours of being the only one from that department in the office before the graveyard shift comes in...

That probably wouldn't work for me due to transportation problems. The busses don't run that late, and the job includes Sunday night work, and I know for sure one of the busses does NOT run on Sunday's. I'd have a lot of trouble getting there.

I goofed filling out the application, and missed a whole page. I didn't have good answers to a lot of his questions, like "tell me about youself". I didn't have a list of references with me... Yeah, I wasn't totally prepared, but I didn't care. Also, my hair was extremely obnoxious... I couldn't decide if I should shave or not, so I went halfway an did a goattee. Looks pretty silly.

One good thing about working there, though, is one of those receptionists was wearing what must be one of the shortest miniskirts I've ever seen!

Getting home sucked. Except for in Pioneer Place, where I stopped to get a frozen yogurt, I might've seen Staci (a nice Jewish girl I met in college who I've been unsuccessfully chasing for about seven years). I saw her car at the HealthFirst on Cornell on my way downtown in the morning. I didn't say anything in the mall because she was with another guy. I don't know which scared me more, saying hi and finding out it wasn't Staci (despite looking like her exactly) or saying hi and finding out the guy was a boyfriend. So, I just discreetly stared for a while...

After I got home, I called her at home and she was there, but on her way out for dinner with an aunt and uncle. We talked for a couple of minutes, mostly I told her about the job stuff... She didn't mention anything about being in teh mall an I didn't ask. She said she'd call me "later" whenever "later" is. She also emphasized asking a couple times about if my Tuesday interview was on the coming Tuesday, which was her birthday.

I was waiting for a bus downtown, tired, bored and sweating in the blistering heat, and pondering the manhole covers. I was wondering if it's really true that circular ones are the only shape that won't fall through. I tried visuallizing other shapes and turning them around in my head and most seemed like they could, so I think it's really true...

I'm sure you're thinking what a fascinating thing manhole covers are... Such a major mark of civilazation... But there is significance to the story.

In any case, Tuesday's mail had a rejection letter from Telemark, which is fine, I didn't want to have to commute out there anyway...

---

Friday I had an interview with Community Action Organization out in downtown Hillsboro (SW 10th and Baseline, at the edge of town) for a data specialist position. That interview went okay. It was with two people, but wasn't as stressful or harsh as multi-person interviews I'd been to before or since. It was short, about ten minutes (gee, I guess that was my fault). Nothing was really interesting or outstanding about it.

I was way early, so I wandered around Hillsboro a bit, the first time I'd been there. I was amused by some business names, like Fairly Honest Dan's Machine Gun Parlor and the He's Not Here Saloon... Otherwise, it was a dull, drab looking place.

Monday I got a rejection phone call on my answering machine, which is fine, as even though the CAO and people there seemed okay to work with, I didn't really want to work way out there...

---

Then I got a break for the weekend. Saturday night I went downtown for a little brain surgery. That was awsome...

The last time I saw any live music was in like 1975 or so, when I went to a bunch of folk concerts in Central Park with my parents, so this was a real treat. It was the first time the Brain Surgeons were playing west of New York. They're currently one of my favorite groups (the main Brain Surgeon was the original drummer and major songwriter for Blue Oyster Cult in the 70s).

They were playing at Berbati's Pan on 3rd & Ankeny. I got there early, and it was the first time I'd been to a bar by myself, so I wasn't too comfortable, but that wasn't a good excuse to miss the Brain Surgeons... I saw the opening band, which were okay, and I figured that's what live music was like. After the Brain Surgeons came on, though, I re-evaluated and decided the first group sucked...

The big excitement was when Albert, the drummer, was doing an intense drum solo, and left the stage with his drum sticks. He ran around the bar like a maniac, drumming on every table, the floor, the ceiling, the walls, and any hard surface he could find (including some guy's bicycle helmet (he wasn't wearing it at the moment)). Yeah, it was wild.

I hope they come back again soon. Though if the turnout there was typical for the whole tour, it's unlikely, as there was hardly anyone there, which is too bad because they were really good live, real energetic and enthusiastic, and skilled.

---

Sunday I just did the resume thing, got a ton out in the mail for Monday.

---

Monday I was just hanging around, with nothing planned, when in the afternoon someone from The Kemtah Group called, saying that were trying to fill a PC Technician job at Intel for a six month project and liked my resume. So, she said if I sent her an electronic copy of my resume, she'd have her boss call to arrange an interview.

Before I got the resume emailed to her, her boss, Dave, called to set up an interview. This was around 1:30. He wanted to do it that day, saying if he didn't have someone in 24 hours, another company would probably fill it. So, in a panic I ran around my apartment changing clothes and trying to shave off a few days' scruff and wash my face...

I made it a few minutes early and hung around the lobby for a while. I seemed to be the only one not wearing Nike shoes. Even businessmen in Dockers and shirts with ties were wearing dressy Nikes. They had a short, written test for me to take about my PC hardware and software troubleshooting and configuration skills, to get an idea of where my experience and knowledge is. I did okay on the hardware and Windows 95 part, but nto so well on the Windows NT and Netware parts (PC-Kwik's Netware LAN was too small for me ot really get good experience, and too reliable to often troubleshoot).

The interview went great. It was very relaxed and informal. I think the guy had done a lot of interviewing, because he didn't have any questions written to read off but seemed to know waht to ask to get a good feel for my experience and skill and attitude. We had some friendly, personal type chat going on as well, so I was pretty comfortable interviewing with him.

So he said he'd submit my information to Intel, but it could take around a week for them to get back to him, and he'll let me know. That sounds okay. I think working in the suburbs would be better at a large company than a small one, just because there'd possibly be a social scene there, which might make up for being so far from the center of stuff... Maybe I don't have a clue...

---

Tuesday afternoon I had an interview with PacifiCorp for an Entry Level IT Analyst position. I'd stay away from IT Analyst type stuff, but this one said entry level, so I assume I'd qualify, and they'd train me to suit their needs... Anyway, downtown Portland is my dream job location.

The interview was nasty. I was pretty nervous, and the hassle I got with the building security didn't help (they said the guy never called down that I would be there, and they didn't seem pleased about having to call him, preferring that I just went away, but they did call him, and gave me a temporary badge...) Three guys interviewd me at once, and I couldn't see all of them at one time. One guy was definitely the ring leader, so I mostly focused on him.

They fired questions off at me, mostly about how I work. How do you handle deadlines? What if you have more than one top priority task, and a few more than top priority? What kind of worker are you? Are you a starter or a finisher? Do you work in bursts or steady? Why are manhole covers round? What's you favorite HTML development tool? If there was a problem and you weren't happy with work, what would you say to me (from the point of a supervisor (he didn't like my answer, which was I'd say what I thought the problem was, rather than something else, but that didn't seem to answer what he thought he was asking, and another guy told me he'd heard it twice already and still didn't know what the question meant))? How do I like Teleport's service (that was a personal interest question from one guy who also has a Teleport ISP account, he was just curious what I thought of them)?

I was early, so I chatted for a few minutes with the ringleader, and he said they had a bunch of stock questions, but had come up with a few weird ones to toss in since their boss was out for the week. He made it sound like wicked fun... I only detected one weird question, the one about the manhole covers... It's really ironic that I was pondering it in a heat based stupor last week, and fortunate, probably, that I knew the answer. I asked if that was one of the weird ones he'd warned me about, and he said it was, but then another guy said, "well, it might not be that weird, we ARE a utility company after all..."

The whole thing was shorter than they expected (guess that was my fault). One of the marked it down to "Kevin just gives succinct answers". But I was nervous talking to three strangers at once, trying to sell myself (not something I'm good at under most circumstances) so I kept things short, wanting them to talk more. I was sweating bullets in there getting grilled. At least they were real friendly, though, and not nasty (not like teh HP interview I had a few years ago, which was with only two people that I couldn't see at one time, but they were much, much worse than the PacifiCorp guys).

They did say that they had 55 resumes, and I was one of three from the bunch they wanted to interview. So, I guess that's good to hear, as I'd expect more than a few of those 55 would intimidate me (when I hired a tech for PC-Kwik, who left long ago, some of those resumes I read made me feel really inadequate and insignificant).

---

At home thinking about the interview the phone rang, and it was someone else wanting to interview me for a tech support job. So, I had that one Wednesday morning at 11:30, somewhere in the area of St. Vincent's Hospital (not the hospital, just that neighborhood).

I got to the interview early and hung around the office building lobby. It was hardcore 70's high-tech business look. I was the only man there not wearing a shirt and tie, waiting for the building security to kick me out for violating dress code. I had fun in the bathroom, though, since this is the only interview I didn't put my hair in a ponytail. I was at the urinal when a guy came in, looked shocked and apologized for entering the wrong bathroom... This happened regularly when I worked at PC-Kwik, and I got a kick out of it... Doesn't happen much at home.

That one didn't go really great, but not really bad. I definitely didn't get the job I applied for, which was Windows 95 support. He said he wasn't sure he would be comfortable sending me to his client, since I didn't have much formal training or experience with large networks. However, he said they had a ton of computers in their office that needed to be made operational within a month, but were short of people to do that. He said he'll pass my resume on to the main tech for their office and see about possibly getting me a 30 day contract for doing that. It could be possible that it would extend or I could be made permanent. That could be fun if I got it, but they haven't called yet...

This guy was kind of fun to interview with (though it would've been better in a room without the harsh flourescent light and noisy air conditioner). He started off pretty on-track and seemed inflexible (my first impression was this guy was totally no-nonsense), but I think once he decided I wasn't going to fit that position he loosened up a lot, and we chatted about Macintoshes (He used to sell them at The Computer Store in NE Portland). I think he was impressed by my reason for buying a Macintosh, that I didn't know anything about them and thought it would be fun to learn.

When I got home I found two messages on my machine from people wanting me to call them back about interviewing... *sigh*

Rereading the ad for one of them, I'm not sure why I applied. I don't have the NT or Netware experience to actually support them.

---

Thursday morning, I just set up two interviews for next week, Monday and Tuesday. The Monday one is in downtown Portland, for some kind of support specialist job. The Tuesday one I'm a little uncomfortable with, as it's with a medical software company, First Insight, where my ex-boss's wife works (and he's one of my main references). She's already said how great I am, which makes me extra nervous about it, but I'm not real intersted in working there...

Thursday evening I set up another one, for Friday afternoon with a company called New Horizons Computer Learning Center. They do classes on using computers.

I got to that interview pretty early and wandered around the business park looking for a friend's office, but didn't find it. In the whole place I only saw one bench to sit on, and it was near some workers fertilizing (or I assume that's what that smell was) the yard.

That interview didn't go great. An ex-coworker told me she interviewed with them and that she didn't think it would be a good place to work, so I had some negative expectations when I went there. I got there and the receptionist was real gruff and unfriendly, she put me in a small conference room with a class schedule to read. People kept walking past and looking in, but no one said anything. The receptionist never came back to say anything like, "Diana will be with you soon, she just delayed".

Eventually, Diana did come in, and she was one of the people who'd wandered past a few times and looked in without saying anything. Mostly she talked, explained about the company and the position.

Then she asked a few questions. What's your idea of customer service? For this position, who do you think the customer is? Why did you leave PC-Kwik? (my answer is that it's more like PC-Kwik left me) What attracted you to New Horizons? Why should New Horizons hire you? Are you comfortable driving to other New Horizons sites?

The interview was relatively short (guess that was my fault) so I was out of there quickly.

She was the only one I've interviewed with so far who gave me something to take home, a New Horizons class schedule and a business card.

At home after the interview I set up another one for Wednesday with Bank of America in downtown Portland.

---

Monday I had an interview this morning with a couple of guys from Pacer Infotech. It was in the 1515 Building downtown, at 1515 SW 5th (which if I was naming buildings I would've given a more puzzling name of say, 1434 Building). I got there early and wandered around downtown for a little while, used the bathroom at Pioneer Place mall to wash my face.

Once I got to the 1515 Building I didn't see Pacer Infotech listed in the directory. But I followed the directions I was given to the fifth floor, adn didn't see Pacer Infotech listed on that floor, but kept with the directions. The doors at the end were locked with a combination lock, but there was a phone that I was supposed to use to call the guy who would interview me. I called, and didn't get any answer. I called the Helpdesk number that was supposed to be for backup, and didn't get any answer there, either.

Another guy came and I let him go ahead and use it, and he dialed some number and a couple of guys came to the door and took his application. I guess I looked puzzled, because they asked if they could help me. When I said who I was looking for they smiled and said, "oh, that's us. Come this way".

The interview was relatively short, about twenty minutes (guess that was my fault). The two guys, Paul and Keith were very friendly, and okay to talk to. Keith was Paul's supervisor, and was definitely in charge. He did the main talk about what Pacer Infotech does, and had to prompt Paul to ask me his set of questions. I could handle their more specific questions, but the more general ones left me without anything to say. There were a lot of awkward silences that I suppose were up to me to fill, but I couldn't think of anything to say.

I think I did okay on the question, "do you consider learning new technologies to be a challege or work?" I answered that it was a challenging game.

When we finished they gave me a four page application to fill out in the building's atrium and return. The atrium in the center of the building was really fancy, with fountains and plants and a view of the glass elevators.

This is one where being Hispanic might actually help, since they do almost all their work for the federal government, and in this case I'd be working on their team that handles the computers in the BLM office (which is where the interview took place, why I couldn't find Pacer Infotech on the directory).

---

Where I finally ended up...

My Tuesday interview with First Insight went really well. I went with a relatively bad attitude, not interested in this one at all, so I did not go early (I didn't even shave off a day's scruff). I checked the bus schedule and picked the bus that would get me there real close to on-time, giving some leeway in case I got lost. Which I did...

I looked at a map before I went, but once I got there the few streets seemed somehow different. After a little walking I found the right one and at the end of it were a bunch of buildings, not all of which had numbers. The one I was looking for didn't have a number, and was further east than one with a lower number (numbers rise going west). I also had trouble getting in the building. All the doors were clearly labelled "Emergency Exit Only - Alarm Will Sound" and at the first four I went to I didn't notice the small print "alarm hours 7pm to 7am".

The office, too was tough to find. Suite 224 was not even in the same hallway as 222, 223 and 225.

The interview wasn't real long, but not real short, either (guess Robert gets credit for it). Most of it was with Robert, but about halfway through one of the technicians, whose name I didn't get, came in. Maybe it was the way they asked questions, but I was able to answer them pretty well, and not just short answers, elaborating on points and talking a lot. We also had some personal chatting about computers going on, and at one point Robert broke the law and asked my age (when asking if I drove there, when I said I didn't drive). I didn't bother mentioning that it's an illegal interview question (along with marital status, race, etc...).

Robert also did a great job selling the company to me. Beforehand I wasn't interested in it, and I was mainly going to the interview because my ex-boss's wife recommended me highly as soon as she saw my resume on his desk. I didn't have any interest in what they were doing or supporting it, but Robert made it sound like it could be fun, and that the company was growing rapidly, taking on new technology, which interested me. So now I'm kind of hoping he'll call back...

The only question I had trouble answering was "tell me about GPFs" which I'm familiar with, but couldn't think of a good thing to say. But on the technical side, I might've made up for it when he asked me to talk about memory architecture. Although that was off to a shakey start because I didn't know what he was looking for until he clarified and said I should describe base memory and that sort of architecture, which I know well. He cut me off before I was done saying, "I think that's enough, you definitely have a grasp of that, which I was looking for."

He asked about my HTML experience and I said I had a web page that I'd been tinkering with for a few years. He chuckled and said, "well, you can guess where I'm going to go after this. Hope there's nothing there you wouldn't want a potential employer to see..." I offered to give him the URL, but he knew it based on my email address.

At some interviews I feel like I'm getting grilled and just sit with my hands folded on the table, but this time I was comfortable and doing my typical, wild hand movements when talking.

---

When I got home there was a message from someone at CFI Proservices asking me to call back about an interview. Maynard Rigby did their accounting consulting back when I was there. So, I left him a message and he called back a few hours later while I was napping...

We did a short (guess that was my fault) phone interview (I didn't shave for this one either...), which went well until he asked what kind of work environment am I looking for. I used "laid back" in my description which he took to mean slow, without much work, when I really meant where the boss isn't looking over my shoulder constantly, cracking the whip, but lets me do my work. He sounded sceptical after that, but set up an interview for Thursday morning, in one of the fancier office buildings downtown.

---

Wednesday I got downtown with plenty of time to head up the Bank Of America office where I had my 11:00 interview. It was about a 25 block walk from where I got off the bus. 25 blocks without even a faint breeze, the sun like a blazing fireball in the sky (well, okay, it is one). I thought I would melt by the time I got there...

The building is one I've walked past many times but never been in, so this was kind of a treat. The inner hallway to the bathroom is real small, and the door opened into it, and I got smacked by it after I finished washing my face in there.

The fellow I'd talked to on the phone the other night said I would be interviewing Sean in suite 120. I went to suite 120, labelled "Telecommunications" and nobody was there except one person on the phone. Finally after he got off I said I was here, but early, and he just said, "sorry, you're in the wrong office". I asked, and he pointed me in the right direction, to "PC Support".

My interview with Sean went real fast (guess that was my fault) but terribly bad. Before we started he also told his boss, Eric, so that I could interview with him afterward (two for the price of one, an unexpected bonus). I did okay on his technical questions (he asked me to explain PC memory architecture and had to cut me off before I was done saying, "okay, I think you definitely understand that, most applicants don't have a clue" which led to a short discussion of memory managers), but it was obvious that I didn't have the corporate and project experience he was looking for. He was friendly, though, and I'm not sure he was real comfortable doing interviewing. When we were finished and I didn't have any questions he commented, "boy, you're an easy one".

Interviewing with him was like a slightly uncomfortable, but friendly conversation about my computing experience.

After Sean (only minutes after the scheduled start, since I was so early) left Eric kept me waiting a few minutes. He was a bit older, and definitely not into doing the interview (but it was short, which I guess was mostly my fault). He went over my resume, asking questions.

He was pretty puzzled by the five year break between my high school job and my first job at Maynard Rigby, which I explained was my time in collge. He said, "well, you need to put in that in here, this is too big a gap".

Then he started on his sheet of paper which about ten questions. He read each one, and asked it, with almost no inflection to his voice, like he wasn't at all interested. My answers for some were okay, none were technical.

But for some I really sounded clueless. Why did you decide to apply for a job at a bank instead of some other industry? Why should we hire you?

Interviewing with Eric was like being questioned, or accused of incompetence, having to defend myself.

This sounded like the most rigid company I've interviewed with as far as work atmosphere. Sean explained in detail which parts of the network which department handles, and that there is no overlap, that's not authorized... I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable there, but after the interviews, I don't think I need to worry about that...

---

I've walked past the CFI ProServices building lots of times, intrigued by the modern style. This morning I got to walk past it a bunch of times because I was early for my interview there. Scott said I should get there about 15 minutes early to fill out the application, but it turned out to take even longer. I sat in the 2nd floor lobby, next to the window that went all the way to the floor writing and watching people walking below.

The interview itself was mediocre. We finished up pretty quick (guess that was my fault) but actually got a lot said. While I didn't do a really great performance, I didn't do bad enough to leave knowing I didn't get the job. Otherwise, there wasn't much outstanding with it , good or bad about it.

Later, taking a nap I got woken by the phone. It was the supervisor of the three guys who interviewed me at PacifiCorp. He wanted to say they gave the Entry Level IT Analyst job to someone else. But also they were impressed by my computer skills and asked if he could forward my resume to their PC department, where they're looking for a Desktop Support Specialist.

---

After a few day's break at the beginning of the week, I'm back into the swing of the job search...

Thursday's interview with McLaughlin Computers in the Hollywood District wasn't real good. I expected to get there early after walking from downtown all the 36 blocks up there, but most of my spare time was used going past the place, over 84 to the next light to cross Sandy, only to get most of the way back and find there was no sidewalk there and having to redo it and dash across the street where there wasn't a light. By the time I got there my clothes were soaked with sweat, which was just pouring off me.

I was still about five minutes early, and the interview was so short (guess that was my fault) that I was out of there by 2:00, when it was supposed to start...

I walked in and the guy (who's name I've already forgotten) was sitting in a small office. He looked at me and asked, "what do you want?" He must've been having a bad day because he was a real grouch. I told him what I was there for and he said "get in the kitchen, I'll get your resume". I waited for him since I had no idea where the kitchen was. We went past a room full of computer parts, with one technician in there, and he got my resume from the tech.

Everytime he asked a tough question he had a smirk, like it was a trick question that was going to trap me. Why'd you leave your last job? What are you doing now? Can you repair printers? Do you like fixing hardware? What's the difference between SCSI and IDE? (I think I explained enough for him to realize I knew the difference, but my descriptions sure weren't award winning sales comparisons). What makes you better than the next guy I'm interviewing? Ever used Netware?

By this time it was plain to me that we didn't click at all. After I explained the SCSI/IDE thing he asked how many IDs on SCSI. He said my description missed, that you can't put an IDE CD-ROM and a SCSI CD-ROM in the same computer and we got into a short argument over that. I've done it a few times before, and if I was more interested in the job and company, I would've asked, "you got the hardware here? I'll show you, it's a piece of cake".

This was also the most I've asked questions at an interview. I asked what the company did, and he explained they sold hardware to large corporations, and supported the hardware, never the software. He said the position I was interviewing for was to work on-site at a hospital to support the hardware this company sold the hospital. I asked if there was a dress code. He said his men are required to wear shirts and ties on-site, "you got a problem with that?". "Yup," I answered. The final question he asked, "so, you're not interested in the job?" I told him I was avoiding ties, and I didn't think I was qualified to repair printers (mostly mechanical work that I've tried and did not enjoy and did not do well). We thanked each other for the time and I was gone.

So then I had to walk all the way back. The sun had moved so there was a lot less shade. Going past a car deal I was staring in at the cars and forgot they'd blocked the sidewalk there for construction, so I was just moseying along, dazed from the heat, not looking forward and walked right into wood barricade. Fortunately I wasn't going very fast, and that shook my daze for a few minutes.

Later, at the intersection of Sandy, Burnside and 12th I was standing at the split of Sandy and Burnside, on the little island, staring straight at the oncoming cars. A huge truck was right in front of me, with it's left turn signal on, but it kept coming straight, accelerating at me. I knew it was going to turn left onto Sandy, but it filled my vision before it did and I was practically in a panic when I stepped backwards a few feet...

So, I stopped in Pioneer Place for pizza and a huge cup of water before taking a bus home. All that for a bad, five minute interview.

---

Before I left in the morning I got a call from the Kemtah Group, which was one of my best interviews about two weeks ago. It was a different fellow, since Dave had gone back to the head office Phoenix. This guy, Vernon, said he got back from his vacation and found Dave left my resume on the very top of the stack of resumes, as the first person to try to stick in technician slots, but they didn't have any open at the time. He wanted to meet with me and chat, so we'll do that over lunch on Wednesday.

---

Friday, My interview with Sequent went surprisingly well. I didn't get there too early, since I've walked between my apartment and Sequent over a thousand times (I just never actually stopped at Sequent, but was only passing through their campus (and I've had a lot of close calls, nearly getting hit by cars outside the Rhein building where I interviewed)). But I was still a few minutes early and sat inside after some women going in let me through (the doors are always locked and need a keycard). Patrick said he'd be delayed a few minutes because they were having phone system problems he had to work around. So, I relaxed and watched all the blinkenlighten visible through the computer room windows.

When he was ready he gathered Jon and Kathy and we went to a small conference room. This was the longest interview I've had so far, around an hour and fifteen minutes (and I guess it was a team effort). Patrick, Jon and Kathy were real friendly and easy to talk to.

Patrick asked the kind of general questions about me, and how I work, as well as gave the explanation of Sequent and department organization. Kathy asked questions about my experiences, as far as which operating systems I've used and what not. Jon asked the more technical questions, including several short role playing scenarios. Some of their questions overlapped and they slipped and asked ones someone else was supposed to ask.

There were a lot of the usual. What do you want to do in five years? What did you like best about your last job? What did you like least? On a scale of 1 to 5 how would you rate your experience and expertise with UNIX, Windows NT, email programs, spreadsheets, software support, hardware support?

More in-depth were questions about specific programs. Which email programs have you used? What web browsers have you used. They asked for some details about them, such as how would I configure which editor to use in the email program, Elm (and said I did good by remembering the directory had a . in the name). What's a Domain in Windows NT? What are FAT32 and NTFS? What does a UNIX shell do? They asked a trick question about Netscape, how would I delete a helper application from it's list? I've never done it, and started to describe where, but Jon said it's a trick, because Netscape doesn't support removing helper applications, except by Registry manipulation (however, I checked at home, and the Macintosh version does).

One role playing with Jon, he pretended that his computer wouldn't boot, and did a good job playing a dumb caller. We walked through, me asking him what kind of computer, is there anything on the screen at all, any error messages...

He asked, "I try to run a program on a UNIX system and it doesn't run". I first suggested checking if it was in the path, then if the user had executable permission. They said that was good, because permissions are the basis of most of their UNIX related support calls.

Another one he pretended to call and said, "my mouse stopped working." I walked him through some quick stuff, like pressing the buttons to see if they do anything. If not, I suggested rebooting, and checking to see if the ball was still in the mouse (in an office that's a common practical joke). He called it off there, saying that was real good. He said most people interviewed try to show off their technical knowledge on that one and their first action is to walk the user into checking out the registry for mouse information, before even rebooting or checking if cables are tight.

The toughest role playing was when Jon turned around and I had to pretend I was talking to him on the phone to teach him how to tie his shoes, with no eye contact and not being able to see what he did. This turned out to be really tough, and I had a hard time not taking it as seriously as I suppose I should've (but I didn't get so loose as to say use tape or superglue...) I guess it was timed, because we stopped when I had him with one end of the lace in a loop, before wrapping the other end around it. He said women almost always do better than men at this one, but I got farther than most men do. I think if I took it more seriously at first and jumped right in, I could've gotten further. After I realized it wasn't a joke I untied my own shoe and walked him through the steps while doing it myself (which from another question is what they all agreed was the right thing to do, when helping someone with a problem that I don't KNOW the solution to, to try to do it on my own system and walk step-by-step).

Afterward they gave me a short tour of their department, then I guess they all had to get back to work. I think it went okay, though with three people at once I had a lot of trouble maintaining eye contact, but tried to keep looking at whoever asked the question, with glances around. And my throat got really dry by the time we were finished, in particular with the shoelace problem because I wasn't at all ready for that...

---

Willamette Industries, August 19, an interview in three parts...

I got downtown a little early, with enough time to wash up in the Pioneer Place bathroom before wandering back up to the Wells Fargo Center (formerly the First Interstate Tower, second tallest building in Portland). Walking into the building I didn't see anyone else dressed like me and I kept expecting some one to stop me before I got the elevators. There were more elevators in this building than in Waldport! And they didn't even all go the same place...

While waiting in Willamette's lobby I had to keep swallowing to get my ears to pop after the ride up. I didn't see anyone else walking around the office wearing jeans.

The first part was with Eva, who explained about the company and the benefits and stuff, and didn't ask me very many questions. Some of the benefits sound really good, like the company will match the amount of company stock you invest in, up to 6% of your income (Eva said, "I've worked here for 31 years, I'm going to retire rich"). She gave me a copy of their annual report so I can see for myself that they're a very stable company (if I knew how to read an annual report, which looks mostly like gibberish to me). She was real friendly, and we finished up quicker than the alotted half hour, so she gave me a tour of the floor. It was a bit hazy, so there wasn't a far view, but what there was was still spectacular from the 36th floor. She asked what I thought of interviewing and sympathized when I said I was nervous and didn't care for that part of the job thing.

Next was another half hour interview with Greg and a woman from the help desk, who would be Greg's "expert ears and eyes" for interviewing. For some reason my memory of this part is hazy, kind of surreal, like a half-remembered dream. Eva told them I was pretty nervous and not to scare me too much... My mouth and throat were real dry, making it tough to answer their questions, which were mostly about my tech support experiences, with a few specifics and a few minor technical questions. They were real curious about my experience with support call tracking software. His desk was too far from the window for a great view from where I was sitting, so I just saw the hazy sky to the east.

When they were finished with me, Greg took me down the stairs to a conference room on the south side of the 35th floor for the "board interview" with three older women, and told them I was nervous about interviewing. They reassured me they were freindly, and lived up to that real well. This part lasted about forty-five minutes, and they mainly asked me some general questions about my background and ideas and goals. For the most part it was the usual questions.

The final part was when they asked a bunch of required questions about how I would feel working for a company that does forest harvesting. They also emphasized that they do replenishing and everything they can to be environmentally sound about their business, but they still need to ask because a lot of people are offended by what they do, which is wood and paper products, starting from growing and cutting trees to all the processing.

The whole thing seemed to go okay. I don't think I did really horribly and I don't think I did really great. Eva said it would be about three weeks before they come to any decisions, with a lot of interviews between now and then. I don't know a lot of the stuff needed for the job (AS/400, RS6000), but I can learn it quickly, which I said a few times. But I do have the required people skills for it.

---

The next day I had a lunch interview with Vernon from The Kemtah Group. I'd already interviewed with Dave from that company and left a good impression, so Vernon wanted to meet me. We went to Stanford's, a nice place not far from my apartment, where we talked for about an hour and a half, about a wide range of computer and job related topics.

As we were about to leave I spotted Bob, my supervisor from PC-Kwik at a nearby table. He came over and gave me a good reference in person (as he's the first person listed on my reference list). It's the first time I've seen him in quite a while.

After lunch Vernon drove me to his office to give me a company information packet, then drove me home so I could print out a clean copy of my resume (his copy was marked up heavily by Dave at the previous interview I had with The Kemtah Group). He's into collecting computer parts and enjoyed checking out all the junk in my apartment, and seemed impressed that I actually use some of the ancient PCs in my apartment.

So, that went well, except he doesn't have any positions right now... The Kemtah Group fills technical position at larger companies (their only client in Oregon is Intel) but doesn't currently have any openings. He said I'm first on the list when one does come up, and thinks there should be a bunch in the very near future. So, I'll just have to wait and see what happens... I did make it clear that I'll probably take the first job that comes along, and he said, "well, hopefully that'll be with us".

---

After a week break, I already had an interview set up for 10:00 in the morning with CH2M Hill on the 13th floor of Lloyd Center Tower, on the NE side of Portland. Then yesterday Vernon from the Kemtah Group called because he'd gotten an interview slot for me at 1:00 in Hillsboro. I told him I couldn't make it, there was no way I could get to Intel's Jones Farm facility (I keep thinking Kool-Aide and cults when this name comes up) by 1:00 after leaving the CH2M Hill interiew, and I wasn't comfortable committing to that. He said it would be the only chance for now, and that the time was set by Intel and was immutable. I told him I couldn't make it.

A while later someone else called from Kemtah's headquarters in New Mexico, saying Vernon was upset, imploring me to go to the Intel interview, and skip the first on if I had to. I told her that I wasn't comfortable doing that, but I'd call and see if I could make the CH2M Hill one a little earlier. I did, but I couldn't get hold of the fellow I was interviewing with.

When I called Vernon back he was still adamant about wanting me to go to the Intel one, and came up with the idea of sending Bobbi, the new Kemtah employee (who'll run the office when Vernon goes back to New Mexico), to drive into Portland and pick me up after the CH2M Hill interview to take me to the Intel interview. I guess it's kind of a confidence booster to know they want me there bad enough to drive me halfway across town.

So, with everything all set, after nutritious breakfast of fried fish, fresh spinach and a tomato, I headed out at the crack of dawn for Lloyd Center Tower...

I got to the interview a few minutes early and waited while the receptionist talked to someone before saying who I was. She said, "oh, that was Alan just in here a moment ago telling me he was expecting someone, I'll tell him you're here". Then I went to the restroom to wash up. The restroom was right next to the bank of elevators and it was very strange sounding, like subway trains running up and down through the walls.

After a while of waiting (and watching more people go through the reception area (mostly for Mike's meeting in the adjoining conference room) than worked for PC-Kwik the whole time I was there) Alan came out with his supervisor from the Corvallis office and introduced them to me. Alan was pretty jolly and said he noticed I'd worked in Newport (must've had it confused with Waldport) and we chatted about that while heading toward the small conference room. He stopped in front of the room's window and said, "uh oh, we've got a problem". Some other people had appropriated the room without authorization, as Alan signed up for it for the time period. They saw him peeking in and opened the door to invite him to join them, especially since he was signed up for it... After a couple of minutes of freindly chatter with Alan they left to find another place so we could use the room for the interview.

The interview didn't last as long as they expected (guess that was my fault, partly because I was worried about taking too long and missing the second one) but still was around forty-five minutes. I did okay on more specific questions that actually had answers ("if someone calls and says their program stopped working, do you immediately reinstall the program?" and "usually hours are 8 to 5, but sometimes things come up that require techs to work late, can you handle that?"). But I blew it bad on "tell us a little about yourself." I told little... And I stumbled over what I did say. With more abstract questions I'd answer and they'd have stoney faces that didn't tell me if I was on the right trail or if I'd said enough and I had no idea what else to say.

Then they asked if I had any questions and I couldn't think of any, so they said most people ask about benefits and 401k. But I don't care too much about those, and wracking my brain came up with "would all the work be in this office, or any travel to other CH2M Hill offices?" They said travel was rare, but once in a while, and when I said I didn't drive they said that was no problem, the company would rent a car for me, and when I said I really didn't drive at all, with no license (but I could fake it) they said then I wouldn't be going alone.

They asked what kind of NT experience I had, and I said I'd installed both Server and Workstation on my home computer, but no networking experience. But they seemed pleased that I'd run through the install process with it, even I didn't do much else. They were also concerned with how many times I'd installed Windows 95, and thought "a few hundred, on about 25-30 computers with an ever changing variety of peripherals" was good. They asked about my laptop computer experience, and if I'd ever used any PCMCIA cards. I said I'd just gotten a PCMCIA card for my Macintosh, and Alan said, "uh oh, he said the M word". They explained that with around 6,000 employees, CH2M Hill probably had as many as five Macs. I told them I bought the Mac a few months ago because I'd never really used one and thought it would be fun to learn, which seems to be a good answer.

Their final question was about why I thought I would be the best person they could hire. Oiy Vey!

After we were finished they gave me an application to fill out, so I hung around the lobby and did that, and got out of there just after 11:00 and headed over to Lloyd Center.

---

Bobbi had said she'd probably get there in the 11:30 neighborhood and the plan was I'd call her cell number and we'd figure out where to meet. Originally I said we could just meet at an entrance, but she said I'd never see her in a crowd because she's too plain looking, but her car is unmistakable (two-tone green and blue 1993 Corvette). I waited till around 11:15 to call and she said she was on the street outside, hadn't parked yet. So she told me where she was parking, asked what I was wearing and I went out there. I left the mall, and was not where I expected to be, but nearly a whole block further east. First I went toward where she said she was, but their was no way to walk there without hopping fences, so I went back and out to the street and another block north, and then I saw her car (her landmark of "a semi with something on top" actually turned out to be a minivan with a boat on top) but there was still a fence between us, which I did climb over, after waving to her and hearing her start her car in acknowledgment, so she wouldn't think I was some punk coming to attack her.

I got in the car and she said it turned out Intel cancelled the interviews, but she still came to get me rather than leave me hanging over there. Which was real nice, so I thanked her for that. She said her husband was one of the guys I would've interviewed with... The reason was some kind of corporate thing, where someone hadn't given the manager all the information about the hiring/contract details and they wanted to review that. She and Vernon gave me a lot of information about Intel's corporate structure over there and most of it has gone straight over my head, it's way, way more complicated than any computer system.

So, we chatted all the way out to Aloha, and then she dropped me off at my apartment and went on to run her errands, the afternoon work having been shot for her because of the cancellation.

---

Friday I called Patrick at Sequent to ask about the job, and he said that while I was well qualified, they decided to hire another fellow who had a bit more UNIX experience.

---

Tuesday I was just sitting around in the morning, trying to decide if I should bother with breakfast when the phone rang. It was John from Volt Technical Services, and he asked me a few questions, about my salary range and my experience. Then said for most of the jobs he had open he'd need me to come down and interview with him, and wanted to do it today! So, we set it up for 3:00.

I got downtown before 2:00 and wandered into Pioneer Place to relax for a few minutes in the air conditioning, then headed out to walk slowly to Volt's office. I figured I'd walk slow and not overheat, which would kill some of the time needed to get there. I managed to walk slow in the shade, but as always hurried past the sunny spots to reach the next shady area. I ended up outside Volt's office before 2:30 and relaxed in teh lobby, doodling abstract designs in my notebook until about 2:50 when I went into the office.

I'd already unknowlingly seen John take another interviewee outside to interview in the sunshine. When it was my turn, though, we only went to the lobby, and kicked back on the soft, comfortable couches...

The interview went pretty well, and didn't seem to last very long (guess that was my fault) though we covered a lot of ground, except when he asked if I had any questions... I told him that was the problem I've had at a lot of interviews, I never have any questions...

He asked a lot of the usual ones... How much testing did you do? How much Netware experience do you have? Have you used NT much? How much have you used UNIX?

When I said PC-Kwik went out of business he asked if I stuck it out to the end. I told him I didn't, I left about two hours early on the last day. Which got a chuckle from him.

John said he has a few positions that he thought I would fit into, the biggest one being a PC Technician job at OHSU. Another one as a tester for The Palace. And when he asked if I'd ever worked or interviewed with Volt before I mentioned the Sequent interview, since that job would've been to work at Sequent, but working for Volt, though the interview had been arranged for me without Volt's involvement. After I said that, he seemed surprised and said he asked about my UNIX experience specifically because he wanted to know if I'd fit into the Sequent position, which I've already been rejected from by Sequent without Volt's involvement at all (Sequent said I was really qualified, but another applicant had more UNIX experience, so they went with him).

He seemed really interested in me and said there shouldn't be much trouble getting me into a job. After I got home he called and said he set up a time for me to go to OHSU on Thursday to take their skills test, which he thought should be relatively easy based on my experience.

---

Wednesday I got up way before dawn to get ready for teh Manpower Technical interview at 9:00am, and left the apartment around 8:00. It wasn't too warm so I figured I'd walk, but I wasn't sure how long it would take. This is teh first time I've walked on 173rd during daylight hours, and I saw a paved trail leading into the woods, so I figured I had time to follow it. It ended up leading to a wooden bridge-like walkway taht went for some distance before abruptly ending, so I turned around and continued my walk to Manpower...

I got to the office campus around 8:40, with plenty of time to spare, but had trouble finding their office. I found a map, with a bit You Are Here dot on it, but it didn't seem correct... According to the map, I was near building 1, with building 2 behind it followed by building 3. I was standing next to a building without a visible number, and the next building back was clearly labelled 3, so I was confused. The map only listed the larger companies, and Manpower wasn't there. So, with plenty of time I wandered around looking for them, and found it easily, by 8:45.

With some effort I found the restroom in the building (it was hidden very well) and went to wash my face and hands. The light was a horrible flourescent, and now I can make an educated guess what color my corpse will be after I'm dead (at least, I hope after).

Still having plenty of time I sat for a while on a bench outside the building, staring at my skin, which now looked okay again...

I went in to their office and Greg was out, so the receptionist gave me an application to fill out, which took me longer than the five minutes I was early. It was the usual application that every place has. When I finished I turned it in and a few minutes later Greg came and got me.

We sat at his desk, with my chair facing the window, making it hard to see him without squinting because the backlighting. He asked the basic, standard questions, and didn't deviate at all. If I tried to expand a little on what he asked he didn't go along. He was friendly, but definitely didn't seem too interested in the interview. I don't think he was very technical, so anything I said beyond names of software didn't mean anything to him.

He said he only had one job currently open, but it was paying less than I specified I wanted, a few dollars an hour less. It was also very temporary, only two months. He expected another one to open soon, though, paying more than I asked for, but it's paperwork hadn't been finalized yet.

The whole thing didn't last too long, about half an hour (guess that was partly my fault, but I think mainly his) and I had plenty of time to walk a bit in the opposite direction and do a little shopping.

---

I wasn't sure just how to get to Claremont for my 2:00 interview Wednesday afternoon. I knew exactly where it was, but couldn't decide if I should go up Walker Road, the short route, but most dangerous, without sidewalks, or go the further way, up Cornell which has sidewalks the whole distance. Once I got to Walker and saw the construction, I decided to go the further, but safer way.

I ended up at Claremont's building around 1:30, with plenty of time to spare. Since Bob, my ex-supervisor from PC-Kwik, works for a different company there, I figured I'd pop in, but I just missed him going out to lunch. So, I stood around outside for a while, Watching the Goodyear blimp fly past, then I waited at a bench inside the air conditioned building.

Around 1:55 I headed upstairs to find Claremont. To get into their office, I had to walk past a long wall of windows looking into their reception area. It was a very interesting site, very corporate formal, almost powerful looking. The receptionist was behind a very tall wood and marble desk, busy juggling four or five phone calls. When she finally got a break I told who I was and that I was there for an interview with Luke. She tried to page him, but didn't get any response, so I sat down in a chair to wait.

Eventually she got hold of Luke for me and said he'd be about ten minutes because he was finding a place for us to interview.

Once he came and got me, we went to another office on the same floor which had an empty room and interviewed. I don't think he does many interviews because he seemed to be struggling to think of what to ask me, and asked a few of the same questions over and over, without even rephrasing them. He seemed a little uncomfortable with it, but was still real friendly.

It seemed to go fairly well. The only question that I had to give a not so great answer to was when he asked if I was comfortable in a corporate environment, that he often wears ties to work, though he hadn't that day. I told him I wouldn't want to wear ties, but I was fine in a collared shirt and nice jeans, and as far as the rest of corporate culture, it would be a new experience, as I'd only ever worked in small companies. Even after that, though, he still kept going, so that may not be a big factor in his decision.

The interview didn't last too long (guess this time it was mutual, he said, "I usually keep them short"). After he ran out of things to ask he left me there so he could get another technician to talk to me. The other guy, Michael was nice, but seemed not to have a clue about what to ask me (sort of like when I interviewed someone for a job at PC-Kwik, though I think Michael may have done a bit better...)

And then we were finished and I left.

---

Never having been to OHSU I allowed a lot of time on Thursday to get lost there, which turned out to be a good thing, since the campus was huge! I always thought it was about the size of OIT or a bit smaller, so I wasn't prepared to find myself among buildings that rivaled the size of the whole OIT campus...

With a bit of wandering around, I found the right building and took the elevator up to the sixth floor. The Campus Services building must be pretty old. The elevator looked like a historic piece of machinery, and the sixth floor felt like a generic school building. I had a lot of trouble finding room 620 and wandered all over the floor until I was back by the elevator and saw a room with 620 written lightly in pencil on the wall...

There were two people inside, neither one was John or Marcel, the people I was supposed to meet. They said, "they're out to lunch and should be back around noon." So, I wandered around campus for a little while longer and went back to room 620 just moments before noon. John and Marcel still weren't back, but were due very soon. When Marcel came in he said in an almost scolding tone, "you're early" like it was a bad thing (and John from Volt told me on the phone that Marcel said I should go early).

Marcel gave me a large written test to take, with up to an hour time. It had 80 possible points, and he said the highest score ever was 60% and the average was a little under 50%.

Some of it was easy, stuff I knew real well. Some of it I'd forgotten, like what the IRQ is for a mouse (I know where to look it up and haven't needed it yet this year). Some of it I really didn't know, like LSL and ODI under Netware, or DTC vs. DTE, or most of the Macintosh networking issues... Some stuff I'm not sure I know well, like explaining the differences between ethernet and token ring (which I know th basics of).

I had trouble explaining the difference between IDE, EIDE and SCSI, which I know well, but not how to explain them in general. I know most of the specific issues, but not all, and I certainly know how ot hook them up and use them...

The only question I think was a trick question was to explain the differences between PCMCIA and PC Cards, which as far as I know are knew and old names for the same thing.

One tough one was "is Windows 3.1 an operating system"? The answer depends on how one defines operating system and where the line is drawn between operating system and shell, disregarding that "operatin system" is printed on the Windows 3.1 box... This also tends to be a "religious war" issue, based on whether people like or dislike Windows 3.1, regardless of technical issues.

The most abstract question was "what are the componants of a computer and given boxed componants can you build a computer system?" I had no idea what exactly was being asked and could think of too many different interpretations, taking far more than a mere hour to write the answers. I didn't know if they wanted a computer science list of componants, which would basically be three, CPU, Storage and I/O, or a list of what in a PC makes thoes (which can be very flexible, just look in any computer parts catalog for a list...) I gave a short combinatio of the two and added "given the right boxed componants I can build a computer system".

Just before my hour was up I gave my test to John, and he flipped through it, then gave it Marcel who just came back in. Marcel sent me to wait outside while he scored it, then he came out and said he wanted to set up an interview with me for the job, for Friday.

Then I headed back downtown for a bit of lunch and to catch a bus home. While waiting near the train station for a bus I actually saw a fistfight for the first time in my life... I was just standing there in the shade (trying to ignore the drunk woman across the street screaming obsceneties at her friend who she'd appearently caught cheating on her) when a guy came around the corner and stopped by the bus stop shelter. Moments later another guy came quickly around the corner and whalloped the first guy, who hit back. The second guy yell's "leave me alone, stay away from me." And the first guy leaves, going past me, the second guy is yelling obsceneties and "go ahead, tell your friends, go get you friends, tell your friends all about me...." and he waves at a passing bus that stops, "hey man, no problem here, everything's cool" and goes back to cursing out the other guy who's nearly a block away by now... Then my bus comes and I head out to Beaverton...

---

Friday morning it was much easier finding the right place at OHSU, since I'd been there yesterday... I still got there about half an hour early, so I wandered around campus a little bit to kill the time.

I interviewed with Marcel and John in their office to the side of the computer room. There was one other guy at the table, but he didn't take an active part. I guess he was just working in the room and was curious to see how the interview went.

Before we got started, Marcel asked a few questions. He said I did well on the hardware part of the test, like a real geek, and asked, "so, what are the chances you have a CP/M machine at home?" I told him I had one, and he sounded surprised, like he was just making a joke and didn't actually expect me to have one. So we talked about computer parts and he asked how many machines and I told him about the dead Pentium and the Mac being my main computer for now.

He hadn't seen my resume until I gave him one then, and he was surprised to see that I worked for PC-Kwik. He was a fan of PC-Kwik software, and was disappointed to hear that it went out of business.

Once John got there we got down to business... First they had five stock questions, then they asked questions about my resume and the test I took, then a free form question period.

First John said they might no be able to hire me because my name was Kevin, and there wasn't already a Kevin there, joking about how they're department has huge amounts of duplicate names among workers.

John said OHSU has what's supposedly the second largest LAN in the state of Oregon, with over 7,000 nodes! He said there were about 1,400 Macs, 4,500 PCs and most of the rest were printers and a few miscellaneous other things.

The questions I really screwed up were about prioritizing simultaneous tasks. And I really messed up... I made too many assumptions based on the little information given in the scenario. John listed three emergency type situations and I was supposed to pick which order to do them in. I came up with an unexpected answer, though, "there must be a formal policy document for those cases," and the other two thought about it and said, "you know, I'll bet there is, I never thought of that" so John had to add "there is, but it was in the policy office, which just burned down and was still smoldering when these three things happen". I forgot the step of calling the people to confirm and get more information, before jumping in and doing them one at a time...

John also asked me to describe an experience of handling an upset customer, and I just couldn't think of one particular experience, I've had hundreds and they've all blended together. I only remember small bits and pieces of individual ones.

Marcel's questions were generally more specific and I could handle those. On the test, one of the questions I couldn't answer was to describe the use of a DDO, which I'd never heard of. One of his questions today made me say I'd use the special partitioning software that comes with most drives, and he said, "that's what a DDO is".

On the test question "describe and compare Ethernet with Token Ring" I'd given a good description of Token Ring, but very vague on Ethernet. During the interview it came out that I administered an Ethernet network, but never used Token Ring, so they wanted to know why I knew more about how Token Ring works... I just answered that I knew how to set up Ethernet, but not it's internal workings, and it seemed they thought that was a statisfactory answer.

Marcel saw my Teleport address on my resume and asked what I thought of Teleport. Then he asked what kind of modem I use to access the internet. When I said I used a 33.6k and a 28.8k he asked "why haven't you gone to 56k?" My answer, "Teleport hasn't gotten those yet" seemed to satisfy him. Then I added that I usually just use text mode UNIX dialup, so it wouldn't make much difference, and I think that scored some points with them for my being a good technical guy...

We also went over the test question, "is Windows 3.1 an operating system" which they seemed to think I got wrong, though my reasoning was good. But this is a shakey thing, because "operating system" definition isn't carved in stone anywhere. And Windows 3.1 certainly has "Operating System" in it's name, so as a proper noun it is an operating system. But they seemed to be of the mind that it isn't because it required DOS to start things up.

During the whole thing there were distractions, phones ringing and beepers going off (I don't have one, so I guess that's not my fault). People came in to talk to them or use some of the computers in the room. Sometimes I'd be answering a question and on or two of them would start talking about something else, to someone else and I wasn't sure if I should stop and wait or what...

The whole thing lasted about half an hour, which was probably a little shorter than they expected (from some of the silences at the end of my shorter answers, I guess that was my fault) but not too much. When I was getting up they said, "well, hopefully we'll call you back with good news" which sounds good, but they said they had a few more interviews. They also added, "watch your head when you leave" because while my back was turned from the entrance someone had stuck taped a sign across the door saying there was a meeting (us, the interview) and not to disturb it. I just chuckled and said I wouldn't worry, because the bottom of it was still over my head... So with that I left with all of us chuckling about that...