One More Revolution Around the Sun - 2021 Birthday Update

Has been a while since I posted. Was rounding the new year into 2021. Now it’s my anniversary revolving around the sun. A quarter into 2021, things for the pandemic are looking brighter in the United States with the vaccine rollout. My parents finished getting their second does and now my sister and I wait for our phase.

The Kof

Kofi is getting more and more mature. This year, his puppy angst is washing away and for the most part, he would “come over” when you ask him to. Huskies are notoriously strong-willed. You have to ask him a few times but he will come over and receive pets. Personally, I have been enjoying this giving Kofi the maximum amount of pets and belly rubs.

Frozen Shoulder

Around October 2020, one morning when I woke up I reached for something and my arm/shoulder hurt. I am a side sleeper so it was the shoulder that I slept on. Over the next few days, my range of motion became limited in my left arm and would hurt when I would reach for things.

After a few weeks, started to get annoying as I would reach for things and my left arm would abruptly stop and hurt. Lifting my left and right arm, was something like 40% of the range of motion. With some advice from my sister, I headed to a Sports Doctor.

I got diagnosed with a frozen shoulder which is a long road to recovery. The “freezing” period could last a year before the “thaw”. Through weekly physical therapy and bi-monthly radiofrequency therapy, my frozen shoulder has made a pretty good recovery, I would peg it at 70%. The joys of getting old!

The Works

At Harness, launched a new podcast called ShipTalk. My first time hosting a podcast and we are up to eight episodes now. I interview DevOps practitioners/leaders and other folks building communities in the technology field. Great real-world experience. My setup is basic at the moment. Hosting the podcast on Buzzsprout and recording with a Yeti Mic and Zoom. I use Otter.ai to transcribe the podcast into text. Feel free to give it a listen!

On the other side of the work, looking to grow the team. Have two headcount open for another Evangelist in EMEA and a Community Manager to help out with our budding communities. When I became a manager was told hiring was hard. I was 50/50 on that. Though the smaller you are, the more important hiring has, as folks have a lot of impact. Hiring has certainly been hard for both of those roles. For the Evangelist originally was a US based role but with our growth in EMEA made sense to place someone in EMEA.

When to Hit The Road Again?

Our family vacation to Sydney, Australia got canned in May. We were hedging our bets if we would get the vaccine and Australia would be open. Looking like one or both might not happy by our May departure date so we got our refunds already which is kudos to the airlines and hotels for flexibility. Pushed out the trip to try in Sept 2021 to Singapore. My favorite spot in the world, hopefully can make it out there and Malaysia to visit some friends.

Onwards to exploring the world, again, in 2021!

-Ravi