It is tough for Joshua to keep in shape now that he’s out of school. He chose to combine something easy with his daily workout. It was kind of crazy, but the exercise app didn’t draw him in without it.
“1,2,3,4,5” and sit-up. “2,4,6,8,10” and sit-up…. “15,30,45,60,75” and sit-up. “Fifteen, finally. I should’ve listened to dad when he said discipline and fitness were both needed for any job.” Skip counting, or multiplication tables, were useful in his attempts to decipher that million-dollar math problem in his off time.
He switched to reciting squares for his push ups. “20 more days to go before I don’t have to self-motivate. Time to log-in to the game site. If my ID isn’t created before the interview time slot, I’ll be disqualified before I even start.”
‘Five years, 40 million unemployed, and Covid-23 still on the upswing. I really hate tele-presence,’ he thought. He grabbed the $20 3D headset that has become common place equipment since the so-called “Pandemic Apocalypse” began with the Corona virus. The internet infrastructure was upgraded more than a dozen time utilizing massive amounts of fiber optics and micro-repeaters for the unified protocols of mobile phone systems to reduce tower costs. The repeaters he’d designed in his virtual engineering class had been the first generation to be mandated for inclusion onto local equipment sites of power, phone, and network infrastructure. Unfortunately, with Homeland filing their paperwork to use the patent and distributing it to government contractors, he was now out of money.
[Welcome to the Virtual Enterprises Portal. Please select interface: Customer, Employee, or Candidate] came a voice while the hold screen was starting to play the supposedly calming jazz music with old video backgrounds. It was better than seeing the loading progress since he could choose from a dozen pre-loaded and still annoying systems. Reading his notes, the candidate portal required the registered demographics to be entered. As soon as they’re entered and confirmed with the state he’d be placed in the interview’s waiting interface. “Here’s a new line. Public Persona. What is this?”
The tool tip pops up with the ASL sign. Yet another language he had to learn in the new 3D world. [If asked to perform activities in the online social or gaming platforms, you will require an avatar that does not identify you as a member of the company. It is not recommended that this be the same profile that you use with personal entertainment or social media portals. Your persona stats will be determined by your physical stats, education, and performance metrics.]
Nearly throwing the Bluetooth glove at one of the three set-top camera interfaces he realized that his dad’s advice was really going to bite him in the rear again. At high risk for diabetes due to being cooped up with little to no exercise, his persona would be severely debilitated. “I know it’s a good idea to be in shape, but really, the CDC didn’t need to publish that research paper on how to use 3D cameras to determine fitness levels remotely!” Trying again not to think of cursing had become harder and harder as everyone slowly descends into isolation madness, a "new" form of depression for the majority of the country.
