Just last week we ended up in Target much against my wishes but it was the closest and we needed a back to school item. The store has become a former shadow of itself with zero life and zero charm. I had a Target credit card and we used to frequent the store so much but looking at how empty and depressing it looked, it was clear they were struggling in a location that really should have had them full all the time (which used to be the case!). Well deserved though. They won’t do the ONE thing that could really get back customers – apologize, go back to how they were and embrace DEI/LGBTQ as they did earlier. Today the CEO paid the price for it, and I hope this company goes bankrupt because they refuse to learn and adapt.
Macro
Me and a couple of colleagues working in different teams are trying to get together for lunch. Apparently the earliest we can all do a lunch together at work is mid October. How the fuck can people be THAT busy? It’s literally lunch! We sit on different floors in different teams is all. And we need to fucking plan 2 months ahead?
The kid is taking World History + English combination honors class this year. As a part of the class the books they will read through the year are The Odyssey, The Martian, Rocket Boys (On which October Sky was based on) and Fahrenheit 451. I told her I’m going to co-read the books with her as she goes through year. We also made plans to watch the movies too once she finishes the books, ending with the Nolan adaptation of Odyssey next year. I am loving this course more than her right now.
Starting this year all schools in the county have a weapons detection system at entry which basically means every student has to remove everything in their backpack, put it in a tray, and pass through detection system. Every day. This of course is adding to the start time daily. The fact that the society has come to this is shameful.
Ever since OneFreshPillow has gone down, I have been on a lookout for new pillow, and sadly nothing has matched it. Today I asked Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude on what’s going on with OneFreshPillow. Gemini gave the most useful answer to an ambiguous qn “what’s going on with OneFreshPillow” while ChatGPT gave the most useless answer and wanted me to tell it what does one fresh pillow do. You don’t bet against Google IMO and while they were behind, I can see them leapfrogging others soon (unless of course, Google as we know it can also fuck itself up fairly quickly too).
Dad got his US B2 visa approved today after interview in Hyderabad. That marks an eventful few years where he went from B2 visa to green card, to giving up his green card earlier this year and going back to B2 visa. He was apprehensive about if he would be asked why he surrendered his green card, but turned out his interview lasted less than 2 minutes. And as my dad put it, Trump or no Trump, the rush and line at the embassy was humongous. I am glad he went back to B2 visa though – he was not going to stay full time here anyway, and it actually makes it way more easier to get health insurance on a B2 visa then on green card (weird I know, but its true!).
Wife and I have been listening to Saiyaara soundtrack in repeat mode. We had no idea the music of this movie was so good; should’ve guessed that Mohit Suri generally has generally always had good music in his movies. Especially loving Barbaad, Tum Toh and Dhun
After being one of the earliest users of Amazon Prime and nearly 18 years later this is the first year we are debating doing away with it. I am not sure we get THAT much value out of 139 bucks a year. Feels like we could just do with a monthly membership during key seasons (thanksgiving/christmas or a famous show on prime) and be done with it. Its sad because if you look at Bezos’s philosophy it was to make Prime a no brainer for anyone to sign up for – you should get so much value out of it that its a no-brainer, and yet over the years it has only become less valuable. You get fast shipping yes, but you are pretty much paying for grocery delivery, the prime music is shit, prime video does not have a great catalog enough to subscribe a full year but you get ads yay, and like everything is like nickel-diming. I’d gladly play 249-299$ a year on Amazon prime if it simply included Grocery/Photos/Video/Ring/Blink/Music/Alexa+ all in one big package. As a standalone 139$ service it doesn’t seem to have that much value anymore.
🍿 Saiyaara (2025) – ★★★☆☆
What a sad love story. The leads sell it though and I have to say even as a nepo kid Ahaan Pandey is miles ahead of his nepo contemporaries. Great music! The movie would have been far better if they had trimmed 30 mins of it considering the entire movie end to end is just… sad. And in spite seems like it’s one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.
Having done so many house projects now, I have come to accept that when a contractor says it’s a 4 day job, it’s more likely 10 days. It totally helps me mentally because I am not getting annoyed after promised end date that things are still half way through. So yeah, I know my deck will be done in 2 weeks because contractor said its only a 5 day job 🙂