In my retirement I want to become an executive assistant to a VP and be in charge of scheduling meetings day in and out while also getting all the gossip from other EAs. Added bonus is I will get to travel with VP wherever they go and be in charge of food & drinks so it will all be according to my wishes at expensive places. What a low stress high reward job!
Macro
It’s such an incredulous thing really that Trump in first term was presented with the covid pandemic, and instead of using his own wins of funding the vaccine development as his real legacy (lets be honest, operation warp speed did save a lot of lives!), he looked at it and decided, nope, I am gonna go real crazy town here and then goes even more anti-science in his second term. Like dude, if you had played your cards correctly, you’d have won the Nobel peace prize already just for that. Some people are just gifted losers.
I mean to be honest I thought America is the only country that did yearly covid vaccines anymore. Like I don’t know anyone in India who took any more covid boosters after first couple. Last year almost half my friends skipped it – I don’t think the vaccine restriction news will be taken as badly as reddit or online communities suggest. The uptick was low anyways! FWIW I do plan to take it again (I think…. I qualify).
I am convinced that RTO mandates are yet another way of trying to keep women out of workforce. Yesterday at work my bosses (one desi, one American) seemed genuinely surprised that I was willing to pay toll to get back home because I had to pick up my kid. Both of their wives are SAHMs so they never quite relate to the idea that other women work and can be busy. Their usual response to anything is “my wife usually takes care of it” – yeah dude, that’s why you can come in at 7am at work and stay till 7 in evening, that’s why you have no issues doing the 90 min one way ride into office into DC, that’s why you have no issues with meetings at random times off hours and we are expected to join because “at my level we do”. If only they took more interest in their personal lives more than work we’d all be more productive!
I wouldn’t be surprised if next week Tim Cook reveals a special liquid glass Donald Trump dynamic wall paper that comes pre-installed and default with every new iPhone or IOS release, just like he knew we all wanted and loved U2 so much. I will be disappointed if it doesn’t happen!
A worthy successor to Dravid, Pujara defined took the mantle of the “wall” and did his best. His dominance in Australia in particular was what made Border-Gavaskar trophies fun to watch, even if watching him at times was a chore. It’s bittersweet to now see even the second generation of cricket stars retiring in front of us. Hope he considers coaching as did Dravid!
A big bowl of cantaloupe was had. Summer fruits are just so lovely and fresh no? We consumed enough watermelons and mangoes, along with peaches and berries this summer. It’s not uncommon for me to sometimes just do lunch or dinner with a big bowl of fruits in summer! Throw in some greek yogurt and honey and you got your protein fix too.
I have a big doc due in 2 days and hadn’t even gotten around to it. This evening I just asked AI to read through all the tickets, docs, reference materials, email exports I created and asked it to create a 3 page narrative for me. I must say it did a pretty dang good job. Of course I have to spend hours to correct and remove hallucinations from doc, but what would’ve taken me a few more days to synthesize and put in a doc was done in 5 mins. I can now spend time just refining the doc rather than actually writing it.
The Mamdani scavenger hunt is a great example of why we need fresh young thinking in Democratic Party, and not the old hogs in suits thinking anymore. The average age of Biden cabinet was fucking 63 years old, while Trump 2nd term is at 54 almost 10 years younger. He may be completely senile but he’s elected one of the youngest cabinet. That’s what young people are watching. Mamdani is a fresh face who is bringing that fresh young thinking. So are a couple of others. Embrace them. Give the old guard a boot.
As of last week it’s been 24 years since I came to this country and made it my home. It feels eons ago that I left India, but my heart still aches for India like no other. I don’t think I will ever love this country as much as I love India even with all its faults.