Macro

Been out for this swim meet since 3. Warm up started at 3.30. First kid’s race at 5.55pm. Second race at 7.30pm. By the time we get back home will be around 8.15-30ish. Now repeat next 2 days and thats my weekend. Now repeat that next 2 more weekends in a row, and my weekends for entire month of May is basically gone in swim meets!

I think its such a myth that Americans (White in particular) are very secretive about their lives. I am in my new team barely for 5 days and I already know my white manager has 2 kids, one of them is a difficult teenager, their schools, their extra curricular sports they do and more. I know his wife was born in central america, and they have vacation home in panama that they’ve never visited because his wife inherited it from her father she didnt talk to for 2 decades. I also know he was part of a band in his younger years, and grew up in various army bases. I know he and his son loves Indian food but his daughter doesnt. I know his favorite bands and kind of music he and his kids like (his daughter loves hip-hop!), and he is currently writing a music album using some AI tools. Meanwhile all he knows about me is that I am married, we have a daughter and a dog. Thats it!

Its fascinating how quickly Americans will just spill out their entire life to you within knowing them for like 2 days. Its so common. I feel like I knew SO MUCH about my white American team mates, and maybe too much – and yet, the desi guy I’ve worked with for 7 years, I have no idea what his wife’s name even is.

Cmon people, if you really really care, and I mean if you really really care like say, the french do, protest every single day. No, I am not starting it, so thanks for asking. To be fair however, if you do go to the White House, there are people protesting every single day 365 days a year. Some of them for years! Hats off to them; they are the true believers and doers.

Based on various searches it seems like Apple earns nearly 1.5-2 billion dollars a year on those fees. I don’t get it – make the fucking App Store a cost center. Companies have HR divisions that spend more each year and being no business – I am willing to bet Apple’s own HR org probably is a cost center that spends more. Instead they got so greedy for those fees they are willing to alienate both customers and developers in process. What a pathetic look for Apple – another reason why MBA type personas should never lead tech companies. They can never get their ass out of profit and loss spreadsheet.

Europe will not recognize Crimea as part of Russia it seems. ok great. So what are you going to do about it lol? Like are you going to go war with Russia and take it back to give to Ukraine? No, I didn’t think so.

This offsite has really sucked my energy and I have one more day to go. Last night I slept off at 9:30pm – I was barely able to keep my eyes open. The information overload has been exhausting but I also think this was the best way to get started in the new team – met all the key players, got updates on all the projects going on and within 2 days I have a decent understanding of the landscape I am dealing with and I can now choose to deep dive into a few important items first!

Daru DC was disappointing. Was expecting a lot more from this restaurant considering its reputation. The food was ok, but the drinks were great. However the location of this restaurant is in such a unsafe area I would never come here with my family.

Day 1 in my new team and I am happy to report the entire team is an anti Trump libs club. Unlike my last team where my immediate manager was a trumpkin – the “freedom” was refreshing. And yes my manager is also one of those so relieffffffff.

In other news my Netflix account was hacked. We restarted Netflix for a month or two to catch up on Adolscene and other series we may have missed. Yesterday I couldnt login at all. Check my email and I have a email from Netflix that said I had changed my email on account and I cannot use my primary email anymore. After 30 mins on their chat line I was able to recover my account.