micro

Hello Seattle! And somehow the weather is even worse than dc right now with snow and cold. Dc is actually warmer right now. Ugh. Unless it’s summer Seattle is such a drab. Nonetheless, offsite time!

One thing Trump has proven in last 2 weeks is that a President, can in fact do a shit ton of stuff without needing any congressional oversight. He is literally showing democrats how to govern if they came into power but I trust my democrat leadership to hide behind rule of the law. You can hate all you want, but he’s turning shit upside down for sure. I wish democrat leaders had these kind of guts and determination.

We signed up for US Mobile’s annuals plan after test driving it for a month. I was sick of Verizon charging indiscriminately and had been looking for options. A close buddy and his family use USMobile, a MVNO that operates on Verizon (and others also). The pricing was phenomenal and my friend swore by the service. We test drove it last month and before our monthly renewal was up I signed us all three for their annual plans that offer a significant discount. All plans include unlimited text/calling (with bonus, international also which makes India free for us without Whatsapp!). After seeing our data pattern I signed up kid and wife for the cheapest plan, while I took the next one in middle. In total, we paid $210 per line per YEAR for wife and kid, and mine was $270 per year – for a total of 3 lines at 690$ for entire year! For this, wife and kid get 10 GB premium data while I have 35gb which I am none of us will ever need or use. All in all, this is a big money saver expense for this year and I am glad I am off Verizon and their horrible pricing. (For context I paid 130 bucks a month on verizon for 2 lines, while an additional 15 a month for kid’s line on mint for a total of 155 bucks a month give or take. Now, for all three of us with annual plan on USMobile I am paying 57$ a month.)

All these tariffs and what not – here is my take – I will happily suffer and take the pain as long as the rural republicans and his voters have it 10x worse. I am ok being miserable as long as republicans are 5x more miserable. I just want to “own the conservatives”. Bring it on.

I just saw a insta reel for pizza golgappa and I wish nothing but explosive diarrhea on the person who invented it. If you must see it: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFKKykcvxcU/?igsh=OWgyZTRiZXhucHl3

The Ajwain plant is one of the most fucking hardy plants out there ever. My sister gave us a sapling last year in Detroit during spring, and for a year we just had it in a glass of water. We would often forget to put water and it would dry out only to spring back to life with some water. This January we finally moved it to a pot coz it felt like it was gone, and it was our last attempt to revive it felt like. Well turns out in 2 weeks its back to thriving again like a champ. This plant does not give up ooof!

My picks from Weekend’s new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. This could all change by by umm, the weekend, but these are the songs the stuck with me within the first couple of listens:

I honestly thought The Brutalist was a story set in various metro stations in Washington DC. #getit?

I am in a work related quagmire. I have an open offer to join another team within the company. It’s local, I would be managing a bigger team and my scope would increase. The downside being it’s an internal only facing team with no revenue and only builds folds for internal employees – which means it’s a dispensable org for all good purposes. And anytime layoffs have happened in past this org is first target coz honestly everyone can live without the tools it builds.

On the other hand in my own team I am being handcuffed into putting a report of mine into performance improvement plan with specific intention of laying him off no matter what. My manager basically said i don’t care if he improves 10x, he needs to go. I am at a losing end of this convo because I really don’t feel it’s the right thing to do to a person who is not really bad. He is showing all the right indicators and should have never been in this situation but is now thanks to “the management”. I also don’t like my boss much anyway (have posted about him enough here). That said the team I manage is amazing and my extended team mates are also good. I am well established and the risk of org shutting down is lower even though we may not be making much money, yet.

I feel like I am stuck between a rock and hard place. I don’t want to keep working here but the option I have is not great either. And I need to wrap up this performance plan by March end so I don’t have too much time either. This is the part of management job I truly hate.

Six months ago a white colleague had told me if T wins presidency she will think of moving out of country. Today she told me she is moving to Europe in summer of this year along with her family and ready to bid goodbye to the country (she does have dual citizenship). She will still work in the team but won’t be here anymore. I truly admire such people who pull through their word and are unafraid to pack up and restart. Of course I don’t think it was just this presidency that may have sealed the deal, but still. I should learn from this!