Our dog responds to *”Honey?!”* way more than I do. I think he thinks he is Honey now. No honey, its not and she is not calling you!

My god applying for Indian e-visa. After filling up form, you get to confirmation page before you pay. Now, unless you take a screenshot at this stage, there is no way to know what your application ID is. You click pay now, get to credit card page on SBI and it promptly fails and redirects to paypal homepage. Well, do you know if transaction went through? no you do not. Do you get an email that your application was submitted? Haha, no you dont. Do you get any notification that your cc also failed? You must be joking! So now unless I had taken that screenshot (because my Indian brain knows better!), I would never be able to go back to the visa application site to figure out if the application was even submitted or not! Its 2024, but Indian government websites have truly evovlved from 1990 to 1994 in all this while.

I was fully invested in 2016 and 2020 election year, but I am making a conscious effort not to be so involved in 2024, for my own mental sanity, and more importantly, nothing will fundamentally change about my vote. The issues that I cared about in ’12, ’16’, 20, ’24 are exactly the same and will remain the same in future also and it aligns more closely with democrats than republicans. Why even bother investing time in listening to anything republican candidates or party has to say anymore because the only thing they’ve proven is how they are turning into repulsive humans (if they can be called that) year after year.

So yeah, IDGAF what Vivek or Nikki says, what Trump says/does at this point. I am of firm opinion that the American society is spiraling into a inevitable decay thanks to the rot that republicans have sown into it. My only role (&hope) is to delay this as much as possible by making sure my vote counts in ’24 and canvas/educate others around me (in my own capacity) about perils of voting anyone but democrats anywhere – from school boards, to state elections to national. Thats all I can do, and I will do.

A less talked about fact is how wage growths have kept up or crossed inflation at this point, even if it doesnt feel like it. Case in point – this week we offered the role to this young graduate with masters and minimal work exp (<2 years) a role in my team. Her total comp package is larger than the first total comp package I got when I joined this company in 2016! And I joined two levels higher, and with more than 10+ years experience already under the belt. When the offer first came out for me to approve, my jaws legit dropped to the floor, but I am also so so happy to see that kind of package rolled out. I am glad that younger folks are starting out at a much higher base wage and that is how it should be.

European tech workers who move to the USA really struggle here. Multiple people were rated bottom of the performance curve not because they did anything necessarily bad, but just that American workers work way harder to their detriment. Europeans still work with the European mindset which just does not translate equivalently sadly. I guess these engineers are figuring out the hard way why the American counterpart engineer is also paid way more 😆

Day 3 of swim meet over. This was not bad and I got a lot of errands done so it didn’t feel like it was long, plus commute is not bad either. The next one in college park campus is the most gargantum suck in a few weeks. That’s the one I truly hate!

Day three of swim meet so you all will hear a lot more from me today coz I have nothing to do between races!