DS

In the last 3 weeks, two of my direct reports have quit. A very close team member has already told me everyone’s looking to jump ship. None of it is my doing, but the org. Maybe the time has come for me to brush up my resume and look internally as well. I wanted to push this to beginning of next year, but maybe sooner is better.

Pete is a fucking genius. I can’t wait to see him as POTUS one day. I dont think Kaitlin Collins realized that while he was speaking about Trump, he was also taking a dig at people in media like her.

There is such a weird fascination (read: racist) about something smelling like “curry”. Heck White House would be so much nicer if the smell of chai and butter chicken emanated from its hall then the stench of suits and sweat of 4000+ people working there. No thanks I will take the curry.

Today morning the kid asks me - Who won the debate? I say Kamala and then say, btw, Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala after the debate. And then my usually politically savvy 13 year old lost complete interest in debate or Kamala and went off on a tangent on Taylor Swift and how amazing what she did was and yada yada yada. Unless you are swiftie dad/mom you are not going to realize the weight of her endorsement and how much weight Taylor can move with the younger generation. I am honestly surprised Swift actually endorsed Kamala, fully knowing that half this country have turned into rabid dogs bitten by trump and they could threaten her personal safety. Especially after what happened in Vienna, and considering her last leg of Eras tour are all in red states, I did not expect her to endorse Kamala/Walz so heartily and openly! Kudos to her for speaking up and realizing the influence she has!

I think I know what am I going to tell my director when asks me what is the status of my product strategy doc that I promised him a month ago: _I have concepts of a plan. _

A report of mine constantly complains about everyone else in the team and adjacent team. The thing is the bar that this employee is so high that no one is probably going to close come to it. So today I told this person if you feel this strongly about all the folks in the team and want to change things, be their manager, to which the employee backed off and said oh no, I never want to manage them. I cant deal with them. And in my mind I was like, yeah then STFU because you cannot just sit there and keep complaining forever and when given an opportunity to actually do something about it, not want to do that either!

People eating cows & pigs every day should not really worry about other people eating cats, just sayin.

Yesterday a long lost colleague of mine connected back after more than a decade or more. He talked about his life, how he battled severe illness, how his wife left him, and other tragedies that happened in same time (not going into too much detail), and eventually said he’d really like my help landing a job. I said yes and I will definitely do my part, but a part of me also wonders, do I trust what he told me because its been more than a decade now since we last connected, or do I take the good faith argument that all this is true. I mean if someone had to go through all that, they’d probably not be in contact with anyone either. Either way I just felt really bad for him - sometimes we get so focussed on our own life troubles that when we hear someone else going through 10x worse, our problems simply pale in comparison.

I guess I dont need to listen to Elton John anymore. Whats with these musicians from my youth turn into racist third class pricks as they get older. First Eric Clapton now Elton John - we are in depressing times.

Yesterday my kid tells me there is a new boy from Georgia who moved to their school and is a MAGA/Trump supporter. He’s been vocal about it, and almost everyone hates him (well, he’s in a deep blue area!). My first reaction to my kid was - stay the heck away from this boy at all costs!. I told her to never engage with him, not talk to him, and walk the other direction if he is around. I told her to be extra careful in surroundings where this boy is around and generally just avoid being around this boy. This morning we received email from principal about racist graffiti all over boys bathrooms and a pending investigation by school on this incident. Suffice to say my stress signals are high. I wish this fucking family moved back to georgia or wherever and mingled with his own kind. Get out of our state!

My non scientific lawm sign theory says Harris should have no problem winning Virginia.

Dick fucking Cheney? He was my introduction to politics in America two decades ago along with Bush. The fact that the literal devil also is voting for Harris should tell you all there is to know about how awful Trump is.

Started watching LOTR season 2 and the long gap between S1 and S2 meant that I have absolutely zero recollection of events in season 1. Like zero. And it all just feels dreadfully boring. They really ought to figure out how to bring these seasons earlier to keep interest.

Met an ex report of mine for lunch. Had a couple of beers. Nothing makes you more sleepy in afternoon like beers. Couldn’t wait to come back home and was knocked out for a solid two hours. means I am going to be a night owl tonight. Ugh. Maybe I need to down whiskeys to compensate for the beers

I don’t know if Sabrina Carpenter thinks she is a dog coz:

Adore me Hold me and explore me Mark your territory (Ah-ah) Tell me I’m the only, only, only, only one Adore me Hold me and explore me I’m so fuckin' horny Tell me I’m the only, only, only, only one

From Juno, a song from her new album.

Slow Horses is so so good! With this and Only murders in building, two of the best shows on tv each week!

Austrian airlines gave me credits for the cancelled flight to Vienna after few weeks. I appreciate the gesture - they didnt really have to do it, but it was a nice gesture of them to earn some goodwill of people by giving out credits to people who cancelled their flights to Vienna because of cancelled concert. Now, it’s another matter if I can actually use their credits for another trip within a year. I am sure thats a part of their calculation on how many will actually do anything about it.

A piece of advice I give all my friends is - If you are completely disinterested in politics (as many of them are), then just go ahead and vote democrat. 8/10 times you are going to come out better. If you are interested in politics, then I am happy to send you a whole lot of literature for you to read and make up your mind!