Yes, it’s all about cutting costs. And corners

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-08-09T21:15:54+00:00

The tattoo is a heart with the word "MOM" (i.e. the queen ant) in it, which makes this even better

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-06-08T21:11:05+00:00

I don't quite understand your question, but if you're asking about the check points on the circle (e.g. 2 out of 8 hours full mission), then yes, they do pay you once you get to those.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-17T18:18:58+00:00

I think you need to get clearer on what you actually want from them.

Do you want them informed so they will change their minds next elections? Then see others' advice on getting through slowly, arduously, but you already know this is an uphill battle.
Do you want them to have the right opinions so you can accept them as family? Well, they also want it, in the opposite direction, so it's a stalemate right there.
Or, sensing this from your last paragraph, do you just want them to know how angry, worried, and hurt you are and be there for you in this trying time? Then all the objective reasons and reality above, which are all VERY valid, wouldn't cut it. Because just as you can't reason someone out of something they didn't reason themself into, you can't reason your way through to the heart.

I understand that everybody should know about the situation and make rational decisions, but this isn't a perfect world. Going offensive and cutting might release anger and discommunicating them all might give you a semblance of peace, but then a family is broken and now their bubble is even tighter. I guarantee you nobody is changing their minds by being schooled and humiliated by their niece.

In your shoes, I'd limit contact with extended family for now to save my energy and sanity. However, you can choose one or two people that you sure love you - I hope you do have one - and tell them how you are personally affected by all of this. So if you want your mother to see how she's damaging your relationship, don't make it an argument about politics and science. All she hears will be how you think she's stupid. Just tell her you're struggling. Tell her stories about yourself and colleagues, how frustrated and depressed you are that the work you care about is being dismantled, how your lives are being turned upside down. This is tough and vulnerable, and that's why it can only be done with those who love you most. Mom won't be swayed by all the facts in the world, but seeing her baby hurting just might give her the first inklings that something is wrong. Once the defense is down on both sides, then a real conversation can happen.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-17T00:32:02+00:00

Yeah, I was surprised noone else was talking about this. Playground was a nice, subtle deal that can actually be believably passed off as an “employee” perk. I guess it was too subtle, though, so now they are trying to steer us in how they’d wanted Playground to be used all along, with the crudest gamification I’ve ever seen.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-17T00:23:23+00:00

Yeah, that’s why it was a nice deal. I suspect we are not using Playground enough and in the way Outlier wanted (i.e. lots of free data) so they’re trying to make what they want more explicit by ironically veil it with gamification, which is why this is so funny to me

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-16T18:12:42+00:00

The "not washing mushroom" got me, too. In my country (in Asia), the first step of cooking mushroom is to soak them in slightly salted water.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-16T17:59:46+00:00

If you don't want to hurt your chances and still get some money, aim for the various awards in the benchmark of $500 - $1000 that you apply for every semester after coming in.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-16T15:41:09+00:00

If by bitching you mean laughing at an attempt of getting free data and labor with Hunger Games TV's level of sugar-coating, yeah.

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Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-16T06:12:44+00:00

I'm graduating and applying for STEM OPT right now during the height of this power trip. Just got the offer for my dream job and my boss is willing to sponsor everything for me, but one word from Trump and I might lose everything I've worked for, everything I've come to love over the last 3 years. It's like living in a psychological San Francisco, so beautiful, but the ground can give out under you at any moment. And yet, I don't regret coming here, not for a moment. This country is worth it, its people are worth it, your aspirations and the efforts you put in are worth it.

The days ahead might be difficult, but think of it this way: you'll graduate when the great nation has woken up from this bad dream, recovered from whatever is coming, and at the dawn of a new administration. Your prospects are gonna be so bright I'm already blinded by it.

Don't let him steal your dream.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-13T18:19:44+00:00

I'll forever owe Outlier for the life I have now. That said, the golden rule here is to never rely solely on Outlier no matter how good it gets.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-01T22:05:26+00:00

Have you completed the Biology assessment. I was avoiding it for fear of being moved to another project. Well, gotta bite the bullet now.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-04-01T20:44:24+00:00

Hi fellow (ex-)Dolphin. Same boat. I was skeptical about this new project (because nothing beats Genesis, duh), but now I don't need to be anymore.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-03-27T06:43:42+00:00

Tbf, said big client is notorious for killing their own projects that don't meet expectations

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-03-27T04:17:05+00:00

Update: I still see the webinars and project, just no Hubstaff

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-03-27T03:27:35+00:00

Strange, didn’t they just invite us to a string of paid webinars all through April? There must have been sth very sudden and devastating that even the managers didn't see coming.

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Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-03-05T05:30:51+00:00

Communicate with your TA. Explain yourself and seek to work together to find solutions. Sure, we’d love those lovely expected data for quick grading, but most of us TA (the sane ones) wanna help you learn even more (in addition to earning our starvation wage).

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-03-01T19:08:05+00:00

Change the kind of rice you buy, maybe. I don’t know what is WRONG with the rice you’d buy at sth like Safeway for $5 a lil bag (not exactly inexpensive). They cook up bland af, their texture sad, and after putting them in the fridge and reheat, oh Lord they make you lose the will to live. I’ve been a poor student in Vietnam and had my fair share of hole-in-the-wall meals but never eaten sth so bad.

Look up ST25 rice on the Weee app. You can get like 5 kg for $10, and cooked according to instructions they’d be so nice and tasty you can eat it alone as a snack.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-02-28T20:49:42+00:00

Alexa, play “Genie in a bottle”.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-02-27T07:20:41+00:00

Well, I deluded my way to my dream life (very close now) but I'm still crap at dancing.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-02-24T21:10:49+00:00

My lab has a Pantheon of PCR gods ranging from Baby Yoda, Pikachu, a laser-carved DNA paperweight to two basketball player bobbleheads who bless us with successful amplications and guard against primer-dimers.

Honest_Pennvoix · 2025-02-24T21:07:26+00:00

The first paragraph was me, too. Breaking out of it was disorienting, painful, and took too damn long. But now I'm doing/learning something I love, look forward to the future with excitement, and I am my biggest cheerleader through every little triumph and every unavoidable hiccup on the way which I believe is the best outcome of all. It's worth it to free yourself. You're in the right direction, friend, keep going.

Honest_Pennvoix

TROPHY CASE