u/Square_Complaint6245

I see AWS everywhere, and after that BigQuery and Airflow. It’s very rare that I see job postings for Azure/Microsoft nowadays.

I’m a bit of shocked, because I started with the Azure/MS stack many years ago and have used it ever since in my consulting career. I have familiarity with Snowflake, dbt, Databricks, but I hadn’t thought about putting them on my CV, except for Snowflake. And putting to much tools or different stack is sees as unserious.

So where are all those Microsoft/azure data jobs ?

I’m a guy in my late 30s and since last year started noticing a a small wrinkle in forehead and some slight volume loss under my eyes where the cheek bone is.

Three weeks ago, I made two changes to my daily diet because I have bone fracture (literally nothing else in my diet or skincare changed):
Started taking 5g of creatine powder twice a day (10g total)
Started drinking 1 liter of milk a day
I wasn't expecting anything skin-related, but my skin genuinely looks fuller and smoother now. The forehead line softened up and my under-eye hollows look significantly less pronounced or no visibility anymore, it looks like I got fillers injected in those area especially most noticeable is my under eyes , almost like a natural plumping or hyper-hydration effect from the inside out.
Has anyone else noticed facial volume improvements or skin smoothing from high creatine and milk intake, or am I alone on this one? Curious if anyone else has experienced something similar.

I don’t know if it’s the milk or the creatine or only the creatine? Is there any studies or reports out there on that or it’s just placebo effect?

I’m a guy in my late 30s and since last year started noticing a a small wrinkle in forehead and some slight volume loss under my eyes where the cheek bone is.

Three weeks ago, I made two changes to my daily diet because I have bone fracture (literally nothing else in my diet or skincare changed):
Started taking 5g of creatine powder twice a day (10g total)
Started drinking 1 liter of milk a day
I wasn't expecting anything skin-related, but my skin genuinely looks fuller and smoother now. The forehead line softened up and my under-eye hollows look significantly less pronounced or no visibility anymore, it looks like I got fillers injected in those area especially most noticeable is my under eyes , almost like a natural plumping or hyper-hydration effect from the inside out.
Has anyone else noticed facial volume improvements or skin smoothing from high creatine and milk intake, or am I alone on this one? Curious if anyone else has experienced something similar.

I don’t know if it’s the milk or the creatine or only the creatine? Is there any studies or reports out there on that or it’s just placebo effect?

Is Data Platform Engineer a hybrid role someone who does both cloud engineer and data engineer at same time?

Is someone like that on high demand by companies or clients? Or do companies just hire separately each one?

Any good shop recommendations that’s affordable?

I've spent at least a month in major cities across SEA, and honestly, Indonesia including Bali is literally the region's biggest shithole place along with Philippines. I don’t care if you tell me it’s beautiful nature, Lombok is even more beautiful nature than Bali but yet people seem to enough brainwashed settle down in Bali because of the hype for nothing. Infrastructure is a mess, traffic is soul-crushing, and outside of a few spots, untrustworthy people at least outside of Bali, slow internet, bad urbanization, food poisoning, way much young local sex workers than whole Thailand on dating apps and at bars asking for money or selling s**.

And yes I have been in all major cities in Java including Bali and Lombok.

But I'm genuinely curious, what motivates digital nomads to go there over Thailand or Vietnam? Because I moved from Europe to Asia specifically to connect with local people, and living in Bali would be a nightmare for me. The overwhelming presence of Western expats and tourists there would defeat the whole purpose of my move. If that was the propose then I would just move back to Europe.

So what's the actual draw? genuinely want to understand the mindset.

It seems company or client who used to hire consultant or DE has now become more slowed down, they seem to be more focused on what Claude code or Claude overall can do for them, all that just to save money. Yet there are still people who want to come into the Data and Analytics world but they don’t have a clue what’s going on and how much position now is disappearing.

Know one even knows where all these AI heading towards or how far it can go.

A little over a year ago, I left Europe and got a DTV visa for Thailand, basing myself in Bangkok. But since then, I’ve actually spent no more than three consecutive months in Thailand at a time. I tried Vietnam for a month – didn’t click. Then I gave Indonesia a shot (Jakarta and Lombok) – also didn’t feel right. So I kept coming back to Thailand, because honestly, every time I compare, Thailand wins in almost every category. For me, it offers the closest thing to Western European living standards among all the Southeast Asian countries I’ve visited.

I have been bouncing back and forth between Thailand and Indonesia three times.

Whenever I’m in Thailand and get bored I’m thinking I want to give another chance go somewhere like Indonesia. But the moment I’m there, I get frustrated – slow internet, rough infrastructure, and urban areas that feel like a war zone, got food poisoning every time I’m there.

I feel like a lost soul sometimes – unable to commit to one place long-term. There’s always this urge to try again, like a dopamine chase that never ends. But honestly? Moving around this much stops being fun as you get older. The hardest part is finding a decent furnished apartment in a quiet area every single time.

Is anyone else in the same boat? How did you finally settle – or make peace with the indecision?

In BKK every 20 meter there’s a 7/11 in every corner but in Chaing Mai you have to walk a lot to find a shop, some area have 1-2 store some don’t even have it. I know I can’t compare BKK to Chaing Mai but come on it’s second largest city, most 7/11 store here looks also extremely old and small in size.

Over the past few months, I’ve experimented with multiple parameters, including overhauling my title and profile, but I still can’t break onto the first page of search results. I’ve even set my daily budget for my boosted profile to 500 Connects, bidding 50 Connects per click.

When I search for talent using my exact title keywords, the first page is dominated by freelancers who either already have 20+ active jobs or have only earned $100 with zero active clients. Regardless of how high I set my boost bid, I remain stuck on pages long over 10+
For context, I’ve been on the platform since 2019, holding a Top Rated Plus badge, and maintain a 100% JSS.

Why is the algorithm burying a highly rated, long-term freelancer, and what can I do to fix this?

If I seriously get next clients I will immediately take them off upwork so they can pay me private. This BS scam needs to be stopped.

Everyone has a wish or a dream, mine is be able go to the palace by Tuktuk 😢. I’ve tried so many times but failed because Tuktuk said palace is closed but instead took me to pingpong show or tailor shop.

What’s your dream to become true in Bangkok?

Has anyone here made to the palace by Tuktuk?

How can we not suspect that they are using fake job listing among real ones to make people use their connects?
They might also have people who sit and click boosted profiles so their connects get wasted.

I’m a EU passport holder and currently long stay in Thailand and thinking to visit Manila for few weeks. What do I need to fill before arrival to avoid questions from the immigration?

Or it’s not avoidable and everyone will be asked questions?

Do they always ask to show up return ticket out of Philippine at the immigration or it’s just random stuff?