Still the Night Before
(from Jake, via email, during the dark days of Pyslent downtime!)
Gotta keep the tradition alive. Clock hasn’t quite struck twelve in Boston, so sneaking this one in under the wire. Apologies to our members on the other side of the date line. Oh, and Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, enjoy your Festivus for the rest of us, and may peace be with us all and our families.
Twas the night before Christmas, and our favored website,
Was down for the count, no way to make right,
WordPress not running Pyslent with due care,
Hackers got in, and gave us a scare.
Eight growing children, all snug in their beds,
While visions of gadgets danced in Dad’s heads
Stock market not soaring, yet prices are up
Still there’s plenty to fill up our cup.
The Sound and The Jordanauts in a fantasy brawl,
Although to be fair, the scoring’s a crawl,
Chargers, Chiefs and Niners all look playoff bound,
Not sure Mac Jones will make it this round.
Out on the internet arose such a clatter
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter
Turned my Apple Watch on to the Christmas Eve feed
(There’s one now with cellular? That’s just what I need!)
The internet was crazy, I’d never seen such a flurry
But I must be quick, I must be in a hurry
Then I just saw him, almost did not catch it.
It’s Rotiveo– the patron saint of gadgets!
He flew around quick, to learn of our tribe
To get presents be good, and don’t pay a bribe.
Now out of the lockdown, we didn’t lose our own heads,
It’s kinda been nice, to sleep in hotel beds.
Lucas in high school, that happened so fast,
How has middle school already gone past?
Let’s go now, the next rhyme is for Brandon,
If you want Derrick’s twin, there’s no better stand-in
Parents working at the office and at the home,
Schools’ all back in session, no more Zooming alone,
As movement returned, so did a wave of virus,
Flus and colds and of course conjunctivitis.
Pyslent reunions seem in full swing,
In Tahoe we’ll ride, in the Fall and the Spring,
From an airport in Boston to Evan playing jungle gym,
Happenstance meet-ups are always a win.
Rotiveo’s stuff is all amazing, none old,
No Foleo, Moviepass, nor ‘Galaxy Fold
Instead more iPhones, bikes, and the printers Three-D
Marble pieces they’ll make, or climb through the trees.
While Joanie & Mike are neglecting the servers,
Back from Japan, Emma & Adam were more than observers,
Archer joined the Sunnyvale clan of the Li,
Lucas, Kelvin & Serena, no longer just 3
Jason & Jordan love building their things,
Magnets that are buses and Legos sprout wings!
The Sungs in Japan, following a fine Pyslent trail,
Shoeless Tiffany grossed out, maybe she wanted to bale.
Whether Bay Area, Boston, or even LA,
Whenever we hang, it’s such a great day
We mostly all met at UCSD,
So Seussian syntax makes some sense to me.
Now 16 young hands, some big and some small
How do we even keep track of it all,
Nearing 3 decades since the core four first met,
Maybe one summer, the biggest gathering yet?
Rotiveo sprang to Roomba (hacked years before)
And away they went, after cleaning the floor
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”
The Night Before, Omicron Style
Twas the night before Christmas, and on our group blog,
It had been silent for months, as if in a fog
WordPress still running Pyslent with due care
Only seldom we write, yet we still come & stare
Eight growing children, all snug in their beds
While visions of gadgets danced in dads’ heads
The stock market still soaring, but inflation’s up too,
It will cost a little bit more, to visit the zoo.
Chiefs beat the Chargers with exciting football,
Could the Pats win again- it’s a real free-for-all.
For spring training, it’s fifty days till it lands
Hoping this year to get the kids in the stands.
Out on the internet arose such a clatter
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter
Turned my Apple Watch on to the Christmas Eve feed
(There’s one now with cellular? That’s just what I need!)
The internet was crazy, I’d never seen such a flurry
But I must be quick, I must be in a hurry
Then I just saw him, almost did not catch it.
It’s Rotiveo– the patron saint of gadgets!
He flew around quick, to learn of our tribe
To get presents be good, and don’t pay a bribe.
Two years into lockdown, we’re all losing our heads,
But a few short escapes, we’ve just slept in our beds.
Lucas in high school, that happened so fast,
How is middle school already gone past?
Let’s go now, the next rhyme is for Brandon,
If you want Derrick’s twin, there’s no better stand-in
Parents working remotely all over the house,
Conference calls much noisier than the lone Christmas mouse.
The vaccines are here now, and the offices beckon,
You might need that proof, to get past the check-in
Corona is crazy, it’s thrown all for a loop,
We thought we made it, then Delta… oh poop!
Now Omicron has scrambled life yet again
(Will it be over before the kids all turn ten?)
Rotiveo’s stuff is all amazing, none old,
No Foleo, Moviepass, nor ‘Galaxy Fold
Instead more iPhones, bikes, or cool gaming gear,
And an Apple Watch, to keep us off of our rear.
Joanie and Mike taking a break from their videocall,
With Adam and Emma playing, there’ll be no Zooming at all!
Kelvin & Serena will drive-in to see Spiderman,
What can that guy even do? Whatever a spider can!
Jake & Jen in their house and the rest of their crew,
Moved back into their house, it’s almost brand new!
The Sungs made it six with a four-legged friend,
Now their fun will never, ever end!
The Corona has made us all a bit nuts,
More than a dozen stuck in these ruts,
It will end some day then back to the normal,
Would be nice to go out and just be informal.
Now 16 young hands, some big and some small
How do we even keep track of it all,
25 full years since the core four first met,
Maybe one summer, the biggest gathering yet?
Rotiveo sprang to Roomba (hacked years before)
And away they went, after cleaning the floor
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”
CueCat founder failed even bigger!
How did I miss this one? Apparently the inventor of the CueCat moved on to bigger and better things— he tried to overthrow the government!
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/31/22208033/jovan-pulitzer-cuecat-georgia-election-fraud-flimflam
Guy’s in the hospital now with not-Abthrax a week after going to a conference full of vaccination skeptics. So yeah, thoughts and prayers!
A Sad Day in Pyslent History
Fry’s Electronics is going out of business. I think about Fry’s every time I go to Microcenter, the crappier version of Fry’s here in Boston.
When was the last time that you guys went to Fry’s?
01.27.21Back to our roots
This seems like the sort of thing four grad students would have been interested in 20+ years ago. I would love to hear that one of you were on top of this.
The complete moron’s guide to GameStop’s stock roller coaster, from Ars Technica.
A Very Different Night Before
Twas the night before Christmas, and on our group blog,
Logging in proved difficult, a ten-minute slog.
WordPress still running Pyslent with due care
Only seldom we write, yet we still come & stare
Eight growing children, all snug in their beds
While visions of gadgets danced in dads’ heads
The stock market still soaring, the president a crook
Joe Biden will take over, a much better look.
Chiefs keep on winning, the Pats finally suck
Chargers new home a void, that’s some kind of luck
Spring training is just fifty, long long days away
Let’s hope this year, they can actually play
Out on the internet arose such a clatter
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter
Turned my Apple Watch on to the Christmas Eve feed
(There’s one now with cellular? That’s just what I need!)
The internet was crazy, I’d never seen such a flurry
But I must be quick, I must be in a hurry
Then I just saw him, almost did not catch it.
It’s Rotiveo– the patron saint of gadgets!
He flew around quick, to learn of our tribe
To get presents be good, and don’t pay a bribe.
We all took some road-trips, the planes took a rest,
‘cept Jordan flew to Utah, to see the rocket test.
Lucas plays Charlie Brown from anywhere with Zoom
Brandon starts High School without a home room.
Ice hockey for Adam was sadly cut short,
While Emma plays soccer, her favorite sport.
Parents working remotely all over the house,
Conference calls much noisier than the lone Christmas mouse.
Jason’s now running, jumping and more,
The next riddle to solve: how to open the door.
The IPO loot scores Tiffany a surprise in her ears,
(If I ruined it now, would there be any tears?)
Evan likes the new Switch, it’s making the rounds
While dad paints the house and fixes the grounds.
Rotiveo’s stuff is all amazing, none old,
No Foleo, Moviepass, nor ‘Galaxy Fold
Instead more iPhones, bikes, or cool gaming gear,
And an Apple Watch, to keep us off of our rear.
Joanie and Mike taking a break from their videocall,
With Adam and Emma playing, there’ll be no Zooming at all!
Can Kelvin & Serena keep up with their surfing & swimming teen,
Yeah, when watching The OC, they know every scene.
The Four Jays are rocking, still paying the rent
In one more month, a new house will be heaven sent.
The Sungs are hoping to see the best of Tahoe,
Get out of this house, and get into the snow!
The Corona has made us all a bit nuts,
More than a dozen stuck in these ruts,
But the vaccine arrives as does the new year,
That alone makes reason for very good cheer!
Now 16 young hands, some big and some small
How do we even keep track of it all,
25 full years since the core four first met,
Maybe one summer, the biggest gathering yet?
Rotiveo sprang to Roomba (hacked years before)
And away they went, after cleaning the floor
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”
The One Comma Club
I bought my first stocks the same day the iMac was unveiled, purchasing Apple, Qwest and Sam Adams. Brilliantly, I sold off all the original Apple shares the day they announced the iPhone (I think), but did come to my senses and buy some back. I’ve held a chunk of that $SAM position ever since, and my stock is now old enough to drink. The price now requires a comma, piercing the $1000 mark. Still waiting for that first split. Celebrating with a brew tonight! Or maybe tomorrow night, gotta see if the price holds when the market opens tomorrow.
Switch!
This Christmas, Santa bought our house a new Nintendo Switch! It’s our first gaming system. Actually, I just realized that I think this is my first dedicated game system since my Atari 2600! I never owned another Nintendo, Playstation, Xbox, Sega, or any of those. Other than playing Metal Gear at Kelvin’s house in San Diego, I haven’t even really played the games, so most of the Mario characters are new to me.
So far, we have a couple of games: MarioKart 8 Deluxe (the kids’ favorite), Mario Tennis Aces, and Just Dance 2020. Our library also has Switch games for checkout — I’ve played the Zelda Breath of the Wild game a little and it’s really fun. We also bought an extra set of joy cons so the four of us can play MarioKart.
Since our kids don’t have iPads or anything, they aren’t used to having a portable game, and we’re trying to keep it as a home-based console for now (we would have gladly bought a TV-only Switch if there were one available).
Do any of you have a Switch? Any tips on games, other accessories we need, or how to manage kids’ screen time?
12.24.19Night Before Pyslentmas
Twas the night before Christmas, and on our group blog,
Logging in proved difficult, a ten-minute slog.
WordPress still running Pyslent with due care
Only seldom we write, yet we still come & stare
Eight children now, all snug in their beds
While visions of gadgets danced in dads’ heads
The stock market was soaring, the president impeached
One might wonder, could sanity ever be reached?
Chiefs and Pats won divisions, Niners right back on top
Lebron and the Lakers? Winning, almost non-stop.
Spring training was just fifty, long long days away
The Raiders in Oakland? They’ll never stay.
Out on the internet arose such a clatter
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter
Turned my Apple Watch on to the Christmas Eve feed
(There’s one now with cellular? That’s just what I need!)
The internet was crazy, I’d never seen such a flurry
But I must be quick, I must be in a hurry
Then I just saw him, almost did not catch it.
It’s Rotiveo– the patron saint of gadgets!
He flew around quick, to learn of our tribe
To get presents be good, and don’t pay a bribe.
He saw some cruise to Alaska, I guess that’s a thing,
Then Tiffany came home for some dance and to sing.
Lucas still watching and treading the boards
Jordan’s singing on stage (without any words),
The Lego king of Brookline still building strong,
When Adam’s not reading, he’s joking along.
Evan and Brandon and their dad Derrick, too
Visited Disneyland, it was probably a zoo.
Jason’s not crawling, but starting to scoot,
He really needs to find, the most easiest route.
Emma is crafting things from a big catalog,
Maybe one will come to life, she’ll have her own dog!
Brandon is crafting his own kind of thing,
A gaming PC, with a heatsink for fast ping.
Rotiveo’s stuff is all amazing, none old,
No Foleo, Moviepass, nor ‘Galaxy Fold
Instead it’s AirPods, iPhones and more Apple gear,
Alexa does more and more, each and every year.
Joanie and Mike getting ready with presents all wrapped
With enough extra Legos, Adam and Emma would like to get trapped!
Kelvin & Serena now looking up to their boy,
The step stool in the kitchen, only the parents deploy.
The Four Jays are rocking, Hanukkah Night number three
There are even more presents, how could that be!
Jason now enjoying all the diapers, cribs & plugs
Jordan’s now a big brother, kneeling down for low hugs.
At Tahoe again, two clans will ski & have fun
Lucas might just head down, the scariest run.
Back in the lodge, the day soon comes to its end,
And Derrick walks in (that’s Evan’s best friend).
Now 16 young hands, some big and some small
How do we even keep track of it all,
Nearly 25 years since the core four first met,
Maybe next summer, the biggest gathering yet?
Rotiveo sprang to Roomba (hacked years before)
And away they went, after cleaning the floor
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”
( — ) shot first!
It’s been quiet around here, too quiet… What could possibly be important enough to post here after several months?
Well, as we all have kids, you’re probably all well-aware that Disney+ just launched, promising not only all the classic Disney movies, but also all the Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel movies, not to mention new content like The Mandalorian TV series and a new Clone Wars series.
It turns out they’ve also taken the opportunity to revise the Han/Greedo cantina scene, as they’ve done so many times before. You’ll have to read the Ars Technica article or the Wikipedia page to find out what’s changed.
We’re thinking of subscribing to Disney+, at least temporarily. Since we’ve never really bought DVDs, the kids have never seen most of the Disney classics — of course they’ve seen Star Wars and the Pixar movies, but none of us have seen most of the Marvel movies.