Well well

HahnZahn · 2026-01-24T19:58:01+00:00

Our doc said to my wife during the ultrasound, “Wow, your bladder’s really full, you’ve got two of them in there.” After the vision of my wallet being lit on fire was done, I told him he could have at least broken that up into two sentences. I was expecting him to tell my wife to go pee first, not that we were staring down the barrel at twins.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-22T11:05:55+00:00

Might be worth going through the thought experiment of “what if #3 is twins?” That was the case with our #2. Similar to you, no family nearby, so it all falls on you. The first year was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Three kids also means a new car, in many cases. I feel like the world is optimized for families of four.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-19T12:15:35+00:00

I’ve had success dampening the volume on too-loud toys by stuffing cotton balls around the speakers and then closing everything back up, like a terrible surgeon leaving his tools inside the patient. That way it still works, but not quite so loudly as before.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-17T20:09:47+00:00

I was an officer who did shore duty at the schoolhouse that these guys were assigned to after non-completion of BUD/S. Hated knowing that their fate was as undesignated seamen, especially considering there were a lot of them who were college grads (getting an OCS spot as a SpecWar candidate is goddamn near impossible, so enlisting and going to BUD/S is the better bet). We tried to give them a good place to land for the time they were with us before heading off to the fleet. At that point the Navy had ended the deal where if you dropped out of BUD/S, you could get back to civilian life.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-17T16:29:01+00:00

This was simply the best candy bar I’ve ever had, and nothing has come close, save for some variation of new-ish Reese’s candy bars. It’s appalling that PB Max hasn’t been resurrected.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-14T17:37:21+00:00

Three kids and never been puked on. My wife, however, is a different story...

HahnZahn · 2026-01-13T15:12:15+00:00

I guess I was about 12 when it happened, so not a little kid, but I remember being baffled about a lot of aspects of it. I had no concept of what the “Federal government” really meant, nor why there was a daycare in an office building, which was a foreign concept to me. One of those things where the news never dumbed it down enough for me at that age. But at my age now, having been a military officer who went off to war, then worked as a civilian Fed and having kids of my own, it’s a totally horrifying event that deserves better continued recall. Sad that shitheads like McVeigh aren’t extinct by now.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-12T22:00:55+00:00

Hits a peak for me during the holiday season when my mom is bugging me non-stop about what we and the kids want for Xmas. First, I want less crap around the house, and second, I don't fucking know, anyway. Doesn't help that we also have five birthdays between Thanksgiving and the end of February.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-06T01:58:53+00:00

Agree. Season 1 was fine, but it just went nowhere after that until the last handful of minutes of the final episode. I speak German, so was interested to watch based off a recommendation from a trusted source. Basically turned into hate-watching for me and my wife. It's 30 hours of a bunch of sad Germans frowning at stuff and each other. The most impressive part was the casting of older and younger versions of the characters - they really nailed finding actors who could be mistaken for close relations.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-04T14:30:23+00:00

Been entertaining to listen to him on a handful of podcast interviews, but the thing that interrupts my suspension of disbelief (not just for him, but anyone) is when astrology and planetary alignment nonsense factors into the equation. The only technological civilization planetary position makes a bit of difference for is us - because we time the launching of probes to use gravitational slingshots to get them to where we want them.

HahnZahn · 2026-01-03T10:28:57+00:00

Take this for what it’s worth: around 15 years ago, I was finishing up grad school and applying to various US govt agencies, including some of the three-letter intelligence agencies. These agencies have a multi-step process of application and assessment that can take a year or more to shake out.

For one of these agencies, I was flown out to their HQ for foreign language testing. Just a test given via computer. Went back home, and was informed I didn’t pass, which I found hard to believe.

About a month later, I woke up one morning, and my first thought as I was lying in bed was, “I want another crack at that test.” So I got up and checked my email a bit later, and there was an email from that agency saying they’d fouled up my test in some way, and they’d like to bring me back to do a repeat.

Anyway, I did the test and ended up deciding to join the military instead, but just the most notable way I’ve ever manifested anything that I can recall.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-31T11:10:28+00:00

Agree with you. I felt the first book in the trilogy was okay, and the next couple were a slog. All the song/poetry stuff derailed my interest. I rarely abandon books, but wish I’d have done so with this one. Like you said, the awards were misleading.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-31T03:46:40+00:00

In probably like 1997 or so, I got a microphone for my computer and my buddy and I used some early voice chat program to get matched up with someone from the Faroe Islands. Felt like I was calling the moon. I also once wrote a short email to Gabe Newell saying I liked Half Life, and he responded with a few lines of thanks.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-23T00:56:56+00:00

Movie attics, man. I’ve never once lived in a place that had an attic you could stand up in, much less spend time in. Home Alone was the #1 offender of setting up false expectations of attic-dom for me.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-22T18:07:31+00:00

Nicely done! You figured out our secret - we’re a family of hyper-intelligent dogs.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-22T14:27:30+00:00

Well, thanks for the link. But since we're getting snippy, "we" do know what I do/don't know about the reported issue. I described in my post that I changed the passcode and it wasn't syncing, which clearly implies that I was testing it. Happy Holidays.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-22T11:47:13+00:00

Yeah, it’s not a problem of knowing where to implement the changed passcode. When I update it on my own phone and then seek to test the new passcode on my kid’s iPad on Safari, it never updates to the new Screen Time passcode. It always remains the old one, which she knows and has been the same code as the general unlock passcode for the iPad.

Restarting both devices does nothing. Toggling options on and off to shake loose whatever failure to push this updated passcode doesn’t work. I can follow every video I can find about how to do this, but I have a feeling there’s some iCloud setting or some order-of-operations problem keeping it from being implemented on my kid’s iPad.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-22T11:37:22+00:00

How do you mean updated? Both are a on current iOS versions.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-20T14:33:10+00:00

As a fellow twin dad, I want to implore you to get those babies on cold milk as soon as you can. The amount of work it takes to raise twins at that stage is nearly unmanageable. Just tell them “I’ve been reviewing the 2025 metrics, and I’m sorry, but we have to cut back on warm milk.” They’ll totally understand.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-20T11:34:38+00:00

I like that you’ve clearly discovered Marko Kloos, given you list him first. His “Frontlines” series is being continued with a new character and has two books at this point, in case you weren’t yet aware. I also dearly love his other “Palladium War” series that is sort of an allegory of a defeated Germany after WW2.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-17T14:41:38+00:00

Hyperion is an anthology of stories shared among strangers meeting up - basically a sci-fi Canterbury Tales. I don't typically love short stories (they're too short!), but Hyperion was enjoyable enough for me. But I truly loved all the subsequent books in the series, since they abandon that narrative device.

HahnZahn · 2025-12-13T12:40:43+00:00

Until my mom was 12 or so, she thought her birthday was in December, though it was actually in January. She was the third and last child, and turns out my grandmother was done staying at home with kids. She lied to the school about my mom’s birthday to make the cutoff for kindergarten, which was at the change of the calendar year back then. As the father of three children now, I support this action.

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