I'm going on a news fast until after Samhain (that's Hallowe'en for you non-heathens). Still figuring out what, exactly, that means, but basically, I'm minimizing (ideally, eliminating) my exposure to ... hmmm ... I guess "unnecessary stress and anxiety" is the best summary.

Turned off my Feedly (ahem) feed. No more Mastodon, etc. I'll still be visiting Tildes, but less ... and I just finished tuning out the news from my postings list (unsubscribed from ~enviro, ~finance, ~health, ~lgbt, and of course, ~news ... added a bunch of tag filters — covid, Trump, politics, the FAANG corps, etc). That seems to have killed 95% of the stress-inducing headlines. Will add more tag filters, as they prove necessary.

Thoughts? Anyone already try this? Anyone wanna join me?

PS: I have no idea how to tag this post. Tildes ModGods, please have at it, but try not to add any tags that'll inadvertently hide my own post from me. Danke, y gracias.

Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/18

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This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

When you click in a tag in a tildes group, you see the topics that have been posted in that group with that tag according to your filters. There's also a link to go back to normal viewing. I think an option to see that tag in all groups would be a neat addition, even if not particularly important. Thoughts?

I just caught part of one of the newer Terminator movies as I was flicking through channels on TV, and I was only able to identify it because a scene with a visibly 60-plus Arnold Schwarzenegger made me realize he probably hasn't acted in a decade and a half otherwise. I've never seen any of the Terminator movies... a fact which never fails to elicit shocked responses in movie conversations. I've also never watched any of the Alien, Indiana Jones, or Harry Potter franchises, am yet to watch any of the Shreks (despite one of my exes quoting them all the time and telling me she basically learned most of her life lessons from them), nor any of the Toy Story movies. I think the only Pixar movie I've ever watched is Up. I do mix up Pixar and Dreamworks all the time, so that whole debate between the two goes over my head, but I know I've never found Nemo or seen Frozen, or practically any of the others.

Obviously this is most egregious for stuff that's been released during your lifetime, or maybe adulthood, but feel free to include whatever you've never been particularly convinced you've missed out on, from any era.

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

Now that the holiday season is nearly over, I figured it is a good time to share the gifts that we gave this year. If there is a particular reason why you gave what you did, please share!

Edit: Going to plug USPS's Operation Santa. I plan to participate next year since it seems pretty direct with the giving. Found out about it way too late this year!