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    1. Day 10: Monitoring Station

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/10 Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c. Please post your...

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/10


      Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c.

      Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):

      <details>
      <summary>Part 1</summary>
      
      ```python
      Your code here.
      ```
      
      </details>
      
      8 votes
    2. Day 15: Oxygen System

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/15 Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c. Please post your...

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/15


      Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c.

      Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):

      <details>
      <summary>Part 1</summary>
      
      ```python
      Your code here.
      ```
      
      </details>
      
      6 votes
    3. Day 22: Slam Shuffle

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/22 Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c. Please post your...

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/22


      Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c.

      Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):

      <details>
      <summary>Part 1</summary>
      
      ```python
      Your code here.
      ```
      
      </details>
      
      6 votes
    4. Day 14: Space Stoichiometry

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/14 Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c. Please post your...

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/14


      Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c.

      Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):

      <details>
      <summary>Part 1</summary>
      
      ```python
      Your code here.
      ```
      
      </details>
      
      8 votes
    5. What are you reading these days?

      What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit. Previous topics Previous topics are listed in the wiki.

      14 votes
    6. 2019 Superlatives

      As we come to the close of another year, I thought it would be a neat idea for people to give their picks for the Best/Worst/Most/Least [something] of 2019. Think of these like awards, although...

      As we come to the close of another year, I thought it would be a neat idea for people to give their picks for the Best/Worst/Most/Least [something] of 2019. Think of these like awards, although some of them are not necessarily in categories people would want to win.

      There are no limits and no criteria. Examples:
      Best Meme
      Worst Tweet
      Most Pretentious Startup
      Least Surprising Box Office Bomb

      Anything is fair game -- do whatever you want! Get creative and have fun! Winners can be people, places, or things -- all 2019 nouns are eligible!

      While I'm intending this to be mostly for fun, it's okay to give serious ones too, so if you want to tell me about, say, the legit Best Movie or the Most Transformative Hashtag of 2019, be my guest.

      Make sure you don't just drop your award winners' names in the thread. Be sure to explain why they're deserving of their title.

      Also, it's okay for one category to be awarded with more than one winner, so if someone else has already given their pick for, say, Best Season Finale, and you feel strongly that another deserves the win, add your pick and explain your thinking!

      21 votes
    7. I'm freaking out and need advice

      My mother died last month and I've been thinking of leaving my father's house ever since then. I initially thought I'd be okay with doing that, regardless of whether or not my father would object,...

      My mother died last month and I've been thinking of leaving my father's house ever since then. I initially thought I'd be okay with doing that, regardless of whether or not my father would object, but he talked with me last night saying he'd be okay if I left and now I'm FREAKING OUT.

      Background: I'm 23 and living in Houston, Texas. I have an older brother who lives in Dallas who offered to take me in, but it wouldn't be very permanent as he plans on leaving the country for a trip next year and will be gone for some time. I also have a friend from high school who offered me a room, but she lives in Seattle and was fired from her job. No one else who is close to me is able to offer me a place to stay.

      My concerns: I dropped out of college. I was planning on going back but then my mother died and that plan was put on hold, so I don't have any marketable skills (I've only ever worked in retail). I also don't have a job lined up anywhere else. I've never had to take on so many bills at one time and therefore I don't know much about budgeting.

      I'd like to leave, but where I am it's secure and comfy. Maybe it's finally time I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and start taking control of my own life, but I don't want to risk my safety and finances on a crazy idea.

      I welcome any and all advice, and thanks for reading.

      edit: changed a word

      27 votes
    8. Brainstorming for a gaming "challenge checklist" for 2020

      I realize this is a little early and that I've been doing a lot on Tildes lately, but I'm really into this idea and I know a lot of people will soon be busy with holiday plans (if they aren't...

      I realize this is a little early and that I've been doing a lot on Tildes lately, but I'm really into this idea and I know a lot of people will soon be busy with holiday plans (if they aren't already). As such, I figured it was better to go ahead and propose this now rather than wait:

      What are challenge lists?

      In reading circles, it's common for sites to put out yearly "challenge checklists". They are lists of different criteria with stuff like "Read a book published in the year you were born" or "Read a book with the name of a country in the title", and the idea is that you try to complete the list over the course of the year. Here are some examples from 2019:

      The Idea

      I think it would be neat if Tildes came up with a gaming version of one of these challenge lists for 2020. Why?

      • It's fun
      • It's great for diving into your backlog (if you have one)
      • It gives you incentive to play games you might otherwise overlook
      • It's fulfilling to work towards a goal
      • I haven't seen a gaming version of this idea before, so we could (maybe) be trailblazers!
      • But mostly it's fun

      The Process

      I was originally considering coming up with my own individual list for myself, but I think it would be neat if we did a community version instead. As such,

      • If you are interested in participating in a 2020 gaming challenge list, let me know in this thread.
      • If you have ideas for criteria for the challenge list, also let me know in this thread.
      • If you have any other thoughts on this setup, let me know.

      This is a brainstorming thread, so feel free to submit any and all ideas you have. Throw everything at the wall. We'll see what sticks afterwards.

      To be clear, the challenges are more about playing certain games than they are about completing specific tasks within games. So "play a game in which you can pet a dog" works, while "pet the dog in Zork II" does not.

      After we finish brainstorming, I will compile all submitted criteria into a poll and we can vote on the ones we most like. Then, after voting, the top [number TBD] entries from the poll will become our challenge list for 2020.

      8 votes
    9. Which Tildes Theme are you using?

      Personally I'm partial to solarized dark since I also use that in my IDE's usually. Dark but not too harsh, since tildes supports a bunch of themes by default. I'm wondering which one are you...

      Personally I'm partial to solarized dark since I also use that in my IDE's usually.
      Dark but not too harsh, since tildes supports a bunch of themes by default.
      I'm wondering which one are you using and why?

      29 votes
    10. More about scheduled topics, some group rearranging, and input needed on "content types"

      A few pretty quick things to talk about today, with some input wanted on each: Scheduled/recurring topics As announced last week, the site now has native scheduled topics (which need to be...

      A few pretty quick things to talk about today, with some input wanted on each:

      Scheduled/recurring topics

      As announced last week, the site now has native scheduled topics (which need to be configured by me). There have been a couple of these posted now, with the most recent one being today's "What are you reading these days?" topic in ~books.

      Here's the schedule that I have set up right now. Times are in UTC (Pacific time is UTC-7 and Eastern is UTC-4).

      Topic Timing (UTC)
      ~talk - What are you doing this week? Monday, 15:00
      ~games - What have you been playing? Monday, 16:00
      ~tv - What have you been watching? Tuesday, 16:00
      ~anime - What have you been watching/reading this week? (Anime/Manga) Wednesday, 16:00
      ~books - What have you been reading lately? Every second Thursday, 16:00
      ~creative - What creative projects have you been working on? Every second Thursday (alternating with ~books), 16:00
      ~talk - What are you doing this weekend? Friday, 15:00
      ~music - What have you been listening to this week? Friday, 16:00

      These were all pre-existing topics that had been getting posted consistently. The timings are a bit arbitrary, but somewhere around 16:00 is usually the time the site starts getting more active each day, and I went with every 2 weeks for ~creative and ~books since I think people don't change through those as quickly.

      There are a few other topics I think would be good too, let me know what you think or if this is starting to be too many:

      One other question I wanted to ask, since I'm doing some work related to it: Is there any reason for people to still be able to post new top-level comments in old recurring threads? I'll definitely still allow posting replies to existing comments so conversations can continue, but I can't really think of a reason why anyone would need to post a new top-level comment in any thread except the newest, and may just disallow that to keep people from inadvertently posting in the old ones.

      Group rearrangements

      I deleted the three ~science subgroups (~science.formal, ~science.natural, ~science.social) and moved all the topics back into ~science. These were confusing (I had to keep checking which branch certain subjects were in), and the activity level across the science groups really isn't high enough to need 4 groups.

      I also deleted ~hobbies.automotive and moved the (very few) topics from it back into ~hobbies with an automotive tag. The group was getting less than one topic posted a week, and doesn't seem necessary yet.

      One other change I want to make but haven't yet, because I want input first: I think I'd like to move ~creative into a sub-group of ~arts. What do you think of calling it ~arts.original? Any other possible names that would work better as "content created by the poster?"

      Content types

      Finally, I've also just deployed a change that starts showing a "content type" on each topic. Currently it doesn't do anything other than get displayed in the listings, but the plan is to be able to use this for searching, filtering, and similar purposes. This will be able to cover the common requests like "I'd like a way to see only videos", and will also make some other things easier to customize (for example, there's no need to show word count on Ask topics).

      Here's the list of content types that are shown right now, but I'm fairly sure that I'm forgetting about some others:

      1. Article
      2. Ask topic
      3. Image
      4. PDF
      5. Text topic
      6. Tweet
      7. Video

      Update on Oct 11: if a type for a link topic isn't detected, it will display "Link"

      What other types of content get posted to Tildes that aren't covered in there?

      33 votes
    11. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" - Now with new and improved(?) lyrics

      We had a discussion here last year about "Baby, It's Cold Outside", and whether the lyrics to this song encourage rape. This came after a radio station pulled the song from its playlist after...

      We had a discussion here last year about "Baby, It's Cold Outside", and whether the lyrics to this song encourage rape. This came after a radio station pulled the song from its playlist after people complained it was too "rapey".

      Well, John Legend has re-written this song "to remove the 'date-rape' lyrics". Here is the song and here are Legend's new lyrics.

      What do you think? Did the song need to be re-written? Is this an improvement? Is this the "Christmas" song we need for a post-#metoo era?


      Two asides:

      This isn't really a "Christmas" song.

      This isn't a Christmas song. The lyrics never mention Jesus or Christmas or Santa or Yuletide or the festive season. They don't even refer to Winter! There's just one lyric saying "it's cold outside" - and, as I mentioned in my analysis of the song last year, it's not even snowing in the movie scene where this song was first used.

      This is ironic timing, considering Australia's weather.

      Here in Australia, half the country is on fire and we're breaking all-time heat records - and here I am, writing about a song which says it's cold outside.

      16 votes
    12. Day 21: Springdroid Adventure

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/21 Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c. Please post your...

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2019/day/21


      Join the Tildes private leaderboard! You can do that on this page, by entering join code 730956-de85ce0c.

      Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):

      <details>
      <summary>Part 1</summary>
      
      ```python
      Your code here.
      ```
      
      </details>
      
      5 votes