I was talking to the other guitarist in one of my bands about the hedonic treadmill the other day. And he said to me that despite owning his swanky Range Rover for over 4 years, every time he gets in it he feels like a kid and is excited by it.

I think continued delight in the things that we already have is a really important attitude to take in life, and so I wondered what things my fellow Tilderen (yes, I'm refusing to budge on the nomenclature until I see at least one other person use it) have which they still feel the magic of owning, even after a long time.

Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2024/day/13

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>

Well, I guess that's an internet meltdown avoided by the DLC not winning this year. But it's interesting a 3D platformer just beat a Soulslike action game and two big JRPGs. I think Astro Bot definitely deserves it, it's such a fun and charming game! Of course, this is all just a marketing thing and doesn't really matter.

We are halfway to Christmas, so I want to hear about peoples movie related Christmas traditions and favorites. I know many people have a certain movie or movies they have to watch every Christmas, or maybe just a favorite Christmas themed movie that means something special. Perhaps something completely non-Christmasy but just something you happen to enjoy rewatching every December.

Do you like the classics such as It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street?

Do you laugh at the burglars in Home Alone every Christmas?

Action movies with a Christmas element like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard?

Or perhaps completely new favorites like The Holdovers?

Perhaps just whatever is being rerun for the 100th time on tv? Which apparently is Love Actually here...

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

This is one of those mysteries that I haven't been able to solve. For context, I was hiking Pima Canyon back in 2017 or 2018. I was with another hiker. After about a mile or so, the other person said they needed to take a break, so I decided I would get a quick trail run in. I started jogging further along the path, dodging boulders and cacti.

After about another mile (so I'd guess two miles into the hike from the trailhead), I heard a sound. It was one of those situations where your brain doesn't know how to interpret what it is sensing, so it fills something in as a placeholder. In this instant, I thought it was the sound of someone starting a lawnmower. It was a brief sound -- maybe 1 second in duration. It also sounded close to me.

As soon as I came to the realization that nobody was mowing their lawn out here, I felt very threatened. I bent down and grabbed the largest rock I could find, and turned around and started walking back down the trail. After a few minutes, I picked up the pace and sped back to the other hiker.

To this day, I have no idea what that sound was.

Maybe you ended up on an email chain you weren’t supposed to. Maybe you stumbled across a gift from your partner in its hiding place. Maybe you heard a friend talking about you without them realizing you were there?

This can be about something serious, funny, sad, lighthearted, etc. Anything goes.

Tell us the story: What did you see/hear? How did it impact you/others? How did you feel about it?

Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2024/day/12

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>

Title is pretty straightforward I think.

Trying to get my Podcast listening off of Spotify because I just hate their player and UX lately. Also, no ability to add feeds by RSS link.

My daily drivers I spend most of my time on are my iPhone and Macbook Pro. After that, maybe I would listen on my iPad, or my PC that is running both Linux and Windows.

Edit: I have sent my link to three different people and I am out. Assuming they sign up. However, a lot of people also have invite links that commented. I guess a system would be for the invite-giver to reply to the comment of the invite-receiver to keep track?

—-

I received a link during Thanksgiving that lets me invite several people to a free trial of Kagi.

I tried convincing friends to try it out but most of them were not even interested in a free trial to a paid search engine.

If any of you are interested, please let me know.

I'll give you my link in private and you can register yourself to the free trial.

Posting just in case people are on the same boat as me.

--

Also, I hope it's appropriate to start a topic on this?
Let me know if this is frowned upon.