The Overlook Hotel

Kit Z. Fox

1:27 AM

Well, I was trying to be all clever, but this script is taking far too long to execute.

I shall have to rethink it.

It's probably faster to put all the responses in a string variable and then write it out to the file all at once.

What do you think, @Mr.Shiny?

user116848

I haven't done my writing exercises for like two weeks now.

user116848

I think I'll write them all together. Or maybe just the latest.

Kit Z. Fox

I do that.

user116848

So my mind doesn't always work when I come here to write a short story. But then after a while when I'm listening to a song or doing something relaxing my mind jogs and I feel like writing. So sometimes I write while listening to a song. Yeah it sounds dumb but still you know...

Monica Cellio

I've been doing a terrible job of tracking the weekly exercises. At one time there was an effort to collect links each week on meta. Was that too much work, or did people just lose track of it, or what?

Kit Z. Fox

1:41 AM

I don't think it sounds dumb.

@MonicaCellio Too much work, I think.

user116848

Hi @MonicaCellio.

Monica Cellio

@KitZ.Fox ok, understood.

Kit Z. Fox

What's dumb is how long it is taking me to catch these errors.

Monica Cellio

@Arrowfar hi. How're things?

user116848

@MonicaCellio Things are good, thanks. How are you?

Kit Z. Fox

1:44 AM

OK, started this one at 9:43.

Monica Cellio

@Arrowfar doing well. Mi Yodeya just published a book for the upcoming high holy days, actually on paper this time, and I got my box of 'em tonight. Cool stuff! (We're distributing them in willing synagogues.)

So haven't been doing much (non-work) writing, but editing and publishing, on the other hand...

user116848

I see. We have upcoming holy days too here (where I live). The month of dul hajj.

user116848

The end of Islamic year and Eid ul Aza.

Kit Z. Fox

How is that observed? Feasting/fasting?

user116848

Hm I write "Aza" because I pronounce it like that but Google says "Adha" which is proper I guess.

Monica Cellio

1:51 AM

Oh, so our year-ends are in sync this year? I had not realized that. (Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the year 5776 for us, is on the new moon in mid-September.)

I know that yours is a strictly lunar calendar while ours is a solar-adjusted lunar calendar.

So while months line up, years usually don't. But every now and then...

user116848

@KitZ.Fox Here: "It honors the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his promised son, Ishmael (Ismail)a, as an act of submission to God's command"

user116848

Eid al-Adha

Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى‎ ʿīd al-aḍḥā [ʕiːd ælˈʔɑdˤħæ] meaning "Festival of the sacrifice"), also called the Feast of the Sacrifice (Turkish: Kurban Bayramı; Bosnian: Kurban Bajram; Persian: عید قربان‎, Eid-e qorban), the "Major Festival", the "Greater Eid", Baqr'Eid (Urdu: بقر عید‎), or Tabaski (West Africa), is the second of two religious holidays celebrated by Muslims worldwide each year. It honors the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his promised son, Ishmael (Ismail)a, as an act of submission to God's command, before God then intervened, through His angel Jibra'il and informs...

user116848

@MonicaCellio Interesting. Wow, we have many cultures here. Nice :)

Kit Z. Fox

@Arrowfar OK, but what do you do? Get a day off and eat with your family?

Those are my favorite kinds of holidays.

user116848

@KitZ.Fox Yes exactly, like a day off and eating etc. It is fun.

Monica Cellio

1:55 AM

@Arrowfar this is coming up in about a month?

user116848

@MonicaCellio Yeah in about a month.

Monica Cellio

@Arrowfar my guess would be September 23, which for us is 10 Tishrei, Yom Kippur.

Just checked Google. Guessed right. :-)

Well, approximately right; Yom Kippur starts on the evening of the 22nd through the 23rd; Eid starts evening of the 23rd through the 24th. The latter according to Google.

Kit Z. Fox

Speaking of Yom Kippur, can atonements be done in advance?

Like, if I'm not going to see my friend that week?

Monica Cellio

Atonement is that final step with God. You can and should be making things right with the people you may have wronged before then. During the whole month of Elul (which we're in the middle of now) and through the beginning of Tishrei, in fact.

user116848

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur (/jɔːm ˈkɪpər, joʊm, jɒm/; Hebrew: יוֹם כִּפּוּר, IPA: [ˈjom kiˈpuʁ], or יום הכיפורים), also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jewish people traditionally observe this holy day with an approximate 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services. == EtymologyEdit == Yom means "day" in Hebrew and Kippur comes from a root that means "to atone". Yom Kippur is usually expressed in English as "day of atonement". == Rosh Hashanah and Yo...

Kit Z. Fox

2:02 AM

Oh I see.

Starting again at 10:04.

Monica Cellio

Yeah. Teshuva (literally "return") precedes atonement, and before you can ask God to forgive you for the wrongs you've done to other people, you need to ask them to forgive you and make amends where needed.

That takes time; you can't cram it all into one day. :-)

Kit Z. Fox

Well, I have just two friends who are Jewish and who I'm close enough with to want to ask.

Maybe I could cram it into one day.

But they will probably be busy.

Monica Cellio

Ok, maybe you could in that case. OTOH, they'll have people to ask too, so why wait?

Kit Z. Fox

Good point.

So what kinds of things can I do to make amends?

Or is that something that I would know if I needed to do it, like replacing a china teacup?

This script is way faster. I'm delighted right now.

user116848

In "users who are online" in chat list sometimes we see people chatting but it doesn't say which room, what does that mean?

Monica Cellio

2:14 AM

@KitZ.Fox the conversation is probably the most important part; admitting the wrong you did and asking forgiveness is key. If you caused damage that can be repaired, yeah you should repair that -- replace the property you broke or whatever. Not all wrongs have financial impact, of course.

Kit Z. Fox

I guess sincere apologies can go a long way.

@Arrowfar I don't know what you mean.

user116848

@KitZ.Fox I mean here:chat.stackexchange.com/users sometimes we see users posting comments but it doesn't say which room they are in.

user116848

I thought I'd ask.

Kit Z. Fox

Could be a private room, maybe?

user116848

ah I see.

Monica Cellio

2:17 AM

@KitZ.Fox right. And if the person is a friend, presumably you both want to set things right between you. So you each do your best, asking and granting forgiveness.

Kit Z. Fox

@MonicaCellio So have I wronged you this year?

Monica Cellio

@KitZ.Fox I am not aware of you having wronged me, no. Have I wronged you?

Kit Z. Fox

@MonicaCellio I can think of no hard feelings I have toward you. I guess we're all good then.

checks @Monica off list

That was a good start.

Monica Cellio

@KitZ.Fox ok, I'm glad to hear it! Should I ever cause you hurt, I hope you will find some way to let me know just in case I am being too dim to realize. It is not my intention to cause hurt, after all.

@KitZ.Fox checks @KitZ.Fox off list

user116848

And me guys? Have I wronged you in any way? @KitZ.Fox @MonicaCellio

Kit Z. Fox

2:22 AM

@MonicaCellio Likewise.

@Arrowfar Hmm, no. I can't think of anything.

Monica Cellio

@Arrowfar I am not aware of any wrongs between us. Have I done anything to wrong you?

user116848

@MonicaCellio No, not at all.

user116848

@KitZ.Fox Good, thanks.

Kit Z. Fox

@Arrowfar Have I wronged you?

user116848

@KitZ.Fox No, not at all.

Kit Z. Fox

2:25 AM

Woo! Clearing the list early.

Monica Cellio

THis is all very refreshing!

I have other people I know I need to talk with.

Kit Z. Fox

I'm off to bed. Good night!

user116848

Good night!

Monica Cellio

I'm heading out now too. Good night!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:08 PM

@KitZ.Fox It depends.

Kit Z. Fox

2:28 PM

Hey.

I cut it down to 12 minutes, then realized I might just as well have used a crawler and it probably would not take so long.

shrugs

I learned stuff though.

Kit Z. Fox

4:18 PM

omg I am so bored.

No one to chat with.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:04 PM

@KitZ.Fox sorry I had to pop out for a meeting

Kit Z. Fox

Hiya!

np, I just got really bored and frustrated for some reason.

I'm still getting over this cold and I feel like no one wants to talk to me.

was it a fun meeting?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

not really

there's too much work to do and too few people to do it

and now the boss is paranoid because ashely madison was hacked and he's worried we could be next.

Kit Z. Fox

because he's got an account there?

or because it's a dating site where people pay for sex with not-their-spouses?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

because we run a dating website

Kit Z. Fox

for people who are cheating on their spouses?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:12 PM

it goes without saying that some of our customers are cheating on spouses

Kit Z. Fox

but not explicitly for that purpose, right?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitZ.Fox not strictly for that, and in fact we discourage it, but still

our policy is to kick married people off

however, they will usually just lie

Kit Z. Fox

Well, it's going to be hard for someone to make a case that your company sucks then.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Also I think we should change the policy

@KitZ.Fox sure, but he just sees a competitor get hacked

and what I see is how criminals are using the leaked data to attack the site's customers

Kit Z. Fox

Well, hacked isn't really the word for it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:14 PM

what would you call it?

Kit Z. Fox

That was a tricky bit of social engineering, and something you can't code against.

More like a betrayal of confidence.

Guess they shouldn't have pissed that person off.

It's my belief that it was someone whose spouse was using the service to screw around. Vengence!

This is based on my understanding that it was an employee or contractor who copied the data directly from the server, from inside the firewall/DMZ.

In my opinion, that's not hacking.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah if it's someone with legit access who stole something, it's not hacking.

In any case there should still be safeguards against employee nonsense like that

Kit Z. Fox

yes.

hmm, my day just got more interesting.

I might have just picked up a co-worker.

I suddenly feel a lot perkier.

Except she wants to talk about the project, most likely how cruddy it is.

I can't get my stupid script to work.

punches script

I should have just dumped it into Excel and then copy-pasted one by one at this rate.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:49 PM

heh there's an xkcd about that

'Automating' comes from the roots 'auto-' meaning 'self-', and 'mating', meaning 'screwing'.

Kit Z. Fox

ha! I got it this time!

I used this script a bunch prior to moving up to tfs 2013.

It really did save me time, but I hadn't been able to move the code.

...but wtf is all this markup?

god I hate microsoft some days.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I find that when someone's taking time to do something right in the present, they're a perfectionist with no ability to prioritize, whereas when someone took time to do something right in the past, they're a master artisan of great foresight.

Kit Z. Fox

She's got green hair.

And fabulous glasses.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

cute

Kit Z. Fox

She agreed to coffee very quickly.

I have no idea what she looks like in real life.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:54 PM

oh?

Kit Z. Fox

She sent me an email with some feedback, which I replied to politely, then she sent me an IM and asked if it was too pushy of her to chat about it on IM.

Well, I guess I'll find out if she's into me tomorrow.

She probably just legitimately wants to give me exciting input about how to redesign the web pages!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

sexy!

Kit Z. Fox

um. I guess we have different tastes there.

I've been having good luck with women of alternative hair color recently though.

And she's approximately the same age as the last woman I ... hmm. Maybe that's how she got my name.

Interesting.

Now I need to see who she is friends with on FB.

Damn, she's all locked down.

Stupid html formatting is messing up my stuff!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:15 PM

html formatting: messing up the world since 1994

Kit Z. Fox

haha

So what's new with you these days? Did we cover kindergarten?

I feel like we did back in June.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I forget

kindergarten starts at age 4 here, so my son is going back for Sr. kindergarten in sept

Kit Z. Fox

Is your littlest starting K this year?

I see.

That sounds familiar. We have pre-K and K, you do jr K and sr K.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

ah

yeah I think we've discussed it

Kit Z. Fox

We sent our boys to a private preschool though. And tried not to be embarrassed about it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:27 PM

jr K is the same as Sr K, really... it's a mixed class, so much of the things they do is unchanged.

Is kindergarten all day where you are? it used to be half the day here, but now it's full day

Kit Z. Fox

The public pre-K program started between my two boys, so we figured we'd continue preschool for continuity sake.

It is, although not everywhere.

My friend's son will only go half days.

I only went half days when I was in K.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah I think I did half-days too

I don't really remember much from back then

we moved around a few times

my school-age memories mostly start in 1984 when we moved for what would be the last time for a few years

Kit Z. Fox

I was at the elementary school for all but one of K-5. I think it was 1st grade that I went to another school.

I think they split the elementary into K-1 and 2-5.

Now it's 4 and 5 only, I think.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hm. my school was jk-3 and 4-8, but I was only there for half of 1, 2, 3, then 4, 5, 6, then we moved again.

Kit Z. Fox

I lived in the same house my whole childhood, so I only changed schools when everyone else did.

Oh sweet. This woman I'm working with totally came through for me. I love it when people do what they say they will do within the timeframe they said they would do it.

holy crap it's 4:30.

I asked about K because tonight is kindergarten orientation night.

And this year they are doing an open house for all grades.

So the kids can see their new classrooms, I think.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:42 PM

cool!

well, have fun and good luck with green-hair.

Kit Z. Fox

yeah, I'll tell you all about it tomorrow sometime.

right now, I'm going to go get ready for school stuff. Whee!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm going to head out to pick up my son at day care. cya

bilbo_pingouin

9:00 PM

Hi all. I found an on-line app hemingwayapp.com which offer to improve our writing. I know Wordpress has one, but they try to simplify your writing to make it more popular. But should the rules of that app be followed? Adverb avoided, etc.

or is it just another case of trying to be too popular?

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