@Cerberus When's the last time somebody thought you were odd not to fill your text messages with cliquey initialisms?

Hi.

Evenin.

@tchrist What is new in your neck of the world?

I'm reading through Matt's answer to Mitch's question.

@KitZ.Fox Worrying about Christmas.

@tchrist Why so?

"Child" care, mostly.

My kitties.

Oh. You'll be traveling?

They are so loving and affectionate with me, staying with me all the time. And they are outdoor cats who roam. And I will have to lock them up alone for a week while I visit family. Then come back for a week only to again leave again for another week for work.

This freaks them out and depresses them.

That is difficult. Can they be boarded somewhere?

Last time it took three days to get one of them to come back.

At least then they would have company.

I'm thinking of that, yes.

The place I would use lets them out to interact with other cats.

I collected one of their collars from a home a mile away when I was gone last time and he escaped.

With no shortage of coyotes and mountain lions between there and here. Just terrifies me.

I have a form of, well something like PTSD, about terrible terrible things happening to anyone or anything I love. It isn't completely rational, nor under control.

And so I am worrying about Christmas.

But at least at home they would be at home, which they know.

They'd be locked in as well as I can. Which has never been enough, but I will try harder this time.

@tchrist Well, your grief is still relatively fresh as far as that goes.

There's no way to take them with you?

No.

Maybe Shog would drive up.

If I lived anywhere near you, I would house/cat sit for you.

My cousin and nieces went back for Thanksgiving, so maybe he can bring the girls over to play with them.

They're staying for Christmas, as I stayed for Thanksgiving.

Shog lives on the wrong side of Denver from me. The city sucks.

I do have friends who can feed them, even visit them.

@snailboat As do I. People think I'm weird that I type real sentences.

Well, that would help you feel more comfortable, right?

Yes.

The problem is that I haven't asked anyone yet.

And it dawned on me that I would only be back a week. Kind of angered me.

@MετάEd The Little Prince bored me. Where did that fox come from? Did the flower die? What do they all eat for breakfast? Interestingly a lot like The Two Towers in all those ways.

@Mitch A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed. ‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.”

anything better for returning users?

I propose that the ignore feature be mandatory. That way we can have conversations where no one gets hurt by anything

The mandative ignore mood if you will

"I demand to be ignored! It is my right as a scholar and gentleman! It is my ... Hey, where is everybody?"

Hello to all, can any body please tell me which out of the following phrases is most appropriate to use: 1) I tried prove a similar lemma. 2) I tried to prove a similar lemma. 3) I tried proving a similar lemma.

@Romy Not 1. Either of the other two are OK.

This is all my own damned fault:

I give up. I can't think without coffee. Venturing out into the winter to the nearest pâtisserie avec café, which is only a few blocks away.

Wow, caffeine, the drug everybody uses.

> /dev/programmer — a device for converting caffeine into code

@Romy #1 is totally wrong. #2 and #3 are both the right way, your choice.

@tchrist the weather gods aren't malicious, they're just very uncoordinated.like ten of you best friends scheduling their birthday parties in the same day. Wait...that's pretty malicious.

Back in September I had two friends schedule their weddings at the same time but not the same place.

so you lost at least a friend :p (nah jk)

:( the chatbot no'ers, but I see their point, if misused it's pollution

@terdon Thank you :)

@Mitch Thanks :)

You're welcome.

Caffeine is a nutrient, like sugar, fat, and alcohol. The perfect food is an Irish coffee. It has all four food groups.

do you have any emotion hearing that (even if it's French)?

Hi @JasperLoy.

And Winter Bash!

@JasperLoy Why? So your hopes can go dashing through the snow?

Hey, you made it back from coffee.

Better, I bought a bag.

Of it.

And cooked it up.

@JasperLoy Voyeur.

Unhealthy.

Dude! No spoilers!

Did that make you feel good to watch?

"Dies at the end" is a spoiler.

I just gambled on a bunch of electronics stuff.

I'm not sure if it was a good idea to buy these items. I'm trying to encourage the boys to take an interest in electronics and programming.

So originally I was going to get my eldest a soldering rig, but I don't know how to solder and he might be interested, and I'd like to learn so that would be complicated.

So I decided to get some premade wearable things that could be sewn onto their clothes or backpacks or something.

I have no idea if this is a good plan or not. I think I would really enjoy electronics projects, but I don't know where to start.

@KitZ.Fox Taking an interest in your children's education is always a good thing, but don't they already know if they are interested in programming? And to program you just need a computer, good displays, and a good chair.

There are so many cool things.

They are interested in programming, but they haven't done any electronics programming, only some Minecraft code.

Which is Java.

@JasperLoy Well, from being around computers. They're everywhere. Hard to get away from the things.

Which is painful to teach them.

I'm not sure what electronics programming is.

Is that like building motherboards? Circuit design?

Things like PLC - programmable logic circuits? - and Arduino/Raspberry Pi type stuff, as I understand it.

I know I should just get some things and start messing around to figure out what it's possible to do with the tech, but then there is so much to choose from. It's overwhelming.

@KitZ.Fox Oh. Can you use that to build circuit boards, then?

@JasperLoy It can be. Lots of it isn't. Like everything else.

Yes, or to program circuits.

I've asked a couple of people. Mostly it's "look, here is some awesome stuff!" and I'm like "I know! It's so awesome! How do I pick just one?"

@KitZ.Fox Do your kids know Python? That's a good all-purpose basic language.

I know it, they don't. Minecraft is tangible. Python projects are not.

Tangible Python projects are possible.