Merry Christmas, Hacker News! Hope you’re staying cozy and enjoying time with loved ones.
Merry Christmas Everyone
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Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#112three days before xmas in 2022, my partner of 6 years threatened to kill me because i was scared to travel through an ice storm to her mom's house. while she was downstairs getting her pocket knife, i texted her best friend for help and got her to call her and she talked her down. the ice storm prevented any travel for 2 days; we still made it to her moms for xmas, but i was gone mentally for the next year and a half…
That's horrible, sorry you had to go through that. I can’t even imagine the mental toll, Java 8 really?
my specialty's always been refactoring legacy codebases; java 8 is gonna be the new FORTRAN lol
Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#113Some of my favorite memories are the times I got video game systems. Most notibly the Sega Genesis and z scale trains I got in '94/'95/'96 (not sure the exact year, I was very young) and GameBoy Color in '99. I got a Xbox in '01, Xbox 360 in '05; but they didn't quite have the same "magic" that they had when I was young. Also as a young kid, watching the Rankin Bass stop motion movies on the days leading up to Christ…
Gameboy Color in 99, too. Pokemon Gold all the way through the Y2K New Years was nice.
Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow what a great set of movies too
1999 is considered by many enthusiasts as a peak movie year. It was a great cap to a great year. https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&releas...
huh, american beauty was 99. i always remember the "plastic bag caught in the wind" scene - when i was in middle school, years before i saw the movie, i was sitting on the sidelines during football practice and saw a plastic bag caught in the wind. it was hypnotizing, enrapturing - i dont know how long i watched, but that floating bag caught against the side of the school building was one of the most beautiful things ive ever seen.
Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#115Christmas 1992 was in basic military training and for most people was a nice dinner and a break from the yelling. Our flight 083 was the unlucky ones picked for kitchen and cleaning duty... Cleaning old food out of a floor drain by hand on Christmas night was gross and humbling but has made the Christmases since all the more pleasant.
Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#116My favorite memory as a kid was waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a large object covered in the living room, and thinking it was elves and I had to tip toe back to bed because my parents said they'd run off if they saw me. It was a Go-Kart, wrapped in a bed sheet. Great gift.
My favorite memory as an adult was filling the kid's stocking with nothing but bananas one year. She was 6. At first she was pretend excited because she likes bananas, but by the end she was digging, pulling them out one by one and saying 'aw man another banana' each time. She then asked us why Santa brought her so many bananas, and I had to pretend not to know through my tears of laughter.
She gets great gifts, just having a bit of fun. We put a banana on top of her stocking each year since, but she's old enough now to roll her eyes and sigh.
Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#117Yesterday at the Christmas Vespers in Germany. A full church. The Christmas story is being told—about Jesus, about the Romans, about the darkness in the stable, and how the Christ child is born in Bethlehem. But no word about an ongoing Genocide in Palestine (the Pope says it‘s a genocide, all human rights orgs say it’s genocide). About Israel bombing Palestinians into pieces. Sick world.
Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#118Merry Christmas! Just remembering playing with our new Commodore 64, Christmas Day 1982. Good memories.
Re: Merry Christmas Everyone
#119Merry Christmas! Mutlu Noeller! Frohe Weihnachten!
I was born in Istanbul, a sprawling, chaotic city that's a fascinating blend of thousands of cultures. Christmas was always a thing there, even under an Islamist regime. As a non-believer, I never cared much for religious holidays, but I did enjoy the cozy decorations and sipping Glühwein (mulled wine). Beyond that, it didn't mean much to me.
Now I live in Germany. My first Christmas here, back in 2009, was quite different. I was alone in a rented room provided by my employer, watching TV shows I couldn't understand on a tiny screen, just trying to pass the time. My laptop wasn't working (the charging cable was broken), and I was bored out of my mind.
Around 6 PM, there was a knock on the door. It was my employer, heading to a hippie-style gathering in the forest to celebrate Christmas. He figured I might be alone and decided to come in person since I hadn't answered my phone.
Of course, I said yes, and it turned out to be one of the most heartwarming experiences of my life. The group was incredibly kind, and even though I was the only foreigner, they went out of their way to make me feel included (switching to English when talking to each other, for example). The setting was magical: small fires inside carved logs, nature-themed decorations, and delicious food I'd never tasted before. I was so happy.
That day, my love for Germany grew a hundredfold.