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2016 Winter Holiday Event!

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Holiday Contest Main
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    • Squishy

    Squishy

    Merciful Director
    Director
    Yes, it's that time again!

    This year, we're doing a Holiday Advent Treasure Hunt!

    The rules are simple. You and up to three other SVers team up and hunt down an answer to each clue. The questions, trust me, are pretty straightforward and shouldn't take you too long: we want this to be fun, not hugely strenuous!

    This is the 12 days of Christmas, so we'll unveil one each day leading up to Christmas Eve (we'll give you Christmas day off, ya slackers). You'll have until January 1, 2017 to post your answers.

    Every individual who completes the treasure hunt (whether in a team or otherwise) will receive a ribbon, and on top of that, we'll donate $2.50 to Doctor's Without Borders (up to an aggregate total of $1,000).

    Have some fun, win some prizes, get to know your fellow SVers better...what could be better during the holiday season?

    If you would like to 'register' a team, please go to this thread and make a post in the format of the example. Your team can be just you, or it can be up to four SVers. There is no advantage to playing individually, though, and you'll be at a disadvantage of not being able to spread out the effort.

    And for those of you just joining us, the full list of all twelve items you have to find:

    1. A Friend.     Introduce someone (or many someones) to SV! New SVers don't count against your team cap.

    2. A Video Game Plushie. Have someone on your team take a picture of a video game plushie that they either own, or have encountered in the real world.

    3. An exciting pen. Everyone knows LordSquishy loves pens, right? Show me a picture of the most exciting pen owned by a member of your team. Bonus points if it can do something really cool, like LordSquishy's pen that has a bubble level and a screwdriver hidden in it.

    4. Another fun place to be. So we know you come here, and you probably visit SB or QQ, but I bet you probably visit another forum too, you forum-polyamorous people. Link me to it!

    5. A thread that died too soon. We've all run across that one great OP which got no good replies. Find me a thread from SV's past (>30 days) that got too little love (>5 replies) and deserved more.

    6. A Landmark. What's exciting about your city? Have someone on your team take a photo of something cool in the city or town where they live.

    7. Your battlestation. Do you browse SV on a phone? A computer? Via a Terminator's belly button? Show us the battlestation of someone on your team!

    8. A pet. Does someone on your team have a pet? Who? What? Where? Why? Show 'em off for us!

    9. A memorial. We've all had someone in our lives who inspired us, someone who died too soon. Tell me a little bit (<500 words) about one of those people and why they were important to you.

    10. Interesting as fuck.     I don't know what it is yet, but anything. Manage to beat @Exposure in Titanfall? Screenshot! Fall off your skateboard and have your cat finish your trick? I'd love to see it. Show me and tell me something interesting that happened to one of the people on your team recently.

    11. A Good Work. Let's face it, most of the news on SV is bad. Show me something good. Find me a current news article from your town, city, country, state, whatever, that put a smile on your face and share it with everyone!

    12. A new idea. Have your new, baby SVer friend (from 1) tell us what they'd like to see on SV in the new year!
     
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    • Good news :(in french)

    Basically, some guy threw flour on one of our shitty politicians. (which used the 49.3 rule to pass laws that were voted and refused. 49.3 is basically 'oh you say no ? Too bad, I don't give a fuck'. Yay, democracy)
    So seeing this fucker get floured got me all warm and fuzzy inside.
     
    LordSquishy said:
    So after those very touching statements... why don't we make things a little bit lighter?

    10. A Good Work. Let's face it, most of the news on SV is bad. Show me something good. Find me a current news article from your town, city, country, state, whatever, that put a smile on your face and share it with everyone!
    Click to expand...
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    FOTO Godinu dana jede samo krumpir, ljudi ne mogu vjerovati što mu se dogodilo - black - Index.hr

    You only said the news article had to be from around here. :p

    I've got nothing for awesome. :(
     
    @Where'sMySword: 2 things we can add, (7) and (10).

    7. Battlestation:


    10. Hmm. How 'bout some utterly trivial "good" news?

    - I was inordinately entertained by a blog post from Wednesday: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
    - HN discussion thread, which has a few more observations and over-engineered suggestions: HN thread
    - "The problem, as in most difficult hacking operations, is that the attacker has physical access."
     
    Today i can report about something interesting and absolutely amazing, we had our quarterly accounting stuff at work and everything worked perfectly.
    This hasn't happened once during the 2 1/2 years im working here now. It usually involves phoning support hotlines, sitting in waiting ques for an hour only to get told they are going to call back followed by remote support people who are clearly overworked and are completely done with this shit.
    Im mostly happy i just have to make sure the stuff on our end works and that i have nothing to do with the shitty software we have to use except call the hotline and start a remote session.
     
    Vyslanté said:
    So, the most unusual pen that I have is this one :
    It writes in invisible ink. In the cap there is a small black-light LED that, when you press the button shown in the picture, lights and thus let you read what you wrote.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I had one of these. Pretty sure I gave it to a pretty girl at a bush doof

    My favourite novelty pen is shaped like a head of corn. The barrel is green, with a moulded leafy shape at the top., The clicker is a knobbly shaped corn in yellow. When you released it, the opening action as the corn rose up could shoot an eraser across your desk. It is.... somewhere in my home office/hobby room.
     
    LordSquishy said:
    10. A Good Work. Let's face it, most of the news on SV is bad. Show me something good. Find me a current news article from your town, city, country, state, whatever, that put a smile on your face and share it with everyone!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This message from a Muslim living in infamous Molenbeek was pretty touching.

    He speaks French in the video, but I will at least provide a translation for the article.

    Article:
    Man who lost his wife in the attacks of the 22nd of March calls for "a jihad of love"

    Mohammed El Bachiri lost his wife Loubna in the attacks of the 22nd of March. On 'De Afspraak', he shared his heartbreaking story and called for "a jihad of love".

    The attacks on Brussels touched the lives of hundreds, and shook that of Mohammed El Bachiri, "Moroccan Belgian, resident of Molenbeek and Muslim", to the core. He lost his wife Loubna in the Maalbeek metro station and has had to raise his three children alone ever since.

    Despite all of this he harbors no hate, and called for a "jihad of love" in a TEDx-conference. This statement and the motivation behind it moved the crowd to tears. Tonight, he repeated his words on 'De Afspraak'.

    "I know I am not the only one to suffer. The world knows so much pain. I wanted to bring a message of love, humanity and unity," says El Bachiri on 'De Afspraak'. "I have expressed what Loubna expressed. It reflects what most Muslims think. They just want to show and receive love. And dream and thrive. Something inherent to all people."
     
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    Thinking about it for a bit, I have far too many stories of people I know ending tragically.

    But one story sticks in my mind, after all these years. I won't reveal her name. The family deserves peace.

    Let's just call her Olly.

    When I began my first time at university, I arrived in a strange city I didn't know, where people spoke a dialect I didn't share and that marked me as an outsider, and where I knew no one.

    In my first class, I spoke up and asked the lecturer a few questions, feeling out of place like I had rarely done before.

    After class, feeling all alone and far more depressed than I had any right to be about starting a new part of my life, I prepared to go home.

    And then out of nowhere Olly turned up, tall, pretty, and all smiles, introduced herself speaking my dialect flawlessly, and asked me whether I wanted to study together.

    Baffled and off-gusrd, I asked why. She said, "I heard you speak up. You have a clear voice, and you ask the right questions. You seem like a smart guy."

    So I agreed, and went home feeling a lot better about my decision to leave home.

    Olly helped me with that. She was my first friend, and we met irregularly over the next few years to revise, drink coffee, and gab about lecturers, life, and other things. She smiled a lot, was smart as a whip, and seemed as if she would take the world by storm.

    One day, Olly disappeared without a trace. The family started a search on social media, there was an appeal in the newspapers for clues, the police started a manhunt.

    Olly returned to her old family home in the countryside, went into an old shed on the grounds, and there hanged herself.

    She did it not two months after we met up for coffee and she told me to my face that "I am doing okay, Fernandel."

    I don't believe people anymore when they tell me that they're "doing okay", always asking again just in case or making conversation to tease out clues that they're not doing okay, and neither do I lie through my teeth to make people feel better whenever they ask me how I'm doing. I have a shit day or feel the pressure? I tell people, even if it bothers them that I'm being honest.

    Olly changed my life for the better, and I regret to this day that I could do nothing to help her. No matter how pointless it is to bludgeon myself over it or how little fault of mine it probably is.

    Goodnight, Olly. Fly with the angels.

    @Username Redacted, @all fictions, @Hykal94 , here's my contribution.
     
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