#there's a small gap and some setup between kill code 2 and 3 so i guess this would take place then?

[enccrypted]

he's tempting fate, he knows it. But he can't help the airy chuckle that wheezes its way from his chest. His prospects of survival are better than ever, at the least. The simulacrum's raging need for rampart destruction — a desire that could not be satiated with a simple snap of a neck — won out in the end. ( New face. Same source code. Same battered, failing sanity as ever. ) In the sim's ire, Crypto had been dropped and left a crumpled, gasping heap on the floor; Revenant took his involuntary speechlessness as permission, in the meantime, to instead lay waste to his quarters.

If he were in a better, less-asphyxiated state of mind, he might have gathered enough wits to flinch away from the screeching of metal on metal, claws digging and ripping into walls. But all Crypto can do is curl up on the floor, heave for breath, and pray that the peal of laughter that threatens to empty his still-aching lungs is won over by the instinct to breathe and survive.

But he can't dampen the uncharacteristic glee rising in him — fight or flight be damned — as he drags himself up against the foot of a nearby couch to wait out his recovery:

He's tantruming. The self-proclaimed murder-bot that everyone, Legend and Syndicate, is tripping over themselves to try to get a hold of. The so-called reaper of the Apex arena... throwing a fit, right before Crypto's eyes.

Despite his best efforts, his brief lapse in judgement has drawn the attention of his intruder and would-be strangler. He shakes his still-heavy head, chasing away the last tempts of humour as yellow optics narrow in on him.

" 됐어요* — you wouldn't get it. "

Having at last regathered enough sense to take stock, he presses fingertips tenderly against his neck. Where bare skin shows, he can feel the aching that will surely bloom into dark bruising in the following days. The synthetic skin, however, was thick enough to shield the rest of his throat from that fate, and just pliable enough that it had given way beneath the crushing grip of metal joints.

Not bad. The implants guy knew his materials suppliers better than Crypto had given him credit for — well enough to have steered Crypto away from thicker, brittle metals that would have snapped beneath Revenant's chokehold and straight into his skin.

" Looks like that ' threaten first, think later ' model doesn't work so well when you need the guy you're threatening to be able to use his head. " He fixes his gradually-clearing gaze on the simulacrum. A crease furrows his brow, deepening the longer he looks and the more he sees.

" But I guess I don't need much oxygen in my brain to figure out something's — different with you.... 젠장**. "

' Different ' barely even begins to describe it.

*   됐어요;  dwaess-eoyo  — ‘ never mind, ’ in this context. **   젠장;  jenjang  — ‘ shit ’

"What are you smiling about?"

[megamikethomson]

SOHBA DIGITAL MARKETING COMPANY

HOME

Welcome to Sohba Digital Marketing Company of Pakistan

What’s the difference between this Digital Marketing/Social Media Company over any other?

For the following 3 simple things:-

1. It is the desire of the Company to get your Small Business as quickly as possible to the top of the Search Engines

(and here are the points of difference…)

2. Then turn as much of that human traffic as possible into New Leads

3. Then to actually convert those Leads into New Customers for you.

It’s that simple.

Most people do not track what traffic they are losing and why – Sohba Digital Marketing Company does, then we close those holes.

WE GUARANTEE RESULTS!

WHAT DO I NEED>> To Get Started?

Here’s how we see it – there is an ‘On-line Sales Funnel’ that looks much like the image below.  Most people who have a Website in Small Business are starting to realize that they don’t automatically get found on the Internet and need to take action to get more Customers on-line.  Some have started with Search Engine Marketing and some are dabbling in Social Media but not that effectively.  Our goal here is to do the following:-

Create an effective On-line Sales Funnel that works best for your Small Business We want to have you everywhere that your Customer looks, if your Customer has a preference for Facebook then you need to be there, if others have a preference for YouTube then you need to be there. And here’s our points of difference – we don’t just drive relevant traffic to your site BUT we also look at how to turn that Client into a lead and Into an actual converted Customer. Online Sales Funnel3 So here’s the FIRST STEP TO TAKE…

1) Get Advice…From Us…It’s Free!

Before you even get started – talk to Sohba Digital Marketing Agency to get some On-line Marketing Advice – it’s FREE – it costs you nothing to talk and see what your options are – just fill out the quick Contact Form below to get your obligation-free information.

2) Make a Plan

From there we make a plan. First we listen to you – what is working, what isn’t.  It’s then ascertained what marketing you are doing off-line and how it can be supported on-line.  We then go away and create a phenomenal marketing plan that covers One-Off Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Advertising, New Lead Generation and Client Conversion tactics that can be implemented over a gradual spread of time at a low monthly cost that won’t kill your business in the process!

3) Search Engine Optimization

This is where all companies start so they can be found organically in the Google Charts (if they haven’t already had this done). It falls into the Search Engine Optimization category where your site is optimized to ensure you are indexed correctly in the Search Engines/Directories.  There are a number of rules and regulations that Google/Yahoo, etc have that need to be implemented in order for your site to be found.  Gone are the days where you could just enter 25 Keywords into the back-end code and be done with it.  Now you need to keep everyone happy and it’s hard work a) getting you the top then b) keeping you there!  But this is where the beginning of the journey.

3.1) Keyword Search

This is where a search is run in Google Keywords so it can be ascertained as to what exact Keywords and Phrases are being typed into the Search Engines so we are not guessing what your Customers are typing in.  This is very useful to help you select a good Web Name to purchase (if you don’t already have one) and to determine what top Keywords and Phrases need to be implemented to your Website.  You will be provided with a report with the relevant recommendations.

3.2) One-Off Search Engine Optimisation Campaign

Once the Keyword Search has been conducted and your top 25 Keywords/Phrases have been selected they will be implemented correctly to your Website.  The following items would be covered:-

Your Web Name if relevant Any Metatags/Descriptions (Code in the back) Advice on Website Structure to help your site get indexed better Copy adjustment with correct placement of Keywords and Phrases on every page Enhancement of all Alt Tags and Photo Titles Sitemap creation if relevant/enhanced Creating a minimum of 8 Keyword Enriched Text Links for quality reciprocal link exchanges Google Analytics Code addition (if permissions supplied) Google Verification Code addition (if permissions supplied) Correct Submission to Google. This is a very good starting place for most businesses.  It stands you in good stead to be organically found in the Search Engines.  So many people make the mistake of thinking that just because they have a Website they will be found.  No so.  This process now does not need to be an expensive one with a huge outlay.

4) Social Media Setups

This section varies according to your business you run.  Once your business has been assessed recommendations are made for which Social Media Channels to tap in order to be most effective.  For example an Accommodation Provider typically use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and Trip Advisor – a Coaching company could use Facebook,  Blog, YouTube, LinkedIn and maybe even Twitter.  No matter what some steps are better than none!

By doing the ‘Get Started’ step will cover the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Setups of Points 1 and 2 of the Sales Funnel.

Online Sales Funnel3 Recommended Time Per Week – 1 – 2 Hours

WE GUARANTEE RESULTS!

Go to the – ‘seo company in pakistan’ Page to see how feasible it is to get your Small Business off the ground

>>To Maintain?

So once you have your Website up and implemented the SEO and Social Media Setups you now shift into the Maintenance Phase of the Small Business On-line Marketing Cycle.

There are a number of ways this can be tackled as Google now wants the most relevant searches as possible for their browsers, as quickly as possible.  To achieve this some/all of the strategies can be implemented to your On-line Digital Marketing Campaign:-

Create other Social Media/On-line setups after the key one’s have been addressed – eg a Blog, etc Google Adwords/Facebook Adverstising can be setup on your behalf (we also have free vouchers for those who wish to try it out) and we provide a small report on performance with recommended edits each month We create specific targeted and relevant Social Media Campaign messages (not stuff about how your staff member is off to buy a burger!) that are positioned correctly over a set amount of months and work in tandem with your off-line marketing so they work hand-in-hand together Results can be tested and measured so after a period of time so we can make the necessary adjustments and improve your results. This covers the ‘Search Engine Marketing (SEM)’ and ‘Social Media’ sections in more depth of the first and second points of the On-line Sales Funnel.

Online Sales Funnel2

Recommended Time Per Week – 1 – 4 Hours

WE GUARANTEE RESULTS!

It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to do this – we understand Small Businesses do not have a lot of cash to throw around.  Take a look at feasible it is, go to the ‘seo digital marketing agency’ Page

>> To Get Serious?

So this is where you start taking your position on-line seriously.  You realize there is huge potential custom you are missing out on and you want to close up that gap as quickly as possible.  This is the phase where we address points 3 – 6 of the On-line Sales Funnel:-

Online Sales Funnel3

We look at ways to improve the buying experience for your Customers on-line If you are interested we can implement software that can track where your Customers are looking (called ‘Hotspotting’) so we can ascertain where the best places are to place your ads/products We can implement some software that will record the shopping route of your customers so we can see exactly at which point they are abandoning cart/not contacting you We analyze what most other companies do not – exactly why most visitors coming to your site and not buying and how to change that More advanced Google Advertising techniques are used – eg Re-marketing (you can show Google Ads to customers who have left your site to go and look at your competitor websites) We look at implementing specific Landing Pages with New Lead Generation Forms on to track specific deals and test and measure results It’s encouraged that New Lead Forms are integrated into your current Website that feeds into one of our recommended Customer Relationship Management Programs We devise and can implement an ‘Up-sell Sequence’ (branded emails that promote specific messages/products to your existing Client base) – so many people work very hard to get new customers but the current Client base is the easiest way to get new business as they are alreay converted Customers. We also look at advanced strategies to enhance your on-line digital presence to increase your catchment area. Recommended Time Per Week – 2 – 5 Hours

WE GUARANTEE RESULTS!

None of this need be expensive – check out our ‘’seo digital marketing service  Page to find out just how affordable it is for your Small Business to become the leader in your field on-line

>> To Get Super Serious?

Normally you will be reading this page if you have already conducted the first 3 Phases of the Small Business On-line Digital Marketing Cycle. ie got ‘Started’, done ‘Maintenance’, moved into the ‘Serious’ phase and now into the ‘Super Serious Phase’ or you are a larger Company looking for Advanced Strategies and Tactics to take your Competitors head-on.

This is for the Serious Players where:-

We cover any areas in Phases 1/2/3 that have not yet be covered to date (any missing SEO/SEM/Social Media/Planning) and implement it An in-depth Competitor Analysis Report can be conducted with a view to find out what your Competitors are doing so you can match it and do better We look at ways to significantly increase your numbers to your sites ideally with a dedicated marketing budget that can cover both Google and Facebook Advertsing If you have a Blog (and if you don’t have one this can be created for you) we look at writing Keyword Enriched Articles with auto-feed to your Website We conduct Article Submissions to sites such as Squidoo, Ezine Articles, etc Guest Blogging tactics Specific Social Media Campaign developments – eg Pinterest Pin Board Competitions, etc. A number of specific ‘Landing Pages’ with different offers all integrated into a Customer Relationship Management System can be created We actively seek Client Reviews (one of Google’s new ‘musts’ for being found) Mobile Website creation (if not already in place) and tactics implemented Strategies to further Engage Facebook and Google+ Fans (another new adjustment to Google’s requirements to being found) Quality backlinking strategies implemented Email write-ups and cross-sell tactics created Vlogs (Video Blogs) Plogs (Phone Blogs) Video Marketing Mobile Marketing and Viral Marketing Strategies. These are just a few of the items that are covered.  Rest assured that each month someone is working to get you on top of the game on-line.

Recommended Time Per Week – 4 – 8 Hours

WE GUARANTEE RESULTS!

Take a look at still how feasible that is to do by going to the ‘digital marketing services’ Page

How It Works

How It Works

There is a simple hourly charge dependent on the lengh of time you choose to run with us. If you are just starting out, we recommend just one hour hour a week.

Packages start from as little as $49.00 + Gst/month and for that you can have all your on-line Digital Marketing requirements handled for you – not like print where you pay and it get’s thrown away soon after it’s been read and what’s more, it is very hard to track.

Remember taking some steps is better than none!

Fill in the Contact Form below and we will touch base with you to help you with any questions you may have.

Please note:- Limited numbers apply.  Unfortunately it is a bit like ‘The Exclusive Club’ but we cannot take everyone on-board as there would be a conflict of interest eg if we have a Day Spa in a specific town already on-board we cannot work with another Day Spa in that same town for the period of the contract as this would be unethical.  So be quick to contact us so as not to miss out! And don’t forget …

WE GUARANTEE RESULTS!

Blog Spot

This is an area that will keep you abreast of the everything that is happening in the Technology Field:-

New releases What’s happening in the SEO/SEM field Up-to-date information on Social Media Conversion Techniques Interesting infographics so you can understand the psychology of buying on-line And generally a whole lot of ways to get a Lead then Convert them into a paying Customer.

Enjoy

[deathnotetruths]

Finite

Fandom: Death Note Pairing: Matt/Mello Warning: Graphic descriptions of violence; swearing

Summary: When Matt stumbles upon Mello’s mafia contacts, things take a violent turn. Is this really the same Mello who once laughed so clearly? With threats upon his life, Matt must navigate a very thin line between trust and deceit in order to save them both. Chapter 1 Here. Chapter 2 Here.

Chapter 3: Conflict

“I said I can make it work,” Matt snapped, ducking his head quickly enough to dodge the knuckles swinging at his face. For a muscle man, Jose was pretty slow. Matt thanked the gods for that small favor.

“The deadline is in one week!” Jose shouted. “All I see here is bullshit!”

“You don’t understand computers!” Matt spat. “Either back off and let me do my job, or you can do it yourself! When I say I’ll have something done, it will fucking get done!”

“¡Cabrón!” Jose kicked at the bars of the cell. “I want it fully functional by Wednesday or else your ass is mine, bitch boy.”

“¡Chupame la pija!” Matt flipped the bird and pulled his goggles over his eyes, zoning in on the six programs running across the screen. “Idiot. I can make this work…”

He flinched as the iron bars slammed behind Jose, sighing as he looked around the 6 X 9 foot cell. It had just enough space for his computer systems, a thin mattress on the floor, and a bucket to piss in. No room for walking, and barely enough space to stretch his arms. Still, he knew he was lucky. On his way down to the sub-floor, he caught glimpses of cells far smaller - barely two feet across and three feet wide, enough for standing and nothing else. Torture cells. He knew he was lucky to avoid those.

He had six programs running, and none of them were doing quite what he wanted. They were templates; programs he had already created long ago, but rehashed into new formats with new functions. His main issue right now was cracking into the system to see what was needed. If he could just get in the loop, he knew everything else would fall into place. Unfortunately, prisons tended to have some of the best security in the area. And this prison in particular had nearly eight hundred cameras across its sprawling grounds. Three huge fences with razor wire. Six guard towers. Two different system setups within the mainframe. This break-in would be tricky, and Matt didn’t want to admit that he had his doubts. He was good, sure; but the requirements for this mission would take a month or two, easily.

“Hey, Felipe, what’s a guy gotta do for a pot of coffee around here?” Matt called through the bars. The tall, thin man guarding the door flipped him off, but strode over towards the bar to start a pot brewing.

Matt had a feeling he wasn’t going to sleep for a while.

He settled down, chewing on his lower lip. His neck itched; the stitches were out, but he had to keep the bandage on for a few more days to be safe. The last thing he wanted was another gaping wound in his jaw. One punch in the wrong place, and Matt would be back to the post-interrogation room. Or dead. Either way, he didn’t favor the outcome.

He honed in on a small script that was bothering him for some reason. He couldn’t quite place his finger on why, but something embedded in the code felt out of place. He scrolled through line after line, mind racing at warp speed, until a particular segment highlighted itself in his head and the pieces fell into place.

Two pots of coffee and a carton of cigarettes later, Matt held his breath as he manually looped a lesser-used security camera from off-site.

It worked.

Matt could have screamed; he wanted to stand up and whoop and holler, but he still had so much to do and very little time to do it. But he was in. He could worm his way through their interface; for the first time, Matt felt like the task might not be as impossible as he had first assumed. He shifted a more prominent camera three degrees to the south, and was delighted to find that nobody seemed to notice.

He heard the heavy iron door outside of his cell open and close, but he didn’t bother looking up from his task. Time was of the essence, and Matt had a lot of loose ends to tie up before he could even attempt to dig deeper into the system.

“We’re going to start with a little intercom interference,” Matt explained, pointing to one of the guard towers on the blueprints of the prison. “We’re going to target this area of the yard at first. The guards will think someone’s in this office right here,” he pointed to another area. “We only need five minutes of distraction. Just enough to look like an accident.”

“How do we know they’ll go for it?”

“It’ll be just annoying enough to make them want to turn it off,” Matt said. “Basic interference. It won’t seem like tampering; just a shitty PA system. Luis,” he pointed to one of the tall men hovering over the table, “this is when you’ll enter the facility. Way over here, completely across the facility, you’ll enter through the service gate. I’ll loop the feed enough for a five minute gap. During that time, you and your boys will come up through the gate into the kitchen. I’ll remotely lock the storage gate so nobody else will be able to enter while you’re back there; just move very, very quickly.”

“So we stay in the back?”

“Yes,” Matt confirmed. He traced out the route with his finger on the map. “Into the kitchen, through the gate to the dry food bins. Follow along this wall. You’ll end up in this room right here; it’s almost never used. I pulled the footage from the last six months; there have only been three instances of activity in all that time. You’ll wait here.”

“For how long?” Luis asked, a dark look crossing his face.

“Seven minutes, give or take. We need to make sure the guards have the prisoners moved to this area right here,” Matt tapped the map. “This is where you’ll make your move. It’s accessible through the ventilation system from that room. This part is going to be tricky.”

“Why?”

“You’ll have exactly 165 seconds to get in, do what you need to do, and get out. I rigged the rotation for the guards. There’s a passoff gap. From the moment the first guard steps away, you’ll have 40 seconds to get in, kill your guys, and get back in the vent. Luis, you need someone to help tap the screws back in once you’re all in the vents. It can’t take more than ten seconds. This is crucial.” Matt paused, scanning the crowd of men. Mello was not among them; Matt felt his heart rate jump. “You’re going to plant a shiv at the scene to make it look like a brawl, but they’ll know it isn’t. We’re heavily counting on them to be too lazy to investigate too far. It’s important to plant the shiv without fingerprints. Wear gloves. Don’t get blood all over the vents or clothes. Any sort of trail, and it could trace back. I can only do so much remotely; the muscle relies on your expertise.”

“Yeah, well, this ain’t my first job,” Luis said, smacking the table. “So what? How the fuck do we get out, computer geek?”

“That’s where I come in,” Matt said, pointing. “We can’t leave from the same place. You’ll need to follow the vent to this little closet right here. You can only do this one at a time because this is a very small area.”

Matt took a deep breath, bracing himself for a blow.

“You’re going to walk out the side door as calmly as possible.”

SMACK!

Matt exhaled, lolling his head back into place.

“I’m not fucking with you,” Matt said, keeping his head down. His cheek throbbed. “Luis, if you move quickly, you can get from the closet to the door before the lockdown. Once your guys drop into the closet, they need to haul ass out that side door as quickly and fluidly as they can. The tower beside that gate won’t have a clear view; they’re going to rely on that camera to see the hall. Unless a guard physically walks to the edge of the tower and leans far over the rail, he won’t see a thing. And unless you make a huge movement, nobody will have a reason to look. Especially because I’m going to feed a message into their walkie; they’ll be too busy looking for someone near the north wing that they won’t have time to check below them.”

“That’s the most idiotic fucking plan I’ve ever-”

“It’ll work,” Matt cut him off, flinching as Luis raised his hand. “I’ll open the lower gate remotely. From there, you just have to get in the van we’re sending. We’ll cover the license plate, loop the feed, and ditch the van by the bay for the scrapper when we’re done. I’ll have my eyes on the cameras following your every move. We can tell you where the guards are, where the targets are, and every single step of the plan. It’s risky, but it’ll work.”

“Suck my cock, you little bitch,” Luis growled, snatching a handful of Matt’s hair. “If you think for one second that I’m going to let my men try such a foolhardy plan, then-”

“You would be correct,” Mello’s smooth voice called out, entering from the back of the room. “We’ve gone in blind to bigger jobs than this. Luis, you and Santiago should have no problem following these directions. This is the best plan we have available, and it’s the plan we’re going for.”

“Boss, no disrespect, but-” Luis shot Matt a dirty glare. “-we still don’t know if this is a setup. I’m not risking my men for this bullshit.”

“Then you can go by yourself,” Mello said coldly. “Luis, I don’t believe you understand the gravity of the situation. If you want the Las Llaves to storm our bases and kill our men, then you are a traitor. Are you a traitor, Luis? Are you?”

Matt flinched as Mello backhanded the taller man, shoving him against the wall. The air in the room stilled. Luis balled his fist, but Mello kicked him in the ribs. Luis sank to the floor, groaning.

“Este pinche cabrón! I will not be disrespected, Luis,” Mello said, spitting at him. “You and I both know how this ends. Would I do anything to sabotage this mission? Do you think I want this mission to fail?”

“No, Boss,” Luis said through gritted teeth. A glob of saliva trailed down the side of his face.

“Look at me when I’m speaking to you,” Mello snapped, grabbing the older man by the jaw. “Do you have anything else to say about the matter?”

“No, Boss,” Luis said curtly. “My apologies, Boss.”

“That’s what I fucking thought,” Mello said, releasing the man. “Does anybody else have any arguments?”

Matt looked around; the room was stone silent, each man and woman nervously shuffling away from the temperamental blonde. He cleared his throat, immediately regretting how every eye turned in his direction.

“I just…” Matt trailed off, wilting under Mello’s fiery glare. “I just wanted to say that I’m listening to concerns. I can show Luis and the others the route using the cameras I’m going to tamper with. This will work.”

“It damn well better,” Mello said coldly, snapping his gaze back to Luis who knelt quietly on the floor. “Do you hear that? It’s the only mercy you’ll hear today. I suggest you befriend this piece of shit hacker, because he’s the only person in this room who will show you mercy for your insolence. Now, fuck off, all of you.”

Mello turned and stormed out of the room, leather coat swishing behind him as the door slammed.

[oliverpdaniel]

Advent of Code 2020: A (very timely and not late at all) Reflection on Days 15-25

...Um. Oops?

Honestly, everything has been happening so much lately, I'm not super frustrated that it's been a clean month between finishing these puzzles and commenting on them. During these weeks, along with finally finishing my first-ever Advent of Code (as did my roommate! Well done, buddy.), I also wrapped up my second semester in quarantine, including a few brutal final projects and exams. After a nail-biting few weeks of awaiting grades, I finally had the confidence to withdraw for the second semester, and to begin hunting for work. (If you're reading this and I'm not hired yet, hire me!)

Anyway, the obvious downside to the sheer magnitude of the delay is that most of these puzzles aren't super fresh in my head, and thus my commentaries may not be as detailed as I would like. Hey - if I ever get such a massive executive-dysfunction-killing buzz as I did over the winter break to finally clean and redecorate my room, maybe I'll revisit these too.

Day 15: Now we're seeing some REAL slowness! The primary data structure for both parts here was the dictionary, mapping "seen" (spoken) numbers to the last turn on which they were spoken. That being said, I don't know what I was thinking in Part 1, with code like this:

Code ``` for k in seen.keys(): seen[k] += 1 ```

As soon as I saw the spicy thirty million in Part 2, I knew my naive solution wouldn't even touch it. [1] I had to do my least favourite thing - off-by-one debugging, but I ultimately came up with a relatively clever insight:

Spoilers Storing not just the last turn on which a number was spoken, but the last *two* numbers (if they exist). Doing this allows for a three-case scenario, for some current number `curr`: 1. `seen[curr]` is empty or doesn't exist. This is the base case of a new number; output 0, as stated in the problem. 2. `seen[curr]` has 1 value. It's only been seen once, so we can calculate the number of turns since it was last seen. 3. `seen[curr]` has 2 values. This number has been seen twice, so we can simply subtract the first- and second-most recent turn numbers to get the gap between them!

This problem took a bit of fiddling, but runs okay. Python really shows its ugly side here, as even a fairly efficient solution like this one, using efficient data structures, takes quite a while on Part 2.

Day 16: Boy oh boy. I spent far too long on this one, and perhaps if there are any to revisit for a future post, it's this one. My solution for this one features no less than:

regex;

closure functions;

constraint satisfaction;

functions that return tuples of variable length; and

walrus operators.

I consider this problem a 'sweat' for future years; I learned a lot about what makes constraint-satisfaction engines tick, and how it's important to assign constraints to the smallest possible element of a search space (here a column, rather than an entire permutation of columns). I think there's a much more concise and semantic way of outlining this problem, that lets the solver do much more of the work than I did.

Day 17: Not much to say here; it's a cellular automaton with extra for loops. I'll share two cute things that I'm proud of:

Spoilers 1. I experimented with various thresholds for the size of the 'infinite' space, making specifically sure not to to index checks, so that I could have the smallest possible subspace to check over. I ended up settling on a value of `20` units in each direction from: 2. the origin I specified, which is simply `LIMIT // 2 - H // 2` (where `H` is just the dimension of the input grid).

My roommate complained that it took him a long time to parse and understand the problem; I'll confess that I barely read it. I guess that's the advantage of experience, in that I saw "Conway" and "space" and knew immediately what needed to be done.

I didn't do anything special for Part 2; it's just my Part 1 code, copied and pasted, with an extra for loop here and a variable there. sum(sum(sum(sum())))s for everyone!

Day 18: I think that, out of all 49 unique problems in this year's Advent of Code, I'm most proud of my solution to this one. It's (relatively) fast; the code is pretty easy to read and works for both parts (and more! [2]); and I came up with a solution before knowing the name for what I had built. (Update: it's a shift-reduce parser. Hooray for stacks!) One especially cute thing, that incidentally ended up defining my approach to a lot of the later problems, was

Spoilers creating a lookup table between a certain input symbol, here math operators, and an internal function, here the builtin `int` math functors. This allowed for a dead-simple evaluator function, for when the top of the stack was ready to be converted from an expression to a workable number. Also, I had the bright idea to recursively evaluate bracketed expressions, in such a way that an expression like `(((1 + 2)))` would quickly reduce down to `1 + 2` before the rest of the parser got to it.

Day 19: Aaaaaaaaargh! Herein begin the Two Days of Terror - the two hardest problems. Lucky I had returned from my partner's by now, as I think they would have been quite upset with how much I was ignoring them to code. After solving Part 1 in the morning I finally finished Part 2 at around 7pm, having forgotten to otherwise eat or attack my household responsibilities, and only after my roommate sat down with me and pair-programmed for a while. This one stung the most, because... I'm a linguist, for crying out loud! No generative grammar problem, especially ones over a finite search space like this, should be causing me such grief.

Day 20: I am still emotionally recovering from this problem. My roommate somehow managed to get both parts to run instantly, using the most cursed CSP setup I've ever seen. I still need to study his code better to understand just how he did it. Also, his usage of scientific Python packages finally shows its rewards, as convolution over a matrix is a friggin' builtin function. Grr.

Day 21: I consider this day an apology for the previous Days of Terror. Some fun, but not terribly difficult, set-fu. My relative inexperience with set theory shows its stripes here; I'm sure there are much more semantically sound ways of accomplishing what I tried to do here (e.g., manually removing an allergen from each ingredient's list of hypotheses once it was confirmed to go with a certain ingredient).

Day 22: Spicy spicy numbers! It would have served me much better to read the instructions before starting, as then I would have known that

Spoilers in Part 2, players don't take their entire deck with them. Since, y'know, that would just cause an infinite race to the bottom.

Day 23: Even spicier numbers! If you're going to be cute like me and establish 9 as a constant, make sure that you don't use it in Part 2 when constructing the initial circle, or you'll wonder why 9,999,990 of the cups aren't attached to anything.

Day 24: I couldn't sleep, so I solved this problem at 3 in the morning. Not going to lie, a little disappointing for a penultimate problem, especially Part 2. Part 1 required at least a modicum of cleverness to develop a meaningful coordinate system, but then Part 2 just felt like a relative rehash of the Conway Cubes problem. 3 cellular automaton problems out of 25 is a little bit much, considering how formulaic they can be.

Day 25: As true evidence of how much I learned over this Advent of Code, I was able to finish Day 25 on the couch without even bothering my partner. Utilizing what I had learned about pow made defining the transform (i.e., repeated multiplication and mod) incredibly easy. Though, I did get a little bit lucky, due to a small oversight in problem setting...

Spoilers Rather than having to generate and test a whole bunch of different pairs of loop sizes for the card and the door, it turns out that if you `zip` together two streams of all such valid loop sizes for the card and door, respectively, the correct size for both (i.e, the solution) appears at the same time; for me, just the second such pair of sizes.

Day 25 Part 2, as always, was a delight and a pleasure. If you've never clicked that final button before, crack open a text editor and start solving challenges until you can. It's deeply satisfying.

I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to the entire AoC team, setters, testers, and maintainers alike, for all that they do. A daily stream of bite-sized (or, sometimes, sea-monster-sized) challenges is just what I need to keep me going, and my skills sharp, over the dreary holiday season. Especially in a year like this, it was just what I needed to keep me moving, motivated, and thinking about code. I can't wait for next year's challenges and, hopefully, I'll convince the roomies to do it with me again.

Sorry about the little delay, and the relative lack of detail. But, the enemy of perfect is good enough. If you're reading these at some point in the distal future, I hope you've enjoyed watching my journey through these problems, and maybe learned a little bit about what it means to think like a programmer. Thanks for tuning in!

[1]: I tried it anyway; it obviously didn't work. And, once my roommate turned me onto tqdm, I was able to see just how long before the Heat Death of the Universe for it to run. It was about 3 days. Lol.

[2]: The way I constructed the code, it would be extremely easy to add in the remaining integer operations.