Ask Slashdot: What Is Your New Years Eve Tradition? 256
skade88 writes "What does the Slashdot community do to celebrate New Years Eve? Does your city do something cool and unique to celebrate? Do you celebrate with fireworks in front of your house, or in your favorite MMO (WoW, Minecraft, etc.)?"
None of the above...maybe (Score:4, Interesting)
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DISCOVERY CHANNEL (Score:3, Informative)
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Has discovery improved at all?
This isn't a troll but a legitimate question. I used to love discovery, but they were going all reality TV about when I cut the cable. They also had a tendancy to play the same lineup all week which drove me crazy (I get that I can't have new content every day, but at least give me variety in the reruns!).
Been thinking about getting cable again as it comes really cheap with an fibre internet bundle I'm looking at and I miss the whole "just watch whatever is on" experience.
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If anything you can discover a few new shows you enjoy and download them or w.e. Its good for discovering and rediscovering shows and movies.
Yeah, that's really what I miss.
I will probably get it for exactly that reason :)
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No, they're still mostly crap. I remember when TLC and Discovery were worth watching before they became the home improvement channels. Kinda how I loved the History channel which then turned into the UFO/Bigfoot/X-Files channel.
Now, if your local cable company has the Smithsonian Channel, it might be worth getting for that. Everything History and Discovery used to be rolled into one. I'd recommend giving it a try if they have it in your line-up.
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Since you were like, 10? So - this is the fifth year now?
I know, you didn't deserve that, but isn't everyone here a teenage kid living in his momma's basement? ;^)
BEING AWESORME (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Slashdort: Today is a great day for all the readers of Slashdort, because we will make linquini and boil a Linurx in a stew of Windors. Hooraye! COMMUNISM NOW!
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The same thing we do every New Years (Score:5, Funny)
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A day to relax (Score:4, Interesting)
Today's Devil's Panties [thedevilspanties.com] said it best I think.
"We could stay at home and drink hot coca in our pajamas."
I would add 'while sitting on the couch watching movies with my wife' to that though...
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Yup, that's it. I've been doing it for decades. I can drink like a fish when the occasion calls for it, for many years now, but I've been drinking Hot Chocolate for a couple of decades longer.
Also, I wax and polish the living room floor, in my jammies. It's a once a year thing, and it's done when I can do a full slide across without picking up a splinter. The first couple of days after confuses the hell out of the cat. (One year I was a little too enthusiastic, and ended up with my rig
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A vow of celibacy (Score:5, Funny)
Each new year I take a vow of celibacy as my father before me and his father before him. It's a long standing family tradition.
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Some people find new year resolutions hard to keep, others find them very simple.
My Dad shot rifles into the air on New Years... (Score:5, Funny)
...to scare away the evil spirits. "Haven't seen any this year, have you?" he would always ask. "Must have worked," he opined further. This story was told to a Mexican cabbie who in all seriousness replied that my father was being silly, and that all you had to do was throw water out the back door to scare evil spirits away for the year. Who knew?
FYI, my father was an electronics engineer whose tongue was often so far in his cheek that it might have protruded from the vulgar aperture.
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...to scare away the evil spirits. "Haven't seen any this year, have you?" he would always ask. "Must have worked," he opined further. This story was told to a Mexican cabbie who in all seriousness replied that my father was being silly, and that all you had to do was throw water out the back door to scare evil spirits away for the year. Who knew?
FYI, my father was an electronics engineer whose tongue was often so far in his cheek that it might have protruded from the vulgar aperture.
Does your father realise that what comes up must come down? A bullet at terminal velocity does a lot of damage.
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not anywhere near as much as a bullet going up much faster than terminal velocity... not to say it wouldn't probably hurt like hell, especially if it hit you in the head
i doubt it would kill you
Quote Wikipedia:
"Between the years 1985 and 1992, doctors at the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, treated some 118 people for random falling-bullet injuries. Thirty-eight of them died." (And they have a link to a pubmed article which I don't feel to pay to see.)
Seems like a real problem to me.
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Oddly enough the place I work has multiple bullet holes in the roof, from the outside in. We've found a few 9mm slugs as well.
Makes ya think, donut?
Re:My Dad shot rifles into the air on New Years... (Score:5, Informative)
fair enough... i'm sure the danger is much less than if someone shot you directly
Don't buy lottery tickets today, it's just not your day.
From the blurb [ovid.com] to the article in question:
"Most (77%) were hit in the head. The mortality rate was 32%, which is significantly higher than for all gunshot wound victims in general seen at the same medical center."
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fair enough... i'm sure the danger is much less than if someone shot you directly
Don't buy lottery tickets today, it's just not your day.
From the blurb [ovid.com] to the article in question:
"Most (77%) were hit in the head. The mortality rate was 32%, which is significantly higher than for all gunshot wound victims in general seen at the same medical center."
So if you want to celebrate your 2nd amendment rights, do a Cheney and aim at someone, rather than doing an afghan and shooting in the air?
Re:My Dad shot rifles into the air on New Years... (Score:5, Interesting)
So if you want to celebrate your 2nd amendment rights, do a Cheney and aim at someone, rather than doing an afghan and shooting in the air?
Well, as my old drill sergeant said, "Do not ever pull the trigger unless you are aiming it at a target. Ever."
What about warning shots, one of the guys asked. He was told that this applied to warning shots too - you aim and fire at the ground, and better not miss.
The same rule held for blanks, "full family" setting, suppressive fire and empty chambers. Woe be unto any poor sod who pulled the trigger without aiming.
I think it was a very good rule.
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its hard to make a judgement based on one article alone (and only the abstract for that matter since i couldn't access the rest) but based on physics and fluid dynamics the impact energy of a falling bullet is significantly lower than that of a bullet fired directly
1) Not that much lower if it's fired at an angle upwards, rather than straight up.
2) It's aimed at an area of the body that bullets typically aren't, which is much much more vulnerable to damage than most of the body.
Mythbusters did this one, they found that a bullet fired straight up will come down with enough force to severely injure you and require you to visit a hospital, but not enough to actually kill you. But that a bullet fired at an angle retained enough of it's velocity to kill.
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Well, there's always potato guns
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Well, there's always potato guns
And mortars. Much fun can be had from simple explosives and heavy projectiles.
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Re:My Dad shot rifles into the air on New Years... (Score:4, Funny)
My father was killed by a random bullet fired into the air, you insensitive clod.
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I suppose if you just had to do firearms, a .410 w/ birdshot would probably cause the least amount of risk. Starter pistols. Potato guns sans spuds.
Fireworks seem to get the point across. Those living on the edge could fire model rocket engines w/o the rocket. It's better to just be a public nuisance than public enemy.
Pet owner (Score:5, Funny)
I spend most of the evening looking over a very scared dog.
It would be highly appreciated if those of you using fireworks waited until midnight.
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I will blow up what I want, when I want. It's not my fault your dog is a pussy.
You are one sad, pathetic little person.
I *had* plans (Score:2)
But my buddy's a lightweight and fell out by 18h30. So I went home. *sigh*
Waiting... (Score:4, Interesting)
being older and wiser... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:being older and wiser... (Score:5, Interesting)
Me too. It's a tradition in my immediate family not to travel during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. Those are dangerous times to be on the road, and you don't want your holiday memories to be of sitting in the emergency room or dealing with a death in the family. (Been there, did that, never again.) We take time off in January to see close relatives and May to see the ones that are further away.
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Same here, but I have been doing that since I was little too. I rarely go to parties. I did go to a LAN party for Y2K though.
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Our city has a "First Night" celebration.. (Score:3)
Lez porn and masturbation. Same as always (Score:2)
I'm well paid but will die alone. So it goes.
quiet one (Score:3)
watch a movie 'till midnight, then hug wife, and went to bed. Boring, but I don't make a druken idiot of myself like many. By 10AM there were 10 dead in road crashes, poor start to the year.
Oliebollen & Appel flappen (Score:5, Insightful)
Minecraft (Score:3)
I find it funny that Minecraft is mentioned, and even more so that this will be my second new year in game.
I have a decently elaborate "dropping ball" counter made with redpower and computercraft mods, with a new addition of fireworks for this year. We plan to set it off four times tonight, once for each of the US time zones.
Slightly better than being stuck outside in the cold and snow, especially seeing the majority of us do not have the opportunity to spend new years with family.
In Bed (Score:4, Insightful)
In bed by 10:00p! Staying up until midnight, the most overrated tradition ever.
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In bed by 10:00p! Staying up until midnight, the most overrated tradition ever.
Seriously, you go to bed before midnight on a normal day?
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I'm staying up until 3 am. Why the hell should New Years be different from any other night of the year?
Two things... (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Use a handheld spotlight I have to signal a house on one of the hills around me, ever since about 4 years ago, I randomly shined my light up there, and they signaled back.
Sleep. (Score:2)
Schlaffe. Ich schlaffe fuer die ganze nacht.
What Germans do on New Year's (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1v4BYV-YvA [youtube.com]
I'll watch that again with the wife. Somehow it improves with repetition.
12 grapes (Score:2)
Well...it was fun, until I grew up and got a life.
Now, I'm sitting here talking to you fools, and watching a movie with the spouse.
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I dunno, I'm having trouble coming up with a life better than that.
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Yes, it is pretty damn good. The movie ( Identity ) could be a little better, though.
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Madrid - Plaza Mayor. Kissing random Spanish women.
Well...it was fun, until I grew up and got a life.
Now, I'm sitting here talking to you fools, and watching a movie with the spouse.
Thanks, booked a ticket to Madrid for next year!
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I call it "Monday Night" (Score:5, Interesting)
Today is Monday, tomorrow is Tuesday. Tonight marks one complete rotation (roughly) of our planet around our sun.
I have no idea what my community is doing, but I plan to treat it as any other night, with the exception that I get tomorrow off. As I've grown older (27, for reference) and gotten out and lived on my own I find that annual celebrations hold little meaning to me, including my own birthday. If I'm going to celebrate, it's going to be for a relevant, contemporary event. If I'm going to make changes to my life, it's going to be when I realize those changes need to be made, not some arbitrary date. If I want to get together with loved ones, I'll do it when the urge strikes (at least, in so far as those I want to spend time with are also available.)
(Of course, I've no friends, no close relatives, and am anti-social, so my view could be skewed.)
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It completes one complete revolution, not rotation.
Have a care where you are.
Hacker public radio group hangout (Score:2)
I guess its kinda a tradition now that its the second year now:
http://www.hackerpublicradio.org/ [hackerpublicradio.org]
Thwaite and FantaVision (Score:2)
Chili! (Score:2)
ritual cleaning (Score:4, Interesting)
It's dull, but I usually spend the evening at home with a bottle of wine, cleaning the house, rearranging the furniture... generally getting things ready for another fresh start on a new year. Tomorrow morning I'll probably fix pancakes, take down the holiday lights from the front porch, and... begin.
SISS (Stay In and Stay Sober) (Score:2)
With approximately 30 percent of drivers later on New Years Eve driving DUI; it's not a good night to be out on a bicycle, which is my mode of transportation.
Besides, SISS is cheap and I have nothing to regret when I get up in the morning of January First.
So, right now, I am working on refurbishing one of my pieces of lighted jewelry to wear at a party in mid-January.
hmm (Score:2)
I tend to stay sober sit on eve online on a gate and make quite a large profit off the drunks. its like a second christmas.
Commit my code (Score:5, Funny)
I commit all my outstanding code. Then I wait until the next year to fix the build.
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I commit all my outstanding code. Then I wait until the next year to fix the build.
Some people I know do that before going on summer vacation.
Smoking Weed. (Score:2)
I prefer to end the year and same way I start it, stoned off my ass.
I can watch the Space Needle's firework show from my window, so I don't even have to go outside.
Go outside, in the cold and probably rain (this is seattle), to be harassed by panhandlers, cops, drunk fools, more panhandles, then to have to crank my head up to watch 10 mins of fireworks, only to have to deal with more panhandlers, cops, drunk fools, high fools, and traffic.
I could go to a party, but on the way there, have to deal with panhan
sadfully regretting (Score:2)
... the things whose counterparts I vowed to adhere to a year ago.
Honestly? (Score:3)
My recent tradition has been to spend this time debating whether or not I should go to one of the New Year's Eve parties I've been invited to (okay, okay, I only ever get invited to one). Usually I get distracted by the Internet along the way and promptly forget that it's New Year's Eve until the next day when people ask me what I did for it.
This year though, I'll definitely go to the party. Just as soon as I get done reading through and commenting on Slashdot, of course. And then my RSS feeds.
Food! (Score:2)
Particularly rumaki.
Same as the other 364 days/year... (Score:2)
I live in Las Vegas, and friends always assume that because I live in SinCity, I must be a party-animal... Nothing could be further from the truth.. My partying days are LONG past (62 y/o), so the wife and I hit the sack about the same time we do the rest of the year, namely 10pm-ish.. Frankly, you couldn't pay me enough to go down to the "Resort Corridor" (what the local newsmedia calls the "Las Vegas Strip") on NYE... And you can only watch that stupid glass ball drop on TV so many times before its "been
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Kissing some hottie I didn't know, while my new wife was removing hottie's boyfriends tonsils with her teeth
The Fireworks show and the REAL, Milky Way Fucking stars.
Before they wrecked downtown.
i have no real traditions. (Score:2)
Archive the year's email (Score:2)
I run email on my own server.
I run a script that moves all email to . I start the year with a clean mailbox. This allows me to keep nearly two decades of email without drowning in it.
I do the same with my apache logs but I don't need a script for that.
Work, of course (Score:2)
I used to always volunteer to work. The office would be empty and I could always get some serious work done on those odd projects that always get put off into the future.
Luckily, my former employer usually cut everyone loose at about 2pm or so. By then, as my sis always says, "It gets drunk out early." After the invariably hair-raising drive home, I stayed there.
Everclear and soda can do a perfectly adequate job of putting me on my butt if that's my goal or maybe I'll just go to bed. I never understood
I usually just fall asleep (Score:2)
Never understood why a change in a calendar year requires me to celebrate it or its different than any other day.
Fondue (Score:2)
Since you asked.. We start with a cheese course, then wrap up with a chocolate course. Kickin' it old school.
Who remembers? (Score:2)
Beer (Score:2)
Minecraft (Score:2)
...is an MMO now?
But that aside, on New Years (which was yesterday here ... I'm in Australia) my wife and I went into the CBD of my city for the fireworks at 9pm, but didn't hang around until the midnight ones as the city events are all alcohol-free and we wanted our midnight champagne. Went home, opened a bottle at midnight, watched the other fireworks on TV. Boring but pleasant :)
It is not the New Years Day tomorrow. (Score:3)
And yes, people will cook the festive dinners, offerings to the Gods etc and patiently wait for the new year to be "born" before starting the prayers. The patriarch will read the almanac that predicts how much rain there will be that year, "Measure it by the ark. Ark of 1000 cubits long and 2000 cubits wide and 500 cubits deep. 2590 arks of rain will fall this year". Let me see if I can dig up the precise time and the amount of rain for the coming New year.
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updating software copyright notices (Score:2)
If I don't switch the numbers around on New Year's, I'm liable to forget until quite awhile later.
Burn the xmas tree, drinking, fireworks (Score:2)
Times are tight, not too many left over fireworks this year Also, Alcohol. Ditto previous state of the union.
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I'm eating Doritos and watching a westerns (been on a weird western kick lately..)! :>
But I _had_ plans till weather got bad.. so I don't even have to feel guilty about it (truthfully I didn't really want to go anyway) :D
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Cheetos and Serenity isn't too bad.
I have some quarter cask Laphroaig and a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, but throat is too sore to drink.
I guess I'll shuffle around in my slippers and check my e-mail every now and then for a miracle.
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which time zone? past Midnight here, but still 2012 in half of the world.
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Yeah, lotta people shoot their guns off at midnight....
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So are fireworks allowed inside your house, or are they just banned altogether?
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They're not completely banned in Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlqpzhlasE [youtube.com]
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Depends on the jurisdiction. Some states ban them outright. Others allow them on specific days in the year (which doesn't normally include New Years ... e.g. they were legal in the ACT on the Queen's Birthday weekend up until a couple of years ago, now I think they are banned outright there too - too many complaints from pet owners and people who had idiots blow up their mailbox with them etc.)
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Re:.. yay :) (Score:4, Interesting)
This. I don't have any traditions, really. The wife makes a big deal out of cooking black eyed peas and cabbage, tells us that it's good luck. I think she's just spent all the money on Christmas, and doesn't have any money left to cook a real dinner, but I'm not arguing with her.
Mostly, I just reminisce about where I've spent previous New Year days. A bar in Daytona, hanging with bikers. Smashing through mountainous waves in the North Sea. Palma Mallorca, Spain. Indian Ocean. Adak, Alaska. Winter Harbor, Maine. Oh yeah, the bar on Long Island, where they kicked me out for asking a woman - well, let's not go there, LMAO!!
And I wonder where all those people from my past are today, which of them are alive.
The new year isn't the same once you pass your 50th birthday.
Tonight, I'm just browsing the internet, hoping my dumbass kids aren't doing anything very stupid. At least I talked the youngest into leaving his motorcycle at home. He's driving my car. If he should meet a drunk, the car is much more survivable.
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And vice-verse.