148hrs+ to beat Silksong? Is that a record? Now I am free to play other games again!

I am obsessively listening for a Cumbrian accent in Atomfall. Nothing yet. I've seen Cornish pasties and not a single Cumberland sausage. And I shouted out loud when a local used the term Dales! Be reet, a'll keep gaan.

Enjoyed "The Dead of Winter" by Sarah Clegg on BBC Sounds. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand.... I love learning about European Folklore. Think I should read her other book "Woman's Lore" as well. www.instagram.com/readingartef...

I've almost ground to a halt with #aoc. Day 11 wasn't too bad. I relied heavily on reddit for Part 2. Today I've looked at Day 12 Part 1 and tripped myself up with a bug. I did use a weird algorithm though, so that was kind of fun. Let's call it "scan and merge". Haven't properly looked at Part 2.

I've completed "Hoof It" - Day 10 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/10 Solved in typescript today. One of the easier ones - Part 2 in particular since I'd essentially solved it as part of Part 1. Still a day behind though!

I've completed "Disk Fragmenter" - Day 9 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/9 - I'm a day behind now. I would have one or two comments to make if someone submitted the code I just wrote for review!

How did I forget about arithmetic overflow somewhere in the middle of the Day 9 solution? Doomed to make every rookie error even after decades of experience. Couldn't see the wood for the trees. As an aside I'd kind of expect an exception to be thrown. But that is not the default behaviour for C#.

I've completed "Resonant Collinearity" - Day 8 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/8
.NET again today. All problems encountered were of my own creation.

I just completed "Bridge Repair" - Day 7 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/7
Thank Xmas. A quick one. Solved in Java, which I haven't used for over a decade! Part 2 was a tiny iteration on Part 1 - which had already been quick to solve. Hooray!

I've completed "Guard Gallivant" - Day 6 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/6 Python again. Part 2 went so wrong. Anything "clever" didn't work out. I hate premature optimisation. Need to really just brute force some of these. The need to do > 1 turn also caught me out!

It's 2:30am here and I'm thinking about the algorithm for advent of code part 2 (this is why I might need to stop!). I've partaken of plenty of Christmas spirits. But this looks like the basis of a solution. Will it make sense in the morning?

Uh-oh! Did Part 1 of advent of code earlier. But haven't looked at Part 2 yet. Is this the start of the decline? Thankfully weekend ahead. Maybe some more advent coding in me still...

I've completed "Print Queue" - Day 5 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/5
Definitely losing momentum/enthusiasm. This took me so long! Completed in ruby. So much time spent on off-by-one problems.

I just completed "Ceres Search" - Day 4 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/4
Used python again. Was hoping to get through it quickly, but I thought checking the diagonals in Part 1 was time consuming! Will be interested to see what neat solutions others have come up with.

I've completed "Mull It Over" - Day 3 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/3
Completed in python today. Should have been easy but got bogged down in regular expressions on part 2, eventually abandoning that approach for a more manual scan!

I just completed "Red-Nosed Reports" - Day 2 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/2. Completed in rust today. I don't know rust and struggled to find the right syntax for things. My part 2 was particularly messy!

I just completed "Historian Hysteria" - Day 1 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/1. Decided to use .NET (which I use day-to-day). But set up to compile/run on Linux with VS Code as my editor.

Here's a picture from this summer - a beautiful walk up Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd, Wales. In legend, Merlin discovered a white dragon fighting a red dragon here. The same red dragon celebrated on the Welsh flag.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/...