Ok, temperatures around 30° and even significantly above and that during the first half of September.
Ouch. I feel with you!

Where do you live?
I assumed summer to be basically over on the northern hemisphere and not yet quite started on the southern one, so interesting to see where a heatwave is still/already present at end of September.

It seems to be a new thing.
One Facebook user in the article forum told, that he just got the message a few days ago, that only 2 links per month are free now.
And the article editor answered to that, that this is likely a reaction to some countries establishing fees or other restrictions for links to news sites by now, e.g. Canada.
Meta already extended the rule to links to any sites in Canada, and might currently be further extending that to include all users, as I understood it.

But if you happen to be the oldest person on Earth, you will be it for a significantly longer time than you would ever be the youngest person.

So, on average, people are just as long the youngest, as they are the oldest person on Earth.

And that, my dear friends, is the reason why you should never look at the average, but always at the median value!

How’s that “Interesting as fuck”?

It looks a lot more like my old Atari ST Desktop than Windows 95, though.
Just move the Taskbar to the top and add two or three additional menus to it.
And make the mouse pointer a bee when system under load :-)

The pies are spheroid?

Typically circular, but there are some regional variations.

There is a whole Wikipedia article about mooncakes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake

That sounds a bit like a fatal infinite loop scenario…

I still see a bunch of possible additional steps before the mandatory “Does it run Doom?” finally deep down at the bottom…

Sounds dope, and is probably what most are doing.

And regarding the “mockery” and atheists/christians/insert_believe_system_here:
Christmas has imo become mainly a secular event by now, and also somehow heavily mocks itself already, so whatever…

Not quite, but just exchange LOTR with “Die Hard” and you are there!

Do you have any Christmas-equivalent in your life?

I guess most cultures do have at least some cozy family gathering event.

I am especially fond of the idea of the Chinese moon festival, love the idea of coming together, eating moon shaped pies and admiring the moon together! :-)

Well, not completely alone, 2 or three of my friends also stayed far from home, so not sure if this counts?

And it was in Munich while living only a few blocks from the Winter Tollwood Festival, which is one of the most interesting “Christmas Markets” (quotes are on purpose…) in Germany which also didn’t have its closing day on Christmas Eve already, but stayed open until Three Kings Day.

So, during daytime I was working in a relaxed way basically alone in the office, while during the evenings I was at a slightly crazy place eating exotic food and listening to strange, but top notch live bands.

I had a great time, did this twice or so!

Caveat:
I think that only worked because I am one of the lucky guys who have a stable family bond and also know that.
Gives you the safety to try stuff without fearing some none-recoverable loss.

The bike with which I had problems at my workplace had an aluminium frame.
The one at the blockaded turning lane already was my new steel bike, though.

But I guess the amount of ferromagnetic metal does make a difference nonetheless.

Here in Germany the induction loops are paved over with regular asphalt, so without a sign reminding them of their presence, you won’t notice them.

For this to consider, you have to know there is a induction loop present in the first place.
While many have a sign beside them, others don’t (e.g. the one of my tale).
Had another unmarked one activating the moving entrance barrier at my former workplace.
First time standing there I got really irritated, as I didn’t find a way to open the barrier for me, until realizing the thing with the induction loop. After that, laying my bike down for a second became my every-morning-ritual before work ;-)

What really annoys me is when there’s an induction loop for cars

Those only annoy me when on a bike, as they often are not sensitive enough to realize you are there.
This led to many annoying and one somewhat funny situation:

I was first in line at a at a the time busy turn lane with hidden induction loop, and inadvertently bringing the traffic in the district to a grinding halt as the cars behind me started rapidly pilling up, even blocking the previous intersection.

After 5 or 6 minutes fruitless waiting things started working again when I finally decided to convert to bicycle-pushing pedestrian mode to cross the intersection on foot instead, and the car behind me moving up then activated the induction loop that I didn’t knew about until then…

Maybe they are really not active, in which case you might just be happy about it.
Thing is, in practically all cases I know of, the buttons having an actual function worsens the situation for pedestrians.
They don’t give you an advantage if you press them compared to the regular cycle, but give you substantial disadvantages for not pressing (being not even considered, pedestrian light just stays red forever…)

That’s the reason why they are commonly called Bettelampeln (“begging lights”) here in Germany, as you have to basically beg to even be considered as traffic participant sometime during the next cycle.

It might depend on the time of day.
Many of this begging-buttons are only active during times of low pedestrian frequency where I live, during other times the lights just turn green each time during the overall traffic light cycle.
Might also depend on other factors, the traffic lights are individually programmed to fit the specific needs at each location.

Why does it look exactly like a yearbook picture of a 15 year old youth attending trade school in 2026, though???