TIFU by Countering loneliness by adding every worldwide holiday to my Microsoft Outlook calendar

Submitted by -speedrunner- t3_zecsz9 in tifu

It's the holidays, right? Of course, I don't *really* have friends. I work alone and report to a bigger team, never got teammates. TLDR; I'm the funniest person on my team! Anyways~ I research, plan, and schedule major actions for community inclusivity. Upper division teams reference my calendar. I help give voice and help a ton of people daily. It felt ironic to be isolated for the holidays. I think I cried the last two days.

Yesterday was despair (Mondays usually are to be fair). I rewatched The Ramones' interviews, read successes. Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny, Tommy, Marky, CJ, Ritchie. They came from nothing, made art with what they had, and always invited everyone. Btw, did you know ducks visit Dee Dee's grave? It's so cute. Anyways, like Joey, I responsibly tried, reached out to my only two friends, they have plans for ..2023, I guess. I have a veeery small family, of that, most died from cancer (so did 3/4ths of The Ramones, apparently). Ya know, normal stuff.

This morning at work, I revisited that this emptiness is endless. I tried to action-plan myself and figured the whole world's holidays exist. Each day is a new theme to celebrate while we *hopefully* fly through the holidays.

So, I swiftly opened Outlook > Calendar Settings, chose all 195+ countries A to Z, didn't think much of it, synced results. I opened my calendar and it's fucked. I can't fix it. I have a couple Constitution Days from Thailand, St. Lucia, Sweden, Republic Day in Malta, National Day in Bahrain, I'm apparently celebrating Christmas, Boxing Day, and After-Christmas for like 4 days, Hannukah eight times in various countries, like 14 New Years for like four days. The plus sides are I will be super festive and should have chances to get a tooon of presents. I also noticed January 2023 looks diverse af! I'm lowkey excited for it. These new holidays go all way til 2026.

...I have to submit my calendar to the upper division teams every few weeks and as they request. I tried spending time deleting listings but there's just too many, literally the world. I guess this is my new life and chapter. I'll mask my loneliness and say I'm on a mission to learn. My company will have to accept me. So as follows: Happy St. Nicholas Day to Belgium, Germany, and Hungary. Foundation of Quito (Equador's Capital!) for Ecuador, Congratulations for Constitution Day and Independence Day for Spain and Finland respectively. If I missed someone or something, blame Microsoft.

Edit: Aside from 100+ Christmas and Religious holidays, Happy AZNAC Day + Remembrance to Australia and New Zealand.

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KreePea- t1_iz5syar wrote

Lol! That's not a fuck up, you are the diversity planner. You can just say you wanted to be as inclusive as possible. :)

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-speedrunner- OP t1_iz6q57k wrote

Haha yeah, I was considering this approach to save face.
Edit- I will say looking over a few holidays, it gave me more ideas for outreach. I usually have to research this stuff myself. I am actually happy to have so much data with accidental effort.

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metapzl t1_iz71klw wrote

  1. Go to your Calendar, View in the top Ribbon tab, Change View > List
  2. Top Search bar, use the Current Folder scope, search "category:(holiday)"
  3. See all the search results in the list below? Ctrl+A to select all, then Delete
  4. Try not to feel too lonely? *hug*
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-speedrunner- OP t1_j0ejx4a wrote

Thank you 🥹🥰

I tried and it did not work (idk why) I ended up making 2 calendars. It looks pretty good.

Thank you again!

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Ser_Artur_Dayne t1_iz6fpne wrote

Submit a ticket to IT, they might be able to bulk delete for you

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-speedrunner- OP t1_iz6qfs4 wrote

Kinda doubtful they can. The holidays are synced like events. I'll probably clear my days as they come.

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SinisterYear t1_iz6xhcm wrote

If it's o365 you'd be extremely surprised what we are able to do. PowerShell makes it very easy to undo something once we figure out how Microsoft actually does it on the backend.

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-speedrunner- OP t1_iz70172 wrote

sounds good =] I'll consider reaching out if the holidays conflict w/my duties. My workday just ended and I kinda didn't mind it.

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BadSanna t1_iz5we90 wrote

In Google you can do that with a setting

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WhyIsIsTakenTaken t1_iz6s991 wrote

That's how to be inclusive!

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-speedrunner- OP t1_iz6vcz6 wrote

Haha thank you! March 6th, 2023 seems to be a shockingly lucky line-up

  • Taanit Ester
  • Lailat al-Baraat
  • Makha Bucha/Puja
  • Awakening of Insects (Jing Zhe)
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zedexcelle t1_iz7bbk0 wrote

Taanit Ester is the fast day before Purim. Very lucky day indeed. Esther fasted for 3 days including this one before approaching the King to ask that he NOT destroy the Jews;.it's the day before the planned annihilation of the Jews, which the Jews were specially allowed to fight back. One wonders why the order to slaughter the Jews wasn't just, y'know, rescinded.

It's not a big fast. But compared to some of the others (commemorating the destruction of the temple, for example), it is much lighter.

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-speedrunner- OP t1_j0ek9xe wrote

It’s a really nice day! I was reading about the history alongside the other holidays.

They all have similar encouragement and happiness vibes. I hope I have a good day in March 6th.

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DistressedSunbeam t1_iz7enqb wrote

On a side note, have you considered volunteering to help serve a meal at a church, VA, or shelter for Christmas? I did as a child, and also after a divorce…it’s oddly therapeutic to give back and be reminded that you’re still lucky.

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-speedrunner- OP t1_j0ekn79 wrote

Yes. I actually have work doing something similar for my community most of December, I work thru holidays.

The time and days inbetween is slow sometimes.

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missannthrope1 t1_iz7chq7 wrote

Happy Anzac Day.

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-speedrunner- OP t1_j0eowyl wrote

I’ll add it! I read the 25th of every month is regarded as Anzac Day, to remember the New Zealand + Australian soldiers who fought in WWI.

Even then, this description a huge understatement. The reality of WWI still scares me a bit. The soldiers sacrificed everything and set a heroic tone for National strength, identity, and pride. Considering the population sizes, it’s a lot of people who traveled maybe the first + last time across the world to fight for their country in WWI. In a way, the soldiers proved their nations are capable to be its own independent country.. was right! and that is super cool.

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amayernican t1_iz7vkks wrote

Wow, you're writing is top notch! Cheers and happy holidays.

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-speedrunner- OP t1_j0ekrxf wrote

Huge compliment!! You’ve made my year (the 15 days we have left), thank you!!

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amayernican t1_j0i7u0z wrote

Please tell me you're a writer.

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-speedrunner- OP t1_j0j878h wrote

haha no. i’ll pretend my alternative dimension personality is. i appreciate the kind words!

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beat-alls t1_iz9fi6p wrote

You know, I've always wanted to have a go at celebrating every holiday for one year. I think it would get way too convoluted though. So many different foods, and probably a lot of conflicting traditions. I'd invite you to my Christmas if I could OP!

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-speedrunner- OP t1_j0elsw4 wrote

That’s very kind of you!! Celebrate w your loved ones. That itself makes me happy. I’m glad that kind of happiness exists.

I think it may be fun. Sometimes celebrating is just a cup of coffee* and reading about the holiday (mostly history).

*Coffee means instant coffee 😂🥹

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shyLachi t1_iz6y81a wrote

The solution seems to be quite simple if you can program.

Create an empty account and add all the holidays there too.

Then write a program which runs through all the calender entries of the empty account, deleting the matching calender entries in your own calender.

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-speedrunner- OP t1_iz70s1l wrote

I know the basics of linux, kali, sql, python. Programming definitely takes practice and I do not know it all.

My work computer is very restricted, I can't create a second email account but I'm sure there's a solution similar to the theme you stated.

I was considering making two calendars as well. I may do it manually. I'll see how busy my winter workflow is because it will definitely take a nonstop day or so.

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