It’s almost July, which means 2021 is just about halfway done, and yet here we still are in pandemic mode.
A quote
“Each year that passes rings you inwardly with memory and might. Wield your heart, and the world will tremble.” - Doran the Siege Tower
The world:
- Last Thursday, former PH President Noynoy Aquino III passed away quietly. This led to the usual condolences and accolades from across the political spectrum, although many noted the delay in the palace issuing a statement (I suspect it was because the current president was still asleep). Many of his friends and supporters came out with stories of his time in office, many portraying him as misunderstood, uncharismatic, and quiet; holding his emotions close to his chest, but devoted to the job. My favorite entry is this post by his former speechwriter. His legacy was tainted by several problems and a lot of black propaganda near the tail end of his term, leading many online to preface their accolades with phrases like “He wasn’t perfect, but…”, perhaps to avoid being tagged with the divisive “Dilawan” label or to avoid being targetted by the hordes of online trolls. This is silly; no one is perfect, so such a preface is unnecessary. All presidents have their pros and cons, their accomplishments and faults, but Noynoy was unquestionably better overall than his murderous successor, and arguably over his probably corrupt predecessor as well. I didn’t vote for him in 2010, and I had my fair share of criticisms especially over his transport policies, but the man deserved better. (Maybe the political opponents are worried about prophecy?)
- Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily prints its final issue after arrests and funds frozen from a government crackdown due to “national security” issues, furthur cementing China’s control over their wayward territory and taking away HK’s democratic freedoms
- YouTube taking down videos documenting Xinjiang human rights violations?
- Microsoft announces Windows 11, which includes the ability to run Android apps. It’s a free upgrade from Windows 10, but some PCs might not be able to run it.
- Youtube: Conan O’Brien says goodbye to late night
Links of interest:
- The demise of amateur content is mostly giving tips for content marketers (yuk!) but I found it interesting to read about Google’s algorithm updates. It just reinforces my view that chasing SEO is a ridiculous thing to be doing.
- How do you know what’s true?: a short video about the Rashomon effect
- Chapter 9: Community - this is part of a series on the history of the web and covers some of the early pre-social media online communities: Geocities, Neopets, Wikipedia, Fanfiction.net, etc.
- CSS responsive table with fixed column and row headers and scroll snap, no JavaScript! This is amazing if you’re a web dev.
- YouTube: FooFighters hold the first in person concert in New York after reopening, to a fully vaccinated audience, with guest Dave Chapelle singing Radiohead’s Creep
- Reddit: AITA for calling my SIL a racist after she compared my cooking to “making kung pao chicken”?
- Twitter: TIL about Dark Fish
- Twitter: Italian fiance on pineapple on pizza. “I cannot continue to live here”
Visit the Links page for more links of interest.
From the archives, this week in history:
- 2019: MagicFest Seattle, my last big Magic tournament
- 2017: Quite possibly the best MTG shitpost of all time: The M10 Rules Changes Never Happened
- 2015: Grand Prix Singapore, my first Modern GP
- 2008: I bought my first laptop! I still have this laptop somewhere in the house, but the keyboard and battery are pretty unusable already
My stuff:
- Still sketching; this week, I really liked my rendition of The Human Torch:
- Watching:
- Movies: Actually managed to watch three movies this week: the just-released-on-Netflix Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021), final Moore Bond film A View To A Kill (1985); and the very poorly reviewed Transformers: The Last Knight: 2017.
- I also managed to finish binge-watching the award-winning comedy Schitt’s Creek and also catch up on Boku No Hero Academia season 5. This week’s Loki was still meh for me, I need more exciting MCU stuff! Rick and Morty first episode for the season was ok, but it led to some discussions with friends about how it’s a very mean-spirited show lol.
- Gaming:
- Finally finished the main game of Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4! I was thinking of taking a break from the game afterwards, since I’ve been playing it for like 2 months now, but a friend insisted I do the Frozen Wilds DLC (I assume because it’s good?!?) so I might do that and maybe also attempt a Platinum run?
- Still playing Guilty Gear Strive during weeknights and generally being a scrub online. At least I’m using a second character now!
- Regular Saturday group played some Root and Blood Rage this weekend.
- Steam Sale is ongoing right now, but my discipline is holding and no damage so far, though I am considering Hades and some other small games
- Reading: Still reading: Linchpin by Seth Godin.
- Trivia team got third place in this week’s comedy-themed About Quiz and third place overall for the current season. Could be better!
This coming week:
- New Loki, Rick and Morty, etc episodes.
- Had a few more family errands and escort missions to do this week, and probably a few more in the weeks to come. Kind of disruptive to the daily rhythms, but it is what it is.
See Also