Roy Tang

Programmer, engineer, scientist, critic, gamer, dreamer, and kid-at-heart.

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Aug 2020

Jul 2020

  • Pandemic thoughts and updates, July 26 edition:

    • Watching mass via Facebook again today. The nearby Church actually holds services, but last I heard it was only 10 people per mass, and need to call ahead of time. It doesn’t seem likely we’ll be going anytime soon.
    • grocery run yesterday, without incident
    • last Thursday I finally got a haircut my last one was around New Year’s Day, so this was around six and a half months of hair cut off. I didn’t go to a barbershop, this was a home service haircut, care of a lady who works at a neighboring salon, who actually came over to do some home care service for my mom.
    • As of last night, we are at 78412 cases (+2019 from the day before, +13108 from last week, slight acceleration week-on-week), 1897 deaths (+20 from the day before, +224 from last week, lower jump than last week), 25752 recoveries (+1278 from the day before, +3685 from last week, much less than last week’s jump). The admin claims that if we breach 85k cases by end-July, Metro Manila may go back to NCQ. First, that seems likely to happen so we’ll see. Second, it seems a bit unfair and illogical to make Metro Manila’s quarantine status dependent on national case numbers, but whatever. Reference.
    • Worldwide, we are at 16.2M cases (+1.8M from last week, slight acceleration) and almost 650k deaths. The US retains a comfortable lead over second placer Brazil. Caveat: these numbers are from Worldometer.
    Posted by under notes at #covid19
    / 0

  • Wow. I havent read Real Life Comics in probably a decade (wasnt even aware it was still running!), but that’s some powerful stuff

    Quoted reallifecomics's tweet:

    Epiphany - a 15-part series.

    1/4

    Wow. I havent read Real Life Comics in probably a decade (wasnt even aware it was still running!), but that’s some powerful stuff Quoted reallifecomics's tweet: Epiphany - a 15-part series. 1/4
    Wow. I havent read Real Life Comics in probably a decade (wasnt even aware it was still running!), but that’s some powerful stuff Quoted reallifecomics's tweet: Epiphany - a 15-part series. 1/4
    Wow. I havent read Real Life Comics in probably a decade (wasnt even aware it was still running!), but that’s some powerful stuff Quoted reallifecomics's tweet: Epiphany - a 15-part series. 1/4
    Wow. I havent read Real Life Comics in probably a decade (wasnt even aware it was still running!), but that’s some powerful stuff Quoted reallifecomics's tweet: Epiphany - a 15-part series. 1/4
    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0

  • Pandemic thoughts and updates, July 19 edition:

    • only left the house once all week, to get cash from an ATM.
    • Watching mass via Facebook again today
    • A couple of weeks ago, someone I knew had someone in their household (a medical worker) test positive for the virus. Now everyone in their household is staying in separate rooms and eating separately while they wait to be tested. After a week and a half, out of 5 adults who need to be tested, only 2 have been tested and gotten their results (prioritized because they were seniors). How can we make decisions with this kind of lag on testing and getting results?
    • As of last night, we are at 65304 cases (+2357 from the day before, +11082 from last week, roughly same slope as last week), 1773 deaths (+113 from the day before, +401 from last week, this is a huge jump), 22067 recoveries (+321 from the day before, +8030 from last week, also a huge jump). Reference.
    • Worldwide, we are at 14.4M cases (+1.6M from last week) and around 605k deaths. Three countries have now broken 1M cases: USA, Brazil and India. Caveat: these numbers are from Worldometer.
    Posted by under notes at #covid19
    / 0
  • Repost from kevinleeme:

    1/ There’s a fascinating story of a normal guy named Allen Hemberger who became obsessed with the Alinea cookbook. He spent 5 years re-creating all 107 recipes.

    There’s an extremely valuable lesson in this process for anyone thinking about taking the leap to become a creator.

    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0

  • Wait, did the PH really express support?!?

    Quoted Comrad_Euro's tweet:

    GREEN - Countries that expressed support for Chinese interment of Uighurs

    RED - countries that expressed opposition to it

    The Islamic world is beyond pathetic, not only are they not against it but they’re giving vocal support to an atheist government reeducating Muslims

    Amazing

    Wait, did the PH really express support?!? Quoted Comrad_Euro's tweet: GREEN - Countries that expressed support for Chinese interment of Uighurs RED - countries that expressed opposition to it The Islamic world is beyond pathetic, not only are they not against it but they’re giving vocal support to an atheist government reeducating Muslims Amazing
    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0

  • Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0.

    Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4

    Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today.

    Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0. The sad thing about this format is that you tend to spend more time with the suckier decks and not enough time with the fun ones. (I know, I know, that’s actually up to me, but I want to sample as many pairs as possible!)

    Attempt 5: Archeology Under The Sea. Why did I go monocolor again? 2-6. Deck was fun, but way too slow (check out that “curve”). Aaaaand I’m out of gold, so that’s enough JumpStart for a while.

    Attempt 6: Dinosaurs Reanimated. 2-1. Power level reasonably high, with removal coming mostly from the green side (surprisingly!).

    Attempt 7: Vampires Devilish. Quick 2-1. Kinda boring, but eh. Way too many fours.

    Attempt 8: Liliana Tree Hugging. 3-3. Played a bit extra to complete my quest.

    Attempt 9: Milling Wizards. 2-0. My first repeat! As usual, Milling is super strong.

    Video of attempts 8 and 9 here:

    Quoted roytang's tweet:
    Played two Jumpstarts! YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1KtPh_xoLo

    Attempt 10: Chandra Angels. 2-2. Losses were due to clunky hands (drawings fives and sixes while being stuck at 3-4 lands)

    Attempt 11: Witchcraft Goblins. 2-1. The wins were due to the opponent timing out or randomly quitting early, so that sucks. Out of gold again so I’ll just keep this one around for daily quests for a while.

    Attempts 12-14! Rogues Cats 2-1, Seismic Predatory 2-3, Phyrexian Plus One 2-3

    Video here:

    Quoted roytang's tweet:
    Played 3 Jumpstart decks! YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHCF4vLlcKQ

    Attempts 15-17! Rogues Above the Clouds 2-3, Smashing Legion 2-4 (forgot to get a deck list screenshot for this one), Dinosaur Dogs 2-0. YT of the games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG6-lNKfyis

    Attempts 18-19! Seismic Doctor (DAMNIT 5th Lavamancer!) 2-2, Basri Walls 2-1. Still missing Garruk and Teferi =/

    JumpStart Attempt 20, the final one for this set (a nice round number): Reanimated Teferi. Got one of the two missing PW packets, although this combination wasn’t too great, only went 2-4. Still missing the Garruk one, hopefully we get it if/when JS returns in the future

    Overall, JumpStart was a reasonably fun casual experience, and I fully expect them to bring it back every so often as I think it’s very good for the casual new player experience, especially for anyone wanting to build casual historic brews

    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Thread of #mtg JumpStart results: Attempt 1: Milling Elves, 2-0. Attempt 2: Heavily Armored Enchanted (terrible choices - no way to get things off the board, Thriving lands are bad when monocolored, annoyed whenever I draw Gird for Battle), 2-4 Attempt 3: Feathered Friends + Basri. These white decks aren’t good for my daily quests. Even less removal. 2-5. I think that’s enough for today. Attempt 4: Plus One Dragons. 2-0.
    Posted by under notes at #mtg #jumpstart
    Also on: twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter twitter / 6
  • Quoted ABSCBNNews's tweet:
    A college student was subpoenaed by the NBI Cybercrime Division for sharing a post critical of Sen. Bong Go. The student’s lawyer declined to be interviewed but confirmed that it was the senator’s lawyers who filed the complaint. | via @Nikobaua
    Quoted ABSCBNNews's tweet: A college student was subpoenaed by the NBI Cybercrime Division for sharing a post critical of Sen. Bong Go. The student’s lawyer declined to be interviewed but confirmed that it was the senator’s lawyers who filed the complaint. | via @Nikobaua
    Quoted ABSCBNNews's tweet: A college student was subpoenaed by the NBI Cybercrime Division for sharing a post critical of Sen. Bong Go. The student’s lawyer declined to be interviewed but confirmed that it was the senator’s lawyers who filed the complaint. | via @Nikobaua
    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0

    • hindi natin kaya mag “mass testing”

    • “neutral” ang president sa ABS-CBN shutdown

    • we acted “early” in response to the pandemic

    • “healthy” pa ang president

    • we have already “flattened” the curve

    Same energy.

    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0

  • If the ABS CBN shutdown was actually good for the nation, why is the president’s spokesman insistent on pretending he is neutral about it? Ever heard of a politician refusing to take credit for a good thing?

    Quoted ANCALERTS's tweet:

    Presidential spokesman Harry Roque maintained that Duterte remains “neutral” on ABS-CBN and did not have a hand in its failed franchise application bid despite the President’s fresh tirades against the embattled media giant in a recording of his speech reported by the Inquirer.

    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0
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