Roy Tang

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

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Jul 2021

  • Saturday gaming group decided to do a movie watch-along while we played and randomly settled on Under Siege (1992) for some reason. I’d never seen it before and several times I said “Isn’t this just Die Hard on a boat?” and apparently that was a universal consensus. Very 90s. Unsurprisingly this is already Seagal’s best-rated movie and has a surprising number of familiar and even good actors, including Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, and Colm Meaney (Star Trek’s O’Brien)

  • License to Kill (1989): Bond film no 16, Dalton’s second and last outing is much darker and yet weaker than the first one. The first one where Bond goes rogue, driven by vengeance instead of duty. Unremarkable theme song. Villain is a drug smuggler; I guess with the collapse of the USSR they couldn’t have another Russia-centered plot. More actors look familiar as we near the 90s. Notable are a young Benicio del Toro playing a henchman and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (known for playing Shang Tsung. Dalton’s performance is mixed, and for some reason he reminds me of Sir Patrick Stewart in some scenes. Too bad he couldn’t have had a better sendoff as Bond.

  • I enjoyed this thread, but all these people posting images without naming the movie! Not everyone has seen every movie!

    Quoted tvaziri's tweet:
    Gimme one of your favorite shots in a movie from 2010–2020.
    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 5
  • I played almost all of FF8 junctioning only 1 of a spell to each stat, not considering that increasing the number might lead to better stats. Got all the way to the final boss this way, which felt impossible with my low stats #gaming

    Quoted AndyLunique's tweet:

    I played through about 20 hours of Skyrim before I was aware of fast travel in the game.

    I also got to the end of disc 1 in FF7 before realizing I could equip weapons and materia.

    Has anyone else made these kinds of mistakes?

    Posted by under notes at #gaming
    Also on: twitter / 0
  • The Living Daylights (1987): Bond film no. 15 and first of only two Dalton entries. More 80s music theme song, this time by A-ha. Much more serious in tone compared to Connery / Moore. John Rhys-Davies is here, years before Sliders or LOTR. No sci-fi mad scientist stuff this time, straight-up spy stuff (more or less). Assassinations, defections, Russia’s internal politics, Afghan rebels, weapons, smuggling, drug deals, faked deaths, etc. Might be a tiny bit too long. Surprisingly, I liked this one!

Jun 2021

  • Was stuck in a waiting room long enough to watch Downsizing (2017) on cable. Interesting sci-fi concept (miniaturizing humans to reduce consumption and avoid climate change) serving as background for a mediocre Matt Damon story.

    Posted by under notes at #movies
    Also on: mastodon twitter / 0
  • In the wee hours earlier for some reason I decided to watch Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) while playing online boardgames with friends. It was the only one of the Bayverse films I hadn’t seen yet, and now that I have that seemed like a good decision. Too long, ridiculous plot, and once again the Decepticons barely distinguishable from each other.

    The story needs a lot of suspension of disbelief. Lots of spectacle as you’d expect from Michael Bay. Surprised they managed to get Anthony Hopkins for this. John Turturro is still around, but serving only as plot exposition. They decided to introduce a new female lead that looked as close to Megan Fox as possible.

    The movie ends with Cybertron crashed into Earth, so you kind of have to suspend your belief in physics as well. Also, apparently Earth is Unicron! WTH lol.

  • Watched A View To A Kill (1985), Bond film no. 14. Moore is showing his age, luckily this is his last entry. Very 80s theme song by Duran Duran. Christopher Walken is here, as a Bond villain with a plan straight out of Superman (1978). Tanya Roberts plays a young Bond girl just 14 years before playing a middle-aged mom on That 70s Show. Random young Dolph Lundgren cameo! Kind of a ridiculous street chase scene through San Francisco. Overall not the best of Moore’s run.

  • when the pandemic ends and we can all see each other again, everyone should wear new outfits and have new abilities so that it feels like an anime timeskip

    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0
  • Yesterday I saw Octopussy (1983), Bond film no. 13. Another grounded entry with no fantastical elements, with the plot centered around geopolitical concerns. Some interesting action sequences, but overall, but I found most of the movie unremarkable. India shown as an exotic place (w/c I suppose it was to Westerners at that time) with elephants and firebreathers and whatnot all over. There was one scene where the bad guy appears to have broken a genuine Faberge egg but no one said anything lol.

  • Posted on r/Philippines: I’m looking for an old Pugad Baboy strip

    Baka merong may copy. In the strip, Patrolman Durugas has stopped Mang Dagul for a traffic violation, tapos pinilisopo sya ni Dagul, so binigyan sya ng ticket, nakasulat “violation: pilosopo”

    I would guess it’s from the early books, kasi I remember medyo raw pa yung art style. Probably somewhere in books 1-3, kasi I have book 4 here, parang mas polished na yung art.

    Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

    (Bakit walang flair na “Question”? Sige na nga, “Culture” na lang)

  • Wait, what? Including the Philippines? What are our regulations here that would prevent this privacy-protecting feature?

    Quoted peard33's tweet:
    Apple said a new “private relay” feature designed to obscure users’ web browsing behavior from internet service providers and advertisers will not be available in China for regulatory reasons. Same in Belarus, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Philippines & more. via @StephenNellis
    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0
  • For Your Eyes Only (1981): Bond film no. 12. After the sci-fi fantasy of Moonraker, this one is more grounded and down-to-Earth, a callback to early Connery adventures. No megamalomaniacs to defeat, just foreign agents and mercs. The opening sequence pays homage to the earlier pre-Moore films, acknowledging the death of Tracy Bond and killing off a villain that looks suspiciously like arch-nemesis Blofeld. The opening song is pretty good. The rest of the film was ok, if a bit forgettable. I liked the rock climbing scene, but the ski chase and car chases felt like things we’ve seen before. Also, Moore is starting to show his age.

    Melina Havelock (portrayed by Carole Bouquet) reminded me a lot of DC’s Huntress - a crossbow-wielding woman out for revenge

  • Repost from kelfabie:

    If you are old enough, remember when the internet was shiny and new and we all thought it would be the cure for stupidity because everyone would have access to the world’s information at the click of a mouse?

    How wrong we were.

    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0
  • Would love to be proven wrong, but I dont think they would withdraw the face shield mandate because that would involve admitting to a mistake.

    Quoted gideonlasco's tweet:
    It will take around 500 years for face shields to decompose, but it will only take 5 seconds for IATF to admit that they made a mistake in requiring it in all settings.
    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0
  • Watched Moonraker (1979). Spectacular opening sequence. Villain reminds me of Tyrion Lannister. California -> Venice -> Rio de Janeiro. Mandatory canal chase while in Venice, obviously. Lots of of product placement. A bad guy tried to ambush 007 with a KENDO STICK. Have they heard of guns? Comically indestructible assassin Jaws appears again, and actually has a character arc this time. First half of the movie was kind of meh, but the last third of the film with the space station and the laser battles and the ridiculous villain plan kind of won me over with how campy it all was.

  • Cops should just be banned from drinking while carrying weapons. Or from drinking altogether maybe. Either way is fine. (Enforcement would be tough)

    Quoted manilabulletin's tweet:
    LOOK: A police officer lies dead after a fellow police shot him when the latter β€œlost in an arm wrestling” during a drinking session in Quezon City, police bared Tuesday, citing narrative of a witness. (πŸ“Έ: QCPD-PIO) | via @mbseppedrajas
    Cops should just be banned from drinking while carrying weapons. Or from drinking altogether maybe. Either way is fine. (Enforcement would be tough)
Quoted manilabulletin's tweet:   LOOK: A police officer lies dead after a fellow police shot him when the latter β€œlost in an arm wrestling” during a drinking session in Quezon City, police bared Tuesday, citing narrative of a witness. (πŸ“Έ: QCPD-PIO) | via @mbseppedrajas
    Cops should just be banned from drinking while carrying weapons. Or from drinking altogether maybe. Either way is fine. (Enforcement would be tough)
Quoted manilabulletin's tweet:   LOOK: A police officer lies dead after a fellow police shot him when the latter β€œlost in an arm wrestling” during a drinking session in Quezon City, police bared Tuesday, citing narrative of a witness. (πŸ“Έ: QCPD-PIO) | via @mbseppedrajas
    Posted by under notes at
    Also on: twitter / 0

May 2021