Roy Tang

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

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All entries tagged philippines.

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Aug 2021

  • Weeknotes 2021-08-15
    A quote: “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” - Eckhart Tolle The world: We are one week into the current NCR ECQ lockdown. Covid19 and the Delta variant continue to rampage through the country; the DOH reported 14k+ new cases today, the 2nd highest daily rate since the pandemic started, the positive testing rate staying above 20% for more than a week (signaling not enough testing - WHO recommended rate is 5%).

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  • Weeknotes 2021-08-08
    A quote: “Ask yourself: Why am I seeing and feeling this? How am I growing? What am I learning? Remember: Every coincidence is potentially meaningful. How high your awareness level is determines how much meaning you get from your world.” – Ansel Adams via Nitch via Swiss-Miss The world: Metro Manila is back under Enhanced Community Quarantine, this is season 3. The delta variant continues to spread, and the case counts over the past couple of days have reached peaks not seen since April.

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  • Performative Politics
    I read this article about how a US Democratic representative says his Republican colleagues are like WWE wrestlers (excuse me, they’re called “Superstars”) who behave differently in private versus in public. Basically their politics are performative, they act a certain way in public to appeal to their bases, but in private they don’t actually really believe in many of the things they say in public. It speaks to a certain lack of integrity and deceptiveness.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-08-01
    It’s August! A quote: “Here’s the thing: there is no real life. There is no full, meaningful, “best life.” There are, at best, more and less meaningful pursuits, from your perspective, based on your upbringing, imprinting, and your own specific cocktail of longings. It is natural for us to feel anxiety about how we spend our limited time. No matter how happy you convince yourself to be, you will sometimes feel the vague ache of other possible lives.

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Jul 2021

  • Weeknotes 2021-07-25
    A quote: “I just wanna keep being proof that good people with no hidden agendas still exist in this world.” - @diorkenn on Twitter The world: This past week in Metro Manila was very cold and rainy, which came with the attendant problems like flooding and such. There’s a typhoon nearby, but I don’t think it’s in the PAR; instead it’s just doing this thing where it drags in rains and winds via the Habagat monsoon.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-07-18
    A quote: “The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.” - George Eliot The world: Fitch downgrades PH credit rating outlook to “negative” Pacquiao ousted from PDP-Laban by an opposing faction, just as he’s preparing for his upcoming fight. Covid-19 delta variant has been detected in the PH, let’s hope the government can keep it under control. Valve has announced the Steam Deck, a handheld PC for playing Steam games Links of interest: Hobson’s Browser: How Apple, Facebook, and Google Broke the Mobile Browser Market by Silently Undermining User Choice The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-07-11
    A quote: “You are the books you read the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner. You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. You are every single second of every single day.

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  • On Being President
    During a company holiday party in the mid-2000s our theme was “statement shirts” and I decided to jokingly go with a somewhat tight-fitting purple shirt with the caption “ROY TANG FOR PRESIDENT”: I’m not even running yet and I already have opposition! (Click to view full-size) I'm not even running yet and I already have opposition! 8 Jul 2021 11:33amClose (This was the best picture of the shirt I could find; It’s probably still in the house somewhere, but it probably wouldn’t fit me anymore.

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    Posted by under post at #philippines
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  • ComSat and CompShops
    I was on a Twitch chat for a local streamer yesterday and someone bought up the term “comsat”, popular in local computer shop or “compshop” (also called “internet cafes”) culture. In the context of multiplayer games, it means to spy on what your opponent is doing by peeking at his screen. I’ve never heard this term used other than by Filipino gamers, so I have reason to believe it’s a local thing.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-07-04
    It’s the Fourth of July, which really only means something in the US. Over here it used to be “Philippine-American Friendship Day”, but apparently that was phased out while I was still in grade school. A quote “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” - W. Churchill The world: Our current president and one of our possible future presidents, who are ostensibly allies / partymates have been feuding over the past week.

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Jun 2021

May 2021

  • Weeknotes 2021-05-23
    It’s the last week of May (more or less), and I’m mostly looking forward to a new month because I’m tired of ridiculous summer heat and I’m hoping the sun tones it down a bit in June. The one aircon we have in the house has been busted all summer, so we have been suffering through the heat and surviving mostly through stacking multiple fans and also an excessive number of showers.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-05-16
    A quote “Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a premeditated murder of minutes. The violence comes from a combination of giving up, not caring, and a resignation that getting past it is all you can hope to accomplish. So you kill the hour. You do not work, you do not read, you do not daydream. If you sleep it is not because you need to sleep.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-05-09
    This post is being published a day late. Things happen okay? Sometimes you get busy and things need to be pushed back. The world: like the thug that he is, our dear president claimed that the arbitral award ruling in the PH’s favor was nothing more than a sheet of paper he could easily discard. He also challenged former justice Antonio Carpio to a debate over the West Philippine Sea issue, a challenge the latter quickly accepted.

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  • Reply to 'Hindi pa ba ito treason worthy statement?' on /r/Philippines:

    This mindset reflects someone who doesn’t respect institutions or the law or civilized agreements, and basically respects only one thing: power. That’s why he thinks people who oppose China want war and why he doesn’t want to offend China, power is all he sees and values, like the thug that he is. For this kind of person, you can’t be right because of the law or because of principle, or because of justice, you can only be right if you had the ability to enforce that right. Basically the type of leader who would just collaborate with any invaders who managed to overpower us and would say wag na lang tayo gumawa ng gulo, andyan na e.

    Posted by under notes at #Philippines
    Also on: reddit / 0

  • Weeknotes 2021-05-02
    It’s already May? April felt like it came and went so quickly. But then again, time has little meaning in this accursed pandemic. The world: The brouhaha over community pantries (as described last week), seems to have calmed down and they are now generally coordinating with LGUs for assistance in maintaining health protocols Meanwhile, the government has embarked on a propaganda campaign to assert that we aren’t the worst in terms of pandemic response in the world Certain congress people continue to promote the usage of the drug Ivermectin, which has no known effect on Covid-19, as a Covid-19 cure or something.

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Apr 2021

  • Weeknotes 2021-04-25: Game Jammin'
    I’ve been a bit busy this weekend (see below), so this post is running a bit late. The world: An ongoing saga right here in the Philippines: Last weekend, community pantries for the needy started sprouting up in Metro Manila and all over the country, largely inspired by one started in Maginhawa here in Quezon City. The central idea was “give what you can, take what you need.” Stories spread of heartwarming stories like a poor old man donating some food even though he had very little and an ice cream vendor giving away the remnants of his cart for the day to those in the queue.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-04-18
    I’m not sure what to think of this past week, feels like it went by quickly. I may have spent too much of it daydreaming. The world: NCR+ bubble is now one week into modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ - an acronym that makes no sense). Cases still seem to be pretty high on a day-to-day basis, though we’re told the R number is dropping slightly, so that’s good I guess?

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  • Weeknotes 2021-04-11
    The world: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth’s husband, has passed away. So has DMX, American rapper. Big facebook breach reported, etc. Doesn’t seem like news, really. My phone number was among the data leaked. The country is still experiencing a surge in cases, hospitals and ICUs still bursting to capacity. Yet in spite of the crisis, the president has not been around. This has prompted questions of whether he’s still alive.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-04-04
    It’s April! Or as it’s otherwise known, March 2020 month 13. As is usual, we are suffering the sweltering summer heat. Also, it’s Easter Sunday, if that means anything to you. The world: Surprising almost no one, the PH government extended the ECQ lockdown in the NCR+ bubble. Anyone with half a brain could have told you that the one week ECQ was no way going to be enough, given what we know about the virus’ life cycle.

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Mar 2021

  • Weeknotes 2021-03-28
    It’s the last weekend of March. It feels like the month went by quickly. The world: Local covid response: The government introduced the concept of an “NCR Plus” bubble last Monday, restricting travel in and out of the NCR and adjacent provinces, in response to the rising cases. Still, the daily counts kept rising, hitting record highs of almost 10k cases daily. Even before the dust has settled on the bubble response, they decided to announce last night a reversion to the stricter ECQ.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-03-21
    The world: Over the past couple of days, our nationwide daily covid cases broke 7000+, the highest recorded so far. Have to be super careful when going out for errands. Not that I wasn’t being careful even before, mind you. Just now, government has announced we are still under GCQ (see my post about the PH quarantine levels), but with more restrictions, etc. Looks like they are still hesitant to provide a stronger lockdown which would require paying people to stay home so they don’t starve to death.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-03-14
    Happy Pi Day! The world: It’s the one year anniversary of the world’s longest lockdown. In some kind of sick anniversary celebration, local covid cases are on the rise. Yesterday, 5000 new cases were reported, the highest daily rate in 6 months or so. And now a Philippine variant has been detected. Now is not the time to be complacent, we all need to be more careful. The government seems unwilling to impose another widespread ECQ and are focusing on targetted, granular lockdowns.

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  • Weeknotes 2021-03-07
    March has begun. Did it ever really end? The world: Vaccination finally starts in the country, with initial donated batches of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccine arriving in the country. Just in time for the one year anniversary of the world’s longest lockdown. SinoVac isn’t the best choice, but many of my doctor friends say they’ll settle for it if that’s what’s available for them. I think QC is planning to use AstraZeneca for their citizens, but worrying is that AZ’s efficacy has been shown to be not so good against certain variants such as the South African one, which has already been detected in the country.

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Feb 2021

Jan 2021

  • Pinoy Drawing Memes
    Pinoy Drawing Memes
    A while back I saw this tweet talking about drawing memes from before the internet, and I was reminded that was a thing we had around here too when we were kids! We had our own version of that “giraffe in the window” drawing, except the one I remember was made so that you could switch the answer to “cat hugging a pole outside the window” to troll whoever you were asking to guess:

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Dec 2020

Aug 2020

  • Weeknotes 2020-08-16 The Sameyness Report
    These weeknotes are coming in late in the day because of reasons. (The reasons being laziness and procrastination.) Actually, I feel like I’ve been kind of phoning in the weeknotes over the past few weeks, they’ve mostly been “hey, I’ve been busy, so nothing of significance happened, but here are some things I watched/played.” Supposedly one of the side effects of writing regular updates is that you tend to look out for more interesting things to do so you have something to write about, even on an unconscious level.

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  • Weeknotes 2020-08-09
    Still kind of busy, although there’s a bunch of things I hope I can finally wrap up this week, so I can move on to the long list of other things I want to be doing. The world continues to be bleak, so I’m still hiding from it. My stuff: Forty-two. I thought about just merging these into a single post for the day, but nah, this seems better. Reworking the old charity side project still ongoing.

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  • Weeknotes 2020-08-02
    Kind of a busy week for me again, so the week kind of passed me by quickly. It’s August! In one month it will be (PH) Christmas season! It feels like July went by more quickly than other quarantine months. My stuff: A bit of consulting work. Reworking the old charity side project still ongoing. I was hoping to finish all the changes last week and next week would be testing and deployment, but stuff got in the way (and estimates may have been a bit off), but the spillover is small and we should still be fine for finishing everything next week.

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Jul 2020

Jun 2020

May 2020

  • Equal Protections
    A recent post on Cory Doctorow’s pluralistic blog had a really good take on the general worldview of “the right”, describing it as “mafia logic”. I’m going to quote a huge chunk of it here: This follows perfectly from the second definition. The purpose of the law is to protect the rightful rulers, so the law can’t – by definition – punish them. And it is “mafia logic.” Holbo was talking about Michael Gove – a UK Tory Minister – excusing his the Prime Minister’s advisor Dominick Cummings repeatedly breaking the quarantine rules that Cummings is responsible for creating and enforcing.

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  • ABS-CBN, Bias, and Press Freedom
    A bit of brouhaha a couple of weeks ago after the National Telecommunications Commission ordered the country’s biggest broadcaster ABS-CBN to cease operations because Congress had been remiss in renewing their franchise.. This despite the NTC earlier promising they can operate provisionally while the franchise renewal is being processed, a change of heart apparently due to a legal opinion by the SolGen. Some thoughts: “Bias” The speaker of the house says:

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Mar 2020

Feb 2020

  • A Different Kind of Revolution
    I watched a little bit of the Senate hearing yesterday on the ABS-CBN franchise renewal issues. One of the senators, a known lackey of the president claimed that while the president was not vindictive, “kung masama ka sa kanya, masama din sya sa yo” (I’m not sure the senator understood what vindictive means). One of the ABS head honchos later made a statement that they were “sorry if they had offended the president” even though they were just following all the relevant laws, or something to that effect.

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