Category: COVID-19

The New Facebook Emoji

Every man dog an millipede on the planet has surely seen it by now. Facebook has invented a new “care” emoji of a yellow smiley hugging a heart, presumably intended for users to show support for others during COVID-19.

Not surprisingly, reaction has been mixed and the memes have already started coming thick and fast. A compilation of memes is available here

Memes have already started coming thick and fast

But such mundane matters don’t concern me as I continue to achieve awesomeness at Spider Solitaire

What do you guys think of the new “care” emoji? And yes, I don’t care is a perfectly valid answer. 😊 Let me know in the comments below

Blogging to escape from it all

It’s almost a year since I started my blog. My initial motivation for this blog was I found a Spider Solitaire server that had strange behaviour: if you won too many games, it would stack the cards against you. I have even published a paper about it. I also noted that very few people know how to play well. My brother can play a decent (but not “professional-level”) game, but I’ve seen some absolutely horrible vids by random people who think they know the game better than the mathematics of neural qubits

Throughout my blogging, it has been challenging to find ways to “keep it fresh”. Blogging gives us a chance to improve our writing skills, but there are other important aspects such as judging what turns other bloggers “on/off” and finding the right bloggers to network with etc. Should I include in-depth articles on strategy or focus on silly stories? Should I discuss mathematics or share 68,73,67,75 80,73,67,83 (just kidding)? Should I keep an eye out for news? What happens if a big SS tournament occurs and I miss the boat? I quickly figured out silly stories have their advantages. And we can always learn from the writing of others. Who knows – maybe one day my blogging skills can come in handy in ways we cannot anticipate?

Blogging also gives us an outlet after a hard day at work (or otherwise!) and it is obviously more relevant in these difficult times. I was particularly inspired by the post from Kris P. People may share lame jokes or you-tube vids on Facebook, play the absolute worst computer games ever known to mankind or post 68,73,67,75 80,73,67,83 on Twitter (just kidding) – but at the end of the day, they are just human beings winding down after surviving whatever life throws at them.

It would surprise nobody that today many bloggers are discussing the COVID-19 situation even if their usual subject material is unrelated. This is my first post about COVID-19, or more precisely, “escaping” from COVID-19.

Many thanks to anyone who reads my blog and/or other bloggers who share some of my interests (e.g. mathematics). Blogging has been a fantastic journey for me so far and I look forward to playing more Spider Solitaire and sharing 68,73,67,75 80,73,67,83 (just kidding).

Stay Awesome 😊