Next Level Escape: Ex Libris

I've somewhat started a new hobby, escape rooms, which means I'm gonna revive this blog to have a new series: escape room reviews! Warning: spoilers under "Read more" below.

I'm gonna start with the latest room I went to, which is Ex Libris from Next Level Escape.

Game Time	Time Left	# of players	Rating
75 mins	1m 58s	4 (max. 10)	★★★★☆

The Princess Diarist

I’m not a Star Wars fan. Not that big a fan anyway. I’ve watched the movies (at least the original trilogy and the new ones) and enjoyed them. However, I’ve come to love Carrie Fisher through her various appearances on talk shows and British panel shows. She was hilarious and I just love her attitude. Her passing hit me harder than I thought it would, seeing as I was never that big a fan of hers or her work, and I really don’t know much about who she is and her life story –– I didn’t even know that her parents were famous. But it really felt like we’ve lost something. I guess that feeling was enhanced by the fact that pretty much everyone I follow on Twitter, and a lot of the subreddits I’m subscribed to, genuinely loved her (and Star Wars).

I watched her appearance on 8 out of 10 Cats the day before her heart attack. I watched Rogue One the day before her death. During this time, I also watched quite a few YouTube videos about/of her and read a bit more about her family and stories about her. This is probably why her death felt more significant to me than it should have; I was learning a bit more about her, and suddenly she was gone.

TIL about "aphantasia"

On my commute to work this morning, I checked Twitter mostly for football scores (MUFC vs CPFC for the FA Cup final!); and I came across a Facebook post about a man who discovers he has "aphantasia."

Man discovers he has "aphantasia" - he can't picture things in his head - and that everyone else can: https://t.co/DMy6NVOgnx

— Kate Gray (@hownottodraw) April 24, 2016

And it blew my goddamned mind as well!

I struggled to imagine what goes on in his mind. It just comes so natural. It's much easier, for me, to "see" things before thinking up facts. If someone asks me to describe a person, I would first picture said person in my mind, and then describe what I "see," and I would find it difficult to give any sort of description if my mental image isn't very clear.

When someone gives me directions, I would "see" the route in my head. Or at least imagine it somewhat like a navigation app's display, with almost all square blocks unless noted otherwise. Then I would kinda overlay my in-head navigation to the real route to figure out where I'm going. (Side note: can't wait for AR to be a thing so I don't have to imagine this)

I wondered how he "gets" the world when reading fiction. I often correlate the quality of a fictional story with how vividly I can imagine the world (hence why the Harry Potter series is one of my favorites). Seeing this fantastical universe is the only way I know to be able to live in it and fully experience the story. How can I relate to it if I can't see it? Would it move me emotionally at all?

In college, I learned that some people can't imagine three-dimensional figures as easily as I could, which I thought was quite interesting –– wouldn't it make learning some parts of Calculus more challenging? –– but this, aphantasia, is much more fascinating. I'm having trouble imagining his world as he was finding it difficult to understand that other people can "see" things in their minds. Can he even comprehend how that works? Because I can't imagine what my mind would be like without it.

2014: The Uneventful Year

2014 was nothing compared to my 2013. Really, not much happened; I don't think I did anything new.

Isn't it a bit early for silly season?

I woke up today and browsed Twitter to find the latest news on Japanese GP FP3 and Q sessions. What greeted me instead was the news of Sebastian Vettel leaving Red Bull at the end of the season. It hasn't officially been announced, but reportedly RBR's Team Principal Christian Horner let it slip that Vettel is joining Ferrari for the 2015 F1 season.

Christian Horner confirms Sebastian Vettel is going to Ferrari. ##skyf1
— Rachel Brookes (@RachelBrookesTV) October 4, 2014

Even though it's technically unconfirmed, this would mean that either Fernando Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen is in turn leaving Ferrari. The former has been rumored to jump ship to McLaren for a few weeks now. Today, people are taking that rumor as a confirmed news item. Not saying that I'm not excited for the (possible) Raikkonen–Vettel partnership, it's just a shame that we never got to see a fully competitive Alonso–Rakkonen team. I don't quite know how Alonso leaving would work out for Ferrari since this season has proven that he's faster than his teammate. It could be because Alonso is more comfortable in the Ferrari, and that he helped develop the car, but we're almost at the end of the season and we haven't seen Kimi challenging Alonso at all. Alonso basically carries the team, like he has done the last few seasons. Ferrari needs a better car, a better engine, and hopefully we see that next season.

With Alonso (potentially) moving to McLaren, it seems likely that he will take Jenson Button's seat as the team's #1 driver. Button's teammate Kevin Magnussen is the rookie with potential, who is doing very well in his first season, including a podium finish in his first ever race. It makes sense for McLaren to keep Magnussen instead of Button. Unfortunately, this could mean the end of Button's F1 career, but I really hope it isn't. There's no logical team for him to move on to; there are only a few spots for so many racers, most of whom are young hopefuls.

...Daniil Kvyat will join Red Bull alongside Daniel Ricciardo #skyf1
— Michael Wise (@MikeWise71) October 4, 2014

On the Red Bull side of things, the seat left by Vettel will be filled by Daniil Kvyat currently of Toro Rosso. Kvyat's pairing with Daniel Ricciardo gives RBR quite a young (inexperienced?) team. 2015 will be Kvyat's second season in F1. However, if Kvyat comes in as Ricciardo did this season, RBR would be just fine. Ricciardo has surprised a lot of people, including myself, in how well he's doing, especially compared to teammate Vettel.

Now where does this leave Kvyat's current teammate Jean-Eric Vergne? He's just been leapfrogged by his rookie teammate to the RBR seat. Recently, Toro Rosso announced that they're giving Max Verstappen a seat in 2015, to make him the youngest ever F1 driver. It might make sense for Toro Rosso to now keep JEV to help Verstappen. On the other hand, it sucks for him if he's going to be continually leapfrogged by his younger teammates. Would it be too risky for Toro Rosso to have two rookies fill their seats?

And here I thought last season we saw huge changes in F1. It's got nothing on next season and we're only in October!

Deadline Day

I know I've recently blogged a number of times (1, 2, 3) about how much United has changed since Fergie left. But, I just can't help it. Yesterday was Deadline Day and it was insane. We signed Daley Blind and Radamel Falcao, after signing Angel Di Maria not a week ago. But we also lost Shinji Kagawa, Danny Welbeck, and Chicharito, who are all fan favorites. I honestly can't be too happy even with the amazing signings we got. Especially for Welbeck's departure to Arsenal. I mean...really? He's a local boy, only 23 years old, and is a great talent. I honestly thought he would stay at United until the end of his playing career.

To the right is a possible starting XI for United. It's just so unfamiliar! I mean, seven of the players weren't even here last summer. Not saying that it's not an exciting looking lineup (though I'd love a more solid defense), but it just doesn't really look like Manchester United.

Anyways... I'm still extremely upset about Welbeck, and the only thing that can cure it is United finally winning a match for a change. With a squad like this, we better be winning a lot of matches. I get that they need time to gel or whatever, but we can't play like we've played for the rest of the season. It would be great if half of our players aren't out/injured, too.

The new United?

The World Cup is over so now my attention is fully back to Manchester United. Their US pre-season tour starts with a game against LA Galaxy in a week. This will be the first sighting of the new kit, and the new manager. The new era. Most of us probably said the exact same thing last year, with the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson and the arrival of David Moyes. But it feels different this time. Even more significant, somehow. It feels like a completely new United. Although, it could feel like this just because I want to put last season behind me; forget it ever happened. Maybe I want this season to feel like a different United because I don't want last season to repeat itself. In any case, there are a lot of changes happening at the club.

2014 World Cup

Congratulations Germany! A Mario Götze winner with 7 minutes to go in extra time caps the wonderful tournament. It really had been much better than I had expected. I was never really into international football –– my usual stance of these tournaments is that I want United players to do well and come back uninjured –– but this one was special. It felt different. It was highly entertaining, even for neutrals.

From the shocking 5-1 Netherlands victory over reigning champions Spain, to the nation's heartbreak over Neymar's tournament-ending injury that lead to Brazil's collapse, the World Cup was full of shocking dramas and great football. European nations Spain, England, Italy, and Portugal had to go home early after a disappointing tournament, unable to go through the group stages. Chile and Costa Rica, on the other hand, performed above people's expectations. The home nation Brazil, in my opinion, were incredibly lucky to be able to get to the semi final (a few decisions went their way, definitely). By that stage, all three remaining teams were better than them. The 7-1 trouncing by Germany showed the difference in quality. It was without Neymar and Thiago Silva (whose absence was more significant), but Brazil's defense was in shambles and they were unable to cope with Germany's passing game. What's more surprising was the fact that Germany didn't have an unexpectedly outstanding game; they were clinical but otherwise regular by their standards. Brazil was just terrible.

The World Cup also provided us with a few records broken. Germany's win makes this the third World Cup in a row won by a European country (Italy in 2006 and Spain in 2010), which is the most times a continent has won consecutive World Cups (both the Americas and Europe had previously won 2 in a row). Germany's Miroslav Klose surpassed the goalscoring record previously held by Ronaldo, with his 16th World Cup goal (in Brazil, no less!).

It was a magnificent sporting event, but with it being over, I can't help but be excited because this means United's preseason tour is about to start!

Two signings within two days?

And one of them is a central midfielder too! Who are you and what have you done with the United I know and love? Well done, Ed! Not that we know anything about the behind-the-scene happenings over at United, but we gave you a lot of shit for the transfer failures last summer, so you deserve props when they're actually pulled off. Well, too, without the dragged out rumors.

Yesterday, United officially announced the signing of 24 year old Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera. Today, it was 18 year old English full back Luke Shaw's turn. You're spoiling us Ed!

Not that I want to get too excited and get my hopes up, but the banner/header +Manchester United is using definitely has space for more floating heads, right? ;)

Too much social media?

Since I have a bit more time these past few months being "unemployed" (ie. working from home for my dad), I decided to take a look at my "online presence," whatever that means. I'd say that this is part of my looking for a new job, but it's probably just procrastinating and not actually applying for jobs here.

The only significant thing, in my opinion, is my decision to be more active on GitHub. And, as a part of that, I decided to utilize the available GitHub Pages for my account as my personal website. It's still "under construction" as in I don't really know what I want to put on there just yet. But it's there and it has something in it. I also have the domain http://daphnesoegijono.com, which is still empty. I'm considering using that address for my GitHub Page, but I could just let it go and continue using the given domain.

Because my GitHub page is pretty empty (although I kinda like it quite sparse), I'm currently thinking about using it as a blog. Just so it has more... stuff in it. However, I think it might be too much for me. I mean, I already have 2 Blogger blogs (this one and this one), 2 Tumblr blogs, and 2 Twitter accounts (although I only really use one). If I do, the blog on my website would be more professional (projects I'm working on, etc). This one will stay as my personal one, and the other Blogger blog would stay as my TV/movie focused one. I might consolidate my Tumblr blogs into one, although I'm thinking of starting another one as a journal. I have a mobile app (Momento) that can act as a personal (unpublished) journal so maybe I'll just stick to that. Am I doing too much with social media?

Tearing You Apart: 1991-2014

Ryan Giggs announces his retirement on the club's website:

Today is a fantastic day for Manchester United. Louis van Gaal is a great appointment and let me begin by telling you how delighted I am to be working with someone of his calibre. His credentials are second to none and I’m positive the club will thrive under his leadership over the coming years.

I would also like to take this opportunity to announce my retirement from professional football and embark upon a new and exciting chapter in my life, as assistant manager of Manchester United. I am immensely proud, honoured and fortunate to have represented the biggest club in the world 963 times and Wales 64 times. My dream was always to play for Manchester United, and although it saddens me to know I won’t be pulling on a United jersey again as a player, I have been lucky enough to have fulfilled that dream playing with some of the best players in the world, working under an incredible manager in Sir Alex Ferguson, and most of all, playing for the greatest fans in world football. I have always felt and appreciated your support.

I want to also give a huge thanks to the backroom staff and support teams we have and have had at Manchester United over the years. I would not have achieved the success I have without your continuing dedication and commitment to creating the best environment to enable the players to thrive. I would not have won 34 trophies in my career without you. I would also like to say a special thanks to my friends and family for all your love and support.

For me, today is a new chapter filled with many emotions - immense pride, sadness, but most of all, excitement towards the future. United fans I hope will share and echo my belief that the club, the management and owners, are doing everything they can to return this great club to where it belongs, and I hope to be there every step of the way. To the greatest fans in world football, thank you, I have loved every minute of playing for you and representing the biggest and best club in the world.

See you next season,

Ryan

I... this is a bit too much. There will be no more "GIGGS 11" jersey next season. Someone else might wear that number. I know we're still going to see him often, with his being our assistant manager, but...still! Giggsy has finished his playing career, winning a major trophy every 27.5 games. That's just insane. It's quite a shame he didn't manage to score a league goal this past season. And it's even more of a shame that his last season as a player was arguably his worst. This also marks the end of the Class of 92 era.

I understand that a player testimonial is usually held to mark a 10 year service to a club, and that Giggs has had his back then. But he's been at the club for more than 20 years, so he deserves a second testimonial right? Just let me watch him play one more time. I really am sad that I never got to watch him play live at Old Trafford.

Thank you for all the years, Giggsy. Hope for plenty more to come with you as assistant manager and then manager. Truly is Mr. Man United.

Finally

After weeks of rumors and speculations, and after a few postponements, Manchester United announced Louis van Gaal as the next manager, to take charge of the club after the World Cup. Ryan Giggs is set to be his assistant manager. Here's an excerpt of the statement from the club's website:

Louis van Gaal will take over as manager of Manchester United from the 2014/15 season. He has signed a three-year contract.

Louis, 62, has managed at the top level of European football for over 20 years and in that time has won domestic titles and domestic cups in three countries, as well as the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Cup, an Intercontinental Cup, two UEFA Super Cups and domestic Super Cups in Holland and Germany.

He will take up his post after the FIFA World Cup, where he will manage the Dutch national team.

Ryan Giggs, English football's most decorated footballer and the United player with the most appearances in the club's history, has been appointed as assistant manager. Ryan took charge of the first team for the last four matches of the 2013/14 season.

Welcome, Louis. Let's get this club back to where it belongs. I really am glad that Ryan Giggs is staying at the club. I don't know if I could handle seeing Giggsy in a different club's suit or kit.

2048

That game, that's so popular right now, I've been playing it quite a bit these past few days. I finally managed to get 2048 this past weekend, and then 4096 the day after. Haven't been able to go further than that, and I'm not sure I could. Once I got to 2048 the first time, getting there again seemed pretty easy. Getting to 4096 is slightly tougher, but it's pretty attainable. I'm still unsure if 8192 is even possible, so I googled other challenges I can do instead. The one that interested me the most was to get the lowest, winning score. I think this means using the least steps necessary. My current record is 20192.

That was surreal

This week, Giggsy's been saying that he wants the player to enjoy playing again, and to put smiles in our faces. Well, he's done that today. I was a little disappointed with the team selection, to be honest, but he went with experience and I can understand that. The first half wasn't the best, but we looked like Manchester United of old in the second half. Created plenty of chances and took a few of them. 2 goals from Rooney and 2 goals for Mata for a comfortable win at Old Trafford. Hernandez should have scored at the end of the game; great through ball by Mata, but Chicha put his shot wide.

Thanks, Giggsy. I know it's just Norwich but it was great to watch.

Thanks for the effort, Moyesy!

He only lasted 9 months. It's quite unfortunate, really, but the loss at Everton means we're mathematically out of the top 4, and rumor has it that means United doesn't have to pay the full contract amount to Moyes, just the 1 year. Sunday's match, like the draw against Fulham, really left me feeling numb and lost. It was just a terrible performance. Sure, some of the blame should fall on Moyes, but I was very disappointed in the players too. As much as I love Mata and the fact that he's a United player, his performance on Sunday showed that the players have stopped trying. It could be that they decided they didn't want Moyes as manager anymore so they played poorly to get him sacked, but whatever it was, it was unprofessional and disheartening. I thought, after the fight against Bayern, that this would be it. We would be fighting til the end and give us hope for next season. But nope, they didn't even show up against Everton.

Mata and De Gea <3

I love that they carpool. And, that photobomb face. I really am in love with Mata.

The best part about Mondays is Juan Mata's blog posts (and hugs)

Especially after a good game. I've just read the latest post, "May the streak goes on." Mata was in top form against Newcastle over the weekend, scored two goals and provided a beautiful back-heeled assist for Januzaj's goal.

In celebration of his first goal –– a wonderfully placed freekick –– Mata ran over to the bench and hugged De Gea. At first, I thought, well they're both Spanish so it's nice to see that they're friends here at the club. Then, at the post-match interview, he revealed that it was because De Gea had said that Mata would score during the match. In his blog post, he added a tiny bit more detail:

By the way, you may wonder about my celebration with De Gea... The reason is that we had been practising free-kicks the day before and David said I was going to score against Newcastle... because that day I was misfiring all my shots! And so it happened :-)

This guy is just so likable! HUGS!!

2014 Bahrain GP

That was the best racing I've seen in a while! Mercedes are still way ahead, and Mercedes-powered cars look more competitive than others. But, what made this race wonderful is that teammates are allowed to race each other. Hamilton and Rosberg all the way up front battled it out to get the top of the podium. Rosberg came very close a few times, but Hamilton held on to the lead he grabbed after a great start. It was fantastic drives from both of them; Hamilton, though, great defending throughout. Especially in the last stint, after the safety car, with Rosberg on the option tyres while Hamilton had primes.

Wazza!

It wasn't that great a game. Those are few and far between these days (have we even had a great game this season?) But this goal, we might be seeing it for some time. Seven minutes into the match, Rooney did this:

Justin gives Chris a shout out, sings "Gone"

Had a blast these last few weeks on tour with @jtimberlake! Big thanks to everyone working on the tour for making us feel welcome!

— Chris Kirkpatrick (@IamCKirkpatrick) March 8, 2014

Justin's last stop on his North American "The 20/20 Experience World Tour" was at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Chris was in the audience, as he has been for the last handful of shows. Justin gave this speech:

Which was followed by this:

I'm seriously jealous of anyone who was there. Seeing Justin perform "Gone" live would be amazing. I really want to go to another one of his shows. The sooner the better.