Michael Birch

Cover of The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen. The history of life on earth is visually represented from modern times all the way back to the deep past with layers of fossils of different kinds.

Review: The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen
This non-fiction book about the 5 mass extinctions in earth's history is well written with many colourful descriptions of the extreme conditions involved. The parallels to human caused climate change are relevant even 9 years after being published.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm starting to learn Lean because (a) math is fun, (b) programming is fun and (c) knowing your program is correct because math is amazing. I am very impressed with the quality of the Lean docs and tutorials. I have finished the natural numbers game and it was great!
adam.math.hhu.de#/g/leanprove...

Deck 1 Abigale, Eloquent First-Year (ECL) 204 3 Moon-Vigil Adherents (ECL) 184 1 Vinebred Brawler (ECL) 201 1 Overgrown Tomb (ECL) 266 2 Prideful Feastling (ECL) 238 1 Gangly Stompling (ECL) 226 1 Wildvine Pummeler (ECL) 203 1 Champions of the Perfect (ECL) 171 1 Dawnhand Dissident (ECL) 98 1 Blossoming Defense (ECL) 167 1 Evolving Wilds (ECL) 264 1 Requiting Hex (ECL) 116 1 Pummeler for Hire (ECL) 190 1 Selfless Safewright (ECL) 193 1 Lys Alana Dignitary (ECL) 180 1 Morcant's Loyalist (ECL) 236 1 Bogslither's Embrace (ECL) 94 2 Lys Alana Informant (ECL) 181 1 Eclipsed Elf (ECL) 218 1 Iron-Shield Elf (ECL) 108 1 Assert Perfection (ECL) 164 7 Swamp (SLD) 1470 8 Forest (UNF) 244 Sideboard 1 Wildvine Pummeler (ECL) 203 1 Wanderbrine Preacher (ECL) 41 1 Eclipsed Boggart (ECL) 217 1 Bile-Vial Boggart (ECL) 87 2 Moonglove Extractor (ECL) 109 1 Mischievous Sneakling (ECL) 235 1 Safewright Cavalry (ECL) 191 1 Stoic Grove-Guide (ECL) 243 2 Reckless Ransacking (ECL) 152 2 Barbed Bloodletter (ECL) 86 1 Surly Farrier (ECL) 196

7-2 record in Premier Draft Lorwyn Eclipsed at rank Gold 1.

7 wins on #MTGArena in a #MTGLorwyn Premier Draft with a sweet elves deck! Having good rares helped of course, but Moon-Vigil Adherents was still the main win condition.

Mastery Level: 60 Constructed Rank: Platinum 4 Limited Rank: Platinum 4 Games Played: 429 (more than over 80% of players) Quests Gold: 35000 (more than over 90% of players) Daily Wins Gold: 26250 (more than over 90% of players) Boosters opened: 101 Favorite Color: Red Favorite Format: Standard Ranked Favorite Format Wins: 86

#MTGArenaStats during Avatar: The Last Airbender

Cover of Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. A young girl is pictured with the skyline of two kingdoms in the background.

Review: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

I always hate the third act breakup trope, but otherwise this was a nice, whimsical story with a surprising amount of philosophical depth. I also like that the relationship between Ella and the prince is fleshed out before the Cinderella retelling.

⭐⭐⭐

Cover of Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst. The image shows a metal lion running across a landscape of sand dunes.

Review: Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst

Wow this book was good! The author follows some tropes while subverting others and all the choices aligned perfectly with my preferences. I'll keep this spoiler-free and just say the ending is epic.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Izzet Elementals in the top 8 at the pro tour with the full play set of Roaming Throne, you love to see it! I'm definitely rooting for Eduardo Sajgalik now. And he's Canadian too which is extra awesome!

Deck 1 Flock Impostor (ECL) 16 1 Eclipsed Kithkin (ECL) 220 1 Clachan Festival (ECL) 10 1 Gangly Stompling (ECL) 226 2 Wanderbrine Preacher (ECL) 41 1 Keep Out (ECL) 19 1 Pummeler for Hire (ECL) 190 1 Riverguard's Reflexes (ECL) 33 1 Appeal to Eirdu (ECL) 5 1 Selfless Safewright (ECL) 193 2 Liminal Hold (ECL) 24 1 Shore Lurker (ECL) 34 1 Surly Farrier (ECL) 196 1 Virulent Emissary (ECL) 202 1 Thoughtweft Imbuer (ECL) 38 1 Wary Farmer (ECL) 251 2 Thoughtweft Lieutenant (ECL) 246 1 Sun-Dappled Celebrant (ECL) 37 1 Goldmeadow Nomad (ECL) 18 1 Prideful Feastling (ECL) 238 8 Forest (UNF) 244 9 Plains (SLD) 1468 Sideboard 1 Sun-Dappled Celebrant (ECL) 37 1 Iron-Shield Elf (ECL) 108 1 Reaping Willow (ECL) 240 1 Wildvine Pummeler (ECL) 203 1 Rooftop Percher (ECL) 2 3 Run Away Together (ECL) 67 1 Temporal Cleansing (ECL) 78 1 Tend the Sprigs (ECL) 197 1 Blighted Blackthorn (ECL) 90 1 Springleaf Drum (ECL) 260 1 Chaos Spewer (ECL) 210 1 Enraged Flamecaster (ECL) 135 1 Omni-Changeling (ECL) 62 1 Perfect Intimidation (ECL) 115

A 7-2 record in a Quick Draft Lorwyn Eclipsed event.

7 wins with a Kithkin deck in a Lorwyn Eclipsed quick draft on #MTG Arena!

I read The Hobbit and the first two Lord of the Rings books last year. I think The Hobbit might have been my favourite one, although the detailed description of hobbit life at the beginning of fellowship is also fun. I think overall I like the LOTR movies a little better than the books.

Review: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

I think some of the scenes in Minas Tirith are done better in the film adaptation, but I did enjoy the ending of the book more than the movie (the extra stuff that happens in the Shire).

⭐⭐⭐

GitHub - birchmd/mtga-quests-sim Contribute to birchmd/mtga-quests-sim development by creating an account on GitHub.

I put the code for the simulation up on GitHub: github.com/birchmd/mtga...

"Vivid Elemental" Jump In deck on Magic: the Gathering Arena. There are 3 plains in the mana base even though there are no white cards in the deck at all. There are only 4 forests in the deck even though green is very important color; including for color fixing!

Seems like there is a bug in the @mtgarena.com midweek magic Jump In event. I got a deck with 3 plains in the mana base even though there are no white pips in the whole deck! Worse still there are only 4 forests when the green spells, like the 2 mana druid, are supposed to be color fixing.

The y-axis shows the difference in gold earned in quests on average (Delta) between a simple strategy of always completing the daily quest (re-rolling a 500 if needed) and a more sophisticated strategy of trying to only ever complete 750 quests while always ensuring there is space for a new quest and re-rolling 500s as often as possible. The x-axis is the probability of getting a 750 quest (in percent). I both wrote a simulation of the strategies and calculated the average directly by modelling the situation using a Markov chain. The theory and simulation agree well (especially since I know there is a systematic underestimate happing in the simulation due it only running for finite time as compared to the infinite time limit we can do in the theory calculation). The theory gives the following equation for Delta: \Delta = \frac{H-L}{9} \left( 6p^2 - 6p - 5 + \frac{14p^2 - 14p + 5}{(p^2 - p + 1)(3p^2 - 3p + 1)}\right), where H=750 and L=500 (the high and low gold values for MTGA quests). The general shape of this function is sort of cosine-ish (but the bell is too narrow) with zeros at p=0% and p=100%, and the maximum occurring in the middle at p=50%. The maximum value is approximately Delta = 42. In MTGA I think the p is more like 25%-30% so, I'm missing out on about 15-20 gold per day with my suboptimal strategy. That's only like 1 quick draft per year, so not that bad in the grand scheme of things.

I was thinking about how much gold I'm missing out on in #MTGA by obsessively completing daily quests instead of leaving some 500s to try to re-roll into 750s on other days. The answer is summarized in the figure below. Details in alt text.

I had fun working this out! Markov chains are a good time.

End screen of Pokémon FireRed after defeating the Elite Four. The winning party includes Nidoking, Raichu, Lapras, Alakazam, Charizard, and Venusaur. The text says "LEAGUE CHAMPION! CONGRATULATIONS!"

I had fun doing a play through of Pokémon FireRed! I played a lot of original Pokémon Yellow as a kid, but not the Gen I remakes. It was nostalgic good times and I thought it was funny that I still remembered which tiles to use in the Silph Co. building.

My rule for this book review experiment has been to only include books that I both started and finished in 2026. But here's at least my ratings of the other Novik books I have read:

Spinning Silver ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A Deadly Education (series) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

This is my least favourite Novik of those that I have read, but I still liked it overall. No spoilers-I found the ending satisfying since it resolved a small gripe I had with the story from the beginning. Even if this one isn't for me I would still recommend it!

⭐⭐⭐

My 1 mana and 2 mana slots on the curve leave a little to be desired though. And even though I am in BR, my removal isn't great.

But yes those good cards were the reason I drafted this color pair in the first place.

Deck 2 Cruel Administrator (TLA) 213 2 The Cave of Two Lovers (TLA) 126 1 Fire Nation Attacks (TLA) 133 1 Boiling Rock Prison (TLA) 267 2 Treetop Freedom Fighters (TLA) 156 2 Deserter's Disciple (TLA) 131 2 Messenger Hawk (TLA) 234 3 War Balloon (TLA) 159 1 Bumi Bash (TLA) 125 1 Merchant of Many Hats (TLA) 110 1 Earth Village Ruffians (TLA) 219 1 Lightning Strike (DMU) 137 1 Jet's Brainwashing (TLA) 143 1 Zuko's Conviction (TLA) 123 1 Barrels of Blasting Jelly (TLA) 254 1 Buzzard-Wasp Colony (TLA) 88 1 Beetle-Headed Merchants (TLA) 86 8 Mountain (SLD) 1471 8 Swamp (SLD) 1470 Sideboard 1 The Legend of Yangchen (TLA) 27 1 Invasion Reinforcements (TLA) 24 1 Glider Kids (TLA) 21 1 Cunning Maneuver (TLA) 130 1 Wolfbat (TLA) 122 1 Fire Nation Cadets (TLA) 134 1 Jet, Freedom Fighter (TLA) 229 1 Aang's Journey (TLA) 1 1 Azula Always Lies (TLA) 84 1 Tiger-Dillo (TLA) 155 1 Rough Rhino Cavalry (TLA) 152 1 Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion (TLA) 194 1 Energybending (TLA) 2 1 Northern Air Temple (TLA) 111 1 Foggy Swamp Vinebender (TLA) 180

7-1 record in Quick Draft of Magic the Gathering Avatar the Last Airbender.

I don't think this is a particularly good deck, but hey 7 wins is 7 wins!

Cover for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The image includes references to things from the story such as "Don't Panic", "42" and a white lab mouse.

I just finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I know the cultural impact this book has and I wanted to experience it myself. It was a fun, short read; sort of sci-fi Monty Python. I like how well the humour holds up even though it was published in 1979.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#booksky

Cover for A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara. A woman in a black cloak has her eyes covered by the hood. She holds a magnifying glass and there is a scythe in the background.

First up: A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara (shoutout to a local Hamilton author!)

I enjoyed this one! I laughed out loud multiple times and there were still a few touching emotional moments; all wrapped up in a fun mystery package.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#booksky

For 2026 I plan on posting short reviews here of the books I read. Mostly this is just for future me to look back on and remember what I read this year. I'm not using Good Reads because f*ck Amazon.

10/10 Magic: the Gathering Arena Winter Achievements completed.

My December holiday was successful 🙂

I'm no alternative circle constant activist, but now I am imagining a "Who's on first" style skit where the slices of pie are always off by a factor of two because 2π = 1 pie.

2/2

The other day we had some friends over for board games and offered them some apple pie as a snack. @lynnesargent.bsky.social asked how large of pieces they would like and I made a joke they could give their answers in radians.

1/2

"All your answers are correct, you can now solve the final puzzle..."

"You ordered the correct parts. Well done!" A delightful pixel art Santa on a sleigh with rainbow presents and rainbow runners.

I had a lot of fun doing the Scroggs advent calendar this year! It was my first year participating and I will look forward to it again next year! Thanks @mscroggs.co.uk for putting it together!

www.mscroggs.co.uk

I just completed all 12 days of Advent of Code 2025! #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com

I always have fun with these puzzle! Thanks to @was.tl for putting them together!

I just completed "Reactor" - Day 11 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/11

I used a recursive function with memoization, which isn't particularly Rusty, but it does work. Maybe I should try to refactor it as a loop with explicit stack instead of a recursive call 🤔

I just completed "Factory" - Day 10 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/10

For part 2 today I had to break my streak of only using the Rust standard library and pull in a linear programming solver.

I just completed "Movie Theater" - Day 9 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/9

I thought part 2 was pretty hard today! I'm sure there is a clever algorithm that I don't know about to make a very fast solution, but my kind of brute force one still finishes in about 1s.