My favorite gaming memory

Quinns' little YouTube message was originally posted in 2014, but I just saw it today.  It broke off a part of me.  I say something about that, and then answer his question: what's your favorite memory of playing a game?    Well, it's pretty late now, but Quinns, I'm so so sorry.

If you have ever played a game with me, my apologies.  I swear the best moment with you is #2.  "Third boulder" was the best.  Mage Wars at a wedding -- I love you all over again for that.  Ghosts in the Graveyard after sunset, Cosmic Encounter wheeling and dealing, just the fact that two dozen people were willing to spend their party playing Kill Dr. Lucky with me -- I nearly weep to think of it.

I'm sorry, they're #2.

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Dungeons and Dragons cobbled together game, and my dad says he'll DM for us.  We're walking and come to sarcophagus at a crossroads, and a fearsome creature jumps out of it.  Worse than a skeleton.  Worse than a vampire.  It's a skeleton OF a vampire.  (No, I don't know how that works.  We don't have time to puzzle it out now, it's fangs are nearly upon us!) 

I cast Burning Hands, and it does 8 damage.  Dad asks which die I rolled to get the damage, and I tell him it's a d8.  He says "oh yes, that fried it.  The bones char and fall into ashes."

This is the critical moment.  Not because of the story at all.  Because here's some things I realized:

• Dad asked because he needed to know if 8 damage was a lot or a little to roll.  He didn't know.  And he didn't know how many hp this creature had, he just decided a big hit would end it.  
• He didn't know what a skeleton of a vampire was - he just made it up.  On the spot.  Out of his head sprung a completely new thing and we just fought it.  To be clear: my dad could do magic.
• He was just winging the whole thing.  I mean, I sort of knew that, but I didn't understand what it meant.  He was telling a story, and throwing us into it, and using the rules like glue, applied with the most delicate touches, to help keep the thing together.

We continued to a nearby town, where we walked into a shop and the shopkeeper only told lies, which we figured out because every time he named the price of a thing and we paid him, he'd give us the wrong change back.

Why is there a shopkeeper who only tells lies?  Because Dad loved Raymond Smullyan's logic puzzles, and he knew I loved them too. 

And I don't know if there's any other reason for anything to be in a Dungeons and Dragons game.

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That's my favorite memory.  One of the most painful to remember, too, but maybe that makes it more precious, not less. 

50 States of Unclaimed Property: Georgia

Inspired by Yashar Ali's reporting on unclaimed property, I decided my summer project would be to search for any unclaimed property in my name in all 50 states. As Yashar Ali said, "Every state allows you to search and claim unclaimed property for free. Please don't ever use any of these scam companies...you don't need them."

At first I thought I would blog about the experience just for fun. But when I started with Georgia, the state where I spent the majority of my years, I discovered that my mother- and father-in-law have a number of unclaimed property search results. I am writing these step by step instructions so they, and you, can find any unclaimed property in Georgia. 


Step 1: Go to https://gaclaims.unclaimedproperty.com

This is the official website of the Georgia Department of Revenue's Unclaimed Property Database.

Step 2: Click on Seach for Unclaimed Property

Step 3: Enter your last name

Step 4: If you see a reCaptcha box, check "I am not a robot" before you click on the Search Properties button.

Step 5: Scroll down to see the search results. There are 10 per page. When you find a search result that matches your name, click on the Add button next to that property to add it to your cart.

Step 6: Once you have added all fo the properties that match your name, click on the button that says, "Claim Properties in My Cart."

Step 7: You have to register before you can claim any of the properties in your cart, but your first opportunity to register is not until you are at the Claims Cart. Click on the Register Button.

Step 8: The registration form asks for the standard information. Make sure you scroll down as many screens will cut off the end of the form.

At the bottom of the form, you will have to create a username and password. Passwords must be between 8 and 26 characters and contain at least one number, uppercase letter and special character (e.g. $,\&.#!).

When you have provided all of the information, click on the Save Registration button.

Step 9: This will take you to the following screen.

Check your email for an email from GA Unclaimed Property <donotreply@unclaimedproperty.com>.

Step 10: Click on the Confirm Account link in the email.

Step 11: This will take you to the Claimant Email Verification Screen. Click on the Return to Claimant Login link.

Step 12: If it is not prepopulated with your username and password, enter them here. Then, click on the Log in button.

Step 13: Click on the Claim Properties in My Cart button.

Step 14: This will take you back to your Claims Cart. If you scroll down, you will see the data you entered to register. There will be additional blanks for information necessary to proceed with the claim including your social security number.

Enter your social security number. Check that the rest of the information is correct. Then scroll to the bottom.

Check the box indicating acceptance of the indemnification clause. Then click on Create Claim button.

This is as far as I can walk you through because I, shockingly, did not have any unclaimed property in Georgia. If you do, please screenshot your steps after this and email them to me (redacting personal identifying data, of course), so I can complete this step by step tutorial.

Change to my Tweets about coronavirus data

It's frustrating to do this, but it has to be done. I'm going to change the thing I've been reporting. And (possibly worse), I'm going to tell you why. (Basically, I'm fixing something I should've been doing all along.)

  I've been trying to report a measurement to try to communicate how fast the rate of infection was, how the rate was different in different places, and how it was changing (thankfully, slowing down) over time. This has always involved some inference: the new cases each day aren't the same as the total new infections, just the ones that were being diagnosed; similarly, the total cases aren't the same as the total infections in the community, just the ones that were being treated. The assumption is that, roughly speaking, the new cases was some (relatively constant) percentage of the new infections, and the total cases was some (relatively constant) percentage of the total infections. 

 Early on, "total cases" seemed as good a measure as any to substitute for the total number of people infected. But for a while now, there's been both good and bad news. People don't stay infected, as "active cases". Many get better. Sadly, some die. All of them, hopefully, once they become "active cases", are isolated and are much less likely to infect someone else. The "total cases", which I've been using, counts all the people in the state/region/etc. who have been diagnosed with the virus. It includes the recovered and the dead, as well as the cases still being treated. 

 Early on, there wasn't much difference between active cases and total cases. Now, in New York, there are over 279,000 active cases, which is a LOT. There are over 29,000 deaths, which is TOO MANY. And there are over 64,000 people who have recovered, which is a GREAT START. And I'm trying to figure out which number is the best representative of the number of infected people in the population. 

It doesn't have to be closest to that number, it needs to correlate with it: if there's twice as many infected people out there right now, you'd expect twice as many... 
active cases. 

 So I'm going to start reporting areas based on the threshold of new cases over the last 7 days being higher or lower than 10% (or 5%) of the _active cases_, not _total cases_. This will momentarily mean more areas will be above each threshold. But I think it's more accurate, and over time, the trend will tell us more about how fast (or slow) the disease is spreading. 

 As was always the case, this can do weird things for areas where the numbers are smaller generally, especially if the reporting of active cases is peculiar (Vermont, for example, lists 967 total cases, but only 65 active cases; I don't know if they've had 850 or so recoveries, or if those people have been moved to other states, or what. I have no reason to question these figures, but it could be Vermont's really good recovery rate is temporarily making them look like they have a faster spread rate).

 Another thing that should eventually put a hitch in my numbers is testing. As testing gets more and more widespread, the number of new cases should go up, as more infected people are found and treated. But that's a good thing! So if a state jumps back into the >10% category when they're testing more broadly, that isn't a reason for alarm - it's the longer term trend after the jump that really matters. 

 Okay, without further ado...as of today (I'm sorry, I'm going to have to report the new numbers going forward, and haven't recalculated the data for the past), here’s the parts of the US that had a daily increase in COVID cases >10% of their current active cases: ID,MN,Veteran Affairs,WV. >5%: AL,AK,AR,KY,MS,NV,SC,SD,TX,US Military,VT (the rest were less).

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