In a move that shall go down in history as one of the top boss moves ever by an uncle, David went to Israel, made his way to King George street in Tel-Aviv, entered the famous Weiss Bakery, and brought one of their legendary poppy seed (mohn) strudels for me.
The wax paper that carefully protected the merchandise.
The strudel was carefully packed in his luggage and flown to Mexico where it sat in a freezer until my latest visit, at which point I carefully packed it in my luggage and brought it to Austin, TX.
After the long and tortous travel, I was able to finally bask myself in all its black glory with its extreme filling to bread ratio.
Yes, it was all worth it. No, I should not do a drug test right now.
Thank you so much, Davico! You made me very happy.
The staff of The MKX® wishes you all a happy, sweet, peaceful New Year. Let’s hope for the swift end of the war, the return of the remaining hostages, and maybe sane people in charge of the countries I call home.
I just landed in my hometown of Monterrey, Mexico to a giant surprise: homemade mohn strudel baked by none other than Olga. I immediately proceeded to eat a lot of it.
The bread is on the thinner side. The filling not overly sweet – just the way I like it. A bit crumbly. What a delicious surprise! Thank you.
My mother-in-law Nira just got back from Hungary, and she was kind enough to bring me some mohn love from The First Strudel House. And on her birthday of all days!
Just the thinnest crust… barely enough to keep the filling together.
Mohn strudel is not super common in these parts. And compared to the few in the area, this one had by far a much much higher filling-to-bread ratio. I remind readers that this is one of, if not the most important objective metrics when it comes to evaluating these things. The filling was also on the less sweeter side, which is a good thing when each delicious bite packs so much of it.
Is the box handmade? Or the strudel? Or both?
I hope this post serves both as a thank you note and as encouragement for others to bring me similar gifts.
This summer we flew to the city of Oaxaca for a week to celebrate my parents’ 50th Anniversary. Incredible milestone! It was also my first time there.
Here’s photos making chocolate, rugs, and their famous black clay, painting alebrijes.
In a mezcalería doing some tasting, and in the beautiful springs of Hierve el Agua.
The Zapotec city of Monte Albán.
Some of the beautiful sights and most importantly insane food. I love mole and this is their thing. I ate so much mole. It was so good.
Something I wanted to see since I was a kid: El árbol del Tule, an ancient and massive cypress tree claimed to have the widest trunk of its species. It’s massive and beautiful and not in the middle of a forest like I always pictured.
And this is the beautiful color-coordinated family, missing just my favorite nephew who we named official photographer for the trip thus does not appear in any of the pictures.
As promised in my last post, I will dedicate a full post to the Argentina vs Ecuador match on July 3, 2024.
In the “I wish I was my own dad” category and thanks to a massive tip by Diego S. we were able to get our kids signed up to walk out onto the field with the players. It’s hard to overstate what a wild thing this is for two kids that are absolutely obsessed with soccer.
When we signed them up, we didn’t know yet who’d be playing on this Quarterfinals match. But the odds were pretty good that it’d be Argentina and maaaaaaybe Mexico. Mexico disappointed by not even making it out of the group stage. But World Champions and eventual Copa América winners did not. OMG WHAT A DREAM COME TRUE THIS IS ARGENTINA WITH LIONEL MESSI WE’RE TALKING ABOUT.
We had to be at the stadium 4 hours before kickoff which is… a lot. The kids were whisked away as soon as we walked in to get dressed, rehearse, play soccer in the locker rooms, play with Panini albums, meet CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez, and hold the hands of their idols.
Me in a completely empty NRG Stadium ahead of the match. A nice lady did sell me a beer before opening time.
The people in charge were fairly adamant that we, the parents, had to stay in our seats tucked away behind the goal during the whole ordeal. But evidently I had no choice but to evade the security (I swear it was tighter than during the final) in order to temporarily sneak out of my seat and into the section right in front of the benches where tickets are a thousand bucks, just so I can get a good look at my handsome boys and a few photos/videos that aren’t worthless. I had to beg an Argentinian whose seat I was sharing not to rat me out. Mission accomplished.
This is the players walking out with the player mascots and standing still for the national anthems. My kids were randomly and luckily chosen to go with Argentina.
After the national anthems, the flags and player mascots walk back to the locker room. Ari was left behind so decided to show off with a full speed sprint perfectly synchronized to the background music.As seen on TVFellow mascots Rayan and JaydenAfter rehearsal but before the match: killing time in the locker roomThe captains
A few days later, actual professional photographs taking by pros were emailed to us. Below the best of the bunch. Look for the little jewfros.
IlánAriEcuadorEmerging from the tunnel, look at those faces barely containing their hapiness.Ilán holding hands with Alexis Mac AlisterCrazy moment. Messi, Dibu, Romero, Molina, Lisandro Martínez, Lautaro, Tagliafico, Mac Alister, Nicolás González, Enzo Fernández, De Paul
I told my kids this is their birthday present. It’s going to be a tough one to top.
We were incredibly lucky to have a total solar eclipse right over us on April 7, 2024. I was lucky to be there for 1991, but this was as a child in summer camp, and the staff wouldn’t let us all just go out and watch directly during totality. So in a way this is the first one.
We drove about an hour away to Smithville, TX in order to get a bit more time in totality. It was totally worth it. Our hosts were wonderful too and we had a great time. The clody weather turned out to not be a big problem as it was windy enough to give us nice clear views every now and then.
The photos are crappy phone pics with no tripod or anything. But they are my crappy phone pics for my own souvenir purposes. Go elsewhere for awesome shots.
Anyone still reading this blog (👋) knows Apple entered the AR/VR market with a very expensive headset called Apple Vision Pro. The don’t call it that nor “Mixed Reality”. They call it “Spatial Computing”, maybe it catches on.
Being the absolute sucker for gadgets that I am, and more specifically slick and shiny Apple gadgets, I drove yesterday to the Apple Store to sign up for a ~25 minute demo. Here’s my experience, I’m sure you’re dying to read about it.
The line outside of Apple Domain Northside wasn’t long like in the old iPhone days before preorders became a thing, but possibly the longest since. There were two lines: one for those picking up their preorders and one for those signing up for demos. Thankfully all you had to do is sign up, get a slot, and come back later for it. Later Apple allowed people to sign up online BUT I HAD TO BE FIRST.Employees getting the finishing touches in their training before opening time.
So I went home, finished my coffee, got work done, had lunch with my kids at school, got more work done… and finally: demo time.
Apple Vision Pro in its glorious pristine display glory. They had a guy guarding the display who would politely ask me to stop touching it and then proceed to wipe it clean.
The fact that Apple will let you spend half an hour on a demo is notable. I don’t know how long this will be the case, but they put an enormous effort into this. Surely they know they’ll have people buying it on the spot because it’s so darn cool, but I suspect they are also banking on schmucks posting about it on Social Media (or a few old-timers writing a blog post… in 2024!). Good investment, I think.
Apple even had special couches made for the demos and little trays to bring out the headset. They have a machine to measure your prescription glasses (if applicable) so they can bring out the corresponding Zeiss lenses. Lots of work.
This machine is used to measure the prescription on your glasses. I got a courtesy cleaning using a $20 Apple microfiber cloth. Worth the wait!A purpose built leather demo couch with a built-in Apple Vision Pro shaped wooden tray. No expense was spared.
On to the device itself.
Apple Vision Pro is impressive hardware. It has all sorts of cameras and sensors facing out to the world around you, facing down to your mouth and hands, facing in to record your eyes. LIDAR, speakers, tons of processing, a 4K display for each eye… it’s crazy.
Once you put it on and tighten it, the device adjusts the screens to match the distance between your eyes. This is motorized and really surprised me! Then you see the world around you as if you were seeing it through glasses. But it’s actually the screens. I’ve tried several other AR and VR devices (1, 2, 3, 4) in the past and let me tell you – they are nice tries but do not compare.
This headset works just like you would imagine it. You can barely make out the pixels. The outside world looks convincingly real, as opposed as if it was coming through a screen door and everything is ever-so-slightly laggy, making you ever-so-slightly sick.
You start out by calibrating eye tracking. This is done by looking at dots presented around you and making a pinching motion with your index and thumb whenever you put your eyes on the dot. And this is how you use it for the most part: Look at something instead of “moving the mouse”. Move your fingers instead of “clicking”. It works.
Well, there’s a “digital crown” (like the Apple Watch) and you use this to bring up the Home screen with all the icons for the app. After that, it’s basically like using an iPad but you can have multiple windows for multiple apps and you can move them around. And wherever you place them, they stay there, solidly put even if you move around. Very well done.
Now some quick impressions:
I could see a bit of the real world under the headset. In order to make that go away, I made it tighter which helped but didn’t cover it completely. Maybe I got the wrong light seal, maybe my nose is too big. Or both.
It gets warm after a while.
Audio quality of the built-in speakers is excellent. Things sound like they are where you see them.
There is an outwards facing screen that doesn’t seem very useful and even feels a bit creepy. I don’t think it’s worth the cost and weight and will probably be gone in the next generation. But then again, Apple tends to double down on things for a while so who knows (Touch Bar?).
The UI is easy to use. You look at something and you pinch. You can flick to scroll, you can move things around. I realized in the demo that I use peripheral vision on my Mac/iPad for a lot of things and that won’t work here.
You can twist the digital crown to go in and out of “immersion mode” which replaces the real world you are in with a scene from a place you probably would rather be in. The visual quality is crazy and the immersion is 360 degrees. Wow.
They keyboard is better than I expected, but I wouldn’t type much on it. Get a bluetooth keyboard for work or use dictation for longer things.
3D movies look really, really good. Better than a 3D TV (RIP) or in a movie theater. And you can make them to look as big as in a movie theater! They showed a clip from The Super Mario Bros. Movie which was a bit of a surprise. I would have expected something from Pixar!
I was not allowed to watch the few spatial movies I’ve recorded with my iPhone. Bummer. But the ones they demoed look cool as heck.
Panoramas look even better. The photo surrounds you completely. I have a lot of panoramas taken in stadiums that I’d love to see.
They have something called Apple Immersive Video. It’s like a super-sharp 3D Omnimax. They showed 3 seconds of a soccer match and I laughed out loud it is so cool. Broadcasts like these would be a game changer.
People complain about the field of vision. I didn’t even notice it nor think about it until after the demo, so there’s that.
I went off-script and asked to try the famous Encounter Dinosaurs app which was present but not part of the demo. The 3D rendering is all live, the dinosaur follows your gaze and moves if you try to touch it, and it looks super realistic. I flinched like an idiot when it turned and almost hit me with its tail.
The Mac was not the first computer with a mouse and windows, but it was the first to get it right and now all computers work like the Mac. The iPhone was not the first phone with a touchscreen, but it was the first to get it right and now all phones work like the iPhone. The Apple Watch was not the first smart watch, but it is still the only good one? I think a similar thing may happen with the Apple Vison Pro. Companies have been trying to do consumer VR since the 90s and they’ve gotten close. But this really feels like they got it right.
At $3,500, it’s hard to think this will reach mass market. This is clearly a first generation product. Painfully, I am not going to be buying one for now. Remember, it’s $3500 but you have to factor in the price for the case, the extra memory capacity, Apple Care Plus, and the divorce. But as they refine it and bring down cost, weight, and size… it will be hard to resist.
Regardless of whether you think this is the future of computing or not, or the social implications of sticking a computer up your face… this thing is a super impressive technological achievement from just about every angle. And I hope it’s just the beginning since I’m a sucker of slick gadgets. If you can, go check it out.
BONUS CONTENT
I was not allowed to use FaceTime during the demo. You may wonder how you can FaceTime if you have a computer directly on your face rather than a camera looking at you.
Well, this thing has mutliple cameras looking at you. The way they made this work is by creating a 3D representation of yourself and using the cameras looking at your eyes, hands, and mouth to animate this 3D representation to match your movement. Reviewers are panning it so my expectations were low.
What do you know, one of my better looking friends got his Apple Vision Pro on day one and called me. While it looked obviously fake and well within the Uncanny Valley, I thought it was fairly acceptable. The motion well synchronized and the model is fairly expressive. You just get used to it. I can see this getting better with time and I am unsure (like with the whole device) if it will catch on. We shall see.
It looks better in motion, but I won’t post a clip because our conversation was deep and private.
My boys, who you may have heard are gigantic Austin FC fans, were invited to be in the Austin FC Starting XI for the last match of the season against none other than defending champion LAFC.
For those who don’t know, this means they come out to the field before the game with the players for the national anthem. Needless to say they could barely contain their excitement – just like their parents!
